Disney World. October 2021. Day 7. One Last Time.
Shabbat Shalom. Today we woke up for our character breakfast!
The Four seasons only has character breakfasts twice a week, so today was our only option. Normally I would have been upset because we couldn’t get photos, but because of Covid the characters don’t actually come up to your table. Every few minutes they do a little parade and stand a few feet from the table and wave. It’s cute, but it’s not like it used to be. Hopefully they go back to regular soon. Also, it used to be buffet, but now it’s sort of an all you can eat a la carte. We ordered so much food. With a buffet you can try everything but take a tiny bit, but now you had to order a whole order of whatever you wanted to taste. Oh well. I wasn’t holding back.
After breakfast it was time for our massages! Robyn took the girls to the kids club and we headed to the spa. My masseuse was from Long Island and was great. She actually went hard on my thumbs and said she does it because she knows how frequently we are on our phones and we need to massage our hands. We didn’t have time to hang out at the spa after our massages, so we headed back to the girls. We met by the pool and got some chairs set up. We sent Robyn to have some free time on her own and we hung out by the pool. The sun went in and out throughout the day; when the sun was strong it was hot, but then clouds would show up and it would get cool. Tzvi kept taking his shirt off and putting it back on. Madeleine took a stroller nap and Hallie actually spent more time alone in the kids club, which was a big win. They had a slime making activity. Very Shabbat friendly.
The late afternoon was kind of tough because we didn’t really know what to do and Shabbat didn’t end until 720ish. We spent a while packing while Hallie and Madeleine ate snacks and went back and forth to my parents room. Eventually Shabbat ended and all of us, minus Robyn and Madeleine, went to Disney Springs for our fifth visit of the trip. It wasn’t worth trying to keep Madeleine out late.
We had no real plan but when we got to Disney Springs we decided to put our name down at Rainforest Café. Just for the record, I specifically did not make a Rainforest reservation because I feel like people always complain that I want to go there every trip. They said the wait was an hour, so we went on the carousel (yes, again) and then did some shopping (yes, apparently there was more to buy). The plan was to go straight to the Lacoste store because my mom wanted to buy more shirts, so we said we’d meet her there. Well, next thing I know Tzvi, Hallie and I are waiting at Lacoste for 20 minutes while she’s shopping at World of Disney. Wonderful.
As usual, we brought the balloon we bought earlier in the trip and tied it to the stroller. I don’t know what happened, or how this is even possible, but somehow air leaked out of the one of the Mickey ears. Just one ear. I don’t get it.
After about an hour and ten minutes our table at Rainforest was ready. As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed. I had a Caesar salad with salmon and bread. Tzvi had fish and chips. Hallie had pizza. She enjoyed every time it got dark and thundered. After that we went to World of Disney and my parents got on the line for Ghirardelli (yes, again). The line was long but moved quickly and they kept calling us. If only they had waiting to do their World of Disney shopping and we could have all shopped together. Novel idea.
Anyway, we got Sundaes but by the time we had our ice cream Hallie was asleep in the stroller. We really did try to wake her, but it wasn’t happening.
We headed back to the hotel around 11pm. Great way to end the trip.
EPILOGUE:
Sunday morning involved room service once again. We were great on time but Tzvi was still stressed to get out. We once again got a Mercedes Sprinter van and headed to the airport! Check in was easy, but security was ridiculous. The pre-check line was so long that Robyn actually got through quicker on the regular line (to be fair, we did stop to buy a shirt for Madeleine at the airport Disney store because (1) we can’t pass a Disney store without buying something and (2) my mother thought Madeleine’s shirt was too small on her. Anyway, there was a huge line for pre-check and only one TSA agent checking IDs. Tzvi was getting really huffy about the fact that there were three or four TSA agents just standing around directing the line. He even started googling how to file a complaint with the TSA, but of course once he was through security he forgot about it. We made a quick stop in the lounge, but there was nothing to get, so we rushed on to the gate. Good thing we rushed, because boarding was delayed 15 minutes. Thankfully I ran to get Hallie a bagel because she ended up eating the entire thing.
The flight was fine. Madeleine slept a bit, but not much.
Great trip.