It's Gonna Be Hot! Hot! Hot! - Aug 2011: Day 15 – And Now, The End Is Here

[Siddex]

Day 15 – And Now, The End Is Here
(Monday 5th September 2011)

Today was the day we all dread and strangely like at the same time, it was going home day.

The pre-holiday plan, had been left open and we were free to do whatever we liked, well until 3.00PM, when we had to depart for Tampa airport.

Our provisional plan, fashioned during the holiday was to do one of the Disney Mini Golfs and then lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.

I was up at 7.30, well it had been 5.30AM and then 7.30AM as Pops (Grams husband) wanted to ring and wish her Happy Birthday for today and had obviously got a little confused about the time difference and rang at 5.30AM! Grams was up at 7.30AM for her telephone call as Pops tried again and got the time difference correct this time! The others were roused at 8.00AM.

I had used this time productively this morning as I had been able to check in online for the journey home. The internet had been kick started into life with a quick reset of the router or two! Seats had been secured and we only had to bag drop at Tampa airport.

What happened next was a flurry of last minute packing and eating of Villa food supplies, which took over 2 hours, then we said a sad goodbye to the Villa at a little after 10. Our 2 holdalls had grown into 4 and the Van was creaking at the seams when we managed to load the entire luggage into it.

Mini Golf was scrapped due to sweating issues and we decided on some Mall mooching followed by Lunch (still at the Cheesecake Factory). We first went to the Florida Mall as James and I wanted a US Football top each and we had had success here in 2008. Also we wanted to make sure that Aeropostale, Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch did not have any bargains left that had passed us by!

Just to get that last Disney fix we also visited the Disney Store (seriously? Have you not had enough Disney merchandise by now)? An eagle eyed CM spotted Grams’ birthday button (which she was still wearing as today was her proper birthday day) and programmed her birthday onto the big screen, then he called her over and the whole shop got to sing Happy Birthday to her – a very nice touch.


Happy Birthday Ma’am!

We found that Hollister and A&F did not have as much sale stuff as the stores in Altamonte Mall. Aeropostale and American Eagle seemed to carry the same lines and have the same sale pricing as well, we also found ourselves purchasing even more stuff from Aeropostale!

I found a Sports shop but the price of American Football jerseys was really expensive in here (nearly $200 for a decent quality top!), needless to say I decided not to bother.

We left Florida Mall and made our way over to Mall Of Millennia, conscious of our deadline today and bearing in mind the wait time the other day. I dropped the others off at the entrance to the Mall, to check into the restaurant, whilst I went and parked up.

Today the wait was 20 minutes, which was a lot more acceptable. Exactly 20 minutes later our buzzer went off, but it did take another 10 minutes to seat us.


Waiting for the long anticipated Cheesecake Factory meal.

Also today, we found a restaurant where the service was slow and we could eat at our leisure. Typical the one day we were in a bit of a hurry everything took ages! Time was pushing on now, so we decided on Cheesecake to go and we went (after paying of course). It was now 2.45PM and about time to depart for Tampa.

It appears that James gave up even recording marks for this meal, so I am unsure where it would finish on the leaderboard. From my notes I can see the meal cost $82 and we had cheesecake to go Snickers Cheesecake for Mark and Maria and the Oreo’s Cheesecake for Grams and James, looks like Ella declined a dessert.

We also needed to factor in a splash and dash for gas as we were on the red line. Now of all times, we could not find a Gas Station, we eventually found one a bit further down the I4. I was getting a little worried there as the fuel gauge was not reading anything and I had visions of us pushing the car down the interstate. We put in $15 to be sure of getting us there and we continued our journey. The Sat Nav said we would arrive at 4.25PM and I was hoping we would not hit any traffic as we could not really be any later than that. Luckily we did not and we pulled into the Hertz Rental Return Garage at 4.20PM. We had a quick turnaround in there and were presented with a bill for $80 for a full tank of gas. I personally recommend Hertz as I have had a few rentals off them now, we always get nice new clean reliable cars, the rate is always very reasonable and most importantly I have never encountered any form of hard sell from them or unreasonable charges.


Squeezing in the last holiday pose for this trip.


What? You mean the holiday is over?

We collected all of our luggage and made our way to bag drop, well there wasn’t one! We had to wait in the normal check-in queue with everyone else, so that was a waste of time checking in on-line then! Anyway the wait wasn’t too bad as we only had a few people in front of us.

So we checked in our 5 holdalls and 1 car seat – remember this, this becomes important after a night of travelling and not sleeping on a plane!

We went through security and were sitting by the gate by 4.40PM, so that was 20 minutes from car to gate! Tampa airport is a lovely quiet airport, compared to the madness of MCO, not many facilities but it is quiet.

We made some last minute purchases in the airport. Grams purchased some duty free (old school she is), James wanted some headphones and Ella wanted to spend her money on anything she could get her hands on and could afford!

The plane started boarding at 5.45PM and it was half empty with loads of unoccupied seats. Take off was on time at 6.45PM. We did have a quite bumpy flight on the way home and you could see lots of storms out of the windows as we were leaving Florida. Which you can imagine, gave extremely nervous flyer Maria, kittens!

We also had some extra inflight entertainment with an American man behind us who was caught smoking in the toilets, the result of this was several heated exchanges with cabin crew and then the captain came down and got involved, very exciting!

After the bumpiness had settled down it was a very nice flight on the way home. The food was OK, the IFE was good and the service from the cabin crew was also very good. I watched a couple of films (can’t remember which ones) and also managed about 2 hours sleep.

So this leads us onto arriving back home and then the excitement began!


Day 16 – Tuesday 6th September 2011
We landed at 7.40AM to a very wet and windy Gatwick Airport. Everything seemed to go smoothly and before long we were exiting the airport for our train journey home.

Little did we realise at this point, that a certain something had been forgotten! This certain something was my holdall! We collected the luggage and I made sure I double checked the holdalls and yes I collected 4, I must of totally forgot about Grandma’s luggage and thought we only needed 4 holdalls. So mine got left behind to spend some extra time at Gatwick on an extended break!

I did not realise we were a case short until we were home and unpacking, then the fun of trying to get it back really started. This involved various phone calls and release forms to get it passed on to a member of Maria’s family who lived a lot closer to Gatwick than us. Also we had to go through some hoops about emptying the liquids in the case (my aftershave purchases) and things like that – it was all very stressful and took about 3 weeks to get it back!

Anyway back onto the journey home.

We didn’t encounter any transport problems until we hit East Croydon station where we were supposed to change trains. But, it seems that overnight someone had nicked a load of signalling wire from London Bridge tube station causing great disruption to the underground system. So, all of the trains were delayed or re-routed and this was causing mass congestion. Now as is the spirit in London, it was a free for all and even though we were laden down with luggage and transporting children and an OAP – everyone decided they would push in front of us at every opportunity and we could not all get on a tube together. As stress levels were rising rapidly we cut our losses and switched to another form of public transport – a London cab. So we caught a cab from London Bridge to Liverpool Street – now this was extremely pricey (£60) and also took over an hour.

These troubles coupled with more train problems we had returning from the West Coast a couple of years ago has meant that we are no longer allowed to let the train take the strain and I am gonna have to drive down to the London airports for our stateside holidays.

Once we were deposited at Liverpool Street things calmed down a bit as we were in plenty of time for our 12.30PM train home and we made the rest of our journey home without further incident.

Well that was it for another Florida holiday adventure, we were home, there was loads of new stuff to unpack and sort out and the weather was crap! Welcome home!


Roll on 2013…..

[Col&Ali]

Aah, the end!

Watcha mean Roll on 2013? Lol! Care to share?

[Guest]

Great reports
Thanks for sharing

[Ilovesnowwhite]

A brilliant report thanks for taking the time to write it up so when are you going back?
xx

[Siddex]

We go back on August 18th 2013 - can't wait!

[Col&Ali]

Originally Posted by Siddex

We go back on August 18th 2013 - can't wait!

See more...

The day after us! Villa again?

[wolfie9]

Hi. This was a fab report. really enjoyed it. Can also see you go back the day after us can't wait.

[Wappum]

We were also on that flight home in 2011, live in the west country and my youngest boys birthday is the same day as your Grams. We also visited some parks the same days as you - so we seem to have been stalking you without knowing! We are also going back in August, although a few days after you this time - so I'll keep a look out for you

[babynugget]

Great trip report, loved reading it all, will be looking forward to reading the 2013 version

[tinkerbelll]

Thanks, really enjoyed reading your report.