Jessica Johnson - June 2006

Day 1 - June 22, 2006

Every once in a while, a deal you can't resist comes along. It just so happened that Disney Cruise Line released some awesome last minute rates for travel agents, and Chris was able to get away to go! Yay! He'd been working like crazy (more crazy than usual), so it was a welcome break to get him away from work. We jumped on the rates- and were booked for a 3 night sailing just 3 weeks from the date of booking. And, as a bonus, friends were going to be able to go to!

Chris and I decided that we'd drive down the night before, and stay somewhere near the port with a park and cruise package. Before our cruise last October, we'd stayed at The Inn at Cocoa Beach and loved it, but it's more of a bed and breakfast sort of place, so the rooms only have one bed. Annette, Joe, Steph and Kyle were going to be coming in the night before as well, so we decided instead to go to the Radisson Resort at the Port. I made sure to book a room with a Sleep Number bed ;o)

So- we got up fairly early, around 10, I think, and headed off for the cruise, after lugging all our bags down from the apartment. The trip down was pretty uneventful, and we were at the Radisson around 4 pm. I headed inside to check us in, and was handed a map and our room key. Back to the car, we had a bit of confusion making sure we were parking outside the right buildings. The resort confuses me a bit in the layout- there are some buildings with interior corridors, and then some with exterior corridors, which I think are what are referred to as a Caribbean room. We were in building 8, and had to walk through Building Two (which is an interior corridor one) to get to our building, which is an exterior one, and it sits in the middle of the resort.

Once we got everything in the room, and found the thermostat, I did my usual checking of the hotel information. I always need to know A) if there is room service B) is the room service 24 hours and C) what is on the menu. Once that was situated, and the air conditioning came on and made the room less humid, we decided that we couldn't put it off any longer, and I pulled out my laptop, and popped in my workout dvd. As much as I didn't want to drag my exercise on vacation, I didn't want to break my routine either- so after a quick workout, we were done, and after cooling back down a bit, we decided to see what we could find to eat.

There is one restaurant at the resort, Flamingos, and it was open for dinner from 5-10 pm. Chris and I ended up being the only people in the restaurant, and decided that since it wasn't our dinnertime yet, we'd rather have something from the lunch menu. He had a club sandwich and fries and I had a burger and grilled veggies. The food was yummy, and after we finished eating, we set off to explore the resort. There's a large pool, with a waterfall, as well as a Pirate Cove, and a manatee garden. Both the cove and the garden puzzle me, because the cove is just a corner of the walkway with a pirate painting on one side, and the manatee garden consists of a statue of a manatee, but it was interesting to walk around. As we were making our way back to the Tropical courtyard, we heard a loud noise, and turning and looking up we realized that something had been launched. Chris was able to get a few pictures just as the second phase rocket boosters were firing, and we later found out that it was some sort of military satellite.

As we were checking out the Tropical courtyard and tennis courts, Chris called my father who was suitably jealous, as he's a big fan of the space program, and has never seen a launch. (On our very first trip to Disney together, we saw a shuttle launch from the plane window as we were approaching Orlando) Then we headed back to the room to drop off the camera, and get the car keys. As usual, I'd forgotten a bunch of random stuff, so we were off to the local Walgreen's to pick up what we needed.

After Walgreen's, we made our way back to the resort and just hung out waiting to hear from the others. Their plane was supposed to land around 7:30, but they had taken off a bit late, and then had bad cell reception. We debated what to do- should we eat without them, etc, but at the last minute, it seemed like they'd make it in time. So, Chris and I headed to the lobby and found Annette checking in. We were going to go back to Flamingos, but they seemed to frown on the idea of us showing up at 9:45 for dinner, so we asked what else was available. It seems, everything in Cocoa Beach closes at 10 pm, other than McDonald's, Subway, and some, umm, adult establishments. Subway it was, so we headed off on foot, as it's located right next door to the resort.

We had a quick dinner, and then headed back to the resort, to help unload the car, and then pile back in and head back out to Walgreen's. Annette had forgotten some stuff, and believe it or not, I'd forgotten some on our previous trip. After we got back to the hotel, we took Annette, Joe, and Kyle on a walk to see the resort. We showed them the Pirate Cove, the manatee garden and then the tropical courtyard. Then we showed them our room, and the Sleep Number bed. Kyle and Joe, like Chris are fascinated by anything with a motor- so they spent a while trying out the different numbers before we all basically collapsed for the night.

To see my photos: Disney Wonder Cruise Photos
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