Disney Cruise Line
Our Millennium Disney Cruise was booked through the Cruise Travel Outlet
Day 1 - December 26, 1999
Our flight left, on time, at around 11am. We flew Air Canada, on one of their new Airbus A320s. We had little monitors hanging from the ceiling where we got to watch news, sports, and then a movie… in this case, Jack Frost. Annie and I chose to watch one of our DVDs on our laptop. We brought along three DVD films and two laptop batteries, which we hoped would be enough. We chose to watch Disney's Mulan. We didn't bring earphones, so we had to turn the volume up to max just to hear anything, and that quickly drained the battery. About halfway through the film, the battery died. We switch batteries and chose to watch the rest of the film with subtitles only.
Tip: In order to save time and get around quicker, we urge you to reserve a towncar. Towncars are luxury cars with drivers that will take you anywhere you need to go in the Orlando area. There are at least three towncar services in the Orlando area: Mears, Atlantis and Tiffany's. All are good and charge approximately the same rates.
From Orlando International Airport to Walt Disney World: Approx. $40
From Walt Disney World to Port Canaveral: Approx. $90
From Port Canaveral to Orlando International Airpot: Approx. $70
All rates are per carload and not per person, so the more people you have, the better value it is in comparision to the Disney Cruise Line bus transfers. Although if there are more than five people in your party, then rates vary and you may have to reserve a mini-bus with driver, instead.
And don't forget to tip your driver.
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Upon arrival at the airport, we went to baggage claim where we met Michael, from Tiffany Towncar, waiting for us with a sign that had my name on it. There was some confusion as to where our luggage would come out, and when it did, one of our bags didn't come out. It was out garment bag, holding all our fancy clothes for the dinners on the ship, as well as New Year's Eve. Fortunately, there were still many people from our flight milling about, so we knew that not all the bags had arrived yet. Finally, after a long, awkward wait with Michael, our last piece of luggage finally arrived.
While waiting, we saw how Disney Cruise Line staff handled the luggage pick-up of those who had purchased bus transfers.
We rode in a lovely and comfortable towncar to avoid the wait for the bus transfer. Michael told us that since we were staying at Disney's Contemporary Resort, if we'd chosen to ride the DCL bus, we'd probably have waited an hour on the bus even after reaching the resort, since the Contemporary is the last stop on the bus's circuit.
We arrived promptly at the Contemporary Resort and proceeded to check-in. Another benefit of having traveled in the towncar was that we didn't have to check in at the same time as everyone else, so the line at check-in was short.
Annie wanted to make sure that I got her a "Key to the World" card with her name on it. The girl at reception told me that this would be indeed the case, but only because we were sailing with the Disney Cruise Line. I knew that our reservation at the resort was for the Garden Wing of the Contemporary Resort. But once at check-in, I asked if we could have an upgrade to the Tower Wing. I was told that an upgrade would cost upwards of $100 a night, but I thought it would be worth it, so I asked to go ahead with the upgrade. After checking, though, the girl at check-in confirmed that since we were traveling with the Disney Cruise Line, the upgrade would be free.
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Tip: People who do not sail on the Disney Cruise Line will get "Key to the World" cards with the name of the person paying for the trip on it. But people sailing with the Disney Cruise Line will each get a personalized "Key to the World".
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The desk clerk informed me that there was one room with a view of the Magic Kingdom, but it was a smoking room, so she quickly moved on to other possibilities. But I swiftly told her that a smoking room wouldn't bother me, so long as it had a Magic Kingdom view, and so we got our wish! We got a room on the 8th floor at the Contemporary (room 4443), and what a magnificent view it had! The rooms at the Contemporary are huge. This was, by far, our favorite resort of all the Disney resorts we've stayed at.
After dropping off our bags in our room, we gathered our Disney Cruise Line documents and brought them to the Disney Cruise Line desk in the lobby of the hotel. All our documents were in order and everything went quickly.
Upon arriving at the hotel that afternoon, we noticed that some of the bell staff was wearing winter coats and hats. We were concerned about the weather. Our fears were confirmed when we left the room to catch a bus to Downtown Disney. It was incredibly cold that evening, even in our jeans and jackets.
We planned to visit Downtown Disney only once, to purchase merchandise at the World of Disney store using the 10 % discount of our Magic Kingdom Club card. But, being the day after Christmas, the store was very crowded, and we ran out of time. We had to hurry to the Magic Kingdom in order to make our appointed time for our reserved seating at the character dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. We made it with only minutes to spare. Dinner was different, as can be expected from just about any restaurant at Disney. The Liberty Tree Tavern - a colonial themed restaurant - featured classic American fare, including sliced turkey, ham, and marinated beef. The characters included Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, and Chip and Dale.
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Tip: At the end of the year, Disney discontinues current articles of clothing bearing the current year so that they can be replaced with new clothing bearing the new year It's a great time to get discount t-shirts and sweatshirts.
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Dinner was late and we'd had a long day. We returned to the hotel where we spent some time browsing the shops, picking up some discount discontinued sweatshirts because of the cold weather, and turned in for the night after dinner.
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