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Walt Disney World Day 9 Report


Sunday, December 11, 2011

Trip Log:

Started off the morning heading for the Magic Kingdom.  Roamed down Main Street and into Adventureland.  Went for a spin on the flying carpets then was going to visit the Jungle Cruise but it was closed due to a problem so continued on.  Walked onto Pirates then worked my way around to the Country Bears.  Just missed the Hall of Presidents and so walked into Fantasyland. Stopped by Philharmagic then continued on around to Tomorrowland.  Went for a ride on the People Mover then grabbed some lunch at Cosmic Rays before heading out of the park.  Took the ferry across to the TTC then the monorail to EPCOT.  Walked through Future World and out to World Showcase to meet up with some friends from Allears.net who were doing a chocolate challenge out near France.  Hung out with them for a while then stopped by France to watch the film.  Noticed the time and made a quick run out to the American Adventure to see Voices of Liberty followed by the show.  As we exited the theater we were greeted by wet ground and a light rain.  The rain picked up as the Candlelight was getting underway.  Watched a little then sought cover.  Met the AllEars gang for dinner upstairs in the American Adventure followed by the finale/dessert event of their December to Remember event which included over 150 of guests that joined us upstairs for dessert then we were escorted to the area near Italy to watch Illuminations (the rain held).  After the show we were escorted over to Soarin for am after hours ride.  Then  we were escorted to either International Gateway or the Front Entrance.  I went to the gateway and hitched a ride back to Pop Century from a friend.


Thoughts & Observations:

  • Spent the morning roaming the Magic Kingdom and was pleasantly surprised again by the mild crowd.  We visited more attractions than we had planned and were ready to move on by lunch.

  • After lunch we stopped by the Around the World CHOCOLATE Challenge the AllEars.net team was holder in World Showcase.  I visited with some of our friends there and took a look at their questions. 

  • All day long the skies looked like it was going to rain and the rain final showed up as we were exiting the American Adventure around 5:00pm.   I hung around the area trying to stay out of the rain as it picked up just in time for the first Candlelight of the evening.    The guest narrator this evening was Neil Patrick Harris and he had a great opening joke thanking everyone for coming out to see the extended edition of the Candlelight featuring 5 hours of music.

  • I was invited to joined the Allears team  for the finale to their December to Remember events that were celebrating 15 years of their site.  The evening was to be a dessert reception and Illuminations by Italy but due to the rain it was held upstairs at the American Adventure in the lounge.      The lounge itself was good size and the main room impressive.  The view out the front windows was ok, but I can only image how much more impressive it was back in the 80s/90s before they enclosed the stage area.  You had a decent view of the Candlelight and having Spaceship Earth and the tree looming behind it was great!   As show time for Illuminations approached the rain broke up so we ventured outside to watch the show.

  • From Italy the show is good, but where I have been watching the show on the other side of the lagoon it is much closer and the impact louder/more impressive to me.

  • To end the evening Deb had a surprise for those in attendance.  We all followed the CMs through the now nearly empty park and went to the Land and were given a chance to ride Soarin.   I commented on how even with a private ride experience we still had to wait for Soarin!  There were two or three cycles worth of guests at the event so it took a while to cycle everyone through.

Pedometer Information for the day:

Steps

Miles

Moderate

Walking Time

Pedometer problem today, I did not get to the stats till after midnight.. total steps so far 173281