The Energy Adventure: Helen & Andy-May 2016 - Day 14. DHS, MCO... and home

[HelenJNT]

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Day 14: DHS and MCO…and home (The one with no amusing subtitle)

Despite the fact that we didn’t get to sleep until about 01:30, Andy’s phone wakes me up at 05:30, pinging away with the news that our maverick cat still hasn’t been sighted. We have a quick Messenger chat with our cat sitter, reassuring him that there’s very little any of us can do right now, and resign ourselves to having to deal with this when we get home.

We’re too stressed to get back to sleep, so get up, shower, and start to pack up the rest of the room. We shove some travel clothes in a carrier bag and do the final sweep to make sure the safe is empty and nothing has been left behind (apart from lots of rubbish, by the looks of things, sorry Mousekeeping).

Our cases are really heavy and we don’t have any travel scales with us. Andy thinks his is heavier than mine, he’s taken a good few of the mugs in his, I have some in mine, and there are two in the cabin case as well. We bid farewell to room 2511, which has been very good to us, and drag the cases across the car park to wait for the internal shuttle.

This genuinely was my only niggle about the Caribbean Beach. In most other hotels, you’d just have to go downstairs to leave your stuff with bell services, but here you have to lug them a considerable way, depending on where in the resort you are.

The bus is already rammed with people, cases and a general air of sadness. It’s a horrible journey! The reception at the Custom House has a place where domestic flights can check in and drop their bags, and we get caught up in the scramble as we’re looking for the bell services desk. We finally drop our bags with them and then suddenly, feeling a bit homeless, are a lot lighter.

We have sussed by this point that the Custom House is right opposite the Barbados bus stop so walk over there and wait for a bus to Disney Hollywood Studios. The sun has got his hat on and it is a beautiful day. We board the bus at about 11:30. We aren’t due to be collected for the airport until 15:25 so wanted a park that was close so we didn’t have to worry about getting back, and we loved our time at DHS so much during this trip that it was a no-brainer for us to go back there. I’d booked some fast passes beforehand as figured this might be the case, and off we went.

On the bus, Andy mentions that whilst it’s not exactly a problem that we’re still here, we’ve always been very much “get up and go” people and that he was finding the night flight sense of limbo a bit unsettling. It wasn’t helpful that we were worried about the missing cat either, and staring down the barrel of a long flight, knowing we wouldn’t be home until the next day. Having only had four hours sleep wasn’t ideal either. Still, we were determined to squeeze out that last drop of Disney magic and we had perked up a bit by the time we arrived.

Last time *wails*

Being old hands at this now, we stopped for a couple of photo passes. Typically, because we are on a tight schedule, the lady in the line in front of us is playing up. She's showing the photographer an old photo that she wants to try and recreate, and there are several attempts at this as she keeps changing her mind about this and that. Then she walks off, so we assume our position, only for her to come back, barge in, and decide she wants another one. Totally get that she wants her memories to be special but there was no need to be so rude about it.

Photo finally snagged, we then wander over to Toy Story Midway Mania to use our golden fast pass – at last! It’s a final win for me, of course. What do you mean, he let me win? I can hear you whispering at the back there.

We mooch on over to Starbucks to have our last trenta refresher drinks, and end up using table service credits on these (plus a bottle of water) as well. We have $8 left on our gift card too so are wondering what to spend it on.

Sitting next to us are an unbelievably grumpy young English couple who are barely speaking to one another. I mean, I know I’ve had my moments on this trip, but at no point was there ever a proper cross word or sulk between Andy and I, despite all the tiredness, less than ideal food situations and dealing with the general pitfalls of sharing your holiday with eleventy-billion other people. Seeing as we didn’t use the Space Mountain fast pass that we were given yesterday, I offer it up to the couple. She just glares at me and returns to staring at her phone but he is nice and gracious and accepts it.

It’s nearly time for our fast pass for Rock & Rollercoaster, but I decide to sack it off. Andy wasn’t going to ride it and I don’t want to leave him on the last day, so I cancel the fast passes and hope that someone else picks them up.

We decide that it is only right that our last ride of the holiday should be together, and so should obviously be Star Tours (what else did you expect?!). We take a slow walk over there, soaking it all in.

After the ride, we hit the shops and I manage to spend the remaining $8 (plus another $20…story of my life!) on some snacks, a notebook for work and the obligatory fridge magnet. I get a magnet every time we go somewhere of significance, be it Disneyworld or just down to Bournemouth for the day. There is more on our fridge than in our fridge and I do sometimes worry that one day it is going to plummet, Tower of Terror-like, through the foundations of the house.

We’ve still got a couple of table service credits left (boo) so on the way out, we stop for some more water and snacks. However, the cast member, Darlene, who looks like she is more typecast for the Haunted Mansion than anywhere else, stolidly refuses to let us exchange the credits for her wares, despite our pleas and the fact that we had been able to do so pretty much everywhere else. We end up paying out of pocket for some Lays and a few bottles of water. Not really the plan! The problem was that the bus pick-up area at the Caribbean Beach was nowhere near the food court so we weren’t able to go back there to cash in the credits before being collected for the airport.

Feeling sad, but also like we had been on the journey home for an eternity already (we packed our suitcases yesterday, remember), we caught the bus back to the Caribbean Beach for the final time.

We disembarked at Barbados, crossed the road to the Custom House, retrieved our bags from Bell Services, and sat on a bench in silence (not grumpy, just sad). We soaked up the sunshine until the very last moment, and then reluctantly went into the loo to get changed. Suffice to say, I was unable to complete my challenge of finding the only unoccupied restroom in WDW, as the loos in reception were also packed with people changing, and doing safety wees before the bus.

The bus pulls up at 15:20 and we are mollified to see that it is a Mears bus, rather than the Unmagical Express. Nothing worse than watching those videos of what to do in the World when you are on the return journey. We literally have one toe on the bus, when a message pops through to say that our missing cat had been located! Hurrah!

Ummmm, no. He had been located on top of our neighbours’ roof and had been there for two days already. Our friend only found out as the kind neighbours (who are all too used to the miscreant’s behaviour by now) had pinned a note to our door.

We have no time to reply to the message as we are last on the bus and there is no wifi, so the journey back to the airport is one of mixed emotions, terribly sad to be leaving, glad that the cat was still alive, and furious that we were going to have to deal with that as soon as we got back, keeping our fingers crossed that he could hang on that long without food and water. Animals! Instead of the videos, the bus is playing something annoying by the Jonas Brothers, and I have no idea how I know this, honestly.

On arriving at the airport, we criss-cross a bit, looking for the Virgin check-in desk, and eventually find it over on the other side of the concourse. There’s no queue as we are really early but the guy on the desk says he can check us in. He reads back the seat numbers and they are not the seats we booked!

I’m in my allocated seat in the bubble but Andy has been reallocated into a seat downstairs, in row G or something, miles away from me. I patiently explain that this was unacceptable as we had paid to have these seats guaranteed, and they either move both of us, or preferably put him back in the seat we had booked. The man looks flummoxed, and calls over his manager, who I present with the boarding passes that had been emailed to my phone when I had eventually managed to check us in last night.

She manages to sort it somehow and prints us off copies of the boarding passes for the correct seats. I wonder if there was something going on with Virgin’s computers last night which might also explain the hassle we had had with online check-in. The couple at the desk next to us are also having issues as have been seated apart from each other. They haven’t pre-booked the seats so knew they were taking a risk, so even though I complained about being ripped off at the time, I’m glad we bit the bullet and bought ours. The couple are trying everything, complaining that they are nervous fliers and what have you, but they failed to do online check-in last night as well so I don’t hold much hope for their chances.

Our bags go off, 22kg each (that’ll be the mugs then) and are told that our flight is delayed by just over an hour. Expecting absolutely nothing less, given the bad luck we had had with the outbound flight, we shrug and go back outside to get that very final ray of sunshine. We find a bench to sit on and soon find there is really good free wifi, so go to send a message to say to leave our errant mog where he is, and that we would sort it later.

However….we find a message to say that our brave cat sitter had “flagged down some guy and borrowed a ladder” and had scaled the wall and the roof and dragged Hero, the kitty, down by the scruff of his neck. Despite having been on the roof for two days plus, Hero apparently wasn’t thrilled or remotely grateful about this and had ripped our friend’s t-shirt to shreds. Eeek. Fortuitously, our “thankyou” gift for him, that we had bought in Disney Springs a few days earlier, was a t-shirt.

Relieved almost to the point of tears, we send a few messages to thank our friend for the daring and dramatic rooftop rescue and just sit there for a bit, laughing in a somewhat hysterical manner. We hang out on the bench for ages, not really wanting to go back inside and knowing we have four hours to kill before the flight, thinking we would rather be sat in the sun than anywhere within the airport.

Eventually though, hunger gets the better of us, as aside from sharing a packet of Lays whilst waiting for the bus from DHS back to the resort, we haven’t actually eaten anything today. It’s about 5pm by this point too! We think longingly of the table service credits we aren’t able to spend, and ceremonially take off our magic bands and stash them in the hand luggage.

We head over to the food court and Andy decides he is in the mood for pizza. I have no preference either way, so we grab a couple of slices of cheese and tomato from Sbarro, a diet coke and a water. The pizza is surprisingly good and we hoover it up in no time before having a half-hearted mooch around the shops and then going over to security. Even though I know there isn’t much on the departures side, I always prefer to be through and sorted.

There are posters everywhere thanking all of the Invictus athletes who are obviously heading home today as well. It’s really nice to see this and again, we are sorry that we didn’t try to get tickets for any of the games. The athletes have a separate queue at security and as a result the other lines are bedlam, with people thronging around everywhere.

Security are doing their best to get people through quickly, and it makes me smile when a guy comes up to us, asks how many we are, and I do the universal Disney queue thing of sticking two fingers up at him (in the non-aggressive way), and mouthing “two” at him like we are going on to a ride. Old habits die hard! It works anyway as we get ushered into the “staff only” line.

We get through security fine, although I’m taken off to one side for the usual pat down (get it where you can, I say) and once off the monorail, we trail into the waiting area.

It’s super busy there and as usual there are no seats. I think if Trump brought in a policy on banning those wheely trainers in public areas then there would be a very real chance of him being elected. Kids are everywhere, racing around and causing chaos. One of them has got hold of someone’s crutches and is running with them, spearing everyone in sight, us included. I’m still amazed that Andy hasn’t had a drink, if only to cope with this.

I consider having a pedicure in the massage place on the corner but then check myself quickly and remember how awful it was the last time I did that. I didn’t think it was very clean and the lady who did it made my cuticles bleed, which isn’t what I want for my poor old trotters that have really been through the wars in the past fortnight.

Andy pulls a bit of a face about having to sit on the floor, but there is nowhere else to go, so we park ourselves somewhere out of the way. I hope you never have to find out how bouncy the floor is in Departures, it was literally shaking with all the kids running around and letting off steam. I think I must be quite Victorian in my approach to children, as I am thoroughly agitated and decide to go and have a poke around in the shop.

I pick up a bottle of my usual perfume, Dior Addict, irresistible to Disney security guards, apparently, and go and pay for it, talking myself out of a new Michael Kors watch en route. Once back with Andy, I open the bottle just to make sure it is OK, which is something I always do now after an unfortunate experience with a shattered bottle and the best part of £90 down the drain on a trip home from Tunisia one year.

Good job I did, as there is something wrong with the atomiser and the lid won’t go back on properly. I take it back, and the lady exchanges it for me straight away, which is great. Side note: I still can’t believe you can get refunds for make-up you don’t like in the USA. I don’t mean this bottle, which was obviously brand new and faulty, no, I mean the fact that you can buy a mascara, try it a bit, decide you don’t like it, and still get your money back. Wow. Wish you could do that at home, I might have more cash and less blue eyeshadow that way.

It’s now 19:10 and we should have been on the plane waiting to take off by now, but our gate hasn’t even been announced. We manage to score a bench next to some plug sockets so we charge our phones and sit and wait. Our gate finally gets announced at 20:00, and we wander over, stopping on the way to get a few large bottles of water and some flight snacks (crackers I think).

Turns out that we are sharing our flight home with the GB Invictus team so they have a heck of a lot of kit to get on, plus many of them are in wheelchairs. I wonder if this was what caused the issues with check-in as well, and so many people being reallocated seats. The team are all in Upper and PE, and so we know it’s going to be a while before we get on.

Then, all of a sudden, we hear manic barking from a dog somewhere. Obviously the first thought is to panic and wonder if it is a police dog that has found something spurious but it turns out to be the guide dog for one of the athletes, who is having a total BA Barracus moment and refusing to get on the plane. It would be funny if we weren’t already so late, and the poor owner is doing everything she can to pacify the dog, and it ends up adding another half hour or so to our wait.

Andy captured this delightful photo of my resting b***h face

We finally board at 21:00, an hour and a half after we were due to take off, and 5.5 hours after we left the resort. We make our way up to the Bubble, row 79, and whilst it’s nice to be in a smaller area, it does feel a little confined. The girl in the aisle seat across from me is travelling solo and has obviously smashed a load of sleeping tablets beforehand as is asleep from the second her bum touches the seat. I feel really sorry for the couple on the other side of her as they aren’t able to rouse her at all during the flight and I would utterly hate to be penned in like that, which is why I always insist on the aisle and middle seats, even on a short haul journey.

No photos of the flight home as the cabin bag was stashed in the cupboard at the back of the seats and I couldn’t be bothered to rummage for it. We’re pleasantly surprised to remember that the flight home is shorter, and the pilot says it is only going to be seven and a half hours, which seems bearable compared to the 11 hours that we were on the plane on the way out. He also quickly thanks our Invictus team, but no-one applauds or anything and it’s a bit of a damp squib compared to all of the fanfare they had at MCO. How terribly British.

The food isn’t up to much, I have sriracha chicken which is about as spicy as a PG movie, and Andy has the cottage pie, which he doesn’t rate either. We both get some fairly fitful sleep, I watch most of The Man From UNCLE and start getting into a French subtitled drama called Witnesses (about someone who digs up corpses and arranges them in people’s houses, bonkers). No idea what Andy watched, I’m afraid, mainly just the screen showing the journey I think.

We land at 10:00 UK time, and make our way to baggage reclaim. There are two belts going round for our flight, mainly due to the Invictus Games kit, and it’s really interesting to see the stuff going round – wheelchairs, canoes and so on. As a result, it takes an eternity for our bags to come off. One is on each conveyor in the end, so we had to keep darting between the two to look for them.

Finally, bags in hand, we come through Arrivals to flashing paparazzi cameras and cheers. Not for us, obviously…but it was the Help For Heroes group who were there to welcome the Invictus team home. We thought that was pretty cool, although weren’t thrilled at the prospect of appearing in any newspapers in the background of the photos!

We stop off at the loos, where I am thrilled to see a door that doesn't have any gaps in it. This turned out to be one of my most liked photos ever on Instagram, which I suppose says a lot about me - and my followers!

Off onto the moving walkway, in very much the wrong direction, standing behind a family with no sense of urgency at all. They were just standing in a mob, chatting away, oblivious to the people who had built up behind them, trying to get past. As a result, there was a scrum at the long stay bus stop queue and for only the second time in the entire trip, we didn’t get on the first bus! Welcome home, eh?

The bus was terribly busy and in doing the decent thing and trying to help a man get his case off the bus, I ended up trapping a nerve in my back. Marvellous. He told me as I was handing the case to him, wincing as I did it, that it was their overweight bag. No s***! All that way, all that walking, and I manage to injure myself literally two minutes away from the car on the return trip!

Anyway, we were shortly off and on to the M23 which was completely backed up.

We were starving at this point and had to stop off for a sandwich on the way home.

We then saw this sign, and debated whether to carry on the theme parking for another few hours. Not really but it would have been good for the trip report...

By this point, apart from a bit of a nap on the flight, we had been awake for well over 24 hours, only having had four hours’ sleep the night before, and it was hard to believe that we had started out that “day” in Hollywood Studios. It already felt like a lifetime ago.

Poor Andy was driving on very little sleep, and we both felt fairly disgusting. Luckily I always keep make-up remover in the car, for such eventualities (poor Andy finds removing his mascara such a chore… only joking) and I at least managed to clean my face, which helped a lot.

We made it home at about 15:00. Happily all the mogs were in situ and wonderfully pleased to see us., including our resident Houdini, the little git. It always makes coming home a little easier to bear.

I emptied the suitcases and took a look at some of our purchases.

I then started contemplating the EU washing mountain, checked my work emails, and did my best to stay awake. Andy gave in and went off for a nap.

We knew there was nothing in our poor neglected fridge (apart from beer and bacon, all the essential food groups), so ordered a Chinese takeaway, watched a couple of episodes of The People versus OJ Simpson, and finally hauled ourselves into bed at about 22:00, before setting our alarms for work the next day.

No real rest for us, it’s just one long energy adventure.

We didn’t track the miles etc. we walked over this day as the Fit Bit got confused with the time change and the fact we had been up for so long. We did one park and two attractions though!

So, we're home. That's not quite all folks... I have one more instalment of this report to go up - some final thoughts, future plans and a bit of an update on what we’ve been up to since we got home, so stay tuned as I'm hoping to get the next post up in a couple of days...

Final post is here

[Redrach1903]

Aww sad day I hate the limbo feeling on home day too. It’s constant clock watching and feeling glum!

Can’t believe the rude photo woman and then the miserable mare when you offered up the FP. Beehatch!

LOL you just described me to a tee with the fridge magnet thing! We have a double thing with a fridge freezer and its plastered in magnets and photos. It makes me smile a lot

Sounds like a fun couple of hours in DHS despite not being able to spend the meal credits! Bah!

SO glad your pussy cat turned up safe. Wee rascal hahaha!

Thanks for sharing, totally loved your report and I look forward to the final installment xxx

[twogoto]

Really going to miss reading your TR's every morning now you're at the end!

Sounds like you had a really long travel day, but a fabulous trip overall.

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Oh Helen I read this post with such a heavy heart, you can feel your sadness even through your brilliant wit and sarcasm (that I have absolutely loved through this whole report!). Travelling home day is the worst

Great use of the golden FP on TSMM... and I am totally sure you won without any help from Andy there

I have enjoyed every bit of this report, and happy to know there is one final installment left to come!

Oh and I totally was one of those who liked your toilet door picture!

[HelenJNT]

Originally Posted by Redrach1903

Aww sad day I hate the limbo feeling on home day too. It’s constant clock watching and feeling glum!

Can’t believe the rude photo woman and then the miserable mare when you offered up the FP. Beehatch!

LOL you just described me to a tee with the fridge magnet thing! We have a double thing with a fridge freezer and its plastered in magnets and photos. It makes me smile a lot

Sounds like a fun couple of hours in DHS despite not being able to spend the meal credits! Bah!

SO glad your pussy cat turned up safe. Wee rascal hahaha!

Thanks for sharing, totally loved your report and I look forward to the final installment xxx

See more...

It was total limbo, whilst it was lovely to have the morning in DHS we would have been fine with just getting home to be honest.

I know! Please don't be miserable and annoying in Disneyworld, people.

Glad you're a fridge magnet collector too. Makes me really happy too!

That cat is such a liability...

I'm going to miss writing and posting too. Boooo. Thanks for reading and commenting on every day too! xx

[HelenJNT]

Originally Posted by aj26392

Really going to miss reading your TR's every morning now you're at the end!

Sounds like you had a really long travel day, but a fabulous trip overall.

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Ahhhh thankyou. I'm sorry it's nearly over too. I've had a load of fun posting this.

[Disneyloverz]

Your trip report was fabulous, looking forwards to your final instalment

[HelenJNT]

Originally Posted by Lisa_Lollipop

Oh Helen I read this post with such a heavy heart, you can feel your sadness even through your brilliant wit and sarcasm (that I have absolutely loved through this whole report!). Travelling home day is the worst

Great use of the golden FP on TSMM... and I am totally sure you won without any help from Andy there

I have enjoyed every bit of this report, and happy to know there is one final installment left to come!

Oh and I totally was one of those who liked your toilet door picture!

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Ahhh Thankyou, too kind. Really glad you've enjoyed it and thankyou for all your lovely comments.

On the whole, I think I won most of the TSMM games *preens*

LMAO re the toilet door! Haha! Bet we're all grateful for it after a fortnight of no privacy! xx

[HelenJNT]

Originally Posted by Disneyloverz

Your trip report was fabulous, looking forwards to your final instalment

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Thanks for reading! Really glad you enjoyed it.

[Guest]

Can I demand that you go back right now so I'll have something to read each day?

I have very much enjoyed reading this, will be sad when there is no more