So today we have to go home :( We had originally planned breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe but we decided last night that we weren’t that keen on the idea and so I had cancelled.
We decided instead to stay in bed as late as possible then we finished packing our things and got ready to leave. We had got hooked on some DIY/house sale tv show and so we were in the room right until check out time as we were watching an episode while we got ready!
We called bell services and they collected our bags, we took a quick look in Gasparillas and considered getting some lunch but in the end decided to head to Downtown Disney to visit our favourite quick serve – Earl of Sandwich :)
Yummy sandwiches eaten and we did a last bit of shopping. Rob picked up some armour for his new motorbike jacket and I got some fab new coasters for the coffee table in the living room :)
Back across to the Grand Floridian to collect our bags and we started off towards Sanford. Unfortunately we had discovered that the flight was already slightly late due to the late arrival of the incoming aircraft.
We stopped along the way at a Target to pick up some peanut butter m&ms, laffy taffy and of course some bounce bars for the tumble dryer.
We dropped off the hire car and checked in and because there was little to do we headed through security. We quickly exhausted the three (or was it four) shops so took a seat in the departure lounge and prepared to wait.
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| My new very colourful dress :) |
We later grabbed a bite to eat in the bar/restaurant. I’m pretty sure that Rob had a burger and I had chicken tenders, the food was ok for an airport.
Then the weather arrived.....the plane had managed to land and drop off the incoming passengers just before a mega thunderstorm arrived. The rain was especially spectacular and the lightning was stunning! Unfortunately though it pretty much stopped all activity including unloading of the luggage.
We had to wait until the storm had moved across before they could unload and then load everything onto the aircraft. We did consider ourselves slightly lucky though as there appeared to have been a Thomas Cook flight that boarded just as the storm started – and they were still sat on the tarmac when it stopped! It was at least a couple of hours that they must have sat on that plane!
We got on board and took off reasonably quickly – the flight home was not as good as the way out. For a night flight we had a cabin crew that seemed sooooo noisy – they were chatting very loudly at times making it very difficult to sleep.
We had been allocated 2 of the three seats in the front row (in premium economy) and the legroom was not as good as other rows. The crew also kept bashing my seat (accidentally I’m sure) with the trolley as they did meal service and drinks etc.
We eventually landed at Gatwick and it took forever for every stage of the unloading process – first they couldn’t find an air bridge driver, passport control had a massive line (we used the e-gates) and then the bags took an age to be delivered.
After landing around 2 and a half hours late it then took us about 2 hours to leave the terminal to get back to the car. We had bought sandwiches in M&S on our way past which we ate in the car as by now we were mega hungry.
By now it was around midday which was a terrible time to head home on a Friday. We took the motorway back to around Andover (via the A303) and then took some local routes to avoid the Friday afternoon traffic jams on the A303.
We eventually collected the dog from the kennel at about 4pm and promptly had a quick 2 hour nap as we were exhausted. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed to eat and then go to bed properly at around 10pm....we have at least found that this arrangement helps minimise the jet lag!
A link to all my photos: http://s300.photobucket.com/user/Lizzim_photo/library/Florida%20June%202014?sort=2&page=1
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