Day 13 - Sunday 31st August 2003
Cast list:
Shaun - 40 something 'If it's not alcoholic I won't drink it'
Alison - 30 something 'If it spins I won't even look at it'
Alexandra - 10 'If it goes upside down I'LL LOVE IT!'
Laura - 8 'If it's not pizza I won't eat it'
Previous Drivel
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Boo Hoo – last day
Ah – but wait! – what was the phone call about last night?
Had I won the lottery? family member ill ? Flights cancelled or delayed?
Ok – waiting over – the call was from Christian in security asking if we could contact him as they had a bag but wanted to clarify the description. I mean, how else could you describe a Mickey Mouse head shaped bag?
The only trouble was that his shift finished at 10pm and didn’t start again until late afternoon the following day. However, he did mention that the phones would be manned and that we should call in the morning.
I told everyone not to get their hopes up and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Ok – back on track – day 13 proper starts here!
Woke up in the morning and had breakfast (same food as yesterday) in the Club Lounge.
We went back to the room and made the call to security. I tried my best to describe the bag (easy as I had one in front of me), and they didn’t sound convinced. In the end they said they’d send someone up to the room for a positive ID.
Not long after a man came up holding a MICKEY HEAD BAG! – YAHOO!
Yes, this was it and it still had Laura’s Lanyard and pins inside. Where had it been? Had someone handed it in? Was it lost in storage ? – we’ve no idea but real happy to get it back.
We just stared at each other in stony silence for a while and then burst out laughing.
The upshot of all this was that we have a mountain of pins, several lanyards and 2 bags! At least the girls weren’t complaining although I did consider taking the other bag to the shop. That was an expensive day or so that it was missing!
We checked out, handed the luggage over to Bell Services to look after (yes, I know - we're gluttons for punishment!) and headed over to IOA for the last time.
The park was really packed by this time (understandably) but Alexandra wanted to ride the Hulk for the last time but even the Express Pass line was going nowhere fast so with tears (Alexandra’s, not mine), we left the queue. Similarly, the queue for Ptenanadon Flyers was massive so Laura wasn’t best pleased either. (We ended up promising the girls that we'd take them to Thorpe Park when we got home in the few days before they went back to school).
We ended up doing the Flying Unicorn and all the rides in Suess Landing before going back to the hotel for a last swim in the pool to freshen up and to take some pictures around the hotel.
We called for the luggage, examined the number of bags VERY carefully
, hopped in the car and drive to the airport by various toll booths as the rain started. Car handover was very smooth at the airport.
As we queued up to check in we saw a large notice next to the queue line. The notice went something like this: -
Dear Passenger,
This flight has been overbooked and therefore we need to reduce the number of people on this flight. For those of you that are flexible in your travel plans we can offer you the following package: -
Remain at the airport until 4pm when we will transfer you to a local hotel.
In the morning you will fly from Orlando to Atlanta airport where you pick up a connecting flight back to Gatwick.
BA will pay the following: -
Accommodation charges
Transfer charges
Compensation of $400 per adult and $200 per child paid in cash.
Please enquire at the check-in desk.
Blimey! – that’s good – another day in the parks and $1200 cash!
We ran up and tried to bite their hands off but unfortunately they'd already had enough offers by the time we asked – but hey ho. That'll teach us to check in a bit earlier next time!
The flight went really quickly for a change - it's usually the worst bit of the holiday. We watched some films (including Holes which was excellent). The only downside was that we hit turbulence and tried going under and over it but no luck. The seatbelt sign came on and the captain said that this would go on for 90 MINUTES! – it was like a never ending ride on the Hulk! You should have seen the rush for the loos by the time it finished and we were allowed to get up!
As per normal, Laura fell asleep for a couple of hours at least and Alexandra fell asleep as we were about to land - she had about 3 minutes max! We landed at 6.45 - more or less on time.
Arrived at airport, got taxi and arrived back home by 8.15am safe, sound and skint!
Well, that’s about it until we go again next Easter but we’ll post a quick overview of what we thought were our highlights, lowlights thoughts about August etc etc
Thanks for reading and only about 7 months until the next batch.
If you are really sad, three weeks worth of Trip Reports from 2001 can be found here -
2001 trip reports