212.6 Miles Too Far South - Day 20&21 - 18&19/8/2018

[Leyfy]

Index
Day 19

Awwwww…. Our final day in the Magical World of Walt and our epic, almost three week adventure was almost over! We spent the morning packing up our room before taking our suitcases down to bell services. I went to check us out and Phil sorted out our suitcases. We then made our way to the bus stop to get a bus to the Magic Kingdom. It was quite busy, but in the usual ‘Disney endless bus’ magic, we all fitted in and were soon zooming our way.

We arrived and our first stop was to Starbucks on Main Street for a coffee:

Neither of us were hungry so we just got a ‘bog normal’ for Phil and a coffee Frappuccino for me.

We wandered round to Fantasyland and I requested that we went on Ariel’s Adventures Under the Sea:

Phil really enjoyed this …..

Said it was loads better than Falcon’s Fury and he really wanted to go on it again….!

This may or not be exactly the truth!

We had a little look round Fantasyland after:

I’d seen a picture of a Cheshire Cat Tail on the Disney Food Blog that I really wanted to try, and on our previous trip the Magic Kingdom I’d seen a place in Fantasyland that sold them. This was near the bridge to Tomorrowland, so I took us on a little diversion there to find one:

It was delicious – chocolaty and gooey inside! Phil was not as impressed but that meant there was more for me! Perfect Magic Kingdom breakfast - sugar on sugar!

We made our way round to Big Thunder Mountain for our first fast pass of the day, but unfortunately it had gone tech. As we were in the area, Phil wanted to utilise the smoking area to use his pipe, so I went off to take a few photos:

I suggested we used our ‘open’ fast pass to go on the Jungle Cruise as we had no idea if BTM was going to open again, as our fast pass for that was a lot later in the afternoon. Phil agreed and it was our next stop:

Magic Kingdom was quite busy by now and so, so hot so we decided to leave the park for the time being. I took a few photos on our way out, the park was now decorated for Halloween as it was the first MNSSHP that night:

We got the monorail back to EPCOT and on the way past I noticed Nemo and Friends only had a five minute wait! I suggested a go to Phil, who was obviously in a good mood as he agreed!

“In a big, blue wooorld!”

I was obviously a bit over-emotional as this made me shed a few tears as well!

I think the reality was knowing that we wouldn’t be back to Walt Disney World for a couple of years (we are waiting for Star Wars land to open) and we were going home that night.

After we got off Phil requested use of the smoking area near The Land to smoke his pipe. I made use of the time by taking pictures of the monorail:

We headed into World Showcase and over to Germany for a quick drink and a snack:

Love these cheese plates! We had one each!

We then pondered what to do as it was about 2pm by now. I suggested a go on Phil’s favourite ride as we’d not been on it yet – The Land! AKA:

“Ooh let’s float slowly past some banana plants”!

Phil is convinced that the plants are plastic and the whole ‘harvesting them to use in restaurants across Walt Disney World’ is a load of rubbish! I know the plants are real and I enjoy the ride, but I’ll admit it’s not the most thrilling of attractions at EPCOT. In fact, I remember listening to The Dibb Cast a few years ago and it being suggested (jokingly) that The Land should be livened up with a surprise ’50 foot drop in the middle’!

When we got off I was still a little hungry so we stopped in the food court area for a snack. We got a couple of cokes each and I got some veggies and hummus:

I wanted to pick up a pair of slippers I’d seen in the shop in Japan, so we went there next:

Slippers purchased, we headed back to England for a drink:

It was very, very hot but we found some shade near to where the band were setting up and we stayed and watched them for a while.

It was now just gone 3pm so we left EPCOT for the final time and made our way round to ESPN on the Boardwalk:

We found some seats inside and ordered some drinks. Our plan was to have our last meal of the trip in there but neither of us were massively hungry but we fancied a snack. We got some chicken wings and loaded potato tots between us - the tots being on recommendation of the person behind the bar:

These were excellent and just enough food.

As we were enjoying these, I had a text from my work colleague. He’d arrived in Florida the day before with his girlfriend who was on her first visit. Unbeknownst to her, he’d been planning on proposing her, and we’d discussed a few ideas to make it go smoothly. I’d suggested in front of a photopass photographer so they had some photos – he then texted me this:

Awww! Amazing!

(Although I had to text him back and ask how the heck he was wearing long trousers – it was 40 degrees out! )

We made our way back outside onto the Boardwalk to try and soak up some last moments of Floridian sunshine:

I went into Ample Hills to get a dessert:

“Red Velvet Ooey Gooey Butter Cake Ice Cream
Vanilla Ice Cream with House-made Red Velvet Ooey Gooey Pieces"

Tasted delicious! We had a little time so we went back to The Boardwalk Inn for a final drink:

I then had a little look in the shop at The Boardwalk to pick up a couple of last minute souvenirs:

We headed back to the Dolphin about 6pm and collected our things. We sat around reading for a bit

At 7pm I had a text from our private hire to say he was a little early – were we ready? We were, so he picked us up at 7.30pm and we had an easy journey to Orlando International.

We were soon at the correct terminal and the line was huge! A lot of people were waving around online check in documents, but it didn’t seem to make any difference and we were soon processed.

We made out way into Orlando Airport departures and everything seemed to be closing down! We got a couple of drinks from a quick service place and settled down for a couple of hours wait. I mainly watched a few bits on my iPad and Phil read.

Soon it was time to board. I’d seen the seat map and thought we were in the row behind where we actually were, but it turned out we were in the bulkhead seats behind the galley, which was perfect for Phil as there was no one in front of us.

The IFE was rubbish so I gave Phil my iPad and a few instructions on how to watch it. He settled down with that. I put an audio book on, curled up in my jumper and my eye mask and attempted to get some sleep. This was all fine until about 2am when the lady sitting next to me got up to use the bathroom and accidentally say on my armrest setting off a blinding light! She apologised profusely and I said it was fine etc etc - tbh I was struggling to sleep a little anyway so I was still awake. I did drift off in the end for the rest of the flight and woke up again as we were coming in over Ireland.

I always find with Norwegian it is a mad dash to give everything out in the last 30 minutes of the flight and today was no different! I can’t remember what the breakfast was, but I remember neither of us being impressed! However, we both had a much needed coffee.

We were soon on the ground and off the plane as we were near the front. We headed to immigration and painlessly through the auto booths.

We collected our cases and tried to phone the taxi company we’d used on the way out but they didn’t answer the phone for ages! In the end we got a taxi outside the airport and headed back to Sanford Court. I collected the car keys and we headed home. We got stuck in traffic for 30 odd minutes at the Dartford crossing, but we were pulling up in our street by 3pm.

Our neighbour was cat sitting for us and we got out of the car we saw our cat on his window sill! As soon as she saw us she was straight downstairs and into our house to say hello – bless her!

Luckily the house was all in one piece (as was the cat) so we counted that a success - and another Florida adventure was over!

Thank you to all that have followed and commented on our trip report - I mainly write them as something for us to look back on, but it’s lovely to read your comments. I will do my best to reply soon to the ones I haven’t yet commented on.

So what’s next? A trip to Disneyland Paris for us! I’ve been several times and love the place, but Phil has never been. We are going for my birthday in February half term – what could possibly go wrong - going to France in the middle of winter?! Phil is going to *love* it, right…..?!

Right….?!

[Cinderella]

A great trip report👍 Thank you for sharing 🙏

[MinnieMrsA]

As ever love your reports - gutted you might not be back for a few years but hopefully we will cross paths again then! Xx

[lizzie145]

I went to DLP in February this year, then it snowed which meant it was quiet and very beautiful.

[walt4it]

Thank you so much for all of your words, photos and experiences of this whole trip . Have enjoyed all that you have seen , done and experienced - even getting Phil to ride Ariel
Thank you so much for sharing all of your holiday

[4fromsuffolk]

I have enjoyed reading your reports too and looking at your great photos. Thank you for taking the time to write the trip report.

[GALE88]

Great report, I’ve really enjoyed reading along. 😀 You got a lot done on your last day, I guess that’s the advantage of having a late flight home.

[DISNEYLIZ]

What a great trip. I always look forward to your reports.

[mick]

Thank you for taking the time to do a trippie once again as usual I have enjoyed reading along, and you took some fabulous photos,

Enjoy DLP


Joan

[pretty71]

Loved reading your report as always Kim, am sure I will see you in Chelmsford one day 😀