Our final day of our trip was another rest day. On all our previous trips, I had made reservations at multiple sit down restaurants. This trip there were only 3 places I really wanted to try to eat and I couldn't get reservations for any of them. It was another change from previous trips that worked out well in our favor. I liked not having to plan our day around dining reservations, instead just going with the flow and mobile ordering food when we were hungry. We saved quite a bit of money by packing a lunch and only eating quick service meals rather than sit down meals. And we found a few new quick service places that we really liked! However, the night before our rest day, I happened to see a late breakfast time for one of the restaurants I really wanted to try...so we scored a reservation for breakfast at Topolino's Terrace on our final day.
It was amazing!!
This breakfast was in a beautiful, open, fancy restaurant. There was plenty of space between tables so we didn't feel crowded, it was not too loud, the food was fabulous, and we got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy in their artist apparel. It was one of the best character meals we have ever had!
Because it was our rest day, we enjoyed a nice, leisurely breakfast because we were in no rush to get to a park or get back to another activity. Each of the characters came by our table twice, and they also did a little dance that happened twice while we were there as well.
The restaurant was at the Riviera Resort, so everything was supposed to be European inspired. Each of the characters was dressed in their artistic best. Mickey was a painter and Minnie was an author.
Donald was a sculptor...
and Daisy was a ballerina.
The food was excellent. They brought out pastries, muffins, and juice to start the meal. Adelie and Briggs both ordered the Mickey waffle dippers, Staley and I both got the sour cream waffles, and Zach got a breakfast steak (which was so good!). Because I couldn't decide between 2 entrees, they also brought me some spiced sausage hash as a side dish (which was phenomenal!) and brought Zach a waffle as a side dish. Everything was scrumptious...and we all left full to the brim with a box of leftover pastries for later.
After breakfast, we decided to ride the skyliner to Art of Animation just to walk around one of our favorite resorts.
We walked around Art of Animation, took a bunch of pictures, and played a little on the Finding Nemo playground.
The kids wanted pictures with just about everything, so I have way too many pictures of our pitstop at Art of Animation.
But it was a fun way to spend part of our morning...and to get a few more steps in, since our bodies were now used to walking double digit miles every day.
This was my favorite!
We then rode the skyliner back to Caribbean Beach, then to Hollywood Studios, then to Epcot, and back to the Riviera. It was a fun way to spend our morning.
We returned to our townhouse and spent the rest of the day swimming, playing, napping (for Zach), doing laundry (for me), packing up, and then ordering in pizza for dinner and finishing off our day with some more Animal Kingdom episodes.
We had such a wonderful trip and week away. There were so many answers to prayer about this trip. We all stayed healthy before and during the trip. Universal and Disney still had their mask mandates in place for indoor locations, which gave an added layer of comfort while there. All our travel plans and accommodations worked out wonderfully. The anxiety that had been present before our previously cancelled trips had mostly subsided before this trip, allowing me to feel excitement about the trip rather than worry. The decisions we made worked out for the best, and everyone had a wonderful time. We really couldn't have asked for a better trip.
Although we are more seasoned Disney travelers at this point, we still found new things to do and try at every park we went to. We rode some new rides, fit in shows and activities we'd never done before, met some new characters, ate at new places, and enjoyed the new calvalcades. It's always fun that, even 4 trips in, there is still so much that we can experience for the first time.
Approaching the parks in a different way also made some of the planning and organization of our days so much easier. Staying off-site, driving ourselves, not having meal reservations to plan around, planning our days as we went...each of these changes made our trip more pleasant. And the fact that we have done this 4 times took away some of the pressure to "do it all." We knew our priorities and those rides we didn't need to do again, making it easier to plan our days around our must dos while still being able to slow down and just enjoy the other things in the parks.
The fact that all the kids were so excited to be back made it such a fun trip. I loved that they all still wanted to do the family rides together (like Ariel over and over and over again), yet they all wanted to try new things as well. I loved that Staley was still excited to meet characters, and that she and Adelie had such a sweet time as sisters enjoying each other all week long. And I loved that we could go for long days on end with everyone still having fun (for the most part) from start to finish. Oh, and I loved that we could do it all without a stroller!!
It's no secret that the kids and I are the reason that Zach keeps going back to Disney. He is such a good sport, but the crowds, the lines, the prices, and the rides he can't do make it low on the list of his favorite vacation destinations. But he enjoys it because we enjoy it. He has his favorite rides and his favorite lands and his favorite foods and he keeps coming back because he knows it makes his family happy. I know the larger accommodations, rental vehicle, and extra built-in rest days were all changes that Zach especially enjoyed!
I bought Zach this shirt. It says, "My wife wanted to go to Disney so we compromised and came to Disney." It's funny because it's so true!
Adding our Universal day and doing the Harry Potter lands was a nice addition to our trip. It was a good window for our kids since all 3 of them enjoy Harry Potter at the moment, although waiting until the younger two had been a bit older might have opened the door for them to enjoy more of what the Universal Parks have to offer. I'm glad we just planned for one day as that was ample time to explore and enjoy the lands that interested our family.
I'm not sure what the future of our Disney trips looks like from here. After each subsequent trip, I was always ready to start planning our next one. And I do anticipate more Disney trips in our family's future. However, as the kids get older, there are also so many other places we want to go as a family. There are national parks to explore and cities that we've never taken the kids to and road trips that intrigue us and potentially even some international travels in our future. We loved our Disney trip just as we've loved all our previous ones. We embraced doing Disney in a new way, finding it, in many ways, more relaxing and enjoyable. And I doubt this is the end of our Disney journey. But instead of starting to plan our next Disney trip, my eye is on the atlas and I'm excited to decide where our next adventure will take us.
So for now I'll just say..."We love you, Disney! Thanks for the memories."
