Homecomin'

On Saturday morning we got to sleep in a little bit. Then it was time for us to pack our bags and head home. We opted to use Mickey's Magical express to get to the airport. This is a free bus service provided by Walt Disney World for hotel guests.

Once we were all packed we took our bags up to the front desk. Disney World has an agreement with the airlines that allows passengers to drop their checked bags off at the front desk. The front desk printed our baggage tags and we didn't see those bags again until we touched down in SLC. It was very convenient.

We had a couple of hours between check out and when our shuttle would arrive so Alison had made reservations at a restaurant in Disney Springs. To get there we called an Uber. It was my grandparent's first Uber ride. They were quite enamored with Uber. My grandpa chatted with the driver the entire ride.

Lunch was amazing. We went to Homecomin'. It is a southern comfort food restaurant. Alison picked it because it got great reviews and served hushpuppies (which she loves). It way exceeded our expectations. Everything we got was amazing. The hushpuppies were very good. We all got fried chicken for our main course and it was unbelievable. Literally was the tastiest fried chicken I have ever eaten. My grandpa even told our waitress that this was the second best place we ate on our trip (his favorite place was the Japanese restaurant). It was the perfect way to end our Disney experience.

We had to stop by the World of Disney store to pick up a gift for Skylee. She has us wrapped around her little finger. She knows that we always bring her something back from our Disney trips and usually puts in a request before we go. On this trip, she requested that we bring her back a rabbit (and a lollipop). She was thinking rabbit from Winnie the Pooh. We knew that would be tough, but we kept our eyes open. We weren't able to find the rabbit from Winnie the Pooh, but we did find a stuffed briar rabbit. Before we bought it Alison face-timed Skylee. As soon as Skylee saw the stuffed rabbit her face lit up. She was so excited. She asked us if we had gotten her a lollipop, too. We went and found the biggest lollipop we could buy and brought them home with us as well.

We took an Uber back to the resort and hung out at the front desk until it was time to go to the airport. I really enjoyed riding on Mickey's Magical Express. It was such a convenient way to get to the airport. Next time we do a Disney World trip I would take that both ways.

Alison and I had found out the night before that we were upgraded to first class. As soon as we found out we made a plan to give those seats to my grandparents. When you are in first class you get to board the plane before everyone else. My grandparents were supposed to board in zone 3, but we asked them to board with us. When we got to the gate we just let the agent know that my grandparents were with us and that we were going to help them, board. As we were walking down the tarmac I asked my grandpa if I could see his boarding pass and I handed him mine telling him that this would be his new seat. Alison did the same thing for my grandmother. They were so excited to have first class. The look of happiness on their faces was worth infinitely more than the extra comfort of flying first class. When we got off the plane my grandma gave us both a huge hug and thanked us for letting them fly first class. They told us it was a great experience. They told us during the flight the attendant asked if they wanted dinner. They weren't sure if it was included, but they both got something, and it was free since they were in first class. They both said the dinner was really good. It was their first time flying first class.

We got off the plane and we were standing by the baggage claim when my grandpa asked us where the rabbit was. We realized that we had left it on the plane. Alison ran over to the Delta desk to see if they could help us. Turns out Delta in SLC does not have a process to deal with someone leaving an item on a plane. It took them a few minutes, but they were able to locate our bag. They sent Alison back through security to grab it. We had the rabbit - that was a close call. We would have had one very unhappy niece if we would have left that on the plane.

Alison's parents gave us a ride home. We stopped by their house to eat a burger and talk about our trip before we headed home. This was a really fun trip, but it was good to be home. We were gone for over a week. We got home kind of late and we had to run a pile of laundry. Alison had to be back at the airport at 9 am the next day to catch a flight for a work trip. We stayed up until we could put our laundry into the dryer. Then finally we were able to get into our own bed and call it a night.

I have a few thoughts about this trip that I would like to share:

1. As much fun as it was to go to Disney World the most memorable part of this trip was spending time with my grandparents. We had a full week where we spent nearly all our waking hours with my grandparents. You take away all the rides, shows, and events and it still would have been an amazing trip. This trip gave us an opportunity to build a closeness with my grandparents that is priceless. We had so many meals where we shared our life experiences and talked about the things that are important to us. I will forever treasure the relationship we built with my grandparents on this trip.

2. An underrated decision was booking the Disney Caribbean resort. This is a moderate Disney World hotel. It was nice, but there wasn't anything spectacular about our accommodations. Really the reason we chose this hotel was that it was under construction. Due to the construction, Disney was offering a $75 Disney gift card per night for booking this hotel. We paid more upfront for the hotel than the value hotels, but with a $450 immediate rebate, the price was very comparable. The gift card was awesome because it motivated my grandpa to spend money. He is usually a very frugal guy, but having Disney dollars that he needed to use on this trip helped him to splurge a little bit. Like when he bought a second popcorn bucket for my grandma rather than just sharing one with her. He loved that gift card. It really enhanced our trip in a way that we had not anticipated.

3. I really appreciated that my grandparents, especially my grandpa had such a great attitude. I know Disney World is not my grandpa's idea of a dream trip, but he was willing to come with us because we really wanted to go on a trip with him and my grandmother. I also know that his shoulder was often really hurting him. He came down with tendinitis a couple of weeks before and it hadn't really gone away. He never complained about his shoulder to us and did not let it get in the way of having a fun time.

4. Disney World was a lot of fun. I actually liked it more than I expected. I still like Disneyland more. We are more familiar with Disneyland. We also love how close everything is at Disneyland. At Walt Disney World things were so much more spread out. At Disneyland, you can accomplish more in a day and have more fun. Overall the rides were also better at Disneyland - sure there were some rides that were really fun at Disney World, but give me California Screamin' and Space Mountain all day long. I am sure we will come back to Disney World, but I don't know when that will be. I am sure we have many more Disneyland trips in the future before then.

5. My grandpa told us this was his last trip to Disney World. That isn't a reflection on how he liked the trip - he just decided he has had enough Disney trips in his lifetime. In fact, my grandma told us that she hasn't seen my grandpa so relaxed and have so much fun on a trip very often. That made Alison and I very happy. We put a lot of work into making sure every little detail was planned for so that we would have the best trip possible. It really could not have been better.

It is good to be home.