[onion2803]

Day 2…17th September

Waking up bright and early, we skipped breakfast as we were still so full from Cali Grill, and had Epcot Food & Wine lined up for lunch. Despite desperately wanting to stay by the pool as the day was already setting itself up to be a scorcher, I had Frozen Ever After booked - a ride that shall henceforth be my nemesis and the reason for the lack of photos today.

Epcot was suitably rammed, it was a Saturday so I guess the locals flocked to it too. Seemed to be a lot of drinking parties this year which we didn’t see much of last year, but at least the food queues were fairly quiet!

Bear's version of Drinking Around the World

We seem to plan Epcot on the worst of days each trip, the hotter than the fires of hell days - with so little shade and crowds of people, it’s not a pleasant experience so Bear has never really warmed to the park. Still…we nibbled on loads of gorgeous dishes throughout the early afternoon and had a fun time dropping ice cubes down each other’s backs in an attempt to cool off!

Our one and only FP of the day was Frozen Ever After so we sped over there at 1pm and joined the queue. Now, I feel I should provide a bit of background here - I don't have a good track record with phones. I had a Sony Xperia Z5, not a very common phone. It had been dropped, smashed, crushed and drowned a record number of 5 times in the 36 months preceding this occasion and my insurance (with my poor bank) was maxed for the year following a series of unfortunate events which included Bear dropping it on the second day of our previous Orlando holiday (praise should be given for not giving into the rages of hell and drowning him in the nearest body of water that day), the DPD driver delivering my replacement phone launching said replacement into a fountain, and finally, the replacement for the replacement being run over by a coach. So you can imagine my exact face when some horribly bratty South American teenager with no concept of personal space or the definition of a queue, barged into me just as we stepped inside the ride causing my phone to leap like a salmon out of my hand and land face down on the uneven paving stones…smashed…to…bits. Cue tears. Tears that continued for around half an hour which was just enough time for us to ride FEA and have the photopass picture added to our Memory Maker for posterity.

You may think I was overreacting but this phone was over £600 to buy outright (at the time, probably worth £6 now) and I knew it couldn’t be replaced by my insurance, I had 20 months left on contract and had lost all my photos etc. Added to that, I was also controlling my Revolut account from the app and had that day locked the card to prevent fraud so was now without any access to money. I think I was also still suffering from the (incredible but very) rich food at Cali Grill as the upset tummy started not long after we arrived back at Poly and I had to take a moment to chill the eff out. I was in Orlando, in a beautiful hotel, with another 2 weeks ahead of me. First world problems etc.

Once I was over the trauma, and had done a bit of technological wizardry with the Revolut accounts to give me access back on Bear’s phone, we set off to DS for the evening.

We mooched around the shops for a bit, still getting used to the new layout and extra areas that hadn’t been open on our last visit, we eventually made it to The Boathouse for our reservation.

We love it here, the food is exceptional (exceptionally priced too, unless you’re on DDP!) and we were looking forward to a relaxing evening. We requested to be sat outside as I had no wish to be frozen to my seat under the aircon inside, and I always revel in eating outside - it’s never really something you can do in the UK unless you like to share dinner with midgees/wasps/other stingy wildlife.

Bear sweet talked the waitress into allowing him the Lobster Bake for One rather than two, and I ordered some version of a steak. I still felt really ropey after the dramatics of the day so didn’t get to finish much…we also had the lobster cocktail and bisque to start which was yummy!

Avoiding dessert for the second night running (something I deeply regret right now as I sit here gnawing on my own arm) we wandered back through the gorgeous new DS, which is so beautiful at night since its been done up, back to the bus stop. Another short wait, the bus arrived and we were soon back in our fave tropical surroundings.

A little wander around the beach area, we were ready for bed, still not over the jet lag I think!

Sorry for another boring day...we do pick up the pace eventually!



O x