New Year 2016 at Magic Kingdom

Posted on by Ian C.

We spent New Years Eve, evening, at Disney Magic Kingdom for their New Year fireworks show; very impressive!
The park felt much less packed than our last New Year trip (2011) but parking was very full and massive queues to leave so perhaps the design improvements around the castle just make it seem less crowded.
After the fireworks we were able to walk on, no lines at all, on Ariel, Small World, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. We has maybe 20 minute queue for Winnie the Pooh.

Here’s a video compilation from the evening:

Lake Apopka North Shore Drive

Posted on by Ian C.

Margaret drove us today to look for alligators along the Lake Apopka North Shore Drive; the vehicle accessible part is a one way semi dirt road, along the edge of Lake Apopka where farmland has been eliminated to help with recovering the lake to be less polluted – and thus creating a nice wildlife area. Although we were looking for alligators, our first wildlife was a snake on the side of the road!

And then, in the distance, our first alligator spotting (the line in the middle of the lake)!

Our next sighting was much more impressive; an alligator laying out on a log!

A few other alligator sightings, not quite as clear …

 

It wasn’t all alligators; there were many birds of different sorts, and I took only a few pictures of them:

Red Shouldered Hawk