I Squeezed one out, so we Squeezed one in. October 2018. Day 8 - Animal Kingdom & Home :(.

[TheHunts]

I squeezed one out, so we squeezed one in.
Day 8.
Friday 13th October 2018.
Animal Kingdom & Home time.

Our final day in Disney ☹️
We had managed to grab a FP for FoP this morning so we headed to AK early and straight to Pandora.

The kids rode first whilst Gaynor and Billy took Emilia for a look around. Don’t want to spoil FoP for anyone so all I will say is WOW! We all loved it & can’t wait to ride again. G&B headed off here next and felt the same way as us.

We had a FP for Everest so wandered over there and took it in turns again, whilst waiting we went and sat in the river of lights area and enjoyed the sunshine, it was another beautiful sunny day but not unbearably hot today, we spoke about going to do another ride/show as we had plenty of time but we weren’t really in the Mood so decided to go and grab some food and just enjoy being in AK one last time.

We all had credits to use up and I was desperate to try the Mac & Cheese from 8 Spoons cafe, so Billy and I headed there, plain for Billy and chilli and shrimp for me, It was delicious and Emilia loved it too, We also headed to Starbucks for coffees and pastry’s. We wandered towards the exit stopping in a few shops on the way to spend the last of our dollars... and that was that for our time at the parks for 2018.

We hopped on the bus back to the resort and went to grab our bags and check out. We weren’t due to get the magic express until 5pm so we grabbed a table round the pool and had a couple of beers in the sunshine, it was nice to just relax and reminisce about our 'wonderful week in the world' - we all agreed that we could happily stay another week or two (or forever!) but the week had passed by so slowly that although we were gutted to be leaving we'd definitely got our Disney fix. We'd all discussed before the holiday whether we were mad to travel all that way 'just for a week' especially with a baby but this trip proved that it's more than doable so will definitely be a future option for us if needed!

It helps that Emilia was really easy too. We then headed into the food court to finish off the last of our credits. We all picked up something to eat now and spent the remaining SCs on bits to bring home or water for the coach, I know a lot of people see water as a waste of a SC but we were determined not to leave any credits behind.

Once we had eaten we nipped to the toilets to freshen up and change into our traveling home clothes. Now it was time to board the Magical Express (not so magical this time) and head for the airport, I think we all snoozed so nothing to report. Check in was harmless, I seem to remember Gaynor's case being extremely heavy so we had to do a little bit of shuffling 😂 she had all the Halloween candy in her case 🙈.

Once through we went to Outback Steakhouse for a few beers and got Emilia changed into her PJs hoping she would sleep once on the plane. G&B headed to the gate whilst we were all still getting sorted and having a quick look round duty free, they rang to say that we were the last to board and the gate was closing we set off in a mad dash because our gate was of course at the other end of the airport. Turns out this was a total lie and we weren’t last by any means, the plane wasn’t even half full by the time we got there, no idea if this was Gaynor being over dramatic or the cabin crew just fancied a laugh. We were sat separate again but it didn’t matter as much this time as Emilia fell asleep straight away and stayed that way for most of the flight. She was a star, such an easy baby to travel with. All the others snoozed and watched movies, uneventful to say the least! We were served brekki with about an hour and a half to go, the sandwich wasn’t great but the Aussie bar was lovely.≈

We landed around 8am UK time. Straight through security and no wait for bags. Our taxi man was waiting so straight in the taxi and off home. Us 3 were dropped off first and we did a naughty thing and decided to head to bed for a few hours, we all slept and luckily it didn’t throw any of us off sleeping that night. Everyone else pretty much did the same, had a little nap when they got home then woke up and looked through all the pics... whilst all texting each other in the Florida group! And that’s it, our 2018 was over and the count down for our next trip began, slightly longer that expected but you will have to look out for our next Pre trippie to see why .

This was our first trip using the DDP and it won't be the last! It's never been something on our radar as believe it or not our first few trips to Disney we didn’t really like the food! I know, I know, what were we playing at?! It was only really our 2016 trip where we found a love for the food but even then the amount of snacks and restaurants Disney actually had was lost on us. I’m not sure if we could manage our usual full 3 week trip on the plan as it can be really time consuming with the TS reservations in place. We like to have a plan set before every trip but if we wake up in the morning and aren’t feeling a park that day we know we can just do something else but with the dining plan if you have a park restaurant booked in for the day then that’s where you need to go! We would all 100% do it again for a week though as we came home with a list of snacks still to try – before this trip we each made a list of everything we were going to try, not taking into consideration how much food you actually get with the QS/TS meals so we struggled to make use of all our snack credits.