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Old 19 Jul 20, 06:46 PM  
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xAimeex
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19 Years Later- October 2017- Day 12- Trattoria Al Forno, Animal Kingdom and Flying Home

Day 12- Thursday 26th October 2017- Trattoria Al Forno Character Breakfast, Animal Kingdom and Flying Home

It’s never a great feeling waking up on your very last morning of a trip. Especially not when the alarm goes off half an hour earlier than you’d planned to get up!

Lauren and I had gone to bed at 2:30 and decided we’d have a ‘lie in’ until 7:30 but obviously we were shattered and Mum was fast asleep so we hadn’t mentioned this to her. So when her alarm went off at 7 we really struggled to get up! To be honest the extra half hour wouldn’t have made all that much difference anyway and as it turned out we actually really needed that extra time as Lauren and I still had packing left to do!

We rarely spend our last morning together as a family as Mum and Dad like to use the time to visit Disney Springs or enjoy a few more hours of sunshine down by the pool whereas Lauren and I tend to get in a little bit of extra park time.

This generally means that Lauren and I leave the room a lot earlier than Mum and Dad so to avoid them having to deal with all our luggage as well as theirs, we always take our own cases down to leave with bell services hence Lauren and I had to be completely packed before we could head out!

The usual manic chaos ensued but we did manage to get ourselves sorted and out of the door with our park bags along with 3 hold cases and 2 hand luggage cases by 8:35. (I was paying to bring back an extra hold case which I probably mentioned when I started writing this report 2 and a half years ago )

We said goodbye to the beautiful view before we left.

DSC01921 by A Disney, on Flickr


Mum and Dad had a change of plans before we left, instead of spending the morning at Disney Springs they had instead decided to spend the morning by the pool and meet us in Animal Kingdom later! We had booked them fastpasses just in case they did decide to come as it was the only time we could fit in a second fastpass for Flight of Passage so that swayed it for them!

Once we’d left the bags we headed down to the bus stops! We were waiting for an Epcot bus, although we weren’t actually planning to spend the morning there. We were in fact walking through the park to reach the Boardwalk area as we had a breakfast ADR at Trattoria Al Forno.

This is the Italian restaurant on the Boardwalk that opens in the mornings as a character breakfast! At this time we visited, it featured Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder and Ariel and Prince Eric! This of course may have changed now, I’m not sure!

These are 2 of our favourite princesses and favourite Disney couples so we knew we had to book it! We also love a Disney breakfast and it was quite nice to do a character meal that wasn’t a buffet.

The Epcot bus arrived at 8:55 but there was someone in an ECV to be loaded on so we left shortly after 9. Our ADR was at 10 so we had plenty of time!

We arrived at Epcot just before 9:20, the bus pulled in at one of the bus stops that feels like it’s miles from the entrance so by the time we’d walked over and gone through the tapstiles it was 9:25.

DSC01932 by A Disney, on Flickr

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We made a quick stop at MouseGear as I still had a jumper I was looking to swap for a medium. We’d looked in Magic Kingdom the day before but they’d only had 1 medium in stock which Lauren had swapped hers for. I just wanted to pop in quickly to check. Luckily they had one so that was a result!

DSC01940 by A Disney, on Flickr

It was empty in here at this time as everyone was rushing off to Soarin’, Test Track or Frozen Ever After so there was no wait to pay! Lauren also bought a Christmas bag for life but I haven’t made a note of the price or even taken a picture so that’s helpful.

41281682_353041948571090_4304856724487012352_n by A Disney, on Flickr

We stopped for some photopass pictures in front of the food and wine display quickly as there was no one else waiting.

EPCOT_BACKSIDE_4_20171026_405815683705 by A Disney, on Flickr

Then we carried on up through World Showcase towards the International Gateway exit. It was starting to warm up nicely now thankfully!

DSC01949 by A Disney, on Flickr

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Lauren needed to replace her fuel rod but the machine in the shop by IG was broken.

We left Epcot at 9:50 and once out of International Gateway there’s a bridge on the left that leads to the Boardwalk. It was really quiet around this area at this time in the morning so it made for a really relaxing walk in the lovely sunshine! In August by this time it would already be boiling and humid so it was nice just to feel warm and not baking hot (not that that ever stopped up enjoying our August trips!)

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We arrived at Trattoria at 9:55 and checked in! We had a short wait and were shown to our table shortly after 10.

DSC01988 by A Disney, on Flickr

The lighting in this restaurant is not the greatest unless you are quite near the windows. We had a fairly central table so it wasn’t too bad.

Our server was fine. Not overly enthusiastic but pleasant. She explained how the food worked there. At the time you were served a bowl of fruit salad and a selection of pastries for the table to share, there was orange juice, tea or coffee included as well as a soft drink according to my notes, then one entree each.

This of course could have changed totally since, given the time that has passed, sorry!

DSC01990 by A Disney, on Flickr

DSC01991 by A Disney, on Flickr


We both had a glass of orange juice while I had coke and Lauren had Fanta.

The fruit salad was fairly standard but a nice extra and fruit does always taste amazing in Florida!

Some of the pastries were themed to the princesses that meet at this meal which we loved! It was part of what had tempted us to book this meal (along with the characters as mentioned). There are other restaurants that serve a plate of pastries to start but they tend to be your bog standard ones (although still delicious of course). Some of those served here are also just your usual breakfast pastries too, but alongside the themed ones it makes it that bit different. We liked that they had put a bit of extra thought in here to how the pastries looked!

There was a blueberry muffin, a rainbow muffin, a chocolate twist, an apple turnover shaped like a shell and the cutest puff pastry sun!

DSC02001 by A Disney, on Flickr

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We split the sun in half while I had the shell and the blueberry muffin and Lauren had the chocolate twist and the rainbow muffin!

DSC02004 by A Disney, on Flickr
The shell was like a strawberry turnover inside

They were all delicious and my favourite part of all was that they came served in a frying pan a la Rapunzel! Again it was just a great little bit of extra theming!

The fruit salad also had a tiny plastic sword stabbing one of the grapes.

DSC02002 by A Disney, on Flickr

For our entrees we both knew exactly what we were having as we’d been dreaming about it for months! The tower of pancakes!

They’re not just any old pancakes! They are super fluffy thick pancakes! They come with an icing sugar sun design on, again to keep the Rapunzel theming!

They are served with sausages or bacon and we had them with a caramel apple crumb topping which was absolutely amazing! Hands down the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten in my life!

DSC02007 by A Disney, on Flickr

We both chose sausages as our side and I of course dipped them in the ramekin of maple syrup as I discovered a few years ago what a taste sensation it is! I understand it’s not for everyone though and Lauren makes her feelings well known about how weird she finds it! I love the sweet and savoury combo! One of the little girls I nanny for loves ham in hot cross buns and marmite crackers with grapes on top but even she thinks sausages in maple syrup is gross hehe.

_MG_9504 (2) by A Disney, on Flickr
Photographic evidence of what Lauren considers to be a food abomination!

Food wise we couldn’t fault this place at all!

We did have an American family near us, the father of which was basically barking orders at the waitress. He ordered for everyone at the table and there was a whole lot of “she needs that” and “get her this” and not a whole lot of please or thank you! Manners cost nothing do they! I do find it uncomfortable when people aren’t polite to people serving them.

Our server was a little slow with clearing plates away and with drink refills but as we had OJ and soft drinks this wasn’t an issue. We did notice that other tables had jugs of juice on their tables but possibly we didn’t because we had ordered soft drinks too.

The characters started to enter the room as we were eating our pancakes. We knew this meant we’d have finished eating long before we’d seen all the characters which in some ways is a good thing as it can be a pain sometimes having to stop eating to talk to a character but also you don’t want to be sitting around for ages waiting either after finishing your food.

The first character to be announced was Rapunzel! She was super enthusiastic and in character and skipped around saying hi to people.

It was then announced that unfortunately Flynn wouldn’t be meeting today which was a shame. You can meet Ariel and Rapunzel in the parks so the real character draw here is getting to meet the princes and who doesn’t have a soft spot for Flynn!

We thought it would have been a much better idea if they had told people upon checking in rather than as the characters were being announced mid meal.

They did announce though that Merida would be meeting instead which was cool as we’ve never met her before. Although again she’s a character that you could meet in the parks at the time (no idea if her meet was still going pre-COVID).

They then announced Ariel followed by Eric so we’d at least get to meet one prince today!

Rapunzel was first to make it to our table! She was stunning! She liked our ears and asked if they were princess crowns and she loved Lauren’s purple outfit as it’s her favourite colour!

There was a teenage girl a couple of tables away from us who was dining with her mum and was Disney bounding as Flynn. We felt gutted for her that he wasn’t meeting. She was really lovely and kindly approached our table as Lauren and I were taking individual photos with Rapunzel on Lauren’s DSLR to ask if we’d like her to take one of both of us which was so kind of her! Lauren offered to take some for her and her mum when it was their turn to meet the characters too! This worked really well!

_MG_9505 (2) by A Disney, on Flickr

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Shortly after Rapunzel moved on, our server came to ask if we were finished eating. We said that we weren’t.

Next up was Merida! She was really fun and perfectly in character!

She asked if I knew that I had a fork on my head haha, I explained that it was in case I needed to brush my hair and she was telling us how her mum is always trying to get her to brush hers. Lauren said what is it with Mum’s and hair and Merida replied that she’d told her mum that she shoots bows, she doesn’t wear them hehe.

_MG_9511 by A Disney, on Flickr

_MG_9512 (2) by A Disney, on Flickr


There was a dance around the restaurant for the kids after this to under the sea! Lauren and I would never have got up and danced when we were kids, we’d have been too shy!

I was still eating at this point and we still had 2 more characters to meet and our server returned again to ask if she could take our plates now. Lauren was full so said she could take hers but I was clearly still eating. I didn’t have much left on my plate but even so. She also plonked the bill down on the table too!

Now don’t get me wrong I have no issue with them leaving the cheque early as we like to pay and go once we finish eating (or meeting characters in this case) and wouldn’t want to have to hang around waiting to ask for the bill. However asking twice if we were done eating and leaving the bill did make us feel a little as though we were being rushed.


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Old 19 Jul 20, 06:48 PM  
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The next character over was Eric. He was impressed by the dingle hopper on my ears but said it was quite small so I explained it was only for emergencies and Lauren said it would be no good for Merida’s hair and Eric agreed that it was wild like a lion’s mane!

_MG_9513 (2) by A Disney, on Flickr

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Last up was Ariel! She was really sweet and kept calling us angel fish at the end of every question! She liked the dinglehopper ears too and said to Lauren that she didn’t know what the things on hers were so Lauren had to explain what lanterns were. Ariel said she’s still learning what some of the human things are.

_MG_9519 (2) by A Disney, on Flickr

_MG_9522 (2) by A Disney, on Flickr

_MG_9523 (2) by A Disney, on Flickr

You are supposed to get an autograph card here but they had run out so we didn’t get one. We don’t do autographs so it wasn’t a huge problem but it’s always nice to have something like that as a little souvenir.

We settled the bill after. It would have cost $76.68 OOP but we used our last 2 table service credits plus tip.

We passed a manager on the way out and mentioned the couple of niggles we’d had; feeling rushed and not being informed of the character change. She said she’d have a word with our server about it and that we were welcome to come back another day and meet Flynn separately. We explained that we were flying home later but thanked her anyway!

I haven’t made a note of what time we left but we carried on along towards the back entrance of the Boardwalk Inn as we were planning to get the bus from here to Animal Kingdom.

DSC02008 by A Disney, on Flickr

DSC02010 by A Disney, on Flickr

This was our first time ever visiting this resort and it is absolutely stunning! We fell in love a little bit! As is generally always the case with Disney hotels, it smelled amazing in there too!

We had checked online to see if they had a fuel rod machine here which they did so Lauren went off to find that!

DSC02029 by A Disney, on Flickr

DSC02030 by A Disney, on Flickr
I love how Disney theme the fuel rod machines (along with the bins) to the area they're in!

I went to find the restrooms so I could change out of my Ariel dress in to something better themed for Animal Kingdom!

DSC02033 by A Disney, on Flickr

DSC02046 by A Disney, on Flickr
I love the print on this dress!

We then met back in the lobby. All the cast members here were so lovely! They nearly all said good morning.

We took a few pictures before we left as it really is beautiful in there! To be honest the Boardwalk had never really been on our radar as somewhere we’d pick to stay before. We love the area but have favoured Yacht or Beach Club when we’ve been lucky enough to stay around the lake before! The clown slide at the pool is a little off putting but we’d certainly never realised how inviting it was inside!

DSC02011 by A Disney, on Flickr

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We didn't love the creepy chairs by the fireplace!

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There was a pumpkin display made by different cast members which was really cool!

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We left through the front entrance and headed to their bus stops. An Animal Kingdom bus pulled in just as we arrived at 11:18 so that was lucky!

DSC02037 by A Disney, on Flickr

DSC02039 by A Disney, on Flickr


The Boardwalk Inn shares buses with the Swan and Dolphin so we had to stop off at both of those first. They are huge hotel so I’d imagine it can get quite busy on the buses in the morning but then you do have walking and boat access to Hollywood Studios and Epcot from here so that’s a bonus!

Nobody got on at the Swan and one family got on at the Dolphin and then we were on our way!

We had messaged Mum and Dad when we’d left the Boardwalk so they were now waiting for a bus back at the hotel to AK as well. They’d had a relaxing start to the day and had finished their packing before heading down for breakfast at Mara. I haven’t made a note of what they had but I do know they used 2 counter service credits and it would have cost $24.67 OOP.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom at 11:40 and headed to meet Mum and Dad! There was a chilly breeze over this way so it didn’t feel quite as warm as it had over by the Boardwalk area. It felt odd not to be swelteringly hot in AK as it usually feels like the hottest park!
It was a lot more relaxing arriving at this time than at rope drop with the Pandora crush! Bag check was empty and we could actually hear the area music playing! It felt very chilled which was nice.

Once in the park we walked through the Oasis area towards Dinoland. Circle of Life was playing which I’m sure we can all agree is an epic piece of Disney music and really got us in the Animal Kingdom spirit! Even though we were sad to be at the end of the trip, it was nice to be soaking up that last bit of Disney happiness!

DSC02053 by A Disney, on Flickr

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We had fastpasses for Dinosaur. I was feeling a little anxious after I’d felt so unwell after riding it the other night but I’d had a good while to let my food go down now and I wasn’t planning to ride Expedition Everest minutes after it this time so I decided I’d most likely be fine!

DSC02061 by A Disney, on Flickr

And thankfully I was! We were seated in the 3rd row today and I didn’t feel it threw me around as much as last time.

AK_DINOSAURRIDE_20171026_8116396315 by A Disney, on Flickr

DSC02065 by A Disney, on Flickr
Christmas merch had arrived in Animal Kingdom!

We finished at 12:10 and made our way over to Pandora!

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At some point between entering the Dinosaur line and arriving in Pandora, Lauren had lost her magic band. We’ve never had this happen before and she was gutted because it had her Rapunzel magic band bow on it and most importantly she needed it to use her fast pass for Flight of Passage!

We didn’t want to trek all the way back to Dinoland but we retraced our steps for a little while before giving up. Possibly it fell off while getting off of Dinosaur but there wasn’t much we could do about it at that point. Somebody might have handed it in but we didn’t really have time left today to ask as obviously we needed to allow ourselves time to get back and have all our bags sorted before the Tragical Express arrived.

We headed over to Flight of Passage at 12:30 and hoped they’d let Lauren in without scanning a band. We showed them that we did have 4 fast pass showing on MDE and they were fine!

Even with a fast pass the line for this isn’t the quickest and at 12:40 when we were nearly at the part where they send you off to the first pre-show bit, the ride went down! We really hoped they would get it fixed quickly as we were so excited to ride it again!

After 5 or so minutes I decided to sit down on the floor which naturally meant the ride started working again within seconds and I had to get back up, you’re welcome everybody else in the line .

As excited as we were, we decided today that once you’ve done both the pre-show sections once the novelty kind of wears off. I know it’s just a more interesting way of them keeping you in line and it does add to the experience the first time absolutely, but we were a little bored during it today and just hopeful that it wouldn’t go down again before we got on!

It was soon our turn though and it is such an amazing ride! I love it so much! The video alone is beautiful but the feeling that you’re flying is pretty epic! A bit like Soarin’, I don’t think I could ever get bored of this ride!

We finished just before 1:10. We had counter service credits left to use for lunch, we had planned in lunch at Mara back at AKL but decided to pop in to the S’atuli Canteen. We hadn’t put this on our list as the menu hadn’t appealed that much but we thought we’d have a quick look in anyway but unsurprisingly it was really really busy so we stuck with our plan to eat back at the Mara at the hotel.

We had fastpasses booked for Everest next but Mum and Dad wanted to head back now as they weren’t keen to go on it again. Mum kindly gave Lauren her magic band to use as we had booked them a fp just in case! They went to the hotel reception when they got back and asked them to disable Lauren’s band as it had Dad’s credit card linked to it. You’d need to know the magic band pin to use it obviously but even so, Dad felt better knowing the band couldn’t be used at all anymore.

We said our goodbyes and arranged to meet at Mara when we got back.

Lauren and I continued on up towards Asia! We reached Expedition Everest at 1:30 and headed for the fastpass line.

DSC02094 by A Disney, on Flickr

DSC02096 by A Disney, on Flickr


The people in front of us scanned their tickets and the Mickey head flashed blue instead of green. The cast member told them that their current fastpass was for the Lion King show. They played dumb and acted totally surprised by this news even though I would assume they had booked the fastpasses themselves. The cast member just let them through anyway. Whether it was a genuine mistake or they were cheating the system, who knows.

The fastpass line was quite long today so we still waited 10 minutes to get on. I haven’t made a note of which row we were in but I did manage to force a smile for the ride photo even though that does not come naturally at all on big drops!

AK_EXPEDITIONEVERESTRIDE_20171026_8116650386 by A Disney, on Flickr

We finished at 1:45 and that was the last ride of this trip done .

It was now time to head out to catch the bus back to Animal Kingdom Lodge.

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As we made our way back towards the exit there was a harpist playing African music and it was beautiful! They do have some brilliant ‘street’ entertainment in Animal Kingdom! We would have loved to stay and listen for longer but we really did need to be getting back now.

It was a lot warmer out now so we felt very hot walking out to the bus stops but thankfully we didn’t have too long to wait as a bus arrived at 2.

There was an ecv waiting so it was 2:05 before we got on and we left a couple of minutes later.

It’s such a short journey back to AKL! It was one of the reasons we’d chosen this as our last park!

We dropped at Kidani Village first before driving back to Jambo House at 2:15.

We walked in via the shop as we still had snack credits to spend! This has never happened to us before!

DSC01927 by A Disney, on Flickr

DSC01924 by A Disney, on Flickr

My boyfriend loves Disney shortbread and I wanted to get him a couple of the snack size packs. Sadly they were sold out and I felt a little guilty for not getting any earlier for him!

Instead I grabbed a bag of sour cherry balls and a pot of Mickey head cheese bites!

I used 2 snack credits but it would have cost $10.10 OOP.

IMG_0089 by A Disney, on Flickr


We headed down to meet Mum and Dad in Mara next. We still had 5 counter service credits to use and 11 snack credits. It’s rare we have this many left so close to leaving but we knew we wanted to save 4 of the cs credits for a late lunch today.

We have literally never had that many snack credits left at this point on any dining plan trip though I don’t think! Mum and Dad had struggled to use their 2 credits a day and hadn’t eaten as many snacks at Food and Wine as originally planned as they were often too full up.

We used 4 counter service credits for our lunch. Lauren and I had cheese flatbreads with jungle juice slushies (had to get one last taste of our favourite drink!), Dad had a cheeseburger and Mum had a chicken salad plus a bottle each of iced tea.

We had to use the credits separately so this lot came to $40.75 using 4 cs credits.

DSC02122 by A Disney, on Flickr

DSC02116 by A Disney, on Flickr

We then grabbed a selection of fresh cookies from the bakery section and some pre-packed snacks. We used 1 cs credit to pay for 3 items which would have cost $10.52.

We then used 5 snack credits for the rest which would have cost $18.49. This still left 6 credits! As exciting as it was getting 2 snack credits a day back, it is a lot to use!

DSC02120 by A Disney, on Flickr

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We kind of regretted leaving it so last minute to use up these credits as we didn’t really put a lot of thought in to what we got as we didn’t have that much time but that was just the way it went this trip! Plus it meant we had plenty for snacks on the plane the next morning as the breakfast they provide is nearly always a bit rubbish and usually contains nothing Lauren likes.

We found a table and sat and ate our lunch. We all really enjoyed it, sometimes you can’t go wrong with a good old bit of Disney fast food!

Once we’d finished lunch it was time to head back to the lobby. We were so sad to be leaving. Ever since this hotel opened it had been mine and Lauren’s dream to stay here and even Mum and Dad who weren’t too sure had completely fallen in love with the place! It had been an amazing stay, especially with the amazing view from the room! We honestly couldn’t have hoped for better!

Mum and I headed to bell services to request our bags while Dad and Lauren went to the gift shop to use up the last 6 snack credits!

They grabbed 2 lots of pretzels, another pot of Mickey shaped cheese biscuits, 2 lots of trail mix as Mum and Dad love this and a bottle of smart water to drink on the tragical express. It would have cost $27.88 OOP. I don't have pictures of any of this though.

Once they returned the usual chaos of open bags being repacked in the lobby ensued.

This happens to us every trip. It’s like a family tradition . Is it just us? Does everybody else sit calm and composed with their bags ready to go?

We always have travel clothes to change in to so they have to come out. Then sometimes Lauren and I have been shopping on the last day or Mum and Dad might have made some last minute purchases. Today we had the pre-packaged snacks that went into the hold luggage and the bakery cookies that went in to hand luggage. I had also replaced my jumper in the morning so had to re-pack that!

It is just always manic and people probably walk past and judge us haha. It is just the way it always goes with us! Dad is usually there checking everybody’s cases are shut properly and padlocks and luggage straps are all on correctly while we all take turns to head off to the restrooms and change!

It’s always a bit stressful when you have a time limit too, knowing the tragical express will be there to collect you soon . We had probably left things a little late today really as it did leave us rushing a bit to get ourselves sorted. It’s happened to Lauren and I before, one time at French Quarter, Lauren was literally just adding the padlock to her case as the bus turned up!

We didn’t cut it quite that fine today and eventually we get ourselves sorted and enjoyed some time sitting in the comfy seats, taking in the amazing lobby for a little while longer. I hate this feeling, it reminded me of leaving Wilderness Lodge in 2015! I found myself looking around taking in all the tiny details I might have missed every time we’d walked through it before.

Our bus was due at 3:45 so we headed out a few minutes early to wait. It felt very humid out there and we had warmer clothes on for travelling so we were quite hot waiting!

IMG_0034 by A Disney, on Flickr

When the tragical express did arrive the driver loaded all the cases on first before he opened the doors so we had to stand outside and wait for a while. Even though we felt hot it was a good opportunity to soak up the warmth a bit longer, especially as we were returning to chilly October weather at home!

As we were waiting to board we got a message to say our flight was delayed by an hour and a half! This was frustrating, especially as we couldn’t even find out if there was space on a later bus at this point.

We got on the bus at 3:50. At some point on the journey someone started eating burger and chips which stunk out the whole bus! Other than that though it was a fairly uneventful drive.

We arrived at MCO at 4:30. Once we had all our bags again, we tipped the bus driver before heading inside to check in.

I always feel a bit stressed at this point about luggage weight! It’s bad enough being the crazy family repacking suitcases in the hotel lobby without a repeat performance at the airport .

All 5 of our hold cases were under though thankfully, although my larger case was 22.4 so pushing it a little to the 23kg limit!

It’s always a bit more relaxed after that! Normally Dad feels a bit stressed about leaving enough time to get through security etc while Lauren and I browse the Earport Disney Store (because you know we hadn’t been in enough of those this trip ).

With the delay though we had bundles of time! We would normally have a last American dinner at the airport but having had such a late lunch, none of us were hungry.

IMG_0044 by A Disney, on Flickr

IMG_0040 by A Disney, on Flickr

We looked in the universal shop as well as the earport but didn’t buy anything.

IMG_0046 by A Disney, on Flickr

IMG_0048 by A Disney, on Flickr
I loved this Christmas decoration!

IMG_0050 by A Disney, on Flickr
We decided to head through security around 6.

We were originally supposed to be taking off at 7:50 but with the delay boarding wasn’t even due to start until 8:15 according to my notes.

We decided that if we were going to have to hang around and wait all that time anyway, we might as well go over early to nab some of the seats that have charging points so we could at least use our phones to pass the time.

On our very first trip in 1998 we were delayed 7 hours and 45 minutes coming home! We were 7 and 9 at the time and travelling from Sanford where everything closed hours before we finally got on the plane! We didn’t have a mobile phone between us (and even if we had it wouldn’t have been that much use in entertaining us back in those days)! We were blessed to get chatting to a lovely young couple also on our flight who had a gameboy each and kindly let Lauren and I play on them for ages! They were heroes to Mum and Dad as you can imagine lol. So a couple of hours waiting around (as grown adults with iPhones and WiFi) was nothing compared to that hehe.

I don’t have many notes about going through security etc so I assume it was as stress free as it can be at MCO (I don’t find their system to be the most relaxing generally as it all feels a bit chaotic!)

We found our boarding gate and some good seats and got comfy. It was really cold in there though with the air con on (bearing in mind the recent cold front that was chilling the evenings!) so we ended up snuggled in jumpers!

Nobody likes waiting for ages to board a plane, especially when it’s taking you home! You just want the journey home over with by that point! It’s not like there’s the excited anticipation of the outbound travel day!

We passed the time on our phones though, listening to music, playing games, messaging people back home etc.

IMG_0115 by A Disney, on Flickr
Random photo of my purchases this trip! It's weird seeing some of these items that we've used in my house for the last 2 and a half years now!


8:15 passed and they still hadn’t started boarding. We were all a bit bored by this point!

I haven’t made a note of what time boarding actually started but we eventually made it on to the plane at 8:40.

It had been a really long day and we were just ready to start the journey home now.

We took off around 9:30 in the end.

We were all quite hungry by this point but it took a while for the food service to start and we ended up getting our dinner at 10:45!

I haven’t made a note on what the others had but I picked beef chilli melt which came with a ciabatta roll, cheddar cheese, crackers, Boursin cheese, salad, a bottle of water and a yummy jar of red velvet cake with frosting! I generally find the food on the plane home to be worse than on the way out but this was actually pretty good!

I watched Baywatch after as Lauren and I used to love the tv show in the 90’s! Baywatch, Blind Date and Gladiators made for a top Saturday night back then!

I decided to try and sleep after this. I put some music on and actually managed 2-3 hours sleep on and off which is probably a record for me on a plane! It had been a full on couple of days though so I think I was actually really tired!

I woke up as they served breakfast. It was a chocolate pastry, a pot of melon chunks and a blueberry yogurt which as economy plane breakfasts go isn’t a bad offering.

Lauren ate the melon but didn’t like the rest so I had a bit of her pastry too.

I watched Baby Driver for the rest of the flight and we were soon ready to start our decent.

Unfortunately as we approached the runway, a child a couple of rows down and along from us from us projectile vomited over the seat in front, poor thing! Poor person sitting in front too and poor person who had to clean it up!

So it wasn’t the most pleasant of landings, especially as Lauren has a phobia of sickness so she struggled and wanted to get off as quickly as possible!

We landed at 10:40.

I haven’t made any notes of timings from this point on but I know that once we did make it off the plane we walked to passport control and were straight through the electronic passport readers with no wait so that was good!

We headed to the luggage carousels next. The bags were coming out on both carousel 2 and 3 so we left Mum to wait with the hand luggage while Dad went to 2 and I waited at 3. Lauren headed for the toilets first and then took over waiting for me so I could go.

Once I got back, 3 of our cases had come out and Lauren had had to grab them all by herself as Dad hadn’t noticed from where he was standing!

I took all 3 cases and wheeled them over to Mum.

In the time I was gone my smaller case had also come out and Lauren was now trying to get her case (which is the biggest of all our cases!) off by herself! Poor Lauren!

That was all our luggage though so we went to grab Dad as he was still waiting at carousel 2!

I always feel relieved at this point to have all our bags as I worry about losing cases or having bags broken in to, both of which have unfortunately happened to me before.

We headed through nothing to declare and we were officially back .

We made our usual pit stop at M&S food and WH Smith for sandwiches, crisps, uk chocolate and drinks for lunch!

Yummy food in hand we headed outside to wait for the shuttle bus back to the long stay car park.

Now we have 2 red cases amongst our 5 hold suitcases along with 4 hand luggage sized cases so 9 to keep track of in total. There was a family waiting next to us who had a set of almost identical red cases.

The bus arrived shortly so we and the other family all climbed on which is always a bit of a struggle with a lot of cases!

Just as the driver was about to close the doors, Dad spots a lone red case sitting on the pavement and asks if it’s ours. Cue us and the other family glancing round at our various cases!

Sure enough it was ours! We are all pretty cautious with our luggage and keeping track of it (we regularly count out all 8-9 suitcases just to check we have them all!). So I don’t know who was in charge of that case! I can say however that it wasn’t me as I had 3 cases of my own plus my hand bag so certainly no free hands

Dad realised where the confusion lay as we normally have TSA travel straps on all our hold cases but the one on that bag was missing as it had been opened for a TSA check so it blended in with the other family’s cases very well!

It’s only a short drive back to the long stay and we were soon dragging the cases (all of them this time!) back off the bus and over to my car!

It had been a tight squeeze on the way out with 8 bags but obviously now I had my extra one so it was even more of a Tetris mission to fit it all in for the drive back.

In the end Dad had to have Lauren’s hand luggage case on his lap and Mum had one under her feet in the passenger seat which didn’t leave a lot of leg room for her! I also couldn’t see much out of the back window so it wasn’t an ideal drive home but the roads weren’t too busy and we made it back safely at 12:30!

And so marks the end of this trip report! I can only apologise for the ridiculous amount of time it’s taken to complete if anyone who was reading before has decided to come back and finish it!

Stay safe and well! Thanks for reading x
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Old 20 Jul 20, 08:46 AM  
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eleele
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What a lovely read despite it being the last day.

I did have a bit of a double take at the size of your shopping haul though, now we can see why you needed so many cases! Lots of lovely things in there.

My youngest son and I are both huge fans of the sweet/savoury combination of maple syrup and sausages. Asda even sell maple syrup and bacon sausages which are simply the best, especially when drowned in extra maple syrup! Yum yum!

Thanks again for another brilliant trip report
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Old 23 Jul 20, 09:53 AM  
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Thank you for finishing the report. I had been checking up time to time to see if you ever finished. Do you have any WDW plans for the future?
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Old 25 Jul 20, 08:01 AM  
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disneypars
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So glad you managed to find time to finish your trip report. They are always great reading.
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Old 1 Aug 20, 11:43 AM  
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Really enjoyed your trip report - particularly yours and Lauren’s outfits and ears, so well coordinated!
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Old 1 Aug 20, 12:06 PM  
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duchy
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Well done on finally finishing it.
We were supposed to stay at AKL but got moved by Disney to Boardwalk . It’s my all time favourite hotel at Disney , as you noticed the staff are super nice and the location for me is perfect. Buses are usually only shared at non peak times (handy if Swolphin or BC/YC bus comes first just jump on that instead and have a short walk)
We had dinner rather than breakfast at El Forno and it was a lovely meal. I think it’s better set up for dinner than a character breakfast. Sorry about Flynn.
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