Disney Day 4 - Back Home (but not THAT Home!)

Saturday morning I woke up to use the bathroom, and I immediately suspected my feet would not survive consecutive park days.  Add in that we were transferring resorts and had some packing up to do that morning, which would set us back, and that we'd probably have better luck at Magic Kingdom on a Halloween party day Sunday (as people don't pick the park that day because non-party guests have to leave early and miss fireworks), and it made the decision pretty easy to postpone our second park day to the following day.  

We had to do our final pack-up before taking our luggage down to bell services for our transfer.  It's a little crazy to have to pack up all of your stuff in the middle of the trip, but I suppose it was a good test run for going home, to figure out where we might be short on space after Jacob's Under Armour shopping sprees and the purchase of a hippo.  Fortunately, Carter's new suitcase arrived the previous evening and it worked great for repacking his stuff.  We were even able to have bell services dispose of the old one (farewell, old friend!).  

The one downside to doing a resort day on a transfer day is that I usually feel the need to keep extra stuff with me (like swim stuff, ponchos, and my computer) because we will have pool time and might have some downtime before the room is ready.  I want to be prepared for everything, not to mention that in some cases I need the space for whatever doesn't fit in my suitcase!  That meant hauling around an extra heavy bag for half the day in that awful heat...ugh.

Before we headed out, we took a few more pictures of the room now that it wasn't covered in the boys' mess!

The couch we barely got to sit on because Jacob's bed was folded down on it from the moment we walked in the room

We dropped off the bags and briefly split up.  Carter and I went back down to Sanaa to get him breakfast, as he loved his previous breakfast there.  On our way back out, we spied this rather large turtle that lives out on the savanna but in an enclosure right up next to the building.

Then we stopped over to Jambo House to look at souvenirs.  We knew there was a tiny blue carved soapstone hippo we wanted (an homage to the blue hippo at home that started it all), and I was also looking at this other really cool decorative carving that looked a bit like an eternal knot.  I really wanted to get it, but I wasn't sure if it would fit in my luggage or make it home safely crammed in full luggage, so I held off.  I was going to think about trying to make it back if I didn't find any other souvenirs, though spoiler alert: I did not.  Boo.

From there Carter and I took the bus to Animal Kingdom and then hopped on an Old Key West bus.  Craig and Jacob had already headed over there to get a head start on some pool time, and that was our first stop, as well.  It was so nice to be back at Old Key West.  Just seeing the sign on the way into the resort and the familiar sights made me so happy.  It truly is our home away from home there.  After stopping to change, we headed to the pool, which was lovely as always.  It also remains my favorite slide!  After about an hour of pool time, we were getting pretty hungry, so it was time to wrap up and head to lunch.  We wanted to eat at Olivia's right there at Old Key West, but they close between 2 and 5 and we had just missed the end of brunch.  So, we decided to go over to Port Orleans for lunch instead.  We hopped on the boat to Disney Springs and then transferred to Port Orleans French Quarter.
  

Happy to be back on the boat!

Jacob loves the burger at Sassagoula Floatworks & Food Factory, and Carter and Craig decided to get jambalaya!  I had a really good pulled pork sandwich.

Jacob decided he was too full to get beignets that day, so we figured we'd skip it and go back another day for those.  We were getting ready to take the boat back to Disney Springs to go back to Old Key West and wait for our room, but a thunderstorm was coming in so the boats were closed.  We had to take a bus over to Disney Springs instead and transfer to Old Key West from there.  It started absolutely monsooning just as the bus was picking us up, so it was a rather wet boarding process and it rained so hard that the bus leaked a bit!  Unfortunately we had to go through security at Disney Springs despite just hopping back on another bus, which was a massive pain with the extra heavy bag from carrying around transfer day stuff.  Luckily the rain was slowing down by then, but it was still pretty drippy as we made our way to the next bus.  

While we were at Port Orleans, we got notified by text that our room was ready.  Initially I was a bit annoyed because it was in the Southpoint section, where we've never stayed before.  It's the farthest one out and it wasn't one of the two neighborhoods that I had requested.  Fortunately, it was one of the first buildings in the section, so it ended up being in a pretty good spot after all--only about an eight-minute walk to the hospitality house and just a minute or so to the bus stop.  

One annoying thing when we got back and tried to grab our luggage was that they lost our food and water that we had left with bell services for the trip over.  At least all of our luggage was there, but it was annoying to know we had food and snacks that we didn't have access to.  It took pretty much an entire extra day to find them, which meant we didn't have our snacks, water, or breakfast items for that evening or the next morning.  So much for trying to save money.  Another disappointment was that the Dole Whip machine was broken the entire time we were there, so there was no key lime Dole Whip.  That was a huge bummer because the key lime swirl is the best, and I kept holding off on other Dole Whip because I was holding out for key lime!

When we got into our room, we were surprised to see that it was the reverse layout from the one we've had every other time we've been there.  Same space, but our bedroom was off to the left instead of the right.  It was odd being in essentially a carbon copy room, but everything was a mirror image to what we're used to!  We had a golf course view this time, but sadly the course is under refurbishment so it was a little rougher around the edges than usual.

Giant bamboo tree next to our patio

We relaxed for a bit in the room before getting ready to head off to dinner, but once again, a nasty storm hit.  That made going much of anywhere for dinner a bit more complicated, but we got a reservation at Olivia's and hopped a bus to get there.  Along the way, there was a gorgeous rainbow outside.  I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but by the time we got to the hospitality house, it was starting to fade.  

We had to wait a bit longer than we were expecting because there were a lot of people taking up tables with post-meal chit-chat.  While we waited, I snapped some pretty pre-sunset photos.  It's such a lovely resort at all times of day.

We finally got seated and our meal was delicious as usual.  Jacob got his beloved prime rib, Carter got the southern fried chicken, Craig got salmon, and I got the bacon jam cheeseburger.  The boys had wanted to do a night swim after dinner, which I usually love, but I was so full and the last thing I felt like doing was put on a swimsuit.  I just wanted to hang out in the room for a bit, so I walked back myself while the boys stayed back and eventually shot hoops for a while.  On my way, I captured EPCOT fireworks from a distance. 

It was such a peaceful walk home, despite the distant booms.  Upon arrival at the room, I ended up doing an hour or more of work.  This vacation hit at a terrible time for my work projects, but honestly, there's never a good time.  If I would have gone earlier in the summer, it would have delayed getting other projects moving, so my timelines would have been messed up that way, too.  So the best I could do was keep up with email every couple days and see what I could move forward when I checked in.  I managed to push a few things forward, which was helpful for when I got back on Tuesday.  That time alone was much-needed and very well-spent.

The boys came back just as I was wrapping up, and that was pretty much it for another day at Disney.  Not exactly our most productive or efficient day ever, but it was really nice to be back home at Old Key West and ready to go for the last full day of our trip!