Trip Log:

Started off the morning a bit later.. we grabbed breakfast at Everything Pop and headed for Animal Kingdom at 9am. Due to a backup of wheel chairs and some slow bus driving we did not make it to the park until almost 10am. Walked back and grabbed a Fastpass for the Safari then wandered around Pangani for a while then Harambre until our return time. Went on our Safari and then explored the Tree of Life Garden on our way to Asia (we took the road less traveled). Once in Asia watched the Gibbons for a while then hiked the Jungle Trek. Upon arriving back in Anandapor continued on to Everest. The line was 90 minutes and the walkway was closed off by theater in the wild. So we retreated and circled around to Dinoland. Grabbed a quick lunch at Restaurantosourus and then headed out of the park. Hopped a bus to the Transportation and Ticket Center then a Monorail to the Magic Kingdom (the Ferry was closed). Wandered down Main Street stopping in the Main Street Cinema to grab a couple VMK quests. Headed for Fantasyland and quest number one. Walked through the Castle, by Snow White, around Alice in Wonderland, doubled back to the Sword in the Stone, then over to Village Haus and finally headed out of Fantasyland after completing all nine questions. Walked through Liberty Square and into Frontierland. Wandered around through the various stores, restaurants, etc.. answering those nine questions then cut through Adventureland and back to Main Street to see how we did. We got 17 out of 18 on the first try (goofed on the number of Chimneys on the Village Haus). Headed out of the park and hopped a Monorail over to the TTC and then onto EPCOT. We strolled to Innoventions East to look around and then over to Test Track to check out the line. Too long for our taste so off to World Showcase we went. Stopped in Canada to watch the Circle Vision film then doubled back to Innovention Plaza to meet up with the rest of our group. We walked around World Showcase and out to the American Adventure. Hung around and then caught the last Voices of Liberty performance for the evening before the 5:15 show. After the show watched the Gary Puckett concert at the stage and then went on to dinner (some at the Liberty Inn the others in China). After dinner completed our loop of World Showcase and back into Future World we went. Stopped by the Land to check out the lines, too long for Soarin and Listen to the Land was closed already (it was now a little after seven). Walked along the Rose walkway and checked out Tinkerbell’s area on our way back to World Showcase. Strolled around again heading past Canada, etc.. on our way out to the 8:15 concert. After the show we hiked back around the lagoon, finishing our second loop of the evening, and watched Illuminations. Then turned around and followed the masses out to the bus stop and back to Pop Century to call it a night.

Thoughts & Observations:

• We awoke to a cool morning, another strange Florida occurrence this time of year. Since the weather was cool we decided to skip our Typhoon Lagoon morning and instead head for Animal Kingdom.

• Seems quite a few others had the same idea and the line for the AK bus was long, a two bus wait. I still do not understand why in the morning they do not ask if anyone is heading to Blizzard Beach and if not skip that stop. The bus trip took us almost an hour to make it to the park from when we got in line. By far the longest we have waited and driven around. If they would have asked and been able to skip Blizzard Beach that would have saved close to 15 minutes I bet. Since a bulk of the morning ridership goes to AK, especially on cold days why not reverse the route and stop there first then BB.

• Upon arriving at AK we were greeted by long security lines and even longer park entrance lines.. we goofed by choosing AK this morning. oh well we were already here so we went in anyways and decided to deal with the crowd for a couple of hours then leave.
  

• It was kind of weird... we noticed a long line near the Fastpass return area for the Safari and realized that guests were lining up 10-15 minutes before their return time and just standing there waiting for the clock to change.. kind of strange.
  
  
• Out on the savanna we saw the new born (well couple months old now) baby elephant. which was great.. really hard to get pictures though due to where they were.
  
  
• Overall with the weather being cool the Animals very active throughout the park. Not as active as we have seen in the winter/fall but for the spring very active.
  
  
• We arrived at the Magic Kingdom just after lunch and found the park to be not nearly as crowded as Animal Kingdom was. A good sign. We spent the afternoon doing the Fantasyland and Frontierland VMK quests, which were quite challenging for this Disneyland regular and not that frequent of a visitor to the Magic Kingdom park at WDW.
  
  
• The evening was spent at EPCOT where there seemed to be a healthy crowd, many more people than the other day but nothing like what we encountered at AK this morning. Guess the weekend and mild weather combined to really bring the crowds up.
  
  
• I learned something new. We met friends who had a car parked in the EPCOT parking lot and had dinner reservations over at the Studios and wanted to see Fantasmic and then head back to EPCOT. I knew the busses would be running but I figured by the time they took the Friendship Launch to the International Gateway they would not be able to enter EPCOT to walk through the park and get to their car. A CM at the International Gateway explained that as long as the Friendship boats were operating (an hour after Fantasmic usually) you can enter EPCOT and if needed a security escort would walk you to the front of the park if it had already closed.
  
• As we sat there waiting for Illuminations the wind really picked. I was curious what the wind thresholds are at WDW for firework shows. I know Disneyland would have canceled both Fantasmic and Remember if the same winds were blowing there. But both shows at WDW went forward right on schedule. It was kind of nice to see the smoke get cleared out almost instantly during Illuminations vs. lingering.

Pedometer Information for the day:

Enough with the text.. onto the pictures

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