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- Today is my last full day at WDW for this trip. Spent the morning packing up. A final couple looks out at our view.
- In the Boardwalk lobby by 9am, bags all dropped off and ready to head out for our day.
- At the bus stop and of course the bus we want is over 20 minutes away (heading to the Animal Kingdom).
- A bird stopped by while we waited.
- Goofy on a Disney Springs bus while we waited.
- Ours was later than listed.. we boarded at 9:46am.
- Arrived at a breezy Animal Kingdom at 10am.
- I do not understand the need for this sign in the Oasis.. there are plenty of Animal Kingdom signs you pass before this.
- Walking through the Oasis.. most of my animal pictures turn out like this.
- The Tree of Life this morning.
- A polar bear out at the Merry Menagerie
- A bird in flight.
- They were setting up for some sort of filming, could not tell what it was for.
- Making my way into Pandora.
- Wait times for Flight of Passage are still high.
- Stopped by the restroom and somehow had it all to myself so grabbed a couple pictures.
- On my way to Flight of Passage to use a FastPass+
- Entered the FastPass+ return at 10:18am
- The view from the queue.
- In the first preshow room at 10:26am.
- About to start my ride at 10:42am.
- Done at 10:45am. So just under 30 minutes to use a FastPass.
- A closer look at some of the decorations for the holidays.
- Making my way to Africa. The buildings on the left are said to be the new Club 33 for Animal Kingdom. They look to be nearing completion.
- Passing through Harambe
- Time to use a FastPass+ for Kilimanjaro Safari. Entered queue at 10:54am
- FastPass Return was backed up and inching along slowly.
- An extended queue was set up in the former stroller area.
- Almost there.. the pace picked up and it was about 10 min from queue to truck.
- An Okapi
- A Black Rhino
- Not sure what kind of bird this is.. the driver did not say.
- Hippos
- Pelican
- A hippo was out on one of the island further along the river.
- Nile crocodiles
- Some video from my Kilimanjaro Safari including the Nile Crocodiles and a look around the Savanna.
- Wildebeest on the move on the Savanna
- African Painted Dogs
- Patterson Eland
- Wildebeests at the watering hole.
- Giraffe
- A Mandrill trying to hide.
- Elephants on the far side of their area.
- A cheetah out in the open.
- Another one near the back of its space.
- A glimpse of the male lion.
- After my safari walked through the Tree of Life Garden. Here are a couple of Lemurs.
- Kevin walking by...
- Stopped by Dinoland USA for lunch.
- Walked through the Discovery Trading Company.
- The current color they are pushing for merchandise.
- A look around the Trading Company.
- A large penguin was out as part of the Merry Menagerie
- For comparison the large and small penguins.
- The wind was picking up again as we left the park around 12:30pm
- On our way to the Contemporary the bus stopped at the Wilderness Lodge.
- TRON construction at the Magic Kingdom as the bus entered the Contemporary Parking lot.
- Just missed Monorail red.
- Monorail Silver pulled in. This is one of the recently renovated ones.
- While at the Transportation and Ticket center the skies opened and a cloud burst rained down.
- Epcot Monorail on approach.
- Trees have been removed from one section of the Magic Kingdom parking lot. This really opens the view.
- Dirt and construction near by as they work to add more parking and a larger retention pond.
- The Magic Kingdom parking entrance.
- A look at the Epcot entrance renovation project. Trees are planted and other landscaping work is underway.
- Video from my loop around Epcot Future World aboard the Monorail
- Concrete work around the new fountain. Looks like the first sections of the new facade have been added.
- Moving on there is walkway work just past Spaceship Earth near guest relations.
- A new path leading around the building is taking shape.
- New paths are taking shape by the restrooms in Future World east.
- The path toward the center of the park is being redone. Guessing to allow greater guest flow as well as equipment traffic for construction.
- Innoventions West in the background, demolition continues.
- The Fountain of Nations and Starbucks are gone. All that remains of Innovetions is mostly the steel.
- They have started to pull the facade off the last section since the other day.
- Looks like an area will be opening in front of the construction.
- Another walkway is taking shape on this side of Spaceship earth leading around the Innoventions building and coming out by the Seas.
- Final sections taking shape for this path.
- More work where the pathway will connect.
- A temporary walkway through the construction for Cast Members.
- Passing by Spaceship Earth
- The entrance project from this side.
- Arriving at Epcot (I really like not having to go through security a second time when arriving by Monorail).
- The Camera Center now shares space with the Pin Traders
- Pin Traders sign on the opposite side of the store.
- A ground level look at the demolition of Innovetions
- A monorail passing by.
- A final look at the Epcot Christmas tree
- The new restrooms are nearing completion. More details have been installed.
- Starbucks is also racing toward completion for the holiday crowds.
- Passing by the Mill Stage
- World Showcase Lagoon on this cloudy afternoon
- My park time has come to an end this visit.. heading for the gateway.
- Mickey and Minnie were there to say goodbye.
- A final look at the France expansion while I waited for a boat.
- Back at the Boardwalk to pick up my carryons.
- Current valet rate at the Boardwalk.
- Airline checkin area at the Boardwalk, the service had concluded for the day already.
- Minivans use a variety of vehicles now.
- Stopped by the Belle Vue Lounge to hang out while waiting
- Decided to head out early to see about an earlier bus since we were ready and figured waiting at the airport was about the same as sitting here.
- The 2:45pm bus had space (we were supposed to go on the 3:15)
- Onboard and on our way.
- Passing by the newly opened Riviera Resort (our bus did not make any stops.. just one other family onboard)
- 3:15pm the control tower is in sight.
- 3:21pm off the bus and heading into the airport.
- Grabbed a bite to eat then stopped by the Magic of Disney since it was open and not busy.
- The Christmas tree in the center of the hotel area.
- Star Wars Galaxy's Edge graphics on the tram stop at out by the gates.
- So arriving guests see this first (and departing guests last)
- 4:28pm at our gate.. our plane is there. Scheduled boarding 6:05 for 6:45pm departure. This seemed a good sign.
- The sign was wrong.. the terminal became crowded and delayed flights stacked up. This was just after 6pm and we were waiting for the flight attendants to arrive via another flight.
- Finally onboard at 6:50pm.
- Hmm.. that mileage is way off.. (it was corrected once airborne)
- Scrolling through the movies while I waited I noticed Disney Plus notes on ones available on the new service.
- 7:15pm and finally pushed back.
- 7:30 we stopped after driving all the way around to the far side of the airport. I could see several planes lined up in front of us to take off. The pilot came on and said because of the approaching storm more space between planes was needed, 30 miles, so take offs were delayed. They had no idea when we would take off, we were number 23 and they were shutting down the engine to save fuel so we did not need to refuel.
- The storm arrived just after 8pm
- Due to the wind shift they changed and we had to take off the other direction using a runway on the other side of the airport. So we followed the line of planes to that side of the airport.
- 8:48pm passed by the gate we departed 90 minutes ago completing our grand circle tour of Orlando airport.
- 9:02 pm finally on the runway and next to take off.
- It was raining pretty good as we started down the runway and took off.
- Updated flight info.
- I thought this was an interesting picture.. the blur is the rain that we were flying through.
- Snack time..
- Jumping ahead almost 5 hours as we were on approach to land at LAX.
- Touchdown at 11:12pm
- 11:20pm and pulling into the gate.. cleared the airport in about 30 min and was in the car and on the way home just after midnight arriving home just after 1am to end a long travel day and this vacation.