theDIBB - Our 'one last time' trip- October 2018 - Day 20

I woke at 6 today – it was going home day ☹ It looked cloudy outside when the sun rose which would have made going home slightly easier but it didn’t last long and ended up sunny.

Leah woke just after 7 and read on the sofa until Ellie woke at 7.45. We all got into one bed then, and Dan woke at about 8 and we all laid and watched Disney Channel until it was time to get ready for our reservation at 9. We all wanted to make the most of an actual bed knowing we would be attempting to sleep upright on a plane tonight.

When we got down to the lobby there was a huge que to check in for Cape May and we were given a buzzer for when our table was ready. Leah then announced she needed the toilet so Dan took her and typically as soon as they were out of sight the buzzer went off. Luckily they weren’t long and we all headed into the restaurant together. We were shown to our table but our server took ages to come over, by the time she had we had already met Minnie and Goofy.

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When our server came over I ordered an orange juice and tea, but she brought me a cranberry juice, I drank it anyway. Dan and Ellie got orange juice and Leah got an apple juice. Dan also got a coffee of course! We all had a good selection of everything on offer and we were impressed with the food. We ate here in 2016 and it was our favourite character breakfast as we found the interaction excellent and it didn’t disappoint again today. Unfortunately, the service wasn’t great and she even walked off mid-conversation at one point!

As well as Minnie and Goofy, Donald and Daisy also came round while we were eating. Donald scribbled out Mickeys face in the autograph book which Leah found hilarious, Goofy was messing about with the girls and Minnie is lovely as always. I love some of our character pictures from here. Maybe it was even more special knowing it was our last morning and our last chance to see these characters. The bill was $129 + tip and we had $80 left on our gift card which we put towards it.

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We headed back to the room and I packed our last bits up. Dan took our case full of chocolate down to bell services for the day and the kids watched some more Disney channel.

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Vampirina finished at 11 and we took our other case down and moved our toiletries to the big case. They all felt so heavy – maybe I went overboard with the candles and smellies! Never mind I would have to wait and see. Once the car was loaded up we headed back through the BC to the International Gateway. It was boiling again today. We got into Epcot at about 11.40 and walked round through France to get Leah’s Belle autograph again. On our way we got some photopass pictures in front of the Eiffel tower.

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We were a bit early for Belle so were first in line but we weren’t rushing to do loads to do so it didn’t matter too much. There was a nice breeze coming across the lake so we enjoyed sitting there soaking up the atmosphere.

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The meet with Belle was lovely again – the girls were so excited to meet her again and we got some lovely photos.

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From here we headed straight over to Aurora, who we were also super early for but again we were in the shade and the girls made up a game where I had to guess which autograph they would open the page on – needless to say I wasn’t very successful!

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Dan went for a wander to get us some drinks, he got a beer and I got a Citron Slush.

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Aurora was running late and they weren’t able to tell us how long she was going to be so we were tempted to leave meeting her but we waited around and she came out about 12.45.

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We’d done it! We’d got the autographs – we had time to quickly head round to the land to do our FP’s now but it was getting really busy. Our first FP was for living with the land and we got on this about 1.20. The girls really enjoy this ride and we spotted a few hidden mickeys. Next was soarin’ where we got concourse B Row 3. I preferred it this time as it was a much better view in the middle – despite the dangling feet still. Dan said he preferred it the first time though. When we came off soarin the girls said they needed a drink so we walked round to club cool and Dan popped into Starbucks. He got a white chocolate mocha Frappuccino which was amazing!

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Ellie tried the melon fanta over and over while Leah got the pineapple and melon fanta and then the berry one.

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Once we were all rehydrated we headed for our last FP – Nemo! The standby line was only 20 minutes but I knew we would be pushing it today so booked a FP for it anyway. This was the same as the other numerous times we had ridden it and we all came off singing our favourite big blue world. Despite our last day park always being MK, it felt right this time it should be Epcot. After starting our holiday at the Boardwalk and falling in love with Epcot – we really enjoyed spending our last morning here and in the future we probably would make this our last day park. Especially as it now has some of the kids favourite rides here.

We headed back round to IG but it was packed which I had expected being the last weekend of the food and wine festival but we got back to the BC at about 3.

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We grabbed our case from bell services and headed to the car. Goodbye Beach Club.

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We put the airport postcode in the sat nav and we were homeward bound. We arrived at the airport at 3.50, dropped our rental car back and one of the porters grabbed our cases. He knew exactly where to go and saved us a massive job so we didn’t mind tipping him. We checked in and weighed our bags they ended up with 1 x 22.5kg and 3 x 24kg so they were right on the limit. Luckily we weren’t charged and only had to move a few things about! (There was no way I was chucking my $7 toothpaste!)

The check in guy told us there wasn’t many food options through security so directed us to the food court where we grabbed a panda express. Me and Dan shared an orange chicken, noodles and kung po chicken while the girls shared another orange chicken and noodles. For some reason our card was rejected but a man behind Dan in the que offered to pay and then promptly disappeared. We had experienced so much kindness from strangers on this holiday – it does restore your faith in people sometimes.

The food was good and once we were done we headed to security. It was signposted as a 30 minute wait and they said they were only letting people in whose flights were within 2 hours (which ours was). The people behind us asking when our flight was and then said oh ours is before that and pushed there way to the front! I’m not sure that’s how the queuing system worked but hey ho!

It seemed to take forever but at least they were thorough and we had nothing else to do! Once we were done the kids wanted to take a couple of photos so we did.

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Then we headed straight to the gate as we were all fed up with it being home time and were shopped out! All the seats were full and so many people had there bags on the seats next to them so we made ourselves comfy on the floor.

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They began boarding and called us in sections. We were row 34 and were last to be called – and then they told us to hurry up as there was another international flight landing and if they needed to disembark then we would need to stop boarding us. What! I had never heard this before! We managed to get on after much herding us in and we took off on time at 6.55 and the seatbelt light was off by 7.40.

After seeing the menu I was glad we had had that panda express as it didn’t look appetising at all! I ended up choosing pulled pork and boston beans and picking at it, even the bread was hard. Dessert was salted caramel cake which I enjoyed. I watched Ocean’s 8 which I enjoyed and they brought round proper English tea which tasted amazing! My film finished and there was still 4 and a half hours to go so I tried to get some sleep. Leah had fallen asleep before dinner had even been served and Ellie had played her tablet for a bit and then I made her lay down and she was asleep within minutes. Oh how I wish I could sleep like that on a plane.

There was quite a bit of turbulence about halfway through the flight – it felt bad to me but the cabin crew were still walking around so it cant have been that bad. I was glad the kids slept through it as I had a few tears. They brought breakfast round about an hour before landing and we landed at 7.45. There was no queue at passport control but we waited ages for our bags to come off. It turned out they had come off at a different carousel.

We rung our meet and greet driver at 8.50 and they said they were busy and a driver would call us when they were on there way. I popped into m&s to get a ready meal for dinner and Dan popped to Costa to get a coffee. He got back about 9.15 and we still hadn’t heard so we rung them again and they said the driver had left 5 minutes ago and to wait outside the terminal. We got there and waited and waited – Dan rung again and they said it was on its way and hung up! None of us had coats – we were freezing and fed up after a night flight. Our car finally arrived at 9.50 when the driver told us he had been sent to the south terminal to wait despite clearly having our flight number! I was not impressed but I never got round to complaining. The drive home was uneventful and we got home about 11. My parents and in laws came round and we were all in bed 8 ready for school and work the next day!

I seemed to have moaned alot today – I’m sure I was just feeling the Disney blues and it didn’t impact on our enjoyment of the holiday at all! I just didn't want to go home!

We had the most incredible time and I know we are super lucky to have experienced such an amazing time. We were so lucky and we met some excellent CM’s and staff in other locations who made our holiday truly memorable. I’m not sure what our future plans are – I will always love Florida and could keep returning year after year for me it holds so many special memories. But I am starting to lean towards a California trip next year so we can tick another Disney park off our list and drive the amazing pacific coast highway!

Thank you for reading to my ramblings if you've got this far - its been lovely reliving our trip again!