Trip Log:

Started off the morning with a quick 9 holes at the Oak Trail Course.  Was back to Pop Century, showered and off to Animal Kingdom by 10am.  Walked out to grab a Fastpass for the Safari then spent some time roaming around Pangani Forest followed by the Tree of Life.  Grabbed lunch at Flame Tree and in Dino Land.  After lunch wandered around Asia and Everest on my way back to Africa to use the Safari Fastpasses.  Once back from the Safari decided to head for the busses and the Studios.  Had some time to kill so circled the park, walked down Commissary Lane and out to the Star Tours area.  Continued on past Muppets and then then through the Streets of America and Pixar Place to get back to Hollywood Blvd.  Met up with the rest of my group at the Backlot Express and then we found a place to watch the Pixar parade.  After the parade stopped by the Animation building followed by One Mans Dream.   Walked down Mickey Ave/Pixar Place and out to the Streets of America.  Circled by the Muppets and then decided to grab some dinner at Pizza Planet.  After dinner caught the end of the Disney Channel Rocks show and made one more walk by Toy Story (still too long of a line) before wandering out to Sunset Blvd and then headed up Hollywood Blvd and out of the park.  Took the Friendship launch all the way to EPCOT.  Walked by the UK and Canada taking in some of the Flower and Garden show.  Took some pictures of the Cars Topiaries and other exhibits.  Wandered by Mexico and Norway.  Decided to stop and watch Reflections of China.  Then doubled back to Canada to catch the last Off Kilter set of the evening.  After Off Kilter continued on around the World Showcase Lagoon taking in some of the Flower and Garden Festival sites as I roamed.  First stop France, then strolled by Morocco and the USA.  Circled through Italy and passed Germany.  Rounded the bend by the Outpost with about 20 minutes till Illuminations so picked up my pace a bit to make it around the rest of the lagoon and find a spot about 5 minutes before showtime.  Watched the show then joined the heard heading for the busses.  Ended up back at Pop Century and called it a night.

Thoughts & Observations:

• Started off the day with an early Tee Time on Disney's Oak Trail course. This is the 9 hole walking course near the Palm/Magnolia courses. When we arrived there were a fair number of people but we managed to tee off a bit early. By the time we left they were backed up 3-4 groups on the first tee. So the nice weather did bring out some extra golfers. Also I think including this on the Annual Passes and Water Park & Fun Options may have something to do with this. We were talking with the starter and they said the Magnolia was being used for US Open qualifying again. Unfortunately our schedule did not include time to try and squeeze a round in over there. One of the advantages to an early tee time on Oak Trail is you can be back to your room, showered and on a bus to a park before 10am usually.
  
  
• We went to the Animal Kingdom first since we did not make it there yesterday and I always enjoy visiting the park and taking some pictures. Unfortunately I goofed up and did not pay attention that it was the early morning park, so that meant there was a healthy crowd there already when we arrived.
  
  
• Due to the crowd we only spent a few hours in the park, grabbed some lunch and a Safari ride before heading out. So not much to report from today's visit.
  
  
• We headed to the Studios in the early afternoon because I wanted to be there to catch the Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun! The crowd felt relatively light and even Toy Story was under an hour wait the couple times we passed by.
  
  
• The Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun did not impress me. It had a fair number of characters and the performers all had a lot of energy but it basically re-used the Block Party Bash units and combined that with the Pixar Pals parade at Disney California Adventure. It was also weird to see the parade coming from the Star Tours gate then heading down Hollywood Blvd.
  
  
• Walked by Star Tours and it looked ready to go. There were some CMs out front to answer questions. I did notice those heading inside still had hard hats though.
  
  
• The Disney Channel Rocks show is displaced to the Streets of America because of the large stage on Hollywood Blvd. I thought the show worked on the backlot and drew an ok crowd considering the one I went to was in the mid afternoon and it was the back of the park. It had a larger crowd than the DCA version draws.
  
  
• After dinner we took the boat over to EPCOT for the evening. I roamed around and took some more Flower and Garden shots. The topiary collection seems to just keep growing year after year. The new Cars characters look great! Curious where they will end up after the show. The Sand Sculpture promoting African Cats seemed in an odd spot to me. I thought the one in the central courtyard they did for Oceans was more visible.
  
  
• I was a little disappointed that the new entertainment offerings for China had not started yet, and that the new British band is off on Wednesday so I did not get to catch them either.
  
  
• To cap off the evening I stayed for Illuminations. The inferno barge is out of the show for some work, so in its place they use fireworks, lights, etc. Definitely not as dramatic but if you have never seen the show before it probably works ok and you do not notice it. With no inferno barge and after seeing the holiday tag several times in December I left wanting more!
  

Pedometer Information for the day:

Enough with the text.. onto the pictures

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