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Old 12 Mar 17, 11:00 AM  
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wizzo
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Cool Days of Chunder 2016 - Day 15

Day Fifteen - 26th August 2016

THE INDEX IS HERE


After 2 weeks of absolute fun and frolics, this was the day we had to head home. I’ve written before about the feeling of waking up on your last day and not wanting to go home. I’m sure we all get it and today was no different.

We were up at 6:30am. We didn’t really need to be but we wanted to make the most of our last day and get back up to Orlando to hit a theme park before having to go to MCO. Bodies were showered, clothes put on and the last of the clothes were packed into suitcases and sealed for the last time.

I have a pair of luggage scales that I always take with us just so I can check the cases before rocking up at the airport and to my surprise the cases were a total of 13kg lighter than when we set off. It was true that we hadn’t done as much shopping this trip with a poor exchange rate but I put this reduction down to one key factor……….we were a good 8-10 bottles of shampoo and conditioner lighter then when we set off! I could travel with none. I’m happy to use hotel shower gel, bath crème gel, washing up liquid etc. etc. to wash every nook, cranny and crevice and it’s free! The three ladies in my party feel ever so slightly different about it however.

We left the hotel at 7:30am on what was a lovely morning. The intention was to dash up to Orlando, check the bags in and then get some breakfast. The roads were quiet and for travelling home day, all was going really rather well.







Maddy fell asleep in the car, she was still shattered. She doesn’t travel well on the way home and we were already worried about her puking on the decent into Glasgow tomorrow.



We didn’t have to worry about her puking in Glasgow as half an hour after she fell asleep; she woke up and puked in the car on I4! Thankfully she hurled into a carrier bag but as you can see from Lauren’s face in the next photo, it didn’t smell to clever back there.



Maddy felt fine after she’d vomited like she always does. We sealed the bag up tight and continued on to Orlando referring to Maddy as Peggy Chunder all the way.

An hour and fifty minutes after leaving the hotel we were pulling up outside Cirque de Soleil, putting a sick bag in the nearest bin and handing our cases over to Virgin Atlantic.



This took no more than 5 minutes and we went to Starbucks for breakfast and most importantly, coffee.



We had decided long before today that we would end the holiday with a little bit of Hollywood Studies and topped up with caffeine we made the short drive over there and walked in. It was boiling but we weren’t knocking it, we’d soon be landing in Scotland where it almost certainly wouldn’t be.



We had fast passes for Star Tours so we headed there first. It was now 10am. Star Tours was pretty quiet.





We stopped for drinks and a mooch about and caught the 11am arrival of the March of the Third Order. Brief but dramatic.









More shops and drinks followed before we headed to the Tower of Terror for our next Fast Passes.





So far today, Maddy had bought 6 Beauty and the Beast Tsum Tsums and 3 Star Wars Tsum Tsums. I’m sure plenty of you parents out there have kids collecting these…..what a waste of bloody money though eh? She’s got well over 100 now.

We weren’t going to queue for it, but Toy Story Midway Mania was a shorter queue at lunchtime than both Rock n Rollercoaster and ToT. It was just 30 mins. Instead, we went to see the muppets which had no queue at all.

After exiting we were all hungry and with Pizza Rizzo still being constructed, we headed back down Sunset Boulevard to grab pizza for everyone.





More wandering about soaking the atmosphere up before our last fast passes of the day (and the holiday) on Rock n Rollercoaster.







We do like the posters in RnR picking up your names from your magic bands as you pass now, that’s a nice touch.

There was time for one last attraction and we thought we would finish the holiday with a real bit of Disney and see the 2pm Beauty and the Beast show. As always it was spectacular (on a small scale) and meant we would leave WDW with that special Disney buzz. Even though Maddy’s face does look like a kid being told she was about to go home!













Show over, grabbed a few sweets for home in the shops, exited and headed to the airport.

With our cases already checked in we dropped the car off with Alamo, made our way into departures and stayed landside. We’d soon snagged a sofa and settled in for the wait to go home. We did yet more Pokémon hunting, browsed some more shops and generally just killed a bit of time. By 4:45pm we were ready for something to eat and made the customary trip to Maccy D’s for something to avoid having to eat Virgin’s horrible food if we had to.



Now full, we decide to go airside and get ready to fly home.

We get to security, Lynn and the kids are ushered through the normal metal detectors while me and about 50 other dads are selected for the full body scan treatment.

I’ve been through this process before; I know there’s someone looking at a live picture of my x-rayed ‘Junk’ and wink as I always do as the scanner revolves.

I exit, casual in the fact that I’m an old hand, I’ve got nothing on me and I’ve just given the lady in the scanning room a cheap thrill. The security bloke in front of me is already talking into his wrist and he looks up and the following conversations takes place……

Security man – “What’s that in your pocket?”
Me – “Nothing”
Security Man – “This pocket” (He points to my outside shorts pocket)
Me – (Patting my pocket with a bemused look) “Oh yeah! I can feel something but there’s nothing in there when I put my hand in”

It dawns on me that whatever it is, is in the tech pocket which is a small pocket on top/inside the main pocket. I reach in and pull out the offending item.

Me – “Oh look! A pretty shell! Now I’ve got to admit, I didn’t pack the pocket myself but I know a 9 year old who will have packed it for me!”

Rather than pinning me to the ground, he let me go. He even let me keep my ‘pretty shell’ too. What a nice man.

I get back to Lynn and the kids and Lynn goes “What was all that about!?” like it’s my fault and I go…..”MADDY! ”

They were all ready of course, bags packed, shoes back on etc. I’m rushing to get my laptop and ipad packed away, belt on, shoes on, passports in pocket, loose change put away etc. etc.

I follow them to the monorail as they are miles ahead and leading the way.

We get on one straight away and head to the gate. We exit the monorail and I go “Gates 100-129! We’re Gate 81! ”

We get back on the monorail and head back to the terminal to catch the proper monorail.

We eventually arrive at the proper gate; go to Stella news for reading material, drinks and sweets and within 10 minutes we were boarding.

I’m not going into chapter and verse about this flight, save to say it was horrible. The food was horrible, we were going home and the family in front of us were serial recliners and all four of them reclined in unison the second the seatbelt signs went out (and didn’t put them back up until breakfast time when a stewardess said to them “Would you mind putting your seats upright so the family behind can have some room to eat their breakfast”





The only good thing about this flight was its duration, just 7 hours and 20 minutes! I think I’d rather fly BA/American carriers indirect than Virgin Economy now regardless of price. Virgin is purely a package airline to Orlando not a credible scheduled carrier for me. Rock star treatment my backside.

If you’re reading this Rich, I will take free Upper Class seats and review them for you this year if you ask nicely. Don’t bother offering Premium Economy though, I’m not interested!

We landed at 7:03am (half an hour early), Maddy didn’t spew on approach but she wasn’t 100% so I ‘borrowed’ some Virgin sick bags.

We were soon through customs, got the bags and were in the car for the tedious near 3 hour drive home. Glasgow is an hour longer to drive home for us but it did save us £2000 compared to Manchester’s prices with Virgin.

Before we’d even crossed the Scottish border Maddy was making use of the Virgin sick bags. This kid just doesn’t travel well to and from America. She never spews on British road trips.

We found some services just shy of the border, I topped up with petrol and the girls went to the toilet where Maddy puked yet again all down the back of Lynn as they entered a cubicle.

You now know why this trip got the title ‘Days of Chunder’

With our chunder/petrol stop we were home for 11:30am, the Koi carp (Odd Job and Goldfinger) were still alive, which was a surprise, there was a mountain of post and the grass looked like a bloody jungle. We were all ‘sick as chips’ to be home but we’d had a brilliant holiday yet again.

I know this one has taken a while to write. Finding the time has been difficult to say the least but I’m quite happy with this trippy. It won’t be the best read of my trip reports I don’t think. I must have pee’d people off with the sporadic nature of when the days appeared. I won’t do that again, I’ll either do one a week (sometimes every two weeks) or not at all.

A few times in this report I’ve eluded to us not going to Disney next time and like so many long-time Orlando goers, we now get so much more out of Florida than just the theme parks. I’m not bored of Disney World but limiting our exposure before has made it a bit more special again. A year off would top up the magic. It’s a balancing act. I couldn’t spend 2 weeks in a Disney resort without a car anymore. If you’ve read all of my trip reports you will know how often I’ve talked about the onsite vs offsite debate (just about the most posted debate on the Dibb). I think I can now conclude that offsite does suit us better. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve loved staying in Disney hotels and will do it again in the future. Walking into Epcot on an evening from the Epcot resorts is bloody brilliant in particular, especially when there’s a drink at the end of the walk. Those evening are some of the best we’ve had in Florida but so are our evenings on the Gulf Coast now. They are every bit as ‘magical’. Meeting that Manatee was a bit special too.

As the years go by, I have no doubt that we’ll add many more locations and activities to our growing list of things ‘we do in Florida’. I quite fancy flying into somewhere else next time (Atlanta maybe) and having a road trip down to Florida, stopping off and seeing some more new places on the way.

“What about this year?” I hear you cry. We’re doing exactly the same as last year. We’re planning nothing. I am watching flight prices again and we’ll see what happens. Last year was great booking it only a few weeks before we decided to go. We’re on a budget this year as I’ve blown the holiday fund on a new car but you never know. I keep saying it but if we go this year, “It’ll be a cheapy” and may not include any Disney World!

Right, I’m waffling now. I hope you enjoyed reading this one. I apologise for it taking so long and until next time, enjoy your upcoming trips people!

PS. If you’re staying at the Grand Plaza this year, don’t forget to mention me when you check-in!

Ta

Wizzo
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Old 12 Mar 17, 11:18 AM  
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Leelsisy
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Thank you as always for your Herculean efforts in the trip-writing department!
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Old 12 Mar 17, 11:19 AM  
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Bazinga 39
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Love your trip reports, sad when they come to an end, look forward to the next one
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Old 12 Mar 17, 11:23 AM  
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foiled
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Thanks for all the great trip reports, as good as ever, sporadic or not.

Sorry, to hear about Maddy's travel sickness, although if anything like my kids, they puke and are fine immediately after.

Tempted to go off site, but not sure if ready to give up the Beach Club Resort just yet, although cramming 5 of us into a single hotel room, might just persuade us otherwise
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Old 12 Mar 17, 11:27 AM  
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Vinniecat
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Brilliant trip report, looking forward to next years. Poor Maddie travel sickness is horrible love the photo of her sleeping. Poor Lauren having to put up with the smell in the back. Our older daughter's suitcase was lighter on the way back a couple of years ago as she insisted on taking 2 litres of shampoo and 2 litres of conditioner with her as apparently American shampoo is not as good as uk shampoo. She had the largest suitcase of the 7 of us and still had to put some things in our cases. Incidentally she not only used all the shampoo and conditioner that she took with her she also bought some American 'rubbish' and actually declared it to be ok!
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Old 12 Mar 17, 11:30 AM  
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Excellent. Thank you
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Old 12 Mar 17, 11:38 AM  
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KittyBlackDog
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Great report as always Wizzo!

Poor Maddy, travel sickness is the pits as all you want is your own bed to recuperate and it's always far too far away! I hope she will kick it in to touch this year.

TFS
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Old 12 Mar 17, 11:45 AM  
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Just sat down to my Sunday morning coffee and the last day was here! An enjoyable read as usual. Lovely to see the girls growing up. Looking forward to the next one thanks for sharing
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Old 12 Mar 17, 11:50 AM  
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Stardust5
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Fab report, always enjoy reading your reports.
Great last day you certainly made the most of it.
Poor Maddy being travel sick but poor Lynn having sick down her back! Yuck! At least you were nearly home!
Look forward to seeing if you do snag a bargain this year!
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Old 12 Mar 17, 11:56 AM  
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simbamad
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Another great trip report, thank you for taking the time to write it.
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