Thursday, May 19: The long journey home
Miles walked today: 7.1 miles
Best thing today: Soarin'
Worst thing today: Leaving WDW
One final wake-up call from Mickey and Stitch and it was time to start packing. We looked out the window and saw a tiny patch of blue sky, but it was still mostly cloudy.
We left a credit card on file, so there was no need to check out. We went to check our luggage in, they tagged it and gave us our boarding passes. The idea was that we wouldn't have to deal with them again until we reached our final destination.
Then we checked our carry-on bags with bell services who would hold them while we played in the parks.
It was the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot, but with the cloudy/rainy weather, I knew we wouldn't get a chance to explore most of the exhibits. The real reason we were headed over was to ride Soarin'. After arriving and passing under the world's largest silver golf ball, we checked the tip board and saw that fast passes WERE still available for it. Score! So we headed over there, and discovered that the fastpass time was 3:35-4:35, and our shuttle from the hotel was leaving at 4:30. No way we'd make it.
So we decided to have lunch, and then come wait standby. The rain held off long enough for us to head over to England for some Harry Ramsden fish and chips at the Yorkshire Fish House. Not healthy or gourmet, but very fresh, hot and delicious.
We also added to our growing pin collection by getting the 2009 Flower and Garden pin as we walked over. (Did anyone else start collecting pins, thinking it would be a "cheap" way to collect souvenirs? I bet our pin collection would buy another 25 DVC points!
)
We pondered this year's poster, but the colors didn't go with our house. What was neat, though, is that the artist who did this year's poster had a booth set up with her other work. Clever.
We trekked back to the land for our 60 minute standby wait at Soarin'. It ended up being about that, but again, we met some nice people in line to pass the time with, and Disney had group interactive games set up in part of the queue, which made the time go by quickly. After an exhilarating hangglide ride over California's majestic landscape, filled with sounds, smells and wind, we landed safely on the ground.
We still had just a little bit of time left before it was time to go, so we visited with the dolphins, sea turtles, spotted rays and manatees over at the Seas with Nemo and Friends. We also saw Turtle Talk with Crush, which was super fun. How do they do it?
When we have a rental car, it's also our tradition to go to Ghirardelli at Downtown Disney for a going-away ice cream. Call it softening the blow of driving away. Since we knew that wouldn't be possible, we stopped for a Mickey Bar on the way out to the bus back to the hotel.
We got back to the resort at about 4 p.m., took some final pictures and chatted with another lovely cast member working out on the savanna. Goodbye, animals!
Here are some final images - the rain held off long enough to get some of these:
The bus rolled up exactly at 4:30, and we were the only ones from Kidani. Another several families joined us at Jambo House, but by then the bus was only about ¼ full. That changed when we made a final pickup at Pop Century. We were glad that the bus picked us up three hours before our flight, as loading took a while. Finally, at about 5:15, we were on our way to Orlando International.
They showed a cute movie about going through security, and things to do to kill time, including getting that last minute Mickey doll. (Or, as Donald suggested, a Donald Duck toy, instead.)
A quick bite for dinner and we boarded our flight to Atlanta. We called the hotel in Raleigh to let them know that we'd need a pickup later that night, at about 11:30. They told us the service stopped at 11 p.m. Doh! I had been told they'd pick us up!
Oh well. At least we knew at that point that we'd have to take a cab from the airport.
The connection to Raleigh was uneventful, and we headed to the baggage carousel. Our first bag was one of the first off the plane. Hooray, we thought, magical express worked great! But then the other bag never came.
Turns out, it wasn't Disney's mistake – AirTran tracked it down, and it was still in Atlanta. Sigh. Luckily, that was the bag with all of the dirty laundry, and nothing valuable. The clerk wasn't amused when I suggested that they could deliver it to us after doing the laundry.
Nothing we could do, so we filed a claim, and they said they'd deliver it on Friday. Luckily, I had taken the day off off work for some appointments and to do laundry, unpack, etc.
We called a cab, which took us back to the hotel. Loaded up the car and drove the hour and a half to our warm, cozy home, and were greeted by our two kitties. Tired from a day of travel, we fell asleep pretty quickly that night.
Coming next: Final reflections
Miles walked today: 7.1 miles
Best thing today: Soarin'
Worst thing today: Leaving WDW
One final wake-up call from Mickey and Stitch and it was time to start packing. We looked out the window and saw a tiny patch of blue sky, but it was still mostly cloudy.
We left a credit card on file, so there was no need to check out. We went to check our luggage in, they tagged it and gave us our boarding passes. The idea was that we wouldn't have to deal with them again until we reached our final destination.
Then we checked our carry-on bags with bell services who would hold them while we played in the parks.
It was the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot, but with the cloudy/rainy weather, I knew we wouldn't get a chance to explore most of the exhibits. The real reason we were headed over was to ride Soarin'. After arriving and passing under the world's largest silver golf ball, we checked the tip board and saw that fast passes WERE still available for it. Score! So we headed over there, and discovered that the fastpass time was 3:35-4:35, and our shuttle from the hotel was leaving at 4:30. No way we'd make it.
So we decided to have lunch, and then come wait standby. The rain held off long enough for us to head over to England for some Harry Ramsden fish and chips at the Yorkshire Fish House. Not healthy or gourmet, but very fresh, hot and delicious.
We also added to our growing pin collection by getting the 2009 Flower and Garden pin as we walked over. (Did anyone else start collecting pins, thinking it would be a "cheap" way to collect souvenirs? I bet our pin collection would buy another 25 DVC points!
)We pondered this year's poster, but the colors didn't go with our house. What was neat, though, is that the artist who did this year's poster had a booth set up with her other work. Clever.
We trekked back to the land for our 60 minute standby wait at Soarin'. It ended up being about that, but again, we met some nice people in line to pass the time with, and Disney had group interactive games set up in part of the queue, which made the time go by quickly. After an exhilarating hangglide ride over California's majestic landscape, filled with sounds, smells and wind, we landed safely on the ground.
We still had just a little bit of time left before it was time to go, so we visited with the dolphins, sea turtles, spotted rays and manatees over at the Seas with Nemo and Friends. We also saw Turtle Talk with Crush, which was super fun. How do they do it?
When we have a rental car, it's also our tradition to go to Ghirardelli at Downtown Disney for a going-away ice cream. Call it softening the blow of driving away. Since we knew that wouldn't be possible, we stopped for a Mickey Bar on the way out to the bus back to the hotel.
We got back to the resort at about 4 p.m., took some final pictures and chatted with another lovely cast member working out on the savanna. Goodbye, animals!
Here are some final images - the rain held off long enough to get some of these:
The bus rolled up exactly at 4:30, and we were the only ones from Kidani. Another several families joined us at Jambo House, but by then the bus was only about ¼ full. That changed when we made a final pickup at Pop Century. We were glad that the bus picked us up three hours before our flight, as loading took a while. Finally, at about 5:15, we were on our way to Orlando International.
They showed a cute movie about going through security, and things to do to kill time, including getting that last minute Mickey doll. (Or, as Donald suggested, a Donald Duck toy, instead.)
A quick bite for dinner and we boarded our flight to Atlanta. We called the hotel in Raleigh to let them know that we'd need a pickup later that night, at about 11:30. They told us the service stopped at 11 p.m. Doh! I had been told they'd pick us up!
Oh well. At least we knew at that point that we'd have to take a cab from the airport. The connection to Raleigh was uneventful, and we headed to the baggage carousel. Our first bag was one of the first off the plane. Hooray, we thought, magical express worked great! But then the other bag never came.
Turns out, it wasn't Disney's mistake – AirTran tracked it down, and it was still in Atlanta. Sigh. Luckily, that was the bag with all of the dirty laundry, and nothing valuable. The clerk wasn't amused when I suggested that they could deliver it to us after doing the laundry.
Nothing we could do, so we filed a claim, and they said they'd deliver it on Friday. Luckily, I had taken the day off off work for some appointments and to do laundry, unpack, etc.We called a cab, which took us back to the hotel. Loaded up the car and drove the hour and a half to our warm, cozy home, and were greeted by our two kitties. Tired from a day of travel, we fell asleep pretty quickly that night.
Coming next: Final reflections
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