SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2022 - DEBARKATION DAY, WRAP UP and LINKS TO ALL THE POSTS AND VIDEOS
Kara pretty much didn’t sleep and I tossed & turned quite a bit. So if I hadn’t already booked the day room at the Hyatt, we probably would have investigated that option. Around 7:30am we headed up to Marceline Market for breakfast. It was pretty packed, but that’s also because only the starboard side was open. The breakfast options were pretty bad. We know this breakfast isn’t like a normal day, but we’ve had far better options on the other ships.
At roughly 8am, they did what we feared: they called every single luggage tag. This means everyone on the ship was cleared to disembark at the same time. (See the Disney Fantasy May 2022 Trip Report for details on that debacle.) So we sat at breakfast until 8:30am. We still had to walk all around the Grand Hall to get in line back by the shops to disembark - a line that mysteriously wasn’t moving. While frustrating, it wasn’t as bad as the Disney Fantasy experience. Luckily, we timed it to hop over to the 2nd nearly empty lines to both disembark the ship and exit through Customs. (PRO TIP: Especially for Customs in the "luggage warehouse", look at both lines before you enter one. Most of the time one is less obvious and notably shorter than the other!)
There was a traffic delay getting out of the port, but our transfer bus got us back to the airport by roughly 10am and our room was ready at the Hyatt when we arrived. Yet, as I type this at 11:40am, I’ve just gotten confirmation our A/C is broken and are awaiting to learn if we can change rooms.
Kara: Which we did. We’re now on the 10th floor. We laid around and watched Iron Man on television. At around 2:00pm we headed downstairs with our bags and checked in to Southwest which was blissfully simple. (Gayle: There was NO LINE at Southwest at the Orlando Airport! I'm not sure if I've EVER seen that?!) Gayle went in search of something to eat, but struck out, so we had a snack picnic of the things in our bags. Iron Man 2 has just started. We will head down to board our flight at 3:20pm. (Our flight is at 4:40pm).
Gayle: Post Trip Follow-Up - In booking the Hyatt in MCO, we'd received more than one "personal" welcome email from the GM. Since we only had the room for about 5.5hrs and wasted roughly 1.5 of those hours dealing with the A/C & room change, I reached out to the GM afterward. Honestly, I wasn't expecting anything; I just wanted to share feedback from a "day guest". At most I thought I'd get some Hyatt points out of it. (I booked with cash.) To my shock, the GM offered a 50% refund! So kudos to the sincere and comprehensive hospitality from this leader and hotel!
So, that's a wrap for this trip (although we probably have one more bonus post for you, so stay tuned). If you feel like you may have missed any posts, click here and you'll be taken to the index for this trip and you can see all the posts (in reverse order - this one will be at the top of the page). If you want to catch any of the videos you may have missed, from this entire trip - check out our full video playlist here.
Gayle: Yes! There will be a bonus post, as we were yet again welcomed as guests to the DCLDuo Podcast. Stay tuned!
Disclaimer: I (Gayle) am a travel agent with Authorized Disney Travel Planner agency - Off to Neverland Travel. Contact me today for a no-obligation quote!
As to Disney artwork, logos, and properties: ©Disney | Ship Registry: The Bahamas | CST# 2090317-40 / Fla. Seller of Travel Ref. No. ST37203