theDIBB - The Quest For Toad - The No Queues Trip 2019 - Day 15: Orlando Trek IV, the Voyage Home

And that's it.

It's time to go home. Fantastic memories, a near-perfect holiday, and a fortnight like nothing else.

The trip home will be part of the experience - the upgrades we got with our airmiles will be seeing to that.

Firstly, we've got to pack the car up, which doesn't take long. The last of our toast and jam is eaten and we're merrily trucking down to Disney Springs for the Virgin Atlantic check-in there. All of which goes without any drama at all, and we head over to the Holiday Inn, where DD1 and DD1BF will be staying for the next two nights as they continue their holiday without us.

They're soon checked in and with their luggage off-loaded, so we head into Disney Springs for a wander and ice-creams at the superb-yet-stunningly-expensive Vivoli Gelateria.

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Passing by a parked flying saucer as we go, because of course we do.

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Then it's off to EPCOT for a final wander, including last-minute buying of stuff and including an essential taste-testing at Ice Station Cool, before around to Germany for snacks. I keep a close eye on the time.

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A final stop off at The Outpost and then it's time to go.

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DD1 and DD1BF are accompanying us to the airport, as that's where they're picking up their own rental car for their last week. We give them big hugs and head off into the terminal.

We find our way to the priority line for Security (which is a bit of a faff to find) and we're soon through to the lounge. It's a Delta lounge rather than a Virgin one, so it's not quite the same, but it's a big improvement on sitting around the terminal.

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The food selection is not quite like the Virgin one, and I'm a complete peasant with my food preferences, so I pop out to the Burger King downstairs for a burger and fries. I do grab an ice-cream from the lounge, though, as does The Lad, who's more than happy with the food and drink choices.

Our plane is bang on time, so we're boarding soon enough and curling up in our seats.

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Dinner is served an hour or two later, and it's amazing. This time I took a few snaps of it.

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And then we snuggle up in our seat-beds for the night.

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I get a few hours shut-eye and get woken for breakfast.

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This is the way to travel. If you can collect the airmiles, do it. It makes the entire holiday one where you start it and end it literally at your front door; the journey days are part of the holiday and you end up really looking forward to them.

Before we know it, we're coming in over southern England and The Lad points it out to Toad. "That's where you're going to be living from now on!"

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And... we're down. Off of the aircraft, through immigration smoothly, picking up our luggage and met by the chauffeur. Straight into the luxury MPV and being whisked down the M4 homewards.

Well. We're home.

Aftermath: We do have a few days of concern when Hurricane Irma hits shortly after we leave, but DD1 is very relaxed about it, pointing out that all the locals are completely unconcerned. They do rearrange their plans and don't go down to Miami, but that's about it. When we mention that the media are saying that the WalMart we went to is "completely out of bottled water," DD1 WhatsApps us back saying, "Okay - but we're there right now and it's just like normal. Nothing's out of stock!"

They stay at Hard Rock Hotel for a night and have another day at Islands of Adventure/Universal, where they ride Hagrid's Motorcycle Adventure three times on the trot using our Ruby Tickets. They also get to go into the Star Wars Land, which they say is amazing, going on the Millennium Falcon ride twice (report: don't be engineers; be pilots, if you can).

https://i.imgur.com/aNmI3tc.jpg

They do lose half a day as all is battened down, and the flight home is rescheduled twice (but ends up just being 2 and a half hours later than originally planned), so I don't fully relax until they're back - but that's all over fairly straightforwardly.

That, then, really is that.

Thank you for reading along and sharing the trip. It's been great to relive it, and I'm already counting down the days until the next time. We're already planning for 2023...