Starting with New Year's Eve - we were up at a reasonable time and headed for the Premium Outlets. This time (because we got there before it opened) we were able not only to get into the car park, but to actually park the car as well! We arrived at the Tommy Hilfiger store for opening time at 10am, and Jake was able to get a zip up jacket - he'd been determined to get one since looking around the store at LBVFS earlier in the holiday.
Overall, we all did well out of the trip - Jake got a load of new clothes in American Eagle (as well as a couple of hats in Lids, of course), I did well in the Polo shop, and Nicky got some new Sketchers.
Once we were all shopped out, we went over the road from the stores to the Outback Steakhouse for lunch - our first visit there, and very nice it was too.
After a bit of a relax back at OKW, we were off to Epcot for the evening. The park was absolutely packed. We were there in time for the 6.30 illuminations, which we watched from a grassy area over in Future World (so didn't see any of the globe). We then made our way through to World Showcase where the crowds had to be seen to be believed. Walking through the UK pavilion, we ended up in a human traffic jam, and it took at least 10 fairly unpleasant minutes to move about 100 yards.
We eventually made it around to Japan where we had a reservation at Tokyo Dining, and checked in early for our meal, although we still waited until about 8.45 before we were called in.
The meal was very nice, but we decided that we wouldn't be able to survive the crowds through to the 11.30 illuminations, and so went back through Future World and back to our bus stop to come back home.
Once we were back here we stopped in at the Conch Flats store to pick up a bottle of wine, and Nicky and I saw the New Year in over near the hospitality house, sipping wine from our plastic cups!
Yesterday we were up fairly late, and decided to get the boat over to Downtown where we did a bit more shopping (stocked up at Ghiradelli's!) and had lunch at Earl of Sandwich. Then later in the afternoon we got the bus to the Magic Kingdom. First stop was City Hall, where we said hello to our new friend Steve (our golfing partner from last week) and he very kindly set us up with three fast passes. Jake and I used the first one on Space Mountain, and once we'd done that it was time for our dinner at the new Be Our Guest restaurant.
After dinner we watched parades and fireworks, and used up the rest of our fast passes (on Buzz and Thunder Mountain) before coming home.
Today, again we were up fairly late, but then headed out for our first ever trip to Blizzard Beach, which was lots of fun. We enjoyed the lazy river and the Teamboat Springs raft ride, and Jake and I had a couple of rides together on the "Runoff Rapids".
(There's a story to be told here about some temporarily lost glasses, but as it is rather embarrassing for the writer, I think I'll skip over it for now!)
After getting back from the water park, there was time for showers and for Jake and I to pop across for a game of table tennis, and then it was off to Epcot to watch illuminations properly! We staked out a bench next to the lagoon in China and once in position sent out delegations to get chinese takeaway, margarita and hot chocolates, and a very nice time was had by all!
