Sorry for the delay posting again! I stopped briefly to load and try out Lightroom 3. I'm really liking it, but moving very slowly at learning a new process.
Wednesday June 9th was the day we were leaving Disney. Sad but true. It was a brief visit, meant only to give us a mid-summer Disney fix. The boys were all sleeping and Katie and I were going in for a little more princess fun.
Things seemed to be running a bit behind at the entrances that morning. We lined up shortly after 7 at the security checkpoint and waited... and waited.... and waited. They didn't start checking bags until almost 7:40. Katie was really hungry and had been asking for something to eat from the time we got up. I told her to hang on and we'd get something once we got inside. I really wish they'd have one cart open before park hours for the people waiting in line. Once we were through security, I got a glimpse of what I think held them up. Overnight, the California letters had been switched to a rainbow of colors, and World of Color banners had been hung in the plaza area. It was really pretty, and made me think I had taken my California sign pictures one day too early. But if I'm right and the delay was with finishing up the changes, I probably wouldn't have been able to take them anyway. We were near the front of the line, but there were still too many people in the way for nice pictures at this point.
At least with the long wait outside security, the line at the turnstiles was pretty short. They let us through before 8 and everyone filled Main Street. It was funny, but when they finally dropped the rope, everyone scurried off to their favorite ride, some toward Tomorrowland and Space Mountain, some toward the castle and Peter Pan. Our destination? The CHURRO cart!!! Yeah! We were the first ones in line for the churro cart! Katie was starving, so we took a moment for a snack before heading on our way. We weren't really there early that day to beat everyone to the rides. Since we only had until noon, we just wanted the earliest possible start to maximize our time.
Just like the preceding 2 mornings, the sky was overcast and it was slightly cool out. Of course, I LOVED the cool part, but a little blue in the sky would have been great too.... Still, I love Sleeping Beauty's castle, and I couldn't resist a few shots on our way in:
I knew we needed to be in line at Princess Fantasy Faire by around 8:15 since it opened at 9. We got in line 30 minutes out on our last trip and waited over an hour. We headed back through the castle and figured we had time for one ride. In 3 visits to
Disneyland, we had never done Mr. Toad's Wild Ride or Pinocchio's Daring Journey. So we hopped on Mr. Toad for a quick spin.
I tried to get some shots inside the ride, but I don't know if my mind just wasn't working clearly yet, or if that ride is a little darker than the others. But everything turned out a little blurry in there. Or maybe it's just that I knew nothing about the ride and had no idea what to anticipate.
Then it was on to the princesses. We were 3rd in line, so our wait would be thankfully short. The best part about that wait is that you're in line with other princess fans. Since Katie is pretty outgoing, she never has touble making friends in line. I chatted with another mom who's family had also been touring the southwest. They HAD made the trek out to Hoover Dam, and told me to be thankful we had ditched it. Turns out it was so hot their feet were sticking to the pavement. She said they had gotten out and walked around, but kept ducking into the restrooms to cool off. OK, ditching Hoover was a good call....
I really don't like the way they do princess meet & greets at Disneyland. I loved it when the princesses met guests out in the park with the castle in the background. Now they are hidden back in the Princess Fantasy Faire. The lines are long no matter when you go. But since our princess days are limited, I didn't want to miss the chance.
Katie had changed into her pink/blue Sleeping Beauty costume for our visit to Princess Fantasy Faire. I had made it for our trip to the World last fall, but it turned out to be too hot for a long sleeve costume. And since Disneyland is Aurora's park, we thought it was a great time to take it out for a spin. Several Cast Members walked up and just said "couldn't make up your mind today?" in reference to the pink/blue mix.
Snow White was the same one we met the previous day at Ariel's Grotto. It's always fun when they remember us from one day to the next.
We were done at PFF by around 9:15 and headed back around to the front of the castle for a few pictures.
On the way, Katie was feeling the Disney magic and couldn't resist a little twirl:
This is my favorite photo spot in all of Disneyland. You can get photos in front of the castle with little or no background clutter. Here she is in this spot in 2006:
And here she is back in my favorite spot this year:
Of course, these days she's full of her own clever photo ideas. She thought Sleeping Beauty ought to pose sleeping:
Next was Katie's choice of what to do. I knew she would choose the carousel, and she did. Of course, she still tries that sword in the stone every time she walks by. No luck....... But I did like the shot with my wide-angle lens.
It then occurred to me that someone had mentioned a special Sleeping Beauty exhibit somewhere in the castle, so we headed that way. I don't think you could even go into the castle last time we were there, so it was a pleasant surprise to find such a charming display.
My brain started waking up about half way through the display, and I figured out what camera settings would be best. Somehow I had ended up with my camera in manual, and I'm not really ready for that. I'm doing ok with shutter or aperture priority, but need to leave the manual for just fireworks so far....... Finally, it kicked in that I should check....duh......remember it was still early....... ISO 1600, shutter priority of 1/30 since I thought I could possibly handhold that. I probably should have switched to the SIgma 30mm 1/4, but just went with the 2.8 on the camera.
I couldnt' resist a shot of the statue on the back of the castle on our way out:
Since we were close to Pinocchio, and that was the only ride in Fantasyland we had never done, we made that our next stop:
Katie and I are big Alice fans, so we decided we couldn't leave without one more spin on the Teacups and the Alice ride. I really wish they would add the dark Alice ride at Disney World. It's one of our favorites.
I decided to play with the shutter speed a bit while waiting for our turn on the Teacups:
I really would have liked a shot at this with a Neutral Density filter. But it did help that it was slightly overcast. It let me go a little longer on the shutter speed than I could have done if it was bright sunny.
That's one of the best parts of the great trip west. Even when Disney's done, there's more interesting stuff to see (and photograph!)
I went all paparazzi and grabbed some photos. I really needed a longer lens, but didn't have time for the switch:
