Sunday morning brought check out time at POP. We knew we had a window between check out of Pop and check in at AKL, and we didn't really have an agenda on the go. We decided we'd haul our stuff over to DH's mom's room to have a little time with her before we headed off (Grammie and DH's brother were at the golf course). When I got to the room, his mom had her computer set up, so I hopped online to change my name on facebook (lol) and check some emails. I started jumping and squealing when I opened up the emails, because our pictures were sent to us! We went through them twice and then I went about in a flurry emailing the link so family members and a few close friends.
Finally, DH pried me from the computer and we headed out to the front of the building. We decided that we weren't too into lugging our four bags via Disney transport, we had some cash left (almost unheard of with us this close to the end of a trip!) so we cabbed it over. Our driver was odd. And when we arrived, nobody helped us with the bags. The driver just sat in the car, and we had to open the back doors ourselves to lug out our four bags. Needless to say, there was no tipping going on there.
AKL is BEAUTIFUL. Pop certainly did the trick for us for the trip: we were asking a lot for people to travel down for our wedding, and we wanted to be somewhat accessible too, so that's why we stayed there. We knew people would have stayed wherever, but felt awkward asking people to stay in a higher level hotel. But AKL...wow. You can just FEEL it...hard to explain.
We dropped our luggage off with concierge, then went to the front desk even though we knew our room probably wouldn't be ready. It wasn't, but that was okay...we ended up heading down to Mara to have lunch (where I tried the zebra domes - ew! That would be 0 for 2 on desserts for me in a 24 hour period.). After Mara, we wandered around checking out the pool, the resort in general, and the animals.
We then decided to skip over to Animal Kingdom. Kind of a long story...but when we were at Animal Kingdom with the rest of the crew, my MOH had been looking for a bracelet. Her aunt had visited Animal Kingdom the year it opened and had bought a bracelet, and worn it all the time. She died shortly after the visit, very suddenly, and my MOH has worn it ever since. Well, the bracelet was starting to fray and she's always worried now that she'll lose it. The day that we were in Animal Kingdom she had wanted to look for it right away, but her boyfriend wanted to do something else, and convinced her to wait. By the time she got to the kiosk they were closed (right before supper). It was not good. She was fairly devastated, and he was totally in the doghouse for it. Anyway, so we headed back to scout out the bracelets. We didn't have any luck.

I asked at a bunch of places, and they didn't have the right clasp on it (the tree of life). Boo. I did tell her however, that they didn't seem to exist anymore so she'd stop blaming Kyle!
It was super hot, and quite crowded, so I got a Mickey Bar, we sat for a bit to people watch, and then headed back to the resort.
We checked into our fantastic room, read a little on the balcony, and then changed for dinner at Sanaa.
MMMMMMMMmmmm! We are SO going back there! Our server was so fantastic that I left a comment card for him. He was just really informative, offering suggestions, history, how things are made, etc. Above and beyond. Loved him, and the food.
After supper it was back over to hit the hot tub and pool. We were sooo sad to be leaving the next day
DH got up early the next morning and brought back brekkie, which we enjoyed on the balcony watching the animals.
I don't even think we spoke while rounding things up...we didn't want to leave. We got out to the Magical Express and he wouldn't let us on...apparently they had us scheduled to leave the day earlier from Pop. Bah. He wasn't very nice about it. DH got it straightened out at the front desk. I was willing to stay at Disney and forget the whole leaving thing altogether.
The line at the airport to get through security was insane...we were late leaving, and then found out there was a storm coming into Toronto, so we just ended up hoping that we'd beat it out to get home. I mean, I wouldn't mind staying in Florida, but cold, snowy Toronto was a different story! My zumba instructor ended up on our flight to Halifax, and she teased me about showing up to the next class now that I "was an old married lady". We landed...to snow and ice pellets. Welcome home.
That's it folks. I'm really glad I did this TR. Sometimes when I'm having a blah day I go back and read. Even the crazy meltdowns put a little smile on my face...although I'm still not over the poncho incident.
