Sadly, today was our last day of our honeymoon. It was time to check out of the Animal Kingdom Lodge and fly back home. But not just yet! Since I didn't want to get up early and be at the airport in the morning, we weren't scheduled to leave until the afternoon. So, we had some time to kill.
And what better way to kill time than to have a fabulous breakfast? Since I knew we weren't leaving until the afternoon when I made our dining reservations, I got us a breakfast reservation for our last day. I booked us the 'Ohana's Best Friend Breakfast at the Polynesian Resort.
I did this for three reasons: 1. It looked tasty. 2. It features some of my favorite characters. 3. The Polynesian was my second choice of the Deluxe resorts and I wanted to check it out.
So, we finished packing our things and checked out of the Animal Kingdom Lodge and then drove over to the Polynesian. Unlike at the Crystal Palace, our reservation was about halfway through their breakfast service. We checked in at the restaurant and then explored the area around the restaurant while we waited. The restaurants at the Polynesian are actually on the second floor because that's where the monorail picks up and drops off guests.
Apparently, if you're celebrating something, you're supposed to get leis, but we didn't get them even though I had noted on our reservation that it was our honeymoon. I'd also read that they took your pictures before they take you to your table and then later try to sell you the picture, but we never had our picture taken. I can't remember if we were asked or not.
Unlike our other character breakfasts, this was not a buffet. Instead, the meal is served family style, which makes sense since 'Ohana means family. (Can you guess what characters we're going to meet now?)
After greeting us and explaining the breakfast, our server brought us our food.
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture until we'd already dug in. The skillet held scrambled eggs, Mickey waffles, fried potatoes, biscuits, sausage links, and bacon.
There was also a plate of fresh fruit, which you can kind of see on the left there. I can't remember what fruits were on it, but I'm pretty sure I ate a bunch of fresh pineapple.
We also got this basket of bread.
This bread was super yummy. I think I ate all of it by myself because my husband didn't like any of it. Oh well, more for me! One of the breads was a pineapple bread which I love and I think the other had raisins, which I also enjoy. And of course, I had a glass of orange juice. You have to drink orange juice when you're in Florida!
I love that Disney takes the theming of everything so seriously. Doesn't it look like we might actually be in Hawaii?
Since this was a character breakfast, we were waiting to meet the characters. Unfortunately, 'Ohana doesn't seem as organized as the Crystal Palace and we had to wait awhile for the characters to get to us. Plus, they stopped a couple times and did some parades around the restaurants with the kids. But we really wanted to meet these characters, so we tried to eat slowly and be patient. Our server did get us more food and M was quick to request more bacon. He would have been happy with just a skillet of bacon!
Finally, we got to meet the celebrities...
We finally got to meet the big guy!
And the reason for this breakfast, Stitch! He's my favorite and I gave him a big hug when he arrived. Lilo was also there, but we didn't really want to meet her and didn't want to spend more time there, so we left.
Since we still had plenty of time until our flight, we decided to explore the resort a little.
The grounds were very pretty.
Here's the gorgeous pool area.
As you can see, the Polynesian has a view of the castle.
Even the slide is themed to match the resort.
Here you can see what the buildings look like.
That's the Disney Wedding Pavilion across the Lagoon.
There's the Grand Floridian.
And there's the Contemporary.
Since the Poly is on the Lagoon, they also have a beach. I've heard that you can see the Magic Kingdom's fireworks from the beach.
Can you believe this is in the lobby? The Polynesian is really a beautiful resort.
Since I had managed to read all of the books I'd brought along, we decided to hit up a bookstore on the way to the airport. We spent some time there browsing and I found a book. Eventually, we made it to the airport with plenty of time. We turned in our rental car and checked into our flight.
We found our gate and then waited for our time to board. And waited. And waited. I was getting antsy and checking my watch. Shouldn't we be boarding now? I got up and wandered over to our gate (Our gate was very close to two others and they all shared a large waiting area.) Oh, according to the sign at the gate, our flight is delayed. They finally decided it might be wise to announce that. Turns out our airplane couldn't leave wherever it was coming from due to a storm. So we waited. And waited. And waited. I was getting nervous because we were supposed to connect in Cincinnati and it wasn't looking good.
We finally got to board our plane and head to Cincinnati. We landed 5 minutes before our connecting flight was supposed to take off. I checked the monitor at our arrival gate and it looked like our flight was still there. I finally got to fulfill my Amazing Race fantasy and we
RAN to the gate!
Unfortunately
The good news was that since it was Delta's fault, they put us up in a hotel for the night and gave us food vouchers. The bad news was that it was already 9:00 pm and nothing was open for food at the airport and the hotel wasn't in an area with restaurants. It did, however, have a shuttle that picked us up from the airport along with others from our flight.
The hotel people were nice and even gave us a king sized bed. However, I was not in the mood to spend the night in Cincinnati. I wanted to sleep in my own bed in my own house.
We're not at the Animal Kingdom Lodge anymore!
Since our bags were checked, we only had our carry-ons. And of course, I didn't pack any extra clothes or my medications in the carry-on. Delta gave us these toiletry cases, which helped, but it still wasn't my stuff.
Luckily, the next day we were able to get home and I vowed to never fly Delta again. And I learned to pack some extra clothes in my carry-on as well as my meds.
And finally, our honeymoon was over. We had a great time and I wouldn't change any of it except for our adventure getting home.
