Everyone loves a photo gift!

I love giving and receiving photo gifts. It's such a personalised and unique touch, and you can always guarantee that people won't be disappointed and won't already have a duplicate. You can never have too many photos!

I bought my parents and Neil's parents some lovely photo frames in Florida this year and filled them with our professional images from the Disney parks. I thought they'd be a nice memento as myself and Neil and I got engaged in Florida.

When I bought the frame for Neil's parents, I wanted to include a photo of Sian (Neil's sister) as well as myself and Neil, so I bought the frame below as it had space for three different photos. I even managed to include Winnie the Pooh and Tigger! I absolutely love this frame and will almost definitely be buying one for myself next time we go to Florida. I loved arranging the photos too and choosing which ones would look best in each slot then cutting them into the right shape... it was a bit therapeutic.

I know my parents' wall and shelf space is already pretty full with photographs of us as children, graduation photos, photos of  my little nephew and so on, so I bought them a smaller frame which could be put in a little gap on their fireplace. I love the little Mickeys in the corners! As my parents have never been to Florida, I thought it would be nice for them to have the photo of myself and Neil in front of the iconic fairy castle in the Magic Kingdom. It's definitely one of the most beautiful spectacles in Walt Disney World and Neil proposed to me near the castle, so it was very appropriate. 

While I was making photo gifts for everyone else, I obviously had to fill my own photo album so that I can look back at my own memories of the trip whenever I want to without needing to switch my computer on. I printed the photos through Tesco's website and was pretty pleased with the final results. Here's my completed 2013 photo album! I think I love Disney's branding more than any other company in the world.

I have a feeling that I'll be making lots of photo gifts for Christmas... I'm busy trying to find some inspiration! 

What's the best photo gift you've ever received?

Epcot... Just beautiful!

Epcot is my second favourite Disney park, very close behind the Magic Kingdom. I like to think of Epcot as the 'grown up' Disney park as its Disney elements are very subtle. It has some fancy restaurants, masses of shops and some of the most beautiful views you'll ever see. What's not to like?

The park is made up of two main areas: Future World and the World Showcase. It has a large lagoon in the middle of the park where you can actually get a boat to different areas of the World Showcase. You might think this sounds lazy, but Epcot is huge. Make sure you wear comfortable shoes!

Spaceship Earth, Epcot's iconic landmark, is one of the most impressive things you'll see in the whole of Disney World. It is absolutely MASSIVE, and there's a ride inside it! The ride is a very slow and relaxing train which takes you right to the top of the ball while telling you the story of mankind from the very beginning to the present day. Test Track, Mission Space and Journey into Imagination with Figment are also great unique rides which you won't want to miss. All these rides are in Future World, which largely focuses on technological innovations.

After spending the morning in Future World, you definitely need to go for a wander around the World Showcase. Make sure you leave enough time as it's a big area to cover! The World Showcase, without any exaggeration, is one of the most fascinating places I've ever been to. Eleven countries are literally showcased around Epcot's lagoon with restaurants, shops and landmarks accurately reflecting each country's culture and lifestyle. People from each respective country are employed to work in the World Showcase which adds to its authenticity, and everything in the World Showcase is imported from the countries themselves.

China

Germany

The UK!

Morocco

Japan

Italy

As you can see, a huge amount of effort has gone in to making sure the representations are as authentic as possible, and the countries themselves all have a big say in how their own little corner of the World Showcase is depicted. My favourite countries are China, Japan and Italy. I love the food in China and Italy, and China and Japan's gift shops are amazing! 

After spending all day in the park, Epcot's night show is a good chance to stop, take in your surroundings and marvel at the beauty of the park. You can watch the night show (Illuminations: Reflections of Earth) from anywhere in the World Showcase area. I'm not going to try to describe the show because I could never do it justice just by using mere words, but I can't think of anyone who wouldn't think it was spectacular. I can see why some people would positively hate the night show at the Magic Kingdom, but Epcot's night show is majestic and isn't cheesy in the slightest. It celebrates the diversity and multicultural nature of Epcot, along with its focus on innovation, and is just an amazing spectacle. They play some fantastic music throughout the show... the memories are actually giving me goosebumps! A firework show is incorporated in to the night show, and it's probably the most impressive firework show in Disney World. So to sum up, Epcot's night show is great and you should definitely witness it at least once!

I met some lovely characters in Epcot this year... Duffy the Disney Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Donald Duck! Although the park isn't overtly Disney-esque, there are still plenty of opportunities to meet characters if you're in to that kind of thing. I didn't meet any characters when I went to Florida last year, but I wasn't quite so shy this year. Duffy was definitely my favourite character... he even gave my Duffy teddy bear a hug!

Although 'beautiful' is a very overused word, it does pretty much sum up my opinion of Epcot if I could only use one word to describe it. Just look at this view over the lagoon... it's hard to believe that this is in the middle of a Disney World theme park!

I haven't covered half of what I love about Epcot in this blog post as I could go on for ever, but hopefully it's given you a flavour of what Epcot is all about. Have you ever been to Epcot? What was your favourite part?