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Trip Log:
Started my day heading for Disney’s Animal Kingdom around 8am. Reached the Tree of Life at 8:30 and decided to head to the Safari which turned out to be about a 25 min wait. Once back walked over to Asia to see what was going on with the tigers, not much. Watched a Winged Encounter at 10:15 then hung out at Flame Tree BBQ for a bit. Stopped by Dinoland to see the Tropical Americas construction then headed for the park exit just after 11am. Took a bus to Disney’s Riviera Resort and transferred to a Disney Springs bus. Grabbed lunch at the Chicken Guy! Then walked through World of Disney and around the Marketplace, completed the circle and returned to the bus stop. Took a bus to the Polynesian Village where we walked through the lobby then out to the new Tower. Walked along the Seven Seas Lagoon to the Grand Floridian to check out the chocolate eggs. After taking a look caught a bus back to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Arrived at the park just after 3pm and made my way out to Asia to see what the tigers were up to. Minimal movement but a couple photo ops. Once they went in for the day I walked over to Africa and onto Kilimanjaro Safari with a six minute wait only. Walked through Harambe and took a right turn to Pandora. Walked through then back to Discovery Island out toward the park exit. Caught a bus to the Yacht Club where I disembarked to take a look at the chocolate eggs in hopes of better pictures this visit. After my fill of pictures headed for EPCOT around 5:30pm. Took a right at World Showcase and walked around to Germany. Enjoyed the performers there then finished my loop of World Showcase ending up back at the International Gateway just before 8:00pm. Visited with some friends on the Boardwalk briefly then caught a boat just after 8:30 toward EPCOT. Entered the park and found a spot for Luminous about 10 minutes prior to show time. After the show walked back to the Boardwalk and visited for a bit enjoying some of the entertainment then called it a night.
Thoughts & Observations:
- Started my morning off catching a bus to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I do like the concept of having the bus times available on the app, but I found they were not that accurate, so they were more of a rough guide than something you could actually plan on. Especially in the morning.
- We ended up with good timing and were able to walk out and right onto a bus.
- As we entered the park I was debating about the Safari or visiting Asia to see the tigers. I opted for the Safari assuming that wait was only going to get worse and my luck of seeing a lot of activity with the tigers was about the same within that hour. The safari wait turned out to be a slow-moving 25 minutes, and the safari was average; by the time we reached Asia, Basko was not doing much.
- In Dinoland, crews were busy working on a Saturday morning, continuing to demolish the DinoRama area.
- We decided to go to Disney Springs for lunch. Caught a bus to the Riviera and then transferred to a Disney Springs bus there. This seemed the most efficient route since the resort was on the way. Our timing was great and we had only a few minute wait to transfer.
- Disney Springs was busy, as you would expect, for a Saturday afternoon. World of Disney was its normal madhouse with people everywhere. The LEGO store had a queue outside the building, just like the holidays. Goofy’s Candy Company was celebrating National Caramel Day with a photo op and free caramel candy. So that was a nice surprise as we walked around. We do miss the free sample at Ghirardelli’s.
- We ate lunch at the Chicken Guy. One member of our group had a birthday reward to use and we could not get the app to work right with it. We ended up waiting in line, and a cast member at the register was able to help us out and get the order in. When our order arrived two of the three meals we ordered were in it. This is the second time this happened to us. We had a sandwich, 3 piece and 5 piece order of tenders and they managed to forget the 5 piece. It was on the receipt and order. We walked up, and they quickly gave us one, but it is odd. This happened two of the last three times we ate there. They forgot one of the items.
- Decided we were going to head to the Grand Floridian to see the egg display so went to wait for a bus. We ended up disembarking at the Polynesian, which was the first stop due to how long it was taking, and some in the group wanted to see the new Tower.
- The Polynesian felt busy with a lot of guests in the lobby and moving around. The Characters around the world were visiting adding to the congestion. We walked over to the Island Tower, and it had a good number of people looking around, but it was a little calmer. The Tower still has a very different feel than the Polynesian to us and seems on awkward fit.
- The Grand Floridian has a number of cast member-created chocolate eggs on display as well as a storefront to purchase treats. The eggs were the most crowded set we visited out of the hotels. The crowd made it a little less enjoyable than the others but the creativity of the cast members was great to see.
- The Bus from the Grand Floridian to Disney’s Animal Kingdom was a trek and the drive pointed out it is the second longest route on property.. the Animal Kingdom Lodge to Magic Kingdom is longer.
- While on the bus had an up close look at the road work on Floridian Way. The project looks to have quite a bit of work to go still but you can see the outlines of the new road.
- Stopped by Asia again to see Basko and his mother. They typically go in during the 3pm hour so I hung around to see if they would be more active before heading inside for the night. They did move around a little but then ran to the door to end their day. So it was a quick flurry of activity but not much else. I stayed around for a few minutes to see if they were going to move the father in too but after about 10 minutes I decided to move on.
- Kilimanjaro Safari was a walk on so decided to take my chances with an afternoon safari. Sometimes you luck out and see some activity.. today was not one of those days.
- Walked through Pandora since I had not done that yet this visit. Both attraction wait times were longer than my patience so I did not experience anything. I did find some ice water in the dining area.
- Caught a bus to the Yacht Club and it was full by the time we departed.
- At the Yacht Club the lighting was better in the lobby so I took some more pictures of the eggs. This display was much easier to walk around than the Grand Floridian one.
- Outside crews were working on the Stormalong Bay renovation, even though it was a Saturday.
- Met the rest of my group and went for a stroll around World Showcase. In Germany, they were celebrating National Caramel Day with free caramel (I was hoping for some caramel corn instead).
- The Boardwalk was alive with entertainment and healthy crowds again. We spent some time visiting friends and enjoying some of the performances this evening. Only suggestion I have is to post the entertainment times on the App or the sign of activities so people know.
Pedometer Information for the day:
| Steps |
26,371 |
| Miles |
12.08 |
| Walking Time |
256 |
| Total Time |
13:46 |
Addition Blog Picture Posts from today:
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