Trip Log:

  Started off the morning with breakfast at Everything Pop then took the bus over to the Studios.  We headed down Hollywood Blvd and grabbed a Fastpass for Indy then walked over to the Animation Courtyard and visited the Animation building.  We were awarded Dream Fastpasses at the start of the show.  After the show we walked around the Echo Lake area killing some time then headed over for the 11:30 Indiana Jones show.  After the show we split up and two headed for the Contemporary and fishing on Bay Lake and the other two of us roamed the Studios a bit then took the bus over to Animal Kingdom.  We ran out and grabbed Fastpasses for the Safari and then ate lunch at Pizzafari.  After lunch we wandered through Camp Minnie Mickey then out to the Pangani forest to see the Gorillas.  After watching them for a bit we headed for the Safari and then grabbed some Ice Cream and relaxed in Harambre.  After eating we walked around the Tree of Life for a while then out to the water near Flame Tree BBQ for some Everest shots.  Walked near the Dinoland entrance and listened to the band there before heading to near the line board to find a spot for the Parade.  Watched the parade then headed out of the park and took a bus over to the TTC and a monorail to the Magic Kingdom.  We met up with our group and then headed out to grab a Fastpass for the Jungle Cruise.  We wandered back through the hub and checked out the menu in Cosmic Rays, circled around through Tomorrowland and back down Main Street to catch the Tree Lighting.  Then we went back to Cosmic Rays for dinner.   After dinner we walked through Fantasyland and stopped at Philharmagic then over to the Haunted Mansion.  We found a place near the Adventureland bridge to watch Spectro Magic then went on the Jungle Cruise.  We had about 10 minutes until Wishes so we found a spot near the Main Street Cinema for the show.  After the show headed for the Express Monorail to the TTC and transferred to the EPCOT line.  We made it into EPCOT by 8:40pm (so it was about 40 minutes to watch the 8pm wishes on Main Street then catch the two monorails to EPCOT and walk into the park.  We had 50 minutes to kill so we headed out to the Seas to see Nemo again and then roamed around Future World taking pictures.  About 10 minutes till Illuminations we found ourselves a good spot and waited for the show.  After the show we bee lined it out to the bus back to Pop Century and then called it a night.

Thoughts & Observations:

• This morning we started out at the Studios and we were heading for the gift shop by the Animation Building to see what was new and a CM said we really should go see the Drawn to Animation show. We said we had seen it several times and they started insisting again so we decided to play along and went in. We again won Dream Fastpasses for the Studios.. what are the odds of that, with our luck fairly good I guess. Again we did not use them since we only wanted to see/do a couple things at the Studios and the park was not crowded at all.
  
  
• The Fastpass return line for the Safari at Animal Kingdom was quite jammed up. First there was a mob of people waiting to get on (guess someone really needs to explain to people they do not have to be there the minute their passes are good) and the line was jammed up all the way through the queue. This is the first time I had experienced it that jammed.. usually the start is open, then it slows down or stops by the stroller cross-over then its free again to the bottom of the hill where the lines merge.
  
  
• I enjoyed the Jamin Jingle Jungle Parade. I thought the holiday touches were just enough to give the parade a slightly different feel but not enough to turn it into a Christmas parade.
  
  
• We caught the full Tree Lighting show at the Magic Kingdom and I have to say, its lightyears ahead of where Disneyland's tree lighting show is this year and even where it was last year. The show includes Carolers, characters, guests, and the band.
  
  
• We ate dinner at Cosmic Rays and have to say as far as Magic Kingdom fast food goes this is the best spread we have seen.
  
  
• We visited the Haunted Mansion and I was reminded again at how much I like Disneyland's better.
  
  
• I just want to say again how disappointed I was that the only way to see the Holiday Wishes was to pay extra (well let me re-phrase, the only way to see and hear, you can see the show from outside the park but the holiday version only plays the soundtrack in the park).
  
  
• Also we learned it was quite easy to make it from the Magic Kingdom to EPCOT after Wishes and before Illuminations with that extra half hour buffer. We actually had over an hour to kill at EPCOT.
  
  
• We stopped by the Seas with Nemo and Friends again since we had some time to kill before Illuminations and found the queue much more enjoyable with no other guests around really. My first impression still holds, its a decent dark ride but I really would have liked to have seen more real fish.
  
  

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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