Trip Log:

Today was our last day at WDW. We slept in till around 7:30 and then packed for a while and headed to Everything Pop for breakfast. After breakfast it was back to the room to finish packing. We dropped the bags off with the Airline checkin desk around 9:00am and then our carryon bags with bell services. We were on a bus and heading for EPCOT by 10am. Arrived at the park and hopped a monorail over to the TTC and the Ferry to the Magic Kingdom. Strolled down Main Street to meet up and say goodbye to some friends who were vacationing at WDW too. Then stopped by Sleepy Hollow for a last funnel cake. Went out to catch the Country Bears and then back to Main Street via Adventureland and out of the park. Caught the express Monorail to the TTC and then the EPCOT monorail. This time entered the park. Grabbed Fastpasses for Test Track and then lunch at the Electric Umbrella. Walked over to Innoventions West to use my Disney Visa and get a free picture taken. Then back to Test Track for our ride. After riding we strolled through the park and back to the entrance area to pick up our picture. Headed back to the bus stop and back to Pop Century, arriving around 3pm. We had an hour to relax, catch our breath, and get our carry-ons together before our 4:15pm Magical Express Pickup. The bus arrived around 3:45 and we got on that one and off to the airport and back to good old Los Angeles.

Thoughts & Observations:

• The last day of a vacation always stinks... luckily our last day was extended due to a late flight back to Los Angeles. We did not depart Orlando until 7:00pm so that meant almost a full day at WDW since our Magical Express pickup was not until 4:00pm.

• We took advantage of the onsite airline checkin since we were flying United. This is a great service. You can drop your bags off and get your boarding passes up to 12 hours before your flight (also note it must be at least 3 hours before your flight and the service is open from around 6am until 1pm only). This worked great. We borrowed a hand truck, dropped off the bags and were off to the parks a little after opening (also dropped off our carry ons with Bell Services).
  
• Only problem we have with the airline check in was you we could not get our seats fixed. For some reason United spread the four of us out all over the plane and we wanted to be together.. still not sure why they did this to us. When we left I checked and our seats were together. Anyways the CM working the checkin could not move our seats.
  
  
• Spent some time in the Magic Kingdom, while waiting for the Country Bears that I wanted to see.. I still enjoy them even though the Vacation Hoedown show is much better in my books than this original version at WDW. But still these bears are better than no bears like Disneyland!!!
  
  
• We grabbed Fastpasses for Test Track before lunch since the standby line was 40 minutes. Out popped a bonus Fastpass for Mission Space. It was good right away.. we looked and there was no wait at Mission Space and we did not see anyone take advantage of these bonus Fastpasses. I think its really sad that this multi-million (well probably closer to hundred million) dollar attraction just cannot draw people... wonder if its because its too intense, too deadly, too many problems, or just something people are not interested in. I really hope Disney takes this to heart and starts to develop E-ticket attractions again with no height restrictions or health restrictions. A good balance is needed. Look no further than Disneyland.. back in 1959 when Walt opened the Matterhorn (the first "modern" roller coaster) he also opened the Monorail and Submarine Voyage. So you had something for everyone. Once we arrived back home I saw the release that Disney will be offering a non-G-force version of Mission Space starting this summer.. that should be interesting.
  
  
• We had a 4:15 Magical Express pickup time so we got our carryon bags and headed out to the bus stop about 20 minutes early like you are supposed to. There was a bus there picking people up for a 3:45pm pickup time. The driver had room and let us on.. so we headed to the airport early on this full (I think there were maybe a handful of empty seats only).
  
  
• I did not grab the bus drivers name, but he was great. He acted as a tour guide as we left Disney and then drove along 428. At one point he even slowed the bus down saying on the way to Disney they spotted an alligator in the lake and wanted to see if it was still there.. we did spot one. Also they played a video for part of the trip that was pretty well done. It was the characters taking the Magical Express service and heading back from vacation. Only think is it really needed to be updated.. it was pushing what you could do on your next vacation like Expedition Everest opening next spring (which dated the film to last year).
  
  
• Overall I thought the Magical Express Service and Resort Airline Checkin worked perfectly. We had no real waits and no problems. I would highly recommend taking advantage of these two serivces if your planning on staying onsite. You are already paying for them since they are built into the room rate, so why not.
  
  
• Just want to close by saying how annoying United is.. As I mentioned above our seats were messed up so we called Mileage Plus since we booked through them. They could not help and transfered us to regular customer service. which was in India it sounded like.. they could not or would not help and said it had to be done at the airport. Since we arrived early we went to the United counter in the main terminal and were greeted by a United Person who would not even let us approach the counter to talk to a representative saying instead we had to go to the gate. Once we got to the gates no agent would help except at your specific gate and they do not show up until an hour before the flight. So we waited and when one finally did it seemed like 1/3 of the plane needed to move seats.. this poor guy. He did a good job and helped everyone but it created a lot more stress for everyone including this poor gate agent than needed.
  
  To top it off when we go to LA we parked at the furthest gate in terminal 6.. United's main terminal is 7 here so we had to hike to the opposite terminal and then the furthest baggage carousel of course.. and in their infinite wisdom there are 4 carousels but they decided to put four flights on the same one.. how annoying!!

Pedometer Information for the day:

Enough with the text.. onto the pictures

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