Life in the Lowcountry: Our Magical Vacation

So first and foremost, this entire week of blog posts will be dedicated to recapping our trip. Between Tarl, myself and Disney photographers I have over 1000 pictures. I obviously won't be sharing all of them, but quite a bit, so you've been warned if vacation recaps aren't your thing.

I'd say it feels good to be back but I'd be lying. This trip was amazing, magical, and unforgettable. Our last night while Cadence was asleep Tarl looked at me and asked if I was ready to go home, because after all, we had been going non-stop for the past 8 days, my response was no. He laughed and agree'd. We could still be in Disney right now and it wouldn't bother us a bit. There is just no place like Disney! I've said it before and I'll say it again, but if you can somehow swing a Disney trip, DO IT!

Those eight nights went by in a flash and before we knew it we were back home unpacking. It did feel great to sleep in my own bed again, but I'm already dreaming of our next trip back. We all talked about the wants and want nots of our next trip. The things that we most loved and the things that we said we could do without. Our favorite meals, rides, shows, parades and character meet and greets. Sigh. Why does it take months, or in this case, years, for a vacation to arrive, but once you're at your destination it goes by within, what seems like, an instant?! Anyways...onto the recap...

On Friday Cadence and I took off completely. We opted to keep her home from school that day and I used a vacation day. Tarl had to go in for a while, but we were pleasantly surprised when we heard him pull back in the driveway at 8:30 that morning. So we packed up and hit the road at 9am.

Tarl and I are huge Walhburger's fans. We love the show, we are also fans of Mark and Donnie Walhberg and watch Donnie Loves Jenny, so when we found out there was a Wahlburger's in downtown Orlando we knew we had to eat lunch there before checking in to our resort.

It didn't disappoint. The wait was around 30 minutes but there was a beautiful park across the street so we enjoyed the atmosphere while waiting.

After lunch we drove straight to check in to Port Orleans Riverside and we saw the most beautiful sign! You immediately get a smile on your face when you see this :)

This is our 3rd Disney vacation as a family and this was our 3rd Disney resort. We try a new resort with each stay but all agree'd we don't know if we could give this one up next visit because it was that beautiful. Port Orleans Riverside is stunning, and that's putting it mildly. The pool had a huge water-slide which we enjoyed as soon as we got checked in. The grounds were maintained so well and they had hammocks all throughout that you could relax in if you wanted too. They also had a fishing spot and a boat you could take from the resort to Disney Springs, formerly Downtown Disney (we did this one night)!

After checking out our resort, swimming, and sliding down the water-slide approximately 1,258,425 times, we went back and freshened up for our first dinner at Chef Mickey's located in Disney's Contemporary Resort. Although we parked at the Contemporary and could have walked straight to dinner we all wanted to ride the monorail just once, so that's what we did. The views from the monorail are so pretty!

Cinderella and my Prince Charming ready to eat!

After eating all of the delicious food we headed back to the room to get some rest. We had a big day ahead of us on Saturday. Cadence came back to a surprise from Tinkerbell, PJs! She got PJs for each night of our stay. She looked forward to this every single day! Who knew something as simple as a pair of pajamas could light up someones face? Girl loves her jammies!

Port Orleans Riverside also has a trundle bed. She loved sleeping on it. A cute little bed just her size.

On Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed for breakfast in Beast & Belle's castle. I love getting an early reservation because you get to see Main Street before the parks even open to the public. We got some great pictures and then headed for a Parisian breakfast.

When we book our Disney trips we always get the Memory Maker package. It's when photos taken throughout Disney are loaded right onto your account. Disney has photographers located everywhere and a lot of them take "magic" shots, like the one below, where they will tell you to do something like act surprised and then later in the day when you look on your account you see these fantastic pics, like this one, with Olaf! Cadence loved the magic shots!

After breakfast we rode some rides and met some characters and watched the Festival of Fantasy parade. It was such a great first day in Magic Kingdom. Later that afternoon we headed into Cinderella's castle because Cadence had an appointment at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to become an official princess. Sweet girl chose Jasmine!

I will say this about Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. It's a little time consuming (takes around 1 1/2 hours) and is incredibly expensive. The entire package is around $230, but y'all, it comes with a ton of stuff, including pictures and the look on Cadence's face was priceless. She was so happy and they make you and your children feel so special the entire process. They also announce loudly "introducing Princess Cadence". This is something that we set money aside for because we knew it was something we normally wouldn't splurge for, but magical is the only word to use to define this memory!

After Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique it was time for dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table, also located in the castle. This meal is delicious and the ambiance is incredible!