Cafeen takes it slow in Sept (and not by choice) – 23 Sept 2010 – 01 Oct 2010

[Cafeen]

I had missed this latest couple updates.

Great pics of the MNSSHP and the parade, I always thought that parade looked so cool, I would love to be able to see it someday, although I don't know if I will be able to get DH to go as he doesn't like Halloween for some reason.

BTMRR in the dark is awsome!

How did you like Buzz? I love that ride, it's one of my favorites.

I thought I most of the Boo to You pics came out pretty well too. Can't wait for this year (better camera, and 3 chances ).

The ticket price (at least for now) is worth it just for the atmosphere. Even if you have to push through solo . I'm not a HUGE fan of Halloween, but that's a general holiday thing for me anyway (not really a fan of any of them, except the ones that get me a day off of work.)

Buzz was pretty neat. We had skipped it in 2009 so it was nice to do it. Obviously, solo it's a bit boring, as there's no one to compete against, but it's a nifty little ride.

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And again, I've been slacking. Well, in reality, work's been kicking my behind. It's our busy season and I've been pulling 50-60-70hrs per week for the past month. I think that's all settled down now since we've released our summer updates.

In camera news, I picked up the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 IS lens last weekend. So that was a nice new toy that I can't wait to play with. I think I just need a spare battery and my kit is complete (well, complete enough for this Disney trip in 2 months). Though, looking at my pics below, I may need to pick up a Neutral Density filter or two as the sky keeps getting blown out. I also want to get a few to stack to attempt some interesting effects... so I guess they'll be on the list. At least they aren't particularly expensive.

My plans haven't changed at all for awhile, so I think I'm sticking with them too. Though I do need a haircut and I keep putting that off... hmm..

 

[Cafeen]

Day 7 pt 1 - Photo Spree day (Animal Kingdom pt 1)
There is a reason that this is titled a photo spree day. On this day, throughout my travels I took well over 300 pictures (340 is my count that I wrote down, not counting deleted shots). Of those well over 300 pictures, I actually kept 302 of them flagged as "not horrible". Suffice to say, I'm not going to post them all here as it would take just over 12 posts to show them off (there's a 25 picture per post limit on the boards). Instead, I'm going to show the highlights in a few posts. For all of the pictures you can hit up my "temporary" gallery (I've pointed the link to the start of this day's pictures, though that link will display all of the pictures from last year).

So, on with the show.

I woke up in the morning, not entirely sure what time, 7 ish I think to sorely aching feet. I had previously picked up some new socks and thought of John when I did...

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(for those not familiar, I remember Lisa's husband John picking up the same Mickey socks in one of her previous trip reports. Also, those are very comfortable socks, even at $14 or so for 2 pair they were.)

So, I got dressed and all that jazz and hobbled my way out to my usual morning spot. Too soon I got back up and hobbled back up the stairs to my room to finish getting ready for the day.

I only had one reservation for today, and that was Jiko at 5:30ish so it was going to be a nice relaxing day, right?

I arrived at about 9:15am and took my time walking through the Oasis exhibits. These are exhibits that most people run by on their way to the "real" park, but they are interesting in and of themselves.

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After about 45 minutes or so, I moved on to Discovery Island..

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And over to Dinoland...

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And eventually over to Dinosaur.

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It was, as expected, a great first ride of the day. The jerkiness of the cars helped wake me up a bit! I took a stop at my post Dinosaur spot and then took some detail pictures of the surrounding area.

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I then waited until 11:30 to eat at Restaurantasaurus. I had eaten here in 2009 and it was pretty good, and since I was looking for something light and quick, it worked.

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Dig Site Salad (basically a taco salad) and chocolate mousse dessert. Once I managed to pick through and get rid of the yucky olives (I love green olives, I love kalamata and some other weird olives, I can't stand typical black olives...) it was good.

I next took a spin on Primeval Whirl and actually really enjoyed it. It was a fun little coaster type ride. Of course, it's cheesy, but that's the point of that whole section. I am hoping that it'll be open again by my next trip, but totally understand if they keep it down for now.

After that, I walked on over to Asia (and questioned where did the morning go? OK, I don't think I questioned it then, but I am questioning it now...)

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I skipped riding on Everest this time. Not sure why, but I did. I then walked on over to the Kali area to walk through the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

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(I enjoy the little touches, like the imperfect English on this sign).

I strolled through the Jungle again as I had done earlier in the week (though, it seems like it's been months since then!) and took a literal ton of pictures. Literal in that, if I had printed them all out, the pile would have weighed 2,000 lbs!

Ok, not really THAT many pictures, so it's a figurative ton... but still.

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Man, what I wouldn't have done for a nap at that time... lucky kitty.

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After the jungle trek, I headed on over to Africa, Harambe to be exact... and you'll have to wait another month to hear about that (well, hopefully not. I do want to finish this up before Sept!)

 

[mousegear]

Nice update! Love the pictures. I think I made up my mind against taking our big Nikon. It's just too much for me to handle by myself. This is trip without DH and I need to focus on DS and point and shoot would be better. No one else to share the weight of bag. There are many first this trip: DIS meet, MNSSHP, and F&W Festival!

Hopefully you could finish your trip report before the next trip! And hopefully we run into each other and say "hi" since you are going at WDW same time as us.

 

[Cafeen]

Nice update! Love the pictures. I think I made up my mind against taking our big Nikon. It's just too much for me to handle by myself. This is trip without DH and I need to focus on DS and point and shoot would be better. No one else to share the weight of bag. There are many first this trip: DIS meet, MNSSHP, and F&W Festival!

Hopefully you could finish your trip report before the next trip! And hopefully we run into each other and say "hi" since you are going at WDW same time as us.

I can totally understand having to chase a little one around and not wanting a bulky camera in the way. If it's a choice of one or the other, I think for everyone it's pretty obvious .

I think I will. This AK day will take a few posts (it's full of pictures), but after this it's only a day and a half left. Though, with 1 post a month as my current rate, that's yet to be seen

I'm normally pretty oblivious, so if you walk by, wave, jump and yell, and I don't notice you, don't take it personally, I'm just in my own little world. I will be (hopefully) at the MNSSHP on the 27th so feel free to say hi if I'm spotted. Don't know if I'll get the LGMHs or not, since it's not easy for me to get to Home Depot... and I'm lazy.

Perhaps I should spend this time getting the next set of pictures together. The storytelling will be kind of boring, since I was mostly just walking around taking pictures this day, but that's alright.

 

[MEK]

ABsolutely gorgeous pictures in your last AK update. I think AK is my favorite park for pictures. I have never walked down the Maharajah trek in its entirety. I hope to do that in December.

 

[Cafeen]

ABsolutely gorgeous pictures in your last AK update. I think AK is my favorite park for pictures. I have never walked down the Maharajah trek in its entirety. I hope to do that in December.

Thanks . I could spend all day on those two paths. In fact, this year I just may.

I know I mentioned picking up a bigger zoom lens in one of my previous posts. I'm hoping I'm not going to be disappointed with it for the animals though. The AF is pretty slow and my eyesight is pretty bad (making manual focus a bit tricky). I'm sure I'll figure it out somewhat, if it means dropping arp way down to increase DoF to just get everything in the same focus (and hoping for super bright sunlight at the same time...)

I'll probably be dropping another update today, we'll see how it goes.

 

[sjs314]

Love the AK update and pics. I actually read it the day you posted it but got called away and never did return to post until today I saw the new entry so here I am.

Can't wait to see more of your great photos in the next update.

We added AK back onto our schedule sorta, lol. I say this because we dedided to add Boma back for Breakfast one morning even though it will mean taking a taxi over to AKL but I do so want to show AKL to DH. Anyway so I added AK on for that morning after breakfast with lunch at Yak&Yeti. But nothing is chiseled in stone, so we might head to DTD or DHS instead of AK.

I tried to build some flexablity into this trip but it is hard when you have to schedule ADRs ahead of time but there is always CS for lunch if we do a spur of the moment switch.

Our last morning other than breakfast I have nothing planned as yet.

 

[Cafeen]

Love the AK update and pics. I actually read it the day you posted it but got called away and never did return to post until today I saw the new entry so here I am.

Can't wait to see more of your great photos in the next update.

We added AK back onto our schedule sorta, lol. I say this because we dedided to add Boma back for Breakfast one morning even though it will mean taking a taxi over to AKL but I do so want to show AKL to DH. Anyway so I added AK on for that morning after breakfast with lunch at Yak&Yeti. But nothing is chiseled in stone, so we might head to DTD or DHS instead of AK.

I tried to build some flexablity into this trip but it is hard when you have to schedule ADRs ahead of time but there is always CS for lunch if we do a spur of the moment switch.

Our last morning other than breakfast I have nothing planned as yet.

Thanks It's ok. I said that I'd update quickly and we see how well that worked

More photos are now forthcoming!

Sounds like a good plan for AK. I know that I'm strange and I just love the atmosphere. I could skip DHS (if I didn't have a camera....) and spend much more time in AK if I had my way (which is a pretty funny statement, considering I go solo, my desire to shoot stuff (with a camera people!) overrides my own decision making). I also have zero desire to hang out at DtD, so it makes my own planning a touch easier. Perhaps next year I'll make a trek over there, but not this one .

Flexibility is certainly a good thing when planning for others. I learned that the hard way in 2009. All those breakfasts plus 2 non early risers wasn't a good combination! I love the ADR system though, I never felt that I was running from ADR to ADR last year (well, expect that Via Napoli one where we got stuck in a 40 minute FP line for Soarin').

I've wanted to do Boma for breakfast too, but I just don't know how to fit it in . With Mom there, we could drive then drive to AK, but she likes TH breakfast and we only get 1 AK day together. (This year, I'm thinking she'll be able to go for a full week+ next year).

And speaking of 2012, I've already started planning for that as it'll be a huge trip. Thinking 8 nights with Beth and Emily again, followed up by 8 nights with Mom (she'll likely be retiring after this school year). So it's going to be quite fun planning it all out (and would certainly make sense to become a "passholder" for it, thus multiple smaller trips in 2013, hopefully for F&G as well as earlier Sept).

 

[Cafeen]

Day 7 pt 2 - Animal Kingdom photo spree pt 2

So, I last left off wandering down towards Africa. I took a "few" pictures along the way. Not much else to say about them, so you can just take a walk with me. (To get full effect, please turn your heat on super high and turn your humidifiers all on max).

A rickshaw... I was tempted to empty it out and find a nice local person to pull me around. Unfortunately, there aren't really any locals to these locations, so that plan was thwarted.

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I really like the "localized" signage.

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Oh hey! Who's that? I was taking detail pictures of the statue and a random CM happened to offer to take a picture of me. Note the scrape on my shin... that was from when I nailed it on Living with the Land that first night I was there. I'm getting old and things don't heal quickly.

Special note to those with kids in Alabama public schools (Mobile specifically)... please ignore the company name on the shirt. (For those not in Mobile, AL... let's just say we're not very popular with some of the schools there at the moment).

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Still on the path to Africa. I just love how the trees give a tunnel effect.

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Details! I wonder if the "I Love Disco!" guy from Jungle Cruise knows about this?

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After arriving in Harambe (I've used "Africa" until this point as I couldn't remember how to spell "Harambe" until I saw it the picture) I took a quick left and headed toward Camp Mickey-Minnie. Of course, I didn't know I was heading there yet, but I was looking for a "blue square" and that's apparently the closest one now... I think the lack of "blue squares" would be the only reason why I wouldn't spend all 10 days at AK. Well, that and the fact that I love Epcot and MK as well.

So off to CMM I strolled, had my break, and strolled back.

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I'd insert YAEP here (Yet Another Everest Picture) and I do have one. But you've seen it and it's not that great of a picture so I'm not showing it.

More details

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And after walking through Harambe, I decided to take in another trail! I took some crappy pictures of that first monkey thing but managed to mostly focus on the rope fence instead of the monkey thing. You've all seen him though, forgot what he actually is, but he's a monkey thing.

Some zebra-esque butts. These are the animals with the zebra-esque butts but aren't zebras. I'm sure I knew what they were at one time, but now I don't. Guess it's getting time to go back to remind me what the heck they are...

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Still couldn't get a very good picture of the mouse... I heart this mouse thing for some reason. It's so tiny and cute. Then again, I've never claimed to be normal (well, except in job interviews and stuff where I'm expected to twist the truth... granted, I haven't had a job interview in almost 10 years now so it's a rather moot point).

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I kept on and took a bunch of bird pictures that came out so-so and therefore have no room in this super-photo-saturated set of posts. I took some fish photos too as seen in the example below...

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After the trail, I went on over to Discovery Island and bought a shirt. I don't have any pictures of said shirt, but it was a dark green polo type shirt with Walt Disney World on it. It's nice. It's one of the shirts that I wear when we have visitors at the office and have to pretend that we don't wear shorts and t-shirts every day. Though, normally it's my third choice as it's missing a button now and I kinda burned a small hole in it, so it goes over another t-shirt, which gets warm in the southern Alabama summer.

Now that you have a good insight to my wardrobe... here's Louie

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That's right, I headed over for another break and the parade was starting. I had a decent spot so I watched it. I also took pictures of just about every float and float-like thing that went by. I'll spare you though!

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And, since I still hadn't had that break yet, I headed on over to CMM and met up with a lonely Lilo. She looks happy, but there was no one there, so I stepped in until someone else could visit.

Note, I have a bag in my hand now. That contains the shirt I was describing before. I know, exciting.

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After having my break and hanging with some like minded people, I headed out of the park and over to AKL for dinner...

At the time I'm writing this copy, I'm not sure if I have picture room for dinner yet or not. So stay tuned.

Ok, after entering my photo ids into my cheat sheet that automatically formats all the image coding stuff, I have room for 6 more, so here comes Jiko!

So, I hopped on the AKL bus and rode to AKL (makes sense right). I'm pretty sure I stood for this ride, but my brain keeps going back to the bus ride from TTC to GF that I did on Tuesday before this, so I may be wrong. This is exactly why I should either take notes, or write this less than 10 months after the fact!

Ahem...

I arrived at AKL a bit early (but not as early as we did before Boma), so I changed into that nice polo shirt I just bought and hung around a little. Soon enough it was time to check in, so I did. Slightly less soon my buzzer went off and away I was wisked to my table.

Mary was my server and she was brand spankin' new. She did her spiel about the restaurant and all the stuff that I no longer remember. She then started taking my order. I showed her my KTTW card and let her spiel the DxDDP that I already knew. Interestingly enough, like over at AP and Citricos, us Deluxers get a little bonus here. I was allowed to pick a salad AND an appetizer. Score!

For my salad, I picked the Tomato and Onion salad. It looked like the picture below (well, before I ate it). It was actually pretty spicy but VERY VERY good.

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For my appetizer I tried out the new Bobotie Rolls (or whatever they were called). These were also quite yummy. I don't remember what that yellow stuff was on the plate, nor do I remember if I ate it. It looks like eggs and mayonnaise in the picture though, so I probably didn't (I don't eat eggs or mayonnaise, suffice to say that egg salad is out of the question).

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For dinner I had a hot dog.

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It was delicious!

(For those playing at home. No, I didn't put the wrong picture. I just lied about eating a hot dog. It's the Filet with Mac n' Cheese. This was absolutely delicious and the best entree I had all week. That red wine reduction was extremely tasty on both the meat and the macaroni).

For dessert, I had a very blurry dutch spice cake. So blurry that you can't even see it! (In other words, bad picture so it culled it from my list). The cake was alright, but it came with some apricot stuff. I learned on this trip that I don't really like apricot. Not bad, just something that wasn't to my taste. I was full anyway after the extra very tasty salad, so that made up for it.

I pretty much was done for the night, so I hopped into a taxi (after waving him over first, of course) and had him take me back home. (Well, to CSR, a taxi from Orlando to Mobile would probably be a bit too costly for my taste.) Cab fare was about $8-$9, so I gave him about $13-14. I tip cabbies well, it's a habit since I use them around here pretty often. At any rate, I was done for the night...

...or was I?

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(Kathy will recognize the next part, as will most everyone who's checked out the first page of the CSR thread...)

 

[mousegear]

Okapi is the name of zebra-esque animal.... DS has stuffed animal form of it so I know. The meal at Jiko looks really good. I did hear that they got rid of filet with mac n cheese and red wine sauce. And that's my favorite dish. I have to venture out from my norm and rediscover. Anyways, I'm so glad that summer's flying and our trip is fast approaching.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Love the pictures! Glad you were able to be in a few. Your meal of Mac n' Cheese with the Filet looks heavenly. It's now on my list of must tries.

 

[sjs314]

Your future trip plans sound great! I can not even wrap my head around a 16 night trip, the longest I ever did was 10 nights. Now that DH and I are both retired we have the time but not the money...such is life.

You need to somehow find a morning to do Boma's for breakfast then spend a few hours just wandering about. I only stayed at AKL for a weekend but I spent my entire last morning about 3 hours before ME came to wisk me away taking photographs of the resort and wildlife, it was wonderful.

Your AK day ended nicely, I have yet to watch the entire parade at AK something I would like to do. I have to say I saw many places in your pics of AK that I have missed when being rushed along at times by my traveling companions to get from point A to B. Touring alone certainly would have it's advantages. My last morning at AKL I spent alone as my friend had already left to drive home.

Your meal at Jiko looked yummy. I keep thinking about wanting to go to Sanna over at Kidani but there is just no way this trip.

 

[Cafeen]

Okapi is the name of zebra-esque animal.... DS has stuffed animal form of it so I know. The meal at Jiko looks really good. I did hear that they got rid of filet with mac n cheese and red wine sauce. And that's my favorite dish. I have to venture out from my norm and rediscover. Anyways, I'm so glad that summer's flying and our trip is fast approaching.

You know, I knew that, but wasn't sure if I was right ><. The "zebra-esque" term fits well with the writing anyway, so yeah, it was intentional! (Thanks)

Jiko was very very good, and I have heard about the mac and cheese too . Though looking at the latest menu, it's the mac and cheese that's change, the red wine sauce is still part of it. Whether it's the same sauce or not, I don't know...

Oak-grilled Filet Mignon with Hominy “Risotto”, California Asparagus, and Red Wine Reduction

Grilled-marinated Lamb Loin with Chickpea and Chorizo, Spicy Swiss Chard, and Apple Cider Reduction

So this may work as well. Not a fan of asparagus, but we'll see how it goes. Though, the current lamb dish also sounds pretty tasty... and now I'm getting hungry (and I already had my normal 1 meal today... I may have to do something about that).

Love the pictures! Glad you were able to be in a few. Your meal of Mac n' Cheese with the Filet looks heavenly. It's now on my list of must tries.

Thanks .

The filet was excellent, unfortunately it's no longer available with the Mac and Cheese. I don't know what Hominy is nor why Risotto is in quotes in the description (does that mean it's not really risotto? normally that's what it means, but that's just weird), but I'd likely either go for that or the aforementioned lamb dish.

Really, unless you're a super picky (even pickier than I am!) eater, you can't go wrong with Jiko. Well, unless you order the apricot dutch spice cake dessert thing forgetting that you don't like apricot .

Your future trip plans sound great! I can not even wrap my head around a 16 night trip, the longest I ever did was 10 nights. Now that DH and I are both retired we have the time but not the money...such is life.

You need to somehow find a morning to do Boma's for breakfast then spend a few hours just wandering about. I only stayed at AKL for a weekend but I spent my entire last morning about 3 hours before ME came to wisk me away taking photographs of the resort and wildlife, it was wonderful.

Your AK day ended nicely, I have yet to watch the entire parade at AK something I would like to do. I have to say I saw many places in your pics of AK that I have missed when being rushed along at times by my traveling companions to get from point A to B. Touring alone certainly would have it's advantages. My last morning at AKL I spent alone as my friend had already left to drive home.

Your meal at Jiko looked yummy. I keep thinking about wanting to go to Sanna over at Kidani but there is just no way this trip.

Yeah, it's going to be quite the trip, not sure how I'm going to handle planning (or paying!) for it all. May have to sell my first born for it (which, at this rate, won't ever happen, so looks like I'd have the upper hand in that deal ) I also don't know what bossman is going to say about it. But I figure I'll approach him about it before Christmas and let him know. If it doesn't go off, well that it'll be two trips in rapid succession .

I'm thinking for the 2nd half of 2012's trip we'll look into renting DVC. I know Mom would love VWL (or just WL in general), but those are tough to get. AKV wouldn't be too difficult and they're not that pricey. This would afford ample opportunity to hit up breakfast there.

The AK day was nice, much nicer than my 2009 AK day . (Our 2nd day in Disney and we did NOT have a handle on touring, plus it was about 97 out...). I'm a huge fan of "those little details" that Disney does, and in looking through my viewfinder, AK has the most little details that make you feel like you're actually whereever you're supposed to be. I suppose the heat helps make it feel like Africa too .

I'm really looking forward to Sanaa. Originally I had just a plain lunch reservation for my Wednesday there, then they came out with the Untamed Lunch thingy that just so happens on Wednesdays. So to fit it in my plans, I simply have to arrive at AKV 20 minutes earlier than I would have . I'll be meeting Simba's Mom over at that lunch too! I don't know her from Adam , but we're both signed up for the same lunch, so at least I'll be meeting a couple DISers (Kathy aka Katmark will be down at CSR while I'm there too).

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54 more days to go. 37 weekdays of work left. Hopefully I'll be able to pull a day off or two before then too. (I still have 8 days of this year's vacation time to burn to get down to the 7 days I can roll over (technically it's 7 1/2, but who takes a 1/2 day vacation )).

 

[KatMark]

Somehow I lost my subscription and "lost" you. I'm going to try to catch up now on "reading". I did look at the pictures and they were great!

 

[Cafeen]

Somehow I lost my subscription and "lost" you. I'm going to try to catch up now on "reading". I did look at the pictures and they were great!

Glad you found your way back and thanks.

I tried getting back into your PTR when I returned from random not logging in for awhile... but let's just say that it didn't work ><.

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In 2011 news, my Delta flights have changed 5 times since I booked in March. Originally left Mobile at 6am and arrived in Orlando at 10:30am, then left Orlando at 4:30pm with an arrival in Mobile at about 7:30pm. Was a good plan. I could even go out to my Mexican place after getting home.

Well, over the course of the changes, I ended up leaving Mobile at 7:20am, arriving @ MCO at 12:30pm, leaving Orlando @ 4:30pm and then arriving back in Mobile @ 10:08pm (that was the last one, and that flight changed at least 3 times...). I got fed up with that and called Expedia just now (yes, it's about 3:20 am) and got those flights back into some semblance of order. (For free too, since they flubbed my schedule up).

Now it's leave Mobile @ 6am (huh? yeah, no idea why they changed this...), arrive in MCO @ 11:30am, leave MCO @ 7:30pm, and arrive in Mobile @ 10:08pm (they dropped the original flight from ATL to MOB it looks like).

Suffice to say, I think Delta will not be an option for me next year.

So this gives me lunch in the parks , which I gotta remember to book. Thinking LTT again, since I liked that lunch last year, and I plan to be in the MK that day.

 

[sjs314]

Glad you found your way back and thanks.

I tried getting back into your PTR when I returned from random not logging in for awhile... but let's just say that it didn't work ><.

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In 2011 news, my Delta flights have changed 5 times since I booked in March. Originally left Mobile at 6am and arrived in Orlando at 10:30am, then left Orlando at 4:30pm with an arrival in Mobile at about 7:30pm. Was a good plan. I could even go out to my Mexican place after getting home.

Well, over the course of the changes, I ended up leaving Mobile at 7:20am, arriving @ MCO at 12:30pm, leaving Orlando @ 4:30pm and then arriving back in Mobile @ 10:08pm (that was the last one, and that flight changed at least 3 times...). I got fed up with that and called Expedia just now (yes, it's about 3:20 am) and got those flights back into some semblance of order. (For free too, since they flubbed my schedule up).

Now it's leave Mobile @ 6am (huh? yeah, no idea why they changed this...), arrive in MCO @ 11:30am, leave MCO @ 7:30pm, and arrive in Mobile @ 10:08pm (they dropped the original flight from ATL to MOB it looks like).

Suffice to say, I think Delta will not be an option for me next year.

So this gives me lunch in the parks , which I gotta remember to book. Thinking LTT again, since I liked that lunch last year, and I plan to be in the MK that day.

This must be the year for flight changes. I have flown Delta and Jet Blue before booked months in advance with no time changes, equipment changes on Delta from a smaller aircraft to larger but that was it.

While my changes on JB have not been as bad as your still took Disney time away from me.
The first change was nothing my flight leaving like 5 minutes early for home.
Now the second change from 6:30am to leaving for Orlando at 8am was big. I had planned on heading over to either Epcot (made an ADR) for lunch or MK when we changed resorts but now that we will be getting in later, I decided to skip going to a park the morning will be shot since we are getting in later, having lunch at the resort. So I am losing Park time and not happy about it.

What really kills me is I could have flown out of BDL(Ct) my airport of choice and also a cheaper flight if I wanted to leave at 8am. I choose instead to leave out of HPN(Ny) at a higher cost since they had an earlier flight.

 

[KatMark]

Glad you found your way back and thanks.

I tried getting back into your PTR when I returned from random not logging in for awhile... but let's just say that it didn't work ><.

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In 2011 news, my Delta flights have changed 5 times since I booked in March. Originally left Mobile at 6am and arrived in Orlando at 10:30am, then left Orlando at 4:30pm with an arrival in Mobile at about 7:30pm. Was a good plan. I could even go out to my Mexican place after getting home.

Well, over the course of the changes, I ended up leaving Mobile at 7:20am, arriving @ MCO at 12:30pm, leaving Orlando @ 4:30pm and then arriving back in Mobile @ 10:08pm (that was the last one, and that flight changed at least 3 times...). I got fed up with that and called Expedia just now (yes, it's about 3:20 am) and got those flights back into some semblance of order. (For free too, since they flubbed my schedule up).

Now it's leave Mobile @ 6am (huh? yeah, no idea why they changed this...), arrive in MCO @ 11:30am, leave MCO @ 7:30pm, and arrive in Mobile @ 10:08pm (they dropped the original flight from ATL to MOB it looks like).

Suffice to say, I think Delta will not be an option for me next year.

So this gives me lunch in the parks , which I gotta remember to book. Thinking LTT again, since I liked that lunch last year, and I plan to be in the MK that day.

AirTran did that with our flights last year and it drove me crazy. Thus far, United has changed our flights twice on our coming home. We're back to closer to the original flight time coming home which is good so that we have a little time to relax at home before going back to work the next day.

 

[Cafeen]

This must be the year for flight changes. I have flown Delta and Jet Blue before booked months in advance with no time changes, equipment changes on Delta from a smaller aircraft to larger but that was it.

While my changes on JB have not been as bad as your still took Disney time away from me.
The first change was nothing my flight leaving like 5 minutes early for home.
Now the second change from 6:30am to leaving for Orlando at 8am was big. I had planned on heading over to either Epcot (made an ADR) for lunch or MK when we changed resorts but now that we will be getting in later, I decided to skip going to a park the morning will be shot since we are getting in later, having lunch at the resort. So I am losing Park time and not happy about it.

What really kills me is I could have flown out of BDL(Ct) my airport of choice and also a cheaper flight if I wanted to leave at 8am. I choose instead to leave out of HPN(Ny) at a higher cost since they had an earlier flight.

It seems to be getting pretty common... maybe next year I'll be driving down (it's only about 10-11 hrs I think, maybe less... it's 9 hrs from here to Mom's house, but she lives about 30-45 mins West of the highway.

Stinks that you try and get a good flight at a good price (relatively at least), and they go changing everything up on you.

AirTran did that with our flights last year and it drove me crazy. Thus far, United has changed our flights twice on our coming home. We're back to closer to the original flight time coming home which is good so that we have a little time to relax at home before going back to work the next day.

As I mentioned above, it seems to be an increasing thing. They don't sell enough tickets so the shuffle stuff around. Makes planning rather difficult . That and the fact that if we wanted to change flights, we'd dish out $150, but they can do it to us willy-nilly.

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At any rate. I think it's time for an update.

 

[Cafeen]

Day 7 pt 3 - I'm not done yet!
So, a little voice on a thread mentioned that she wanted some fountain pics. Since I had arrived back at CSR right around the perfect lighting conditions, I decided to take some fountain pics. My feet were aching at this time too, but I took it slow and casual.

I started off at the Casitas fountain, this is over by Casitas something less than 4 (I think it's 3, but Kathy knows more than I do now ).

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And then I started meandering back to my room in Casitas 4...

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Just as the sun was going down. These are some of the style of pictures that made me buy the new camera...

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I headed back to the room and... decided to hit up Epcot EMH! I think I watched Survivor for a few minutes before I decided it was too dumb to watch. Assuming it was on Wednesdays. If not, I did this some other day.

Granted, I didn't do much at Epcot EMH other than try some night shooting with my P&S. These are more pics that I have to redo this year with the new one.

This one also shows the need for a small compact tripod. In fact, many of these will. So apologies for including some trashcan and post tops .

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Also during this time I hit up MS, TT, and I think I finished it all up with SSE. Though, I may be confusing the day.

Really, much of this PM EMH I'm going to say I used as practice for this coming year. Those fountain pics will be much much nicer with the new camera (and I'll take even more than I did then, plus the remote shutter release will come in real handy).

The next day would mark my last full day in the world and I have plans for Mexican!

For 2011, the plan for this is actually the day that I may meet up with Kathy too! In fact, it's a super busy day with AK in the AM, Untamed lunch at Sanaa, back to resort or DHS, Dinner at Flying Fish, then back to resort, then back over to Epcot for the EMH. Prepare for well over 300 pictures that day! And all of them will be keepers! (well, at least all that I show!)

In other news, I still have to pay off the trip. I plan on paying all but the cost of my dining plan with this paycheck, and then the rest with the next. Of course, the rest is on the 15th, which is a few days after my 45 day mark of 8/8. I'm hoping they'll let it slide some (I did call and have them note it). If not, I can just cancel the plan, pay it off, then add the plan on payday (they do contact you before they cancel).

 

[sjs314]

Your pics of CSR has me thinking I should check my dates and see what is available. Wonder how much $ I would save

When we stayed there Aug1-8 in 1997 opening day we were in Casitas bldg 1 , loved the location, not sure if the entire resort was open or if they opened in phases but those fountain pics really made me recall some good memories of CSR