Trip Log:

  Started off the morning heading for Everything Pop and Breakfast.  After eating we boarded a bus to the Animal Kingdom and arrived there around 9:30am.  Walked out to the Safari and grabbed a Fastpass then wandered over to Pangani Trail to see the Gorillas.  We next walked down the trail to Asia and caught the 10:30 Flights of Wonder show.  After the show we passed Expedition Everest and went to find the end of the Finding Nemo line for the first show of the morning.  It stretched back to Dinoland so we skipped the show and walked back past the Tree of Life and out  to Africa to use our Fastpasses for the Safari.  Next up lunch.  We walked back across the park and some ate at Flame Tree and others at McDs in Dinoland.  Once our stomachs were full we headed for the Nemo line for the 2nd showing of the day.  After finding Nemo we headed for the front of the park and a bus over to the Studios.  We wandered down Hollywood Blvd and saw there was no wait for Great Moments at the Movies.  We next headed out by Star Tours to watch the Hollywood Holly-day Parade.  After the parade we walked through the Streets of America and lined up for Lights, Motors, Action.  After the show we headed to Muppets 3D and then killed some time walking around the backlot and sitting in the ABC Commissary until nearly 6pm.  At 6pm we were on the City Streets to watch the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing lights.  We went up and down the street and around in circles a couple times then walked back to the parks entrance and waited for the Friendship Launch to the Boardwalk.  Since the boat took so long to arrive we hopped off at the Swan/Dolphin and walked over to the Boardwalk and down to ESPN Club to get in line for dinner.  After eating we walked over to EPCOT and queued up for Illuminations and to try and catch the Shuttle Launch (which did not happen).  Once the finale was over we joined the mass migration to the bus stop and caught the bus back to Pop Century to call it a night.

Thoughts & Observations:

• The Finding Nemo Musical at Animal Kingdom appears to be another crowd attractor for the park. We showed up over an half hour before the show and the line stretched from the theater, down into Dinoland. I would think most of those people got in but the line was long and probably god longer. We went to the second showing and lined up about half an hour before show time and were at the very entrance to Dinoland, we got in with no problem. So if you see the long line don't be too scared, the theater does hold quite a few guests, but as word spread the line may grow even longer faster...
  
  
• I found the this show to be pretty good by Theme park standards. I thought the sets, lighting, puppets, actors/actresses all were great and did a first class job. I even thought the use of puppets and live actors worked amazingly well. But something with the show did not sit well with me. After pondering it most of the day I think it boils down to the music just was not engaging. The Festival of the Lion King is so energetic and compelling that you are immersed and energized. Here you are immersed in the undersea world but not really compelled to stay or have fun, or at least I was not. Also I think the repeatability of this show is really limited. If you are like me and do not find the music too inspiring there is little purpose to watch it again and again. Where as the Lion King always has such great performances and even Aladdin at Disney's California Adventure has the Genie's adlibs to bring you back.
  
  
• On our Safari trip we were able to see the baby giraffe and elephant which were great plusses and saw more cheetahs than we ever have. Unfortunately the trip itself was not the best. We had a brand new driver who was still in the training phase (which is fine) and she was quite nervous and her voice was a bit on the "annoying" side, it came across shrill over the speakers.
  
  
• In the afternoon we caught the Hollywood Holly-days parade over at the Studios. I thought this was a great little parade and a clever concept.
  
  
• This was my first time seeing the Osborne Lights on the City Streets. Last time we were there for Christmas they were still on the residential street. I enjoyed the residential street more. It was just more interesting to me. I did find the dancing lights to be a fun twist. The snow effect was trying to work but due to the wind just was not functioning right so no one really knew it was snowing.
  
  
• We ate dinner at the ESPN Club and found the service to be extremely slow and poor. It took almost 20 minutes to get our check. Also they seemed to have problems keeping people straight as they called names to be seated. Several groups, including ourselves, were skipped over. For example they called two other parties of 4 (as we were) before us and they arrived after us. When we asked why the CM just shrugged it off said they would look into it. We overheard them talking and basically it seems the person who took the names was not keying them into the computer right. The food was good and the atmosphere is still fun.
  
  
• We hung around (and braved the cold) for Illuminations, which is now a half hour later than the last few trips down. Its at 9:30pm instead of 9:00pm. My guess is this is to accommodate more dinner reservations. This was my first time seeing the Peace on Earth finale and I have to say I was extremely impressed, as was everyone around us. We watched from the bridge near the International Gateway (mostly because I wanted an unobstructed view of the Eastern sky since the Space Shuttle was scheduled to launch at 9:35pm, which it did not due to weather). The bridge shook quite a bit during the finale (about as much as the 4th of July finale I saw several years ago from there, maybe a bit more even but its hard to compare over that much time). It was great to watch people's expressions. Many cheered during the first finale.. then the We Go On segment goes through and they cheer again for that finale.. then the Peace On Earth segment and finale and many just stood there awestruck for a while (we saw the show three times and it was great to watch and listen to people's reactions each time).
  
  
• Speaking of dinner reservations I want to rant about them. Due to the Candlelight packages and the Disney Dining plan it was nearly impossible to get EPCOT dining reservations unless you booked several weeks out or wanted to eat at 9:30pm. For example we called almost 60 days out and Le Cellier was booked our entire trip for lunch and dinner. This is just crazy in my book. I feel sorry for people who have not eaten at EPCOT before they were all locked out of restaurants by these two programs. Seems to me they should save some reservations for day of or standby guests.. I talked to several people and even several CMs who said it has just been a mess to get dining reservations at EPCOT with the packages. So the morale of the story is be sure to book as early as possible, which I think is 180 days now for most places.
  

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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