Epcot and Hollywood Studios

Friday morning, Jennifer and I checked out the Festival of Arts at Epcot. This is a relatively new Festival. In addition to the food and merchandise booths like at the Flower & Garden and Food & Wine festivals, there are tents with artwork to view and purchase, and a few other offerings.

Disney has built a “gravity building” behind the old Universe of Energy building that will eventually hold the new Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster. 

In the evening we headed down to Hollywood Studios to enjoy the new Toy Story Land. At the end of the night we tried out the new roller coaster, Slinky Dog Dash. It's fun, pretty fast but not too crazy.

We returned on Saturday and checked out the construction on the Studios' version of Star Wars Land, as well as spending more time in Epcot.

We also checked out the progress on the new Skyliner system, and capped off the night by watching Fantasmic! Yesterday we had breakfast at Trail's End, a restaurant at the Fort Wilderness campgrounds, then I flew home.

Animal Kingdom

Monday I spent another day at Animal Kingdom, wandering around by myself while Susan worked. I went on several attractions, including waiting around two hours to ride Flight of Passage, and walked the animal trails. 

I again ate at Flame Tree for dinner, then watched Rivers of Light from there while waiting for Susan to finish her shift.

 

Tuesday night we celebrated our anniversary with dinner at the Benihana near Disney Springs. 

Yesterday Susan and I spent some time in the Magic Kingdom, and visited Jenn while she worked. We rode Pirates to see how they had changed it with the newest revision. Disney has tweaked the scenes several times over the years, making the pirates a bit more tame for family audiences. Most recently they changed the auction scene to make the redhead into a pirate. It wasn't necessary, but it also doesn't ruin the ride.

Magic Kingdom

I spent the next few days doing things around the house, or running errands, but yesterday, I visited the Magic Kingdom. While Jenn was at work, I rode the Peoplemover and took a photo of the site of the upcoming Tron roller coaster.  

Once Jenn was done with work, she joined me for a ride on the riverboat.

 

They hadn't taken down the Christmas decorations yet. We watched the fireworks before heading home.

Sea World

Susan and Jenn were off on yesterday, and since the passes we bought in San Antonio and San Diego last year worked in Orlando, we decided to spend it visiting Sea World.

I enjoyed going up in the Sky Tower and we all enjoyed the dolphin show and the animal exhibits.

Jennifer and I rode one of the roller coasters, Manta, in which the riders are suspended upside down. There were several more, but we decided to try them another day.

Return to Florida

With Susan and Jenn living and working in Florida, Friday after work I took a redeye out to celebrate Susan's birthday and our anniversary. Susan and I stayed Saturday night at All-Star Movies so I could take the Magical Express bus from the airport to Disney World.

All-Star Movies is like the other All-Stars we have stayed at. The rooms and beds are a bit smaller (doubles instead of queens) and the theming consists mostly of large icons on the sides of the buildings. But they aren’t bad and aren’t as expensive as moderates and deluxes, especially if you can get a cast discount.

After checking in and cleaning up, we headed to Animal Kingdom. While Susan worked, I walked the trails and looked at the animals. I watched the Rivers of Light show from Flame Tree BBQ while she finished her shift. Sunday morning we checked out of the All-Stars and headed to our rental house. I worked on stuff while Susan worked another shift.