Day 15 – Orlando Trip Report, September 2018

Posted on April 11, 2019April 14, 2019by Admin

Trip Report Title - Day 15.png

Here was our basic itinerary for the day:

Morning: Spend some time in the Universal parks
Evening: Head to the airport and Fly back home

Day 15 – Tuesday 18th September 2018

Today is a sad day as it is the day we return home. We are fortunate that the Aerlingus flights only fly out from Orlando at 8pm so we had a very decent full half day in Orlando. We woke up and took our bags out to the car so they were ready to go once we finished up in the parks. Then we stopped by Emack’s again to grab breakfast to eat on the way to the parks. We decided today we’d take the boat since it was there as we were walking by. We did our usual and headed for Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure first to do Forbidden Journey and pick up some last minute bits and pieces from the shops before getting the Hogwarts Express over to Kings Cross in Universal Studios. After riding Escape from Gringotts and doing a touch more shopping we got one last ice cream/butterbeer and went over to see if we could find Kreacher in Grimmauld Place. We then did Men In Black twice (didn’t get the red button either time) and the mummy twice before heading to Mel’s’ Drive In for a spot of lunch.

Butterbeer Ice Cream — The one worthy photo I took today – clearly I was upset about leaving

We decided to leave Universal around 2pm and head to the Mall at Millenia so I could purchase some Apple earpods and then we popped to Ulta to have a little look around before deciding we’d just head to the airport. We arrived at the airport slightly earlier than planned (realising along the way we probably should have just gone to Springs to have a nice chilled time but anyway), in fact we arrived so early that check in for our flight hadn’t even opened yet and we ended up sitting around for at least half an hour if not longer – it was slightly frustrating as check in ended up opening later than it should have but that’s what we get for being early. After check in we decided we were peckish and we remembered from our last trip that once you get through security there isn’t much food wise to eat so we decided to stop by the food court (we had our first experience of Chick Fil A which was rather yummy and hit the spot quite well) before we went through security.

Top Tip: I’d read lots about sweets causing issues with hold bags and TSA so we’d put most of our sweets & Halloween Trick or Treating in our hand luggage – we were asked to take out all food from our bags before they went through the scanners so just be aware of that.

After we got through security we headed straight for our gate and just found a spot to chill out. The flight itself on the way back was okay, although I found it very difficult to sleep which was annoying. The movie selection was similar to the way over so I watched How to be Single, Game Night and some TV programs in between short naps. We arrived into Dublin with very high winds but fortunately after a lot of turbulence and circling over the airport we landed safely. Unfortunately due to the winds our bags could not be safely removed from the plane, so after around an hour of waiting in the airport we filled in some forms to have them delivered home and then made our way back to little old Newcastle.

And so that brings to an end my Orlando Trip report from September 2018. As it currently stands I do not have any more Disney trips planned but as I write this the free Disney dining is set to hopefully be announced within the next few days so I suppose never say never. Is still have some posts related to my September trip to come so keep an eye out for them. Until next time…

Love Jana xox