An Impromptu Adventure, August 2016: Day 18 Going home :'(

[Niki T]

Today is the day we were saying goodbye to Mickey so not a lot of pictures , we hoped that next time we would be bring one of our frozen embryos with us (obviously grown into a child, I’m not that strange!) As you already know we are heading off again as a couple, but writing about this day fills me with happiness and hope, after all “when you wish upon a star.” (Cue tears).

Anyway, we packed and weighed our bags and had the usual nightmare – too heavy! John headed off to the shop, which they opened specially for him, to pick out a bag. He returned with tote! I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to work with that, but after a little jiggery pokery, I just managed it, although we were borderline worried and had a heated “discussion” about John’s choice of bag. He claims he panicked and picked the first one he saw up.

Nothing we could do about it now, if we had to pay at the airport, we had to pay simple as that.

We Buzzed twice then went on the train, and had a little worried look on Main Street for a bigger bag – how much? It’ll be cheaper to pay at the hotel thanks.

Following this we had an early lunch where we both had a chicken sandwich with no onions or mushrooms (I’m assuming that because they were missing off the toppings bar) I’m not even sure where we ate this, but I do know it cost $32 with our drinks and photopassed...

Pirates came next and we were squashed onto our row, 4 adults in a row is fine, if you know them, but snuggling with strangers just feels weird. In front of us was an adult and tiny child in their own row – what’s that about?

Still panicking about the bag situation we headed back to the hotel, there was no bag, so we walked back to the park again and one of the security guards commented, “I don’t think you guys knows how much it’s going to rain.” Then his made commenced his strip search of John’s camera bag. MK was absolutely heaving, like the rain 2 night earlier people were pouring in, see what I did there? Funny, eh?

We’d FP some of our faves for our last day: Buzz then Space followed by a last shopping spree consisting of: pressies for those back home, scarves, tees - remember, we worried about how heavy our bag was!

So back to the hotel for the final time to reconfigure the bags in the lobby and use up any bits of change we had left.

Boo hoo, here was ME. We did a 40 mins tour picking others up from: WL, Poly, GF then we were on the road for 40 mins to MCO. Thanks Mickey, you really don’t know what this holiday has meant to us and we’ll see you again real soon. I don’t know about you, but once I’m on the DME all I want to do is get home and this time was no different, yet home – real home with our cats and own bed – was about 20 hours and 3 airports away.

We've missed these three...

We raced through the terminal and was met by a HUGE queue for AL check in. Instead of being at the back for long, though, the queue just kept going and going until it was snaking in all directions; looked like we’d got there just in time. After hearing great things about Panda Express on the Dibb, we decided to give it a try, we didn’t write down what we had, but I wished we’d gone to Maccie Ds, oh well, there’s always next time – or later. Scrap that, John bought cheese burgers and fries and we waddled to security.

As we were going through security there was a standoff between a guard and passenger. The passenger was refusing to hand over his passport and repeating, “this is me, this is me.” He kept telling them he was in the army. It was all very uncomfortable, but I’m sure you all know who triumphed in the end! The guard, obviously. I collected all the bags as John was searched. It’s usually the other way around, I made a right mess and dropped the passports and bags! Nightmare.

Once John was back at my side we headed over to the gate and I nearly bought a pillow for $42, but ended up with a spa one for $29 and I snoozed all the way home it was worth every penny. On the way home, I didn’t eat as I asleep, John had chicken but didn’t eat it. He watched Captain America, Wolf of Wall Street and TV programmes Silicon Valley and New girl. We arrived back at Dublin where we had a Burger King and phoned home to let them know we were nearly there. We had a 5 hour layover, but passed the time playing cards and chatting about our lovely holiday.

I think we walked through our door at around 4pm and cuddled our 3 little cats, especially Ollie who was off to the vets in the morning, luckily for his miracle cure.

Step Count: 22,077
 

[Niki T]

Final thoughts.

Having looked at the costings in the restaurants and what we ate, buying the DDP is not worth it for us. We briefly considered renting out our points to get free dining, but we just love the DVC resorts so that was no go.

Highs for us:
• MNSSHP: Dwarves, Headless Horseman, Parade, Hallowishes – EVERYTHING!
• Brown Derby
• Star Wars Desserts Party
• Anajitos
• The resorts we stayed in: GF, Royal Pacific, AKL Kidani and BLT.
• DVC perks: money off, the Epcot lounge, TOWL – 7 layer chocolate cake!
• The cocktails
• Odawalla Lemonade
• Most of the food, having done SW for 12 months losing 84lbs, having whatever we wanted was a real treat and it difficult to get back into the swing when we returned – especially with the MNSSHP candy hanging around!
• John loved the ‘coke’ related stuff: freestyle machines, rooftop terrace…
• DS in general was much more attractive, and Blaze pizza was top notch
• FOTLP and our use of FP / MDE, we really think we made the most of both
• Just spending time in our happy place, just the two of us.

Lows (an there's not many):
• Golf in the middle of the day and when it was rained off, both were golf experiences were a bit of a nightmare
• Bite sandwich
• Getting shouted at by that horrible man in Katsura Grill
• The rain towards the end, but we were so luck for the majority of the holiday we can’t complain too much
• Ollie worrying us with this poorly legs

So what’s next? Well, I’ve already told you after 2 more miscarriages we are heading back to Florida in August. We have booked Virgin flights direct out, via ATL on the way home for £770. We’ve booked exit row seats in the bubble, so can’t wait for those. We are staying at The Radisson Blu at Manchester airport the night before travel, then to Portofino Bay for 5 nights and Saratoga Springs for 13 nights. Tickets are ordered, but not fully paid for yet – they might be by the time we ‘publish’ – for want of a better word – our trippie.

**Edit, our tickets are here and I have one with the safari ride on and John's has Jungle Cruise

We have booked MNSSHP, the Star Wars Desserts and have done our ADRs at: Brown Derby, Teppan Edo and Tony’s with the Festival of Fantasy package. We’ve already bought out trippie notebooks, so hopefully you’ll see another trippie after this one; this on is over 22,000 words, so it may take a little time!

Thanks to everyone who read and commented, it means a lot x

[Sparksy72]

Thank you! It has been fab to read your report and see all you high's. I'm looking forward to reading all about your next visit 😊

[Jaspercat10]

Thank you for such a great read, I hope and wish you all the luck in the world for a baby and look forward to reading your next report, bring on the cocktails 🍹 xx

[firsttimemouse]

Really enjoyed your trip report, thank you. Looking forward to the next one !

[JenD1]

I've really enjoyed your trippie Niki, thanks so much for sharing your fantastic holiday. We overlap so I'll definitely say hello if I see you!

Wishing you lots of luck for the family you dream of.

[Mortimer Mouse]

Great report.
Thanks for posting.

[Mater]

Thanks for sharing, really enjoyed reading

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Sparksy72

Thank you! It has been fab to read your report and see all you high's. I'm looking forward to reading all about your next visit 😊

See more...

Thanks for reading and the comment, hopefully we won't take as long writing the next one x

Originally Posted by Jaspercat10

Thank you for such a great read, I hope and wish you all the luck in the world for a baby and look forward to reading your next report, bring on the cocktails 🍹 xx

See more...

Can't wait for the cocktails, especially at the Star wars desserts party again 🍸. Thank you for your well wishes too, one way or another we'll get there, it's been quite therapeutic writing our report x

Originally Posted by firsttimemouse

Really enjoyed your trip report, thank you. Looking forward to the next one !

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Thanks for reading and for your comment x

Originally Posted by JenD1

I've really enjoyed your trippie Niki, thanks so much for sharing your fantastic holiday. We overlap so I'll definitely say hello if I see you!

Wishing you lots of luck for the family you dream of.

See more...

Defo say hello, it's lovely to meet dibbers. I've had a drastic haircut, so you might be more likely to spot John . This year we definitely we should get some green dibb Mickeys so people might spot us . Thanks for you well wishes too, it is much appreciated x

Originally Posted by Mortimer Mouse

Great report.
Thanks for posting.

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Thanks for replying and reading x

Originally Posted by Mater

Thanks for sharing, really enjoyed reading

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Thanks for the comment and reading, it is much appreciated x

[MinnieMrsA]

Loved reading this - hope to see you there this year ❤