Trip Log:

  Started off the cold morning heading to Everything Pop to heat up and eat breakfast then hopped a bus over to the Studios.  We headed down Hollywood Blvd and walked into the Animation Courtyard and down Mickey Ave.  We were called into One Man’s Dream and given Year of a Million Dream Fastpasses.  We watched One Man’s Dream and then headed out to the Backlot tour.  After the tour we stopped by the Prop Shop to get our Annual Passholder lithograph and then headed over to Sunset Blvd to catch the Beauty and the Beast stage show.  After the show we spent some time walking through the shops on Hollywood Blvd and then we headed out of the park and to the bus back to Pop Century.  We grabbed a quick lunch at Everything Pop then caught a cab over to the Magnolia to make our 2pm tee time.  Managed to get off a bit early and played our round.  After we finished we took a cab back to Pop Century then met up with the rest of our group (we went to the Magic Kingdom while we were golfing) and we headed for EPCOT via Disney bus.  Once at the park we split up.  Two went to see if there were any cancellations/openings at Le Cellier and the other two headed for the Land to see if there were any Soarin’ Fastpasses left.  We failed on both counts.  So we regrouped and some went to the Lotus Blossom Café in China and others went to the Liberty Inn at the American adventure.  After eating we all headed for the American Adventure.  After the show we decided it was too cold and windy to continue so we hiked back to the parks entrance (actually hopped on the boat at Morocco to Canada) and grabbed a bus back to Pop Century to call it an early night.

Thoughts & Observations:

• Today was one of the coldest days I have ever been in Central Florida for. The high was supposed to be under 60 (57 to be exact) and the wind was blowing almost all day long. We did not let the weather slow us down, but the parks were quite empty.
  
  
• We started the day off on a good note. We won Dream Fastpasses at the Studios!!! As part of the Year of a Million Dreams promotion each day at each theme park they give out quite a few Dream Fastpasses. We were walking along Mickey Ave on our way to the Backlot and there were several CMs out from of One Man's Dream. They asked us if we had seen the attraction recently we said yes we have (we did in May and I knew nothing had changed since then really). They said you really should go in and see, we just added something new. I resisted a bit and they seemed quite set on getting us in. So we caved and went in. As we rounded the corner there were CMs there handing out the prizes. So the morale of the story is if your wandering the park and a CM says you really should see or do something it might not hurt to take them up on the offer. (For those who do not know Dream Fastpasses are a blue ticket with a stub for each Fastpass attraction on it. You go through the Fastpass line and are supposed to rip off the tab and give it to the CM. These passes are only good on the date issued and there are no return times so you can go at any time throughout the day. Since there were no lines we did not use ours and brought them home instead. If anyone wants to see I can scan one in).
  
  
• The Backlot Tour is really gutted, as I have mentioned before, but due to weather it was even shorter with no guests participating in the water tank scene and instead the CM spend a couple minutes telling us what we would normally see and running a couple effects. Seems to me they could have at least shown the film, but they did not, then you are escorted back to the trams right away for that short trip.
  
  
• We were a bit worried about our golf tee time due to the late start (2pm is when twilight rates started) and the cold weather. Luckily we were able to get off several groups early and still got the great rate. This enabled us to finish the complete round before dark (just barely). Seems Disney's twilight policy is they guarantee only 9 holes. I thought they should have given a break on club rental too since that was the plan, but they did not. If you are not in one of the first twilight tee times you will probably not get many more than 9 holes in, especially if there are groups in front of you.
  
  
• This was our first time on the Magnolia since it underwent the major rehab a year or so ago. The course was in great shape and we had a great time (even with our three layers of clothing on). Funny how the weather is, when we made the tee time we were worried about heat, but as the day approached it was the cold that became worrisome.
  
  
• As I mentioned before dinning at EPCOT is a "mess" and add in the bad weather and the number of people in the area for the Candlelight and eating at the Liberty Inn was a mistake but I was there and too lazy to walk anywhere else so I fought the line to get my food then stood there looking for a table along with several other people. We all commented on how it was too cold to eat outside and we just stood there. I decided my food was cold enough so I pulled up a seat on the fountain in the middle of the dining area. One of the couples standing talking to me managed to get a table and they came back and invited me to join them verses sitting on the floor, which I took them up on the offer. I want to give a Thank you to them and nice to see decent people still visit the parks.
  
  
• The rest of my group went for Chinese and then joined me to go on the American Adventure. They said the Lotus Blossom Cafe in China was nearly empty and they walked up, ordered, ate, and came to the American Adventure in no time at all. I think the problem at the Liberty Inn was mainly Candlelight people looking for a warm place to wait for the show.
  
  
• The American Adventure was using only the exit as the entrance and exit (we noticed this every night), Wonder if there were that many functions going on or if it was being used as a staging area for the Candlelight, I never did investigate... anyways the heat in the building was turned up quite high and it was funny to watch people walk in and strip off all the warm clothes then reverse course after the show, which of course made it feel even colder after leaving the comfy theater.
  

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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