Please understand that my plan for Disney  was to spend one day at the Magic Kingdom to photograph decorations and hopefully get some shots I can use for Christmas cards.

That was it. The rest of the time I planned to check out other venues like botanical gardens that I hadn’t been to before. I am not now and never have been a Mickey fanatic.

Those plans got side tracked very quickly when I told my friend Joe that I was coming to Orlando in December. I booked the dates in March and that led to a continuous series of emails and phone calls with  everything Joe wanted to do while I was in town. It pretty much revolved around the Disney parks.

After much suggesting, pleading, assuming and just charging forward, Joe finally convinced me to book the Candlelight Processional with dinner. The two possible narrators while I was in Orlando were Neil Patrick Harris or Whoopie Goldberg . I enjoy both so it came down to when we could get a reservation. Dinner/show spots were all sold out so we settled on lunch/5 pm show. I booked Thursday because, I confess, I was doing this  more to appease Joe than because I wanted to go so I wanted to get it over with.  Thursday was the last night Neil Patrick Harris was the narrator. By having a 1:15 lunch reservation at Les Chefs de France it pretty much guaranteed we’d be spending the day at Epcot.

Joe met me for breakfast at Kenzie’s and then we headed for the park. Epcot was beautiful as are all of the parks at Christmas. We enjoyed a few rides/shows before scrambling to make our reservation for lunch.

We had a small two top (that’s restaurant speak for a table for 2) right next to the window so we could watch Father Christmas and other characters pass by. Lunch was acceptable. I’m just a plain and simple person when it comes to food so french cuisine is just “over the top”. Sometimes a grilled cheese should just be a grilled cheese.

I chose Les Chef de France because I wanted escargot but I’d just had that in New Orleans and it’s not an item I can eat every day. My favorite part was the dessert, puff pastry with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Joe had the mousse.

Then with several hours to kill we went Soaring. This is a really popular ride and usually has long lines so I had never been on it before.  All I can say is that it’s terrific.  I hated to have it end. I guess it’s as close to flying as you’ll get unless you are one of those glider suit people.

Kris Kringle was entertaining all comers with a series of Holiday Stories. He was funny even if he looked a bit intimidating.

We followed up with a visit with Tigger and Poo Bear and then it was time to get in our seats for the main event.

Love Poo Bear

And Tigger!