day 4

with very wet shoes this morning, we pulled out the spare pairs we had brought, and headed to animal kingdom.

the girls were on their way to a full day at universal studios/islands of adventure.

7:30 am, breakfast at your hotel/disney meal card included
8:30 am pegasus charters picks up group and heads to universal studios/3 buses
9:00 am begin your fun day at universal studios and islands of adventure, lunch and dinner meal cards included today
8:30 pm pegasus charters picks up group/3 buses

9:00 pm arrive at your disney resort

10:00 pm room check/pack for your departure tomorrow 

once again, we were in no real hurry, and made it to the park around 10am.

and we headed straight to the new pandora - the world of avatar.  i think daddy was looking forward to this location the most out of all the things this trip. and as an avatar newbie, i will admit that the world created was pretty spectacular.

of course, the popularity of this place was off the charts!  there were no genie+ passes available until almost closing time for the park.  the goal was to experience both avatar attractions.

up first: na'vi river journey.  this line took just under an hour

by 11am, we were boarding the boat ride.

shortly after 11am, we entered the line for avatar flight of passage.  

this line seemed never-ending!  standing on our tired feet in our second-choice,older shoes was not helping.  we had all gotten new, supportive sneakers for this trip, and i didn't know how great they made my feet feel until i didn't have them....oh well, power thru the pain, right??

it was around 1pm when we finally got our turn on the ride.  and it was totally worth the wait!  see an example for yourself here.

by this point, we were overdue for lunch.  we opted for lunch in africa at harambe market.

around 2pm, we said farewell to animal kingdom and made our way back to the resort to drop off souvenirs, and then park-hopped to hollywood.  with rain in the forecast again, we wanted to make a quick stop there for a toy story souvenir that daddy should have bought here on sunday, but didn't.  after some searching in toy story land, we finally found the item in a shop near the park's entrance. 

seeing clouds beginning to form in the sky, we decided we still had time to ride the (new to us) skyliner to epcot.  because i wanted a tshirt and hoodie. :-)  and because we could with our park-hopper tickets.

now the sky was a looming black cloud from the northwest.....and the skyliner dropped us off all the way in france!  we sped-walked to the creations shop near the main entrance.

we made it to the shop, and then the rain started.  we made our purchases and waited out the storm inside the shop, along with many others, and were able to stay mainly dry as we said our goodbyes to epcot.

by 7pm, we were back at the resort enjoying sitting down at dinner.

around 7:30pm, the band was back from universal.  we had a short window of time in which i wanted the girls to meet up with us and recreate some of the photos from our stay at all-star movies in 2014.  they were so exhausted after their full day, but they cooperated and were very good sports about it.  i am so happy we did this.  stay tuned for the recreations!

while everyone else was semi-packing for the flight home tomorrow, little sister had to immediately pack for a 9:30pm pick-up by her friend's dad.  she and her friend were staying a few more days in florida and exiting the band trip tonight.  i was so exhausted and could not imagine staying one more day! but then again, i am not 14.

today's step count: 19,656
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the girls' day in photos: