Gondola Transportation System Just May be Coming to Walt Disney World

Last month, a well-known Disney news site uncovered what appeared to be a permit filed by Walt Disney Imagineering for a new transportation system. Many laughed it off and said it would just be too expensive for Disney to invest in at Walt Disney World. Then this past Friday, a "Notice of Commencement" was filed for the construction and infrastructure at 6 different locations that would correspond to the gondola's route.

The locations are located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, the International Gateway at Epcot, a station between Art of Animation and Disney's Pop Century, a station at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, a turn at the intersection near Buena Vista Dr. and Epcot Resorts Blvd. near the Speedway Gas Station, and a turn near Disney's Caribbean Beach Property. You can see the list hear along with a diagram of the route.

The "Notice of Commencement" is typically means that construction is set to begin soon, the plan Disney has in mind supposedly to have the new transportation system be completed for Magic Kingdom's 50th Anniversary in 4 years in 2021.

We should get a general feel with what they are building in the next few months once construction begins. We also should get an official announcement you would think in the coming weeks. What do you think about the Gondola transportation system that appears to be coming to Walt Disney World.

"Don't Know Where I'm Going, Only Know Where I've Been." Trip Report Part 1

Well, it's been a week since I got back from Walt Disney World, yet it seems like its been too long that I have been away. There is not a day that goes by that I don't miss the place. Today, though I begin my trip report of what I did while I was down there. Last weekend, I reported about my stay at Disney's Art of Animation now its times to dive into what went on at the parks.

This trip you may notice we didn't go to Animal Kingdom, so it will not be included in this trip report and we saved Hollywood Studios until our last day due to Star Wars Weekends. It was a well planned out trip except for our first day when we arrived. You will see why it wasn't so planned out. Enough of me rambling on, let's get on with what's going on in the parks.

Waking up at 4 a.m. is never easy except when you are waking up to go to Walt Disney World. That is the time I was up and by the car was packed, had a small breakfast, my family and I were on our way to the airport by 6 a.m. Our flight to Orlando was at 8 a.m. and we were through security by 6:30. By 7:30 we were boarding our flight and we got off early for our 2 hour and change flight to sunny Orlando. We arrived just after 10 and quickly went to the bathroom and boarded the tram over to Terminal B to make our way to Disney's Magical Express and our hotel Disney's Art of Animation. It's about a 45-minute drive from the Orlando International Airport to the resort area but it went by quick. Just before noon we had finally arrived at Disney's Art of Animation.

What a beautiful sight isn't it? We arrived into the massive lobby and went to the online check-in area. Our room and home away from home was ready but first we stopped for a quick bite at Landscape of Flavors. I had a bacon cheeseburger with fries and I literally devoured it in anticipation of getting to the parks. After lunch we went to our room, we were staying in the Lion King suites. My sister and I stopped by bell services to pick up my dad's motorized wheel chair and our Garden Groceries (a great service by the way). We arrived back at the room and we were finally ready to make our way to the parks.

Now earlier I said that we had no plans for Sunday besides of course our dinner reservation at 5:30 at the Grand Floridian Cafe. We made the decision that whatever bus arrived first at the resort that is the park we would go to. That bus turned out to be Epcot and after just a short 10-minute drive we had finally arrived.

It really is a beautiful sight, isn't it?

We had no fastpass reservations so we decided that we would just stroll through the countries around the world before we had to leave for our reservation. We started in Mexico and made our away around the world. My whole family love the countries and love how Disney incorporated them into Epcot. World Showcase is a wonderful sight. We made our way through Norway, China, Germany, Italy, and finally at America we stopped to see the American Adventure. What a true American experience and an emotional one at that. My father cries every time he sees it. Here are some photos as we reached America.

The show of course was wonderful and we made our way around the rest of the countries. It was so relaxing not having to rush to anything on that Sunday afternoon. We got out of the show at around 3:30 so that gave us an hour to get to the front of the park so we could get to the Grand Floridian for our reservation. 

So we made our way to the highway in the sky to make our way to the Grand Floridian. Of course we had to stop at the Ticket & Transportation Center before we could get to the final destination. I can't tell you how much I love riding the monorail. It is a Disney must do for every trip. When we arrived at the Grand Floridian we still had about a half hour before our reservation. We had a little time to just sit down and relax before our meal. 

After the little rest we made our way over to the Grand Floridian Cafe for dinner. This is the second time we have been to this restaurant and it seems like its a not-so-hidden gem in this grand resort. For dinner I had the char-crusted New York strip steak. Let met tell you one of the best steaks I have ever had. I have no pictures of course because I ate it all before I remembered to take one. That seems to be a regular occurrence on this trip as the food always looked to good to eat before I remembered to take a picture. So after dinner we made our way back to the monorail to get to the busses at Magic Kingdom. 

We made it to the Magic Kingdom made it to Art of Animation bus and made our way back to the hotel to end our first day of our wonderful vacation.

Monday:

After an uneventful first day of our trip, it was time to really begin our vacation and celebrate Memorial Day at the Magic Kingdom. The most magical place on earth. 

We entered the park to the most magical place on earth and my sister went to go meet Tinkerbell it was only a 20-minute wait while we stopped at first aid with my medication and Starbucks for quick mid-morning snack. After that we made our way through Main Street, USA and onto Tomorrowland to start our day. Our first stop was my favorite ride in Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. It was a 30 minute wait but really it turned out to be 50 minutes. Boy, the park was busy. It was well worth it though as my competitiveness with my mother and sister won out once again. After we got out it was already time to head over to Liberty Tree Tavern for our lunch. 

For lunch on this Memorial Day, I had the Angus Chuck Cheeseburger with Mushrooms and Swiss. Another delicious meal. It rained while we were at lunch but once we got out everything seemed dried out already. That's those Florida rain showers for you though. That Florida sun was sure shining as we made our way over  Peter Pan for our first fastpass of the day. My mom's favorite movie and it is always such an enjoyable classic ride. We then made our way over for our first ride ever on the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. I really enjoyed this new coaster and the imagineers did a great job on the whole attraction altogether. 

We had a while before our last fastpass on Splash Mountain so we took in the Hall of Presidents another must do at Disney especially on Memorial Day. After the Hall of Presidents we took in another new thing in the Festival of Fantasy parade. While the parade had debuted last year we hadn't been in Disney World since December of 2013. It was quite enjoyable and in my opinion is way better than the previous Celebrate a Dream Come True parade. 

After the parade we made our way over to Adventureland and took a visit to the Enchanted Tiki Room before our last fastpass of Splash Mountain. This is another Disney classic attraction and quite welcome to cool down from the hot Florida sun. How often can you still be singing the song hours after you see the show (besides It's A Small World of course). My sister and I made our way over to Splash Mountain where we were sure to get soaked. As they say, "It's Actual, It's Factual, You're going to get wet!" Well, me and my sister were in the first row and we were soaked. It was cool and refreshing so we didn't mind being wet at all. 

We headed over to the fastpass+ kiosk to see if we could schedule any more fastpasses for the day. A friendly cast member helped us schedule a fastpass for the Jungle Cruise in about 45 minutes. So we walked around and went and picked up my medication at First Aid. We came back and after strolling around we went over to the Jungle Cruise to enjoy the funniest cruise through the jungle. This is easily one of my other favorite rides at Magic Kingdom. After that we headed to Pecos Bill's for dinner where I enjoyed the deluxe chicken sandwich. My father had the Karubi Style short ribs and they were fall off the bone good. 

The dinner was delicious so we decided to head back towards Fantasyland and get on It's A Small World. It was only a 15 minute wait so it went by quick. We then headed over to Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid. This is another one of those great attractions that was built with new Fantasyland. We then headed over to Tomorrowland to check out Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor for one last final attraction on the day. I love the Laugh Floor as Monsters Inc. is one of my favorite Pixar movies behind Toy Story. 

After a long day at the park we decided not to stay for the Electrical Parade and head back to the hotel. It was an enjoyable day at the park and very eventful Memorial Day. It was time to say goodnight to the Magic Kingdom. 

Goodnight, Magic Kingdom.

This ends the first part of my trip part, next weekend I will dive into the rest of the trip. Tomorrow it's back to our news from around the world. 

Review of Stay at Disney's Art of Animation May 24-30, 2015

Over the last week, my family and I were in Walt Disney World where we got the chance to stay at Disney's Art of Animation for the second time since it opened just a few years ago. Previously, we had stayed in the Nemo family suites, this time we had a room in the Lion King section of the hotel. We really enjoy staying there considering all the space in the family suites even though there is only 4 of us it works out great for us. My father is handicapped so that does help the situation of all the space so here it goes for the review of our stay.

On Sunday, we arrived at Disney's Art of Animation just a little after 11 in the morning. I had previously used the online check-in, so when we got there our room was already ready despite us being there early. We had a quick lunch at the quick service restaurant Landscape of Flavors and headed to our room in building number 6 in the Lion King section, our room number was 6517. In Disney's Art of Animation family suites consist of 3 rooms, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchenette. Here are some views of inside the room.

It definitely felt like we were in the pride lands, the Disney Imagineers really did a great job with this resort. My parents took the main room with the walk-in shower, my sister took the murphy bed, and finally I took the couch that turns into a double-size bed. 

The stay in the room was quite wonderful except for one thing. On Thursday night while my father was taking a shower, the shower backed up and flooded the bathroom and part of the main room with water. We called the front desk where they sent two wonderful cast members from room cleaning stepped in one brought a shop vac and got rid of the water almost 2 gallons and the other discovered hair clogging the drainer. The only complaint I had was if we couldn't stay in the room there were no other rooms available that would be accessible to my dad. We only had 2 nights left so it would have been pointless to switch hotels and hard to move everything with my father. Anyways, the cast member, Richard, who had vacuumed up all the water brought a fan to dry out the rest of the dampness in the room. He said we should have no problem staying the room for the remaining two nights of our stay.

There are three pools at Disney's Art of Animation: the main pool "The Big Blue Pool" in the Nemo section, The Cozy Cone Pool in the Cars section, and the Flippin' Fins Pool in the Mermaid section. There is no pool in the Lion King section of the resort. The "Big Blue Pool" is the largest hotel pool on Walt Disney World Resort property. It contains over 308,527 gallons of water. We went to the pool twice on our stay and it is one of my favorite pools on property and ranks right up there with the pool at the Polynesian. This pool is a zero-entry pool that when you go underwater you hear music from your favorite Disney classics. Here are some views of the pools at Disney's Art of Animation:

Now to finish up the review here are some of my favorite photos from around the resort. It was a great week overall and went by so fast. Tune in the week and next week where I will review what went on in the parks during my stay. I sure hope I can get back to Disney World real soon.

Disney's Art of Animation Resort is a beautiful Value Resort at Walt Disney World with all the feels of a deluxe resort. That's it for today, back to normal tomorrow with news from around Disney.