Trip Log:

Started off the morning packing and getting ready to go.  We grabbed breakfast at the food court then back to the room to finish packing.  I spent some time roaming around the resort taking pictures and then took our bags to the lobby for the airline check.  Checked our carry-ons with Bell Services and we were off to the Magic Kingdom.  Arrived at the bus stop and walked over to the Contemporary.  Spent some time looking around the resort and then took the Monorail to the Polynesian, did the same at the Grand Floridian and continued on to the Magic Kingdom.  Roamed down Main Street and grabbed a hot dog at Casey’s and a funnel cake at Sleepy Hollow.  Went for a ride on the Liberty Belle and then walked through Fantasyland and by the Castle on our way to Tomorrowland.   Went for a ride on the People Mover and then strolled back to Main Street and toward the exit.  Stopped by the art of Disney which is now in the Main Street Cinema building and then headed for the exit.   Took the bus back to Port Orleans, ate a snack at the food court and then went out to wait for the Magical Express Bus.  Headed for the airport and then back to LA.

Thoughts & Observations:

• We spent the morning doing some resort hopping, but this time around it was much easier than yesterday since the three we visited were all Monorail Resorts.
  
  
• The Contemporary is moving along with its changes. Some big, like the still not announced Vacation Club expansion, others smaller like the removal of the revolving doors from the entrance to everything in between like the moving of the arcade, closing of the counter service location downstairs, the new gift shop on the main concourse level, and more.
  
  
• The Polynesian and Grand Floridian nothing struck me as new, it was about the same as always. I found it a bit interesting that the monorail to the Polynesian was running 30 minutes later into the evening than the Grand Floridians (the Poly's sign said 2am and the GF was 1:30am... I am just assuming the wrong sign was up at one of the stops). Has anyone been on the monorail that late on a non-event/holiday night? I am curious how many are running and the traffic flow, its way past my "bed-time"...
  
  
• We took the Magical Express service back to the airport again and had no problems at all. It was a full bus by the time we made all the stops (it stopped at both Port Orleans Resorts, Old Key West, and Saratoga Springs). We had no problems at all with the bags either, they showed up in LA as promised after checking them in at the Resort.
  
  
• Overall my impression of the airline industry is it gets worse each year in terms of customer service and United demonstrated that again as we left Orlando. The flight was delayed and they did not even bother to make an announcement at the gate. If you did not read the sign or check the website (luckily MCO has free wi-fi so I saw it online), you were stuck sitting there wondering... then when it came time to board finally they did not even make an announcement. People just bunched up near the jet way and then they started letting us on, but again if you did not join the mob you did not know what was happening. Then to top it off we got into LA late and had to taxi out to the far end of the run way and site for 20-30 minutes waiting for a gate. I guess since we were late our gate was assigned to someone else.. so after leaving over an hour late then we had to sit and wait... makes sense to me. I feel bad for the people who had to make connections. That would have driven me crazy.
  
  
• LAX was a mess as usual. As we landed I could see the sea of red brake lights. Add a little bit of rain and the start of the holiday travel season and the airport was packed and this was after 11pm... I could only image the mess later in the week or during the day.

Pedometer Information for the day:

Enough with the text.. onto the pictures

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