Anyone Game? 2 Castles and a Road Trip TR! Last Day and TR Wrap Up! #2796; 10/01

[Leshaface]

Yep. Glad I held off on reading your review of Cali Grill until after meals. Everything looks DELICIOUS! Is it true that after the renovation, people have had hits or misses here? Because everyones food looks nothing but fantastic!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Food at Cali Grill may taste mixed but looked amazing. Love the sundae sampler. I am keeping notes on what to eat at the F&W for our visit later this year though won't be stuffing ourselves as have our Chefs de France dinner the same night. Looks like another good Dismeet. You would think an Orlando taxi driver would know the "big" sites like WDW! Brissie cab drivers are showing declining ability every year I think though you still get the occasional (normally older) "character" who knows his way about.

 

[SunDial]

Love all of the pics PIO. Finally had a chance to catch up from the last 20 pages. The last time I have eaten up at the Top Of The World was many many moons ago. I see we are getting close to that time of the night. It should take about a month to get there.

It took a little bit of time but I did find the pictures I was looking for. So I am going to upload that group and a sooner time line group

 

[PrincessInOz]

The warning didn't stop me I jumped right in That second picture of the goat cheese ravioli has me salivating Everything else not so much

The views are spectacular ! Love the picture of you outside Everyone looks great what a fun DisMeet Slightly off topic Bobbi and I have kept in touch She & her DH will be moving to FL this year about 15 minutes from me

That's so cool that Bobbi is moving to FL and will be 15 minutes away from you. I guess I'll have to plan to stay an extra day if I'm in FL so that I can catch up with both of you.

Mmmm, California Grill. My favorite place outside V&A. I've had issues with service my last two trips but I do love the food. I dislike the dessert menu after the remodel...I miss my Vahlrona Chocolate Cake!

I love the picture of you with the sunset in the background...Beautiful!

Jill in CO

I've read about that Chocolate cake. I guess I can't miss it if I've never had it.....but it would have been nice if the chefs had kept it on the menu.

Thanks.

Egad! You make me want to eat! Your main course looks like something I would like- and the desserts... Oh my... (Of course, I can't eat any of it, and usually don't mind...)

I have shared this post with my non-WDW fan geek from NOLA who thinks food is the reason to live and, of course, think NOLA is the only place that knows that... maybe you will convert him?

Ya, 17 minutes! Phhhhhhhhhhhttttttttttt! hehehehee... (and it is part two: part one is Morning at MK! So there! hehehehee...)



Jud

And did your NOLA friend decide WDW might be worth a look? Some of the food establishments there are very very good.

I was happy with my food choices here that night.....my chicken was delicious and perfectly cooked.

That food porn and WARNING was amazing! Now time for lunch!

Thanks. I thought you might enjoy that warning.

Hope you enjoyed lunch.

I have wanted to try this place! I am pleased it is open again! Love the food porn. All looks delicious! Pork looks divine and oh my that chocolate dessert. Come to mamma! Love the coke float. What a lovely view and dismeet. Shame about the scooter misinformation I wouldn't be best pleased about that!

Looks like a fun evening.

Thanks Paula. It was a fun evening.....and it wasn't over yet.

Hi PIO! I finally made it over here after being off the DIS for two months. I was over 30 pages behind so I'm not going to try to comment at this point. But things have finally slowed down at work so I should have no problems keeping up now!

Welcome back Ariana. I hope 3D life was good for you in that 2 months, despite crazy work routines.
Hope to see you round here from time to time.

I love the GMR!

I swear everytime F! comes up in conversation, I always take WDW's side. I'm choosing comfortability over anything really. I know that 99% of people hate the Pocahontas sequence, but for some reason, I really enjoy it. Probably because I was obsessed with this movie when I was young and have not seen much Pocahontas anywhere, so when I saw F! for the first time at DHS, I was completely shocked...and hooked!

I was really hoping to book BCV for our upcoming January trip, until I noticed that they only have 1 bathroom in the 1 bedroom villa. I was fine with this, but when I told DH he rejected the idea. Humph! Guess we're spoiled with the 2 full bathrooms over at AKV.

What?! That's crazy that they have no type of greeting cards! But maybe it turned out for the best that he got some awesome balloons out of it!

Haha never thought about DTD being a 5th park but you're so right.

You may just throw something at me for saying this, but I have never ordered anything from Goofy's Candy Co

I alwasy forget to look up at the ceiling at WoD. Glad you did it for me!

What did he say about the $10 when it was $20? Did he try to fight it?
At least it cured the headache and nausea! Probably not the way you wanted it to though.

I love Morocco! Especially the marketplace

And thanks for the warning for Cali Grill! I'll stop for now and read later cause i'm STARVING! Almost lunch time for me.

That taxi driver was pretty accepting. More than anything else, it was his attitude towards the payment of the bill that convinced me that he had genuinely gotten lost. He was pretty miserable about it and left it to me to decide what to pay him.


You like the WDW F! more than DLR? I guess if you are a Pocahontas fan, it totally makes sense.

Next time you're at DTD, maybe you'll go order something from GCC.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Yep. Glad I held off on reading your review of Cali Grill until after meals. Everything looks DELICIOUS! Is it true that after the renovation, people have had hits or misses here? Because everyones food looks nothing but fantastic!

I can only go by the early reviews that I read whilst I was in the planning phase. The Dis-sers that had got there before we did were providing mixed reviews.

I think that at our table, there were a couple of the dishes that didn't quite hit the mark with the people that ordered them.

What an amazing update. Now I got my answer on my TR that you did ride the WDW Monorail but from the MK station to the Contemporary instead of the T&TC. The Contemporary Hotel is amazing every time I see it. The California Grill restaurant looks so nice after the renovation. I haven't eaten at that restaurant in years and after seeing your pictures that I will have to consider eating there on my next WDW trip. All of the food looks so amazing.

I think you forgot that I did ride the Monorail the night I took the Wishes pictures as well. I caught the bus to CR and then rode it from CR to DTD.

I feel very much like you about the Contemporary and Bay Lake Tower. I could never get the hype about the Contemporary, but I loved Bay Lake Tower when we stayed there in 2010.

I only ever tried California Grill once and that was in 2010, too. I did not think the food was anything special and the service was awful. Having said that, the Pork Two Ways and the Sundae sampler almost convince me to give it another chance.

Corinna

I hope you get the chance to head back to CG next trip. It will be interesting to see if the service has improved in your opinion.

"...the candyfloss of the sky..."

I love it!!! What beautiful pics!

And did the lady in the turquoise sweater crochet it herself? I love the pattern!

I'll have to ask her and let her know you asked. I think it was a shawl rather than a sweater.

Another great DisMeet

I appreciated the warning (although it didn't stop me reading the update, it gave me a chance to mentally prepare myself). Although some of the food looked pretty good, most of it wasn't really my style, so I managed not to get any drool on the keyboard

The view looks great though, and the sunset was amazing

Glad you liked the warning.

The Cali Grill is usually on people's list to go have dinner when at WDW. They normally try to time it with the fireworks so that they can enjoy the whole experience. But if the food isn't your style, then it probably won't be worth it.

This trip has been filled with so many fun dining companions!

We've eaten at CG twice, both before renovation. Some things we loved, others we didn't. But the view just can't be beat. Gorgeous pictures of MK and that beautiful pink sky, wow.

Love your blue top.

Thanks Pam. Yes....I did plan as many DisMeets as possible with food. Afterall, I have to eat and I figured that it was a good way to maximise DisMeet time without losing out too much on park time.

The view is just great from up there, isn't it?

Food at Cali Grill may taste mixed but looked amazing. Love the sundae sampler. I am keeping notes on what to eat at the F&W for our visit later this year though won't be stuffing ourselves as have our Chefs de France dinner the same night. Looks like another good Dismeet. You would think an Orlando taxi driver would know the "big" sites like WDW! Brissie cab drivers are showing declining ability every year I think though you still get the occasional (normally older) "character" who knows his way about.

That's a pity that you won't have time to separate the stuffing yourself at F&W AND dinner at Chefs on different days. When the menu's for this year's F&W come out, you'll have to take a close look and figure out what you really want to eat.

I think Melbourne and Sydney drivers are also showing declining ability as well. Too many new migrants becoming taxi drivers without a lot of local knowledge.

Love all of the pics PIO. Finally had a chance to catch up from the last 20 pages. The last time I have eaten up at the Top Of The World was many many moons ago. I see we are getting close to that time of the night. It should take about a month to get there.

It took a little bit of time but I did find the pictures I was looking for. So I am going to upload that group and a sooner time line group

We are indeed. A month to get there might be about right.


Glad you found those pictures.

 

[ejud]

And did your NOLA friend decide WDW might be worth a look? Some of the food establishments there are very very good."

To quote: "It all looks tasty. And it all looks artsy, too. Sometimes, you just gotta go for quantity, like a big heaping pile of various fried seafood on a platter, or a bug mound of boiled crawfish on newspaper over the picnic table, with beer, of course."

He is a stubborn one...



Jud

 

[mvf-m11c]

I think you forgot that I did ride the Monorail the night I took the Wishes pictures as well. I caught the bus to CR and then rode it from CR to DTD.

Maybe I am just losing my mind with everything going on lately. You didn't have to wait that long to get on the buses to your destinations?

 

[PrincessInOz]

To quote: "It all looks tasty. And it all looks artsy, too. Sometimes, you just gotta go for quantity, like a big heaping pile of various fried seafood on a platter, or a bug mound of boiled crawfish on newspaper over the picnic table, with beer, of course."

He is a stubborn one...



Jud

That sure sounds like the Cape May Dinner Buffet to me.

Maybe I am just losing my mind with everything going on lately. You didn't have to wait that long to get on the buses to your destinations?

Most times, it was a 5 minute wait or less for a bus. The longest we waited was about 15 minutes on this trip.

 

[mvf-m11c]

Most times, it was a 5 minute wait or less for a bus. The longest we waited was about 15 minutes on this trip.

That is really fast. I have waited as long as 20 minutes or longer for a bus to my destination. That was when I stayed at the Contemporary in the 90s and early 2000's. So the system must have been improved overtime.

 

[PrincessInOz]

DisMeet No#13: Yo Ho Ho and Away we Go!



Whilst we were still finishing our dinner, the last person for the night's festivities arrived. And because there is objective evidence and one extra person in it, I'm calling this a DisMeet.



SunDial had made a surprise trip on Monday night to catch up with the Where in the World crowd. Tonight marked his official joining in the Gamer's Meet.
This one was taken from DH's camera. There's the 3 of us, Fran and Alison with SunDial standing behind them, Bobbiwoz and her sister, and TifffanyD and her DH.







I'm kinda hoping that SunDial will post the similar picture from his camera.



You will have noticed that we didn't stay at Cali Grill.



Our original plans for the night were for us to have dinner at the Wave and we swapped to the Cali Grill when the ADR bookings opened. The second part of the night was to enjoy a specialty cruise and catch the Wishes/HalloWishes fireworks. I think we all agreed that we still wanted to enjoy the cruise even though we were eating at Cali Grill.




It was a perfectly balmy night to go for a cruise on the pontoon. We had booked our pontoon to depart from the Contemporary Resort marina. We were advised to arrive 90 minutes before the fireworks were due to start; which meant being at the marina at 8 pm as it was a MNSSHP night (and HalloWishes started at 9.30 pm). I'm not sure why we needed to be there so early. We ended up waiting for a bit before the captain came along.



In any event, we all eventually boarded on the pontoon. Yo Ho Ho and away we go!



This Specialty Cruise took us round Bay Lake and around to where Wilderness Lodge was. It was pretty dark out on the water so I didn't even bother pulling out the camera. The really interesting thing about this cruise was that we drove round to take a look at the old River Country water park. It's probably the closest I'm getting to this water park! We then went round Discovery Island, the wildlife sanctuary that shut in 1999. The captain did have a torch with him and shone it on the original dock and on some of the structures that could still be seen from the lake. There were quite a few birds roosting for the night at the island.




We then turned back....







....and headed across the water bridge into the Seven Seas Lagoon.







It gave us a nice view of CR.







We dined right at the top there!








More cruising. This time, past the Grand Floridian and Narcoossee.








We did pass the Electric Water Pageant and watching it from the pontoon was fantastic. It kinda felt like we had our own private viewing.....along with a dozen other pontoons!







Our captain was pretty experienced. He knew how to time his approach so that our pontoon would end up in one of the better viewing spots for the fireworks. I'm guessing that this jostling for position can get quite bumpy on some nights.







I will finish off the Electric Water Pageant pictures. These were taken from the dock of Contemporary Resort at the end of the cruise. We had gotten back in time to enjoy the second parade.







Cute music with the electrified sea serpent, leaping dolphins and octopus.








And the finale of sparkling American flags.







Anyway....back to the cruise. Our captain was positioning us about here....








(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)


Photobabble Wishing with a Moving Camera



Our very own private spot to view HalloWishes, despite the jockeying for position, was a great experience. I don't know about the others but I did manage to get some decent conversation in with the Dis-sers on board during our cruise. Afterall, it was a captive audience....they couldn't jump overboard.



But as a photographer, there was always going to be one thing wrong with the cruise.
A boat or pontoon, by definition, is on water.
Water moves around and the boat rocks from side to side.
There was no way that tripod, long exposure photography was going to work on this cruise.




So.....let's go with hand-held photobabble, shall we?



You need a camera capable of shooting at ISO 1600 or 3200 or higher without too much noise. I think I set the camera to ISO 3200 for this shoot.


I was using the Canon 50 mm, f/1.8 lens for this night. The 50 mm lens is one of the cheaper lenses you can get in any of the manufacturer ranges, be it Canon, Nikon, Sigma etc. Most of these lenses (the f/1.8) are referred to as the nifty fifty. The last time I looked, this lens will cost around the $100 - $120 mark and is considered a good addition to any camera bag. I could have gone with the 70 - 200 lens; but I had decided to lighten the load in my bag for this cruise and had left it back in the room. I know SunDial (Ed) did shoot with his telezoom; so maybe he'll post some pictures for comparison purposes.

The only issue I have with this 50 mm lens is that it is way too tight for Disney rides. I prefer to get more of the scene in my shots and this lens keeps the subject firmly in focus. But aside from that and given that I had no other choice in my bag for this trip, it more than did the job for me this time round.

I opened the aperture all the way to f/1.8 for this shoot.




For tonight, I had my shutter speed set to 1/125 sec. The rocking of the waves was such that I wasn't sure how steady I would be able to hold the camera. And I did do some test shots before the fireworks started and I knew this was going to be a safe speed for me. Afterall, I did want to enjoy the fireworks as well and didn't want to be bothered with having to check my shots after each click tonight.

If you're shooting from the park, these speeds are about standard and there should be no issue keeping the camera still (on solid ground) without a tripod.




















This shutter speed was also fast enough to capture the monorail when it went by.














On a randomly rocking pontoon, there were the moments where I ended up with shots not quite sharply in focus.







Nor was my horizontal quite horizontal at times. It's all part of the experience, right?







Most people might wonder about setting the aperture to the widest point and ask what about depth of field. At the distance that we're shooting at, it really doesn't matter that much for an enthusiast photographer like me.







The depth of field should matter if I had a subject in the foreground; at the distance where the photography rules come into play. But I didn't.






At night, and given that I was focussing my lens on the Main Street Train Station - which was close enough to be considered 'infinty', it made no difference.







Just remember that you are shooting with electronic memory space here. It really doesn't matter how many pictures you take as long as you've checked the first couple and are confident that you've gotten your exposure correct. In my case, I just kept clicking for a bit.







I think I did set the camera speed down towards 1/80 sec and lower at some stage. But the rocking of the boat just made those shots completely unusable; so I headed back to the speed that I knew I could control and get the clarity that I wanted.







For the record and seeing that I'm photobabbling, there is another general rule-of-thumb to remember for reducing camera blur where you really shouldn't set your shutter speed lower than the inverse of the focal length you have on your camera. So in theory, I shouldn't be setting my shutter speed lower than 1/50 sec. I will say that I do regularly break this rule but that's purely because I know I can keep the camera relatively still. I just thought I'd mention it in case anyone wanted to know.



I may not have had those long exposure firework trails of the previous night; but this set of shots represents the conditions of this night.















And for me, that really is the point of the way I like to take pictures. It's all about capturing the experience the best I know how.






















For my money, this is my favourite shot of this set. It's not perfectly in focus and the composition is not engaging at all.....because when I took it, the boat was rocking.
But I love it for the colours of the castle and Main Street station. It is definitely the shot that I felt and remembered HalloWishes Cruise on this night.








So for those of you without a tripod, I sure hope that there is enough babbling here to help you with taking some handheld shots on solid ground. If you do use it, let me know how you go. I'd love to see your shots!




(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)


Saying Goodnight to Another Day




There really isn't much more to recount about this day.



We headed back to the CR dock after HalloWishes finished and took the group shot that I posted at the start of this update. I think Fran and Alison, Bobbi and her sister, TifffanyD and her DH said goodnight and they headed back. Ed and us decided to stay and catch the Electric Water Parade show; which we could see heading in our direction.



About the only thing that I remember after was that Ed gave us a ride back to our hotel. He drove us to where the monorail roundhouse was and round the back of MK. We didn't stop to take pictures and in hindsight, I wished we had done (if we were allowed to stop!). It was fascinating to see that side of the park; where everything was still neat, tidy and clean but it wasn't quite that beautiful glossy picture perfect vista that the standard guest is used to.



Thanks again for the ride and the insight, Ed.



We headed back to the room and crashed. The end of another day!

 

[zanzibar138]

The cruise sounds like great fun!

And the fireworks shots turned out great, even without the long tails

 

[SunDial]

That sure sounds like the Cape May Dinner Buffet to me.







Most times, it was a 5 minute wait or less for a bus. The longest we waited was about 15 minutes on this trip.

There is another another bus story coming in the future.

 

[mvf-m11c]

That was neat that you had a nice picture of all the DISers during the meet. The cruise looks very interesting to do with a big group of people and the pictures of the Electrical Water Pageant are very nice.

The firework pictures looks very nice even without a tripod and on a boat. I have taken pictures of the fireworks at DL & the MK without the tripod and overall they are very nice. Overall, the pictures turned out nice on the boat.

It was nice of Ed to drive you back to your room and pass by the Monorail/WDW RR Roundhouse.

Very nice update.

 

[SunDial]

II will post my pics of the Wishes cruise and the group picture when I get a good internet connection to upload them. Right now I'm on my cell phone.

The nifty 50 is a great lens. When I got my fast prime I went a little wider with the Nikkor 35 1.8 I love this lens. My go to lens is the Nikkor 24-70 2.8. This is what I shot most of if not all pics with this night.

 

[ejud]

Nice job on the fireworks shots. "Workmanlike", and sometimes, that is best. Couple of very appealing shots in there.

I did a big backstage tour (during the day.,..) and we visited those buildings back behind MK. Pictures were not allowed! However, absolutely fascinating! There is one building back there that was the first building built on property,m and it is the shops building, and that is where they made everything! From trash cans to animatronic figures and monorail cars! I told the guy if I had walked in there 40 years earlier, I would never have left!



Jud

 

[rentayenta]

Love both updates.

Is that not the cutest little Coke bottle for the Cal Grill Coke float?

We have eaten at the Cal Grill once in 2007. It was one of the best meals we've had at WDW- both food and service were amazing.

Your shots of Hallowishes are great. I like seeing it from a different view. Very nice.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Beautiful pics! Sounds like it was a fab evening from beginning to end!

 

[scottny]

Nice pics on TGMR.
Very nice pics of Fantasmic.
Nice pics of beach Club.
Nice DTD pics.
Love EOS. That is least amount of people I have seen in there. LOl.
Nice the balloons were waiting there.
The candy made me hungry.
I have that unfriend you shirt.
Never been in DisneyQuest but it looks fun.
The Dreamworks exhibit looked fun.
Sorry you didn’t feel well and had to leave.
I think cab drivers do that purposely to make more.
Glad you recovered quickly. LOL.
Nice group pic.
Nice pics at CG.
How nice you all did that cruise. We did a few years back and it is truly one of the best experiences I ever had there.
Nice fireworks shots.
I am all caught up again.