Trip Log:

Started off this morning before sun rise heading for Lake Buena Vista’s golf club house around 6:30am for our 7:30 tee time.  After our round grabbed a quick bite at Port Orleans, a shower, and then off to the Animal Kingdom.  Hiked out to the Safari to try and get a Fastpass.  They were all gone, so we used a pass we had from the other day (there was a problem with the front gate computers and they gave us a couple “front of line passes”).  We were pulled out of line and put into the Handicap load area to complete a truckload, which saved a couple minutes of waiting.  After our safari we walked through the Pangani Forest and watched the Gorillas for a while then hiked back to the front of the park.  Took a bus over to Coronado Springs to check out their new dining place and holiday decorations and then back to the AK to transfer to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to see what was going on over there.  Then we did the loop again back to AK and transferred to a Yacht Club bus.  Arrived at the Yacht Club and took some pictures then headed out to Yachtsman steakhouse for dinner.  After a great meal continued on to the Beach Club and then into EPCOT.  Walked out to the American Theater to watch the Candlelight and then double backed to France to grab dessert.  Continued on past the UK and Canada and back to Future World.  Walked through the Mouse Gear shop and over to the East side of the park (which I had not visited this trip).  Went for a ride on Test Track and then cut through the Electric Umbrella and circled around Spaceship earth before heading back to Innoventions and the EPCOT 25 exhibit.  About 10 minutes till show time walked toward the Lagoon to find a spot for Illuminations.  After the show joined the herd and headed for the bus and back to Port Orleans to call it a night.

Thoughts & Observations:

• Today was the coldest day of our trip. A cold front had started in yesterday and today hit with full force. On the way to the Golf Course the radio in the cab said it was in the 40s and it was down right cold for our 7:30 tee time. We were freezing with our thin Southern California blood, but even the two some that was paired up with us, who were from New Jersey, were cold!
  
  
• I finally decided to play Lake Buena Vista.. its the one Disney course I had never played. We really enjoyed our round. This course offers quite a different look than the other five Disney Courses. For those of you unfamiliar with the course it starts off at the Saratoga Springs Resort, winds its way around the Old Key West Resort and the rivers that connect the Port Orleans Resorts and Downtown Disney, before coming back to the Saratoga Springs Resort to finish up. The course felt a bit tighter than the other WDW courses and if you missed the fairways there was a good shot your ball would be lost. Also there area a handful of holes where the water really comes into play. Overall I really like the course and look forward to playing there more in the future now that Eagle Pines is gone and Osprey will be soon too.
  
  
• Since today was our last full day at the parks we had saved it to do whatever we missed and that turned out to be nothing on our list so we spent the afternoon at the Animal Kingdom, since there is always something new to see there.
  
  
• It has been quite a while since I visited Coronado Springs, so we took a quick bus trip out to the Resort from the Animal Kingdom. I was also curious to see the newly opened dining and lounge areas. The resort really does take on a different feel than the other Moderate Resorts, I think its because of the Convention center. It seemed much more quiet and laid back, even compared to Port Orleans. As we walked through the lobby area it was nearly deserted.
  
  
• Next up on our quick trips to other Resorts was one to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to check out the progress on the Villas and to grab some shots of their Holiday decorations. This is still one of my favorite WDW resorts, not only because of the "wow" moment when you enter the lobby, but because of the great theming throughout, the animals of course, and the transportation even seems great since it has its own busses and only one stop on the route. The villas are just starting to take shape. I saw on the Disney on Demand (that is part of Time Warner Cable) that there will be a new savanna as part of the Villas project.
  
  
• Our last transfer was over to the Yacht Club for dinner. For those of you wondering to visit these three resorts we kept making connections at the Animal Kingdom for two reasons, first we were already there to start with and secondly it was the closest park to the first two resorts we visited. Overall the connections worked great with no more than a 5 minute wait at each end. We would have liked to have been dropped off at the same bus area at AK, we kept being taken back to Pop Century or All Stars bus stops and had to hike over to the other "terminal" to get the bus to the resort we were going to next.
  
  
• The Yacht Club is my favorite resort to stay at. Over the years we have stayed there and the Beach Club several times and the atmosphere, dining choices, and short walk to EPCOT have all been great! We ate dinner at my favorite restaurant, the Yachtsman Steakhouse, which lived up to the anticipation flawlessly as usual. We even ended up in the same area as last time with the same server, I think it means you have been there too often if you remember the servers, there are a handful we recognize there and when we were talking with ours she mentioned that many have been there since opening day. One odd note a few days before dining we had received a call at home confirming the reservation, this was a first and odd. We missed it of course since we were at WDW but got the message when we checked in.
  
  
• I had some time to kill before Illuminations so to stay warm I hung out in the EPCOT 25 exhibit and ended up taking pictures of almost everything in the room. If anyone is interested in seeing a bunch of the close ups drop me a line, I only included a sample or two in the pictorial update, but I took over hundred pictures, so I have plenty more to share..
  
  
• I capped off my last night at WDW with Illuminations.

Pedometer Information for the day:

Enough with the text.. onto the pictures

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