10 Magical Years (Well, maybe 7 or so): Day 18 - Swimming, Burgers & A trip to MCO!

[DisneyRoobs]

Tuesday 5th February

Today started in much the same way that all of our ‘going home days’ do – in floods of tears and a deep depression. I joke, but in all seriousness it was never going to be a day filled with excitement!

Breakfast consisted of a cookie and a coffee before we finished packing up. The upside to moving resorts a couple of days ago was that we had done the worst of the packing then, so at least this eased today’s pain somewhat!





(By the way, those cookies - from the Boardwalk Bakery are AWESOME)

We checked out and left our bags with the bellhops while we went to make the most of our last few hours. We had already decided that this would be a last few hours of pool time so that we’d leave feeling relaxed & hopefully a little tanned! We were going back to England in its early Feb nastiness so wanted to keep that Florida glow going for as long as possible!

We opted to stick with the ‘quiet’ pool at our resort, there was no-one else there so we could just kick back and enjoy the moment.







Whilst there, we had a look at the kids club facilities (which were excellent!) and played a game of table tennis, which I undoubtedly would have lost – I thought I was competitive, until I met Ash!

A few more people pitched up around the pool but that didn’t seem to bother Ash who managed to catch a few Zzzz’s!





He'll kill me for putting this one in but I couldn't resist!




Once done, we cleaned up and got changed before catching the boat to the Yacht & Beach club for our last WDW lunch.

Beaches & Cream was our place of choice. We’d had SUCH a great time here last week and we were in the mood for some typical Americana fayre before heading home.





This time we had a table in the middle of the room and we actually ordered the same thing, the hotdog that Ash had last week, (without the onion rings or ice creams!) although we did have milkshakes. I didn’t take new photos of our food, so here’s a reminder!





Our same server was working and she remembered us, asking if we’d enjoyed the rest of our stay and saying she’d look forward to seeing us next time. Lovely.

Once we’d eeked out the inevitable as long as we possibly could, we took one last ferry ride back over to the Boardwalk (not because we were being lazy, we just like it!) to collect our luggage and hire car.



I waited out the front of the hotel while Ash went to collect the car and pulled round to load up. As I was waiting I was watching new arrivals turning up all fresh faced and full of excitement… regulars, first timers, all ages, all with that first day thrill inside of them.

I’d had a couple of moments on this trip where I did have the thought of wondering if we ‘needed’ to do WDW again anytime soon and it was about this time that I realized we did!

As it turned out, due to a change of personal circumstances, we didn’t actually make it over there this year and are booking September 2015 (hence the need to get this trippie finished!) I actually think this enforced ‘break’ has been perfect as we are now hankering to go back, rather than doing it out of habit – what a terrible thing to say?! But hopefully you know what I mean.

With the bags all in, we gave the Boardwalk a final wave before hitting the road towards MCO. With that came the ever sad moment where you leave Disney property and revert back to the green road signs, letting you know that you are now heading back to the real world!

Car rental drop off was good, we used Hertz for the first time and were impressed with their customer service (and no cheeky extra charges!). The return process was swift and painless.

The rest of the journey was pretty non-descript, it was pleasant with no problems. We checked in at Orlando International which was actually quite nice as we usually fly home via Tampa so it was quite nice to get those last minute theme park shops. I bought myself a new mascara from MAC (living the dream!) and we boarded on time.



The flight in Club certainly helped to make the end of the holiday more bearable although we tried to sleep so I don’t think we watched much in the way of movies or really ate either – I think we were so full from our holiday that we really didn’t need it!



We’re very lucky in that we only live 5-10 minutes from Gatwick so we jumped in a cab and were home drinking a cup of tea in no time at all. It was nice to see our kitty cats and we went to collect our dog Poppy from our friends in the afternoon, so that helped with the jet lag and it’s always a nice bit about coming home.

So that’s about it really. 18 days of fun and frolics drawing to a close, but absolutely worth every penny of saving and the hard work to get there.

Thank you so much for reading, this report has really taken me far too long to finish but I’m glad I have as they do make great reminders to look back on. I appreciate the comments and the words of encouragement, next year’s trip will be done in a much more timely manner!

The promise I made to myself was that I could only start my 2015 pre-trippie once this was finished, so watch this space as that should be popping up sometime soon.

See Ya Real Soon!

[Guest]

you had a great time

[DisneyGill]

Really enjoyed reading your trip report 😀
Bring on the next one!

[beck_loz]

Looks like you had a great time, really enjoyed reading your report. Thanks for sharing x

[nasty]

Loved reading your report. Sad it's over now still not long to the next one. It'll be here before you know it!
Thanks for sharing

[Disneydreamer4]

Great report, loved reading it xxx

[mrsd08/10]

Really enjoyed your report
Got a good idea of the deluxe dining plan
Looking forward to the pre trippie

[collybird]

Thank you for sharing Lucy. You guys had an incredible trip. So lovely to see a couple enjoying their time together so much. Looking forward to the next trip!

[slow.jo]

Thanks so much for sharing your trip Lucy! I really enjoyed reading. I think we were at SSR the same time as you in 2013 but I didn't notice us in any of your pictures! lol I remember how cold it was coming back in February that year though - all my house plants were frozen to death!

Looking forward to reading about next year's adventures!

Jo xx

[dolphinlou]

Loved your report, glad you're heading back soon