<Insert humorous title here> WDW Jan/Feb 2014: Day 15 - So Long and Thanks For All The Ants COMPLETE

[Stewboy]

Index

“And now, the end is near….”

And so we come to the last day. Over the last few visits we’ve established something of a last day tradition by spending our last few Walt Disney World hours in Magic Kingdom.


Morning

In contrast to our “Animal Kingdom curse” this last day always turns out to be a really hot and sunny day, regardless of the time of year. Either it’s Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida and indeed the good ol’ US of A bidding us a fond farewell and hoping that we come back soon; or it’s them taunting us with their beautiful sunshine, knowing that we’re probably wearing our “going home” clothes (jeans, jumpers, coats etc.) and probably heading home to rain or, if it was anything like last year, deep snow!

Fortunately we’d learnt our lesson with regards to last day clothing and were going to be changing into “England suitable” attire at the airport.

So, onto the day….

We got up, finished packing, loaded the car, said goodbye to room 4312 and headed to Artist’s Palette for the last breakfast of our 2014 WDW holiday.

After the usual breakfast (Bounty Platters all round) we headed over to Downtown Disney to drop the cases off at the Virgin check in, which was free with our package.

Despite the work going on and the reduced car parking, it was suitably early enough to get parked close to the check in.

Isabella wanted to do her bit and pulled one of the cases for us. The ladies at the check in thought it was really cute, which it was as you can see…


Doing her bit

Fortunately there was no one else there so it took no time at all to get checked in and drop off the cases.

With that all done we headed off to Magic Kingdom, or rather the Contemporary Resort… Oh yes, we were going to be a bit cheeky (as we were running late for our FP+s) and use the walkway from the Contemporary to Magic Kingdom. Shh...


Walk this way...


Remember all those bins from earlier in the TR

We got to the resort and told the CM on the gate that we wanted to have a look round the resort. Technically, that was true as we did use the toilets! They’re very nice, if you’re wondering.

We arrived at Magic Kingdom to find it was a really busy day.


She's not really happy.

We headed over to Fantasyland and took Isabella on “Under the Sea - Journey of The Little Mermaid”. She really loves this ride, and we were singing “Under the Sea” for the rest of the afternoon! And we basically are still singing it now…

“Under the sea... Under the sea… da da da da…” Ahem. Aaaanyway….

It was now time to meet Ariel in her grotto. Isabella was really excited to meet her and was really sweet and cute. She does love her princesses and Ariel was, and still is, her favourite.

Isabella had dressed for the occasion and had her Ariel socks on, which Ariel noticed and loved. It’s little things like that that make it really special for the kids and all the characters that we met on this holiday were really very good with her, even if it meant knowing to avoid her if they were freaking her out. Top marks to Disney and their CMs for that.






Isabella meets Ariel

Now that we’d done Ariel we had some time to relax and what better way to do that than take a ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. Who doesn’t love this ride?! It’s a great way to relax and get some great views of Tomorrowland and the whole park.




View from tomorrow


Happy but sad

It was now time for lunch and we decided we wanted to try Pecos Bill’s or “Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe” as nobody ever calls it.


Hi Bill

Because it was such a busy day in the park and it was lunch time Pecos Bill’s was absolute chaos. Isabella and I managed to find a seat while Jo ordered two 1/3 lb Deluxe Angus Cheeseburgers which we shared with Isabella.


Burger


Oh yeah, we got dessert

I must say we weren’t impressed. The burgers were dry and not very nice, even with fixin’s. The restaurant was crowded, noisy and gloomy. I think we’ll stick with Columbia Harbour House in future.

One thing I’ve not really mentioned in my trip report thus far is the ubiquitous tour groups. We’ve seen them sporadically throughout the holiday but today was Tour Group Hell. They were everywhere - yellow t-shirts; red t-shirts; pink t-shirts. Oddly, they weren’t causing the ride wait times to be excessively high, they just seemed to hanging around and being annoying; singing, walking, breathing etc.


An annoying sea of pink

Continued...

[Stewboy]

With lunch over with we headed to Storybook Circus to go on The Barnstormer. There was a 25 minute wait for what is a 1m 03sec ride - yes we checked. It also goes 25mph apparently. Fortunately we had FastPasses so we walked straight on and a minute later walked off again!


Jesus is launching his own superfast mobile network...


Isabella ready for some Barnstormin'


Cuddles


Another bin!

We now required some ice cream so we headed back to Main Street U.S.A. I went and changed Isabella’s nappy while Jo went in the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor to get us some sundaes.


Isabella doesn't want to go home

While we were in the Baby Care Center Isabella made a friend. A little American boy had just had his nappy changed and took a liking to her. She went all shy and backed away. To which I said: “That’s the right way to behave around boys.”

The little boys parents thought that was funny. I mean REALLY funny. I suppose it was quite funny, but they reacted like it was the: Best. Joke. Ever!

As we left they were still talking about it. Ah well, always leave ‘em wanting more. In fact, next year I’m going to get business cards made up with links to my Dibb profile, you know, just in case

Isabella and I then went and sat outside Casey’s Corner/The Crystal Palace and waited for Jo, who still hadn’t returned with our ice cream.

There was a show on outside the castle so Isabella and I were dancing and singing along as we waited, which drew some smiles and comments from passing guests.

Jo eventually returned with a Strawberry & Vanilla Plaza Ice Cream Sundae and a Mint Chocolate Chip & Vanilla Plaza Ice Cream Sundae which we shared between us. It was really nice sitting in the sunshine, watching the world go by on Main Street USA. Wish I was there right now.

The sundaes were very big and we didn’t finish them, but we were happy to have successfully used all of our dining plan credits, even snacks - well done Jo!


Yum yum yum!

And that, as they say, was that.

It was time to leave Magic Kingdom and Walt Disney World for another year.

We took the short walk back along the walkway to the Contemporary and headed for the airport.

On the way we decided that we wanted to do some quick last minute shopping at Premium Outlets at International Drive.

We were surprised to find that it was absolutely rammed and ended up parking round the back of the shops. As Isabella had fallen asleep, Jo decided to go it alone and left me in the car with a sleeping toddler and the ants….

Oh yes. The ants.

Over the last couple of days we had somehow acquired an ants’ nest in the car. We’re not sure why. We never ate in the car or left food in there but they were there nonetheless. They appeared to be living inside the dashboard somewhere and would pop out during the day for a little wander over the windscreen both inside and outside. From time to time, they could also be found exploring the dashboard, seats and doors.

Fortunately they never made it into the back and Isabella slept unaffected by our insect friends.

Jo’s solo shopping run consisted of a trip to Gap and Disney's Character Warehouse and she came back with some clothes from BabyGap for Isabella and some Disney t-shirts.

Now it really was time to head to the airport. We stopped to get a few dollars of petrol on International Drive to make sure we made it back. Obviously this involved me not being able to work the pump properly. Do any petrol stations in America work the same way?! In this country, it’s easy. Fuel up. Pay. Leave.

Over there, it usually involves staring at the pump, inserting a credit card, not having a valid zip code, cancelling, feeling stupid, going inside to pay, wrestling with the pump, not understanding how it works, feeling stupid, going back inside, asking someone why it’s not working, feeling stupid, someone showing you something really obvious, feeling stupid, filling up, going back in to get a refund because you paid too much, feeling stupid, and then eventually driving off.


Don't wait for the inevitable zombie apocalypse get yourself to the Zombie Survival store now!

So now confident that we had enough fuel to get us back to the airport, we carried on down International Drive as far as Wet n’ WIld and then got onto Universal Boulevard as it’s a lot less busy than I-Drive, until we reached the Martin Andersen Beachline Expressway. From there it was a quick drive to MCO.

The hire car was due back at Alamo by 5.47, we made good time and were parked up and unloaded by about 5.30. Having said goodbye to the ants it was an easy walk from the rental car parking than usual due to the lack of suitcases. I really liked not having to drag them to check in.

We made it into the airport and headed to the bag drop to drop off the stroller and the car seat. We were told our flight was going to be taking off about half an hour later 8.10 rather than 7.45.

As it was only about 5.45 we had plenty of time…. more on that later!

After changing into our “England weather appropriate clothing” we headed to the food court. We’d decided to eat landside as there’s much more choice and we fancied Panda Express.

Jo and I shared Orange Chicken, Firecracker Chicken and some fried rice and we got Isabella a Happy Meal from McDonalds.

We finished up our food and realised it was now 7 o’clock. A quick glance at the departures board revealed that, contrary to the previous information about a delayed take off, our flight was actually on time.

Sh... sugar.

We now had 45 minutes to get through the notorious MCO passport control, on the fake monorail and onto the plane.

Luckily it looked there was nobody at passport control… unfortunately, that turned out to be the wrong one! A quick turnaround and mad dash to the other side of the main terminal and we are met by a massive queue.

The system here is absolutely ludicrous. You have 4 vertical lines converging into one horizontal line that then snakes back and forwards to the scanners. If you get put into line number 1, all the other 3 lines cut in front of you and it takes ages. Obviously, we were in that line!

It was a very unpleasant queuing experience and there were a lot of people getting very very angry.

Eventually we got to the scanners and Jo and Isabella were allowed through the normal scanner but I had to go through the full body scanner.

Now, because we’d just eaten and Isabella had needed her hands wiped, I’d had a baby wipe in my pocket which I’d subsequently disposed of. Unfortunately the body scanner picked up the slight wet patch in my pocket and this aroused suspicion amongst the TSA staff.

After an uncomfortable couple of minutes he decided I was not a terrorist or a pervert and let me go.

We were now in panic mode. There was literally minutes until take off, or so we thought.

We jumped on the nearest monorail and headed to the gate.

We exited the monorail and saw the sign for gates 100-120…. We needed gate 81. Turns out we’d got on the wrong monorail - we never even realised there was more than one!

Despite more than 10 visits to that airport we were acting like we’d never set foot outside of England.

Realising our mistake and laughing it off (yeah right) we jumped back on the monorail, along with some other poor idiots who’d also got the wrong monorail.

After a brief panic that we might need to go through passport control again (!) we realised the other monorail was right next to the one we’d got off of so it was simple to get on the right one and head to where we needed to be.

Eventually arriving in the right area we ran to gate 81, to find that no one had boarded yet, despite the boards and announcements saying last call.

Turns out it was going to be delayed after all. Heaving a massive sigh of relief, we were able to relax a little and wait to board. I quickly grabbed some waters from the shop and eventually we let on to the aeroplane.

We’d got seats in the bubble again for the flight home.

Jo had got the window seat again and the curse of the reclining seat struck once more, this time it was an old lady who decided she couldn’t possible sit upright for 7 hours, even with the extra leg room. Seriously, do these people not sit in chairs at home?!

The flight home was possibly the worst flying experience ever, and we once spent 10 hours stuck in Gatwick waiting for a plane to take us to Florida.

Isabella could not sleep despite being tired. She didn’t want to watch tv, or play on her Hudl, or do colouring in, all she wanted to do was scream. Oh yes, we were THAT family. With THAT child. The one you always roll your eyes at. The one nobody wants on their flight, let alone sitting next to them.

Eventually I took her to the back of the bubble to try and get her relaxed. The two flight attendants were really nice and the lady talked to Isabella and made friends with her. After about half an hour or so Isabella eventually calmed down and was ready to sleep. Fortunately the plane was quite empty and there was a whole row of three seats across the aisle from us so I sat in one of those and Isabella was able to lay down on the two seats next to Jo and sleep - she got about four hours in the end.


Finally

I managed to get a little bit of sleep too, although Jo never sleeps on the plane, and the 7 hour flight literally flew by.

There was some added drama when a passenger was taken ill and the call went out for doctors or nurses. Not sure what happened but we were met by a paramedic when we arrived at Gatwick and had to wait until the passenger was taken off.


Suitcases all loaded and ready to go home

Eventually we arrived back in Blighty to shed loads of rain!

We were through passport control and baggage pick up pretty quick and the shuttle bus was literally waiting for us as we got out of the airport to take us the short trip to the long stay parking.

As it was absolutely hammering it down, I was pleased that I’d parked close to the bus stop. What I was less pleased about was the fact that due to excessive rain, the drivers side rear window had leaked and the floor was absolutely soaked!

As I was desperately trying to load the cases into the car and not get soaked through, a Good Samaritan waiting at the bus stop grabbed a couple of the cases and brought them to the car for me.

It was now time for the most depressing part of the whole holiday, driving home. In the pouring rain. On the M25. Where we noticed that there was a huge crack across the top of the windscreen!

Fortunately we got home fairly quickly, only to find the boiler had packed up again (it does that regularly) and the house was cold. Last year, it was literally freezing as it we’d had loads of snow, and it took about a day to warm the house up again. It had got so cold that our plants died!

The last line on the voice memo was to say that we were sitting on the sofa, in our pajamas drinking tea whilst recording the final days events. So, a rather happy ending to what is always a rubbish journey home, but what was ultimately a fantastic holiday.


Ah tea. We missed you

Thank you all for reading. Comments are always welcome but just knowing that fellow Dibbers are reading and (hopefully) enjoying it is enough to keep me going. Anyone that’s written one of these reports knows what a labour of love it is, from taking the time to make notes and take photos while you’re having fun in the parks, to making voice memos and finding a few hours every week to write up notes, make it all (hopefully) interesting and upload photos to Photobucket.

In case you missed it we’ve already booked up to go next January and there will be a pre-trip report coming soon, so watch this space.

As always, thanks for reading and commenting.

Stew, Jo & Isabella

[JoJo88]

Bravo my fellow Twitterer, Bravo.

Glad that you managed to 'do Ariel' on your last day, and glad that Jo didn't seem mind

Isabella really did look cute pulling the suitcase along. Make the most of it, they soon grow out of wanting to do anything helpful (unless you offer payment... )

I could almost hear the Benny Hill theme tune as you were describing your airport experience, oh how you laughed I'm sure.

Anyway Stewboy, fab report, totally worth the effort, don't you think? And even better, you beat Brett by a country mile

TFS

#dibbadeedoodahdibbadeeyayafterdark

[Dissie]

Great trip report. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to post it

[Loulabelle18]

Tour groups being annoying-"singing, walking, breathing..." HAAAAA! Thanks for a great trip report, Ive loved every bit of it

[Guest]

Thanks for sharing - really enjoyed reading your trip report!

[Stewboy]

Originally Posted by JoJo88

Bravo my fellow Twitterer, Bravo.

Glad that you managed to 'do Ariel' on your last day, and glad that Jo didn't seem mind

Isabella really did look cute pulling the suitcase along. Make the most of it, they soon grow out of wanting to do anything helpful (unless you offer payment... )

I could almost hear the Benny Hill theme tune as you were describing your airport experience, oh how you laughed I'm sure.

Anyway Stewboy, fab report, totally worth the effort, don't you think? And even better, you beat Brett by a country mile

TFS

#dibbadeedoodahdibbadeeyayafterdark

See more...

Yes, Jo is very laid back when it comes to the princesses...

Yes, Benny Hill probably sums it up!

Oh yeah, totally worth it, and am already thinking about how to make it better. Our sweaty under-the-bed friend has certainly raised the bar when it comes to TR-ing.

Thanks for reading, replying and tweeting

#dibbitreallyisafterdarknowandimstillawakeyay

Originally Posted by Dissie

Great trip report. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to post it

See more...

Thank you Lesley, I'm glad that you've enjoyed reading

Originally Posted by Loulabelle18

Tour groups being annoying-"singing, walking, breathing..." HAAAAA! Thanks for a great trip report, Ive loved every bit of it

See more...

Thanks for reading. Glad that you enjoyed it

Originally Posted by mancdisney

Thanks for sharing - really enjoyed reading your trip report!

See more...

Thanks for reading, glad you've enjoyed it

[disneylover]

Well done on a fab tr. really enjoyed reading. We've been one of THOSE families before on the plane with the screaming child. Fun ain't it!

[P&S]

I have really enjoyed your report, thank you for taking the time to write it

[vanlou]

Brilliant trip report, really enjoyed reading. Thanks for sharing