We left Spokane on the evening of August 6th, flew into Seattle and changed planes bound for Orlando. Could NOT sleep no matter what, too wound up. We landed about 6:30 a.m. and it took forever to get the luggage - last bags out, of course. Finally got the luggage and took the shuttle to Cocoa Beach. Had a great driver who pointed all sorts of stuff out on the way. Got our first glimpse of the ships - WOW!! We got to our hotel fairly early and of course, the room is not ready. By the way, we stayed at Fawlty Towers, which I would definitely recommend. Better priced and just as close to the ocean as the other big name hotels. We changed and they locked up our luggage for us until our room was ready.

Wandered around town, the beach, ooohed and ahhed at the ocean, and of course hit the Pier for a pina colada! Finally got into our room - nothing special, just a nice room, but they have a great pool there and a neat tiki bar right next to the pool. We just hung out at the ocean, went to Ron Jon's, etc. for the rest of the day. Hit a FABULOUS restaurant that night - Sunset - right on the water. Watched dolphins play right next to us.

Next morning we packed our stuff back up and caught another shuttle to Cape Canaveral. I couldn't believe the Fantasy when I saw it - I mean I know it was big, but GEEZ it was big! The Disney Wonder and one of the Royal Caribbean ships were there too. We got through check in pretty fast and waited oh, til about 11:45 or so when they let us on. Did the embarkation picture - with Jason saying "why? what are we doing? huh?" - just smile! Found our room quickly (Empress deck, just off to the right). I was pleased with the size, I had actually thought it would be smaller. Dumped our luggage and ran around the ship - too much fun. Got our first souvenir drinks, called the jealous relatives, got more pictures taken, took a look at the casino (but of course!), etc. Had lunch, pretty good. Did the muster station deal (with Jason saying "this ship can't sink!"), and finally we took off. We started watching from the very back but as we turned around we moved to the front. Everybody on the ship was completely silent, just kind of in awe, I think. We were standing next to some people who were thinking the same thing we were - hey, where's the confetti?? The people yelling bon voyage! What about the Love Boat?! We passed several waterside bars and other boats where the people all yelled and waved to us, so we did back. Jason, of course, being the clown he is, had to yell "I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!!" Ah hem. Yeah. He's mine. Read more