Trip Log:

Started off the morning with a 6:15am wake up call.  Stopped by the Contempo Café for a quick snack on our way over to the Magnolia for an 8:03 tee time.  After golf went back to the room for a shower and to cool down then we walked over to the Magic Kingdom to catch a bus to the Boardwalk.  Ate lunch at ESPN Club.  After lunch caught a bus to Downtown Disney.  Went to pick up our La Nouba tickets before spending some time roaming around the West Side.  Walked through Pleasure Island and the Marketplace on our way to the marina.  Rented a large pontoon boat and cruised the river for a an hour.  Grabbed a snack at Goofy's Candy Company and then took the boat over to the West Side.  Watched La Nouba, then hiked through the West Side and Pleasure Island to get to dinner at Fulton's.  After dinner caught a bus back to the Contemporary and watched Wishes from our room balcony before calling it a night.

Thoughts & Observations:

• Today turned out to be a rare day where most of us did not visit a park. This was due to the lineup we had scheduled and the time constraints of it. I usually try to make it to a park everyday of the trip but with all the early closings and our schedule it just did not work.
  
  
• We spent the morning playing a round of golf over at the Magnolia. This is one of WDW's original courses (back from when the Shades of Green was called the Golf Resort). The round was great as usual but it was extremely slow and I was not sure what the starters were doing. Behind us they had a single then a twosome and behind that another twosome I believe. In front of us were several foursomes that were playing rather slow. Other than the round taking much longer than expected it was a great day. Also interesting to note we started on the back 9 for some reason.
  
  
• Ate lunch at the ESPN Club and had a great meal as usual there. I thought it was interesting they were pushing the self seating area even though the regular dining room was nearly empty.
  
  
• We had some time to kill before La Nouba so took a boat out of Lake Buena Vista and went up river to the French Quarter and then doubled back to the Old Key West Resort. This is a nice trip and it was great to see the Tree Houses now that they are done being rebuilt (they open in June for guests). There is also a new dock for the Tree Houses so I am assuming the launches will be stopping there too to shuttle guests to Downtown Disney. With all the river traffic it does take some extra concentration to navigate the waterways, especially compared to how it used to be.
  
  
• The Characters in Flight Balloon went up a couple of times when we were around. There seemed to be very few people willing to pay the $16 a person for a flight. I was hoping it would be included on our plan, but it was not. They said the reason was because its operated by a third party... which may be partially true but other third party recreation such as Parasailing are included. After hearing it was not included I was too cheap to pay the $16.. maybe next trip.
  
  
• Since La Nouba was included on the plan and one of us had not seen it we decided to go.
  • I still do not understand why you cannot receive your tickets ahead of time or at the resort. It hampers scheduling a bit to make sure you are there more than an hour early to get your tickets.
  • Our seats for the performance were great. We were in the front row of the second level (right above the walkway). Also I noticed this time there is a sky box off to the side of the control booths high in the rafters, wonder what you have to do to get in there.. bet its an interesting perspective to look down on the show.
  • I also do not understand why they do not allow photos before the show or during the curtain call. I understand during the performance but many people were just trying to get a shot of their group in the stands (which look just like movie theater seats so nothing spectacular) and several times I saw ushers rush to make them stop. Also I think photos during the curtain call would be great to allow so people can have a shot of the show. I really hope there is a good reason for this and it is not that they want to sell more programs or DVDs...
    
    
• We ate dinner at Fulton's and had one of the top couple meals of the trip. Only ran into two snags. First the service was extremely slow and secondly it took two or three managers/leads/whatever they are called there to ring up our plan which took quite a while. I do want to say I enjoyed the dessert at Fulton's the most.. i forget the name, but it is a hot chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream (and if you want it as a sundae with hot fudge, whip cream, etc.. they will do that).
  
  
• Two of us, who left before the bill was finalized at Fulton's, managed to make it back to see Wishes from the room. This was a great experience and something I had not done before. It was cool to sit on the balcony (well stand since when you sat I was eye level with the bar). Only thing is the sound is soft there since you are a good distance from the park. It would have been really cool to be able to get the audio on the radio or room TV...
  
  
• One member of our group did not go golfing, instead she did the Wild by Design tour at the Animal Kingdom. I will press for some details to see what has changed since I last went on the tour. The initial indications were not much.
  

Pedometer Information for the day (excluding golfing):

Enough with the text.. onto the pictures

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