2015 Christmas Trip Report Day 5 - Epcot

Today it was planned to sleep in a little again, but since I don't sleep in I headed off to AK by myself. I arrived a little after 8am and almost walked right into Devine as she blends in so well. I walked back to the Safari's and after a 20 min wait was on a truck. The animals were pretty active as it was a nice sunny morning (not foggy like yesterday) and I was able to see the painted dogs for the first time. I was just walking around the park enjoying the quiet when I cam up to the Adventurers Outpost where Holiday Mickey & Minnie were. there was no line so I decide to go in. I was a little put off by the cast members attitude when she saw me alone and said "You do know this is a meet & greet". I smiled and walked in and got some nice pictures with them. I finished off the morning with Tough to be A bug and headed back to the AS. I got a text around 9:30 wondering where I was and I told them I'd be back in 20 minutes.
We had made ADR's for the Candlelight Processional Dinner package at Teppan Edo at 12:30 so we had some time to do a few things first. We rode Ellen's Energy Adventure & played Mission Space games before walking back to Japan to check in. The price was pretty high but it included an appetizer, entree and dessert. In prior trips here just the entree alone was enough to fill us up. We each got different appetizers and desserts & passed them around for all to try. Andrew was disappointed as they took the swordfish off the menu which is his favorite. We were so full we didn't want to move but we paid and got our tickets for the CP 6:45 show.
We saw a few of the shows that we had seen a few days before, stopping again in Germany and China. Julenissen in Norway was one of the best shows we saw in the Holidays around the world. We skipped by Mexico as we needed to get back to FW near the Fountain to see the final show of the day of the Gospel Celebration Singers. Since we were back in FW we ducked inside Club Cool for a cool drink. It seemed like the added some new flavors because I enjoyed most of them except the Beverly.
We now headed back to WS to see the final show of the Mariachi Dancers in Mexico and proceeded to stroll through the countries stopping in America to grab a Cream Cheese Pretzel ( we know all the places that sell them now).
About 30 minutes prior to the CP show it was time to get in line. The Package line was all the way back to Morocco while the stand by line was back past Italy. The front half of the theater was roped off for package people and we got a seat maybe 20 rows back. First the orchestra came in then all the choir member filed in. I was amazed by the number of people involved in this show. Edward James Olmos was the narrator for the evening and he was very appreciative to be there stating this was his 17th year doing the CP. This was by far the best show I have ever seen in all of Disney. We were seated on the left side so we had a good view of the percussion section and it was something to watch these 2 orchestra members playing all these instruments from the timpani, cymbals, sleigh bells etc... It was a very warm night (upper 70's) and with the bright lights on the stage we counted at least 10 choir members who passed out during the show due to the heat. there a cast member constantly coming out and helping another to the back of the stage. The story, the singing and the music are something I will always remember.
The show lasted almost an hour so we now had almost 3 hours until Illuminations at 10:30. We had chosen to save our FP's for the evening knowing we would be there till late. As we headed back towards FW we stopped once again to see the end of the Julenissen show in Norway followed by a boat ride on the Gran Fiesta Tour to see the Three Caballeros animatronic figures that they just added recently.
We used our 3 FP+ on the Seas with Nemo, Soarin & Imagination although we only needed the one for Soarin. We were finally starting to feel hungry again so while in the Land we hit the Sunshine Seasons, Andrew ate a full meal the rest of us just got desserts & drinks. Illuminations is one of Andrews favorite shows and he likes to get a good spot to see the globe so he headed off by himself to find a spot while the rest of use went as far as Canada & stopped. We said we would meet back at the room. While standing there it started to rain but only for 5 minutes. We were also beside a popcorn cart that was closing & the cast member gave us some popcorn instead of throwing it out. They show the normal Illuminations show but then added on about 5 minutes of Christmas music to the end of it.
As we headed back to the entrance of FW we figured the bus stop would be packed and we would have to wait a while but there was a bus sitting there and there were seats on it & as we got on Andrew was already sitting there & we were back in the room by 11:15pm. We grabbed some ice cream at the food court and as we walked back to the room we watched the Star Wars FW's from HS from our 3rd floor walkway.