Welcome, foolish muggles - Days 16+17 - Travelling home :(

[nanasamboy]

Welcome, foolish muggles - Day 15 - Magic Kingdom, Be Our Guest and Cinderella's Royal Table

I woke up at 7.30 am because Alice was mumbling in her sleep. I was the only one awake, so sat and internetted for a bit. Alice woke herself up coughing at 8.30 am, so me and G got up. We finished packing, showered and then mooched around until it was time to go.

A pretty good last morning breakfast!

I’d toyed with the idea of going to Magic Kingdom first thing, but G worked really hard to convince me not to. I’d booked some fastpasses at 60 days just in case, but cancelled them the night before. The only time the entire holiday I could get a decent FP for Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain and I had to cancel them I’d even said to G I was gonna get up super early, go on my own and rush back to get the Magical Express. It was crazy, but I wanted to squeeze every last drop of Disney magic out of our trip. But then when we called to arrange our Magical Express, it was a few hours earlier than I expected it’d be and there was no way I’d have been able to make it back. I sadly gave up my hope of a quiet few hours on my own

We trundled all of our stuff down to the bus stop and caught a bus to Hospitality House at 10.30. We went to check out and pay off our tab, but it was all already done and my card had been charged last night. I panicked and topped up my travel card to make sure there was enough money on it. (A week or so later, all that money was still on it. So I’m not sure what happened, but I think I may have had an error in my massive bill the day before. Oh well, means we have lots of spending money ready for California!)

We went got some of our quick service credits converted into snacks and stocked up on treats to take back home. We went over to Good’s Food to Go to use up the last of our credits on a quick burger lunch. Except it wasn’t so quick, as everyone and their dog was there getting food and the service was really slow. We were worried we’d not get our food in time, but we managed to grab it and run over to the bus pick up point before it arrived. Cue frenzied shovelling of food into faces, as the bus pulled up! As we we were getting ready, we realised Alice needed changing we’d have to rush and change her. Cue frenzied running to the loo and changing her quickly and running back. Luckily, we were fine and the bus driver wasn’t going anywhere. I always hate the bus journey back to the airport, it’s so sad. I cry with excitement at the videos on the way there, then cry with sadness at the videos on the way back

There were really long queues for check in at the airport and it took forever to go through security. Staying true to my ‘I always get pulled for security checks’ lifestory, I got pulled aside to have a chemical swab on my hands. It was utter ≈≈≈≈ though, as I wasn’t allowed to bring Alice with me up to the security station and G was still going through, so I had to just leave her standing there. Security jerks. Then Fran’s rucksack was pulled. It was absolutely stuffed and they emptied every single thing out of her bag even though they didn’t seem to be looking for anything. Then they just told her to move along, leaving her to try and stuff everything back in and move out of the way. I know airport security have a very important job to do, but the american staff always seem to derive glee from being overly harsh on people. I’d wanted to look in the airport Disney Store to look for some last minute souvenirs, but G said to get through security and we’d go to the one in the terminal. I said there wasn’t one, but he said yes there was, he remembered from our last trip. Of course, no there isn’t. So I had a sulk that I could only go in the crappy newsagents that sells tacky junk and sweets. Boo hiss

We got some drinks and wandered down to the gate to wait. Fran said Alice was stinky, so we took her to change her. Unfortunately, we needed to change her trousers too. We went into her bag and what I’d thought was a pair of shorts when I packed it in the morning, was in fact a vest. And all her clothes were in our suitcases, which were being loaded onto our plane. Oh dear. So we had no choice but to put a clean pull up on her and make her a fancy skirt out of her Mickey fleecy blanket. It wouldn’t be too bad in the airport and on the plane, but would be more of an issue when we landed back in freezy cold Manchester early in the morning :/

Alice was being squiggly and stressful and was obviously tired. When we boarded, she squiggled in her seat, so we bribed her with chocolate. Top notch parenting, that Then all of a sudden, she put her head down on the arm of the chair, closed her eyes and went to sleep! The plane was noisy as people were still boarding, but there she was, fast asleep after 30 seconds. Hurrah! I grabbed one of the little pillows, put it under her head and tucked her in. She didn’t even stir through the take off, so hoped she’d sleep through the rest of the flight.



I took advantage of the quiet and read the graphic novel I’d brought with me, Nailbiter. It was amazing and was the only time I’d ever gasped out loud when reading a comic. (I’ve since read volumes 2, 3 and 4 and it is amazing! I’d definitely recommend if you like horror/thriller stuff). I then watched Blended on the mini tv, with the subtitles on as I couldn’t be bothered wearing headphones. I was enjoying the relative quiet The film was pretty predictable and naff, but it helped pass the time. Dinner was a vegetable biryani, ciabatta roll, marge, crackers and a fruit cup. The fruit was crap as it was basically just chunks of insipid orange. The roll and biryani were really nice though. The food was much nicer than on the way out. Apparently the food isn’t the Thomas Cook James Martin menu on the way back. Sorry James Martin, yours was worse!

Alice woke up after about 2 hours and ate some crackers and had some squash. She asked to watch “woodybuzz” on the little tv. When it started, she pointed at the Disney castle and said “Mummy! I see Woody and Buzz in there!” Awwwww! Fran gave Alice her special Jack cookie, but she didn’t eat it she just licked it.









We passed the rest of the time on the flight by munching on snacks and attempting to sleep. Me and G took turns dozing, but I don’t think I slept a wink the whole flight!. Alice watched Toy Story 3 three times in a row and was pretty quiet. Yay.

When breakfast was served, it was utterly ≈≈≈≈. I had the same horrible fruit as I’d had for dessert after dinner and a mini orange juice. That's it. I didn’t eat the fruit, so just had the juice and pouted because I was so hungry. The normal breakfast option wasn’t much better though, as G only had a yoghurt, juice and a cereal bar. I made a point to email Thomas Cook with some helpful pointers about easy, accessible things to feed vegans. Did I actually do it though? Nope! I probably should though, to save others the pain and heartache of sad, limp orange segments!

Our landing was smooth and we arrived about 20 minutes earlier than scheduled. We had a bit of a wait for the luggage, but luckily the buggies came really quickly and we could strap Alice in and tuck her under her fleecy blanket. Once we’d all collected our luggage, we headed up to the exit. Fran and Sophie had a bus to catch into Manchester, then a train back to London. We had to go get the shuttle back to our car park. We gave lots of hugs and said our goodbyes - it was going to be weird not seeing them every day, after the last two weeks. We headed out to the shuttle stop and it was freezing! It’s horrible coming back to the UK after a holiday and having to stand around in your holiday gear. We had hoodies with us, but nothing really warm enough for a bitterly cold morning. We jiggled about, trying to keep warm and Alice fell asleep in her buggy. We waited about 10-15 minutes for the bus to arrive, which isn’t bad, but is a long time when you’re cold, hungry and exhausted. Luckily nobody else had a pram on the bus, so we were able to leave Alice asleep and didn’t have to collapse it.

We were grateful we’d parked so close to the bus stop, when we arrived. G put all the cases into the boot and I peeled a snoozy Alice out of her pram, to put her in her carseat. The car was freezing and we had to run it for a few minutes for it to warm up before we got going. G had a second wind, so volunteered to drive. We were really lucky on the way back, as it was early Sunday morning and there was almost no traffic. We had a really quick journey back and Alice slept the whole way there. I tried to doze, but I can’t sleep in cars. We managed to transfer Alice to bed when we got home and we both got a little nap too. I’d had the foresight to order shopping from Ocado, so it arrived a few hours after we did so we didn't have to be hungry for too long

So that’s it! The holiday was over and we were home! Thank you to everyone who’s followed along with my first ever trip report it means a lot when people have taken the time to comment <3

I'll be writing a highs and lows round up too, and keep an eye out for my trippie for our Halloween trip to California

Sam x

[Cinderella]

Loved your reports :-)

[nanasamboy]

Originally Posted by Cinderella

Loved your reports :-)

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Aww, thank you

[MrsSilverStar]

Great report, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the Halloween one!

[waiting4disney]

I'm sad your reports are over. Have really enjoyed them.
Look forward to your next adventure.

[Stardust5]

I have really enjoyed reading your trip report, Alice is so cute, it's hard sometimes with a toddler especially in the heat but what a fabulous time you all had.
Look forward to reading your California pre- trip and trip report

[Dissie]

Great report, thank you for sharing

[Floridaagogo]

Gutted it's all over.have loved your report xx

[EJSakaAnna]

Really enjoyed your report, thanks for writing .

[nanasamboy]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

Great report, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the Halloween one!

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Thank you I can't wait to go!

Originally Posted by waiting4disney

I'm sad your reports are over. Have really enjoyed them.
Look forward to your next adventure.

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Aww thank you, that's really nice of you to say

Originally Posted by Stardust5

I have really enjoyed reading your trip report, Alice is so cute, it's hard sometimes with a toddler especially in the heat but what a fabulous time you all had.
Look forward to reading your California pre- trip and trip report

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Thank you! For all of those nice things!

Originally Posted by Dissie

Great report, thank you for sharing

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Thanks for reading!

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Gutted it's all over.have loved your report xx

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Thank you I'm feeling relieved it's finally all over haha, but I have another 2 Disney trips this year. Fear not!

Originally Posted by EJSakaAnna

Really enjoyed your report, thanks for writing .

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Thank you so much for reading!