Sharing the Disney Magic with Family & Friends-DL Diamond Anniversary-DCA F&W Fest Kiosks & The End!


I just wish it wasn't so hard to convince her to have fun. She wasn't like this 18 or so years ago....

Sounds good to me :) I just saw that they posted the Halloween parties, and one is on the 14th, I'm thinking of doing that. But there's plenty of time to see you and Fran and get over to the resort. And I was able to snag VGC for the night of the 14th, which I'm over the moon about!

I have to come back and read your update.

Hmmmm...the party starts at 4PM so I guess we could hang out for a few and then you could be on your way. Whatever you like, it's up to you. I don't want to stop you from what you want to do....
 
Looks like you are having a really busy, but productive time. I love all the photos of the 60th anniversary merchandise. I am going to have such a hard time to resist all those treasures. Apart from two of the Disney Dooneys, I am trying to restrict myself to a pin and a sweatshirt. I love that souvenir cup. I am glad that you managed to ride the train. I had to smile about the line at Radiator Springs Racers moving quicker than you had anticipated. Brain freeze however is no fun.

Corinna

Fran picked up a hoodie sweatshirt that night while I was riding around on the train. I had her jacket in my bag and she was getting cold, at least that was her excuse. We had a good laugh about the line at RSR, it never goes fast enough when you want it to, but when you are counting on it to be slow, it never is!

Save yourself time Alison don't comment on my post. I don't mind just enjoy DL. That is great you are up to filling T with the groups music. With schools on holiday there must be somebodies child to exploit for a box of candy!

What fun would it be if I didn't comment on your post!

I am pleased to hear that Fran is responding to her drugs and the cold is improving. Yeah to apartment 2 being 1 week from finishing. I think it's great you called it on your flight tickets. We do that too. Why make snow in winter. There is enough stress raining down on us if you can remove a variable grab it!

We still have our return flight to book, but I'm not as concerned about that one. We can always take a later flight home, oh darn, more time in New Orleans!

Your day in DL with Jenny looks fun. I had that brain freeze experience with Butterbeer in Harry Potter. Line was nowhere near as long as I thought. It felt like I was wearing one of those old goldfish bowl type helmelts they use to use for diving.

Yeah, brain freeze is no fun.

I love the merchadise! Great hats. Love the truffles oh my they would make wonderful gifts. How nice they give you a paper cup so you don't spoil your souvenir cup.

The truffles were delicious.

I just adore the 60th Anni display. I would love to know if they auction those of after. I wonder if you have a store in LA like Theme Park Design is it in Orlando. I can imagine that sign at your house! Ssshhh don't tell Fran she will go bid on it.

No, there isn't a Theme Park Connection in LA, I wish there was.

Have a wonderful time today! Tell DL happy Birthday from me! I'm super jealous!

Jill in CO

It was a fun day, different than most trips to DL, but fun.

That means it was a successful shopping day! :rotfl::thumbsup2

Totally!

What life are you talking about that I don't know of?!:confused3:lmao:But we've been talking about the next time we can get down there just yesterday. Dan's parents are trying to take their immediately family and grandkids (about 9 not including us 3) down in October for the October birthdays so we may be headed down there. BUT because my SIL wants to take my nephew for his first time in December, DH was thinking it may just be best to purchase AP's :hyper: :hyper: It's been at least 5 years since I was an AP holder.

Well you have a family up there, people to celebrate the holidays, have parties and barbeques and fun stuff like that. I would consider that a life. We have a pretty much solitary life, the two of us celebrate things with just the two of us. There are the rare occasions that my parents come visit, but it's not the same as family close by.

Congrats on the APs! I hope you can make a lot of trips down here!

A few weeks back I was reading about Intermittent Fasting on a body building website, where you eat for 8 hours and fast for 16. So if you start eating at Noon, you must stop at 8pm and start over again the next day. And you don't eat less during that 8 hour period, you still eat healthily and what you would normally eat. It's very new to me so i'm not sure about scientific studies or anything about how safe it is, but I guess it's worked for lots of people. This sounds like something that you could possibly look into?

That's almost what I do, except that I am eating less during the 8 hour period. I pretty much have breakfast between 10:30 and noon, and then I have dinner around 7 or 8PM. I'm not a snacker or a sweets person, but the calorie problem for me is pasta and wine. Now that I can't eat real pasta, wine is the problem!

Looks like great progress with real life. #2 seems to be moving right along, the band filing appears to be getting there.....and you're getting through #1 as well. Great job!

Well, not really getting on with #1, but at least the other two are coming along.

What a fun update at DLR. Love the D60 merchandise and I hope you have a great time with the celebrations!

We had a great time and are now recovering at home.
 
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How in the friggedy frack did I miss this update?

I didn't know Fran bought the truffles too. :cloud: Love both the hats!

I am mad I didn't get Chloe the antenna topper for her car. Hopefully they'll still have some in two weeks. :hyper: I still wish I loved the 60th Ears. They sort of dropped the ball on those.

That day was so much fun; so relaxed. Glad you finally got on the train! And next time we'll get Fran and Michael Margaritas too. :lmao:

Gabby is packing. I might die. :sad: The boxes are sending me over the edge.

Plaza Inn was perfect. :lovestruc It's my favorite Disneyland meal. I agree, it was nice to just sit and chat.
 
How in the friggedy frack did I miss this update?

You've been busy lady!

I didn't know Fran bought the truffles too. :cloud: Love both the hats!

I am mad I didn't get Chloe the antenna topper for her car. Hopefully they'll still have some in two weeks. :hyper: I still wish I loved the 60th Ears. They sort of dropped the ball on those.

I grabbed the truffles and put them in her basket just before we left. I'm sure they will have the antenna balls when you get back. They had plenty.

That day was so much fun; so relaxed. Glad you finally got on the train! And next time we'll get Fran and Michael Margaritas too. :lmap:

I hope that Fran decides to go with us. We'll have to get her a margarita!

Gabby is packing. I might die. :sad: The boxes are sending me over the edge.

I can't imagine what it's like to be a Mom, and have the first one leave the nest. :hug:

Plaza Inn was perfect. :lovestruc It's my favorite Disneyland meal. I agree, it was nice to just sit and chat.

I have too many favorite meals around Disneyland! I love it when we can just sit back and relax and not have to run, run, run!
 


So where I left you, we were chatting after dinner at the Plaza Inn. Eventually we moved into our spot for the fireworks and posed for a picture.



Jenny and her crew are always so much fun! Soon the parade started. Since I’ve already posted two rounds of photos from the parade, I sat this one out, and just enjoyed the parade. Then we settled in a waited for the fireworks to begin. This time I had my tripod, and not the pesky one. This time it was my tried and true, sturdy and easy to assemble (although somewhat larger than the compact, difficult one).



Again we are reminded of Walt and his vision.



Excuse me a moment for you non-photographers while I engage in some photo babble. For the first part of the show I had my camera set at ISO 3200 or 6400 (alternating back and forth), aperture 4.0 Shutter Speed 1/80 to 1/100. This is a good setting for the projections on the castle, but doesn’t allow for the long firework trails as I have seen in PIO’s and Bret’s pictures.



After Julie Andrews reminds us of Walt’s Dreams we launch into a variety of productions from Disney over the years. Tinkerbell flies around the castle to “You can fly” from Peter Pan.



There she is!



While the explosions rest, we are treated to the Chimney Sweeps projected on the Castle to “Step in Time.” And then quickly we are transported to a magical kingdom through “I See the Light.”















And then we drift off into sleepland with Winnie the Pooh. Note to the photobabble folks. Here I switched to ISO 100 or 200, not sure what aperture, but it was smaller than 4.0, maybe about 5.6 or 7, and the Shutter speed was 2-4 seconds.





And then the Heffalumps and Woozels came along





 
Then we traveled on to the more serene Pride Lands of Africa and the Circle of Life.





And then we moved from the Pride Lands to the Jungle, “I Wanna Be Like You.”







From the Jungle, we ventured “Under the Sea.”





And from the Little Mermaid, we move on to another adventure with our underwater friends. Soon Nemo will be risking himself at the Ring of Fire. Now here is where the camera settings backfire a little bit. While the 2-4 second exposure time gives the nice long trails of the fireworks, but if you look in the picture below, Nemo appears as a blur to the left of the Castle.



He comes close to the Ring of Fire, sorry didn’t get the Matterhorn this time.



And again in this picture Nemo appears as a large blur behind the spires of the Castle.



And then of course what would a 2015 Disney fireworks show be without Frozen and reminding us to “Let it Go”.







Then there was the Grand Finale. Disney really went all out on these fireworks and every time that I see them, I can’t help but wonder how much it costs every night for this many fireworks!















And that was it. Everyone really enjoyed the show. I took a few minutes to take some long exposure shots of the castle. Because of the nature of long exposure shots, they all had some light trails in them. This one looked like the best of them to me.



After this we said our “goodbyes”. Jenny and family had been up since around 4:30 or 5:00AM, Fran and I made a stop in World of Disney, and it was 1:00AM before we finally arrived home!


Next up, our 60th Anniversary Celebration Adventure!
 
Alison! Welcome to the PhotoBabble World! LOVE it! :cool1:


What great shots of the projection show AND the fireworks. I had seen the youtubes of this show and had wondered which would be better....long shutter speed for the fireworks; or quicker shots to get the projections. I think you did EXCELLENT to get both in. I kinda suspect that if I get the chance, I would hope to catch at least two fireworks shows to do both! Lucky you and Bret being able to get there and have multiple opportunities to shoot this show.

What a wonderful night with Jenny and her crew.
 


Wow! Your photos are incredible. I can see why you wanted the right equipment. They turned out amazing! Mind if I borrow one? Might need it for my FB cover photo.

I agree, Disney really outdid themselves with the fireworks. The floating later projections brought me to tears. I teared up a few times actually. Just awesome.

:thanks: friend. We always enjoy our time with you too. :grouphug:
 
Fantastic fireworks! Your photo skills are getting better and better! What a fun day.

Jill in CO
 
Beautiful beautiful firework photos!!!

I just wish it wasn't so hard to convince her to have fun. She wasn't like this 18 or so years ago....

Is she pretty much hurting all the time? I'm sorry, that must be very tough :(


Hmmmm...the party starts at 4PM so I guess we could hang out for a few and then you could be on your way. Whatever you like, it's up to you. I don't want to stop you from what you want to do....

I thought the party started at 6:00? That's why I figured it would be perfect. Spend 3-4 hours with you and Fran and head to the park. I definitely want to enjoy plenty of time with you lovely ladies. And we're getting together with Jenny and family on Thursday right?
 
Great shots of the fireworks. I hope when we visit in February they don't decide that it's too slow a time of year and not show them (and the parade). I would be bummed.
 
Thank you for taking the time to comment on my posts. I don't know anything about photo speak but I do know a good set of pictures when I see them. Oh my they are wonderful well worth the effort and tripod set up. I love with the Mickey ears and face one and also where you can see the projection on the Castle. Thank you for sharing those. That must have been a fun day.
 
I'm glad you are enjoying the updates. When is your trip? Maybe we can meet up and say "Hi!"

If you're about that would be lovely! We will be in Anaheim October 17th - 21st then we're heading to San Diego before our cruise. I think we will be having Disney days 17th, 19th and 20th. Not sure what we will do on the 18th yet apart from DH really fancies a ice hockey match so will likely go to the Ducks game.
 
Soon we began chugging our margaritas.

The cast member finally had to pry the cups out of our grubby little hands, and we both got brain freezes trying to finish those margaritas!

:rotfl2::rotfl2: Right before you went for a drive. Good work!

A toothpick holder. C’mon, who are we kidding? We all know it’s a shot glass.

:lmao::rotfl::rotfl2: Man, you're on a roll here.

I have a feeling though that it goes a little bit slower through the Grand Canyon and Primeval World, which was my goal on this train trip. Enjoy

Thanks! I had meant to see this and just didn't have the time when we were there.

The fabulous Fried chicken! Now after my not so satisfying meal of the other night. This meal had me doing my Happy Food Dance and digging for more until I was stuffed!

drooling_homer-712749_gif.png.jpg


Eventually we moved into our spot for the fireworks and posed for a picture.

Great shot of everyone!

Excuse me a moment for you non-photographers while I engage in some photo babble.

Thanks! This is helpful. We keep trying to dial in our settings.




Great shots! These are the ones that caught my eye.
 
Finally caught up to your latest. Nice. That you were able to spend time with Jenny and the girls. That is slot of nice goodies.

Glad to read that you were able to ride the DLRR that night and got some good pictures as well.

Your Disneyland Forever firework shots turn out really good that night. It is nice that you are using the tripod more and more at nigh. I will have to watch it in front of SB Castle one day.
 
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Your photos have turned out amazing. They make me even more excited about the fireworks than I am anyway.

Corinna
 
Alison! Welcome to the PhotoBabble World! LOVE it! :cool1:


What great shots of the projection show AND the fireworks. I had seen the youtubes of this show and had wondered which would be better....long shutter speed for the fireworks; or quicker shots to get the projections. I think you did EXCELLENT to get both in. I kinda suspect that if I get the chance, I would hope to catch at least two fireworks shows to do both! Lucky you and Bret being able to get there and have multiple opportunities to shoot this show.

What a wonderful night with Jenny and her crew.

I was pleased with what I learned between the two different photo shoots. I was also intrigued when I saw that you used shutter openings of 3-4 minutes. I would think with the sheer volume of the Disney fireworks that would be impossible there. I have many shots where they are grossly overexposed due to the amount of the pyrotechnics going off at once.

Wow! Your photos are incredible. I can see why you wanted the right equipment. They turned out amazing! Mind if I borrow one? Might need it for my FB cover photo.

Thanks, go ahead. I have one of them for my FB cover photo!

I agree, Disney really outdid themselves with the fireworks. The floating later projections brought me to tears. I teared up a few times actually. Just awesome.

:thanks: friend. We always enjoy our time with you too. :grouphug:

I can't wait until our next get together!

Fantastic fireworks! Your photo skills are getting better and better! What a fun day.

Jill in CO

Thanks! :thumbsup2

Beautiful beautiful firework photos!!!

Thank you very much!

Is she pretty much hurting all the time? I'm sorry, that must be very tough :(

Either she's in pain or she's falling asleep. Like right now, she's asleep.

I thought the party started at 6:00? That's why I figured it would be perfect. Spend 3-4 hours with you and Fran and head to the park. I definitely want to enjoy plenty of time with you lovely ladies. And we're getting together with Jenny and family on Thursday right?

Well, the tickets gets you admission after 4:00PM. Technically the party really starts at 7:00PM when they start asking guests without a wristband to leave. I think we talked about going out to lunch Thursday. I sure hope that we are all packed by that day. I need to start coming up with a packing list and what clothes I'm going to bring.

Great shots of the fireworks. I hope when we visit in February they don't decide that it's too slow a time of year and not show them (and the parade). I would be bummed.

I hope so too! It was a drag this winter that they didn't show the fireworks more than half of the week.

Thank you for taking the time to comment on my posts. I don't know anything about photo speak but I do know a good set of pictures when I see them. Oh my they are wonderful well worth the effort and tripod set up. I love with the Mickey ears and face one and also where you can see the projection on the Castle. Thank you for sharing those. That must have been a fun day.

Of course! Thank you for the compliments on the pictures!
 
If you're about that would be lovely! We will be in Anaheim October 17th - 21st then we're heading to San Diego before our cruise. I think we will be having Disney days 17th, 19th and 20th. Not sure what we will do on the 18th yet apart from DH really fancies a ice hockey match so will likely go to the Ducks game.

Well I guess our best bet will be to try and catch a glimpse of each other while you're waiting to board the ship and I am getting off the ship!

:rotfl2::rotfl2: Right before you went for a drive. Good work!

:thumbsup2

:lmao::rotfl::rotfl2: Man, you're on a roll here.

:rotfl2:

Thanks! I had meant to see this and just didn't have the time when we were there.

I'm amazed at everything that you accomplished when you were there! Sorry you missed that one.


I got the Homer seal of approval!

Great shot of everyone!

I have to credit that one to Jenny, I stole that shot from her!

Thanks! This is helpful. We keep trying to dial in our settings.

Anything I can do to help!

Great shots! These are the ones that caught my eye.

That last one is my cover photo on FB now.

LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

..... and I love TinkerBell flying!

AWESOME!!!!

Thanks!

AWESOME!!!!

I just love those kinds of fireworks ... and with the projections you can watch them again and again!

Now, that is what I call a postcard shot!!!

Thanks for sharing - these are just breathtaking.

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed them!

Finally caught up to your latest. Nice. That you were able to spend time with Jenny and the girls. That is slot of nice goodies.

We had a great time with them, and yes we did score some goodies!

Glad to read that you were able to ride the DLRR that night and got some good pictures as well.

I've been wanting to do that for a while, I'm glad that Jenny and the kids were willing to indulge me!

Your Disneyland Forever firework shots turn out really good that night. It is nice that you are using the tripod more and more at nigh. I will have to watch it in front of SB Castle one day.

Thanks, you and PIO have inspired me to try and get my best pictures possible.

Your photos have turned out amazing. They make me even more excited about the fireworks than I am anyway.

Corinna

Thanks! It is a great fireworks show. The last time I watched it, I just sat back and enjoyed. It was really nice.
 
It was the day before the actual 60th Anniversary and our plan was to get out to the park as early as possible for us. We knew that the room wouldn’t be ready, but we had some shopping to do. I had read online that Monday they would be releasing certain limited edition merchandise, but due to the nature of the merchandise, I knew that it wouldn’t be selling out any time soon.

I was too tired Wednesday night to finish packing and load the car, so we got up early (for us) and started on it in the morning. By 9:30 we were all packed and ready to go, all I had to do was catch Milo. It was a challenge, but I was able to finally get him to into the house, and then we were on the way. We made it to the resort by about 10:30AM, after check in we were on our way into the park. My first goal was to pick up the LE jewelry that was on offer. We went to Elias and company first and they had no idea about the necklace I was looking for. But they had one that I had never seen before, and obviously didn’t own, so we picked that up before heading across the way to Disneyland.



The middle one in this picture is the new one I got at Elias and Company. The one on the bottom is the 55th Anniversary pendant.



These were the two pendants that I was looking for.



We left the store and went to browse some more of the merchandise that was released when I noticed an email from Capital One. They suspected Fraud on our credit card, so while Fran purchased another couple figures, I spent the next 20 minutes on the phone with Capital One. Not only did they think that we didn’t make the purchases, I had paid off the credit card that morning so that we had plenty of room to buy what we wanted, but they weren't going to credit the account until the following day. We had essentially maxed out the credit card, so once they applied the payment from that morning, we were back in business. We are hoping to build up purchases on this card to use their “purchase eraser” to make our upcoming Disney cruises essentially free. That problem solved, it was time for lunch.

We were trying to meet up with some of our 3D friends who were also in the park with their son. We had been texting back and forth and we told them where we were heading for lunch.



They met up with us just as we were looking for a table, between the confusion of finding a table for five, and my hunger, I forgot to take pictures until we were almost completely finished with the meal. Our plates were pretty much decimated so I don’t have any pictures. Sorry!

I had the Cheese Enchiladas which came with three of them, rice and refried beans. Mine was really really good! I’m going to keep this place in mind for a definite return! Fran had the baked fish tacos which were mahi mahi, and she proclaimed that battered Fish Tacos are the only way to go.

After lunch we split up with our friends and I went to ride Space Mountain while Fran did more shopping.



When I caught up with her, we picked up some more of the 60th celebration merchandise. She had ordered this Annual Passholder shirt online the night before.



But I wanted this ladies T-shirt, she might have ordered the other T-shirt online as well.



We also picked up some pins and the pint glasses that you see in this picture.



We were both still a little hungry and I was having a craving for a hand dipped ice cream treat, so we headed over across to DCA. They had set up this screen in anticipation of the ceremony on the 60th Anniversary.











I went with the vanilla ice cream, dipped in milk chocolate and doused in Mickey head sprinkles.



We were hoping that our room would be ready soon, and the chocolate covered strawberries were going to be disappearing, so we decided to get some of those before they left. My plate.



Fran’s plate.



The room.



And and artsy shot with my hat.



I decided that I could have a glass of wine since all we had to do that night was have dinner.



I already knew our room number because I had seen it on the check in form that morning. I was tempted to just go over there and just stick the key in the door when we got the phone call that our room was ready.
 

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