Let The Memories Continue! – Day 20

Today would be our final day onboard the Disney Dream. We awoke early this morning, and we were headed to the same restaurant, Animator’s Palate, for breakfast. Cabanas would not be open today, as the staff need the guests to quickly get off the ship to get it prepared for the next batch of guests boarding the ship. We headed to Animator’s Palate at 8 in the morning, the earliest that we have ever awoke aboard the cruise liner. Ashley was reluctant to get out of bed, as she spent the whole night playing and jumping around in the Kid’s Club. The rest of us had also been busy packing our luggage and also writing the blog posts, so we are all quite groggy this morning.

Luckily, the ship docked early in the morning, so none of the nauseous rocking aboard the ship would make the morning even worse than it already is. We stumbled over to Animator’s Palate, where our two servers, Sinisha and Shawn were waiting to serve us as usual. We all opted for the platter, which included Hash Browns, sausages, eggs and other usual fare. It seemed to come out of the same kitchen as the breakfast that is prepared in Cabanas. We didn’t complain as the spread was good and the quality of the food provided was good as well. Unlike some online reviewers, we did not feel rushed at all, and our servers even offered us juices and tea, before sending us off.

We picked up the luggage outside the restaurant entrance, and headed off to Deck 3, the lobby atrium, where we were to check out of the Disney Dream, and officially sign off Disney. This was a sad moment, as this signaled the coming end of our month long journey in the United States of America. We cleared customs in good time, as they had opened all available rows for the guests of the Disney Cruise. We headed back to the car, which was left sitting at the cruise carpark right at Port Canaveral, packed up our luggage into the trunk, and set off for Miami, for the final stretch of our holiday. The car journey would take us around 3 hours in total, and this would be the final long car trip on our holiday. Miami is located South of Orlando, and its one of the most southern cities of the United States of America. Since our flight would be from Miami, we decided to lay off for a few days in Miami before flying back home, to have a look at other cities before flying off back home.

We had one last look of the Dream Cruise liner before heading on the long drive towards Miami. We braved through the rain and the clouds, and eventually arrived at Kendall, a suburb just outside Miami City, where we would be staying. We checked into Comfort Suites Miami, and placed our luggage into the room.  We had a quick unpack before heading off to lunch.

As we were running slightly late, we did not have time to follow our arranged dining plans for today. So, instead, we headed to Red Lobster, which had a location near our hotel. We happily ordered an Admiral’s Feast and two Rainbow Trout as our main dishes, and enjoyed every part of our meal. The Admiral’s Feast had a hue plethora of fried fish and seafood, and the rainbow trout, which was deliciously prepared and oven baked. The sides that were included were also fantastic. After this quick lunch, we decided to head off, for a rather special activity for Ashley.

(SF: The biscuits at Red Lobster were really good. In fact, this is the only place I would eat the biscuits.)

Ashley had been keen on getting an American Girl doll since the planning stage of this holiday, and she had finally decided that she wanted to get one in the States. So, we headed off to find the nearest outlet to fulfill her wishes. The store was well hidden in what seemed like a maze of buildings, but after asking around, we finally found the retail store of the American Girl. The store was filled with dolls, and Ashley could not stop looking at what seemed to be hundreds of dolls on display. Personally, I always found dolls to be somewhat frightening (might be down to the number of horror games I play…), and this place really gave me some shivers. However, after an hour and a half of deciding, Ashley decided that she wanted a doll that was customised, and not the dolls that were based off characters. The doll was huge, and it was certainly the biggest doll that Ashley had possessed. She was entirely satisfied with this experience.

(SF: We made a quick stop at Walmart to grab some groceries. We like shopping in America’s supermarket, ogling at the fresh produce and interesting range of items that are not available in Singapore)

Since time was running late, we decided to have a quick dinner at the nearby McDonalds as I was keen to try out the American exclusive “McRib”, which was an exclusive burger served only in the United States. Unfortunately, this outlet did not have stock of it, so I missed out my chance of trying it out.

We then headed back to the hotel room to recharge ourselves for the day ahead of us, for this was the final leg of our journey.