Trip Log:

Started off the morning with a 5:45am wake up call.  Grabbed a quick bite at 6:00am when the Contempo Cafe opened then it was off to a 7:00am tee time at Osprey Ridge.  After golf back to the resort for showers before heading over to Fort Wilderness for lunch at Trails End.  After lunch hopped a bus to the settlement and then transferred to a Hollywood Studios bus.  Arrived at the Studios and headed out to Toy Story.  It had a posted 50 minute wait, which turned out to be 75 minutes.    After Toy Story stopped by One Mans Dream to see the 20th Anniversary exhibit and the D23 one.  The wind was picking up and a storm was moving in so we headed for the boat to the Swan/Dolphin.  Once there they shut down the boats for the storm.  We waited out the heavy rain in a waiting area in the Swan then headed for the Yacht Club via the footbridge.  Checked in early (around 5:30 for our 7:10 dinner reservation) at the Yachtsman Steakhouse.  After dinner we took a bus to the Magic Kingdom and spent a some time roaming the park.  Headed down Main Street and into Tomorrowland.  Hopped on Buzz since there was no wait then walked around through Fantasyland and into Liberty Square.  Took a spin on the Haunted Mansion and then strolled for Main Street.  Stopped for some candy then took the resort monorail to the Contemporary.  Made it up to the room in time for the fireworks and then spent the rest of the evening packing up to head home.

Thoughts & Observations:

• We started off this morning the earliest of the trip due to a 7:00am tee time at Osprey Ridge... 5:45am... its kind of fun to ride around WDW in the morning darkness as the resort is coming to life.. we did this several times this trip... the round at Osprey was uneventful. Where Eagle Pines once stood now is a fairly level field for the most part. We did not see any vertical construction from the course.
  
  
• We headed out to the Trails End restaurant for lunch. Still one of the better deals on Disney property (even though we were on a plan still decided to visit since we enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of Fort Wilderness and the food is good too).
  
  
• After lunch decided to head for the Studios and a ride on Toy Story. The line was its normal hour long posting. But for some reason the first 15 minutes or so we moved an entire 10 feet maybe... I noticed the Fastpass line was stopped too. The ride must have broken down and no one bothered to tell us. Due to the fact that 2 of the 4 of us do not have Fastpasses and one has never been on the attraction at DCA we decided to wait it out...
  
  
• I finally made it into One Man's Dream to see the new displays. Near the theater they changed out the last display area. Where they had the models from other parks they now have a display dedicated to the Studios 20th anniversary. There are exhibits taking you through each segment of the Studios history. There is also a D23 window that has been added (and D23 made it onto the marquee out front too, but I did not see anything announcing the 20th display..). I thought this was great to see and wish the hours were longer on the exhibit.
  
  
• As we were walking around the Studios pondering what to do the weather took a quick and bold turn on us. A storm was coming, the wind picked up, dark clouds arrived, and the temperature dropped quickly. We decided to head for the cover of the EPCOT resorts since we were done at the Studios. We made it onto a Friendship launch right before they closed down for the storm. We were all asked to disembark at the Swan/Dolphin resorts and the boat was tied down there. Our initial plan was to go to the Swan or Dolphin and wait it out for an hour or so with the hope of getting in some mini golf so this worked for us. Unfortunately the storm blew in and settled for a while. After about 45 minutes we went to the bell desk, which we discovered had radar, and checked on the storms progress. Looked like it was going to be around most of the afternoon and into the evening.
  
  
• We took a break in the storm to head for the Yacht Club. It was only 5:30ish and our reservation was not until 7:00 but I checked us in for dinner at Yachtsman. The CM working the check in desk was less than helpful. I explained the situation and asked what the odds were of being seated earlier. They said they had no idea and they could not give me a time estimate but gave me a beeper. About 10 minutes later it went off and we were seated. Seems to me they could have said something like we may be able to get you in the first seating or something... in the end it worked out but it left us in limbo for a while trying to figure out what we wanted to do with almost two hours and a thunderstorm outside.
  
  
• I felt very lucky that weather only messed up the part of one afternoon and basically one mini-golf trip out of 8 days in central Florida. It looked like there was quite a bit of rain in the forecast for the next few weeks so we really lucked out with the weather. It was warm and sticky, but not brutal and miserable...
  
  
• After dinner the rain was still coming down but it appeared to be letting up. We dawned our rain gear and headed for the Magic Kingdom with the thought being if it got worse we were a short monorail ride from the room. The rain would pick up then dwindle, then stop... it continued doing this for most of the evening. Luckily due to the weather the crowd at the Magic Kingdom was nonexistent for the most part, with the exception of a couple attraction. We dodged the rain and the minor crowd and visited a couple of our favorites before heading back to the room to watch Wishes (figured we had a great, dry, view from our room vs Main Street).
  
  

Pedometer Information for the day:


The Pedometer decided to stop at some point during the day... not sure when or why... so here is the partial information..

Enough with the text.. onto the pictures

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