Disney World. Day 5. The Long Road Home.
Hallie woke us up around 7:30 but we didn’t make it out to breakfast until 9:30. We went to the Lobby Bar, which is only open for breakfast on days that there is character breakfast at Ravello (which is Thursday and Saturdays). The buffet was basically the same, but cheaper than the character buffet at Ravello. We sat outside and it was really nice. Less hot than the other days and just a pleasant morning. Hallie ran all over the place and was singing and climbing on the sofas. At least she had fun.
At 11:00 AM we left Hallie with Ofek and headed to the spa while they went to the kids club. We had a massage scheduled for 11:30, so we relaxed a few minutes in the spa first but there’s not much I can do since I can’t go in a steam room or a Jacuzzi. The massages were fantastic, maybe the best I’ve ever had. They had a special pregnancy pillow with a big space for my belly so I could lay on my stomach. It was great. After it was over we relaxed a little more in the spa and then went and met everyone else at the pool. We spent the afternoon swimming, laying and reading. For lunch Tzvi had a seared ahi tuna salad that he loved, and Hallie had another pb&j sandwich with fries and corn (which I ate a bunch of). I think the pool food here is some of the best I’ve had at a pool. We met a man in the pool named Michael, who was a psychiatrist and went to med school in Tel Aviv. We also met a little boy named Vitorio who kept walking over and wanted to play hide and seek with Hallie and eat her French fries. He was Italian (we think) and 4 years old, and the parents were sitting not too far way, but they didn’t seem to care that he kept wandering away. We should all adopt that care free European mentality.
Around 5:30 we went in to start getting ready and to pack for the trip home. At 7:16 shabbos ended and at 7:20 we were in a car on our way to Disney Springs. For dinner we ate at Raglan Road, the Irish pub that we usually eat at once per Disney trip. We were seated pretty close to the stage where there was a guitar player and violinist and tap dancers doing an Irish jig. We usually sit in the ancillary rooms where it’s a little less loud. This was great because we could see the show and Hallie absolutely loved the dancing, but it was just very loud. Raglan Road starts everyone off with Irish soda bread and a Guinness stout reduction for dipping. It’s one of the two reasons to visit Raglan Road. To start we shared a smoked salmon appetizer that came with a potato pancake and crème fraiche and a salad with shallots and tomatoes. Both were good. Then we waited. We waited a really long time for our entrees. We kept asking and they kept saying it was coming. Finally a manager came out and said something but we couldn’t really hear because of the music. Then the food came and we were so hungry we forgot to take pictures of the main. I had a Caesar salad and Tzvi had his fourth salmon of the trip. Both were good. For dessert we had the bread pudding with vanilla sauce, which is the other reason to visit Raglan Road.
After dinner we walked around and did all of our last minute shopping. Hallie rode the carousel two more times and I got my caramel apple from Goofy’s Candy Co, which I do every trip. We called an Uber around 11pm, which thankfully was really like 10pm since we would be changing the clock back in a few hours. We went back to the hotel, put Hallie to bed, finished packing and went to sleep.
Sunday
Sunday morning we were up by 6:45 and out by 7:20. We checked out and headed to the airport. In contrast to our trip to Orlando, the trip home was a breeze. We flew through security with our pre-check (it was probably the easiest security screening we’ve ever had with Hallie), got access to the priority pass lounge where we found some terrible but free food, had an easy time getting on the plane, actually took off on time (minimal taxi time!), and then landed early. Hallie was even pretty good on the plane. The entire flight was under 2 hours. It was great. Now we’re home.
The only bad part about the day was the moment that I realized I had left my apple in the fridge in the hotel room. I called the hotel but they said that while they usually ship items left at the hotel for free, they can’t do it for food. I was really sad. I’m still really sad. [Tzvi: It’s been over a week since we’ve been home at the time of writing this and she still can’t get over it and talks about how sad she is about the apple every single day.]
It was a really great trip.