Home Sweet Home

Just arrived back home - 9.30am. All very tired but have had a great holiday. Will be in touch soon...

Sanford Airport

So we are sat at the airport - it is 1.15 US time and we are due to depart at 4.10.

Just grabbing a bite to eat. There are heavy thunderstorms today which has made leaving easier - although I think we are all ready to go home now. We have coastered, shopped, eat and walked to the extreme.

Next year needs to be a relaxing beach holiday - planning will need to start shortly.... So we have something to look forward to.

Departure

So it is 9.30 in Florida and we are just getting up. After breakfast the first job is to go to the bargain store and buy a suitcase because we have too much stuff to fit in our existing cases :)

This will be our last post before we arrive back in England. We hope you have enjoyed reading about what we have been getting up to and we hope to see you all soon.

Last Full Day

So it was a family decision to spend our last full day at Universal Studios. We headed to the Islands of Adventure first armed with our ponchos as we wanted to do the water rides that we hadn't go round to yet.

First up was the Barge Rats - which despite being a really hot day, unless you want to get totally drenched, a poncho is a sensible option.

We bought 6 from ebay for £3, including postage, which saver us a fair amount of money - will need to include that in our tips post....

The ride was really quiet and for our first run it was just the four of us in a 12 man barge.

We asked if we could stay on for another ride and were told we could as it was so quiet. We were joined by a party of 8 who were smirking about our ponchos, but we had the last laugh. Unlike the Kali Rapids where how wet you get is down to positioning, this ride everyone gets drenched.

They weren't smirking by the end of the ride.

Next up we did the log flume, still wearing our ponchos. This time they weren't as effective but kept the worst off.  Just as we were finishing the ride we got hit by 6 of the water cannons which soaked us.

We discarded the ponchos, which in hindsight turned out to be a huge mistake as our next ride was the Jurassic Park ride. We had ridden this before and escaped without a splash but this time we were in the front row.... Might have been quicker to jump in the river - enough said....

Even the people dryer made little impact as we squelched round the park.

The girls then decided to ride the Hulk people we headed back to the World of Harry Potter to ride the Forbidden Journey and to get Miss B a Butter Beer mug to bring home.

Last up was Spiderman before lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe.

We spent the remainder of the day at Universal Studios riding amongst others, the Mummy, the Simpson's and a few others.

Caught the shuttle home to the apartment before starting on packing for our return journey home.

It's fair to say that our feet have had enough and we are all very tired. The girls still have a couple of weeks to recover before returning to school.  We on the other hand have to return to work on Monday which will be a bit of a shock.

Farewell to Animal Kingdom

So it was another early start on Thursday as we were up for the 7.25 shuttle to the Animal Kingdom.

First up was the Kilimanjaro Safari which we all really enjoyed. We then did a few other things before getting FastPasses for the Kali River Rapids.

While we waited for our FastPasses we took the opportunity to queue as single riders for the Yeti - all bar Mrs J.

Mrs J and I wore our ponchos for the Yeti ride much to the amusement of our children but having got soaked the last time it was worth the walk of shame.

It all comes down to who goes down the second drop backwards - it wasn't us this time - but better dry than sorry...

After a few more rides on the Yeti and a few other attractions we decided to revisit the Rainforest Cafe before returning to Disney Hollywood Studios. Yes I know we said goodbye to DHS yesterday but the chance to ride Aerosmith a couple more times was too much.

That left our last Epcot shuttle bundle. It's fair to say that I won't be missing that daily occurrence. It is the one thing that we would have liked to change if we could.

So tomorrow is our last full day here in a very hot and humid Florida - but you will need to check back to see how we spent it.

Goodbye Magic Kingdom & Epcot...

So on Wednesday we decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom, and much the same as yesterday, we re-rode favorites and caught up on some we missed.

First up was Space Mountain, which we dId twice, followed by Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan and It's A Small World.

Rode Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain twice before catching the train to the front entrance.

We finished our visit to MK with an audience with the main man and his partner - Mickey & Minnie Mouse and the chance for pictures :)

We then used the Ferry Boat and monorail to transfer back to Epcot.

After a few rides it was time to catch the shuttle back to the apartment, but not before we got to see a part of Epcot that few guests get to see, but we will save that story for another time.

After a couple of drinks and a chance to cool off we chose to eat at Uno - food was great but by the time we had finished our meal the thunder and lightning had moved in so after starting to walk home we returned to the restaurant to order a taxi.

The weather put pay to our round of golf at Pirates opposite, so it was back to the apartment and after watching some TV it was time for bed.

The Wall....

So it's Tuesday and we decided to head first to Hollywood Studios to repeat some of our favorite rides and to cross off some we didn't get a chance to do.

We started off with Star Tours which was as good as we remembered it. Next up was the Great Movie Ride which is a great reminder of the bygone movies. As per the blog yesterday - a lot of these films are a mystery to our daughters....

Straight afterwards I and Miss H checked into the Twilight Hotel to test out the old maintenance lift :)

Used our FastPass on the Aerosmith ride, great walking past a 90 minute queue to virtually walk straight on. The girls chose to ride it again as single riders.

We then transferred to Epcot where we wanted to cross off the World Showcase. Stopped off at China for lunch before popping into the UK for a cracking Guinness.

We then decided to do Soarin' (their spelling not mine). The queue board was showing 90 minutes. We didn't think it could be that long but trust me it was worse. It was a good ride but not worth a 105 minute wait - and before you say it the FastPasses were gone.

While we were queuing the weather changed and we were greeted with heavy rain.

Were very lucky to get on the shuttle as it was overcrowded but the driver recognised us and let us on. Those tips certainly helped us out.

Evening meal at Tony Romas - and no - you don't need to ask what I had.... Yes it is still the King of Burgers.

Anyway time for bed as we have a few more intense days before returning home.