Check
out of our hotel was at noon and our flight wasn’t until about 4pm, so we had some
time to kill.
I made a breakfast reservation at the same buffet we had been eating at.
Just 'cause it was easy.
I tried a few things that I hadn't tried earlier.
Like this Mickey bologna that was heated and sliced by a cast member.
It was gross.
Here's a picture of the beginning of the buffet.
Notice the Mickey oranges.
Mickey was EVERYWHERE.
Katie ate about the same as she did every other morning.
Goodbye, Sherwood Garden Restaurant.
Thanks for the yums.
I checked in at the bell services counter to get our tickets for a bus ride to the airport (bus was much easier than the train).
On the way back, I snapped a picture of this gorgeous mosaic.
Our plan was to hit the pool before officially checking out.
This time, Rich knew the procedure and we got
into the pool area quickly.
Not only were you supposed to shower before you got
out of the locker room, but there was another little waterfall type tunnel that
you had to walk through before entering.
The pool was very small and was Peter Pan themed with some topiaries and
small details.
Told ya.
Mickey everywhere.
The pool area was crowded with families. I'm guessing that this was probably due to the fact that this was the last day the pool was open. It’s only open during Summer.
The pool cast members had some sort of scavenger hunt for the little kids going on.
The kids had to find Mickey heads in various locations and if they found them all they would get a popsicle.
My kids were too busy swimming.
We
went back to our room for a final pack up and I realized that I could see the
place we sat for breakfast earlier that morning.
See the picture of Katie above.
We
vacated the room and Huzbend checked out.
We had a bit of time before we had to go
to the actual bus stop, so we waited in the lobby.
The kids watched Alice in Wonderland.
As we were waiting, a bride and groom were escorted through the lobby.
The staff knew they were coming and lined the entry ways.
As the couple walked through the lobby, everyone applauded.
The groom was dressed like a prince, with a white tux and a blue royal sash and details.
The bride wore a very elaborate princess-like wedding dress.
After
the excitement died down, we headed outside to the bus stop.
There was a
Sorcerer Mickey themed fountain out there.
A bell cap took our tickets, along
with two other passengers, and stood there guarding our luggage. Mikey and I
explored a garden near the bus stop.
It was super hot, so we cut our exploration short and retreated to the shade of the bus stop.
The kids weren't too chipper.
They were exhausted as the end of our trip loomed near and were sad to be leaving Disney.
Our
bus finally came and it was LATE! The bell cap had to call and find out where they
were.
Huh. I don’t think that happens often.
It took about an hour for the bus to get to the airport.
Katie fell asleep.
Hi, Mikey!
We were pretty early for our flight.
Going through security was a breeze.
I was worried it would be more complicated.
We stopped to get some lunch at McDonald's and give Katie her last taste of gluten free McDonald's french fries. We also hit up two convenience stores to use up some more Japanese yen.
It was time to board.
I got stopped
right before walking down the passageway to the plane and was asked where I had
entered the country, how long I was in the country for and if I was carrying powder?
At least, that’s what I thought the guy said.
I must've looked really confused because he
stopped asking me questions, put a sticker on my passport and I went on my way.
Time to go home!
The plane ride back felt like
forever.
The service wasn’t nearly as good as the service on the way to Japan.
The attendants were rude and left us feeling as if we’d miss the quality of Japanese service
forever.
The kids
watched movies the whole time and Mikey only fell asleep during the last
hour of the 10+ hour flight.
Landing was smooth and we were home.
We had left
on Saturday at 4:30pm in Japan and arrived back home at 9:30am on Saturday.
It was going
to be one loooong day.
We were able to use Global Entry to
re-enter the U.S.. The TSA agent dude was really nice and helped us use the
terminals. We were off to pick up our luggage.
Mikey wanted to help. I asked him to stand back, but he went and grabbed one off of the conveyor anyways. He had to be helped by a nearby gentleman
because it was too heavy. We gave him a hard time about it.
We walked our
suitcases through the final bag check and were onto the airport monorail heading to the
main terminal when I looked down and noticed a funny white tag hanging off one
of our suitcases. It wasn’t our suitcase.
Uh-oh. We had inadvertently grabbed someone else’s
suitcase. Not good.
Huzbend took the suitcase to the check-in area to ask Delta
what to do. They sent him down to the baggage claim area to talk to their
Baggage Claim reps. He tried to explain to the lady what happened, with some
back up from me. She gave him a slip of paper to go BACK through security to
get the bag back to where it belonged.
At this point, Mikey was super upset at
his mess up. It was possible that it wasn't his mess up at all - we were all tired. He was crying. I calmed him.
Huzbend went off with the bag and slip
in his hand to go back through security. We co-opted a table at a Starbucks and sat
down to wait. We could only communicate via WhatsApp because we still had the
Japanese sim cards in our phones.
Huzbend tried to go through security and was
told he couldn’t as it wasn’t his bag. He had three separate TSA managers helping
him through the process. He was scared as shit that he would get
arrested for “stealing” someone else's bag or because they thought it was his
bag and there happened to illegal things in it. It was also mentioned more than once that Delta should've been doing this leg work, not him.
Eventually, he made it back
to the international area and retrieved our bag - they had set it aside after a call from the Delta baggage claim rep. - and
dropped off the other.
He said that it was one of the most scary, stressful
times of his life.
All in all, it took about an hour and a half to sort out.
While waiting, I
drank a pumpkin latte so as to get a little caffeine to stay awake long enough to either extricate my husband from prison or to drive home. Depending.
Huzbend came back and was wide awake and so he did
the driving to get home.
We got home, dropped all of our stuff in the
basement and went upstairs to eat. It was close to noon when we actually got
home. The rest of the day was spent trying not to fall asleep. Some of us were
more successful than others.
The next few days after returning were a blur of laundry,
unpacking and trying to recover from the most awful jet lag ever.
Mikey and
Katie couldn’t sleep at all, and neither could I. They would finally fall asleep at
about 6am every morning. Ugh.
Even by the time school started for Mikey on the 4th of September, he still wasn’t 100% back to normal.
All in all, it
took about a full week to get back on sleep schedule.
It's hard to put into one sentence a summary of our trip.
Japan was very friendly, inviting, easy to navigate and the service was impeccable.
We wouldn't hesitate returning, except for the fact that the food allergy/Celiac thing was a struggle.
Our family learned a lot and had a ton of fun.
It will be hard to top this vacation.
