Sunday was Bob’s birthday. We had a very leisurely day. Got up late and then decided not to go to Epcot but to just enjoy a day of leisure. I got myself off to a nail salon just up the road and had my poor overwalked feet pampered with a pedicure and my equally hard done by finger nails manicured. It was utter bliss. Not cheap but not much more than the UK and the pedicure was absolutely outstanding. Bob did Bob-things. He had several calls with the girls and a lot of well wishing over facebook.
In the evening we went out for a slap up dinner to Charlie’s Steakhouse on International Drive. We’d been given a $100 voucher for the dinner from Marriott for attending their sales update at the beginning of our holiday plus a $200 cash card so we were using some of that. We’ve been to Charlie’s before in 2015 – see the blog on it – and we knew it was absolutely tops but not at all cheap. We had a super dinner though. The waitress brought round a tray and showed us the sort of steaks that were on offer. They had dry and wet aged steaks. If you didn’t want a steak, there were lots of other things on offer. We decided to share a porterhouse steak with bearnaise sauce on the side. When I tell you it was 24oz uncooked you will see why we decided to share it!!!!! It came with a lovely house salad and a basket of cheesy garlic bread. We also ordered a side of garlic mash to share. Well….. the garlic mash side was enormous. We both ate some but only managed about half of the bowl. Everything was really delicious. The steak was cooked perfectly with a delicious rub and very tender. Thank heavens we didn’t have a starter or a pudding, we were stuffed. They knew it was Bob’s birthday so he got a card from the team including the chef and a free starter of meatballs in a masala cream sauce. It was outstanding, you could really taste the masala wine.
It was interesting to see that in 2015 when we went – 10 years ago – we shared a starter and had individual steaks and some mash and ate the lot!!!!!! Our appetites have definitely decreased as we’ve got older.
Today we went to Epcot in the morning. I’ve mentioned before that they are gearing up for the flower and garden festival starting on the 5th. Even more displays were out today and more of the amazing topiary statues in the borders. It’s just lovely. The crowd numbers were predicted to be large today but the morning was pretty quiet particularly in the World Showcase part where we were. Most people head for the rides on the other side of the lagoon in the am. We walked onto Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure by taking the single rider option. That’s an option some rides have where they have a separate queue for people who are prepared to ride alone or part of a party that’s not their’s. It’s well worth doing on busy rides which you have experienced before with your party. Anyway, we both rode and our “rats” were next to each other. We wandered around some of the other country areas – Italy, UK, France, Germany, China. In China we saw the 360 degree wrap around film called Expressions of China which gives beautiful vistas of the many areas of that country.
Then we went into Norway and rode Frozen again. It was a bit of a queue for that, no single rider option, but the line moved quickly. It’s a nice little ride with pretty scenes and of course the good music.
Finally we went back to the USA area and watched The Great American Adventure show. Its a film plus scenes with animatronic actors. We have always really enjoyed it but some of it echoed a bit thin today against the current political background and the appalling scenes of the press conference with the President of Ukraine. Terribly sad.
We left Epcot at lunchtime and went to Blizzard Beach and pegged out by the lagoon. We had our picnic and then did a circuit on the Lazy River. After that we pegged out on our loungers and both of us fell fast asleep and didn’t wake up till someone bellowed behind us and we found its was 440pm!!! Not sure why we were so tired other than the fact we are walking miles and miles every day with early starts and we really aren’t used to that. You can easily walk over 30,000 steps in the park every day. Easily.
Came back and Bob cooked a lovely dinner of grilled bratwurst. A very good day.