When we were discussing this trip, the thing that put me over the top was the idea of not doing parks. Park days felt so crammed and overwhelming and overpriced that the trip didn't seem feasible until that element was removed. But would we be way too bored just sitting around the resort? Whenever we talked about a trip like this in the past, I had visions of hopping on buses with excited people going to parks and feeling immense sadness that we weren't. But when I realized that I could do all the resort hopping I've always wanted to do to still make it feel like a new adventure and a more eventful vacation, that sold me. I figured that if we covered one little outing per day, that would be enough and still leave time for the pool and doing things at the resort and Disney Springs. Day 2 was going to be my first attempt at testing the theory!
We all slept in a bit that morning after the previous very long travel day. I think everyone needed the sleep, and the boys loved having their own beds. We had a slow start in part because Craig had a conference call. I sat out on our patio transferring the previous day's pictures to my computer to kill the time. It was actually pretty nice out there, and it's my favorite thing to sit out there in the morning, usually with my breakfast, and listen to the pond fountain and look at the foliage. Even though this was our worst view, it was still so peaceful. Once everyone was ready, since we didn't finish our grocery order the night before, we decided to go back to Olivia's for brunch. Jacob and Carter wanted Mickey waffles.
It was such a good breakfast! I had an omelet and Craig had oatmeal. The potatoes and biscuit that came with mine were SO good.
After breakfast Jacob wanted to carefully get in some shots. He was using a towel to cushion his jumps a bit.
After that, it was time for Carter and me to start our first resort hopping adventure! We took a bus to Disney Springs to transfer to All-Star Sports! Of course, I had to take a pic of another gorgeous hibiscus near the bus stop. The yellow was so cheery!
Craig and Jacob were originally going to stay at the resort, but I guess they decided to go to Disney Springs instead to do some shopping. While we were waiting for the bus, Craig sent us a picture of him hugging a giant stuffed Figment. Figment was one of my favorites from my first EPCOT visit when I was 9. I even bought a little vinyl figure of him as my souvenir then (along with a Daisy Duck in 80s attire--think a PG Madonna or Cyndi Lauper!). As a result, when we went to Disney when Carter was a baby, I wanted to get him a souvenir (we had been gifted gift cards for each of us) and I decided upon a stuffed Figment. He's been hanging out in Carter's room ever since and recently he made a comeback in the stuffed animal hierarchy. He even made the cut to come on the trip in Carter's bag (along with Chewbacca from our last trip). The one Craig was holding looked a little like a Pillow Pet, though not as pillow-like. He was long and soft and squishy, laying on his belly and looking like he was sleeping. We found out there were tons of others like him--Mickey, Minnie, baby Yoda, Simba, Kermit, Baymax, and many more. Anyway, he sent us that picture and then this Figment crossed our path immediately after!
When we got to All-Star Sports, it was SO hot. I knew we wouldn't have long before Carter wanted to leave, so I tried to make it quick but also see as much as possible. Right out of their main building we saw this giant football, which was that section's method of covering the outdoor stairwells. The surf section next door had giant shark fins and lifeguard stands, and the tennis section had massive tennis ball cans.
The football section had this giant turfed section and a couple more stairwell-hiding football helmets. It was such a cool, playful theme. Someone was playing soccer on the turf further down.
At the end was the baseball section, which was adorable. There were these fake bleachers (the ones on the other side were the pool house bathrooms) and a big scoreboard. The buildings had MLB team pennants lining the top, and big bats going up across the building.
Of course we had to get a picture with one of the bats!
The pool was set up to look like a baseball diamond! The giant Coke cup was cool, and Goofy was "pitching" in the middle. It was so cute!
We walked back toward the other sections of the resort to go see the basketball section. In between basketball and tennis was this Mickey statue.
For some reason Huey, Dewey, and Louie were playing baseball on the turf in the tennis section, but Uncle Donald was on the other side of a tennis net so maybe they were hitting it to him? Carter decided to play umpire for the picture!
The basketball section was cute--balls and backboards everywhere!
The ends of the buildings had giant megaphones (which you can see in the Mickey statue picture) and the areas between the buildings had giant whistles.
There was a super tall backboard, which was ironic since there isn't actually a real court at this resort. Sort of a missed opportunity if you ask me, but it made for quite an odd photo op!
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| Carter for scale |
I had Carter pretend to "shoot" one of the balls on the building. He was over the heat by that point so I was lucky to get it!
We trudged through the heat to head back to the main building, past the surfing section and main pool (which was pretty unexciting, to be honest), and grabbed some lunch. The quick service there had a lot of choices and I really liked my sesame chicken bowl. The dining area was huge and had these cute glass dividers of all the sports. Goofy with the hole in his baseball glove was cute.
The basketball one of Donald looking up was also a favorite.
They had a series of wall pictures of a basketball bouncing off the heads of various characters, followed by Minnie getting a slam dunk. This one of Donald was the funniest, but honorable mention to the Mickey one that had him seeing floating Mickey heads instead of stars!
We had a bit of a long wait for the bus back from Disney Springs, which wasn't ideal, but it was trying to rain at that point which actually provided a little relief. It only really sprinkled by us (other areas got hit worse), but the sprinkles actually felt nice and the accompanying breeze was much needed. 90+ degrees isn't bad when the sun isn't out, and thankfully most afternoons we got just enough cloud cover from surrounding thunderstorms that we usually got a bit of relief! This actually ended up being one of our best weather trips as far as rain was concerned. We just had the one downpour the first day and a couple other sprinkles, and otherwise the storms avoided us. However, it was super hot and the heat index sat at or even above 110 on our last couple days. There was a heat advisory, and we heard from some cast members that it was indeed more intense than usual. On the bright side, it was a bit more manageable without park days.
We hit the motherlode on lizards when we got back to our resort. They're usually everywhere at Old Key West, but I think the weather got a bit too hot for them to be out much later in the trip. Glad I got some pics while I could! The size and marking differences on them are fascinating!
We regrouped for a bit back in our room, debated dinner options between Port Orleans and our favorite Chef Art Smith's Homecomin', and finally decided to go to Port Orleans for dinner and beignets. The boats always take a while, but it's well worth it. Had to get a picture of Carter with the built-in Mickey ears!
Dinner ended up a bit frustrating. Craig and Carter figured out what they wanted pretty quickly, but Jacob wanted me to wait with him to talk to the chef. That took extra long, and then I still had to go order my food, which was also delayed because there was a run on shrimp and they had just put a new batch in. Once we both finally got our food, we got in line to pay and were at a standstill for at least five minutes. The people ahead of us had issues using their meal plan, the cashier had trouble getting someone to help, and then the other line got a second cashier while we were still stuck. We finally got through, but that was frustrating!
We regrouped for a bit back in our room, debated dinner options between Port Orleans and our favorite Chef Art Smith's Homecomin', and finally decided to go to Port Orleans for dinner and beignets. The boats always take a while, but it's well worth it. Had to get a picture of Carter with the built-in Mickey ears!
Dinner ended up a bit frustrating. Craig and Carter figured out what they wanted pretty quickly, but Jacob wanted me to wait with him to talk to the chef. That took extra long, and then I still had to go order my food, which was also delayed because there was a run on shrimp and they had just put a new batch in. Once we both finally got our food, we got in line to pay and were at a standstill for at least five minutes. The people ahead of us had issues using their meal plan, the cashier had trouble getting someone to help, and then the other line got a second cashier while we were still stuck. We finally got through, but that was frustrating!
We headed over immediately after to get beignets. They are just SO good.
And of course, on our way back to the boats, we had to grab another pic with a member of the gator band!
I happened to catch this cool picture of the hot air balloon in the air on the boat ride back from Disney Springs.
When we got back for the night I was a little sad to realize that I hadn't gone in the pool that day, and decided to just run around the corner to our "neighborhood" quiet pool. There were a few groups of people in there, but it was generally a pretty quiet, relaxing visit. I only stayed about 15 minutes, but it was enough to not feel quite as sweaty and sunscreen-y after a hot day. I might have stayed longer but I was weirdly annoyed by these two guys (probably father and son) who were doing fake wrestling moves in the pool. They were these big 300 lb. guys, and were doing their own play-by-play with their moves. I think that was the day that Hulk Hogan passed away, so perhaps that was how they were memorializing him. I was trying to ignore it, but it definitely took away from the relaxation of it all to listen to their ridiculousness. But I was tired anyway, so I wasn't planning on staying long regardless.
That brought us to the end of another day, and the days were already starting to feel limited! I knew that would happen with the shorter trip as even a week barely feels like enough aside from the complete assault on my feet from park visits and the inevitable sunburn. To only have three full days plus two half days wasn't much. But while we were considering the trip I compared it to when we went to the Dominican, and it was essentially the same thing on that trip--three full days with a couple partial days. Even though that also felt really short, it still felt very worthwhile and was packed full of memories, so I decided this trip could be too. And indeed, this was a great start!
And of course, on our way back to the boats, we had to grab another pic with a member of the gator band!
I happened to catch this cool picture of the hot air balloon in the air on the boat ride back from Disney Springs.
When we got back for the night I was a little sad to realize that I hadn't gone in the pool that day, and decided to just run around the corner to our "neighborhood" quiet pool. There were a few groups of people in there, but it was generally a pretty quiet, relaxing visit. I only stayed about 15 minutes, but it was enough to not feel quite as sweaty and sunscreen-y after a hot day. I might have stayed longer but I was weirdly annoyed by these two guys (probably father and son) who were doing fake wrestling moves in the pool. They were these big 300 lb. guys, and were doing their own play-by-play with their moves. I think that was the day that Hulk Hogan passed away, so perhaps that was how they were memorializing him. I was trying to ignore it, but it definitely took away from the relaxation of it all to listen to their ridiculousness. But I was tired anyway, so I wasn't planning on staying long regardless.
That brought us to the end of another day, and the days were already starting to feel limited! I knew that would happen with the shorter trip as even a week barely feels like enough aside from the complete assault on my feet from park visits and the inevitable sunburn. To only have three full days plus two half days wasn't much. But while we were considering the trip I compared it to when we went to the Dominican, and it was essentially the same thing on that trip--three full days with a couple partial days. Even though that also felt really short, it still felt very worthwhile and was packed full of memories, so I decided this trip could be too. And indeed, this was a great start!
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