Trip number 12 - Disney World and Cape Coral! Day 14 - Lunch at Sanaa and Home :(

Sat 19th

With check out at 11, we set an alarm for 9.30 but were woken at 9.10 by Rob’s mum calling - apparently they thought we would be awake already!

We got up and sorted our things out, we had a few extra souvenirs to fit into our bags. We left the room at 11 and put our bags in the car. We had a final lunch reservation at Sanaa so we headed down ready for the restaurant to open.

We had the bread service to start and the Rob had his normal choice while I tried the piri piri chicken sandwich. It was good but a bit too much bread…! 

For dessert Rob had the trio as always and I had the chocolate mousse again 

We left around 1 to head back to Tampa, again a relatively easy drive with a little bit of traffic as we got near the airport. We stopped for gas twice along the way (a total of $30) to make sure that we had a full tank before dropping the car back.

Once we handed back the car we checked in and got rid of our bags quickly, we did a little bit of shopping including a Harley Davidson collar for the dog 

Through security and we bought some drinks for the wait, there was a fairly big rain storm while we were waiting but thankfully it didn’t delay the flight.

The flight was not especially exciting, we had a lady sat on the aisle next to us who seemed most unhappy when we asked to get out a couple of times to use the toilet (and we tried to make sure she was awake when we asked)….need to get my aisle seat back next time!

Breakfast was most disappointing, a really cold croissant with jam but no butter and a rock hard (cold) granola bar….not the best breakfast from BA this time.

We landed at around 7.30, as normal passport control was extremely busy so we joined the long e passport gates which made the process a little faster.

Thankfully the bags arrived pretty much just as we did so we headed out and straight on to the shuttle to South terminal.

Our car was waiting at the car park and thankfully it was unharmed by it’s stay in valet parking; we were driving out of the car park at about 8.30 which was nice.

We stopped to get breakfast at Solstice Park on the A303 from McDonalds as we were both quite tired at this point. 

We got back to the house at about 11 and after quick showers we collected the dog from kennels and were all back in the house by 12 

Trip number 12 - Disney World and Cape Coral! Day 13 - Back to Disney for MNSSHP!

Fri 18th

This morning we got up and started packing our bags, we put some of the towels etc on to wash while we were getting ready.

We had our check out visit from the management company and headed out at around 12.

We stopped along the way and got a McDonalds for lunch, the drive was fairly easy (although dull) and we arrived at the Animal Kingdom villas at around 4.

We checked in and headed to our room, we didn't bother unpacking as we were only here for 1 night, so we got changed and ready to head over to the Magic Kingdom.

We arrived a little later than I had originally planned, about 5.30 we got our wristbands and our candy bags then went to get a couple of rides in.

First up was Space Mountain (we just made our FP window) followed by Splash Mountain. We were planning on riding Big Thunder but it was down for a while.

So, we used our last FP at Haunted Mansion before buying our pumpkin lights for the party 

We got dinner just before the party officially started at Columbia Harbour House, I think we both had chicken nuggets and fish.

We headed down towards Storybook Circus as I was hoping to get a photo with Minnie or the ducks but they had a very long line which I wasn't willing to stand in.

Instead we started collecting candy and headed into Tomorrowland for a ride on the Peoplemover and Buzz Lightyear. 

We collected more candy and I managed to get my photo taken with Lotso 

We headed into the hub to see if there was space available in the normal Wishes FP area for the fireworks. 

There was and so we sat and listened to the Hocus Pocus show whilst we waited. 

I suddenly remembered that we had forgotten to do online check in for our flight the next day!

We managed to get seats together but didn’t get our preferred aisle seat which was disappointing!

We ended up with a great view for Celebrate the Magic and Hallowishes - pretty much everyone in our section stayed seated and it felt much more relaxed and spacious than normal.

We then started across to Frontierland for the second parade, I realised that I had completely forgotten to get any of the special event pins….not doing well today!

We found a spot for the parade near the arcade area which was nice as we had a barrier in front of us so we could stand with no-one in front. The parade was brilliant as always (it’s my favourite) but it was definitely shorter than previous years and there was no dog in the parade 

We collected some more candy on the way out of the park (the change to timings meant that there wasn’t as much time left afterwards) and I luckily managed to get another copy of the map in the shop just outside the entrance as they had already restocked with normal maps.

We walked straight on to the ferryboat which was quite busy and walked back to our car. We arrived back at the Animal Kingdom Villas at around 1am!

Trip number 12 - Disney World and Cape Coral! Days 10, 11 and 12

Tues 15th

This morning we got up slightly later and had some more toast for breakfast 

We took another look at the maps and considered going out on the boat but rain was forecast again (and it looked likely to happen). 

We decided to go out for a little while, we got some soft serve ice cream at a place nearby called ice sssscreamin’

We found a shopping mall a few miles away so decided to go and take a look. It was much smaller than any of the malls in the Orlando area but I guess that is to be expected.

It started raining whilst we were inside! We got a bite to eat at Burger King and I got a coffee from Starbucks 

We started on our way back to the villa but found some more shops so we stopped to take a look around.

There were only about 4 stores actually open which was weird but we did manage to find a bargain iPad case in Brookstone. 

We stopped and got some more snacks in Publix on our way back, before having a lazy evening with fried chicken and McDonald’s fries!

Wed 16th

Last boat day and again we had a late start; there was again a threat of storms so we decided not to go out again. 

We didn’t have much luck with the boat which was a shame…but we will try again another time!

Thankfully it was the right decision not to go out - there was a massive storm which meant we lost power for a couple of hours in the afternoon!

The boat was due to be collected at 4pm, but Bob (the boat guy) called to say he would pop back to pick it up the next day due to the rain.

We decided to try another local place for dinner - Ciao pizza. This place was very odd, the tables were sooooo close together that it literally felt like you were eating with the people either side.

Rob had pizza and I had a pasta dish, it wasn’t as good as Maria’s but it was still quite nice. 

We stopped to get a coffee at Starbucks on the way back.

Thurs 17th

This morning we got up earlier as Bob was coming to collect the boat at 8.30. He arrived and we explained our bad luck with weather had meant that we hadn’t really used the boat. 

It was still raining fairly steadily this morning and was very grey so we had a lazy morning at the villa.

The rain stopped early in the afternoon so we decided to take a drive out to Sanibel lighthouse and Captiva Island.

It was warm and very humid, we did have some light rain but it was generally quite dry and bright. 

We headed back to the villa for some pool time, stopping to fill up our gas guzzler (not really!) with another $20 of gas!

We had dinner at Ford’s garage again which was good and then headed back to the villa to put more washing on!