Split Stay Get Away - Day 11: "I don’t do going home days" *COMPLETE*

[Stewboy]

The Index

Monday 4th June 2018

When I asked Isabella if she was going to write her mini-trip report for this day, her response was “I don’t do going home days” - hence the title of the day, a feeling I’m sure we’ve all had!

Unfortunately we did have to do the ‘going home day’; a day that started in the usual way at about 7:30am with coffee.

I turned my phone on and got a text from Halifax regarding the credit card. After replying ‘yes’ to the ‘was this transaction made by you’ question, the card was unblocked and ok to use again - fingers crossed!


Yes

After coffee we started packing. We let Isabella sleep until about 9am, woke her up and gave her some milk, then finished off the packing - making sure to check all the drawers, we didn’t want a repeat of the Port Orleans French Quarter safe episode!

The last thing to do before loading up the car was to take out all the rubbish and recycling - now we were ready to go. We said goodbye to the condo at about 10am, made a quick stop to drop the keys off at reception, then left Bahama Bay Resort for the last time.






Packing in progress

Our thoughts? It was nice, but it felt a little tired and could probably do with a bit of refurb. It also made us miss being in the lovely villa we had last summer, so I think it’s safe to say that we wouldn’t stay here again. Location wise it was good, but it was literally round the corner from the villa, so once again we’d go for the villa over this place, especially considering pricing was similar.

Anyway, back to today.

The plan now was to head over to Champions Gate for a late breakfast at First Watch - a breakfast restaurant that was featured on a Tim Tracker blog and looked really good, so we were excited to try it out.

We arrived about 10:20am, parked up and checked in. It’s a pretty cool place, a little on the hipster side, but I’ll forgive it that. Jo had a voucher (obviously) for ‘buy one entree get another free’ and we ordered the following:

• Me: Tri-fecto (Two Eggs, Belgian waffle, chicken patty)
• Jo: Bacado Omelet (Bacon, avocado and Monterey Jack topped with sour cream. Served with seasoned potatoes, whole grain artisan toast and a side of housemade Pico de gallo.)
• Isabella: French toast (Served with fresh fruit and sausage)

First Watch

While we waited for the food, Isabella drew some fruit and veg characters, inspired by the kids’ menu. I thought they looked so good that I shared them on a popular social media network, and she ended up drawing another one after a request from fellow dibber Nanasamboy.

When the food arrived, it all looked amazing - and it tasted amazing too! We will definitely be coming back here again.




Isabella's characters


Tri-fecto


Bacado Omelet


French toast

There’s a Publix at Champions Gate, so after breakfast we popped over there to pick up a few bits for the journey home.

After some debate we decided to head back to Disney Springs so that Jo could get that Dooney & Bourke bag that she’d been unable to purchase yesterday.

We arrived at Disney Springs at about noon. It was a really hot day but it wasn’t too busy and we were able to park in the Lime Garage.

The first thing to do before anything else was to go back to Ever After Jewelry Co. & Accessories to get the bag.

This time around there were absolutely no problems - Jo finally had her bag!


The bag!

As we had time we decided to have a little browse around a few of the shops - it was nice to be able to be able to wander around without the crowds. I’ve always preferred Downtown Disney/Disney Springs in the daytime when it’s less manic!

We had a browse in Uniqlo, and ended up buying a few bits, including a boys t-shirt for Isabella with dinosaurs on it (because apparently girls can’t like dinosaurs!), and a Daisy duck t-shirt for Jo’s step-brother’s little girl - her name is Daisy.


Uniqlo haul

It was now time to say goodbye to Disney Springs, and indeed Walt Disney World. As we headed back to the Lime garage we made a quick stop at Starbucks for one last coffee on Disney property. Jo and I got our favourite drinks of this trip - venti iced caramel macchiato, Isabella had a peach iced tea.


Starbucks

A sad walk back to the car, and then that was that - we were leaving Disney World behind. As we exited Disney Springs we stopped at the gas station opposite - cue more American gas station fun. First of all, I was too close to the pump and couldn’t open my door. Then I couldn’t locate the lever to open the petrol cap. Finally I was able to get some gas into the car, and we could finally set off towards Tampa.

The distance to Tampa was about 80 miles and we knew our $30 of gas wouldn’t keep the tank full, so we planned on finding a gas station an exit or two before the end of the I-4.

We set off from Disney Springs at about 12:45pm. The drive didn’t get off to the greatest start when I missed the I-4 exit and we ended up taking a diversion past the Art of Animation Resort - it only added about 5 minutes onto the journey so it wasn’t a major hassle - at least we were heading in the right direction!

The drive was uneventful and thankfully traffic free. We stopped at a gas station about 20 minutes from the airport, off Exit 5 on the I-4. We put another $20 in the tank to ensure it was full when we returned it.




Tampa

By 2:30pm we were dropping the car off at the Avis garage.

The journey from the car rental garage to the main terminal involved getting two monorails, but was actually much more straightforward and easy than the same journey at MCO.

On the way over to the main terminal we saw on a departure board that our flight was delayed by 2 hours.




Tampa International Airport

Once we got to the main terminal, we decided we may as well get lunch from the Hard Rock Cafe before we went through security as we had plenty of time!

We were seated straightaway and ordered the following:

• Me: Hickory Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger / Goose Island IPA
• Jo: Club Sandwich / Mojito
• Isabella: Mac & Cheese

The food was good, but it was pretty hot in there - either the aircon wasn’t working or they didn’t have any!

Once we’d eaten we had a quick browse at the memorabilia - it was pretty lame to be honest. Most of it seemed to be less well known stuff; a shirt that Mick Jagger once wore that wasn’t to his satisfaction, a blue beret that Prince only wore once - one particular piece sums it up: a bass that Gene Simmons from Kiss once borrowed for a gig from a drummer named Singer….


I like this


Drummer Singer's Bass


Hickory Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger


Club Sandwich


Mac & Cheese

After Hard Rock we still had time to kill. We wandered over to the Airport Gallery where they had a really interesting exhibit about the airport where we learnt that “Tampa Bay was the birthplace of commercial airline service, when pioneer aviator Tony Jannus flew the inaugural flight of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line on January 1, 1914, from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Tampa using a Benoist Flying Boat – the first scheduled commercial airline flight in the world using a heavier-than-air airplane” (courtesy of Wikipedia).








birthplace of commercial aviation

Even more interesting was an area devoted to a graphic designer named Jane Davis Doggett. She was a pioneer in airport wayfinding, having designed systems for over 40 airports, including Tampa obviously. She also designed the Tampa airport logo, and made various other artworks that were on show. Having found Tampa such an easy airport to get around, I have to say I’m definitely a fan, and as a designer I found the exhibit really interesting.










Jane Davis Doggett

Having found some satisfactory ways to kill time it was finally time to head through security to our gate. The time was about 5:10pm, and we got the monorail from the main terminal to Airside F then went through security, which was quick and easy.

Isabella changed into some leggings for the flight, and then we went for a wander around. Isabella got some frozen yoghurt from Yogurtology and once she’d eaten that Jo and I got a coffee from Starbucks.


Getting some stretching in before the flight






Yogurtology

We made our way down to the gate but we still had a little while till boarding so we headed back to Starbucks and got some water for the flight.

At about 6:50pm we were finally able to board our plane. The reason for the 2 hour delay was that there had been a problem with our plane on it’s previous flight, so they’d had to find a replacement which meant it had been delayed 2 hours. This meant that as we were on a different plane, our seats were better (no longer close to the toilets) - so that was something at least!


Isabella, we're supposed to be sad!

Take off was delayed by the plane in front of ours, so we were even later. Once we were up in the air and settled in we all sampled the seat back entertainment. I watched the new Jumanji film and Jo watched Bob’s Burgers, and Will & Grace. Isabella tried out a few different films, but eventually ended up going to sleep.

Pretzels and drinks came after about an hour, and then dinner was another hour later at around 9:30pm - Jo had the lasagne, I had butter chicken, and Isabella just slept. I managed to get a couple of hours sleep after dinner.


Pretzels and drinks

[Stewboy]

Breakfast was a cream cheese filled pretzel and a cereal bar at about 8am British time. The plane landed at Gatwick at about 9am. The flight was ok, but the plane was old and in need of some love and attention, and the flight attendants were awful - unhelpful and unprofessional.

The 2+ hour delay meant that our plane landed at the same time as a few other flights, and just like at Manchester on our last flight, the queues in the immigration hall were extremely long. Once again, families were penalised and the desks were seriously unmanned.




Food


Me!


Breakfast

It took about 45 minutes to finally get through, another really rubbish end to a long journey home. As we were waiting in the long and tedious line we heard a teenage girl with her family in front of us say to her mum “#IdRatherBeAtSchool” (yes, she did actually said “hashtag”)

Due to the time it took, our bags were already off the carousel when we got through to baggage claim. We picked them up and headed out to the bus stop. It was pretty cold in Gatwick at this time of the morning.


We've got some baggage

The bus took about five minutes to arrive, and it was about 11am when we got back to the car, loaded it up, and headed for home via the M25. Fortunately there were no issues or delays on the way home, and with no stops we were soon back home, exhausted and miserable.

So that’s that. Another Sear Family Trip over with. We had a lovely time, despite the disappointment with POFQ. We managed to cram a lot into our ten days, and even managed some new things like Typhoon Lagoon, Winter Summerland, Kali River Rapids, Tower of Terror, and Primeval Whirl.

Thank you all for reading along, and for your lovely comments. I have read them all, but I don’t have time at the moment to reply as we’re off on our Disney magic Norwegian Fjords Cruise in 4 days There’s a pre-trip report here if you’re interested

TFR! The Sears x

P.S. When we were unpacking at home, Jo found a booklet inside her new Dooney & Bourke bag that had been put there by some Californian based Christian group - a most unexpected find!

[Cinderella]

Thanks for sharing your trip 👍

[Cutiepie]

Thanks for sharing your trip, another fab report! Have fun on the Disney Magic & I will look forward to the report

[emmabanana]

Another great trip report, thanks for sharing.

I love the bag Jo got 😍

[eleele]

Always sad to come home, airports and night flights are so depressing!

The food at First Report look delicious.

Thanks for the report, enjoy your cruise!

[Unexpectedpenny]

So sad your report has ended but thank you for sharing

Glad Jo got her bag in the end, it’s lovely. I wouldn’t be happy finding that booklet in it though!

[happy08]

Another great trip and report. Looking forward to reading about your next trip

[Floridaagogo]

Loved your report x

[Zomax25]

Another fab trip, thanks for sharing! Have a lovely time on your cruise.