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Walt Disney World Day 8 Report

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Trip Log:

Started off this morning sleeping in a bit to around 7:30 then finished packing the suitcases and carryons and we were out of the room by 8:30.  Checked in the suitcases with the Magical Express folks and then went to breakfast at Everything Pop.  After breakfast one last trip back to the room to get the carryons and checked those in with luggage services and we headed out to the parks.  First stop of the day was the Studios.  Walked over to Star Tours to see if they were testing, a bunch of people and CMs in the area but not open so circled through the Streets of America to get to Pixar Place and Toy Story.  It had a posted 40 min wait but in reality was only about 15 minutes.  Had a decent game and then doubled back through the Streets of America and over to Star Tours.  More people and activity but nothing else. Hung around for about half an hour before deciding to call it quits and head for the busses.  Hopped on a bus to the TTC and then took the ferry boat across to the Magic Kingdom.  Grabbed Fastpasses for Mickey and the Princesses and then hopped on the Steam Train for a round trip.  Once back on Main Street wandered down the street and out to Liberty Square.  Ate lunch at Harbor House and then walked through Fantasyland and the Castle on our way to Tomorrowland.  Visited the Carousel of Progress and then went for a spin on the People Mover before heading down Main Street to visit Mickey.  Took our pictures then some wanted Dole Whips so walked with them to Adventureland and I continued out to Pirates to get some last pictures.  Rejoined everyone on Main Street and we headed for the exit.  Had some extra time so took the Express Monorail to the TTC and transferred to the EPCOT line.    At EPCOT decided to head for the bus and back to Pop Century since we had about 75 minutes till our Magical Express pick up time.  Got back to the resort, got our carryons out of storage and had some time still so I made one last walk of the grounds and tried to get some Art of Animation Resort construction pictures.  Headed back to the lobby a few minutes before 4pm and we headed for the Magical Express stop and waited for our bus.  At MCO grabbed some dinner and then headed for the gate and home.


Thoughts & Observations:

  • Started off the morning with a couple of trips from the room to the front of the resort, first to drop off the bags and check in for our flight, then to drop off the carryons. We used the Magical Express service with airline checkin and had no problems again. This time we even lucked out and there was no real wait to drop our suit cases off.

  • First stop of the day was the Studios, with the hope of making it on Star Tours. They had been running soft opening/previews off and on since Saturday. My brother did make it on Sunday afternoon and said it was good, but they were not allowing any photography and he did not give me a lot of detail so I wanted to experience it myself. I waited around a bit and nothing was going on so made a few rounds of the park then checked back and waited for a while, still nothing so I moved on knowing I would be visiting Disneyland's version in less than a week.

  • We unexpectedly made it onto Toy Story. The posted wait was 40 minutes but upon inspecting the line inside it was closer to 10 only. Seemed like there were only a few Fastpass return people so we really lucked out.

  • As we were heading down Hollywood Blvd for the exit there were a large number of guests entering the park. We all commented on how it was wise to visit early then head out. Our next stop was the Magic Kingdom. When we arrived at the TTC we were really surprised by the number of guests and lines at both the Monorails and Ferry boat. The park felt like it was getting crowded, but we had some low impact/crowd attractions to visit so it really did not effect us at all.

  • I learned that you can simultaneously hold Fastpasses for both the Princess and Mickey Meet and Greet. I had assumed you could only hold one at a time, but that is not the case, so keep that in mind. Our return time for Mickey worked out well and we stopped to see him on the way out but the princess time was too late in the day for us so I had to skip them this trip.

  • I had some time to kill before the bus pickup time so I walked around Pop Century a bit and took some more shots of the Art of Animation Construction across the lake. It was great to see the progress and after hearing about the resort at Destination D I am really excited to see it completed next year.

  • Our bus showed up on time and the ride to the airport was uneventful. We encountered no problems with the Magical Express nor airlines this time. And to our amazement we actually pushed back from the gate a couple minutes early even!

Pedometer Information for the day:

Steps 16,709

Miles 6.3

Moderate 12,691

Walking Time 110