Tracey's Report - Day 18 -The Journey Home

[TraceyL]

Thought it was about time I posted the final instalment of my trip report !
Wed 5th November

Today we were on our way home after 17 wonderful nights. We were up and about early to finish our packing – including the Polynesian chocolate

and goodbye note we’d been sent from the Concierge staff. Popped down to the lounge and grabbed some pastries, juice & coffee to keep us going & said goodbye to the Lounge staff. Rang down to bell services to get a hand with our luggage and before we knew it we were all piled onto a little golf cart whizzing round the grounds back out to the car park... ‘Aloha!’

We had a 10am PS at OHana for breakfast – we were late as usual lol and had to wait about 30 minutes for our table. When our bleeper went off we were led into the restaurant by our ‘cousin’ and round towards the window to the exact same table we had been sat at on our first night at the Poly. The pineapple bread was delicious and we were soon tucking into our first skillet of bacon, sausage, eggs, potato & Mickey Waffles. The girls had their photos taken with Mickey, Goofy, Chip n Dale and danced around the room conga-stylee to ‘Just Can’t Wait to be King!’ - they loved it.

It was then time to say our farewells to the Polynesian. I would definitely stay there again but it would have to be Concierge – we’d been thoroughly spoiled. I had deliberated long and hard and switched our reservation from Lagoon View to Garden View Concierge (it’s about the same price) and I’m glad I did. We don’t spend that much time in our room and I think the extra $$$ would have been wasted on a view whereas with Concierge we had the convenience of drinks & nibbles (and alcohol!!) available just a short distance away, a view of the Castle to die for from the lounge and somebody to get us PSs without the cost of transatlantic phone calls (they also got us Cindy’s where I failed). So we bought a few souvenirs from the Poly Gift Shop and headed out to the Marina to pay one last visit to the Magic Kingdom. We hadn’t caught the launch to MK before – wish we had, it was lovely !

Managed to buy the girls the Princess hats they wanted with the last of their holiday money and went to show them our wedding ‘brick’ - very pleased to report it was still there

Then back onto the monorail (girls’ choice) to the Poly to pick up our car.

It was surprising how the morning had flown by and we were now decidedly behind schedule – we had a 4 hour drive back to Miami and only 3 hours before the car was due to be returned ! We had to make a quick stop at Walmart to pick up some electrical plugs for my dad’s Christmas lights and as we pulled into the parking lot the heavens just opened. Proper Florida rain – the first we’d seen in over two weeks, thunder, lightning the lot ! Steve got drenched running inside (while we stayed in the car of course!). We then literally crawled down the 192 and onto the Turnpike – it was a nightmare – the car was aquaplaning and you couldn’t see 10 yards !

The weather cleared up after about an hour but we were even more behind schedule now – grabbed burgers & chicken nuggets from Burger King at the rest area and ate them enroute. About an hour outside Miami we hit the traffic – I was panicking by now that not only did we have to pay an extra day’s rental on the car but that we wouldn’t even make our flight. When we did eventually get to MIA we couldn’t find the Dollar car rental depot as one of the roads was closed due to roadworks – it was dark, we were late and we were lost ! Eventually after doubling back we found the car return, we duly charged £69 for bringing the car back late and tried to get on a shuttle to the airport with 2 hours to go til our flight left. There was quite a crowd of people waiting for the shuttle and as we tried to board (Steve with the luggage & me with the girls) I was physically forced out of the way and told by a fellow passenger to ‘move the child out of the way’ - in other words this guy was getting on first whether I liked it or not ! I didn’t argue as he was considerably larger than me & Steve put together lol !!

We eventually made it to the airport about 1 hour & 40 minutes before departure time, luckily we still had seats assigned together - 20 A&B and 21 A&B. Preboarding was called but we decided to wait till WT+ was called. We boarded before the Economy passengers on this flight – it was great – little Annabelle stretched out in this (to her) huge seat whilst all the economy passengers walked past enviously! We took off on time and the kids’ meals were served soon after. The girls took a few mouthfuls of food and then promptly fell asleep. We woke them as we landed! Steve and I both managed to doze for about 5 hours – unheard of – and arrived reasonably refreshed.

It was almost a pleasure to drive home – in the sun no less – from Heathrow rather than Gatwick (2 hours instead of almost 4) and we managed to stay awake till proper UK bed time – a first! So WT+ was definitely worth the extra money

 

[KayleeUK]

Thank you so much for your reports Tracey I loved all of your photos too...

You have a brick!!! you lucky thing

 

[Scottish_Maleficent]

Great reports Tracey - lovely pics too!

Cath