I checked the albums folder for the file and not there. Confused, I did dd($file->move($dest, $name)) and the File object was returned. Checked the folder permissions, they are good (running Homestead so ownership isn't an issue).
Not sure what the issue is here. With no exception being raised, I don't have any leads.
And yes, I know about public_path(). app_path() is used extensively in my application for other directories other than public so I chose to remain consistent.
Discovered my error. Knew there had to be a user error somewhere.
@jekinney - Apologies, you are correct regarding public_path(). While app_path() was working for other methods in my application, they were not publicly accessible files. I even missed the seeing app in that output I posted. Found my files sitting in /app/public/....
@jasonfrye - Those are all things I checked and have setup while provisioning my Homestead instance. Thanks for the leads.