Our last full day and we wanted it to be a good one. After breakfast we sat outside and enjoyed the surprisingly good weather despite the gloomy forecast.
We had a very lazy morning just reading and generally doing nothing. The biggest excitement was having some boiled eggs for lunch, apart from the turtle that came out of the lake to come up to have a look at us for a while.
Even our plan for the afternoon felt lazy, we decided to drive back to Celebration one last time. The town centre was very quiet and we managed to park on the main road with no problem. Karen fetched the drinks whilst I grabbed a table with rocking chairs overlooking the lake.
The air was hot and humid and it felt more like August than April. There were dark storm clouds on the horizon and Karen wanted to be convinced that they would miss us before we went for a walk around the lake. As we sat there a turtle popped up to see us. I don’t think it was the same one as earlier as it was a different lake about 6 miles away, but you never know.
Our leisurely stroll around the lake quickened somewhat when Karen started to get concerned about a new cloud formation on the horizon, but we made it back to the car and Villa without getting wet. We have been extremely fortunate with the weather all trip and I was convinced it would continue to the end.
We were only back in the villa a short while when we headed back out again for the evening.
Once in the car the radio was interrupted by a Tornado warning in the neighbouring county. Its movement was being tracked and the warning was for people in the vicinity to take immediate shelter. I assured Karen that the direction that they said it was taking was moving away from us. We saw on TV later that it hit a small airport and that several small aircraft were blown over.
Our final meal we had decided was to be at Longhorn Steakhouse. Our decision had been swayed by fact I had a voucher for a free appetiser. Despite it being busy we were seated immediately. The wild west shrimp appetiser was not bad nor were the steaks we had.
After this we filled the car up with petrol and headed back onto Disney Property to visit the Polynesian Resort. We were given a lovely Aloha greeting by the car park attendant who seemed to be delighted we were visiting.
The hotel was heaving with people, easily the busiest we have ever seen.
I adore this hotel – the smell, the look, the feel and the atmosphere. At night it is even better with the gas lights burning giving it a magical ambience.
I think some of goes back to when Mum used to play her Hawaiian music albums at home. The music brings the memories flooding back to me. It all seemed so exotic to me back then and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would get to visit there. This hotel is like a sanitised version of how I always pictured it was and always will be.
Having been to the actual Hawaii back in 2012 for our ‘Hawaii 50’ birthdays it is easily in my top 5 places I have ever been and we are planning to go back in 2024. This is a good reminder of what it will be like again.
We wandered around the shops. Even the goods for sale in here seem better here than anywhere else to me.
Despite the number of people around we found a free table outside and shared a bottle of water to drink. As I was driving, I couldn’t have one of the infamous cocktails from Trader Sam’s and as Karen had just had a beer with her meal and there was another bottle waiting back at the villa for her, she didn’t fancy one either.
Next to our table (and probably why it was free) there was a kids dance party taking place. It was being well organised and even though there must have been about 30 children taking place they were all well behaved and joining in. Then it was movie night and so they all sat down and started watching a Disney film called ‘Luca’ that I had not heard of but looked interesting and will try to find it on Disney Plus when I get home
At 2 minutes to 9pm we left our seats and walked down to the edge of the Seven Seas Lagoon arriving just as the music being piped in, started for the Magic Kingdom firework display of ‘Happily Ever After’. We had a terrific view of the fireworks which although were one mile away were still amazing and still very loud. Standing next to the speaker meant we could hear the music accompanying the fireworks perfectly.
I said that just wandering up and watching them in this way was my perfect way of seeing them. Karen half agreed but also said she liked watching the projections onto the Magic Kingdom castle. My opinion remained that it was all about the fireworks and not the lights.
As for us it was quite late by the time we got back to the villa we just finished off whatever drinks we had left in the fridge whilst watching some rubbish on TV before retiring for the night.
Tomorrow, we planned to be up very early to hopefully help us sleep on the overnight flight home. It had been another day where we had avoided the rain.
