Saturday 11th December 2010

[17:14 EST]

Back in the villa after a couple of hours out shopping. We've stayed away from the parks so far as, from experience, they are heaving on a Saturday - whatever time of the year you are going.

Mind you, the Florida Mall, three weeks before Christmas, isn't the sort of place you go when you want a bit of me time! To start off, it took us at least 5 minutes to find somewhere to park. I was beaten to a space by a guy in a massive station wagon, he squeezed into the spot, only to discover that he couldn't open his doors to get out! Luckily, there was enough room for our car to get in there after he'd sheepishly unparked himself and driven off :D

JCP had some good 'door buster' offers on that were only valid until 1pm today, so we made sure we were in the till line well before then. They had offers like jeans, $40 down to $16 (about £11).

The food court in the middle of the mall was filled to capacity - it was another place where you had to knock people out of the way to get a table so you could eat your meal ;)

By the time we got out of there, we were ready to return home for a couple of hours relaxation.

Not sure there was much room left in the boot anyway.

We plan to pop out later this afternoon to go to the Epcot firework display which we think will be starting at 9pm tonight.

[11:51 EST]

Actually, the fireworks were at 9:30, not 9pm. We arrived at Epcot around 6:45. It didn't seem too busy for a weekend. Our first stop was to see the re-released Michael Jackson 3D film Captain Eo. I'd originally seen this back in 1987 when I'd visited Epcot on holiday. It ran for a few years then was removed. It's now back on release (and it looks like it's been restored too). It certainly brought back some memories!

We them walked past the water features, all lit at night, and onto the main lake there.

We walked around the lake, reaching the American sector just as the Candlelight procession was starting. The guest speaker tonight was Whoopi Goldberg. It was quite crowded around that area and we could hear the singing in the distance from a long way around the lake.

We finally stopped in the French area to claim a spot to watch the fireworks - and very good they were too!

Once that was over, it was straight back into the car and back home.