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Old 31 Aug 19, 08:04 PM  
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gjdjud
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HEY MICKEY YOU'RE SO FINE,YOU'RE SO FINE YOU BLOW MY..MONEY. MAY'19 Day:21:ANIMAL KINGDOM THEN HOME

HEY MICKEY YOU'RE SO FINE,YOU'RE SO FINE YOU BLOW MY..MONEY. MAY 2019 Day:21 ANIMAL KINGDOM THEN HOME

HEY MICKEY YOU'RE SO FINE,YOU'RE SO FINE YOU BLOW MY..MONEY. MAY 2019 Index


Day 21

So we had finally arrived at that dreaded day, the day we go home. I didn’t have the best night sleep thinking about the day ahead. We still have plenty to do and we were all up fairly early as we were doing the check in at Disney springs with Virgin Atlantic.

This was due to be opened at 8:15 and I wanted to make sure that we were first in line for when it opened. Luckily we didn’t have to be out of house at Encantada. It was actually booked for us until the next day which was the Saturday but we were going home today on the Friday due to much cheaper flight prices. So it was nice knowing that we were still able to come back to resort to have a shower and swim and relax before we left for the airport in the evening. Our flight was around about 7:30 pm.

We set off around about 7:30 am for the relatively easy journey to Disney springs along the 192. Again we have no issue with traffic and we are pulling up at Disney springs surface car park by Cirque Du Soleil around about 7:50am. The competitor in me was delighted to see that no one else was there and nothing was even set up yet. I could see the two big lorries to transport the luggage and waiting so any little doubt about being in the right place soon disappeared. My military planning had us transporting our luggage to where the I thought the line would start. The girls were horrified we were so early. Soon the Virgin staff started to appear and they were the grumpiest people alive.







Not long afterwards several other families turned up and joined us in the line. Overall though it wasn’t amazingly busy at this early time. So dead on 8.15am we began the check-in process and the bit that Kelly was dreading. She was absolutely convinced that our luggage was all overweight. As with what normally happens she was overreacting and we had only one of our five bags slightly overweight. A sticker was put on it and nothing else was said.. I forgot to mention that we had paid extra for an extra suitcase for the way home which I did the night before when I did online check-in. We had also a couple of days before bought an extra suitcase from Walmart. Does anyone get the idea we did quite a bit of shopping? As we were with virgin holidays we didn’t have to pay the $10 per person either to use this check in service. We were done by 8:30 am which was fantastic.

The reason I wanted to get it done so early was to make the most of the day and I had also managed to back us Fights Of Passage fast passes for 8:55 am. These lasted an hour so we had plenty of time to make that deadline. I know lots of fastpasses are difficult to get at 30 days out but they can be got. I had signed up to Touring Plans and got an email about 3 weeks before saying that the opening of Animal Kingdom would be an hour earlier at 8am. Without even batting an eyelid my oversensitive Disney planning training kicked in and I was booking fast passes for FOP at 8:55am to give us maximum time. This was done approximately nine seconds after I received the email. I am a Disney planning ninja.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom around about 8.45am and I parked up very easily in the disabled section once again. We were in the park by 9 am.



We decided to head straight to Flight Of Passage. The pre ride bit dragged on a bit but I can’t get over how much we all love this ride. I can’t wait to go back on this.











From here we were desperate to get something to eat as we hadn’t had breakfast yet. We were heading towards Africa so we stopped at the Kusafari Bakery. This is somewhere we’ve been before. It’s on the same side as Tusker House but a bit further down towards the Safari. They have a nice selection of pastries. Although we’ve been before I did embarrass myself by trying to get served at the collection window oblivious to the till and queue behind me



Kelly and Lily went for a chocolate twist each. They said they were good but Lily ended up with more on her face than she ate!



Evie went for a Colossal Cinnamon Roll. This was huge and too big for her but she really enjoyed it. I did help her out a little as well



I went for an Elephant Ear pastry. I’ve had one before and there pretty good. Pastry with the top covered in chocolate.



All pretty happy with our choices. Again missing those snack credits so it was $27.11 with a bottle of Diet Coke for me.

From here we headed next to Adventures outpost for a meet and greet with Mickey and Minnie. I thought this would be quite a good use of a fast pass so we could say goodbye to Mickey and Minnie on our final day. We got in fairly quickly with our fastpasses which was good as I noticed that when we had finished the line had built up quite considerably. The girls again were mute with the characters but it was nice to have a couple of final pictures with the big two.







Now it was time for our final fast pass of the holiday. Expedition Everest.



Always one of our favourite rides of the holiday. I was so pleased that we had no issues with this ride and we managed to get on every time that we wanted to. Once again Kelly wasn’t coming on so I took the girls onto the rides for the final time. Once again we loved it and it will have many happy memories for me. We tried one more final funny pose on the ride photo just for some giggles.





We managed to get on Its Tough To Be A Bug without any wait with no wait which was good.



We posed for a few more photos and even saw Kevin from Up!





We'd had a lovely final morning. Everything is so much better when you have a nice final visit to the parks. Sadly we made our way towards the exit. Each time I think I hope it won’t be our last. I really hope not.

The plan had been to stay until lunchtime before heading out for a final lunch. The choice was the Rainforest Cafe at the Animal Kingdom. Rainforest Cafe isn’t for everyone but for us it’s a tradition going back to when me and Kelly first went on our honeymoon in 2006. We’ve never had a bad meal at the Disney Springs or Animal Kingdom location.



Again I was using the Landry’s Card. I have acquired 3 over the years so I would be using my “birthday” reward from my third card. No need to book. I showed them Landry’s Card and we were called to a table within a couple of minutes.

As it was a fairly early lunch it wasn’t too busy but it quickly filled up. We always enjoy the theming here.





Our server was quick to appear and take drink orders while she gave us some menus to have a look through. We had a good look and resisted the urge to get unneeded appetisers.



The girls were both going from the kids menu for this meal. It was never any issue for Evie as she clearly is older than the stated 10 years of age. As the holiday went on she found kids menu far more manageable for her. She was happy to swallow her early holiday pride and eat from the kids menu.

She went for kids cheeseburgers. This was 2 sliders which she had with fries and orange slices. She really enjoyed this and was happy with her choice.



Lily went for kids hot dogs. It was two dogs and she chose apple and orange slices as her sides. Likewise she was happy with her choice.



Kelly went the chicken quesadillas from the appetiser menu as a main with a side of fries. Again she happy with her choice.



In theme with the rest of the holiday went for something I wouldn’t normally go for. I had a the Blue Mountain Chicken Sandwich. Lemon grille chicken, bacon, Swiss cheese, red peppers and Safari sauce. I really enjoyed this and was happy I went for it. I was tempted by the Beastly Burger but thought that might be a bit heavy on the stomach on the plane later





We didn’t really need dessert so we decided that was it. The manager had come round earlier thanking us for being Landry members and confirming we had $25 off the cheque for my birthdayreward. So with that off and tip it was a brilliant $50 total. The Rainforest Cafe never lets us down!





So we headed back on our final drive back to Encantada. We still had a couple of hours before we needed to head to the airport. The girls wanted a final swim which I was happy to do as well. Kelly didn't fancy it so I took the girls. We parked up and as we made our way to the pool there was a raccoon blocking our path. Terrified the girls made a detour to avoid it. Our second raccoon of the holiday. We had a nice final swim in a fairly quiet pool.When it was like this it was lovely. When it was full of screaming teenagers from a football team, not so much.

We spent about 45 minutes here before heading back to house. Once there we had a final tidy up before getting washed and dressed to head to the airport. So around 4pm it was time to head to the airport.





We stopped off at reception to pay the resort fee that I was expecting to pay only to find out that Kelly's cousin(who rented this for us)had already paid it as well as for extra housekeeping. We were so grateful for it. We said a sad farewell to Encantada. I had been nervous about this part of the holiday but we enjoyed our time there.

The drive to airport was pretty straightforward. The bit I was nervous about was where to go with the car. Thankfully it was no issue and we found the Alamo garage without to much hassle. We handed over the car. I checked the print off I was given to check there were no nasty surprises in extra charges. There weren't. The Surburban was an awesome car. I'm so glad we upgraded. We headed to the terminal to find out where we needed to go. We didn't find this easily and it took us a few minutes to find out which gate we needed to go. Lots of the smaller info boards didn't show much but we found what we needed on a bigger board.

We headed towards passport/security. This was as usual very busy and slow. We went through the Special Assistance section. I mucked up by not taking all my electronics out properly and so got really flustered. Evie was dealt with very calmly and professionally when they needed to check her cane. We were probably through and done in around 30 minutes which could have been a lot worse. We hopped on the monorail(wishing we were going to the Magic Kingdom not one of the airport gates.)



It was fairly busy and not much in the way of seats. We found a couple and I set off to grab some food. We knew it was doubtful we’d be eating the plane food on the way home.



The girls and Kelly found some better seats as went off. The plan was I’d go to Burger King for the ladies and then go and get myself a hot dog from Nathan’s when I’d gotten there’s.



The queue was pretty long but I didn’t think it would take too long. Boy was I wrong! It took about 35 minutes from joining the queue to bringing the food back. Totally unorganised and understaffed. 25 minutes in Kelly came to see where I was as she was worried!

When I finally got served I abandoned my plan to get Nathan’s and ordered from here as well as I couldn’t face another queue. Luckily Kelly was there to take care of the self service drinks.

All the ladies wanted the same thing and that was the Original Chicken Sandwich. All 3 were meals. The girls getting bottles of water and a Diet Coke for Kelly. All 3 really enjoyed them and found them much tastier than the ones in the UK. Not that we eat at Burger King very often.



I went for the Double Stacker King with bacon. This was pretty good.



Above McDonalds but below Five Guys in my Fast Food Burger rankings. It did a job and I was full. $45 though! A little tip if you want to eat here. There was some self service machines you could order from if paying by card. These were so much quicker. I was paying cash so couldn’t use them



We had about an hour to wait so we had a look in the shop and I spent way too much on junk for the plane. I got bits for Lily and then Kelly took Evie to do the same. We had the odd trip to the toilet before we headed over to the seats by the gate.



This wait took longer than expected. Boarding didn't start until the actual take off time. We'd be late taking off for certain. When they began boarding we got on first as a special assistance booking.



We once again took up our seats in the bubble. We were hoping we'd get lucky and have empty seats next to us but alas not. One thing that was clear was that no one pays attention to the hand luggage rule. The bubble was packed with extra bags. The plane slowly filled but annoyingly there was an issue with water supplies to the on board toilets so we waited another hour before take off which was frustrating. We eventually got going about 2 hours late. The flight itself was uneventful and boring. None of us had the food as it sounded gross but we had a nice supply of snacks to eat. We all dozed off now and then like most other people. I didn't bother watching too much but thankfully the time passed fairly quickly.

We were soon enough back in the UK. We'd had a quick flight and we had made up an hour of our delay which was good. Thankfully we got off the plane quickly and I texted my mum to come and pick us up. The luggage took a little while to come but again it could have been worse. We were all really tired at this point but we kept our tempers! We even had pound coins for the trolleys! Of course we had nothing to declare. We made our way outside where we waited for my mum to arrive. They are 20 minutes away but we had gotten off a plane, cleared customs, gotten luggage but we were the ones who had to wait!

It was all over for another trip. We were expecting to go home to a nearly finished house after renovations. Sadly we didn't. We ended up at my in laws for 2 and a half months!

So soon I'll do a final thoughts and future plans so not the final installment of this.

Thanks for reading.

George

Edited at 10:35 AM.
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Old 31 Aug 19, 08:58 PM  
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Buggles94
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Sounds like you definitely made the most of your last day! We really like AK as a final day park as feels relaxing there and easy to park etc. Glad you had a great time and look forward to the highs and lows and of course your future plans!
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Old 1 Sep 19, 07:32 AM  
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gjdjud
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Originally Posted by Buggles94 View Post
Sounds like you definitely made the most of your last day! We really like AK as a final day park as feels relaxing there and easy to park etc. Glad you had a great time and look forward to the highs and lows and of course your future plans!
Thanks for reading
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Old 1 Sep 19, 09:25 AM  
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Always good to have a busy last day. Thankyou for sharing your lovely family holiday, and looking forward to reading your future plans.
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Old 1 Sep 19, 10:44 AM  
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mrsstitch
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A great last day, and a great trip report that I have really enjoyed reading. Definitely picked up some food and restaurant tips. Thank you for finishing and posting, hope you all enjoy being back home.
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Old 1 Sep 19, 11:14 AM  
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You really made the most of your last day, I wish I could get OH out and about that early on travel day!
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Old 1 Sep 19, 06:31 PM  
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gjdjud
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Originally Posted by mrsstitch View Post
A great last day, and a great trip report that I have really enjoyed reading. Definitely picked up some food and restaurant tips. Thank you for finishing and posting, hope you all enjoy being back home.
Thank you for reading

Originally Posted by vanlou View Post
Always good to have a busy last day. Thankyou for sharing your lovely family holiday, and looking forward to reading your future plans.
Thank you

Originally Posted by collybird View Post
You really made the most of your last day, I wish I could get OH out and about that early on travel day!
On our first trips we always wasted the last day so the last two trips we’ve made a big effort to do as much as we can
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Old 1 Sep 19, 06:59 PM  
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Enjoyed reading your reports, thank you. We went to Burger King at MCO, in May, and it took us an hour to get our food
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Old 2 Sep 19, 07:23 AM  
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gjdjud
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Originally Posted by spenners View Post
Enjoyed reading your reports, thank you. We went to Burger King at MCO, in May, and it took us an hour to get our food
Thanks for reading
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Old 4 Sep 19, 09:59 PM  
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You definitely made the most of that last day. It was great that you could head back and go in the pool an overall good travel home day xx
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