Trip Log:

Started off the morning a bit later than the past couple and grabbed a muffin from the Rix Cafe.   After breakfast hopped a bus over to the Animal Kingdom.   Went out to Africa and grabbed a Fastpass for the Safari and then headed for Camp Minnie Mickey and the Festival of the Lion King.  We then decided to head for Downtown Disney to meet up with some relatives.  I stopped by the Animal Kingdom Lodge along the way for some pictures of the DVC work and the Christmas decorations.  Then on to Downtown Disney.  Went for lunch and then spent some time walking around looking at the new stage, T-Rex Restaurant, the dismantling of Pleasure Island as well as the new Balloon pier going in.  Then it was back to Coronado Springs for warmer clothes before heading off to the Magic Kingdom.  Roamed down Main Street and into Adventureland.  Hopped on Pirates since there was no wait then circled through Frontierland and Liberty Square.  Walked by the Castle for some pictures and then some grabbed a funnel cake at Sleepy Hollow.  I headed for the Village Haus and a pizza then we met up at Haunted Mansion, another walk on.  It was approaching 7:00pm and the closing of the park for the Christmas party so we headed for the entrance and took the express monorail to the TTC and transferred to the EPCOT line.  Hiked through the park, around World Showcase, by Mexico, Norway, etc.. on our way to the American Adventure to see the Candlelight.  After the show finished the World Showcase loop and ended up back at the Christmas tree.  Decided to stop by Mexico and ride see Donald and the gang while waiting for Illuminations.   After the show followed the masses to the busses and back to Coronado Springs.

Thoughts & Observations:

• Animal Kingdom was very quiet this morning, no real crowds. The Lion King show was maybe 3/4ths full. The show was still great as usual and we enjoyed it more given that we showed up 5 minutes before the show and walked right in and had our choice of seats almost.
  
  
• Stopped by the Animal Kingdom Lodge to check on the new DVC wing. It is slated to open this year and they are on the home stretch. I also noticed that the rooms in the main building that have been converted have a DVC logo by the door, and they even had separate/marked housekeeping carts.
  
  
• Spent some of the afternoon visiting with relatives and checking out the work at Downtown Disney. Overall the T-Rex Restaurant looks interesting, but its basically Rain Forest with dinos. Seems to go after the same customers but since there was always a line for Rain Forest guess it will work. The new stage looks great but nothing was going on when we ere there so not sure how much better/worse it sounds/looks for performances. I kind of enjoyed the open backdrop to the performances. Lastly I walked through Pleasesure Island and its kind of a sad experience. Should be interesting to see what happens.
  
  
• Spent the early evening at the Magic Kingdom taking in the holiday decorations before being kicked out for the Christmas Party again.
  
  
• Spent the rest of the night at EPCOT. Hiked out to catch the Candlelight and it was a great show as usual, but I still think the Disneyland version is more impressive and what the EPCOT version has done to dining reservations at the park drives me crazy...
  
  
• We noticed they brought in extra/portable restrooms for the regular guests and had them backstage in trailers right through the backstage gate near the American Adventure. I do not remember seeing these in the past and as far as portable bathrooms go they were pretty nice.
  
  
• The crowds at EPCOT were fairly thin too, except for the Candlelight which was crowded as usual.
  
  
• Some in our group decided to head out before Illuminations. I found out they ended up on a bus that had a mechanical problem along the way and had to wait 10 minutes or so along the road for another to come and pick them up. As I left EPCOT I passed the broken down bus and wondered if guests were on board (they were long gone by the time I went by). of course they had no pictures since they did not have a camera with them...

Pedometer Information for the day:

Enough with the text.. onto the pictures

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