Day 7
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| Wednesday, January 7th was our day to visit Disney's Animal Kingdom. We typically only go there once per trip. Not because there isn't enough to do there, but because it's the only park that isn't really connected to the others. MK and EC are connected by monorail, while EC and DHS are connected by boat. |
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| Construction on Avatarland from the bus. |
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| AK's Christmas tree |
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| Tree of life |
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| Construction at Discovery Island of the new Starbucks, I believe. |
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| Construction on the new River of Light night time show |
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| Going on DINOSAUR |
For lunch we headed to Flametree BBQ. We knew it was closed for renovations and a temporary kiosk, was in place nearby. So we went to one of two kiosks serving ribs and chicken, they were both right across from each other. Unfortunately we chose the wrong kiosk. Remember, we're on the dining plan, so we get a dessert with our meal. The Beastly Kiosk we ordered from only had these small individually wrapped cookies for dessert. Across the way at the other kiosk they had the cookies, plus large brownies with caramel sauce. Too bad we didn't know that before we ordered, we even asked if there were any other desserts, but they said they could only substitute fruit.
Our main meal came in a take-out type box. I had the half rack of ribs and chicken. It came with the usual baked beans, but they also brought back an old favorite...cornbread! We sat in the normal seating area, that was still opened. I think it's supposed to be closed now though.
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| Normal Ordering area closed |
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| My order |
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| The cookie. It was actually good, just small. The brownies were three times as big. |
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| Construction on River of Light from my table |
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| Next we saw the bird show, Flights of Wonder. The birds do fly over the audience so it's not recommended if you're afraid of birds. |
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| An owl flying back to the stage from the audience |
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| Better owl picture |
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| An eagle! |
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| Next we took a ride on Kilimanjaro Safari |
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| See the cheetahs? |
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| After the safari we saw this guy near the Tree of Life |
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| Heading underneath the Tree of Life to see It's Tough to Be a Bug |
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| We ended our visit to The Animal Kingdom at the new Festival of The Lion King area |
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| Leaving The park |
We had reservations at Trattoria Al Forno that night. We went there for breakfast on day three. We got an antipasto appetizer. I believe it had capicola, salami, and prosciutto. For dinner I had the bolognese. It was pretty good, but I thought it was missing something. I added more cheese to it, and it seemed to do the trick!
Illuminations began between our dinner and dessert, so I headed over to the bridge between the Boardwalk and Beach Club to watch a bit of them.
For dessert I got what are essentially donuts. They aren't filled with anything, just dough.
Day 8
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| We had lunch in Japan, I got a chicken and beef combo with rice and veggies and green tea cheesecake for dessert. All of it was delicious. |
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| Heading to The USA pavilion to watch The American Adventure |
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| We took another ride on Test Track |
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| Spaceship Earth |
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| Heading into The Seas with Nemo & Friends |
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| I got some pictures of Sea Base. |
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| Manatee |
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| Some divers in the tank |
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| Dolphin |
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| Then we headed over to The Land |
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| I got some pictures in The Living Laboratories at Living with the Land |
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| Picture of the Imagination pavilion |
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| We had dinner at the Biergarten in Germany. The buffet was great. Good selection of food. The only thing that I was disappointed with was the fact that they no longer had the cheddar cheese soup. Instead they had a potato leek soup. It was very good, but I was looking forward to the cheddar soup. Canada still has the cheddar soup, though. |
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| Performers on stage in the restaurant. |
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| We watched Illuminations from The American Adventure |
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| Ooooh! |
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| Ahhhh |
Day 9
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| We went to Magic Kingdom on January 9th. This was how the hub looked then, now it's almost done! |
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| We ate lunch at The Columbia Harbour House. We sat right between Fantasyland and Liberty Square. I got the fried shrimp! |
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| Liberty Square view |
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| Fantasyland view |
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| Blueberry cobbler for dessert |
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| We headed to Astro Orbiter next. This was my first ride on it since they completely renovated it. |
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| View on the platform outside the elevator |
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| View from flying high in the rocket |
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| Enchanted Tiki Room |
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| I got even more shots of the new hub |
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| I got the high score on Buzz Lightyear! |
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| Monorail to Epcot |
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| The fountain in France |
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| We had Chefs de France for dinner. This is the duck with pureed sweet potato, zucchini, and dried cherries. It was delicious! I also got a cheese plate and the profiterole for dessert (Two light pastries with vanilla ice cream in the middle and hot fudge on top). Everything was superb. |
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| We watched Illuminations from The UK this time! |
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| It was an extra magic hours night! We headed to Test Track where we waited Stand by. This is only the second time I've seen the new stand by queue since the refurbishment. |
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| Vehicles displayed in the queue |
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| Another design |
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| A few pics of the cars in the post show area. |
Day 10
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| We had lunch at Les halles boulangerie & pâtisserie again |
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| Ham & cheese croissant. I really love these. |
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| I saw something on the Disney Food Blog that I really wanted to try. It's called the Coppa Delizia, available at the gelato stand in the Italy pavilion. It has cookies and cream, strawberry, and something called Fior de Latte gelato. It's covered in strawberry sauce, topped with whipped cream, a strawberry, and a wafer cookie. |
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| After lunch we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. I got some more pictures of the hub. |
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| We decided to head over to The Haunted Mansion first. On our way over we were blocked in Liberty Square by the Festival of Fantasy parade. So we watched the parade before heading to the Haunted Mansion, |
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| We headed to The Haunted Mansion after the parade. There was a bit of a crowd, as you may expect. |
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| We headed to The Seven Dwarves Mine Train after, where we had a fastpass |
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| I took this after riding it |
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| Next we took a ride on the Tomorrowland Speedway. I know it's outdated, but I've always enjoyed this ride since I was a kid. I managed to get this picture when there was a huge gap between myself and the other drivers on the track. See the Peoplemover above the Speedway. |
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| Speaking of the Peoplemover! |
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| This is the same spot where I took my picture from the Speedway |
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| A picture of Buzz Lightyear from the peoplemover |
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| I wanted to check out the new lobby at The Polynesian Resort, so we took the water launch from The Magic Kingdom over. Here's a picture of The Grand Floridian from the boat. |
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| Concept art outside Trader Sam's Grog Grotto |
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| The new fountain. Definitely nothing like the original waterfalls. |
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| New lights |
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| Here's a nice area outside the lobby next to the new Pineapple Lanai |
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| I'm not sure if this is new. It's a screen with different information that changes every so often. |
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| Kona Cafe in the background upstairs |
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| From the second floor |
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| New artwork in the second floor elevator area |
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| Pay phones outside the elevators |
So the new lobby is definitely different. I understand the change, but I definitely miss the waterfalls. I wasn't too attached to them so I can get used to the new lobby. I do like the brighter, openness of the lobby and that there are more places to sit. It does feel more like a lobby than before. We had dinner reservations at The Whispering Canyon at The Wilderness Lodge. So we hopped on the monorail at The Polynesian and got off at The Contemporary, where we caught the water launch to The Wilderness Lodge. I like exploring the resorts, so I didn't mind all the transferring.
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| Leaving The Contemporary monorail platform |
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| A few pictures of The Grand Canyon Concourse |
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| Some pictures of the Contemporary and Bay Lake Tower from the boat dock |
So we ate dinner at The Whispering Canyon where we got the family BBQ skillet. It's served family style, so they bring you the food and you ask for more. We got cornbread, and salad first. Then the skillet of ribs, sausage, pulled pork, chicken, brisket, baked beans, corn, vegetables, and mashed potatoes.
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| I got the warm chocolate cake for dessert. It has a liquid center. |
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| A few pictures in The Wilderness lodge |
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| We took the boat back to The Magic Kingdom after dinner, for the final time of our trip. It was opened until 1 a.m. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, Under the Sea, Dumbo, and Winnie the Pooh |
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| Here's a few pics of the Main Street U.S.A. Christmas decorations at night |
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| Goodbye Magic Kingdom! |
Day 11
Sadly, our final day. We had finished packing and checked our luggage at the Magical Express Check-In desk. Then we walked over to EPCOT.
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| It was the day of the Marathon. We saw the runners as we entered through International Gateway. |
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| They run in backstage and go through the UK pavilion. |
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| Spaceship Earth |
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| One last ride on Test Track |
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| I stopped by Club Cool for soda |
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| For lunch my party got food from Mexico and China |
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| I had Chinese food |
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| Orange chicken, pork dumplings, and ginger ice cream. All was very good! |
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| We took one last stroll around World Showcase before going back to our resort through International Gateway |
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| Heading out of EPCOT. |
Well that's it! We went back to our resort and got The Magical Express to the airport and headed home. I had a great trip, I hope you enjoyed reading about it! Please make sure to follow me on twitter:
https://twitter.com/Grndcnyncncrse
