It's Been A Long Time Coming: Day 12 & Going Home

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So...where were we? Ah yes,

Day 12

Up bright and early today for our last day at the parks. Some of you may remember my mentioning a possible last day breakfast at CP...well I got to go Ryan "gave in", by this I mean he secretly wanted to go! So, reservation was for 8:10, we were up, ready and in the taxi for 7:15 should be plenty of time right? WRONG! The driver took the loooooongest way imaginable to get to MK then proceeded to tell us he had no change to give us from our $50 note, I knew we had to leave a tip but $15 was a bit steep so we had to drive back out of the TTC to the nearest petrol station for the driver to change the money and drive us back, needless to say no one in the car was particularly happy at this point. Ran for the monorail as we were already late and arrived at MK for 8:25. To compound our misery it was a really stinking day, rain, rain, rain. We definitely needed a good breakfast to cheer us up! Of course we just had time for a quick pic of an empty mainstreet!




We arrived at check in just after 8:30 and thankfully the CMs were really understanding and had kept our table for us! As we got in Winnie the Pooh was just coming towards our table so we started with a lovely hug and a dance(!) from him!



I have to say we didn't enjoy the food here as much as at Tusker House but the character interaction was fab! They spent way more time at each table and even though that meant we had to wait a little longer it was well worth it.







Ryan informs me that he much preferred Donald's Safari breakfast to this one but I think they were both extremely good and would be hard pressed to choose! Got a pic on the way out:



Continued...

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By this time it was 9:45, breakfast had taken quite a while as we'd missed Eeyore on his first round (probably because we were late) and had to wait for him to do another circuit. Cheered up and well fed we headed for BTMRR, did it twice in a row as it was a walk on and grabbed FPs for later. We considered Splash Mountain but as it was a bit dreary at this point neither of us fancied getting soaked so we gave it a miss. Onwards to the Christmas shop and we both bought lots of decorations for presents and for ourselves and I attempted a photo op outside the shop before realising the seat was wet and I couldn't sit down!



We had made a list of things we wanted to accomplish today (and it was going to be hectic!) so we marched on towards Tomorrowland. En route I saw that the show was starting in front of the castle and persuaded Ryan to slow down and watch it. It was well worth the persuasion, loved this one!






Time now for some Buzz, wait time stated 15 mins but turned out to be a walk on, I managed a decent scored this time, into 6 figures at least!

We had another go at Philharmagic, definitely my favourite 3D ride of the holiday and then used our FPs for BTMRR. I suggested another go on IASW but surprisingly Ryan ran in the opposite direction! Time to leave MK and I was very sad, dragged my goodbye out a bit by insisting on going in every shop along Mainstreet and then getting the boat to the TTC.



We grabbed a bus to DHS (which made me feel a little sick ) and ran straight for FPs for RNRC. Return time was for 6:30 already! We knew we had looooooads of time to kill before then so spent some time just exporing bit of the park we had missed the other day. We had a look about the Honey I Shrunk The Kids playground (I think Ryan wished he was little enough to play here!) and browsed some shops.

Ryan somehow morphed in Jack Sparrow (I wish! )


We stopped for a cookie and some drinks at the little bookshop place (I've forgotten the name!) and spent some more time taking photos:




Continued...

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Ryan had mentioned he'd love to get to see the American Idol show so we headed for that with plenty of time to spare and watched the parade from the waiting area bit. The parade (to coin a very american phrase) was AWESOME! The best one we saw I think. One of the soldiers stopped right in front of us and told me off for not dancing hard enough...cue much arm waving and swaying from me and much embarrassment from Ryan! The guy was brilliant, absolutely hilarious! Time for American Idol and just as we were walking in the opened up the "VIP row" and sent us into it. Thankfully this didn't mean "audience participation row" and just that we got to sit with the singer's family. I was sitting beside the dad of the guy who won, guess I don't have much choice who to vote for then?! But he really was the best, so he would have got my vote anyway!


We wandered round to TSM after this not really expecting to get on but it was one of the things we both wanted to do again so when the wait time was 40 mins we thought "why not!" I did terribly on this but enjoyed myself all the same! It decided to rain a little then so we headed for cover in the Disney Animation class thing and then One Man's Dream, being that we are both little geeks we really enjoyed these and I'm glad it rained as we would probably have passed these by otherwise! Time for our RNRC FPs which did not disappoint, favourite favourite ride I could go on it all day! After this we watched HSM (much to Ryan's disappointment) and headed for the exit.

We grabbed a bus to Epcot (told you this was an epic theme park day!) where we met the bestest couple ever. They were both american (about our age) and very VERY chatty, by this I mean the guy spoke to EVERYONE on the bus! This just amazed us because we, Ryan especially, are very shy! Well, they sat opposite us on the journey so we had a great chat with them. My favourite point was when we told them we were from Ireland, the guy slapped his knees and shouted "That is FREAKING AWESOME! ." Anyway, arrived safely at Epcot (our last stop, or so we thought, for the day) and bade farewell to oour newfound friends who were by now holding about 7 conversations at once! Made a beeline for the UK and Harry Ramsden's and sat with our fish and chips looking out over the lagoon, the weather had cleared up a bit by now and it was a really nice atmosphere. I had hardly lifted my bum from the seat when this other woman slid under me to sit in my seat, I kid you not, I was almost sitting in her lap! I know seats are a rare commodity and all but seriously gimme a second! Dirty looks all round and we went for a walk around the world! We really enjoyed our evening in Epcot, nice temperature, atmosphere was brilliant, just a great last night! We settled ourselves for Illuminations at the entrance to WS, no photos tonight as we just enjoyed the fireworks. Unfortunately we were upwind and ended up with face fulls of smoke but still a great display! Just as the show was finishing Ryan had the brainwave of the holiday! "What time are Wishes on at?" I thought I remembered seeing it was 10pm and out bus wasn't until 10:45 so we would just have a long wait if we stayed here! eek, I was getting back to MK waaaaay quicker than I'd thought! So...ran for the exit, onto the monorail, ran for the other monorail, jumped off, ran for the bag check, through the ticket barriers and we were in MK with 5 mins to spare before Wishes! Never had I imagined we would be seeing this tonight, for the 3rd time that holiday! Just brilliant! The best end to the best holiday! Had a wee tear in my eye at the end!

We had to race again to get back to Epcot for our bus, so back on the monorail. It was pretty packed and I was standing next to a guy whose little girl was in his arms and crying. I thought she had hurt herself or was just tired until she looked up at me and cried "I'm going home tomorrow and I just miss the Magic Kingdom" followed by some uncontrollable sobs! I could have cried with her, I told her I was going home tomorrow too and wished I could stay, she just nodded as though she totally understood where I was coming from! So cute!

We arrived back just in time for the bus and I fell asleep on the way home. I was so tired after a really mad day but it was brilliant, my favourite day of the hols! I went to sleep feeling sad about leaving tomorrow!

Day 13 (Going Home)

This one will be relatively short as I'd rather not dwell on the negative!

We had managed to negotiate a deal with the man at reception so we didn't need to check out of our hotel until 5pm so we had a well deserved lie in this morning. Got up around 10 and headed to the mall again so Ryan could change an ill fitting t shirt, this somehow resulted in my buying a blazer not sure how that happened! We went to the Premium Outlets on out way back to the hotel and I bought some trainers (my bargain of the holiday.) Saw the same ones at home for £90 and saw them here for $50! I'll have me some of those! When I took them to the till it turned out they were only $35! That practically paid for my blazer so if you think about it I actually saved money! Ryan got some football boots he had seen and we headed back to the hotel.

Spent the afternoon in the pool (lovely weather today!) and managed to get my only sunburn of the holiday even though it was the only day I had actually worn suncream? ! Went to the room just after 3 for the mammoth task of packing, showering and changing. Cue many comical scenes involving me wrestling with my suitcase to shut! Flyglobespan were going to love me with my 2 pieces of hand luggage and my mahooosive suitcase! Ryan weighed all our stuff and we were above the limit...oh well we'll just wing it and see what happens when we get to the airport! We checked out and had some dinner in the hotel bar and headed to the airport for what we knew would be another long wait... We knew the inbound flight was 3 hours late leaving, shocked? ...Not at all! John from John's transportation picked us up at 6:30pm and took us to the airport. Big recommendation for him here! Really good service and really cheap, return to Sanford was only $140.


We arrived at the airport to find that we did indeed have a 3 hour delay...just let them try to tell me I have to pay extra for my luggage... Anyway tense moment when the lady weighed our cases and we found out all our hand luggage had to weigh 3kg or less Fortunately I had cunningly hidden my second bag at my feet and when I lifted my handbag up she told us we didn't have to weigh handbags, Ryan's bag weighed exactly 3kg! Lucky or what?!

Cutting a long story short here we had a very boring wait in the airport, lots of card games were played and Ryan made friends with Jack Daniels!

we eventually boarded at 1am! When we got onboard we found our tray tables were all taped up and the crew asked if we wanted to move. Initially we said no we were fine but the ever helpful steward came back and said he had moved some people out of the extra legrooms seats so we could move and be more comfortable To go off on a bit of a tangent here, things like this always happen to us. We were in the republic of Ireland last week and got put in a suite by mistake, poor ole ma and pa who were actually paying and had the bog standard room were less than pleased! (needless to say we did a swap the second night but still...people keep asking me to do the lottery for them!)

Anyway...we were very comfy on the way home, considering I'm pretty small I had tonnes of room. The only downside was their cunning plot to make everyone buy blankets by turning the aircon on full blast goodbye £5 this better be the best bloody blanket ever! I slept the whole way home and I really mean the whole way, I fell asleep after take off and woke up 30 mins prior to landing, this never happens to me! I like to think it was my magical, yet expensive, blanket! The reast, as they say, is history, a distant and very lovely memory! Definitely the best holiday I've ever been on and I'm very eager to return! Been trying to persuade the parents that they'd like to go back to WDW before we're toting grandkids along with us, I think they're nearly convinced it's a good idea so watch this space! (For the holiday...not the grandkids lol)

I've really loved doing these trippies so in a bid to drag it out just a little longer you can eagerly anticipate another post with some more piccies and the holy grail of information...how to keep your hair straight in the humidity!

[Juliemack]

wow, what a brilliant last day you had, it's no wonder you fell asleep on the bus

thanks for posting your trippie, I've really enjoyed reading it

[EPCOTFANROD]

A great trip report, I really sympathise with the last night at Disney depression.

Are you going again next year? I'm in the middle of a States free summer and it's hell.

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Originally Posted by Juliemack

wow, what a brilliant last day you had, it's no wonder you fell asleep on the bus

thanks for posting your trippie, I've really enjoyed reading it

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Thanks for readingReally sad to be finishing these now!

Originally Posted by EPCOTFANROD

A great trip report, I really sympathise with the last night at Disney depression.

Are you going again next year? I'm in the middle of a States free summer and it's hell.

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I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that I can go again next year, if not definitely the year after!

[Guest]

Wow, wow, wow... what a fantastic last day.

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

[scotsprincess]

hi

what a busy busy day you had

lovely pics

[chris5117]

Now that is one busy last day!

Chris

[Guest]

I've really loved doing these trippies so in a bid to drag it out just a little longer you can eagerly anticipate another post with some more piccies and the holy grail of information...how to keep your hair straight in the humidity! [/QUOTE]

Great trip reports - really enjoyed reading them.

If you ever find the answer, would you please let me know