Day 21 - Our last day at Disney! and do we survive the trip home?
Today was our last day at Disney.
We packed our belongings; this time in one checked bag, four carryons, and three personal bags. We let them downstairs with bell services, and receive a ticket to pick them up later. Our flight doesn't leave until 1:00 a.m. so, we are going to enjoy our day in the parks, take ExecuCar to the airport, and fly to Fort Worth, then to Philadelphia.
We take time to enjoy a hearty breakfast again at Flo's. Many people seem to forget that there is also a dining room on the right. While the left was crowded, we had plenty of room in the right.
We take the time to explore Bugs Land, including seeing the show It's Tough To Be a Bug.
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The family takes one last tour of the Tower, while I enjoy people watching.
It has been special during here the Diamond Celebration.
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We enjoy lunch at the Golden Horseshoe today for the first time. We took our lunch upstairs where it was a little less crowded. The food was good, but there were few choices.
We have a good last day, and it was sad to have it end. We take a brief snack break at McDonald's before heading to the hotel at 10:00 ish. The ExecuCar person is already there, ahead of schedule, which is great. We get our luggage, no problem, and go to LAX. Now, I was surprised how horrible traffic was at this time of night. It really was a traffic jam, right in front of the airport. I could see the planes, but the ramps were all jammed up. It took us a good half hour to 40 minutes to navigate it.
And here we do the TSA tango again. It was a nightmare.
We get our checked bag taken care of, then realize we all have precheck. Great, right?? Not so much.
At Honolulu, there was a separate line for precheck. Here, everybody was in the same line. I think there were maybe two people working the id's. People were complaining left and right about their flights. A couple of times, those about to fly out were pulled up front; hope everybody made it.
We didn't have to take off our shoes, belts, etc. but that was the only benefit. I think if I had paid for this service, I would be really upset.
We did make our flight with a little time to spare. The first flight was uneventful, and we had TV's to make the time go faster. I watched The Martian again and felt surprisingly awake.
At Fort Worth we had to use the fake monorail to go to a different terminal with little time. The fake monorail gives you about 30 seconds to get on or off; not near long enough for a family to try to squeeze on together. The first went without us so the next time we just shoved ourselves on and let everybody else fend for themselves. I was so stressed. It would have been different if we were familiar with the airport, but trying to find your way around for the first time while trying not to miss your connection left the romance out of traveling for me.
Our next flight, I was feeling sleepy even if it was early morning there, but alas, I literally had a screaming toddler next to me. At one point, I just looked at my husband and just laughed because what else are you going to do? Finally the toddler screamed himself to sleep, and his mom fell asleep too. Later she did apologize to me. I am just grateful not to have toddlers anymore! 
Our flight came into Philadelphia, my sister and her husband brought the car right to us, we got all packed up and had a 4 hour drive ahead of us on little to no sleep.
In a heavily redacted and edited version in case my DH reads this report, let's just say there was a battle of wills between DH, me, Google Map Lady and Ds on how the heck to get out of Philadelphia. Let's just say we wound up taking a longer route to get the turnpike.
However, we did eventually find our way, we made it home around 4:00 ish, the house and pool were still standing, and the cats were very standoffish. In other words, normal.
The next day I sleep in beyond when I was to pick the dogs up at the kennel (who were beyond esctatic to see me), and they weren't thrilled with me since the kennel was full up. Honestly, I should have not been driving. This time change going west to east just kicked my butt good and proper. I think it took a week before I started to feel like myself again.
And because I know those on the disboard will appreciate this, this is probably my favorite souvenir:
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We did splurge on a few Christmas ornaments; DH got a shirt, DD spent a ton on Stitches; DS got puzzles and a gift for the girlfriend; but other than that, not a lot of stuff. However, we made a lot of great memories bonding as a family through the good and the bad, and I hope our children appreciate this legacy.
I hope you have enjoyed our trip report. Where to next? Remember I said I have family in England? Well, we'd really love to go there. We'll have to save up for a while to make it happen. Until then, I have memories of this great trip to warm my heart.
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Thank you everyone for reading! Mahalo and Aloha!
scrappydew
I haven't heard of a tourist tax. The only tax that I know of is the general tax at 4.71%. Maybe someone else can chime in?
