BE's never-ending fun ** 4 completed TR's ** Thousands of Photos

[Sarah84]

Love your photos

 

[Belle Ella]

Love your photos

Yay Thank you very much. More to come soon, I promise!

 

[Belle Ella]

Well ladies (and gents if there are any out there reading this) I have about 30 more images to edit from day 2!! As soon as I do I will work on posting more of the TR, so hopefully by the end of tonight I will have Saturday finished!

 

[kaoden39]

Well ladies (and gents if there are any out there reading this) I have about 30 more images to edit from day 2!! As soon as I do I will work on posting more of the TR, so hopefully by the end of tonight I will have Saturday finished!

Woo hoo!

 

[Belle Ella]

Woo hoo!

My sentiments exactly. All in all day 2 turned out 453 photos + about 4 videos and a little slideshow I'll post with the next installment. Just uploading the last of them now and then I can begin.

 

[Sarah84]

My sentiments exactly. All in all day 2 turned out 453 photos + about 4 videos and a little slideshow I'll post with the next installment. Just uploading the last of them now and then I can begin.

you do like to take pictures don't you? i only normally manage about 1000 pictures in a weeks holiday and i thought that was alot

 

[Belle Ella]

you do like to take pictures don't you? i only normally manage about 1000 pictures in a weeks holiday and i thought that was alot

You have no idea! I practically live with my camera attached to my hand it seems. Wait until I actually count how many I took in all of day 3 because I filled up every single one of my memory cards and even had to use a smaller file size because I was running out of room.

Eek. Almost done typing my next post.

 

[Belle Ella]

Pretty Pretty Princess
Day 2 cont.​

Somehow I had this whole page typed up and I closed the stupid page on accident. Why, oh why! So let's try it again!

I can't remember exactly when, but Frick and I had split up again. It was obviously before I watched Mary Poppins & Co. in front of SBC because she definitely wasn't with me then. I had gone back to the HoJo as was originally planned by us both to gather what we would need to watch Fantasmic and the fireworks that night. Like I said, the plan was originally to go back together, but Frick didn't end up going so I pretty much said to myself "Screw it, I'm not bringing her things if I'm going back by myself." I had to go back and change my clothes and shoes and I was debating about bringing my tripod but I ended up leaving it behind. If I had known the drama we would go through on Sunday night, I never would have left it behind! But I was a much happier me when I got back.

I saw Fairy Godmother in front of SBC and was told she would be back out in about 30 minutes since her visitors line was closed, so I hung around and waited and got another photo op. I would end up seeing her again at our character breakfast, but I'm glad to have one with the castle as a backdrop as well.

After that I wandered around some and made the decision to go and brave the line at the Princess Fantasy Faire since I knew it was going to be my only shot at getting a photo with my favorite Disney character of all time - Snow White. I know that could have been remedied if we had switched out character meal and done the Princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto, but I am saving that one for my birthday and when I get to Monday I'll tell you why I'm so glad we did the one we did. The wait probably was close to 2 hours but I wasn't really paying attention, instead I was using the time to go through the hundreds of pictures I had already taken at that point. On my next trip though, I will be hitting the PFF first, or at least in the morning and try and be there before the line gets crazy. I don't mind waiting in lines for the rides because at least the themes of the spaces can be fun. I was lucky enough to get Cinderella, Snow White goodvibes) and Aurora/Sleeping Beauty. I call that a success, while I wish I had gone back to shoot for Belle. I'm so glad they have PhotoPass photographers there, because they don't always have them with characters around the parks and I really like the Princess borders they have (plus the autographs you can add). But it will be a while still, until we can get that CD.

I had received a call from Frick while I was waiting in line and she had been over in Mickey's Toontown to go on Roger Rabbit and since I hadn't heard from her when I was done I went to go and find her. I did see Goofy over there, and I wish I had stopped for another picture, but all is well that ends well. I did get a kick out of the fountains though!

As luck would have it, as I was wandering over to find her in TT, she was wandering back towards Fantasyland to find me! Silly us, right? So we ended up meeting back up and making our way through Fantasyland when we stopped for another photo that we had been planning on taking before the trip! We had to try our luck with the Sword in the Stone.

We're still a couple of hours away from our PS time at Blue Bayou, but we decide to start making our way back to NOS because in our opinions, you can never ride POTC or HM too many times. I made a quick stop to drop off a postcard that I wanted to mail to myself, and a group of cheerleaders were sitting on the steps practically blocking the box which was annoying. Dont think they understand the urge of a Shutter Bug to snap a picture either judging by their comments when I did just that. Neeldess to say their interference made for a pretty poopie picture (try saying that 3 times fast). On the way we almost walked right past Jungle Cruise, but with a wait time of about 10 minutes we really couldn't pass that up, so we backtracked and made our way towards the line. I wouldn't even say that the wait was 10 minutes, but please don't do what I did! I was leaning against the railway at one point and actually got my knee stuck between the posts! I wish we had thought to take a picture of it because I swear I was so paranoid that it was not going to come out without ripping my knee cap off or something. Yeah, that hurt. It's like that kid who has to put his head through the rails only to find out his ears are in the way when he tries to back out. I know, I'm a genius! We actually got the same boat this time that we had on Friday, although it was definitely a different skipper as she was, well ... a she! Skipper Kelly did a great job, she sounded a little tired though.

The best part of this cruise was definitely Skipper Kelly's farewell joke. "... and if you didn't like it, this has been the backlot tour here at Universal Studios and my name is Kevin. So long folks ..."

 

[kaoden39]

Very cute!

 

[Belle Ella]

Don't look down!!
Day 2 cont.​

Eventually we do get to where we were meaning to go all along, in this case New Orleans Square. We went on HM again and while in line, I definitely recommend to everyone to pay attention to all of the gravestones and one not along the way. My favorite is the pet cemetery!

We were about to go on POTC again, but we got sidetracked by Tarzan's Treehouse. I can't remember the last time I went through there, although I have pictures of it so it must have happened. I just remember my last trip to DLR it was closed, so it definitely wasn't in 2007. A little reminder to myself afterward though, I hate heights and I don't like steep staircases. It may not be the best bet for you if you don't either.

Somebody needs to see a dentist - you're teeth are cracked!!

I will say this though, you can get a nice view of Big Thunder Mountain, although this picture didn't turn out the way I wanted it to...

 

[RiverLou]

Or Big Thunder Mountain even...

 

[kaoden39]

Or Big Thunder Mountain even...

 

[Belle Ella]

This is what I get for typing two of these at once, I swear. I end up thinking I'm posting the right thing in the right box, but nope!

All betters now.

 

[disneyland89]

You are so brave to wear Converse around DL, I tried that once and I thought my feet were going to fall off after one day. I will never wear those there again.

 

[Belle Ella]

A night on the bayou​

​

End of day 2​

To end our day before or diner PS (which was for 6:10 p.m.) we figured we had time to do one more ride on Pirates! The wait was about 30 minutes according to the sign, but that's really not bad. The line always goes fast for POTC. At least this time it wasn't taking up half of NOS like it was earlier in the afternoon. This was the ride that really, really, really got me angry. Well, not so much angry as in the mood to knock a couple of dodo brains in. All was going well, I got a few pictures while waiting in line, noticed the name of our boat (Yvette this time) and we got in with non-wet seats. Then things went downhill because pretty much every row in our boat (plus the ones in front of us and behind us) decided that they didn't want to listen to the audio that said no flash pictures and were using flash on their cameras like nobody's business. I mentioned it in a non-rude a couple of times before it really pissed me off when one flashed me right in the eye and I made a point to tell someone to turn of her flash. She gave me major attitude after that and kept on with the flash. Annoying little prick. They even gave us dirty looks when we got off the boat. Put me in a sour mood with a killer headache right before our diner PS that I was really looking forward to.

Even after we got off we were still early for our PS but I'm not kidding when I said that experience gave me a killer headache so any excuse to sit down somewhere for a while was a great idea and so we decided to check in for dinner a little early. And where were we eating? Blue Bayou of course! I don't care what anyone else's experience has been, a visit to DLR for me is not complete without BB by a long shot. I have never had a single complaint about the food, and the only bad experience I had was again because of people using flash on POTC while I was sitting at a waterside table. We made our request for a waterside table and were greeted by that "It could be a 45 minute to an hour long wait" which I have never had to wait that long for, but of course we're both a-OK with it and we go to sit down in the lobby and just chill with a few more pictures.

45minute wait, ha! It barely even felt like 5 minutes although I'm guessing it was a touch longer than that. We were still seated at our waterside table before our actual PS time. So that was pretty nice for us. It still makes me think that a few theories I have heard about saying that to discourage so many people from making the request make for a very good case. I don't have anything negative to say about our diner - it was perfect as far as I am concerned. Our waiter was excellent, and when he heard us contemplating splitting a meal offered up the two options we had right away. Did we want to do the split plate with the $12 fee - which yes is the raised fee - in which we both get the side soup/salad of our choice and then they split the entree for us or did we just want to order one meal and they could bring out an extra plate for us to split ourselves for no extra charge. We opted for the split plate and fee, and went with the Surf & Turf, which is what he had suggested for us and it sounded perfect. My experiences with the split plate fee is that it's worth it. You get a little more food because both plates have the serving of vegetables, and for me it was still too much to eat so I ca't imagine just having one to myself! The new salad that replaced the wedge salad was excellent even if it contains two ingredients that I can't stand (bleu cheese and eggs). I never understood why anyone would want to eat a huge chunk of lettuce how they used to have it. The actual entree itself was just too yummy for words. The steak was melt in your mouth perfection, and much needed for someone like me who doesn't get red meat at home (my sister is on this no red meat kick that I hate, I am so sick of turkey which is nasty) and the lobster was delicious too. And I don't even like lobster. I was very happy again, especially adding in our dessert which I normally never would have had normally.

Pictures are hard to take in there because it's so dark, and as I have said before I really don't like grain in my photos at all. Even the ones we took in the lobby are way too grainy for me, but I did lighten them up more than I normally would to share. Here's a video where I show of my normal tongue-tiedness inside right before our food came out ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/14076660@N02/3404679892/in/set-72157616134004391/

Afterward it was just time for us to go out to find some seats so we could watch Fantasmic! I'm still waiting to see the pictures that Frick got because I left my camera tucked away while we watched because I never really "saw" it when I watched it before because I kept my eyes closed. Yes, I kept my eyes closed when I saw Fantasmic before. Things with pyro-technics, bright lights and loud noises have never been my thing so that was that. I am glad we were there the last weekend they were showing it before they closed it down this month. At least it's only a refurbishment thing, I definitely plan on trying again when I go back in September, but it will all depend on what days they are showing it. I think I need to adjust my plans to be there the whole weekend than having to leave on Saturday. Afterward, since it was so jam packed over on Rivers of America, we decided to stay there and watch the fireworks from where we were. Not a bad place to view them from, although we definitely were planning on watching from in front of the castle on Sunday night. Little did we know what a headache that would turn out to be! But that's a story for another day.

And another video, this one from Fantasmic! which was my favorite part of the whole thing. http://www.flickr.com/photos/14076660@N02/3404708234/in/set-72157616134004391/ I actually got to spot Snow White, which we didn't when the floats were going by because it had already passed us long before it was lit up. It was a speedy little one, that's for sure. Oh wait, there's one last video from the finale. http://www.flickr.com/photos/14076660@N02/3403908745/in/set-72157616134004391/

After the fireworks were over too we made our way back to the castle where we were going to get a night time photo in front of the castle but we had to wait for them to get the go ahead to let people enter that area from the Fire Marshal so we improvised before we got our chance.

Man, I cannot wait until we get our PhotoPass pictures. I wants them now. Anyways, that was pretty much the end of my night 2. Seeing as I was the one who got up before 5 a.m. I was beyond ready to go back to sleep, so back to the HoJo I went, wishing I had invested in ART more than anything in the world.

 

[Belle Ella]

You are so brave to wear Converse around DL, I tried that once and I thought my feet were going to fall off after one day. I will never wear those there again.

I'm the total opposite - my feet fall off if I don't have my converse on! They are my go to shoes when I work overnight on my feet for 8 straight hours, so they are my go to shoes for Disneyland. To be fair though, I do have a nice pair of insoles to go with them. They are must haves.

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

Loved your princess pictures. Glad you got to see Snow White. I know how exciting it is to see your favorite princess..!

I can't wait to see your Minnie breakfast pictureeess!!

 

[wvnative]

I'm so glad you posted the Tarzan's Treehouse pics. I've never been able to go up there so I had not idea what was there. Maybe I'll try that early in my next trip. I'm fairly certain I can handle the issues with my fear of heights, but I was afraid the walking surface would be too uneven for me.

 

[Belle Ella]

I'm so glad you posted the Tarzan's Treehouse pics. I've never been able to go up there so I had not idea what was there. Maybe I'll try that early in my next trip. I'm fairly certain I can handle the issues with my fear of heights, but I was afraid the walking surface would be too uneven for me.

The actual surfaces, yes, are pretty flat - just keep an eye out for the stairs because they are pretty dang steep.

 

[Belle Ella]

Talk about a long and busy weekend! I am so behind with everything and now getting sick. Boo! I'll get my next round of updates in today for sure!