Braved the Sept humidity in WDW - We're back! (new pics added 12/2/09)

[Todd_H]

Hi Todd!

I hope you don't mind someone else joining you! We were at WDW 9/14-18, so we left a day before you got there, it was very HOT but so worth the no line times, hope you found the same thing! You have a beautiful family!! Going back to read more.....

ps- my DH is Todd,too, great name!

Hi and welcome! Thank you very much for the compliment! It was very hot and from what I have heard that week you were there was even better as far as the crowds.

Ahhh, the grey goose orange slushie.... I keep hearing great things about it- might just have to try me one!
.

I never tried the slushee before, but that will be on my to do list for next time!

Highly, highly recommended

 

[NateNLogansDad]

How many times can I say WOW in a trip report? Todd, the pictures are amazing! I love the Nemo one! That's one phenomenal shot!

 

[scoot241]

Your Nemo shots are awesome! Especially the Bruce shot.

Let's face it, the SSE shots are great too. My caveman ones can't compare at all (which is why none of them are posted ).

 

[crocko]

I love the changes they've made on SSE to make it more interactive. Joshua and I cracked up at the pictures of us at the end...I'm sad I didn't think quickly enough to try and get some pictures.

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Wow, I've missed a TON! I think I'm all caught up now and your photos are amazing (I know you've heard that a million times already haha). LOVE LOVE LOVE the ones of Mission Space. By far my favorite ride.

 

[scoot241]

Wow, I've missed a TON! I think I'm all caught up now and your photos are amazing (I know you've heard that a million times already haha). LOVE LOVE LOVE the ones of Mission Space. By far my favorite ride.

But you said on Flickr that Haunted Mansion was your favorite ride.

 

[annnewjerz]

But you said on Flickr that Haunted Mansion was your favorite ride.

I think according to official Disney rules you are technically allowed to have one favorite per park, no?

 

[princess&her4princes]

Hi Todd,
LOVE all the pics you've taken, you do amazing work!!!! I can't pick a favorite!

Sounds like a great trip so far, you guys seem like a great family and the kids are too cute for words! Keep up the good work!!

Looking forward to more......

 

[Todd_H]

How many times can I say WOW in a trip report? Todd, the pictures are amazing! I love the Nemo one! That's one phenomenal shot!

Thanks!

Your Nemo shots are awesome! Especially the Bruce shot.

Let's face it, the SSE shots are great too.

Thanks!

I love the changes they've made on SSE to make it more interactive. Joshua and I cracked up at the pictures of us at the end...I'm sad I didn't think quickly enough to try and get some pictures.

I think they did a really good job with the animatronic scenes, but I think they have a lot of wasted space on the decent (while the movie is playing). They should have at least continued the lights all the way down. I guess they wanted it totally black for the movie . I also miss the mini-city diorama that was there. But all in all, I still like SSE. It's not as drastic a change as Journey Into Imagination.

Wow, I've missed a TON! I think I'm all caught up now and your photos are amazing (I know you've heard that a million times already haha). LOVE LOVE LOVE the ones of Mission Space. By far my favorite ride.

Welcome back and thanks!

Hi Todd,
LOVE all the pics you've taken, you do amazing work!!!! I can't pick a favorite!

Sounds like a great trip so far, you guys seem like a great family and the kids are too cute for words! Keep up the good work!!

Looking forward to more......

Thank you!

 

[Todd_H]

By Wednesday, Leighton was beside himself to go back to the Magic Kingdom. It's a good thing that we planned to do that anyway!

We got another late start Thursday morning. I think we were all starting to drag a little bit from all the fun, but we were on the boat to the MK by about 10:15am. There were a lot of rides at the MK that we did not do on Monday, so we planned to knock out most of those if possible.

Love the Halloween decorations in the MK

Once we got there, the first order of business was getting FP's for Peter Pan's Flight. It may be the only FP's we obtained all day... can't remember. The next order of business for Caroline was to meet the Fairies. Again, we decided to split up.

While Ali and Caroline spent the next 75 minutes waiting to meet the fairies , Leighton and I rode Goofy's Barnstormer, IASW, and... drumroll... The Haunted Mansion! I think Leighton was a little disappointed in himself for backing out of it on Monday, so he told me he wanted to ride it. I put my camera in my bag and coached him through the ride. Once he got past the foyer (with the changing picture of Master Gracey), he was absolutely fine. Nothing in there scared him. He liked it so much, he wanted to ride it again right after we got off the first time! I pulled out my camera, adjusted the settings and we headed back into the HM.

After checking in with Ali, Leighton wanted to ride IASW

The Pink Panther? Sure looks like him to me

I kept getting update texts from Ali on the Fairy-meeting status. And finally, after an hour and 15 minutes, Caroline got to meet the fairies

Even though the line was really long, Ali said it was totally worth it... Caroline really, really enjoyed it and that's what counts .

We caught back up with the girls over at Cosmic Ray's for lunch. This was the first time we had ever eaten at Cosmic Ray's (can't remember what it used to be), and I must say it was really good.

After lunch, we hopped on Buzz Lightyear.

We then hit the Wedway People Mover (AKA the TTA)

This is Walt Disney's original Epcot Center model that is displayed in one of the buildings you ride through on the TTA

They had the lights on in Space Mountain, but they had big curtains up so you couldn't really see any of the new ride design. I really missed SM on this trip

We finally left Tomorrowland and headed back over to Fantasyland to use our FP's for PPF and so Ali and Caroline could ride IASW.

I grabbed another one of these (this time, in a slightly wider 35mm)

Skull Rock

Then IASW (I took a ton of pictures on Small World, so I'll be processing them for a while). This may be my favorite picture of the entire trip

Taking a quick break, but I'll try to finish up Day 5 sometime today.

Thanks for hanging on! We're almost to the end or maybe

 

[All7OfUs]

I love that picture too. I think you captured the emotion of a little girl's wonder perfectly!!

Hooray for Leighton overcoming his fear, and actually enjoying HM!!

75 minutes??!!! Now that's frightening!

Love the picture of the tiger lady!! I almost expected it to start morphing before my eyes!!

I don't blame you for taking a bazillion pictures in IASW! Everything is so attention grabbing in there. I still as a 40+ love the sparkles and bright colors!

 

[disneygirlinnj]

But you said on Flickr that Haunted Mansion was your favorite ride.

Ouch! You called me out! lol.... Hmm... Haunted Mansion and Pirates are my favorite overall 'attraction' I guess you could say. Mission Space is my favorite thrill ride. And I totally agree with annewjerz.. you're totally allowed to have one per park, per Disney fanatic rules!

I think according to official Disney rules you are technically allowed to have one favorite per park, no?

I knew I read that in the disney by-laws somewhere!

Leighton and I rode Goofy's Barnstormer, IASW, and... drumroll... The Haunted Mansion! I think Leighton was a little disappointed in himself for backing out of it on Monday, so he told me he wanted to ride it. I put my camera in my bag and coached him through the ride. Once he got past the foyer (with the changing picture of Master Gracey), he was absolutely fine. Nothing in there scared him. He liked it so much, he wanted to ride it again right after we got off the first time!

They had the lights on in Space Mountain, but they had big curtains up so you couldn't really see any of the new ride design. I really missed SM on this trip

So glad Leighton loved Haunted Mansion! And i missed SM as well. i wish they took those stupid curtains down! At least let us see what they're doing!

 

[scoot241]

Ouch! You called me out! lol.... Hmm... Haunted Mansion and Pirates are my favorite overall 'attraction' I guess you could say. Mission Space is my favorite thrill ride. And I totally agree with annewjerz.. you're totally allowed to have one per park, per Disney fanatic rules!

Just messing with ya.

I really like the Buzz picture. That was one ride I kept my camera out of my hands; I was trying to find all the big point targets instead.

 

[oregondaddyof2]

Your pictures leave me speechless... I wish i had half the skill you have.... You can really re-live the trip looking at those pics...

 

[Todd_H]

One thing we were really hoping to do was to somehow get an ADR at 'Ohana for this night. I started calling right at my 90 day mark and 'Ohana was booked the entire week. I tried about twice per week to get an ADR there hoping one would open up, but no luck. We thought we could possibly wait until the day of and grab a cancellation, but none ever came up. This left us with the dilemma of having to use one last TS meal before the end of our trip. Hmmm, time was running out and everything was booked up.

It was getting to be late in the afternoon and we had planned to head back to the resort and watch a movie on the beach this night (and the Electric Water Pageant). We decided to make our way back around to Adventureland, but ride BTMRR "on the way."

Still looking for annnewjerz

Caroline loved BTMRR, but Leighton didn't care for it too much. He preferred the Barnstormer. I tried to get some pictures on BTMRR, but didn't get any worth posting. Maybe next time.

We got off of BTMRR and headed to Adventureland to ride PotC one last time this day

I got really lucky with this shot of the PotC helmsman

PotC in wide-angle fashion (and being in the front rules when photographing this ride)

I've taken this shot before but I took another one, trying to position the jewels for more balanced colors.

After Pirates, it was time to head out so we could grab dinner and make the 8:30 movie on the beach. On the way past the Tribal Drum Tikis, the kids just had to get wet.

Here's Caroline taking a shot to the side of her head

After this, I really have no idea what we did for the next couple of hours, but we ended up back at the WL around 7:30. We used our last CS meal at the Roaring Forks and then stopped by the concierge to try to fill our last TS SOMEWHERE and to see what movie was actually playing that night. "Wall-E" she said. All right! "But it started at 7:30." Oh crap! Oh well, it ended up being a really early night for us, which we needed since we were doing the MNSSHP the next night. On the ADR front, I ended up booking a breakfast buffet ADR for us at Boma the next morning at 10:45am. We all went back to the room exhausted. The kids went to sleep around 8:45 and Ali was right behind them. I sneaked out to take some night shots around the WL, but wasn't really feeling it, so after a few shot around the lobby and the pool, I called it a night.

The VWL lobby

The main lobby

I'm going to need to finish up this TR next week as I'm going to be really busy for a few days. I tried really hard to finish it by today... sorry to give everyone a cliffhanger!

 

[Todd_H]

So glad Leighton loved Haunted Mansion! And i missed SM as well. i wish they took those stupid curtains down! At least let us see what they're doing!

I know. I caught a quick glimpse of a white track, but couldn't really see anything else.

Your pictures leave me speechless... I wish i had half the skill you have.... You can really re-live the trip looking at those pics...

Thanks, Terry! That's a very nice compliment!

 

[scoot241]

Still looking for annnewjerz

PotC in wide-angle fashion (and being in the front rules when photographing this ride)

What did Ann do that she's being hunted down by the Song of the South cast?

I had the front of the boat for IASW; very awesome spot to photograph from. PotC must be even better.

 

[kde175]

Just wanted to add to the compliments on your pictures. They are amazing!!!

Looking forward to the rest.

 

[annnewjerz]

We thought we could possibly wait until the day of and grab a cancellation, but none ever came up.

That stinks. We haven't been to O'hana, but I know a lot of people love it there. I would have thought for sure you'd get an opening, but maybe better luck next time.

Still looking for annnewjerz

I'll be there in 9 short days, Brer Rabbit!

PS: Love this shot. A lot of your shots from this trip have really demonstrated to me what shooting an "everyday" item at WDW from a different angle than most average picturer-takers will get you.

PotC in wide-angle fashion (and being in the front rules when photographing this ride)

Did you guys ask for the front, or just get lucky? I was thinking about making specific seat location requests this trip (like front on Pirates, Splash and Small World), but I think that'll depend on how long the lines are.

I've taken this shot before but I took another one, trying to position the jewels for more balanced colors.

LOVE it. This is one of my favorite WDW shots, even though the normal person wouldn't know it was even taken in WDW. I have to admit that I may steal this idea next week. Not even try to make it my own---just steal it.

 

[disneygirlinnj]

beautiful Pirate shots! Love your perspective on all the photos