Epcot

Team Bahari were 5 down today. Alysa was unfortunately unwell with fevers and so Brian and his family opted to stay home. Opa was struggling with no sleep and also stayed behind. The rest of the troops and the Yoongs made it to Epcot despite the inconvenience of downed monorails and onto to our first ride by 9am.

Epcot!

The highlight of the day was simply wandering around searching for and trying different snacks. As part of the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays there were seasonal treats from around the globe at special kiosks throughout World Showcase on top of the pre-existing offerings available all year. We also tried out 2 restaurants which we had not yet tried. Tokyo Dining won the honours for lunch and Spice Road Table was our dinner go to. We were always a bit wary of how well Disney could do Japanese and we were pleasantly surprised. The ingredients were fresh and well prepared as well as being very generous! 2 huge sushi rolls counted as a main (2 adults struggled to finish these!). This was certainly a restaurant that we would come back too. Spice Road Table was not too bad. Again the serving sizes were large although not as big as the other restaurants that we had been too. The food was tasty without being brilliant. We were seated outside and everything was covered with a fine layer of dirt. The plates all had to be changed and the table wiped over.

This was ONE sushi roll of 2 for a main!

Appetiser! Look at the size!

Tempura

Back to Italy!

How can such a simple ride have such long queues all the time!?!?

The man himself...

Why oh why Malcolm do you buy these things for the kids!?!

Exploring Morocco before dinner

The completion of dinner brought us close to 8pm and so we thought we might as well watch the candlelight processional. We were fortunate to get a good spot right behind the section for guests with disabilities. Despite having to stand, we had a great view of the stage and were able to watch the show without getting a package or lining up for a long time. The Christmas Story would always be special to us and Disney did an amazing job with phenomenal arrangements as usual. I loved watching the sign language narrator who was so expressive he looked like he was dancing.

With the end of the candlelight processional, we shuffled over to the left 10m and say down to wait for Illuminations! Again, we managed to be at the front with no one in front us. Our dear American travel agent had kindly sent us funky magic 3D glasses which made the viewing of any twinkling lights "special". These highly coveted glasses were a source of great entertainment for the children. The end of the fireworks had us finally trudging back towards the entrance. Extra magic hours saw Soarin with a wait time of only 10 minutes. No one could resist that and with one last detour, we rode on our last ride. It was a wonder that we managed to get ourselves home. Everyone was absolutely shattered. By the time we got back to our resort and settle, it was close to midnight and we had to be up bright and early tomorrow....shudder. Better sleep!

Waiting for Illuminations