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Trip Log:
Started my morning in the Chronos Club just after 7am and then boarded a bus to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I was in the park just before the 8am opening and used the resort. Decided to take a walk through Pandora and the River Journey was posted as 15 minutes but was really a walk on so went for a cruise. Then walked out to Africa were the Safari had a 25 min posted wait that turned out to be only 10. Next up paid a visit to Gorilla Falls. It was only 9am so I found a table in the Marketplace and posted some pictures then spent some time roaming around the Tree of Life Garden. Slowly made my way to the front of the park spending more time in the Oasis on the way out. Exited the park just before 10am and waited a few minutes for a bus back to Coronado Springs. Finished packing and we left the room at the 11am check out time. Hung out in the lobby for about 30 minutes before heading out to the bus stop to wait for the airport bus. Slowly made our way back to Orlando International Airport. Grabbed a quick bite to eat before security. Spend some time in the Delta Sky Club then boarded our flight back to Los Angeles to wrap up this trip.
Thoughts & Observations:
- The last morning of a trip is always a tad depressing. The forecast when I went to bed called for rain so I was not planning to go anywhere. The thought of getting wet before having to travel did not appeal to us. I woke up and saw the forecast had changed. So I decided to go spend a couple hours in a park.
- Animal Kingdom opened the earliest so I decided to modify my reservations for the day and head there for opening. I do like how you can modify or cancel a park reservation on the day of at WDW as long as it has not been used yet.
- I arrived at the park before 8am and utilized the resort early morning entry. Since the Safari did not open 8am and the River Journey was posted at 15 minutes I thought I would stroll through Pandora to start my visit. Turned out to be a near walk on so started my morning with a cruise.
- The Safari wait time was posted at 25 minutes already so I headed out to Africa next. Turned out to be only a 10 minute wait and they were only operating one load station even.
- The safari turned out to be nice. A rhino stopped in front of our truck near the lions so we had an extended viewing opportunity of both which was great.
- The Valley portion of Gorilla Falls was still blocked off today. I took a look through the hedges and it appeared they were working on the rock work on the bachelor side. I took a walk through and today you could walk to the family side window and they were out but the area to the valley was roped off and you had to turn around and walk back through to exit.
- I was ahead of schedule so spent some time roaming around the Tree of Life Garden and Oasis which is always relaxing and a great way to close out my park time this visit.
- Returned to Coronado Springs and finished packing up. Promptly at 11am they knocked on the door and asked if we were leaving, we had the suitcases by the door and were on our way out. We did not ask for an extended check out and instead opted to go check out the grounds of the resort a bit and wait in the lobby until it was time to leave.
- We were using Mears Connect to get back to the airport. We called yesterday and asked for an earlier bus to give a little extra time. The bus showed up right on time but the load process was extremely slow. First to scan all tickets then to load the suitcases. We then proceeded to stop at two All-Star Resorts before leaving WDW. This process seemed extremely slow. Then we stopped at the new Terminal C to drop off a couple before finally reaching the main terminal and disembarking.
- Took our suitcases upstairs to Delta and the area was jammed with people everywhere and long lines everywhere. We were able to use the priority queue but even that was long. There were only two agents working and one was standing there with a passenger that had a problem.
- The TSA screening showed a 40-50 minute wait for the regular queue. Luckily we have TSA-Precheck which took under 5 minutes..
- The flight boarded on time and we were ready to go but they ran into a snag. Seems the printer was not working and they could not print out the flight plan. The pilot said they were not allowed to depart without the hard copy so we were waiting for IT to solve the issue. It took them almost 30 minutes to solve the issue.
- As we climbed out of the Orlando area we took a round about flight path trying to avoid the thunderstorms in the area. We took off to the north then made a left over downtown Orlando and flew back over resort area getting a view of Universal and Disney. We flew between Epcot and the Magic Kingdom so I had a great view of Epcot out my window. Then over the Animal Kingdom before turning to the west.
- Due to storms the flight was a little bumpy with the seat belt sign on for a good portion of it. The flight attendants were very friendly and helpful. There was a burger on the menu but it had cheese and other toppings. I asked if you could get it plain and she said she would see what she could do. She was able to take everything off before heating it so it came out plain for the most part. This was above and beyond. Unfortunately the burger was still not good.
- At LAX the bags were slow to come down and were in the middle to second half of the ones from the flight. Seems priority tags mean nothing.
- We walked out and a bus showed up and was uncrowded Getting back to the parking lot and leaving was a breeze. The exit license plate reader even worked this time (first time for me) so leaving the garage was quick and efficient.
Pedometer Information for the day:
| Steps |
7,471 |
| Miles |
3.42 |
| Walking Time |
1:12 |
Addition Blog Picture Posts from today:
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