Trip Log:

Started off the day sleeping in a bit, the alarm was set for 6:45. Headed for Breakfast here at the Resort, then by 7:45 made it out to the bus stop and headed for the Animal Kingdom. Took the Wild By Design Tour, it lasted until 11:30. Headed for the busses and over to the Contemporary for a quick lunch at the Food & Fun center then some of the group went Fishing on Bay Lake. We headed via boat over to the Wilderness Lodge then by Bus to the Studios. Walked through the One Man’s Dream Exhibit again (nothing new), then watched Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Wondered around the park(through the Commissary, around the Backlot, down Sunset Blvd) looking at menus for dinner and then waited for the rest of our group before deciding on a light dinner at Pizza Planet. Walked through the New York street then hitched a ride on the Backlot Tram tour. Then hiked over to Animation followed by Beauty and the Beast with a snack of some McDs Fries. Then it was an hour wait for Fantasmic before catching a bus back to the Pop Century for our last night at this Resort.

Thoughts & Observations:

• We started the day off by taking the Wild By Design tour at the Animal Kingdom. This tour was an onstage walking tour of the park. It works as a compliment to the Backstagte Safari tour really well. Overall we enjoyed the tour and learned some things along the way. We also taught our CM guide a few things, for example he was not familiar with the term “Winnie” with regards to the parks. For those of you who do not know a Winnie in Disneyspeak is something to draw you to an area. For example at the Magic Kingdom the castle is the main one, then each land has another to beckon you to that area. Click Here to read our full review as well as the log of what we did.
  
  
• There are new WaterMice on Bay Lake. They look to be a bit more roomy than the old ones, but we did not take them out for a spin so we cannot comment on them much more than that.
  
  
• Half our group took a fishing excursion on Bay Lake and they had a great time. Usually we do not go out in the afternoon, but had to for some scheduling reasons and the fishing was still decent and the weather was not bad either.
  
  
  
• We do not remember there being a specific boat just to service the Wilderness Lodge, Fort Wilderness, and the Contemporary. But there is now. Its the Blue Flagged route.
  
  
• We spent some time exploring the Wilderness Lodge and its Villas. The Spike Room at the Villas was impressive and for Disneygeek's you get to view several photos of Walt as well as a couple cars from his miniture train. Well worth the visit.
  
  
• The second half of the day was spent at the Studios. The Stunt show areana is really coming along. It looks like the sets inside are mostly complete too. The first thing that struck me was how massive the grand stands are and how much land is devoted to this new show.
  
  
• The Backlot Tram tour has now shrunk even more and is really only a couple minute adventure now a days. They have even shortened the non tram portion of the tour. All we were able to see was the Perl Harbor water tank followed by a quick walk through the prop warehouse and onto a tram. The tram made a loop out to the earful tower then through wardrobe and out to Catrastrophy Canyon before dropping us off near New York Street. Its really a shame this attraction has dwindled down to this.
  
  
• We stayed at the Studios past sunset and watched Fantasmic . I always seem to forget how much I dislike the Florida version of this Disneyland spectacular. My three main complaints are the heavy reliance on the midst screens, I bet the film portion is at least twice as long, lack of a climax in the first half of the show(where as Disneyland has the Columbia - Peter Pan segment), and the finale. Disneyland's finale is much more impressive to me. The Mark Twain Starts it off then the fireworks illuminating the shores around the Rivers of America sure shows up the Steamboat Willie boat and the fireworks illuminating the grandstands at WDW. The one advantage of Florida is everyone gets an almost unobstructed view with a seat... but that doesn't make up for the show itself in my books...

Pedometer Information for the day:

Enough with the text.. onto the pictures

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