January 13, 2017 finally arrived and it was time to head off for our Star Wars Cruise!  Our plan was to pick the kids up from school, let them get changed, then head off to the airport.  Once we had the house squared away, a friend drove us from our house to Reagan National Airport.  We arrived at the airport really early (as we always do), around 5 PM.  We dropped our bags off with American Airlines and headed through security.  Our experience with TSA Security is usually fantastic thanks to having TSA PreCheck!  Everyone has TSA PreCheck in our family except our youngest daughter (who now has Global Entry).  

Since we had arrived at the airport so early, we decided to head to the Admirals Club Lounge, which we have access to thanks to our Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard.  The card has a steep fee, but we always stop in the Admirals Club Lounges when we travel.  We also take advantage of the free checked bags we received when fly on American Airlines.  The Global Entry fee of $100 for our youngest daughter was also paid for with a credit from the Card. 

The Admirals Club lounge at Reagan National was extremely crowded on this evening, but we managed to find some seats and settle in for a while.  The kids each did the homework they were assigned for the 3 days of school they would miss the next week.  We all got some light snacks and drinks and waited around.  We had a celebrity sighting when I noticed Richard Kerr of Travel Hacking 101 in the lounge. 

As the time got closer for our flight, we headed out of the lounge and down towards our gate.  We grabbed dinner and sat to wait until boarding was called.  The flight went off without a hitch: it boarded on time, the flight was fine with no issues, and we landed in Orlando in about 2 hours. 

Once we landed in Orlando, we had to take the mini monorail from the gates to get to the main terminal, where we could collect our luggage.  We then headed back upstairs to the Hyatt Regency.  The Hyatt Regency is located right next to the Security Checkpoint for Gates 70-129.  The lobby/check in for the hotel is actually located on the fourth floor, so we went there with our luggage.

We had booked this room using one of the two free nights from our Chase Hyatt card signup bonus, so there was no charge for the room.  We were greeted warmly by the hotel staff and checked in quickly.  Because the elevators were a bit busy, the gentleman who checked us in was kind enough to take us up to our room on the sixth floor in the service elevator so we wouldn’t have to wait.  The room was comfortable and had plenty of space, especially considering were were only going to be in it for about 10 hours.  At this point, it was about 11 PM at night and we wanted to be up and headed to the Disney Cruise Line Ground Transportation no later than 9 AM.

We woke up the next morning early!  It was time to go and get on the cruise!  The Hyatt Regency offers a program where you can spend the night before a cruise at the hotel and they will send your bags in the morning to the ship.  You received a letter from them and tell them you want to participate in the program.  You then put the Disney Cruise Line luggage tags on your bags and leave them in the room.  The hotel will gather your bags and deliver them to the Disney Cruise Line luggage transfer people.  We decided against doing this and just handled our bags ourselves.

We walked out of the hotel and had a seat on a nearby bench.  I went to grab us a quick breakfast and coffee at the nearby Starbucks.  Here is a great tip that Nancy learned from an airport worker.  If you are looking at the Hyatt Regency, there is a Starbucks on the left.  However, don’t go to that Starbucks if it has a long line.  Instead, go down the steps to the left of the store.  There is a smaller Starbucks down the stairs that is rarely busy.  We never had a wait going to that Starbucks and the upstairs one had a line that was at least 20 minutes long.  After a quick breakfast, we headed towards the B side of the airport (if you are looking at the Hyatt Regency, it is towards the right).  We headed down the stairs and towards Magical Express.

On the left hand side, you will see the Disney Cruise Line Luggage service.  We went outside and the luggage handlers scanned the luggage tags, took our luggage, and loaded it into the truck.  We then headed back inside and got into the line for the Disney Cruise Line transportation.

Once we got to the front of the line, they checked our cruise documentation, verified our passports, and sent us forward .  We were then assigned onto the next available bus.  We waited a bit until the bus was fully loaded, and then we were off to Port Canaveral.  The trip took about 45 minutes and most of that time was filled with various videos that played.  Some were advertisements for Disney Cruise Line and some were just cartoons to keep the kids entertained.  There was a bathroom on the bus in case anyone needed it for all the Starbucks coffee that they’d consumed.

After about 45 minutes, we got our first view of the Disney Fantasy.  The excitement levels started to build.  The bus pulled into the port terminal and we were allowed to get off once the driver had retrieved people’s hand carried luggage from under the bus. We were then directed into the terminal building so we could then pass through the security line.  This consist of passing your bags through an x-ray machine and walking through a metal detector.

We then headed to the check in line for the cruise.  While waiting in the line, we got a health survey form that asked if anyone in our group had fever or diarrhea within the past 72 hours.  We filled the form out and turned it in when we approached the counter.  A cast member looked at our cruise documentation, scanned our passports, and then issued us our Key To The World Cards and our gold lanyards for being Gold Castaway Club Members.

We decided not to even bother checking for a stateroom upgrade on this cruise.  We thought there might be a chance at moving to a concierge room, but with another cruise coming up, we were already spending a good amount of money.  We grabbed a Navigator and settled in until our boarding group was called.  Because we had an early port arrival time of 10:30 AM, we were in the second boarding group. 

After a short wait (around 11:40 AM), they started calling the boarding numbers.  We scanned our Key to the World card and were soon headed towards the ship!

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