Hybrid Bus at Fort Wilderness; Contemporary Construction & More (February 22, 2008)

I’ve spent tons of times in the parks over the past 10 days (with friends) – not taking many photos, but enough to get a couple of updates in. These photos are from Tuesday and Wednesday.

We first went to MGM Studios on Tuesday: 

The candy shop was closed (but the villains side open):

We rode the Great Movie Ride – the costumes changed probably right after I rode last month, I hadn’t seen them before (I at first wondered why a manager was our driver!)

The ABC Theater:

Toy Story Mania construction:

The Polynesian Resort Volcano pool (currently closed), from the water:

One of the days, I met with some friends for Trails End (my favorite Disney restaurant) and the parks.    When we arrived to the Fort Wilderness bus area, I noticed a new hybrid bus.   The driver was more than happy to let us take a look – it was only there for a week (testing, but it had a “special” sign on the front).   Even though the driver wasn’t taking regular passengers, we were asked where we were going – and were treated to a ride to the Settlement.  Last year, I took photos (and rode) the hybrid bus being tested at that time.   This bus was sponsored by Wachovia, it didn’t sound like the bus was going to be used further at this time.  There were numerous changes from last years model, but I do not understand torque and such!   We were told that Fort Wilderness is a great testing area, because the bus doesn’t lose much charge there ( it stops and starts a lot, without going for long distances).  The test should now be over, I was happy to get to ride again!  Last year, the hybrid bus went to test at Epcot too, but that wasn’t the plan this time.

After lunch at Trails End, one of my friends suggested renting the mouse boats.  But we ended up in a pontoon instead, which was fantastic.  It was very relaxing, and everyone could spend time together (and no big waves coming over to wet our cameras!) It was great for taking photos of the construction at Disney’s Contemporary Resort as well.

 

We then rode to the Boardwalk – I’d not seen the campfire movie set-up there before.

We then went to Epcot, and I took some pics of Illuminations.

We walked around until after the blow-off.  Near Morocco, this area is being refurbished for the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival:

And here a few fireworks pics from earlier last week, I took them from the Swiss Family Treehouse on Monday.  It’s not the perfect area for viewing all of the fireworks, but I enjoyed it very much (it was quiet, except for the continual Swiss music looping!)  Even though it was Presidents Day, the evening was VERY slow (10 minutes of rain shooed everyone out of the park).  We rode the Astro Orbitor 3 times in a row, and then went to Space Mountain in the minutes before the park closed for the evening.

 

I will have another update soon!