Thursday, April 14, 2022- Disney Resort Hopping- Continued (...sort of)

      We checked out of the hotel a day early.  We didn’t like our roommates- the roaches.  Scott had several confirmed kills and several more got away.  Not gonna lie- we weren’t really happy sharing space with these little friends.  We know that bugs are part of life in Florida, but somehow, we don’t think that this would have happened at a Disney Resort (and if it did, someone would come to fix the problem, and probably smile as they did it). It was cheap enough that even though we paid for four nights, we were still able to leave after three.  We had to grin and bear it while we were here.  We did take precautions to shake out our clothes as we repacked.  (Don’t worry, Emma. your desserts were kept isolated and roach free and are safe and sterile with ice in the cooler.)  This place will always be known kin our memories as the “Roach Motel”- Roaches check in, but we check out.

      We had such a nice time eating a Disney breakfast outdoors yesterday that we decided to do it again.  This time we headed towards the Disney resort called Disney's Port Orleans Resort- French Quarter.  This resort is themed on New Orleans and Mardi Gras.  The pool here, for example, has a giant statue of Neptune riding a sea serpent (which is also a waterslide), like you might see in a Mardi Gras parade.  The three-story buildings with the rooms all have the iron railings and look of some of the buildings in the French Quarter. .Julie had tried to get us to stay here last time, but it was closed because of COVID when we made our reservations.  We had never seen it before, and we decided to try breakfast here.  We were not disappointed.  

     The lobby is small, but looks New Orleans-ish.  It may not have the "wow factor" of the Wilderness Lodge, but it is cute and it has the Disney smell that we've commented on several times while we were touring this week.  (We don't know what the smell is from, but it's quite distinct.)  Like yesterday, we found the quick service restaurant, this time called the Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory.  Julie got us breakfasts of eggs, fruit, Mickey waffles and other breakfasty good stuff.  We sat outside, where it was in the low 70s and wonderfully pleasant.  We talked to Anna she said it was snowing and hailing in Buffalo.  We told her to wish Noah a happy birthday from us.  And Julie also got a King's Cake and a macaron to take home for Emma.

     After breakfast, Abby practically ran to the nearby playground and ran herself ragged again, climbing and sliding and making friends.  She was clearly having the best time and didn't want to leave it.  Meanwhile, though, Julie was changing our plans in a big way.  She was checking the Disney website to see if she could get reservations here for tonight.  She succeeded and we will be staying here now.  Is anyone surprised that this was probably her plan all along?  Scott brought in what we needed from the car, including Emma's desserts, and we stored them with the bell service until we could check in. 

     Once we got Abby away from the playground, we went shopping at the shop called Jackson Square.  Then we decided to take a boat.  We just missed that boat to Disney Springs, but we decided take the boat to the neighboring resort called Disney's Port Orleans- Riverside.   It is themed on antebellum mansions and Mississippi River towns.  When we got here, we went shopping at its gift shop, and Scott bought a shirt that he had seen in several other places.  It is a sort of a Hawaiian style shirt (like Tom Corless wears) but it has a single large picture of Cinderella's Castle and the Walt and Mickey statue in front of it.  Since they had it in his size Scott bought it, changed in the fitting room, and wore it out of the store.  

    Meanwhile, Abby was winding down.  She seemed seriously tired after her long adventure on the playground, so Julie found a quiet spot in the Riverside lobby and rocked her to sleep.  Scott went off to the nearby Muddy Rivers bar by the pool there and brought back a raspberry lemonade for Julie and an Abita Purple Haze (a raspberry wheat beer) for himself.  We had time to make some more plans while she was sleeping.  We were going to go to Disney Springs and from there on to maybe Epcot or the Grand Floridian that we had missed yesterday.  But when Abby finally woke up she was not acting like herself and  she ended up changing our plans quiet dramatically.

     Our room was ready at the French Quarter, so we took the boat back and Julie used the app on her phone to check us in and open the keyless door.  The room is very similar to the pirate themed room that we had at Christmas, though without all of the pirate decorations.  There were green, purple and gold Mardi Gras beads on the table in the shape of Mickey Mouse when we entered.  

    Abby was still not feeling well and quite possibly was running a temperature.  We got the checked bags and a few things from the car and gave her the afternoon to rest.  It disappointed us, to be sure, but we used the time to rest too.  Julie said Scott could go off to Disney Springs, but he said he wouldn't enjoy it knowing she was stuck here.  It reminded us of the times that Julie would come to Disney as an advisor on the senior class trips and would invariably have to spend some time back at the hotel with some poor kid that came down with the flu.  We spent a very quiet couple of hours.  Including the time that Abby slept at Port Orleans- Riverside, we figure that she slept five or six hours this afternoon.  That certainly wasn't in any of our plans this morning, but that's no one's fault.  Around 4:00-ish, Scott volunteered to go down to the quick service restaurant that we ate breakfast from and brought back a pizza.  The restaurant is quite close to our room.  He also ran an errand to the Jackson Square gift shop to get some things for Anna and a few other people.  If you have to be stuck somewhere, a Disney hotel is better than most any other place.   

    After a while, Abby awoke again, and she seemed to be acting a little more like herself.  Maybe she just got way overheated on the playground?  We don't know.  But she seemed ready to do something, so we decided to venture out.  We went down to that restaurant again and Scott brought a couple things to them  First, a drink from that restaurant.  Then, a Mickey-shaped beignet covered in powdered sugar, because it seems like a thing you have to get at the Port Orleans French Quarter.  Finally, he got an Abita Amber lager from the pool bar, because it's a New Orleans beer that he had actually had in New Orleans.  

    Abby was looking more like herself, so we decided to venture out further.  We weighed our options and ended up going back to the boat dock and got the transport to the Disney Springs shopping area.  We had a little bit more shopping do.  We went to the World of Disney store, of course, but managed to leave only with a container of Mickey-shaped goldfish crackers for Abby and something for Noah.  We browsed briefly at a few other places but didn't make any more purchases.

     Julie had wanted to go to Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar.  In the Indiana Jones stories, Jock is his pilot and this bar is supposed to be where he came to retire from flying.  There are lots of Indiana Jones "Easter eggs" hidden throughout, and we spotted a few of them.  There is a large map behind the bar showing the routes from the movies in red arrows.  In one back corner, there was the idol from the opening scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Scott got a Kungaloosh Spiced Excursion Ale, which is brewed exclusively for Disney and is named for the catch phrase at the old Adventurer's Club, an appropriate allusion for the Indiana Jones setting.  But Abby was causing a little bit of chaos of her own now and made it difficult for Julie to enjoy the setting.  Abby knocked over her Coke and then spilled much of her Mickey-shaped goldfish into the mix on the floor.  It was a bigger mess than we usually leave.

     This day hadn't yet finished with us, though, and just as we exited Jock Lindsey's, it started to rain and storm.  The boats back to Port Orleans do not run in the storm, so we had to make our way through the rain to try to catch a bus with everyone else from our hotel who was otherwise stranded at Disney Springs.  This rain was not as bad as the torrential one that we were caught in with baby Anna at Epcot that one year, but it was enough.  

     We can't say that any of us had any idea how this day was going to go.  We expected some time in the pools, another couple of resort visits and maybe even a Monorail ride around Epcot.  It's nobody's fault, but that didn't happen.  There were certainly a lot of twists and turns, highs and lows today.   If we had known how it was going to unfold, we wouldn't have paid so much for the hotel room, but right now, we're happy to be in it.