2017 Holiday - Day 9 - EPCOT & Beach Club Resort

Something we'd not done before was first up today - breakfast at The Garden Grill in EPCOT with Chip & Dale, Pluto and Mickey. A pretty good spread of characters. The Garden Grill is a revolving restaurant, and you pretty much get one full rotation. You sit facing outwards with views of the initial part of the Living With The Land ride. Food is served at your table 'family style'. That means whacking great mountains of food are put in bowls and skillets and you give in and help yourself. The first course is pastries; warm cinamon roll for the wheat eaters, a delicious blueberry muffin for me and then a skillet arrives with sausage, scrambled egg, bacon, potato tots (like a mini potato croquette) and Mickey waffles. And you know - the gluten free skillet contained exactly the same stuff. So for the first time I felt like I was eating with everyone else. Now - of course - I had been before. But there was no asking for an allergy menu and what can be substituted, etc. Stuff turned up and we all enjoyed it!

The characters did their rounds and were great. Chip and Dale are always good value. We often find the Mickey's to be a tad - well - rushed. It's like he sees a teenager and thinks a quick photo is all that's needed. To be honest, we don't mind, we suspect he has to spend ages with very small children for whom Disney World is all about Mickey.

Anyway, after stuffing our faces we left and went for a quick spin on Spaceship Earth, watched a band of chefs play their pots and pans (very funny and well worth seeking out) and then went into the Imagination pillar to go through a journey of colour - which was a fun little exhibit. We then had a stroll back through the park and went back to the hotel for a bit.

We hung out at the hotel in the afternoon. Clare and Matthew went to Stormalong Bay. Clare and I then went and had a meal in The Yachtsman - a signature dining restaurant. This means it's supposed to be more upscale, and with prices to match! As we have the dining plan, the prices didn't really bother us - but it was two dining credits (but as we had credits to spare on the dining plan - again - this didn't matter too much). We had an excellent service team, who explained the menu and were more than happy to cater for my gluten free. There was an allergy menu, but the restaurant were happy to make almost anything gluten free as they make many of the sauces from scratch (although the desserts were limited to what was GF already). We split the 32ox Porterhouse steak, with a couple of sides of spinach and one of mushrooms. Clare also had some roast potatoes that weren't GF, but could have been made so, but I didn't want them anyway. It was all very good indeed. Dessert was carrot cake for me (excellent) and Clare had the meringue which she enjoyed. All in all a very enjoyable dinner.

Clare and Matthew then headed into EPCOT and rode Test Track, Mission: Space (Orange mission) and Three Caballeros. I stayed in the room to watch the Patriots at home to the Falcons (good win for the Pats).