Almost time for Groucho's traditional live trip report...

[MichelleVW]

Thanks DSF!


We are pretty spoiled in terms of crowds - this is probably as quiet as it ever gets there. Last night we were at Studios and it was an Extra Magic Hours night... Tower of Terror was a walk-on at 7pm (when EMH started) and I rode it twice in row and the cars weren't even full! (Man, I love that ride! The first ride was with two groups who'd never ridden it before - which is always a blast.) RnRC was about 20 minutes and while in the queue, I chatted with a nice woman who'd never ridden it before and when I described the takeoff into a loop, she was pretty terrified. I rode it with her and she just screamed the whole time... it was pretty great.

I'm here now too and I can't believe how quiet the MK was yesterday! We had FP's for some things but really didn't need them!

 

[mom2rtk]

This is precious. A little girl and her daddy.

And a camera..... don't hurt ITs feelings now.... A little girl, her daddy, and his camera...... adorable.....

 

[Groucho]

Very nice shots so far, I'm especially loving the ones from the Lensbaby. I took so many with that darn thing in December and didn't want to post too many for fear of feeling like I overdid it...but I can't help it, I love that little thing!

So how was the Richard Petty driving experience? My DH isn't into Nascar but I was trying to think of some new things for him to try while in Disney and that was one of them. Not sure it's worth it to do while we're there since we can do the same thing at the Pocano Mt. race track up here, but who knows.

The Lensbaby is fun especially now that I'm getting the hang of it. It likes the tripod (obviously that's a difference between the other models and the Composer, since the others won't hold the settings) but I'm starting to get the hang of handholding it. Part of the trick seems to be to not overdue the flexing overwise the "sweet spot" moves right out of the frame, at least on a crop-sensor camera. Plus my new focusing screen is great in the middle but probably a little worse than the OEM in the "plain" ground glass area, so it's a little harder to determine focus there.

The Petty thing was pretty cool but I don't think I'd spend $109 on it (even once you count whatever discount there is - DVC, I think.) The actual ride is three laps and is over in about two minutes or so. It is pretty intense, though. The acceleration is good (though honestly it didn't feel that much faster than my daily driver, which is awfully fast), but the traction in the corners is really quite amazing - you don't expect them to go as hard into the first turn as they do.

I'm here now too and I can't believe how quiet the MK was yesterday! We had FP's for some things but really didn't need them!

Yet the dark rides in Fantasyland still have long waits. We didn't bother with FPs for anything at MK... so far, we've only used them for Test Track, Toy Story Mania, and Safari.

And a camera..... don't hurt ITs feelings now.... A little girl, her daddy, and his camera...... adorable.....

The perfect family!

Well, I'm totally zonked; just waiting for the memory cards to copy then hitting the sack. We spent the day at Animal Kingdom, then to Lost & Found (which is in the Kennel Club at TTC) to see if a Mickey they had was the one that Jack lost (it wasn't), then to MK to pick up breakfast for the next two mornings (cinnamon roll and apple turnover for me!), back to the hotel to unload some stuff and pick up jackets, then off to DD for dinner at T-Rex, some World of Disney shopping, and dessert at Ghiradelli's. What a rough time, eh?

Here's the rest of the Epcot day shots.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I love the lensbaby shots and the shots from Illuminations! WOW! Nice!

 

[ukcatfan]

Well, I booked a hotel room for Saturday night. Wanted to do two nights, but nobody else at work knows how to do some processes that have to be done Monday. Still need to get a kennel reservation, but that should not be a problem this time of year. So, if everyone that will be there wants to meet up Sunday, just give me a time and place. I am open for any park, but need to leave at around 5PM. I will PM my contact info to you all.

 

[Todd_H]

Really, really enjoying these, Groucho! Such creative shots!

 

[Gdad]

Hahaha - join the party. If Kevin makes it, that'd make 5 Disboarder photo regulars... quite the summit!

Looks like (thanks to the Saturday weather forcast) I'll be at MK on Sunday afternoon/evening. Looking forward to the "summit."

 

[RBennett]

Really wish I could make it to join the club, but I won't be a "Floridian" for another year or so.

 

[Groucho]

Thanks folks! I really appreciate it.

Heading to Studios today... gotta make sure to catch Fantasmic! I'm all fortified with Main St Bakery apple turnover and just waiting for everyone else to finish getting ready then we head over.

A few from yesterday:

We had a very enthusiastic Safari driver.

 

[Code]

Looking forward to the "summit."

Me too

 

[sdshutterbug]

Groucho, your photos are nothing short of awesome!! I'm loving those fisheye shots, especially the Grand Floridian marble floor - I stayed there a few weeks ago and got a few shots but none I was too happy with. Great shots with the lensbaby too!

 

[emmabelle]

love the test track one! and of course all the rest.

 

[WDWFigment]

Love the fisheye shots of Mission: Space!

 

[Groucho]

Thanks sdshutterbug and emmabelle! Glad you're enjoying!

Love the fisheye shots of Mission: Space!

Glad you liked but only the first is fisheye the last two are Lensbaby shots. The 2nd shot is kind of hard to tell since there's motion blur in addition to the Lensbaby's blurring.

Today was a pretty good day. We hit Studios again and by sheer luck, managed to get nearly front-row seats for Lights Motors Action and then Fantasmic. The bad news is that due to a timing error (I rode ToT twice instead of once!), the park closed just as we got to Toy Story Mania to use our fastpasses. So the plan now is to head back there first thing in the morning, ride that once or twice, buy Jack a build-your-own-lightsaber, then head to Epcot where he will insist on playing the Kim Possible game all day.

Oh! And we saw Deevy See between takes working on a new "Deevy Packs Her Bags" episode! (See link in my signature if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) Ariel See was there, too. We yelled "We love you Deevy!" and she said that she loved us too then offered to trade a fastpass for our kid.

Some more shots from yesterday. My pre-multicoating Takumar 300 doesn't like thin lines on a bright background; lotsa of LCAs visible here. I also didn't nail focus but I thought it was cute anyway.

Try not to drool on your keyboard.

No video photography?

 

[mom2rtk]

WOW! Those shots at T-Rex are amazing! I've never had a desire to go there, but your photos make me want to! I really wish they had been around when my boys were younger....

I'm loving what you're doing with the fisheye!

 

[Groucho]

WOW! Those shots at T-Rex are amazing! I've never had a desire to go there, but your photos make me want to! I really wish they had been around when my boys were younger....

I'm loving what you're doing with the fisheye!

I'd heard mixed reviews on T-Rex and didn't expect a whole lot, but we definitely will be going back! My son loved it as you can imagine, but the other good news is that the food that we got was actually quite good (and there's a lot of it, if you like that.) I had a terrific strawberry/banana smoothie and a chicken pot pie (just finished the leftovers!) that was very solid if not quite terrific and my wife had fish tacos which she said were very good. We had a very enthusiastic waiter and the food arrived surprisingly quickly. The big catch for some people would be that it is loooooooooooooooud! Everything is completely over the top.

I think that day at AK, I used the fisheye, Lensbaby, and 300mm Takumar about 90-95% of the time...

 

[Todd_H]

So the plan now is to head back there first thing in the morning ... buy Jack a build-your-own-lightsaber...

I hope you grab some shots of this event. My son (almost 5) has recently discovered Star Wars and is infatuated with lightsabers. I was telling him about the "build your own lightsaber" at DTD and he just about lost his mind. He's now asking me every day if we're "going to Disney World tomorrow?"

 

[Groucho]

I hope you grab some shots of this event. My son (almost 5) has recently discovered Star Wars and is infatuated with lightsabers. I was telling him about the "build your own lightsaber" at DTD and he just about lost his mind. He's now asking me every day if we're "going to Disney World tomorrow?"

We'll probably end up doing it at Tatooine Traders since we have already told him about it and we'll be at Studios briefly this morning (gotta get in the Toy Story rides!) and won't make it back to DTD until maybe tomorrow evening or the night after. My son's almost 5 too and I showed him the original movie in high-def on our home theater (front-projection 103" screen) not long ago and he was blown away. Last night when we watched Fantasmic, he was fascinated by that and then the instant he was over, he asked about going to the Star Wars store. It's amazing how he can remember the stuff that he wants to remember... I'm going to wait another trip or two before trying to get him into the Jedi Training Academy though.

 

[Groucho]

One other pic I was going to post... a few days ago when we watched the Indiana Jones show, I recognized the guy playing Indy.

Last trip, he was playing the "fruit shirt" guy.

Well, I thought it was pretty funny.

 

[Aristocath]

Great pictures! I'm really enjoying your trip. But now I want a fisheye for my trip in August! Can't wait to see some lightsaber shots...I've got three boys and that is on the list of to-dos.