Christmas Day at Disney

We got up bright and early on Christmas Day and had a quick light breakfast before heading off for Epcot for the day.On previous Christmas Days, the Disney parking lots have been known to close at 11:00 am as this is their busiest day of the year - this year it seemed surprisingly quiet.This is known as "The Harry Potter" effect as most people headed to Islands of Adventure.It is estimated that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has increased visitor numbers to Florida by 20% since it opened in the summer.

Epcot is one of the 4 main Disney parks and stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.The park is made up of 2 main areas - Future World and World Showcase.Future World consists of areas dedicated to different areas of technology and the earth such as The Universe of Energy, The Seas, The Land, Imagination, Mission Space and InnoventionsAs it was so quiet when we first arrived at 09:15 am (just after it opened), we were able to get straight on the Spaceship Earth ride - this is a slow moving car ride that takes you through the development of technology.Later we were able to get straight onto Test Track as single riders.If you ride as single rider you get on the ride quicker but you get split up from others in your party as you fill in the odd numbers.Test Track takes you on a fast exhilarating ride testing the brakes, speed and environmental factors (such as heat and cold) of a car.

World Showcase consists of 11 different "countries" (Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, Morocco, France, UK and Canada), each with their own attractions, shops and restaurants, centred around a lagoon.

The reason for choosing Epcot for Christmas is that each year from the end of November until the end of December they put on a special Christmas show called Candlelight Processional.This is the telling of the Christmas story by a celebrity narrator accompanied by the 50 piece Disney orchestra, guest choirs and the Liberty Singers.The guest narrator this year was Edward James Olmos who appeared in Miami Vice as the captain (for those of you old enough to remember it like me!!) and more recently in Battlestar Galactica.To be guaranteed a seat at the show, you have to book a dinner package but we still lined up for 90 minutes before the show to be guaranteed a front row seat.Dinner was at Le Celier Steakhouse in the Canada section of World Showcase. Le Celier is one of the top rated restaurants in Orlando and bookings are made months in advance.Our Christmas Day meal consisted of mussels, filet mignon and chocolate whiskey cake for Ant, and crab cakes, walnut crusted salmon and maple syrup crème brulee for me!!The night is topped off by a firework and laser show around the lagoon for which we get a special viewing area courtesy of our dinner package!!

It is a very long tiring day and we arrived back at our hotel a little after 10:00 pm.

The day after Christmas was a packing up and moving on day again as we headed back to Miami ready for our flight back to Los Angeles on Monday.