You Can Never Overplan (May 2008) - Day 17

[Siddex]

Day 17 - The One Where We Reluctantly Waved Goodbye
Friday 30th May 2008

Everyone was up and ready quite quickly today, we sorted out the kids and packed the last few bits. I refused to let Maz chuck away my cake collection that I had not managed to eat yet and decided it was coming with me! We left the apartment by 9.00AM and checked out without easily and without any problems.

We decided to treat Pops to a farewell buffet breakfast today, even though we had enough food left over to feed us all day. As Golden Corral was the favourite breakfast venue this was programmed into Cleetus and we were away.

As usual, we ate our way through way too much and left there feeling decidedly stuffed. Managed to get everyone out of the tacky gift shop next door quite quickly with only a few $’s spent.

Drove over to DTD and checked in our cases with Virgin. This only took 20 minutes and $60, this turned out to be worth it as we found out later.

We then drove over to World Of Disney and parked up behind there. We wandered around the various Disney shops for ages spending quite a bit of time looking in each one and purchasing some last minute bits and pieces.


Some last minute shopping


Ella with her favourite shoes.

We sat down and had a drink outside the Lego shop and let the kids play around there. At 3.00PM it was time to go to the airport so rounded everyone up and we were off. Checked the car back in with Alamo without any hassles or charges, we entered the terminal and Maz & I went off to drop the car seat off. The Bag Drop was next to the check in desks and the check in queue was HUGE! It snaked back as far as I could see, so glad we checked our cases in this morning at DTD.


Outside World Of Disney


Outside World Of Disney


Us.


The Olds

Continued below...

[Siddex]

... Continued from above.

We went and found the others and made our way airside, but this was only after having Ella’s Snow Globe confiscated! A few days earlier we had purchased a lovely Disney Snow Globe for Ella, luckily this was a gift shop rip-off one and not a full priced Disney version. Maz had packed it in our hand luggage, but neither of us had sussed the fact that it was full of liquid! The security bloke was really good and said we could check the bag in a baggage back at the check in desks. But I politely declined as that would mean joining that Virgin queue. We told the security man that he would have to break the news to Ella about her Snow Globe! He did take that in good spirits and said he felt very guilty about it, the snow globe was taken away and joined a pile of stuff on a table behind him. On this table were a great number of snow globes so it obviously happens quite often!

We found some seats near our gate and proceeded to wait to be called. Maz, James and Ella had a Burger King, but I passed as I was still stuffed from our breakfast this morning and also from trying to eat the last of my cheesecake and cakes. :pop: I had to bin a load of it while checking the car in which upset me greatly! The Olds did a spot of duty free shopping (alcohol and cigarettes you won’t be surprised to hear!). We all then changed into clothes more suitable for the English climate.

We took off pretty much on time and the flight back was absolutely full, not an empty seat to be seen. The senior FA did an announcement at the start of the flight stating that they were a crew member down due to sickness, so please bear with them. But the service on the flight home was absolutely diabolical! The crew were surly and rude and their attitude was terrible. It was the basic things like not being offered a drink with your meal and things like that, I found particularly galling. :angry:

The actual flight was very good, very smooth and we landed on time. No-one except Ella really slept on the flight home, due to the fact we were jammed in like sardines! I did keep telling James to try and get some sleep but he said he could not sleep, so I let him continue playing his DS and watching telly – all night!

We made our way through Gatwick very quickly, I am sure I looked extremely guilty going through customs and I am sure we were all over our £145 limit. Manage to collect our cases after clearing a path through the people that decided the best ploy to get their luggage is to ram themselves and a trolley up against the conveyor belt and then wait for their luggage, while refusing to move out of the way of anybody else. When our cases came around I made sure that I caught a few of the conveyor belt huggers with various edges of the case. I was a man on the edge, no sleep and poor service does that to me! :angry:

We made our way out of Gatwick, grabbing a coffee on the way (and paying the UK prices for the privilege of doing so!). Mum rang our taxi and he was waiting for us, we told him our location and within 10 minutes we were all packed up into the taxi and on the way home.

Glad to say, that this taxi was more reliable than the one on the way to Gatwick and we made it all the way home without having to pull over to the hard shoulder once! We all slept on the way home, except James who was still on his DS! When we were about 10 minutes from home he finally put it down and declared he was tired and was going to sleep! We stopped him and told him to wait until we were home, when we got home he promptly disappeared and did not appear again for over 16 hours!


She was tired but refused to take off her Cinderella dress!

We all crashed out when we got home and all in all it took everyone about 4 days before our body clocks were back to UK time.

Continued below...

[Siddex]

... Continued from above.

Some after thoughts

I loved this holiday as I love Florida and theme parks and stuffing yourself silly for 2 weeks at relatively little cost! Luckily I have, even though ‘Theme Park Face’ was in evidence many days, persuaded Maz to go back. And now she has pushed me to sort something out for 2010. Unfortunately 2009 is out, as we have got to get married! So it looks like in August 2010 we will be going back. I am a bit worried about August as I expect it to be hotter than the surface of the sun, but have got to really fit in with school holidays this time, I suppose!

We have decided that next time, it will just be the 4 of us (at the moment) and we are going to hire a villa. Also we will just concentrate on Disney as we would like to take things at a slower pace, it’s a shame as I love Universal and the FOLP were great, but as soon as you start adding in the extra parks it gets quite difficult to fit it all in at a relaxed pace.

Also next time, I must keep up with my notes as my daily note taking lasted a week, then I did not complete my notes until 5 months after the holiday!

If you have been reading my trip reports you know we scored each of the meals. Well the top breakfast was Golden Corral and the top meal was Manny’s (ABSOLUTELY love this place), closer followed by Hooters (get in!) and then Red Lobster (also very good). Sadly in last place was Garden Grill (just did not like it).

To be truthful we did not really enjoy the Disney Dining experience, as I found it expensive and very rushed and because of Ella’s phobia of the characters at the start – the character interaction was very limited. One Disney place we would go back to would be Ohana (this was an amazing meal – it would have been top if the Olds had not marked it down).

Also I had several places to eat at that I did not get around to this time, they were:
Coral Reef
Tony Romas
Ruby Tuesdays


Well as soon as I get the California Honeymoon out of the way, I will start planning for next year. Already been having a sneaky look at Villas!

Highs:
Flight out (like being on a private jet)
Manny’s Chophouse (top top food)
Ohana (how much meat can one person digest?)
Pirate & Princess Party (magical evening)
Royal Pacific Resort (great hotel and FOLP is the way to do the Universal parks)
ShreiKra (best ride)
Alamo (once I got past Marty’s hard sell, the car was great and taking it back was a breeze)
Abercrombie & Fitch (just love this label)

Lows:
Character meals
Flight home (like being a sardine in a can)
Coming home!
And being home!

Well that’s it folks. Felt quite sad when I wrote up the last day! Will write future trip reports as I have enjoyed recounting my experiences, just hope next time it will not take me a year to get them posted!

[Guest]

I'm so sad that your trip reports have come to an end.

I've really enjoyed reading them. Thanks for taking the time to share them with us.

[Juliemack]

thank you for sharing your holiday on the DIBB - I have enjoyed reading every one of your reports ... it makes me look forward to our holiday even more ... look forward to your wedding/honeymoon reports

[summersun]

great reports thank you for sharing

[RT7]

Thank you for sharing your holiday memories with us, can't wait for the next one.

[Disney Mad]

Thanks for sharing your holiday with us all

Very sad its all over.

[Bartswife]

Have really enjoyed your reports, thankyou for taking the time to do them and look forward to the California ones

[Florida Mel]

Loved reading your reports you will just have to go back so I can read some more