Saturday 12/24
After our big day at Epcot, we decide to slow down the pace a little bit and just do a little leisurely shopping and knoshing at Downtown Disney (DD). We arrive about 11 a.m. after breakfast at the condo of pancakes with real maple syrup and bacon and coffee and peeled/sectioned Indian River (Florida) grapefruit. We check out a couple of stores, including the giant “Disney Crap Store,” which houses all souvenirs Disney from T-Shirts, to princess outfits, to coffee mugs, to ice cube trays. There’s even a salon for little girls so for around $100 your daughter/granddaughter, niece, whatever, can have her hair and makeup done, and photographs taken (for another C-note), to complete the look.
We check out the movie offerings at the cinema (but do not see a movie), and another cool store called “Basin,” which offers soap, shampoo, bath salts, etc. For lunch, we check out a new place (new for us) called “Earl of Sandwich,” which serves hot sandwiches on this fabulous bread (more like a hoagie bun) which they bake on the premises. It is the new hip-hop-happening place to eat at DD, and it is so busy they have employees directing traffic. We order one “original” (which we split) which is thinly sliced roast beef, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mustard/mayo. We get that with a side of cole slaw and a side of fresh fruit, and two Diet Cokes, which comes to about $17, mostly because these cute little Cokes are in souvenir 8.5 ounce aluminum bottles. (We could have gotten a couple Cokes from the fountain machine, but I wanted these little souvenir bottles.) We manage to find a little 2-top table amid the crush of people, and dig in. The sandwich was delicious, as well as the sides. There are only four of these sandwich establishments in the U.S. right now, all in Florida, and one in Great Britain, but I think more are on the way. They are actually owned by the family of the 11th Earl of Sandwich, who started the chain because the family needed to money to fix up their castle. I swear I am not making this up, and you can check it out online if you want! We topped that with a hot fudge/butterscotch/peanut sundae at the Ghiradelli chocolate shop/soda fountain across the way, and have that with a cup of coffee, and that was equally delicious.
We decide an afternoon nap is in order, so we hike back to the other end of DD where the Prius is parked. Dawn makes one last stop at a gift shop called “Pop Gallery” and buys a few souvenirs for her friends back home. We head back to the condo and go down for a 2-hour nap. I am surprised at how tired I am as well. I think Dawn’s late-night pickup at the airport combined with a 12-hour day of walking in the sun at Epcot the following day has taken its toll. We wake, and head back to DD because we have 6 p.m. reservations at the Fulton Crab House. I have to say, having had a great meal meal the last time I was there in 2004 with Gwen, that this time around was very disappointing. Especially since I was planning this as a “killer meal” for Dawn and I. The food wasn’t terrible or anything, it just wasn’t anything to rave about. We both commented that the seafood had a very “generic” taste and was reminiscent of the quality of seafood you would get at a Red Lobster for half the price (or even cheaper). I had a stuffed lobster, and Dawn had a seafood trio platter. I had a Caesar salad. Dawn had a side order of creamed spinach. She had a glass of wine; I had water. The bill came to $113, and we begrudgingly added a 15% tip. The service was good, and realized it wasn’t the waitress’s fault that the food was mediocre, but we felt bamboozled and just couldn’t bring ourselves to part with any more of our hard-earned money than we had to. We drowned our sorrows in some ice cream at a nearby Haagen Dazs ice cream parlor, sat by the water’s edge for a while. We returned to the car, where we called Aunt Pat and told her that our meal at Fulton Crab House was wonderful because it we used her money that she gave us for Christmas to help pay for part of the meal, and we didn’t want her to feel bad.
We were completely out of eggs, so we had to stop at a Publix on our way back to the condo, and we found it closed. Luckily, the Walgreens next door was open, and they have a small grocery section. The place was buzzing with last minute shoppers and people like us picking up last minute things. We found a dozen eggs for $1.20.
Back at the condo, we happily found the movie “Forrest Gump” playing on one of the TV channels and watched that. I worked out some of my frustration by writing an appropriate review of the Fulton Crab House on Tripadvisor.com and only giving it two stars. I’ll supply the link as soon as tripadvisor approves it. We hit the sack around 11 p.m. Expenses today again consist of food. We spend about $32 on lunch and $135 (sadly) on dinner, and $1.20 for eggs, for $168 total.
Bruce
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