TO MY KNOWLEDGE THIS IS THE ONLY OPTION AVAILABLE FOR BULK DOWNLOAD AT THIS TIME.
1. Log into iCloud and go to Photos
2. In the primary "Photos" album, Click and hold "Command" button.
3. While holding Command, click each individual picture you want to download.
(NOTE: If you accidentally click white space AT ANY TIME, everything you have selected will deselect,
and you will have to start over again.)
4. Once you made your choices, click the Download Cloud button at the top of the page.
Side Notes:
Clicking the white space and starting over is very frustrating. To reduce the annoyance, I recommend downloading in batches, rather than trying to do it all at once.
What was easiest for me, was to reduce the thumbnail size down to its minimum with the slider at the top of the page. That loads about 50-60 images on a 13" Macbook. I then clicked the download button. After they were safe on my computer, I clicked delete, as each image is still selected. Saves me from having to click them again to get rid of them.
Hope this is helpful to someone.