Day 4 of our honeymoon was pretty relaxed. Our only agenda was to get from the Disney World resort out to Cape Canaveral and onto our cruise ship. We researched various ways to get from Orlando to Cape Canaveral and the costs for transferring to Cape Canaveral were just ridiculous. It turned out that renting a car for 1 day to complete the 50 minute drive was the cheapest option. It’s totally silly, but that’s what we did. We rode the Magical Express back to the airport and picked up our car there. After the drive (and 20,000 toll booths), we hung around Cape Canaveral for a bit, had lunch, and then turned our car back in to head to the port to get on our ship. The boarding process was about as pleasant as getting on an airplane, complete with multiple security checks, long lines, and customer service representatives who didn’t seem to enjoy their job that much. After that hassle, we settled into our tiny little cabin and went topdeck to watch the ship set sail. Bon Voyage!
Click on any of the images to open up a slide show.
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- So we left Disney World on the Magic Express and picked up our rental car at the airport. A short drive later, we were at Cape Canaveral. We arrived early, so we went to Jetty Park, a nearby public beach to take some pictures. Apparently this is one of the locations where sea turtles come to lay their eggs. That makes two such spots Kim and I have visited this year!
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- This is one of my favorite pictures from our honeymoon. We walked down to the end of the pier and took in the sites. Here’s Kim looking off into the distance.
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- As we were walking back off the pier, we spied a large bird of prey sitting on the rocks watching the beach. I snuck up as close as I could and grabbed this picture.
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- After a quick lunch at a local seafood restaurant, we turned in our car and got a lift to the cruise ship dock. Getting on board was a bit of a hassle with the crowds, security, and missing paperwork, but we managed. Here’s Kim smiling as the horns blare and we set off on our cruise!
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- Here we are sitting on the top deck of the Monarch of the Seas as the cruise ship departs from Cape Canaveral.
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- Our ship cruised right past the restaurant, Milliken’s Reef where we had lunch. Not much to report on the fare. The service was good. The food was passable, but the establishment could’ve used a good scrubbing.
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- This is the MV Freedom Star. It is one of two ships operated by NASA that are used to recover the solid booster rockets from the sea after shuttle mission launches. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_recovery_ship
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- The last bit of land to pass before the ship heads out to sea is Jetty Park, the same park we were at earlier in the day.
Once we left port, we spent some time touring the ship and familiarizing ourselves with the layout. We dined in the main dining room, had a bottle of wine, and retired early as the ship made its way out to sea. Tomorrow we wake up in Nassau, Bahamas! See you then…