Summer Hols in Feb 2019: Day 7 Hard Rock & Travel Day Home

[eleele]

Friday 1st March

No photos today!

We woke early at 6.30am, DH went downstairs to get a coffee while I got dressed to go over to Citywalk to get a final Cinnabon and some glazed doughnuts for the boys from Voodoo.

On the way back I had the water taxi almost to myself. I shouldn’t have been surprised it was early and going away from the fun not towards it!

We finished packing the cases and things did get a bit fraught probably because we were tripping over each other in such a small space. Check out wasn’t until 11am though so we actually had plenty of time.

DH, DS2 and I decided to take the lift up to the top floor of the hotel to check out the views. They were amazing, we would have loved for our room to have been so high up.

We finally took our luggage to Bell Services at 10.30am. Our final day was to be shopping at Citywalk and lunch at the Hard Rock cafe.

As we were waiting on the boat dock at SF I bumped into a colleague who’d also been at SF all week and we had no idea we were even going to be there at the same time! I was so shocked to see her I think I forgot my own name, never mind hers!

At Citywalk we went into the big Universal shop looking for one final present. We couldn’t find what we were looking for and ended up going back into Universal Studios one more time to look in the comic book store.

After this we headed to the HRC for lunch. Well, we had the fakest waitress I’ve ever encountered! She couldn’t be bothered to smile or even speak. When DS2 ordered and said a bright “Thank you” she relied uh-huh. I was furious – how rude! There were two middle aged men on the next table and she behaved in a totally different way with them, she was dancing around, flipping her hair, sucking up and flirting away with them! After she brought out our food she didn’t come near our table again. When it was time to go DH left her a suitably generous tip of $12. She was lucky to get that much. This is our third visit here and the food was really good and fresh. Shame about this particular waitress.

We left and had ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery, these were delicious but so filling.

After our last boat ride home to SF we waited around in the enormous lobby for a few hours. It is a really comfortable space and not a chore at all. DS2 went off by himself a couple of times to buy last minute bits and bobs from the shop – he’s getting so independent!

DS1 watched Youtube videos to the point where he drained his phone battery – oh well, zero sympathy from this Mum!

We’d booked the holiday through Virgin Holidays and so we had a Mears shuttle to take us back to MCO. A minibus turned up and we made our way through heavy traffic. Of course our driver was heavy on the brake pedal and very soon I started to feel sick.

We eventully got dropped off outside the Virgin desks, checked in, dropped off bags which were all under weight and then decided to have a good look around the airport before Security. I bought a Cinnabon for breakfast as I knew Virgin’s offering would be terrible.

We were through Security in about 25 minutes. Unlike last Christmas when all my Ghiradelli chocolate decided to masquerade as Semtex and got me into trouble, this time went smoothly. We boarded the mini rail to the terminal which was jam packed and there were not enough seats for everyone. DS2 had chicken tenders and fries from Burger King.

We boarded the plane, left on time and had an ok flight. We flew through a lightening storm just after take off which was scary and there was a fair amount of turbulence throughout the flight with the consequence that once again I was feeling queasy. I think this was a cumulative effect of the rides I’d done in the past few days and the minibus ride to the airport.

Dinner was chicken meatballs, mashed potatoes and broccoli which was surprisingly nice. I didn’t eat the pudding but did eat the crackers and garlic cream cheese.

DS2 managed to sleep for most of the flight and I managed to get a bit of a snooze in as well, I kept waking up with dead arms though. The lights came on at 3am which was 8am UK time but I was still full from the day before so couldn’t even manage to eat my Cinnabon for breakfast.

Once landed we had an awful trip home because we were so tired. DH even had to stop the car to have a sleep – something he never normally does. The drive took us nearly six hours!

Lessons learned from today:
If you live in Wales don’t fly to Orlando from Gatwick. Ever!

When we eventually got home the dog was so pleased to see us which was nice because our previous two dogs used to get the right hump whenever we went away without them and they would gave us the doggy silent treatment when we got home as punishment.

This is the last of my notes. Obviously now we were home we had the usual mountain of washing to tackle so I expect we got started on that while trying to avoid the temptation of having a few hours sleep because we all know how that ends!

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Final thoughts and future plans:

Ok, there is much debate about spending only one week in Orlando so would I do it again?

Yes! Mainly because I want to go when it’s cooler and we are tied to school holidays of which there aren’t that many in the Winter months. If I could we would spend longer there of course but it’s a situation we’re stuck with for now.

Would I spend a week exclusively at Universal?

No (unless I was in Orlando for two months!) Sapphire Falls is a lovely hotel and conveniently close to the parks but it just isn’t enough for me. The shopping at Citywalk and in the Universal parks is pretty poor and I do love a good shop. The restaurants in Citywalk were all very nice with plenty of choice but not as much variety as we would like as a family.

Did we have great time?
Yes! Despite my at-times-grumpy DH and my teenager we ended up enjoying our family time together. We don’t all have the same entertainment goals but we compromise enough that everyone gets to do a bit of what they want.

Do we have plans to go back?
No. Not plans as in booked and deposit paid anyway but I do want to go back to Disneyworld for my 50th celebrations in four years time with maybe a cruise to Castaway Key. And I’m such a schemer with regards to getting my lot on a plane to Orlando I’m sure I’ll find a way to go back before then. I have already suggested a Star Wars themed movie night where every Saturday night for eight weeks we watch a Star Wars film until we get to the end culminating in going to the cinema to watch the new Star Wars film in December. DH is a huge Starwars fan so obviously I’ll talk lots about Galaxy’s Edge and generally get him keen to go and see the "real" thing in Disney World.

So, 2020 watch this space ….

My only doubt is that if we wait too long then DS1 will not want to come with us and would prefer to stay at home which to be fair, he did this time but as he was too young to leave at home he had no choice but to join us. If we leave it until he’s 17 or 18 then we won’t really be able to drag him along with us and it just wouldn’t be the same without him.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and Thank You!

[Rescuer]

Great trip report. Thanks for writing, realised I did read it before We did a Mardi Gras trip in Feb 2020. You were right it was a great time to go.

I’ve just booked for Feb 2022, fingers crossed. Exclusively universal again for us but we love the big rides, so it works.