DAY 23 - SATURDAY 25TH AUGUST
& SUMMARY
The alarm goes off
at 7.30am and Stitch tells me to get up. I’m sorry, but
I’m flying home today and I’m not in the mood to be
told what to do by an annoying little alien. I tell Stitch in
exactly which alien orifice he can shove his wake up call.
Uncharitable maybe, but understandable in the circumstances.
Showers and packing follow before Matt picks us up at 10.00am to
take us to the Virgin Downtown Disney check-in. The queue is
pretty long, but we are through in less than 5 minutes thanks to
our silver Flying Club membership, which allows us to use the
Premium Economy and Upper Class check-in.
We now have a wander round the Virgin Megastore before meeting up
with Susan, Lu Beth, Deb and matt. We’re all going to have
an early lunch and decide on Cookes of Dublin, the counter
service restaurant by Raglan Road as we have 4 counter service
credits left.
We all have fish and chips (not bad at all) along with a thing
that I can only describe as deep fried Snickers on a stick.
Tasty, but sweet beyond belief.
Matt and I now drive Lu Beth back to the Wilderness Lodge where
she is catching the Magical Express back to the airport. We say
farewell to Lu Beth who has been a lovely companion on this
holiday.
The rest of the ladies have gone to the marketplace for a spot of
shopping, so Matt and I go to the Sosa Cigar Bar in Pleasure
Island. This is a first for me and it’s quite a nice place,
of course you have to be prepared to have people smoking around
you, but Matt and I are the only ones in the place.
The ladies arrive and a couple of beers and a margarita later
it’s time to say farewell to Deb and Matt. I tell Deb that
there is one proviso for us holidaying with them in the future;
they aren’t allowed to stay on after us! Lucky devils are
staying in Reunion for the next 5 nights.
We’ve had a fun time together as can be evidenced on the
unexpurgated Stringer family video, copies available at a very
reasonable price unless I get a better offer from Deb and Matt to
keep it out of the public domain.
We share a taxi to the airport with Susan, but have little time
to say a proper farewell as the taxi driver is waiting to take us
to our terminal.
I can honestly say that I’ve never met a more warm-hearted
person (than Susan, not the taxi driver) she never has a bad word
to say about anybody and when you holiday with Matt that’s a
hard thing to do.
On to terminal B where we spend an hour in McCoy’s Bar
before going to the gate. Our flight leaves 30 minutes late, but
is pretty smooth. I watch one film (300) and then try to get some
sleep. I manage to doze for a little while, so that’s good.
As we start our descent into Gatwick the flight attendants come
through the cabin and ensure that seats are upright etc. and I am
asked to put my trainers under the seat in front of me. I never
quite understood this. Has anyone ever survived a plane crash
because their trainers were in the required position? Breaking
news – 264 people died today when a 747 smashed into the
side of a mountain. 5 people are believed to have survived due to
stowing their seat back trays correctly.
We are met by our taxi at the airport and back home to normality
within a couple of hours.
So that’s another one done. Here’s a few random
thoughts:
Weather
We were amazingly lucky. I expected a lot of rain at this time of
the year and got practically nothing until our last day. It was
very hot, pushing 100° on many days, but not as humid as
I’d feared, again until our last day.
I guess I would go again in August if I absolutely had to, but
there are certainly more comfortable times of the year to visit.
Hilton Head
Difficult one this. I quite liked Hilton Head Island, at least
parts of it. Our evening at South Beach Marina was lovely, as was
the night we spent watching the fireworks at Shelter Cove from
the balcony of the Ocean Grill.
I couldn’t get used to everything shutting so early, but I
guess if we went again we would adjust our timescales accordingly
and go out to eat earlier.
I really think Disney’s Hilton Head Resort could do with a
proper lounge and restaurant and it sometimes seemed quite
crowded. That’s the strange thing, when you stay in WDW
it’s quieter as lots of people are out in the parks,
shopping etc.
I would imagine that our best bet for returning would be to make
use of the ample golfing facilities on the island as well as
staying a couple of nights in Savannah and Charleston, which were
lovely.
Disney Dining Plan
I thought this was great and worked out very well for us. We
certainly saved an awful lot of money on the food we had, but as
I said before, this is a bit of a false economy, as we
wouldn’t have ordered 3 courses at every meal as well as the
lunchtime counter service food.
Even allowing for that, I still think it was a good deal although
I can’t see us doing it again as I believe they are removing
the appetizer and gratuities from next year’s plan. This
makes it a much less desirable proposition if you have to pay for
it.
Walt Disney World
I suspect this was one trip too far for Tam, who found it all too
familiar, being only 10 months after our last visit. I do
understand her feelings. After your 11th trip, it can’t
retain the ‘brand new’ magic.
Tam gets to choose next year’s holiday and she’s
already booked a Med cruise for August. It will be a good thing
for her to get a break from WDW for a year and also allow our
much-abused DVC points to return to a semi-decent level. You
can’t borrow forever!
Friends
We had such a good time with so many people on this trip.
Elaine, Michael, Grace and Alex in New York.
Deb, Matt, Susan, and Lu Beth for WDW.
Joh and Gary for a boozy night in Jellyrolls.
Alison and Shaun for a couple of beers before they went of to buy
DVC! These events are not related.
Big Vern for showing us all up at golf!
Thanks to our friends for enhancing our holiday, although I think
Matt’s display in the Adventurers Club may have been an
enhancement too far! I suspect he feels the same way about my
wonderful dancing display.
So that’s it. I hope you all got something out of reading my
report. As long as it’s not a headache or piles you’ve
done well.
This will probably be the last report until 2009 as the
aforementioned cruise is on the books for next year. We are also
going to a Sandals resort in St Lucia in March to celebrate my
50th birthday along with Deb and Matt. I do not intend to go
quietly into middle age and they will be there to ensure I do
not.
Cheers