Our Romantic Disney Getaway: Day 3 Evening at Yachtsman and Animal Kingdom

We finished up at the pool and headed up to the room to get ready for our last night! We had dinner reservations at our actual resort (The Yachtsman) so it was really nice to be able to take our time knowing we just had to walk downstairs for dinner 🙂

I loved that our view was overlooking Boardwalk! I’ve actually never visited the Boardwalk area but am super excited to do so sometime soon 🙂 I love that there are practically endless options and opportunities at Disney World, you can go a million times and still have new things to experience!

I was SO excited for an excuse to wear this shirt! I got it from Express on some super clearance and it was one of those situations where I was ordering stuff for Zach as a gift and “needed” to spend a few more dollars to get free shipping so I stuck this in my cart. It’s super cute but def not something I’d be able to easily wear…so glad it fit the whole “Yacht Club” vibe 😉 

My pants are from Amazon and are ammmmazing…and under $10! Here’s a direct link!

Lobby of Yacht Club…there is also always a Captain greeting you as you walk in!

Walking to Dinner!

Zach LOVES a good steak so finding a restaurant with the best steak on property was important to me. There is a LOT of talk about Le Cellier at Epcot being the best but I read that it’s over-rated and that Yachstman is actually the best of the best for steak. Being that it was located at our resort I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try it!

We were the first dinner reservation of the evening so we had a little bit of a wait while the staff got things rolling. It was awesome to be able to watch the meat be prepared!

Once again we were given the “favorite table!” Whoop whoop!

Using a travel agent (Carrie from Travel By Sisters) made our trip less stressful AND Carrie’s insider knowledge on the Disney system really set us up for magical moments. Our menu was personalized wishing us a Happy Anniversary!

The bread with garlic was FABULOUS!

We agreed no gifts for our anniversary this year and instead spent that money towards extra shopping purchases 🙂 But we did exchange cards!

The steak did NOT disappoint! FABULOUS meal!!!

I went for the bisque and it was delicious

Love the special treat for our special celebration!

Yall know we are cheap cheap and we rarely order dessert ever but ohmygoodness I’m SO thankful we did! This was AMAZING! Seriously. It’s a MUST GET and my mouth is watering remembering it!

The Lexington Sundae 

Salted Caramel and Buttered Popcorn Gelatos, Crumbled Brown Butter Cookies, Caramel, Whipped Cream, Toasted Honey Marshmallow

Another thing that really helped us out a TON this trip was our Tables in Wonderland Card. It’s worth going over all the info on it (you can see it here) and doing the math to see if it’s worth purchasing for your family. With how often we visit and knowing we had this big trip with lots of on property dining it was WELL worth it and has saved us TONS already!!!

Contemplating which yacht he should buy so he can be a captain haha

After dinner we got changed and hit the parks! We both were really excited to spend the evening at Animal Kingdom. For a guy who really isn’t into animals…Zach loves the safari. We were also both excited to see Rivers of Light for the first time (last time we tried to see it it malfunctioned) AND to get to check out Pandora at night for the first time too!

You never know who you’ll meet at the parks 🙂

Finally found Pua!

I am SO glad I bought this hat! I wanted a “safari” feel type hat and ended up finding this one on Amazon. Yes it’s a mens…and yes I measured my head and had to order an extra large ha! 

The dress is also Amazon and runs true to size (I got a small). It’s very comfortable and the slit up the side isn’t too high yet it’s also high enough where you’re not tripping over the dress as you walk. Plus…POCKETS!

And I’m also obsessed with these cardigans from Amazon. I have them in like every color. VERY light weight which is perfect for the parks. I had a lot of comments that night asking if I was hot…and I wasn’t at all! Very comfortable! 

My necklace just has an Animal Kingdom vibe to me! 

Of course I top off practically every outfit for the parks with my must-wear flip flops. Pricey, but I’ve already worn them enough to make it well worth the cost. Seriously best flip flops EVER. 

I’m ALWAYS the one taking the pictures so it was so fun and sweet and thoughtful of Zach to get so many of ME for a change! And Animal Kingdom really does have the best backdrops!

Whoop whoop! Fastpasses got us right on and it was such a nice time of evening to see the animals in action!

Got to see a giraffe take a nice long pee hahaha It was so funny because we couldn’t look away and kept thinking he was gonna poop!

The giraffes were so neat to watch. They walk so gracefully and we saw a few playing which they call “necking.”

I adore this Mickey!

We headed over to get seats for Rivers of Light. We had a Fastpass but were still there about 45 minutes before the show started. Animal Kingdom is SO spread out that we just didn’t have anything else to do so we figured, why not just go ahead and sit! 

I know I’m getting ahead of myself…but yall. You know I ADORE Disney. I can’t think of too many complaints I have with the actual parks. But we couldn’t STAND Rivers of Light. Zach made the joke that there were tons of lights but it def wasn’t lit. It wasn’t. I was SO underwhelmed. Cool there is a water feature. Cool there are boats and floats. But there was no emotion, no storyline, no meaning really to any of it. It was just a big flop in my opinion. 

I can see myself watching it again since Tess and I are coming for her solo day for her birthday to Animal Kingdom and I doubt there is much to do at the park at that time of night but if there are other things we can do, we’ll skip it. I have no desire to EVER sit through it again. 

Zach and I both agreed that the pre-show entertainment was FAR better than the actual show itself. Video 1 and Video 2

I finally got SMART and brought my dang GLASSES with me! Now that I’ve thought of this #genius idea I can’t wait to go see Happily Ever After again at MK and actually SEE it. haha! 

It was hilarious because when the show started this lady in front of us started Facebook Living the ENTIRE show. And literally the most she ever had one was like 1 person. I just don’t understand that! I am a fan of snapping a few pics, taking a short video etc but the entire thing?!?! What is the purpose in that?!?!

It was a great opportunity to try out my new phone at night. Yall. I am IMPRESSED! I got the iPhone X and it’s worth it for these photos. NONE of my previous phones have EVER done this well at night! 

I also took a couple videos to give an idea of the show: one and two

After the show we headed to PANDORA! Which did NOT disappoint. If you’ve visited during the day then you MUST go at night. It’s truly amazing. 

I will say I’m shocked that a Disney park would be SO DARK though. I imagine at some point they will have to add additional lighting. I can only fathom the number of people who have run into others or fallen etc due to how dark it is in that area. But it does make the atmosphere SO COOL. 

Had to get a photo pass pic! The magic one cracks me up b/c Zach is just too tall haha

We just walked around Pandora a bit to get a feel for it and enjoy the atmosphere then headed back to the room! I was sad to be enjoying our last night at the Yacht Club! It was SUCH a beautiful resort and room and view!!!

Time to pop open that sparkling grape juice!

When you have zero experience in opening bottles…you look for instructions 😉

Love the adorable glasses to sip our sparkling grape juice!

Our last agenda page! Neither of us were ready to leaveeeeee

Love Disney and wanting to plan a trip for yourself or your family? Get in touch with Carrie from Travel By Sisters. She has TONS of Disney knowledge and can make your trip planning process run super smooth…and for free!

Wanting to save some money on your Disney trip? Wanting SPACE to spread out and SLEEP? Wanting your own private pool, game room, and hot tub? Want a super great deal on a house within minutes to the park? Be sure to check out our Disney Vacation Rental Home and the sweeeeet deal we offer to blog readers here 🙂 

We visit the parks at least once a month so you’ll want to be following me on Instagram where I post all our in-the-moment adventures! 

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