Moretons Magical Memories May 2012 - The Return Home

[LLKJDisney]

The Entourage
Me – Kerry, 34 yr old Disney nutcase, head driver and Narrator. 9th visit
Lee – 33 yr old Florida Lover, 10th Visit, Reserve driver and map man
Jacob – 3 turning 4 (on this trip) yr old going on 40 yr old! 3rd visit (lucky boy) loves collecting autographs
Lucas – 5 month old – smiley in the day – grumpy at night (just like his Daddy)
Dick – 59 yr old – Grandad and Jacob’s best mate – loves the Sun and some roller coasters
Sue 57 yr old – Grandma – Chief tea maker – loves Sprite no Ice.

The Plan
Arrive 7th May – 4 Nights at Bahama Bay Resort
11th May move to Sunset Lakes – Shamu Sanctuary Villa
24th May come home

DAY 17 – HOME TIME

Like the majority of the holiday, Lucas was unsettled for most of the night. So I swapped with Lee at 4.30am so I could at least get a little bit of quality sleep. I knew it was going to be a long day.

Lee eventually got up at 6.30am with him. I was up at 7.30am. After breakfast we started all the final day chores, washing, emptying bins, checking every room at least 5 times.

I remember going out on to poolside and looking across the lake and thinking I could never get tired of this view. Bobby and his family came to say goodbye.


Jacob wanted to release his birthday balloon, so we took him down to the side of the lake and told him to make a wish as he let go. I am not sure what he wished for but I also made a wish that we could return to Florida as soon as possible! We stood and watched the balloon drift off until we couldn’t see it anymore, it was a nice family moment, it was weird because as the balloon floated away bobby and his friend made this strange call out noise until it drifted off then they stopped, very strange!



I still had a little bit of packing to do, well I thought it was a little bit but it turned out to be quite a lot. We had a very stressful ½ hour trying to cram everything in, it didn’t help that Lee reminded me every 30 seconds that I had said packing would be no problem. In the end we had to leave/throw out a lot of stuff. We weighed our cases and they were both over the allowance, but the good thing was we were allowed another bag, so as per usual we had to go and buy another bag to spread the weight.

Lee loaded the car, which was easy, as we didn’t have any of Sue or Dick’s luggage. Final checks around the villa and we were ready to leave at 9.30am. As you can see Jacob was very sad to be leaving, to be fair we all were.


As we pulled off Lee said to me, he wasn’t sure when we would be back. Jacob starts school later this year so our time frames would be reduced

We decided to go to Golden Coral for breakfast, mainly because of the wide range of food on offer. Jacob is picky and wasteful at the best of times, so we knew the Golden Coral would suit him. We had to return the car by 3pm so we had a little bit of time to kill but not enough to do anything significant. We had talked about Gatorland, mini golf and even a return to old town but in truth it was not practical to do any of these as it was too hot and there would no pool to go and cool off in before getting on the plane. In the end Lee reluctantly agreed to go to the outlets at the top of I-Drive. Just sitting here writing this is making me think it might have been worth the money to pay for a late check out and have a day by the pool, it would have been relaxing – may be next time.

None of us really ate much in the GC which is strange, even Lee who normally gets a lot more than his $8 worth struggled. He said he was to sad to eat (unless it was ice cream) Just as we pulled out of the GC the petrol light came on which always sends me into a panic, Lee tried to persuade me we would be fine as we had to return it on empty but I wasn’t risking it. So we put $10 in which was more than enough. This took our total spend on petrol to $130 for the 17 days which is excellent considering we went all over the place and had the air con on constantly.

After topping up, we went into the Wizard gift shop, mainly to purchase the bag that I said we wouldn’t need, but it was $15 well spent as it made things a lot easier. We also purchased some other little gifts from the wizard shop, mainly for Jacob’s friends.

We headed off to I-Drive, I wanted to go there to pick up some bits I had seen on our previous visit. My first port of call was Aeropostle. I really wanted the perfume I had smelt in here earlier and as I had just thrown out half a bottle of my favourite perfume to cram everything in, and then went a bought a new bag, grrrrrr, I purchased a bottle for myself. We called in to Dickie’s to pick up the hat that Dick couldn’t buy the other day because he had no ID with him, as a gift for him. Jacob still wanted to go on rides, so whenever we saw some he went on, it was a good way of using up our quarters.


I then headed for the discount Disney store, I always look around here for cool Disney stuff and in particular I was looking for some things with Lucas’s year of birth on (2011). I managed to get Lucas a Duffy bear, which he loved although you can’t tell from this picture, but looks really cute today in his cot


We of course stopped for our daily ice cream & milkshake; I think it was the Edys shop. I bought some clothes for Lucas from Osh Kosh and the Children’s Place. By now the boys and Lee were becoming increasingly bored of shopping and Lucas was getting very hot and bothered, so we decided to call it a day and head to the airport even though it was only 1.30pm

As we were driving to the airport there was a massive shower, which was strange as it was bright sunshine. Lucas was hungry by now and we knew once we got to the airport we would have to unload and check in so it would be a good hour before we could feed him, so we stopped in a car park to give him his milk before the airport.

We ended up dropping the car off at 14.20 which was fine, we then embarked on the task of getting all our suitcases, 2 strollers and 2 car seats to the gate, not to mention the 2 children as well. I can tell you it was a very difficult, slow 15-minute walk to the gate although we had a trolley, things kept falling off. When we eventually made it to the gate we were happy to see check in was open and there was no queue. All our bags were under weight and matched the weights that our pound shop scales had told us.

We were allocated the bulk head seats and given 4 seats together which was great as we half expected to be split up (2 and 2). I have to say although Virgin often gets a rough review on the Dibb their service was excellent.

We were due to leave from Gate 81; we knew from experience that we were better off waiting a while before going through security. We found a spot near the food court and set up camp. Now the rest of the report is coming from memory as my notes stop at this point!

I do remember that Lee and Jacob had a McDonalds, which is a treat for Jacob, as it doesn’t happen very often. I had a tuna melt baguette from one of the various food outlets. We then did a mixture of chilling out and chasing the children around. The airport as always was super busy.

Jacob played with his cars and set up this display for a photo. All his Disney racers and Jungle Junction cars. When we got home we worked out that there is around £100 worth of cars there – madness!


Lee took Jacob for a wonder round the shops and he posed for a few photo’s.



From what I remember the time passed quite quickly. I also remember giving some nappies to a lady who had forgot to pack some for her flight home – obviously they were for her baby not her. Just before we went through security we had one last look in the Disney shop, this was a schoolboy error as we ended up spending more dollars. Jacob really wanted a pillow pet that he had been asking for all holiday, and as we had some money left we purchased him a Lotso Pillow pet (which was his choice, a pink grumpy bear that smelt of strawberries! ). When we got to the till we realised that Lucas had lost his socks, so we had to buy him some, $10 for a pair of socks really impressed Lee, in fact I think he said all of his socks together wouldn’t be worth $10!

Security was easy and we were soon boarding, I have no photos of the flight home as it was a night flight and very busy. The flight was ok, with no turbulence. There was a little girl next to us who was under 2, so had to sit on her Dads lap. The problem was she was the size of a 4 year old and was not happy at all. She screamed a lot of the way and would not sit still at all, which caused a lot of stress for her family. I am not sure if this had an affect on Jacob as about halfway through the flight he woke up and started screaming and going mad. He would not calm down, for at least half and hour, a total meltdown, it was very strange as he normally sleeps very well but I think everything had got to him and he exploded. It is very hard to calm down a 4 year old in a very small space but we tried our best to calm him and not affect the other passengers. I apologise to you if you were on this flight! Jacob also managed to spill a cup of hot chocolate down him as well, and we had no spare clothes for him. To be fair he coped very well with this incident, and travelled home in the shorts I changed him out of before boarding the flight.

Lucas was a good as could be expected and I think we got a couple of hours sleep before landing. We landed bang on time in Manchester. It was a glorious morning. We collected our stuff and had another nightmare getting it outside the terminal. We rang the taxi that had been kindly laid on for us by Marriott. It was there in no time and we were soon back at the hotel collecting the car.

We went in the hotel to have a wash and freshen up before our drive home, which is always the worst bit for me. I don’t know how I stayed awake; everyone else fell asleep although Lee still says he was just resting his eyes. There was no traffic so it took around 1hr 45mins to get home.

When we got in we did all the rubbish things that need to be done when you return from hols (washing, post, garden etc) the good thing was the weather was glorious. We were all shattered but Jacob must have been the most tired as he went to bed at 6pm and got up at 12.10pm the following day!

So that is the end of my Trippie which has taken around 2 months longer than I wanted it to but I am glad it is done. As I have said before I write the reports so that we can look back on them and remember them properly. The boys will also be able to do this as well. If anyone else enjoys reading about Lee falling over, Sue eating 14 steaks in a row or Seeing Lucas asleep in his pushchair again well that is great too. although I feel i must post this beautiful picture of my baby boy!


I thank you all for reading and your kind comments, I hope I have replied to all the questions that have been raised, if not just send me a PM and I will be happy to answer. I would also like to thank Sue and Dick for coming along with us again; I think Florida is definitely a holiday for groups. They were a great help throughout the holiday and we certainly missed them when they left a day early.

I have also done a quick run down of my/our BEST & WORST from our 2012 trip, so check them out and see if you agree or disagree.

Until the next time – (which I honestly don’t know when it will be)

[Tartan Tigger]

Really enjoyed reading about your holiday. Thanks for sharing.

[mickeysgirls]

Hi Kerry,

Well as they say, All good things must come to an end

I've really loved reading your report and getting to know the wonder that is Sue who has had the ability to consume a whole cow whilst on holiday and Lee's obsession with Ice cream [and falling over ]

Oh I do hope you manage to get back to Orlando soon, I know it can be tricky once the children start school [I'm a naughty mummy who takes them out ] but I know this isn't for everyone.

Take care my lovely and keep in touch!

Tracey xx

[gingermoonman]

Thanks for taking the time and effort for doing your trip report, loved all of it! Some great pics and stories and given us some more ideas of things to do! Shame it had to come to a end!

[gingermoonman]

Can't find your BEST & WORST from our 2012 trip?

[Pussycat Doll]

Loved reading your report Kerry. I'm back playing netball on a Thursday night now so might see you over there! Pussycat x

[DarrellAS]

Thanks again for your great trip, when you started the report we were reading it with fond memories of Shamu's vila. Now we are looking forward to returning there in June of next year. Great report.

[Rob & Jan]

Really enjoyed your reports thank you for taking the time to write them.

[Guest]

Really enjoyed reading about your holiday

[LLKJDisney]

Originally Posted by Tartan Tigger

Really enjoyed reading about your holiday. Thanks for sharing.

See more...

You are welcome, thanks for reading

Originally Posted by mickeysgirls

Hi Kerry,

Well as they say, All good things must come to an end

I've really loved reading your report and getting to know the wonder that is Sue who has had the ability to consume a whole cow whilst on holiday and Lee's obsession with Ice cream [and falling over ]

Oh I do hope you manage to get back to Orlando soon, I know it can be tricky once the children start school [I'm a naughty mummy who takes them out ] but I know this isn't for everyone.

Take care my lovely and keep in touch!

Tracey xx

See more...

Well my lovely, You make me laugh

I am with you on the taking the kiddies out of school too, I think their best memories come from their holidays as a child!

Originally Posted by gingermoonman

Thanks for taking the time and effort for doing your trip report, loved all of it! Some great pics and stories and given us some more ideas of things to do! Shame it had to come to a end!

See more...

Originally Posted by gingermoonman

Can't find your BEST & WORST from our 2012 trip?

See more...

Thanks for keeping up with me Neil I am sure you and your beautiful family will have a great time in Shamu villa, my best and worst are up now xx

Originally Posted by DarrellAS

Thanks again for your great trip, when you started the report we were reading it with fond memories of Shamu's vila. Now we are looking forward to returning there in June of next year. Great report.

See more...

Did I really take that long to write it!
Thank you for keeping up with me and reading it

Originally Posted by Rob & Jan

Really enjoyed your reports thank you for taking the time to write them.

See more...

You're welcome thank you for reading

Originally Posted by geoff193

Really enjoyed reading about your holiday

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I am glad, its always nice to hear when people are enjoying your hard work, thank you for posting and reading