Magic in the Kingdom 2012! BIG 2/16/2014 FINAL UPDATE!

[Woth2982]

Love your snow photos! I tried to get some good ones with the blizzard we had at the stat of the month, but they didn't come out that great. My angles were bad and did not really reflect that we got 30 inches, the photos look like about 6 lol.

Finally caught up on the rest of the report! I love all the WL photos! That hotel is just so pretty at Christmas time. The sleigh ride looks like a lot of fun too!

 

[jenseib]

That is a heck of a lot of snow! Glad it's you and not me!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Oy! All that snow!

All we've had is rain.

At least you don't have to shovel that.

 

[mom2rtk]

man we could sure use some of that moisture, maybe you can box it up and ship it our way

Sadly we are still in drought mode here

With all that snow you and katie should attemp a mickey snowman

Well, there's no shortage of moisture around here right now. We're starting to thaw and it's a soupy mess. Still HUGE piles of snow though. The sad thing is that now I need to send someone out to UNshovel all that snow. Some of those piles have to be spread out or they'll be here in May!

If I have to shovel snow one more time this week I am going to scream! What happened to Global Warming? Where are you Al Gore?

LOL, don't you know it's not "Global Warming" any more? It's "Climate Change"! I guess Al got tired of being made fun of every time we had a winter like this one!

Are you shoveled out yet?

Oh my gosh, I have the same antenna topper and it looks the same over here in New York! Too funny. I bet most of the people who have the Orange Bird are in the same position

Katie took a real liking to the Orange Bird when she got a pin on this trip. So the antenna topper was her choice. But I think he's cute. I keep hoping they'll bring him out in the parks for a week of Limited Time Magic. But that would probably just frustrate me anyway since it would be so hard to get down there.

Oh my goodness! I am so glad the snow skipped us. We've had some rain and a lot of wind these past few days but luckily that's it!

No skipping the snow for us this time. After getting almost none last year, we got a huge double whammy this year. Now it's time to pay the piper. They are considering pulling back one of our days of Easter Break. Which would be a TOTAL loss for Timmy. Seniors are not supposed to have to make up snow days......

Love your snow photos! I tried to get some good ones with the blizzard we had at the stat of the month, but they didn't come out that great. My angles were bad and did not really reflect that we got 30 inches, the photos look like about 6 lol.

Finally caught up on the rest of the report! I love all the WL photos! That hotel is just so pretty at Christmas time. The sleigh ride looks like a lot of fun too!

I really found it hard to get photos reflective of the sheer volume of our snow too. Of course, maybe that's because I wanted to get some great creative photos and still get back in the house within about 3 minutes!

That is a heck of a lot of snow! Glad it's you and not me!

Oy! All that snow!

All we've had is rain.

At least you don't have to shovel that.

Rain is even worse. All that wet and no snow days. But you're right about the shoveling. Yuck.

 

[mom2rtk]

You guys all have the patience of a HUGE group of SAINTS! Somewhere in the midst of snowmageddon I started having computer issues. Which was rather disconcerting since my computer is just over a year old. It had been acting up for a while, but I didn't want to take it in and be without it for even a day. Well, when it starts shutting down every 5 minutes, you are left with few choices.....

Anyway, turns out the upgraded graphics card I had installed at the time of purchase was bad. 2 months after the warranty expired of course. But all they had to do was disconnect and have me go back to the one that came with the computer. Not sure if I'll upgrade to another or not. I wanted to try it without. I have a few lags along the way, but not enough to make me want to go out and spend any more money on it.

Thanks for hanging in there. I should be able to do the entire next day's update today!

 

[mom2rtk]

Saturday December 8: Animal Kingdom


We were greeted with a foggy morning again on this day. No need to hoof it down to the food court to eat since we were heading to Animal Kingdom for an early breakfast at Tusker House. I had flashbacks to our early ADR there last year and how it had been clouded by the loss of my tripod. No such crisis this day. In fact, I was very excited that Kim and the girls would be arriving later that morning.


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Breakfast was great, and we ducked out the back door right by the entrance to Kilamanjaro Safari just a few minutes before opening. We were on the first truck out of the station. And it was one of the best Safaris we have ever been on.



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[mom2rtk]

Saturday December 8 Continued: More Animal Kingdom

Not sure which part of the safari this was, but our guide was apparently hoping for some good luck!


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Is this guy a cheetah?


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Now comes my favorite part of this safari. I usually just come across the lions laying on the hill, barely visible. This time they were up and moving and both in the same shot for me!


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This is just a different crop on that last shot:


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And this is also a second crop on the last photo:


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I could have ended my entire day at AK right then and there and been happy.

 

[mom2rtk]

Saturday December 8 Continued: More Animal Kingdom




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And of course..... my daughter couldn't resist a few ducks. We can be in the midst of the most exotic animals in the world....... and she still gets excited when she sees a few...... ducks.


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Now on to the Pangani Trail:


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This baby (toddler????) was a ton of fun to watch. He was VERY busy:



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I could have stayed and watched the gorillas for a lot longer, but alas, we were on a time schedule. Our plan was to be back at the resort by lunch to be off our feet for a while in the afternoon. And we still had a lot of ground to cover.

Regardless of time constraints, we never bypass an instrument without stopping......


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[jenseib]

I like it when people tell me ...so you have a picture double posted...the finger prints against the glass one. I think it's supposed to be the toddler.

Frist off, Katie looks like a super model with her hair and sunglasses worn on top of her head. I don't think you'll ever have worry about her getting a prom date...She'll be fighting them off.

You got some AWESOME safari shots. What lens did you use on that ride? I am thinking my new 18-200mm might be a good choice for this ride. I always have the wrong one on. Either they are too close or too far.

I am pretty sure Mr. Lion (Fabulous shots by the way) was feeling frisky, but we can see what Mrs. Lion thought of that ....as she walked away.

The lizard shot was awesome too. Where was that taken at? On one of the trails. I love the focus just on the face. It makes me want to go somewhere and practice shooting again.

I am loving all of this animal overload!!!! You did have a fabulous safari

 

[mom2rtk]

I like it when people tell me ...so you have a picture double posted...the finger prints against the glass one. I think it's supposed to be the toddler.

Frist off, Katie looks like a super model with her hair and sunglasses worn on top of her head. I don't think you'll ever have worry about her getting a prom date...She'll be fighting them off.

You got some AWESOME safari shots. What lens did you use on that ride? I am thinking my new 18-200mm might be a good choice for this ride. I always have the wrong one on. Either they are too close or too far.

I am pretty sure Mr. Lion (Fabulous shots by the way) was feeling frisky, but we can see what Mrs. Lion thought of that ....as she walked away.

The lizard shot was awesome too. Where was that taken at? On one of the trails. I love the focus just on the face. It makes me want to go somewhere and practice shooting again.

I am loving all of this animal overload!!!! You did have a fabulous safari

Thanks Jen! My mind is swimming in shots I'm copying and pasting right now so no shocker I doubled up on one. But I always appreciate having a second set of eyes.

And yeah, I thought Mr. Lion really just wanted us all to go away so he could have some privacy with the Mrs. I was just glad they were close but not too close if you know what I mean. So I could post them in good conscience!

I used my Sigma 50-150 f/2.8 on the safari. I never felt like the 50 was too close. I guess if some animals came up close I probably would. If I were you I'd definitely use the 18-200. The only drawback to that lens is that it's not very fast, but you should have plenty of light out on the safari so it won't be an issue at all.

The lizard was in some structure along the path, maybe along the Pangani trail?

 

[mom2rtk]

Frist off, Katie looks like a super model with her hair and sunglasses worn on top of her head. I don't think you'll ever have worry about her getting a prom date...She'll be fighting them off.

I forgot to comment on this. First, thank you. Second, heaven help me. It just scares me! But yeah, maybe someone at our house will eventually go to prom.

 

[mom2rtk]

Saturday December 8 Continued: More Animal Kingdom

We didn't get far on our way to Asia when we found yet another distraction worth stopping for. I had not seen DeVine in years and welcomed the chance to take some photos. And she was AWESOME at posing for me!


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Soon we were finally on our way to Asia again. We all love EE and were looking forward to a couple rides. We did one trip through standby and grabbed FPs for a return trip.



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Next up comes the down side of traveling with a spouse. Somewhere along the way they get crazy ideas about doing rides nobody else wants to do! For some reason Drew enjoys Dinosaur. I tolerate it. Katie hates it. So we left Katie waiting on a bench with my camera.


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When you leave your camera with Katie, here is what you get back:



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Next we hustled off to see Flights of Wonder. I love the show but after seeing it in 2010 and 2011, I probably would have skipped it. But Drew wanted to see it so off we went. Since I had photographed it pretty thoroughly before, I just took a few. I tried to be chosen to go up on stage with my camera, but to no avail. I still like to get the shot from the audience though.




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We had just enough time to use our EE fastpasses before exiting the park. I love the view of WDW from the top of that ride. I loved that the Characters In Flight balloon was up for my shot.


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We had taken photos on the way into the park but it was really foggy. Now the sun had broken through and it was almost too bright.... Katie needed her sunglasses I guess!


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This was on our way back to the resort. We got this view of Katie a lot on this trip:


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[jenseib]

Another fabulous update. I am not a fan of dinosaur either. Claire hates it, but I'll do it here and there. But I think it's not gonna be done again till she gets over her fears there.

I am so jealous of your Devine shots! I haven't seen her since like 2007 i think.

 

[mom2rtk]

Another fabulous update. I am not a fan of dinosaur either. Claire hates it, but I'll do it here and there. But I think it's not gonna be done again till she gets over her fears there.

I am so jealous of your Devine shots! I haven't seen her since like 2007 i think.

I don't think I had seen her since 2004, so it really was a nice surprise.

And I'm just glad Katie is old enough to sit outside and wait for us if she doesn't do a ride. It makes things far less complicated.

What's funny is that we all just LOVE the Indy ride at DLR. And it's VERY similar. But that one has the cool music.

 

[jenseib]

I forgot to mention how funny Katie's shots are. That would be what Claire would take too.

 

[mom2rtk]

I forgot to mention how funny Katie's shots are. That would be what Claire would take too.

The funny part really is the sheer quantity of duck shots she takes. Every time she looked away after that I would go in and delete a few more. She got some good ones and I left those, but MANY others just "ahem" disappeared......

 

[shan23877]

I know it's already been said, but Katie looks STUNNING in those pictures. What a beautiful young woman she's grown into

Awesome safari shots. The lion ones are cool, but for some reason I really like the flamingo one.

Cute, cute gorillas. I just love them.

I had to laugh at Katie's duck photos. If my DD had the chance I'd probably get a bunch of selfies.

 

[mom2rtk]

I know it's already been said, but Katie looks STUNNING in those pictures. What a beautiful young woman she's grown into

Awesome safari shots. The lion ones are cool, but for some reason I really like the flamingo one.

Cute, cute gorillas. I just love them.

I had to laugh at Katie's duck photos. If my DD had the chance I'd probably get a bunch of selfies.

Thanks so much. For me the difference was startling when she got the contacts. Just made her grow up seemingly overnight. But she's also at the age where they just go through a big transformation.

We really did get lucky with a great safari. Lots more activity than we have seen that same time of day, that same time of year on our other trips.

LOL on getting a bunch of selfies. I better not mention that to Katie and give her any ideas. Although I will say it's harder to do with a heavy DSLR.

 

[mom2rtk]

Saturday December 8 Continued: Back to the Resort

Katie couldn't wait to get back to the resort. This was the day our girlfriends were arriving. She had visions of spending the afternoon at the pool with her friend. Katie is the youngest of our 3 kids, 5 1/2 years younger than Timmy and the only girl in the family. There are no other kids her age on our block. Or the next block. Or the next. So any time she can spend some time with another kid her age, she's all over it. And this friend lives a couple towns away, so she only sees her a few times a year. They met in preschool and we've all been great Disney loving fans ever since. This would be our 3rd time to spend some time at Disney with them.

It took a bit to catch up with them when we got back to the resort. Cell service there was really pretty awful. But that gave me a chance to wander around a bit and take a few photos. The morning fog was long gone, replaced by gorgeous blue Florida skies:



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I'm lucky I had the chance to do this early in the trip or I never would have run all over taking shots from various angles and floors.


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Eventually we caught up with our friends and the girls headed down to the pool.



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Of course the girls didn't have nearly as much time together as they would have liked, as we had other plans for the night. And Kim fessed up that they were so far behind getting packed that they had not slept at all the night before. So we headed our separate ways.

Our destination that night was Downtown Disney. We fought the rather immense Saturday night crowds to do a little shopping and eat at Katie's now favorite place in the entire world to eat.... Earl of Sandwich. She just fell in love with that place and I'm afraid we are now committed to eating there every trip.

Our real destination that night would add yet another item to our list of "Disney Firsts" from this trip. Now, I'll just admit right off that bat that I was not a willing participant in this plan ahead of time. For some reason Drew, who usually stays home from anything theatrical that Katie and I attend, decided he really wanted to see Cirque du Soleil this trip. Now, I like Downtown Disney. And I like theatrical shows. But when I only get to Disney once a year, I want to be at the parks. As much as possible. But I agreed to give this a try. And I'm so glad I did. It really was a remarkable show. And I'd probably see it again. It just KILLED me though that photography was not allowed. It's such a visual show that I would have LOVED to photograph it. But they're quite serious about the "no photography" thing. I saw someone early on take a flash photo and a staff member descended upon him pretty quickly.

I did grab the camera out during the bows just to have something to put in my scrapbook. But other than that, I played by the rules. Much to the relief of my family!


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Over the course of the evening Drew kept watching the Characters in Flight balloon and asking about it. To be honest, I thought it looked mildly interesting, but never had a real drive to do it. He would have loved to go up that night, but I was just beat. He had rested while Katie and I ran all over the resort taking pictures and looking for our friends.


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[jenseib]

You got some fabulous shots at AoA. I never went up to take any of those type of shots at all.
The balloon picture is gorgeous!!!