Disneygeek - Walt Disney World Trip Report

Walt Disney World Day 6 Report

Monday, May 1, 2006

Trip Log:

Started off the morning with a 5:45am wake-up call. Stopped by Everything Pop when it opened at 6:00am and then out to a cab and over to the Palm course for our 7:00am Tee Time. Played our round and headed back to the resort to grab lunch. Walked the Pop Century grounds and then took the bus to the Studios. Caught the 2:45pm Lights, Motors, Action show followed by the 4:00pm Indy show, and concluding with the 5:00pm Parade. Then took the Boat over to the Swan/Dolphin and hiked to the Board Walk and ESPN Club for dinner. Hopped a bus from the Boardwalk over to Downtown Disney. Did some shopping and exploring the new World of Disney areas. Stopped by Pleasure Island to see the rehab work and then hopped a bus back to the Resort to call it an early evening.

Thoughts & Observations:

We played the Palm course this morning. It was our first time on a Disney course with the GPS system in the carts. I believe now all courses (maybe not Lake Buena Vista) have this. You have a good size LCD monitor mounted in cart that displays information about the hole, your position, and distances to hazards, the green, etc.. Also this system can be used for emergency notification, etc.. I thought the resolution was great and the distance information interesting, but with my level of play not that useful... We also found it fun to keep an eye on the pace... we finished well ahead of the pace Disney wanted.
After a quick lunch it was off to Lights, Motors, Action(LMA) at the Studios. The show does seem to lag on a second viewing in a couple days, but the action sequences are still great. Also interesting to note they did not do the final jump. The car came down the ramp and turned. The fire effects went off still. It appeared the landing ramp did not come up fully after it was down for the jet ski scene, but that is a random guess.. no announcement was made.
After seeing LMA then going over to see Indy the theater really seems small. I remember thinking how large this place was, but it is dwarfed by the LMA stadium Wonder how long until the show will change.. it has basically been the same for years now (since opening I think).
Saw the Stars and Cars Motorparade. As you will see in the pictorial update there were a couple changes since our last viewing. Most notably the addition of two cars from the upcoming film Cars. Also the police motorcycles are now gone and I think the Chevron sponsorship is new since our last viewing which was a couple of years ago. The two additions from Cars are great! We heard eventually these cars will be out for photo sessions too so you can have your picture taken with the stars. We did not catch this in our visit.
Decided to do some shopping after dinner and headed to Downtown Disney. The new additions to World of Disney are great. There is a Pirates/Adventure room and a Princess Room now. The Boutique was closed, but from what I have read its a hit. The store still seems rather crazy to me.. I am sure the Anaheim store can get just as crazy but the Orlando version always seems to be in a state of chaos when I visit. Not sure why. Also I was proud of myself to make it through and not buy anything!!!
On the way out we walked through Pleasure Island to see the state of things. The best way to describe it is a work in progress. It felt like half the Island was either destroyed or behind construction walls. The parts that were left felt like a ghost town for the most part, but then again it was early still.. we look forward to seeing the changes. If the addition of the Irish Pub is an example of things to come the future is looking good.