Disney - Day 3

After spending about $300 on park admission each of the first two days, we decided to save our admission money to put toward the therapy Dude will need for his ride on Atlantis. So we hung out at the pool! It was a good choice . . . the weather was perfect, the pool was open, and the price was right! We had a great time in the hot tubs, on the water slide, and swimming in the massive number of pools. There weren’t many people out poolside, so we could let the kids run around and do their thing without really worrying. We grabbed some lunch poolside, along with some strawberry daiquiries, and had a nice relaxing day. We figured we could spend a day at the pool, then head to Downtown Disney and let the kids pick out something and it would still be way cheaper.

There was a really cool waterfall at the pool. You could walk behind it, swim around it, swim under it, sit in the chairs behind it all day. Pretty cool!

There were also a couple of fun bridges to get from one side of the pool to the other. There were a ton of different areas to the pool of different depths, so we could all touch somewhere. Dude had a lot of fun just swimming around. He’s gotten so good at swimming the past year . . . we’re way proud of how far he’s come with it!

Dude and Princess by one of the many waterfalls at the pool. There was a waterfall by each of the 3 hot tubs. They had a blast sitting in the hot tubs and jumping into them. There weren’t people in them, so it worked out well.

Hubby, Princess, and Dude hang out behind the waterfall. They wanted to sit back there, but it was just too loud to be back there all day.

There was a nice sandy beach by the pool, too. You could play beach volleyball, hang out in a hammock, or just sit on the beach. The kids discovered this fun seal that spit water out of its mouth. They had so much fun running around it and splashing each other and digging a mote around it. They played here for a loooonnggg time while Hubby and I just sat and relaxed and watched them.

There was also a life-sized checkerboard on the beach! We never did get around to playing it, but it was pretty neat.

After a full day at the pool, we got cleaned up and headed to Downtown Disney. We saw all kinds of fun stuff! We always have to go into a Harley store when we see one. Princess thought it was cool to sit on the flag motorcycle.

There is a new restaurant about to open, called T-Rex Cafe. Bummer that it wasn’t open yet Dude still had fun messing around with the big T-Rex skeleton.

The Legos were really cool! There were a ton of Lego sculptures around the area. I’m always amazed at how they can make those huge sculptures out of a ton of teeny tiny Legos. Ya - princess looks real impressed in this photo. I think she needed food

This big water serpent Lego sculpture was one of my favorites. We spent quite a bit of time in the Lego store . . . the wall of individual Legos is cool! If you’ve ever been to an M&M store, you know what I’m talking about - there’s an entire wall of Lego tubes . . . each tube has one color and shape of Lego in it. You can take a cup and fill it with whatever specialty shapes and colors that you want.

Princess ended up choosing her “thing” from the Disney Store. Much to my surprise, she did NOT choose any Princess-related item! Instead, she chose a really cute Baby Minnie Mouse I was pleasantly surprised . . . and it was only $20, so we got off cheap! Dude didn’t find anything he wanted, so he took the cash option We went to The House of Blues for dinner and it was YUMMO! Again, we didn’t have to wait at all, even though it was 6:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. But right after we got in and sat down, there was a huge line and about a 45 minute wait. I guess we just had good line karma the whole trip - maybe because we were willing to wait in lines and weren’t bothered by them . . . I guess those people who were annoyed by them had to wait longer After dinner we headed to the House of Blues Store . . . BIG mistake! There’s always fun stuff to buy there. With everything we did this day, we ended up spending about the same as we would have on admission to Universal Studios . . . except we didn’t have to drive, fight crowds, or eat park food for another day. It was a great day - we got to relax and enjoy the pool and each other and not be in a hurry to be anywhere.

Back to the hotel to pack and get read for an early Sunday morning departure. We had to leave the hotel at 5:45 a.m.! And with the two-hour time change to get back to mountain time - well, you could say we were a little tired by the time dinner rolled around at home

All in all a wonderful vacation! We could have stayed one more day, but any more than that would have been too much - too much money, too many people, and too much vacation. It all worked out perfectly for us! We can’t wait to go back again in a few years and take in some more of the sights.