11 Dec 2016
[06:51 EST+1]
First thing we did in the morning was to get Linda set up so she could watch the Saturday episode of her X-Factor show. It was the Final this weekend, so she was eager to see how things progressed.
I set the laptop up, playing it into the big 65" tv here, then connected via VPN back to home so we could use the ITV player for the show.
Meantime, I was attempting to buy some tickets for the Star Wars film that comes out this week, Rogue One. No luck though, as they just won't accept my credit card without a US Zip code so it's useless from that point of view. Thus we will be going over to Universal tomorrow and, hopefully, I can pick up some tickets in person instead...
Once done, we got dressed and left the apartment, driving the short way over to Walmart to pick up a couple of things we wanted. For one, we have no decent sized mugs in the apartment, only small cups, so we picked up a couple of cheap mugs to use (and take home). They also had an offer on M&M packs there, so we got a couple for work. We were also looking for a clothes rack (!) but they only had large ones for sale and it wasn't worth it for the time we will be staying here. We were also near the Outlet mall, so drove on to there for a quick look around, Linda got herself some UGG slippers (something she'd forgotten to pack).
As it was well past midday, we stopped at the local Outback for a meal, to save us having to find something later in the day.
On returning, the housekeeping was still in our apartment, so we took the opportunity to walk around the local area for a while to see what's there.
We are not that far away from one of the bigger pools on site, but the dreary weather - it had rained heavily for a short while whilst we were in the shops - meant there was no-one in the pool.
On returning to the apartment, I noticed that it was almost 9pm in the UK, so I again connected to home and Linda watched the last part of the final on X-Factor.
Once that was all done, we got ready and drove over to EPCOT with the intention of seeing the fireworks at 9:30 in the evening.
On entering the park ($20 dollars parking despite it being after 6pm!!!) we stopped off at the Leave a Legacy monument which we did back in 2005. Our picture is still on the wall.. can you spot us?
The place was decorated, as you'd expect, although they didn't go as mad as some places have in the past. Their tree was very good, although difficult to get into one photo.
We wandered anti-clockwise around the Showcase lake, stopping off at the American Adventure show. They had a large model of the Washington Capitol building, Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, all made out of Gingerbread and icing.
I've always liked the show they do there with the Animatronics, so we waited to see that.
Once we'd come out, we noticed a large mass of people - they were watching the last of the Candlelight Procession show which is in the US section. We'd done that a few years ago, we didn't know the guy who was going it this year - a voice actor from Beauty and the Beast it seems.
The volume of people in the park wasn't as large as we thought it would be, especially as it's a weekend, so we actually found a real bench to sit at to watch the fireworks, so we didn't have to perch on a wall as is usual.
We then walked back towards the entrance. By now all the locations were lit up wonderfully.
Italy
Germany
China
We reached the Spaceship Earth once more.
Then wandered over to the shops
Linda decided to get herself some light-up ears as you do.
Finally, back to the car park which was almost deserted... testament that there were not that many people in the park. Either that or we spent ages in the shopping area... not sure myself.
FULL PHOTO ALBUM : https://goo.gl/photos/Ecq3GSuHTjfxAS1eA