Although our May trip turned CP and me into rope drop converts, rope drop just didn’t happen this morning. Given the low crowds in early December, though, we weren’t really sweating it. We got up around 8:30 and had cereal, grapefruit, and strong coffee in the villa. Today my grandparents decided they weren’t in the mood to go to a park, so CP and I headed out a little before ten. Today’s destination was Epcot, our shared favorite park. We parked in section A35, within easy walking distance of the front entrance – a good indication that crowds would be low despite our late(ish) arrival.

Tastes like signage.

Our plan for this morning was to focus on the World Showcase, so we had about an hour to kill before it opened.  We ambled through FutureWorld, noting topiaries recycled from the Flower and Garden festival, and odd poinsettia trees filled in with some kind of prairie grass. Epcot was the only park we hadn’t yet seen dressed up for Christmas, and it was by far the most disappointing.

Probably the highlight of Epcot's Christmas decor.

To kill time, we browsed through Mouse Gears, taking note of more odd clothing – Disney is clearly trying to market its merchandise to a younger, hipper set; whether or not it’s working, I don’t know.  We walked over to Club Cool for some Coke products, but sadly, it was closed. Unsure of what else to do, we wandered to the Imagination Pavilion, where we sat in the shade and watched kids play in the jumping fountains while we checked e-mail. We continued our aimless wandering and headed back to the Fountain of Nations area, where the Holly marching band (of Holly, MI) was playing “Louie, Louie” to the crowd. We then decided to head to the World Showcase, walking through Canada and ending up on a bench in Britain until 11. (This is exciting stuff, huh?) At the stroke of 11 we checked out the stores in Britain, the wine store in France, and then hightailed it to the Mitsukoshi department store in Japan, our favorite Epcot shopping place. We fawned over the Totoros, the lucky cats and owls, the scarves, and the knickknacks. But mostly over Totoro.

Rose & Crown decked out for Christmas

After that, we headed to the stores in Italy, where I purchased a couple pair of earrings (the one thing I forgot to pack on the trip), a postcard, and a wine stopper. We browsed Germany, which sported some wonderfully soft t-shirts and an overload of Duffy. Germany was also where I discovered some Christmas ornaments that I would obsess over for much of the rest of the trip.

Now starving, we headed back to Morocco to dine at Tangierene Cafe, our favorite quick service location in all of WDW. Now recovering vegetarians, we decided it was time to sample something besides the vegetarian platter, so we ordered that and a chicken shwarma platter. Yeah, bad idea – the chicken was gross and stringy, so for the foreseeable future we’ll stick with the veggie platter.  Restored, we returned to Germany for some dessert, since I had decided it was finally time to sample the wares from the

YUM

caramel kitchen. We split a piece of caramel fudge dusted with sea salt, and continued our walk around the World Showcase Lagoon.

I fell in love with the jewelry at the African Outpost. Recycled from Disney park maps, the jewelery was colorful and novel. It wasn’t really my style, but I remain pretty enamored with the concept. We also

Made from recycled park maps

encountered more (and more!) Duffy, and amused ourselves in China with the hilarious puppets they sell there. We did some more window shopping in Norway, and skipped over Mexico to head to the International Gateway, where we saw…Duffy. Shocking! And then we browsed the IG stores, where we found more…Duffy! (Notice a theme here?) We also bought a 40th anniversary mystery pin set, and then decided to head back to Old Key West for an afternoon rest.

We returned to an empty villa. Where were the grandparents? After trying unsuccessfully to find them by cell phone, we decided to take naps and see where the day took us. We ended up driving to Downtown Disney for a late lunch/early dinner at Earl of Sandwich. CP’s Original was kind of gross, but my holiday sandwich was AMAZING. I asked for it without mayo to make it a little healthier (it was slathered in gravy, after all), but it was still delightful.

Stuffed, we browsed the kitchen store (disappointing, very little kitchen stuff and not much variety. Stuff also looked – dare I say – cheap.) and the Christmas store (SO MANY PEOPLE BLERGH), and ended our DTD excursion with a quick look in the Art of Disney store. I was thrilled to find some Mary Blair-inspired artwork, some of which we would purchase later in the trip.  The crowds on this Saturday afternoon were just too much for us, so we headed back to the Malibu and navigated our way to the BoardWalk to continue our Christmas decoration circle tour.  The line to get through security at the BoardWalk parking lot extended out into the street, so we knew it was going to be busy. They had also changed the parking lots since our May visit, so it took us awhile to find a spot, but we perservered. The BoardWalk looks fantastic at Christmas; the lobby decor was beautiful, and as a Stitch lover I was pretty taken with Stitch’s bakery.

Love him.

A recipe for the home cook with too much time (and too many ingredients) on her hands.

I love the BoardWalk at Christmastime.

Looking up...

Such a devil.

We also stopped for a quick bathroom break (gotta love real towels in the restrooms!) before heading down to walk on the BoardWalk.  Eventually we ended up at the Beach Club and the Yacht Club to see the decor, and both underwhelmed us (although the Yacht Club itself was very nice).

The Beach Club, lovley at night.

  We completed our circle of Crescent Lake with a stop at Seashore Sweets for milkshakes before heading back to OKW for the night. We took a quick peek in the OKW store (more Duffy! Long live Duffy!), walked along the marina, and returned to the villa for wine, showers, and some TV.

Yacht Club Christmas tree