WDW & D23 Posts Coming Soon…

Hello all,

Just wrapping up a week in Orlando at the Walt Disney World Resort. During the week roamed the parks, stopped by Downtown Disney for the Car Masters Weekend, caught some of the Pixar 25 Weekend at EPCOT, and spent two days at the D23 Destination D: Walt Disney World’s 40th. I also took the new African Trek at the Animal Kingdom. I will start posting pictures on Wednesday evening.

Here are some quick/overview comments. I will be posted an in depth daily report with the pictures in the coming days:

• The crowds and weather cooperated for the most part. Over the weekend the crowds peaked at the parks, but luckily I was at the D23 event then so it did not effect me that much. Same goes for the weather. It set record highs the first couple of days but then became mild. Saturday turned out to be stormy and a cell blew through on Friday night too but I was inside so again no real hindrance except dinner.
• On Thursday morning took the Africa Trek at the Animal Kingdom. I really enjoyed the tour and opportunity to see the savanna from a different point of view. I thought it was on the pricey side and would have liked the option to opt out of the food (which I did not care for) and save the money.
• Friday I stopped by Downtown Disney in the morning and took some pictures of the Car Masters weekend festivities. This is the traveling road show promoting Cars 2. It consists of some life size cars of Lightening, Mater, and Fin as well as some interactive displays. On Sat/Sun they had a classic car show but I could not make it there due to the D23 event. I thought this was a nice little show and the response seemed positive from all involved. The line was quite long too.
• Also on Friday stopped by EPCOT to see some of the Pixar 25 celebration that was going on. They had character Meet and Greets set up at several locations around the park. The Pixar Central really reminded me of the Family Fun Weekend set up at Disneyland. I was disappointed I could not attend any of the seminars/talks over the weekend due to scheduling conflicts with Destination D. I talked to those that went and they really enjoyed the talks. I wish they would have had talks on Friday too.
• I spent all day Saturday and Sunday at the Contemporary Resort for the Destination D event. The overall flow of the event mirrored that of the Disneyland one in the Fall except this time of course focused on Walt Disney World. Overall I really enjoyed the event and found the talks, guests, and films worthwhile and interesting. I was pleased to see very little overlap with the Anaheim version and some tweaks to the flow to build as the weekend went on.