Trip Log:

Started the morning off by packing and checking my bags, eating some breakfast and checking out of the Riverside. Took a bus over to EPCOT and then the monorail to the TTC and the Ferry Boat across to the Magic Kingdom. Wandered down Main Street, grabbing a Fastpass for Buzz then going for a spin on the Carousel of Progress followed by the People Mover. It was then time to use our Fastpasses so rode Buzz and then headed across the park to Liberty Square and a final funnel cake, then it was back down Main Street and out of the park. Took the launch over to the Grand Floridian and walked through the Resort and hopped on a bus to Downtown Disney. Did some last minute shopping and walked through Pleasure Island before hopping a bus back to the Riverside. Ate a late lunch/early dinner then went out to wait for the Magical Express bus and my return trip the airport then back to Los Angeles.

Thoughts & Observations:

• There were quite a few people (and large groups) heading for EPCOT as we passed by, which surprised me since it was a little later in the morning. I thought this may be a sign of things to come as we headed for the Magic Kingdom but it was not. The Magic Kingdom did not feel crowded at all and we were able to see the couple attractions we wanted to with no real waits at all.
  
  
• We took the bus over to Downtown Disney for some last minute shopping and decided to get there by using the one from the Grand Floridian vs heading back to the TTC since we had not been there this trip yet. The bus service I thought was a good wait (as were other ones too, when we arrived at the bus stop at the GF it was full, which seemed odd to me since it was after noon and usually resort bus stops are quite dead this time of day, and we overhead several groups commenting on how long they had waited)
  
  
• There was not much going on at Downtown Disney, it felt fairly quiet except for the World of Disney which is always a near madhouse. I spent a few minutes and walked through Pleasure Island which is now really just a shell of its former self. The new projects still look to be a ways off and the Island was basically just a walkway between the Market Place and West Side (which is what it normally is during the day anyways, but it just felt really dead to me).
  
  
• I had a 4:30 Magical Express pickup which worked as planned. The bus ride was quite long since we also stopped at the Old Key West and Saratoga Springs Resort before heading to the airport and then I was flying United so we went to the other terminal first then around to the one I needed. I still made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare though.
  
  
• Seems to me that it would be useful for the Orlando airport to have more shops/services after the security checkpoint. I wanted to stop at a couple of them but I saw the long lines and did not want to cut it close so I bypassed the shops. With the layout I know this would be a quite drastic change but I would guess many others had the same reaction as me.
  
  
• Its really disappointing what the airline industry has become.. customer service and forward thinking are not even on their radar screens it appears. Again United had gate problems.. our plane was a good 20 minutes late landing so we boarded late and left MCO late. We arrived at LAX late and of course our gate was occupied so instead of re-assigning us to another gate we were diverted out to a taxi way and sat there for half an hour waiting for the gate. Meanwhile half the people on board it seemed had connecting flights and were basically told they would have to run and who knows if they would make it. I remember in the past airlines used to at least read you the connecting gate info but United did not even do that on this flight. They did ask that those of us staying in LA to wait a minute and let those running for connections off (which of course did not happen since after sitting for nearly
  

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