Going with the Flow in Largo. Day 9: Clarion Inn Comedy,Disney Springs and TinkerBelle takes us Home

[WileyCoyote]

Yesterday is HERE

We were awake early, possibly related to the radio alarm going off in our room.

Do you ever check these things have been set by the previous occupant?

We don’t .. but will in future ! Ultimate prank huh ...

A final morning of watching WESH and I ate the cheesecake – nom nom.

All set for a shower and – what the – the shower doesn’t work.

You are kidding me


Nope, not just the shower, there is no hot water in the sink either :angry:

On travel day . Of all days ?

Call down to reception – indeed.

The Boiler is broken, no hot water to Blocks 3 or 4.

Supermario is out at Plumbers-R –Us trying to get the part.

What a nightmare

So we used the little single cup coffee maker to heat up enough cups of water to have a wash

And will have to rely on the trusty Dove to stop us being whiffy later on.

We did make the point at checkout that it was pretty poor.

They just shrugged. Not very impressed.

As we loaded the cases into the car, Andy notice the seam on one of the zips was coming apart – nooooooo, suitcase open drama.

So I popped to the onsite shop and bought a pretty useless sewing kit.

Stood in the car park sewing up the zip seam and trying to safety pin it. The needle was so feeble it broke in half !

Well, I did the best I could.

Happily it was the case full of our laundry so hopefully unappealing for perusal if it does burst open. Ewwwww !

Not a relaxing start to the day

And its cloudy – although I always feel better if I am leaving on a rubbish day – nothing worse than schlepping to the airport in glorious sunshine

We arrived at Disney Springs for Checkin



We had the free voucher through Virgin Holiday – the party in front of us hadn’t realised it was a $10 per person fee. They were not happy .

Even unhappier when one of their cases weighed in at 29kg. oops. Re packing required !

Ours weighed in at 23.4 and 22 kg. , so we put some of our hand luggage into that extra kilo – room for more shopping now obviously !

We had a stroll round DS to see all the new places

Sad face – farewell DisneyQuest, we will miss you





Nice and quiet













Really impressed with the new area, lovely lay out







Andy was power walking so I didn’t get to stop here



We didn’t venture along the shops either !





Our last lunch has usually been at Fultons.

We stood and felt a little sad it had gone



Its replacement looks nice, but not the same

And I checked the menu before we left, their fish and chips isnt cod so Andy was having none of it.

Which is how we ended up here



i ordered the kids chicken, when it arrived I was convinced it was fish, but its not. It was a nice fat chicken goujon



Not sure about the mustardy sauce...

Andy had fish and chips with extra fish. Feeble pic, it was really windy and the paper got in the way





It was nice, bit expensive compared to meals at Perkins, Bob etc for a similar price.

But it was nice to sit in the sun and people watch ..

[WileyCoyote]

We popped back to the Outlet, mainly to see the re –opened Nike.

OMG , it was just rammed in there and looked no different to my in expert, sport store hating eye ...

Swift exit.

But I did get a cake on the way out





Not from Nike obviously, but just outside !

It started to spit with rain as we left

Brrr, grey skies



We went back to the Tommy Hilfiger at Pointe Orlando and nabbed a few extra bargains.

Hand luggage suitable sorted , we de camped to the Rosen for a drink or two and to just chill ( and re charge the ipad ..)

Not likely to miss this lot on the aircraft are we !



Even though we checked in, we headed off at 4.45 for the airport, the traffic can be so unpredictable and we might as well settle in there and bag a seat early.

Traffic was quite busy



Nearly there





Car drop off was much easier with no cases to heave around


I wanted to eat before the flight and was ridiculously pleased to see Panda Express here



I had orange chicken with fried rice



Oh , its just too good.

Andy had five spice shrimp and orange chicken





Ordering had been inexplicably difficult - not sure why but Who cares, it fnally arrived and was nomlicious

And rounded off with this



Squee, a baby cinnamon bun and a cinnamon iced coffee



What a perfect way to leave Florida ...

We deposited all our 1c coins in the McDonalds charity boxes – they are such a pain to carry round.

We kept the silver coins, always good for those tolls on arrival day.

For once, we whizzed through security in less than 10 minutes.

And for once, we had almost the first gate , not the half a mile yomp we usually get . We were so early we got the pick of the seats so immediately bagged a charging point.

Andy went off to get some duty free and I settled in – messaging home and then reading.

It was but almost 7 by now so a bit of a wait but it soon got busier and before we knew it, time to change into the warm travel gear and get boarded.

We were in Extra Leg Room Seats – I had the seat in front of Andy to avoid any reclining issues with his knees and I was next to a really chatty couple – they had been on amazing holidays and we had a long natter about all the places they had been.

Andy’s row was empty so after take off, I moved into his row by the window and the couple in front of us spread out ( promising not to bash Andys knees !) Result – loads of space

I started to watch the film Arrival. It seemed promising but after an hour , I decided that kip was more important

I donned the ostrich pillow and I must have managed a fair few hours sleep, waking up a few times, but I definitely did sleep. That pillow blocks out a decent amount of noise and light.

The Food came round …

Pics are a bit dark as I used the ipad

Wine and pretzels. As I was donating my dinner to Andy ( beef) he preferred the red wine ( also donated, I am SUCH a GOOD WIFE )



Dinner choices were thai chicken curry or beef bourginion





Andy said it was ok. just OK

I ate the crackers ... They came with the most odd cucumber and chive cream cheese . I tried it and left it.

I also tried the lemon cake - eesh it was too sickly so I left it.

Andy woke me for Breakfast. He had not had much sleep. And will need coffee for the drive home.

Breakfast - sigh, I do think this is feeble

Some melon, blueberry yoghurt and a warm croissant





Which I bit into excitedly thinking it was chocolate

It was blueberry

I dont know , a blueberry croissant, not quite right

I missed tea and coffee - fast asleep and Andy also missed out as they put the trolley back due to turbulence

We landed about 20 minutes late but in one piece, Bonus !

We were really quickly through the kiosks but our cases were the last out – you win some, you lose some.

At least the case with the dodgy zip arrived in one piece.

Anyone thinking of being light fingered would have had a surprise with that partial needle stub wedged in the zip lining on the inside anyway

Across the road to pick up the car, Andy had called ahead to Maple Manor and by the time I had purchased two vats of coffee from Costa, the car had arrived and we were ready to go.

Must say, very impressive meet and greet service.

It had taken less than an hour from landing to be in the car and on our way home.

Traffic was busy , but moving and we were back by 1230.

These two were very excited to see us



We were also very pleased to see Jamie and he was very pleased with his bag of goodies .

We stayed up until about 8 pm , we had fish and chips for dinner from the chippy – cant beat it !

I hardly suffered with jet lag at all over the weekend – Andy really struggled – I think his overall lack of sleep just really messed him up , plus on Sunday the clocks went forward so that didn’t help !

And what next …..

Well, unpacking all done. Back to normal

I am still looking for a job – its been lovely having a break after all that commuting but I really want to get back to work now. There is just so little out there in my field at the moment. I am trying to be positive about the extra time at home .. but I really would like a job !

We learned from this holiday that we were ok to do nothing for a bit, but not the whole time.

Me more than Andy I think.

We also learned that food is an important part of our holiday – we enjoy eating out and when holidaying with others who don’t , or who just don’t eat a lot full stop, that does affect how much we enjoy our days.

And it also makes me unwell !

It was nice to get away.

The last 6 months of last year were hard, this year has had its ups and downs already and it was nice to just get away on our own.

It was also lovely to spend time with family and for them to be so generous in putting us up/ putting up with us

Its also nice that the boys didn’t mind us doing that either. I still feel guilty though …

We have our next trip coming up in the autumn – it’s a big treat for my big birthday.

I am so excited for it and now this is finished, I can get on with that pre trippy.

But that’s going to be over in the General Trippy bit, we only sneak Florida in at the end

See ya on the other side

[jocat]

That's poor of the hotel for not having hot water and not wanting to do anything about it for you when you checked out.

Where's the photo of you in the ostrich pillow? You've let us all down now.

Lovely to read a trippie from you again Amanda. Look forward to the next one.

[Jake71]

Not such a bad travel day home, grey skies and spits of rain always help, selfish as that may sound. Glad you case made it back in one piece. I'll look forward to your next report and thanks so much for sharing this one.

[mick]

Thank you for taking the time to do a trippie I have enjoyed reading along
Good luck in finding a new job

Joan

[Melbatb]

No shower - my lot would have not been happy!

Glad you got home safely!

Good luck with the job search!

[collybird]

Thanks for sharing once again, lovely seeing some different parts of Florida to the norm.

[Stardust5]

Fab trip report, I enjoyed reading along.
No hot water! OMG what a nightmare, glad you managed a wash
Can't wait to hear all about your new trip!

[pinktraceb]

Always love reading your trip reports. Thanks so much for sharing 😀

[dixonsontour]

Enjoyed your trip report as usual