Larock Family WDW Trip

Day 9 – Time to go home

Cast of characters – Mommy, Daddy, Nina (7) and Julia (5)

It was so hard to get up knowing that it was some awful early hour and that it was also the end of our vacation. Daddy and I got ready and tried to let the girls sleep as long as possible.

Once everyone was ready, we gathered up our carry-bags and went to breakfast at Triton’s, where we had dinner the night before. We could have opted for a quick breakfast but the girls wanted to say goodbye one more time to our servers. We were surely bleary-eyed but Igor and Pearl looked like they were ready for the day. As we talked, they told us that they would have just about one hour of free time before the guests arrived for the four day cruise and the entire process started all over again. Imagine a life like that. Pearl put it well when she said, “There is no during your contract, only before and after”. Such a rough life that I left hoping that we had put enough of a gratuity in their envelopes the night before. After a short meal of scrambled eggs and fixins, it was time to depart.

Sadly, we walked back down the gangway as crewmembers waved goodbye. As we picked up our luggage in the parking lot and boarded the shuttle back to the Radisson, we realized that it was only 8am! Our flight wasn’t until 4:40pm that afternoon. We made a quick call to the girls’ grandparents and found out that while we were gone, our neighborhood had been pelted with a 6” deep snowstorm and that the airports had been nearly closed for two days. Wondering what they would do to our chances of getting an earlier flight home, I started calling Southwest Airlines. No luck, all the flights were full.

We got back to the Radisson and loaded our luggage into the car and began the drive back toward Orlando discussing options. Neither Daddy nor I wanted to spend the entire day in the airport but wondered if perhaps we could go standby onto an earlier flight. We arrived at the airport and once inside, I spoke to an agent and found out that even if we could fly on an earlier flight it would add $150 to each of our tickets except for Daddy’s who was flying on a free coupon.

Back to the car I gave everyone the bad news. Leave it to the girls to come up with lemonade for the lemons that we’d been given. They said, “Let’s go play miniature golf!” We had been given four free passes to miniature golf at DisneyWorld when we arrived and hadn’t had time to use them. Knowing that it was a quick drive back to DisneyWorld, we decided to make a go of it. We drove to Winterland – Summerland and while Daddy picked up golf balls and clubs, I called to see about getting us a lunchtime priority seating. I made one at the Fresh Market in the Dophin hotel and we spent the next hour enjoying a fun round of miniature golf in Summerland. We had done Winterland on our last trip and we all had a great time. No keeping score for us!

The drive to the Dophin was easy from Blizzard Beach and we were quickly there. This hotel is really nice! As we walked around admiring the view, the Christmas decorations and it’s location to Epcot, we agreed that we could enjoy a stay at this hotel. I wish I’d thought to go and see a room! Downstairs at the Fresh Market, the Sunday brunch was still being served. It was a bit pricey for what we wanted but threw caution to the wind one last time and enjoyed our meal. We all tried different juices from their juice bar and picked a few items to try from the breakfast and lunch menu offerings at the buffet.

Once we were finished, we decided it was time to head back to the airport. We had an easy check-in and then at the gate, we picked up some snacks and finished up a bit more homework before boarding. The flight home was uneventful and both girls managed to get some sleep.

Our arrival back in Baltimore brought home the reality of the situation. It was cold, there was snow plowed everywhere and when Nina and Daddy went to get the car, they called back to tell us that it would be a few minutes while they shoveled the snow off of our van. Brrrrr. Julia and I were bundled up since I’d brought hats and gloves for our chilly evenings in DisneyWorld, or at least what were supposed to be chilly evenings! We snuggled together in Julia’s carseat in the arrival section of the airport and played the car counting game until they arrived.

Our drive home gave the girls a chance for a bit more sleep but we were all very tired when we finally got home and realized we would have to shovel out the driveway to get in the garage! At long last, we were in, the house was warming back up and we could all tuck ourselves in to sleep before returning to work and school the next morning. It wasn’t going to be easy to get up but we had such a wonderful time that it was worth every minute!

Day: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9