Disney Vacay Part 3: The Pools

Let's be real here...it's not a Florida vacation unless you are poolside or ocean side at some point during your trip.  We're fortunate enough to live about 10 minutes from the beach and 5 minutes from the Hubs's dad who has a pool.  We love being in the pool (well I love being in a lounge chair on the deck) and I was determined to have a "Pool Day" during our vacation.  One day where we could just hang out at the pool all day long with no agenda.

Nice thing about Art of Animation.....they have 3 pools!! Yes I said 3!!! We had plans to go to all of the pools but we always ended up at the Big Blue Pool.  We did stop by the Flippin' Fins pool in the Little Mermaid area a few times (it was just so close to our room) but never made it down to the Cars area to go to the Cozy Cone Pool.  It gives us something to look forward to doing when we go back (hint hint Hubs....let's go back soon!!!)

Flippin' Fins Pool

View from the 4th floor of our building...We had the best weather!

This was a nice little pool.  It was right in the middle of our area so it was very convenient.  Em loved it because there were underwater stairs at one end that she could jump off.  She's still hesitant to jump of the side of the pool so this was a nice way to try to get her over that fear.  It never was too crowded and you could always find a chair.  Noah and I spent a few minutes there before having to leave due to an "unexpected cleaning." Not exactly what you want to hear.  But we headed down to the Big Blue Pool for the rest of our pool time.  The Hubs took Em there while I spent 4 hours at Urgent Care with Noah one afternoon (he had a really bad case of Otitis Externa, or an outer ear infection, aka swimmers ear).

Cozy Cone Pool

via

This was the pool we never made it to.  We had every intention of spending our Pool Day at this pool. Themed after Sally's Cozy Cone Motel, it's a circular pool with cone cabanas.  The cabanas are first come, first serve and we had plans of snagging one for the day.  But once we got finished with breakfast, the kids decided not to go there but to the Big Blue Pool.  One day I'll  be lounging in the sun with the kids and the Hubs playing in the pool and cone cabana.

Big Blue Pool

The Big Blue Pool
Em's running into it (she's in the bright yellow suit with red swimmies)

This is by far the coolest pool I've ever been to!  It's the largest pool at any Disney Resort and the most state of the art!  It's in the Finding Nemo area so it's themed that way. It's a zero entry pool which means you enter it like you would the ocean.  You just walk right in!  I loved that it had an ocean feel to it. The kids loved that they could just run in and out of it.  Besides the zero entry, this pool features underwater speakers so when you go under the water, music is playing.  I had read about this before so I knew what to expect.  Noah had no idea and it was just priceless to see his reaction to hearing the music under the water. There's a poolside bar that we didn't get to take advantage of this time. They also had a Sprayground that Em couldn't get enough of.  All of Nemo's friends were there and she would just run round and round, weaving in and out of the water.  She did seem to be fascinated by the octopus but I think that's because it was pink.

Sprayground

She couldn't get enough!!!

Running like a wild woman

They also have tons of activities every day on the pool deck.  Noah never wanted to participate in them until the last day.  They also do movies in the pool every night.  Our first night at the hotel, we headed down to the pool to catch "Toy Story" for a bit.  The kids thought it was cool but ended up enjoying the pool more.
On our pool day, we nabbed a table and a lounge chair and set up camp.  We figured we'd spend as many hours at the pool as the kids wanted because the only thing we had planned was our surprise dinner at Cinderella's Castle.  We brought our lunches out to the table and even participated in a round of Disney Trivia, where I am proud to say that we were the champions!!!  The kids were so excited to hear our name announced as the winner and headed up to get our prize.

Waiting for the next trivia question

Having fun!

Shouldn't everyone have a lounge chair poolside???

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times.  Disney knows how to make things magical.  I feel like a walking advertisement but Art of Animation is phenomenal!  The pools alone should be a selling point for the resort.  I could spend all day, every day at these pools.  Ooohhhh....maybe that's what we should do next!  Get a room for a few days and just stay at the pool! Let's get on it, Hubs!!!!

I can't decide what should come next so I guess the next recap will be a surprise!!!!
Catch up on Part 1 and Part 2!