July 9th - Rest Day
Best Day Ever!
While I was planning the trip, I really wanted to try and do something special for Tony. As much of a hard time as I give him, he really is an amazing husband. He works very hard and while I'm out saving the children and driving around drunk college kids, he keeps the house going, does most of the cooking and takes very good care of me. I had thought about doing a dessert party, but the prices are really high and he just really isn't an "eat sweets" person - at least not enough to justify the price. Then I thought I would reserve a fishing excursion for him. He absolutely loves to fish and our house is full of fishing stuff (I have no idea what most of it is). The prices for that was even crazier than the dessert party!
And then after some more research, I found the most perfect idea. A cabana rental. They had them at both the Grand Floridian and the Contemporary and they could be rented for either a 4-hour or 8-hour timeframe. I called and for the date of our "rest day" the only availability was the Contemporary. That was fine. I took the 4-hour rental and booked the morning block - 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. After tax, it came to $178 for the both of us (that was the charge no matter how many people were going to be there). I was going to try and keep it a secret, but I really wanted to tell Tony, so I did by showing him pictures of the cabana and he was immediately sold on the idea!
We got up on the morning of July 9th and got our things together and headed out to the busses to get on a bus for the Magic Kingdom. I planned about 45 minutes for this and once again, I was just wrong. What is going on with my time management??? By the time we got to the bus, made our way over to Magic Kingdom and then down the path to the Contemporary and then found the pool area (never been over there before), it was close to 10:30. I was trying to stay calm and remembering that this was a gift to Tony and me freaking out would only make him irritated. So I just yelled at myself in my mind. Not a healthy coping skill, but you do what you have to do! We found a cast member and got checked in.
I had told them when making our reservation that we were celebrating our anniversary, and this was sitting on the table just outside the cabana. It was at that point that I started to relax. Because friends, look at this view.
Sorry - couldn't resist - but he's just adorable.
Yup, this view!
So apparently I took no pictures of the actual cabana looking inside of it. But it had two loungers to lay out in, two couches under the cabana, several tables, a refridgerator completely stocked with soft drinks and water, a huge television, small sized H2O products and a phone to call all of my friends in Kentucky to tell them where I was and that they weren't there! Yes, I'm that person! HAHAHAHA!!!
Okay, I didn't call anyone, but the phone was there when we wanted to order lunch or if we needed absolutely anything.
There was nobody else at the pool for the first hour we were there. After a while the cabana on the left of the picture had a family in it. But we felt like we were on our own island. And look, it wasn't raining!!! I slathered us up in sunscreen and we spent the next 90 minutes just relaxing in the pool. It was fabulous and the best money spent the entire trip.
While we were swimming, the cabana person brought us over our complimentary fruit plate. She also told us that we could order lunch from the Sand Bar any time we were ready. Since we were getting pretty deep fried in the sun, it was a good time to get out and lounge. We nibbled on the fruit plate and reviewed the menu. We used the phone to call and place our order.
Tony got the Foot-Long All-Beef Hot Dog served with house-made chips. He exchanged the chips for fries and got chili and mustard on his hot dog. It was messy and drippy and he claimed it to be delicious. Since we already had soft drinks and an alcoholic beverage was an option, he ordered an angry orchard to drink. I got the Pressed Turkey Sandwich served with white cheddar, cranberry aioli, arugula, bacon, brioche, and house-made chips. After taking off the tomatoes and arugula, it was a good turkey sandwich. We also shared an order of nachos with chili and cheese. Mostly because YOLO and we were still trying to hack away at some of our snack credits. I also got an angry orchard to drink, but I gave most of it to Tony. The cabana person brought the food right over to us and we just ate and talked and enjoyed our time there.
After the fall and the rain and our disappointing HS day, this was exactly what we needed.
About 20 minutes before it was time for us to leave, the cabana person came over to tell us what time it was. We started packing up and basically taking everything we could - including all the leftover soft drinks and water!!! Good thing there are baskets in front of our ECV's! We took a few more pictures before leaving paradise.
I couldn't love anything more!
Up next - more of the best day ever!