We we both so sad to leave our trip and have to head home! We kicked off our last morning getting all packed up. A nice perk of club level was all the sweet helpers we had throughout our entire stay 🙂 We felt like royalty! Disney always does it right and Yacht Club was an incredible experience.
Hit up that VIP snack area for the last time 😉
Leading up to the trip the weather was supposed to be TERRIBLE. Like awful, awful. So much so that we almost canceled. I’m so thankful we didn’t because we lucked out for majority of our trip with GREAT weather! Beautiful skies, nice breezes. It was FABULOUS (I appreciated the weather on this trip even more when I went back to Disney a few weeks later in mid-June YIKES).
The rain finally caught us on our last day. My hopes for that day were to walk to Epcot. I loved that we were staying at an Epcot resort and Zach and I both enjoyed the experience of walking to the parks when we visited Disneyland.
Even though it was raining we still decided to enjoy the experience of heading to Epcot from the resort. We decided to go the boat route! The boat drops you off IN World Showcase so we figured it’d result in less walking in the rain than parking in the parking lot and entering through the front entrance would.
New England? Or Yacht Club?
Entering the Passholder entrance will NEVER get old!!!
We had a few fastpasses and decided to go ahead and make the walk to Soarin’. It’s the ONLY thrill ride I enjoy and I really wanted to ride it WITH Zach since the only time I’ve done it was with Katie 🙂 Zach enjoys the thrills so we gotta experience it together when we can!
Whoop whoop!
After Soarin’ we headed to World Showcase. My plans for Epcot was to have a leisurely romantic walk around World Showcase. Stopping at all the little booths and do shopping and just ENJOY time together and take in all the beautiful surroundings.
We had lunch reservations in Japan so we decided to start at Canada and work our way to Japan for lunch! Zach has been “around the world” but hasn’t ever gotten to really take it all in and appreciate the details. I always recommend World Showcase for an adult-only trip. We don’t drink but I know “drinking around the world” is popular. World Showcase does tend to get super rowdy so if you’re like us and want to avoid that craziness it’s best to tour the area early in the day. It opens later than the rest of the park which is nice for a leisurely morning!
Have to always get the telephone booth pics in Great Britain!
Love this shirt!
A fun fact about me: In middle school I took part in the People to People program and went to England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland for a month. I was the only student from my school who went so I was literally with tons of kids and adults who were strangers to me. It was an incredible experience and I am always making Zach jealous that I have “golfed” on the very first golf course ever: St Andrews!
Pretty accurate right 😉
I love these pics! Might be my favorites from the trip of us 🙂
Love this man and our quality time together!
The rain came and it came HARD. Whew it was intense! We raced to Japan and were just in time for our lunch!
I did some research leading up to the trip on places to eat. Zach is a food kinda guy so I like to plan fun places that he will enjoy (I’m not that into food, I’m more of an experience girl!). We love hibachi at home and thought Teppan Edo would be fun!
We ended up being seated with THE most adorable family. They were also from the south and it was like a glimpse into our future. They had three older kids. One just engaged, one in college and one in high school. It was so nice to see that they were all so close and enjoying each other and laughing and making memories but it also made me SO SAD. Y’all. One day my babies will be GROWN and will LEAVE US. I can’t even think about it. Whew.
I did give a little advice to the sisters…it was an older daughter, middle son, youngest daughter. Same set up as Zach’s family. I advised the girls to be REALLY nice to whoever their brother dates/marries. haha! It’s no joke marrying into a family with two sisters and one brother.
Our chef was awesome and put on a super entertaining show while cooking!
The food is NOT like the hibachi we are used to. We assume it’s probably closer to true Japan than our Valdosta one ;). No fried rice but still SUPER yummy. I loved the noodles!!!
There was quite a sticker shock with our bill so be warned it’s pretty pricey. It was SUPER good but probably better suited on a day where you don’t have other dining plans (we had dinner plans too!). They also do not take Tables in Wonderland.
We lucked out and our new friends happened to have dining plan with TONS of credits left and they offered to get us desserts for FREE. Whoop whoop! I wish it’d been at a more fun dessert place haha but free is free and I LOVED the green tea ice cream 🙂
Yay for a bit of clear skies!
Zach got me a GORGEOUS ring for my push present with Britt was born and I think it was stolen wahhhh. I wanted to check out the pick a pearl in Japan because I’ve heard it’s a super fun experience. I wasn’t impressed with their ring selection though so I opted not to do it. Check out this super cool display wall though with the monorail!
We walked a bit and the rain just kept coming. We decided to go ahead and leave. I just didn’t want it to be an experience where we were always dodging rain and would rather hold off on our Epcot World Showcase romantic stroll for a time when it can be an actual stroll and actually romantic. We debated and debated and decided to just head out and go hit up Disney Springs!
View of Yacht Club from the boat when docking at Boardwalk!
Of course once we got to Disney Springs we never really had any hardcore rain again, but that’s always how it goes right? I have REALLY wanted to check out the new Disney Style store at Disney Springs so I was excited for the opportunity. We also lucked out and got to check out a temporary pop-up store that is adorable right beside the Lime parking garage. A cast member told us she thinks it’s temporary and just for while World of Disney is under reconstruction but we’ll see! It’s super cute and well laid out and two stories!
It may not have been the beauty of World Showcase but it was still super fun browsing in all the shops and checking out the Disney themed merchandise…even if it was all wayyyy to pricey for my style 🙂
I’m not a huge fan of Villains themed stuff…this is the Coach line
I much prefer this Coach style to the villain stuff!
Kate Spade was my FAV though!!! Such cute items and much more “affordable” than Coach!
FINALLY. It is odd to me that they placed the Disney Style store wayyyy down by AMC whereas all the other Disney owned stores are in the Marketplace area. This is quite the haul to get to and I’m sure it was strategic (as everything is) by Disney to make people go into more of the higher end shops on their way!
It did NOT disappoint! So many AWESOME, ADORABLE details throughout the store and merchandise I could have gone crazy buying!
Gimmie allllll the Tiki Room merch!
Omg even a Country Bears shirt! Mrs Charlotte’s fav is country bears and if it was womens we would have scooped it up for her!
NEED.
Double NEED.
How fun are these Monsters Inc items?
I am totally inspired by the jeans! I LOVE the idea of getting patches and making my own version but I’m thinking of using a denim jacket. I have several older styles and think it’d be perfect to add to slowly overtime and have to toss on when I get chilly at the parks!
The closest I’ll ever get to riding the Tea Cups!
Didn’t buy a thing (whew not Coach or Kate Spade pricing but still y’all know me and my love for cheap-cheap and even my 20% Annual Passholder discount couldn’t make this stuff cheap enough haha) but still LOVED it and WILL be going back!
Time for a Starbucks stop! Love the themed items!
Headed back towards Marketplace and hit up Trend-D which I love too! I was really wanting to get a Loungefly bookbag. I learned my lesson…I should have bought one back in April when we were at Disney Springs because all the patterns I liked are now GONE. I still had some great finds though and really good pricing.
A wristlet/wallet (under $30!) and a shirt that I think will be perfect for Cali! (Shhhh…it’s a super secret trip)
Um I totally want a monorail bag!!!
We did a little bit of Christmas shopping for the kids at Disney Springs…which worked out great as I was hoping to make some Christmas purchases for them at Epcot and wasn’t able to. We finished up and headed over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our dinner reservations before the ride home!
Animal Kingdom Lodge is GORGEOUS and I love all the details!!! We brought clothes to change for dinner and were able to get all freshened up 🙂
Dress is Old Navy…I love how well themed I was 😉
Dinner at JIKO!!!
Zach and I aren’t very adventurous when it comes to food. It’s a HIGHLY rated resort so we were eager to try it out but I have to admit I was intimidated by the menu. I opted for a salad and I’m so glad I did b/c it was DELICIOUS.
The server brought out special tea that they serve to each guest as a cultural custom. (it was noooot tasty haha)
The butter was AWESOME!!!
Yet another beautiful seat!
I’ve mentioned this every post from this trip but I just can’t thank Carrie from Travel by Sisters enough! It was my first time ever using a Disney travel agent when it came to planning our trip and I’m so thankful I did. She had so much knowledge and insight and really took the stress off of me in the planning process plus we had SO many magical moments that I know she had a hand in! Like when our server brought us out some pins and a card signed by the staff!
They are top rated for their ribs and they were EPIC!
So. GOOD.
One last special dessert too!
A few more details of the lobby!
We had SUCH an incredible trip! I’m so thankful to be married to a man who makes allllll of my dreams come true. We truly enjoyed each other and am so thankful we planned the trip exactly as we did! It couldn’t have been more special or more FUN!
We headed home after dinner and went to pick up the kids first thing the next morning! We had all their goodies set up for them as a surprise!
So excited to be home to these sweet faces and they loved all their surprises 🙂
It’s tough leaving them but it’s so fun coming home and seeing how much they have CHANGED!!! I felt like Spear looked SO GROWNY!!!
We had such a magical trip and are firm believers that Disney is a truly enchanting place that ALL families should be able to enjoy. When we decided to purchase a home at Disney it was VERY important to us to make it affordable to hopefully help families make a special trip. Staying off property saves SO MUCH MONEY. Not only is staying off-site way, way cheaper for the accommodations but it also saves in the ability to cook meals and eat at the house rather than having to spend money on resort food. We have always loved staying off property with our family to be able to have space to spread out and get good, solid rest. We offer our rental home at a special discount price to blog readers so be sure to check out all the details here!
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