"It's an adventure" Day 15: AKL and going home

Wednesday 25th April

We were up at 7:45 today and as promised our bill was hanging on the outside of our door. Now we hadn’t charged anything to our room so I was quite surprised to see charges on it including charges for restaurants we hadn’t been to and valet parking which we hadn’t done! When I looked the bill was actually for room 4114 rather than our room – 4116. Dad took it out to see if room 4114 had our bill on their door but in fact they had a bill which was for their room number but had completely different details so he had to go down to reception where they confirmed that there was nothing for us to pay.

We got all our bits together and set off at 9:20 for Downtown Disney to drop our bags off as I had done online check-in after our meal last night. As we were in the queue a young boy in front of us turned to Dad and said “I know you don’t I?” It turned out to be the family that had sat opposite us at the gate in Gatwick two weeks earlier! We were told that at that point the flight was running 1 hour 20 minutes late and boarding would not start until 8:00.
We dropped our bags off and went round to Fantasia Gardens to play some miniature golf but as the course seemed to be out in the sun we abandoned the idea and decided to spend the rest of the day at Animal Kingdom Lodge instead to get a better feel of the place.

First stop was Mara where we had a drink each and we then went upstairs to one of the Savanna outlooks with the rocking chairs where we sat down and after a while the zebras came round to see us. We sat there for a while and around lunch time I began feeling peckish so we went back down to Mara for something to eat before going back up to our previous seats.

After a while it began getting quite warm so we went and sat in the lobby for a while and had a look round the shops. At around 3:00 we went back out side for one final look at the animals and at 3:25 we decided it was time to leave for the airport but vowed to come back and stay here next year.
We took the 417 back to the South entrance of the airport and arrived at 3:45. We dropped the car off with no problems and by 4:30 we were through security and making our way to the gate.

I bought some Duty Free and noticed that the early Gatwick flight was using Viriginia Plain so I didn’t hold out much hope for having games on the way home. Our flight was actually showing as being on time but at 6:30 we found out that it was actually going to be 3 hours late!

There was nothing we could do about the delay so we just sat at the gate waiting for our plane which eventually arrived at 8:30. By 9:45 we still hadn’t started boarding and we were told that there was “a delay in cleaning the plane” at which point I saw an empty stretcher being taken onto the plane. A few minutes later the stretcher came off again bearing what I think was one of the cleaners who had obviously been taken ill on the plane.

Boarding finally started at 10:00 and we took our seats in 80 H and K where I was surprised to see that we did in fact have the games system on board although I don’t know which plane we were on. The pilot informed us that the delay had been caused because our flight had come in from Manchester but had to go back to Gatwick for a maintenance check so the Manchester and Gatwick flights had to switch aircraft. That unfortunately had left us with the late incoming flight.

We sat back and enjoyed our pre-flight champagne before being told at 10:55 that there would be a further delay as one of the flight attendants had started being violently sick as the passengers started boarding so he had to be off-loaded and his bags had to be found.

We finally pushed back 3 hours and 20 minutes late at 11:00 and we were airborne by 11:15. Shortly after take-off meals were served and I chose to have the Smoked Mozzarella Ravioli while Dad had the Cajun Spiced Chicken Breast. As before it was the usual airline food although I still had no appetite so I didn’t have much at all. We both had a glass of wine and after dinner I had a Baileys while Dad had a brandy.

During the flight I watched A Night At The Museum which I enjoyed, had a bit of a snooze and then watched Flushed Away before snoozing on and off for a few hours and playing a few rounds of Millionaire. Around 10:00 breakfast was served which was the usual fruit salad and orange juice although Dad nearly missed his because he was asleep.

We landed at 12:04 and thanks to several new Immigration queues opening up just as we got there we were through quite quickly and into baggage claim where I had to rush off to the toilet again leaving Dad to collect the bags. Once I got back we went through Customs where there wasn’t a single Customs officer to be seen and we met up with our taxi driver who was waiting in arrivals for us.

We were out of the airport by 1:05 and home by 2:05 where I immediately started thinking about when we could book to go back.

And that was our trip – 2 weeks of great fun which hooked us both in and made us book to go back again next year. The title of the report was inspired by a tourist who got on the double decker bus in Las Vegas when we were there last year. As she came upstairs she said “It’s an adventure” which became our quote for everything we did in Florida. Thanks to all those who have been reading and leaving comments saying how much they have enjoyed the reports. I have really enjoyed doing them and will hopefully do one next year. I did and I'll be posting it here next.

David and his dad thank you for sharing your magical holiday with me, you have given me some new ideas of what to do and where to eat on our holiday.

I have really enjoyed reading this report please let me know when you write your next.
xx

Thanks Jeanette. I'll be posting the report of our trip to Animal Kingdom Lodge once people have had a chance to finish reading this one.

Given the number of folks that got sick on that plane before you even departed I might have been a bit iffy about getting on myself.

great last day