Trip Log:

 Started off the day sleeping in a bit to catch up from not sleeping much last night, so we headed for breakfast around 8:30am.  Ate at Everything Pop and then headed to EPCOT.  Walked over to the Seas with Nemo and road the new attraction then walked around the Sea Base.  Wandered over to Journey Into Imagination then headed out of the park and took the monorail to the TTC.  We split up at this point and two headed for the Contemporary by way of the Ferry then walking to go fishing and the other two of us headed to the Polynesian by way of the walking trail.  We walked the hotel grounds and around the Grand Ceremonial House before boarding the monorail to get to the Grand Floridian.  We walked around the lobby then the grounds and grabbed lunch as the Grill by the Marina.  After eating we walked back through the lobby and caught a bus over to Downtown Disney to meet some friends.  We hung around there talking for a couple hours then hopped a bus back to Pop Century for a quick pit stop to grab pants and drop off a back pack then off to Animal Kingdom.  We arrived just before 6pm.  We walked around the Oasis and out to Africa, snapping pictures along the way then over to Asia.  We took the bridge back to Discovery Island and walked over to Dinoland to grab dinner.  After dinner we walked by the Theater in the Wild and out by Everest.   We finished the loop and walked to the trail that goes around the Tree of Life.  We ended up back at the bridge to Africa and took some more pictures before turning around to head out.  It was now 8pm and the park was closed.  We headed to the front of the park and took the bus back to Pop Century to call it a night.

Thoughts & Observations:

• Our first stop of the day was to head over to the Seas with Nemo. I was really curious to see what they did and to get a sneak peak at the new projection technology that will be finding its way into Disneyland's Submarine Voyage opening in 2007. The first thing that stuck me is how big the queue is. The old queue, 1st movie area, and 2nd movie area are all turned into the queue. So you have a good hike to get to the ride vehicle. The ride itself seems a bit longer than the old Sea Cabs attraction but then again its been years so my memory may just be bad. I thought the new projection technology was impressive, especially the final scenes where the Nemo characters are in the main tank with the live fish. The depth effect was great. Overall I was not that happy with the attraction though. I thought the final 30 seconds or so were the highlight and the rest was just ok. I would have liked to have seen more with the live fish instead of all projection and other scenes. I was especially disappointed that the tunnel where you used to be able to look out to three sides (left right and above) is now closed in. Its the scene where you meet Crush, which is cool but I would have rather seen the real fish. The "Nemoification" of the Living Seas has brought some rather large crowds back to the area so overall its a success I think. Add in the crowds Soarin has returned to the Land and this area of EPCOT has not felt this alive in years. The only weak link is Journey Into Imagination with its old film and Figment attraction.
  
  
• I was surprised to find the Clown fish area closed for rehab on the second floor. I forget what they called that Pod but it was one of the first ones to get the Nemo treatment. I guess they are taking the overlay a step further.
  
  
• Turtle Talk is still generating a long line.. too bad there isn't another place for it to go besides in the middle of the main floor. It really leads to congestion and excess noise.
  
  
• Journey Into Imagination still a shell of its former self and its quite annoying to me.. I really enjoyed the original attraction and yes this version is a step forward from the last version but it still does not draw a crowd and its disappointing to experience.
  
  
• Its been a while since I walked the Polynesian grounds and they look great, I noticed new torches going in and a couple other minor improvements but overall it is such a nice place to just walk around.
  
  
• I stopped by the new Captain Cooks and I think the concept is interesting.The hot food is self ordering using a computer kiosk and everything else is self service and then you go to a cashier to pay. I am curious how this works when its busy but when its not busy (as it was one we visited) it seems like a great system.
  
  
• I know its only the second day, but the Disney busses this trip seem to be slower than in the spring. We seem to be spending more time waiting for them than before and there seem to be even more wheelchairs/ecvs leading to slower load/unload times.
  
  
• We took advantage of the Extra Hours of Magic at the Animal Kingdom to get some night pictures. We were really hoping for a night safari but all the animal attractions closed down before sunset, most by 4:30. Basically Everest and Dinoland were open and drawing crowds most of the evening.
  
  
• The wristband distributions was really slow. There were three CMs handing them out but the way the line was you could only go single file so only one CM was doing anything at any one time and the other two sat there doing nothing as the line moved along slowly.
  
  
• There were quite a few large groups of cheerleaders roaming the park... I understand there was a national competition at the sports complex. I could only image what the All Star Resorts were like, I believe they were staying there plus the Pop Warner football tournament guys..
  
  
• This was my first time at Animal Kingdom with total darkness. I had spent time in the park at sunset/dusk but never beyond that. I found the parks lighting to be incredible and great to just walk around and look at.. too bad not many people get to experience it. Maybe someday the park will be open later more often.
  
  
• We actually used almost the entire three hours to take pictures and grab a quick dinner at McDs in Dinoland. The attraction wait times seemed slightly longer than they were back in April when we stayed late too.
  
  
• When we left, which was slightly after 8pm and got out to the bus stop there were only two lines... one for Pop Century and one for All Star. All the other bus stops were empty. I found this a little surprising.
  
  

Pedometer Information for the day:

* Note: The second pedometer was worn by someone else in our group, not sure why his numbers are so dramatically different than mine, we walked nearly the same places, or at least within 5-10% I would estimate but the numbers were double to triple for mine for some reason..

Enough with the text.. onto the pictures

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