We need some sunshine, time for a week away! Time to go home :(

Sun 17th Feb into 18th 

Time to go home 

We set an alarm this morning for 9 and started some washing while we got up and ready. Breakfast of muffins, sunny D and coffee by the pool 

We had booked the villa until the next day as we weren’t sure when we would fly back so we decided to have a last morning in the pool until 12 before showering and doing the last load of laundry.

Our final lunch was cake and ice cream before packing our bags and doing some cleaning. 

We had a last HGTV fix before leaving 

We departed the villa at 1515 and arrived at Tampa airport at 1630. The car was returned and bags dropped and we were seated in Hard Rock Cafe by 1710.

After our meal we headed through security which was much less stressful than at Orlando. 

We sat at the gate for a short time until boarding started at 1840.

We were on board and started taxiing slightly early at 1910 but it seemed to take a long time to actually take off.

The flight was smooth enough but felt long as both Rob and I didn’t get much sleep, breakfast was truly dreadful – a cold cheese and tomato croissant plus a soft cereal type bar?!

We landed at Gatwick pretty much on time and once again I had trouble with the e passport gate and had to go to a man who commented that my hair was different - it’s slightly longer and surely it’s facial recognition not hair?!

In pretty good timing Rob’s dad collected us at pickup literally minutes after we got through baggage claim and we were on our way home. It was grey and wet and we got stuck in traffic at Stonehenge 

After a short nap back at home we collected the dog from kennels 

We need some sunshine, time for a week away! Day 6

Sat 16th Feb

Last full day 

We had picked up some coffee last night so were back to the usual toast and coffee for breakfast this morning by the pool.

And some cake!

We spent all morning in the pool until we lost the direct sunlight before heading to the Vineland Outlets in the afternoon.

We couldn’t find free parking as it was really busy and people were following people to their cars so we paid the $10 charge for the covered parking which was annoying….

We wandered the shops for a while and Rob got a burger whilst I had a subway as we had become a little hungry.

I managed to find a lightweight jacket at Superdry and Rob got a hoody, whilst again I was disappointed at the bargains in the Character Warehouse.

On the way back to the villa we stopped at Target to get muffins for breakfast and ended up spending $50 on candy - some for work and some ‘theater’ boxes for our cinema room.

We decided on pizza again for dinner from DiRomios and some more HGTV shows!

We need some sunshine, time for a week away! Day 5

Fri 15th Feb

We had no more cake or muffins so just toast for breakfast today (and no coffee) before a visit to Home Depot to get a drill for Rob’s dad. I had hoped to get coffee along the way but we didn’t manage to find anywhere 

So, we decided to go to Disney Springs for an Earl of Sandwich then a look around the shops. I had a holiday turkey and Rob an Earl’s Club, both were fab as always.

In exciting news we got a peppermint bark square from Ghirardelli which was surprising as I had heard they had stopped giving out free samples.

Again, very little shopping was actually purchased  I wanted to get a travel mug for work but couldn’t decide on a style I actually liked so didn’t buy any. 

We headed back to the villa for some more HGTV before our evening plans. We had originally booked a FP for Flight of Passage for today but I had cancelled it, I could have got another for the evening but we couldn’t be bothered to park and walk into the park so we didn’t. 

Dinner tonight was at Sana’a, we checked in and then went to have a look at the animals using the night vision goggles. I attempted a couple of photos, which had interesting results. 

For dinner we had the naan breads followed by the chicken biryani. The breads were great, and the biryani tasty but we both felt it could have used more sauce.

For dessert Rob had chocolate mousse and I had the coffee version, this with DVC discount resulted in a bill of $107 including tip.

We need some sunshine, time for a week away! Day 4

Low on photos today... 

Thurs 14th Feb

This morning we had toast and cake from dinner last night for breakfast.

We decided to do a little bit of shopping at the I Drive outlets with lunch at Panera Bread and Five Guys. 

We managed to find free parking although it wasn’t that easy – lots of people were waiting as people returned to their cars. 

Again, we didn’t buy very much, there were no good bargains to be had at the Character Warehouse which was disappointing.

The sun was back today so we headed back to the Villa for some afternoon swimming. This evening the plan was for a visit to Epcot. 

Bizarrely, there was a huge line to enter the park as there were only a couple of tapstiles open when we arrived. 

I had booked a FP for Spaceship Earth but when we walked into the park it was clearly not operating so we decided instead to walk the World Showcase to see he art festival. 

We had also planned to get some food on the way around but didn’t find anything that we wanted, Rob did find a Star Wars pic for the cinema room which was good.

I had booked a FP for Illuminations so we made our way there when we had completed the full circuit, we did get a drink and some pretzels as I was feeling hungry by this point. 

We managed to get a nice central spot to see the show, which might have been our last time before it ends…..