Back to the Mouse

  The time for our Spring Break trip quickly approached.  Our flight would be leaving Reagan National Airport at 6 pm, so we decided to pick the girls up from school so they could get changed and we could head out.  We were going to park at the airport to reduce our travel time there as well as for the trip home since we would be arriving back into Reagan at 11 pm at the end of our trip.  The daily rate to park in the garage is $25 vs the $17 in the economy parking.   We left the house at 3 pm and arrived at Reagan National Airport around 3:45 pm or so.  We pulled into the parking garage and found a spot on the top level.  I always photograph our parking spot so I can find it when we come back (although we’ve never forgotten where we parked). We grabbed all of our bags from the back of the car and headed towards the American Airlines check in line.  The lines weren’t long, so we dropped our bags off, got our boarding passes and quickly went through the TSA Precheck lines.  Since we had about 90 minutes to kill before our flights, we decided to head for the American Airlines Admirals Club.   The Admirals Club in Terminal C at Reagan National Airport is the opposite of exciting.  But it is quiet and out of the crush of people that are usually in the terminal.  We found some seats and went off for some refreshments . Nancy managed to get a beverage while the kids and I went to check out the snack offerings.   There are two different snack offering areas.  One has cookies, brownies, and bananas.   The other snack area has light snacks (cheese, olives, hummus, chips, etc) plus usually some sort of soup.  There is also a coffee machine that will make espresso type drinks as well.   The Admirals Club apparently also started doing made to order guacamole as well, so the girls and I decided to try it out.  We really enjoyed it (and may have made a few return trips).    After our snack and drinks, we decided to head out to the chaos of the terminal.  We were flying out of gate 45, so it was only a short walk.   Our flight was still listed as on time, but the flight before ours at the gate was delayed so the gate area was really congested.  That flight eventually got on its way and our inbound aircraft pulled up to the gate to let people off.  We grabbed some food to eat on the plane so we wouldn’t be hungry once we landed.  We really wanted to get going once we landed, since we had about two hours to drive before getting to the hotel in Florida. One of the best things about flying into or out of Reagan National Airport is the great views of downtown DC that you get.  One of the girls took these two great photos as we took off.  The first shows the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.   The second shows the mall, the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, the Capitol Building and the White House. Our flight went off without any problems and we were soon landing at Orlando International Airport.  Nancy and the girls went to get the bags and I went to get the car from Alamo.  Last time we used Alamo, I stood in the line for about 45 minutes.  As I approached the line this time, I noticed it was pretty long.  Then, I noticed the self check-in kiosks.  There was no line for them, so I decided to give them a shot.  It took about two minutes to input my driver’s license and credit card information and pull up my reservation (made through costcotravel.com, of course).  Then we were off to pick up the car. I showed our documentation to the assistant in the Alamo area in the garage and they said we could pick any car from the full sized row (which is what we had rented).  Included in the row was several pickup trucks and minivans.  The girls really wanted a minivan for the extra space on the drive to Miami, so we picked one out.  It easily held our luggage plus we had tons of room.  We set up our phones for navigation and were on our way to our hotel around 8:45 pm.   We had moved the hotel from Miami to Stuart, Florida so we wouldn’t have to drive as far after we landed.  We arrived at the hotel about 10:15 or so and checked in.   The two queen bed room wasn’t exciting, but it was comfortable and clean.  We brought in a couple of bags that we needed and got ready for bed.    We got up the next morning and had breakfast at the hotel.  We then headed back out on I-95 south to get to Miami.    We stopped about 45 minutes away from Miami at a Total Wine so Nancy and I could grab some beer for the cruise.   Disney Cruise Line lets you bring two bottles of wine or a six back of beer for each adult.  You can also do this at each port stop.  We probably spent about 30 minutes here and at a nearby Super Target getting some last minute items.   We got to the ship around 10:15 am or so.  As we headed over the bridge to the cruise terminal, we saw the Magic!   We decided to park in the parking garage facing Terminal G.  The Magic was at Terminal F, which is a short walk away.  We had parked in the lot across from Terminal E during our Christmas cruise, but the walking route from the surface lot wasn’t easy to navigate, requiring us to walk through an area where there were a lot of trucks moving around.  The parking garage allowed us to walk down a sidewalk to get to Terminal F.   Here is the view down the sidewalk toward Terminal F.   We dropped our luggage off with the porters (and a tip) and headed to check in!   Once we entered the building, we had to pass through security.  There are two security lines you can choose from.   As you can see, the lines weren’t very long at this point.  It was about 10:30 or so at this point.   Once we cleared security, we headed upstairs to the check in area.  We showed them our passports and received our Key to the World cards and lanyards.  We were given our boarding number as well.     Once we got to the waiting area, we realized that they were already past our boarding group.  We immediately went to board the ship.   We skipped the standard welcome photo since we’ve never purchased any of the photos.  We presented our Key to the World card to get scanned onto the boat and headed on board. Next up, we’ll talk about our first night on board the ship!   Planning | Travel | Boarding | Key West | Nassau | Castaway Cay | Sea Day | Disembarkation   If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints as well as our cruise trip reports!     read more