Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Will we ever move house trip - Day 13


17th June into 18th

This morning we got up and packed our many bags, which actually wasn’t too bad now we had the extra one!

We checked out of the Dolphin leaving our bags with Bell Services for a little while.

We made a final trip to Disney Springs and the Earl of Sandwich, I got a holiday turkey and Rob had another Earl’s Club. We then did a little bit of shopping, including a search for my traditional castle pin with Cinderella (which was oddly hard to find.)





We headed back to the hotel to collect our bags then went to the airport, we arrived at around 1400 and there was a reasonably long line at Bag Drop.

Security was surprisingly quiet and we didn’t have to wait at all. We got a coffee for me, and a drink for Rob and sat at the gate for a while using the power to charge our phones.

Amazingly we boarded and left on time! Which hardly ever happens for us! The food was not too bad for dinner, then we both tried to sleep. I woke up at around 4am so read a book on my phone, breakfast was the same rubbish that you get in economy – croissant, cereal bar and raisins.

We arrived back at Gatwick at 0625...! Still had a ridiculous wait at passport control but bags were fast and we managed to catch a train to Clapham at 0711 and it was all looking good...until some genius decided to split the train which caused a 34 minute delay!

As a resuly we missed the first train we had hoped to catch but got on the 0827 which was only 3 coaches and had tiny luggage racks. So we ended up standing/sitting in a compartment outside a toilet with our bags....why do we have trains which make travelling to/from an airport a nightmare?!

We got back and Rob’s mum collected us and brought us back to our house. Shortly after we collected the dog from the kennels (he arrived back with no issues with his eyes while we were away) and so here he is relaxing in the conservatory!


Sunday, July 10, 2016

Will we ever move house trip - Day 12

16th June

This morning we needed to buy a few things so headed to the shops again.


First up was Best Buy to get a go pro mount and case. Then we went back to the outlets to pick up a few things including a bargain hoody (2015) from the character warehouse for $7.95. 


We had also realised that we needed another suitcase to fit some of our bulky items in, not a major problem as we were flying World Traveller Plus home so we got a new one at Walmart for $63.

We dropped the shopping back at the hotel then went to the TTC to park. Got there and realised we had forgotten the Go Pro and we really wanted to test it out…so back to the hotel again!

I rearranged our FP slightly on the trip so that we didn’t miss anything out.




We finally arrived at the Magic Kingdom at around 4pm and our first FP was a favourite…..Haunted Mansion quickly followed by the Pirates of the Caribbean.

We were getting hungry so got some food at Pinocchios Village Haus; I had a salad and Rob had a flatbread and we shared some fries. There was a short but extremely heavy shower whilst we were in the restaurant.

We did manage to check in for our flight and select our seats together without paying. Once the rain we continued around the park, we had to change the plan as the rain (and potential thunder) had stopped the outdoor rides for a while.

We took a quick spin on the peoplemover while we waited and then headed back to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train to use our FP once it reopened.

We then booked a 4th FP for Buzz Lightyear for 7.25 and as we had a little bit of time we decided to experience the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor for the first time.

It killed some time but I don’t think I will be back soon….! After our ride on Buzz we needed a snack so I got an ice cream sandwich and Rob had a frozen lemonade..



We had booked another FP (5) for a little while after at the Tomorrowland Speedway, Rob made me drive so that he could use the Go Pro and amazingly I got around relatively smoothly!

We booked another FP (6) for Splash Mountain for 9.05 and took advantage of a short wait to ride It’s a Small World on the way.






After Splash we got a FP (7) for Big Thunder Mountain at 9.20 and then headed to Main Street to watch Wishes, selecting a FP (8) for Space Mountain for after the show.

Wishes was brilliant as always and then we managed to get through the scrum to Tomorrowland to use our FP to ride Space Mountain.


We then got a final (completely pointless) FP for Buzz before finishing our Disney ride experience with the Peoplemover.

As we walked out of the park we took a quick look in one of the stores and somehow I ended leaving with a Haunted Mansion Dooney & Bourke bag which I had been admiring since we saw it last week in the World of Disney!



We once again took the resort monorail and arrived back at our room at around midnight.

Will we ever move house trip - Day 11


15th June

Today we were heading to Epcot, we walked across and arrived at the International Gateway around 10.

Our first FP was Soarin' (over California) for the last time, we then got an early lunch in Sunshine Seasons. We both had a chicken caesar salad so only one photo required.



I had booked Spaceship Earth for our next FP and due to the time of day this was a good choice….standby had a 40 min wait!

We decided to see what the wait time was for Test Track – it was 60 mins but single rider was only posted as 20 and took us around 25 minutes total.

We had a little while to wait for our next FP so decided to take a look in the DVC lounge. It wasn’t obvious where it was but luckily someone else asked for directions and we followed them.



We had a couple of drinks and were offered some snacks too (crisps, cookies etc) and Rob called home while we were there.

We used our final FP on Nemo, which didn’t have a long wait but there was literally nothing else to use it on. According to the app and the kiosks there were no more FP available for the rest of the day…so no FP spree in this park.



We decided to pop back to the hotel for a little while and on the way we met/saw a load of characters in training in the area between Canada and UK. I got photos with several but not Chip n Dale, Rafiki and one other…














We picked up some ice cream at the hotel and then had a relax in the room.



We had a dinner reservation at San Angel Inn in Mexico so we headed back to the park in time for that.



I had a chicken meal (with sauce on the side) and Rob had a steak, followed by a chocolate mousse for dessert.








Boat ride up next followed by a wander around the World Showcase before watching illuminations from the bridge between France and the UK.





We then watched the Star Wars fireworks from our room!