BudgieMama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2013
- Messages
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Gah! The final day at WDW! I've been putting off writing this trip report, as I've been enjoying reliving my memories, but I feel like I need to end it!
Having done most of our packing the night before, we didn't need to rush too much to start our day. We had made FP+ for Magic Kingdom, but both felt like we'd said goodbye to there yesterday, and what we really wanted to do was go back to Epcot (which is also the closest park to SSR, so meant we were't too far away from DME).
Around 7.30am, I cancelled our MK FP+ and logged in to try and secure some for Epcot... We knew we wanted to be out of there by 1pm at the latest, and wouldn't arrive for rope drop, so weren't sure what we would be able to get...
We picked up Soarin' for 10am, Spaceship Earth for 11am and then the Character Spot for 12.40pm... perfect!
We didn't want to head into World Showcase, so this was a great set for us!
After calling Bell Services, and getting a ride over to the Carriage House with our bags (and getting them safely stowed away) and sorting our bill (we did auto check out, but wanted to use some of our dollars up, so they credited us some back and we paid cash for some of our bill), we were off to Epcot.
We arrived at Epcot around 9.30am, so decided to head to make use of the single rider line at Test Track... there was no-one ahead of us, so we walked straight on (despite the hour long line next to us!)
We ended up in the same car again, which was cool, and meant we could plan our photo! 
After TT, we head for our FP+ for Soarin'... we had a short wait, but being a couple paid off again, and they pulled us ahead of some larger groups to fill up a line.... Here's our pre-flight selfie!
We were on the back row this time, which was less immersive, but it's still a very cool ride!
After Soarin', we walked onto Living with the Land (I did love that ride) before heading to Spaceship Earth for our FP+... the line wasn't huge (maybe 25 minutes) but as we didn't have a lot of spare time, we used the FP+ and were on in minutes... somehow, we ended behind someone else who took flash photos ALL THE WAY ROUND. Not cool.
We then head back across to check out Mission Space again. DH was debating trying the intense one (I knew I couldn't risk that, especially before our flight) but as the line was 15 minutes, as opposed to 5 for green, we both chose the green team. It was a walk on for MS as well, and we ended up with an English mum and her little girl. She was really nervous, so I told her she didn't need to be scared... I also explained how the buttons worked... and then they didn't get to press them! Both of them had "computer override" for their buttons, and they didn't even light up! I felt guilty, but I guess a CM decides whether to opt people out of that?
We saw the single rider line for TT was still really short, so we did that again... twice! Both in separate cars this time, but we had a blast. My favourite one was where we didn't talk about what to do in the photos, and both did really similar things... this is what we did:
Here's me, looking bored...
And DH, asleep!
We didn't plan at all, and it was great- some of the other people looking at the photos commented on mine, and then DH's photo pops up! They couldn't believe we hadn't planned it!
After TT, I had a quick look in Mouse Gears for a Pascal thing a CM had told me about, but I couldn't find him... boo! We then head to the Character Spot to say goodbye to the Big Cheese before heading home. I'm so glad it was the last thing we did in the parks. When we told Mickey we were leaving today and flying back to England, I got a huge hug and lots of kissy noises! *tear* DH hadn't met Mickey yet either, so I'm glad we got this picture of the three of us!
We said goodbye to Goofy (another big hug and lots of kisses) and the Minnie... Minnie took a real shine to DH, and so after our photo together:
She wanted one just her and DH!
He couldn't figure out what she wanted him to do, but I love this photo!
Once we'd said goodbye, we head to the buses, and back to SSR. We grabbed a nice lunch at the Artist's Palette, bought a few more gifts (and changed our 8 remaining counter service credits for snacks... so we ended up with 11 snack credits to us for treats to bring home!
) We picked up our bags, and then all to soon the Magical Express arrived to take us the MCO.
Leaving MCO has to be the least pleasant airport experience I have EVER had... we were given no opening time for bag drop, but when we arrived, they wouldn't take our bags yet, so we sat in line for about 45 minutes before they would even deal with us (along with many others waiting for our flight)... after we finally dropped our bags, we did a little shopping, but we then saw the line for security...
Worst line of the week. It was actually dangerous. It was packed, and there were no staff keeping an eye on people. We waited over an hour to get through security (I have never waited so long for ANYTHING at an airport)- it was just so badly organised. DH said it was enough to put him off coming back, just hours after he admitted he'd like to do WDW again in the future! It was awful.
Our flight was pretty uneventful, if unpleasant. My seat was broken, and they had to get me a pillow to prop it in the correct position so I could actually sit on it... and there was a REALLY loud child just in front of us, and his parents made no effort to deal with him or engage him at all. (I know kids get upset, and fidgety, but seriously- they made no effort to distract or quiet him at all). We took off around 8pm, and I was tired, so I fell asleep not that far into the flight... dinner came around 10pm, so I woke up, ate a chicken curry and was back asleep before they came to collect the trays!
We were following two other jets out of MCO, which limited where we could climb too, which meant we got turbulence ALL night, which kept waking me up, but I got some sleep) Breakfast was nice enough (though I'd sooner have had a cold snack before bed and a cooked breakfast!) and we landed on time in Gatwick. Boarder control was a breeze (and we got a nice cheery welcome home!), the luggage took a while (and they sent it on two different carousels!), but we got it, arrived at the station about 10 minutes before our train and were soon on our way home!
Our first WDW was amazing.... with the exception of Villains Unleashed, we loved everything about it... I'm so pleased DH wants to go back... I suspect we'll give it around 5 years before we can think about it... interestingly, DH said he'd love to go back "when Disney has another big hit" because he thought the Frozen stuff was really well done, and really added to the trip!
I'm hoping we might sneak in a trip to DLP maybe in a year or two to keep in touch with our main mouse!
Having done most of our packing the night before, we didn't need to rush too much to start our day. We had made FP+ for Magic Kingdom, but both felt like we'd said goodbye to there yesterday, and what we really wanted to do was go back to Epcot (which is also the closest park to SSR, so meant we were't too far away from DME).
Around 7.30am, I cancelled our MK FP+ and logged in to try and secure some for Epcot... We knew we wanted to be out of there by 1pm at the latest, and wouldn't arrive for rope drop, so weren't sure what we would be able to get...
We picked up Soarin' for 10am, Spaceship Earth for 11am and then the Character Spot for 12.40pm... perfect!
We didn't want to head into World Showcase, so this was a great set for us! After calling Bell Services, and getting a ride over to the Carriage House with our bags (and getting them safely stowed away) and sorting our bill (we did auto check out, but wanted to use some of our dollars up, so they credited us some back and we paid cash for some of our bill), we were off to Epcot.
We arrived at Epcot around 9.30am, so decided to head to make use of the single rider line at Test Track... there was no-one ahead of us, so we walked straight on (despite the hour long line next to us!)
We ended up in the same car again, which was cool, and meant we could plan our photo!
After TT, we head for our FP+ for Soarin'... we had a short wait, but being a couple paid off again, and they pulled us ahead of some larger groups to fill up a line.... Here's our pre-flight selfie!
We were on the back row this time, which was less immersive, but it's still a very cool ride!
After Soarin', we walked onto Living with the Land (I did love that ride) before heading to Spaceship Earth for our FP+... the line wasn't huge (maybe 25 minutes) but as we didn't have a lot of spare time, we used the FP+ and were on in minutes... somehow, we ended behind someone else who took flash photos ALL THE WAY ROUND. Not cool.
We then head back across to check out Mission Space again. DH was debating trying the intense one (I knew I couldn't risk that, especially before our flight) but as the line was 15 minutes, as opposed to 5 for green, we both chose the green team. It was a walk on for MS as well, and we ended up with an English mum and her little girl. She was really nervous, so I told her she didn't need to be scared... I also explained how the buttons worked... and then they didn't get to press them! Both of them had "computer override" for their buttons, and they didn't even light up! I felt guilty, but I guess a CM decides whether to opt people out of that?
We saw the single rider line for TT was still really short, so we did that again... twice! Both in separate cars this time, but we had a blast. My favourite one was where we didn't talk about what to do in the photos, and both did really similar things... this is what we did:
Here's me, looking bored...
And DH, asleep!
We didn't plan at all, and it was great- some of the other people looking at the photos commented on mine, and then DH's photo pops up! They couldn't believe we hadn't planned it!
After TT, I had a quick look in Mouse Gears for a Pascal thing a CM had told me about, but I couldn't find him... boo! We then head to the Character Spot to say goodbye to the Big Cheese before heading home. I'm so glad it was the last thing we did in the parks. When we told Mickey we were leaving today and flying back to England, I got a huge hug and lots of kissy noises!
*tear* DH hadn't met Mickey yet either, so I'm glad we got this picture of the three of us!
We said goodbye to Goofy (another big hug and lots of kisses) and the Minnie... Minnie took a real shine to DH, and so after our photo together:
She wanted one just her and DH!
He couldn't figure out what she wanted him to do, but I love this photo!
Once we'd said goodbye, we head to the buses, and back to SSR. We grabbed a nice lunch at the Artist's Palette, bought a few more gifts (and changed our 8 remaining counter service credits for snacks... so we ended up with 11 snack credits to us for treats to bring home!
) We picked up our bags, and then all to soon the Magical Express arrived to take us the MCO.Leaving MCO has to be the least pleasant airport experience I have EVER had... we were given no opening time for bag drop, but when we arrived, they wouldn't take our bags yet, so we sat in line for about 45 minutes before they would even deal with us (along with many others waiting for our flight)... after we finally dropped our bags, we did a little shopping, but we then saw the line for security...
Worst line of the week. It was actually dangerous. It was packed, and there were no staff keeping an eye on people. We waited over an hour to get through security (I have never waited so long for ANYTHING at an airport)- it was just so badly organised. DH said it was enough to put him off coming back, just hours after he admitted he'd like to do WDW again in the future! It was awful.Our flight was pretty uneventful, if unpleasant. My seat was broken, and they had to get me a pillow to prop it in the correct position so I could actually sit on it... and there was a REALLY loud child just in front of us, and his parents made no effort to deal with him or engage him at all. (I know kids get upset, and fidgety, but seriously- they made no effort to distract or quiet him at all). We took off around 8pm, and I was tired, so I fell asleep not that far into the flight... dinner came around 10pm, so I woke up, ate a chicken curry and was back asleep before they came to collect the trays!
We were following two other jets out of MCO, which limited where we could climb too, which meant we got turbulence ALL night, which kept waking me up, but I got some sleep) Breakfast was nice enough (though I'd sooner have had a cold snack before bed and a cooked breakfast!) and we landed on time in Gatwick. Boarder control was a breeze (and we got a nice cheery welcome home!), the luggage took a while (and they sent it on two different carousels!), but we got it, arrived at the station about 10 minutes before our train and were soon on our way home!
Our first WDW was amazing.... with the exception of Villains Unleashed, we loved everything about it... I'm so pleased DH wants to go back... I suspect we'll give it around 5 years before we can think about it... interestingly, DH said he'd love to go back "when Disney has another big hit" because he thought the Frozen stuff was really well done, and really added to the trip!
I'm hoping we might sneak in a trip to DLP maybe in a year or two to keep in touch with our main mouse!
Thanks for sharing with us 
