Clearskies photographic Journey to the World and Beyond - 8 theme parks & much more

[clearskies]

Oops....missed 2 of my friends.....

Wow, you leave on Wednesday already! Woo hoo!

I love the pictures of WS at night. You truly are dedicated to great pictures, lying down on the ground and all. Turned out beautiful though.

American Adventure is one of my favorite shows. I have one of the Disney World albums, and Golden Dreams, the song from the show, is on there. I love listening to it when I want some Epcot pick me up.

Ugh, my friend called me last night and asked if I was watching the weather (which I had not been). Looks like I will be heading into a possible Tropical Storm or even Hurricane this week, Tropical Storm Irene. I am not checking into Disney until Sat and I think it will be through the area by then but it very well could put a damper on plans with a visit to a friend and/or my wife's uncle from Wed-Sat.

Hopefully the weather will be nice for our Disney part of the trip. I am looking forward to meeting your Parents at EPCOT on 9/1 for a hopefully beautiful sunny day.

Thank you again for the comments on the pics!

You're welcome Clearskies! I can't wait for our trip and then to write a TR though will be a bit sad that our first trip is over - don't even want to think about that at the minute!

You'll be too busy having fun to think about it coming to an end. Just don't look at those envelopes on the other doors as your trip nears an end. They are nasty reminders of what is to come

After the trip it is a great way to re-live the experience.

Having seen many pics of Illuminations I think I will fall in love with it as well! I love all your pics and would be happy if mine came out half as good.

Ah, your first time don't worry too much about getting good pics of everything. Enjoy the shows, attractions, etc without fretting over trying to get a pic. If you want any of mine just let me know and I can send you any.

Again you are most welcome but think I should be thanking you for sharing the experience and finding the time to keep the TR going! It sure has been an enjoyable read and made me even more excited (if that is possible) for our upcoming trip. Like I have said before would love to see pics of your upcoming trip if you decide not to do a TR

Thank you and I am glad to help with you excitement. If I decide to write a TR next year I will PM you. If I don't, I will still post pics somewhere and I will PM you a link.

 

[aprilisis]

I'm all caught up! I absolutely love your nighttime EPCOT photos. They are awesome! The photos from inside American Adventure are great! I don't think I have ever seen photos of that show before. I'm sad your TR is almost over, too!

 

[SallyNeko21]

Awesome!!

 

[Chaitali]

Wow, I love the night time photos of the pavillions at the World Shocase! Thanks for the American Adventure photos. I didn't get a chance to see it the last time I was there so looking forward to seeing it in October Have a fun trip this week! I hope the weather isn't too bad.

 

[NYDIS]

I just love the Epcot photos!!

Your TR was so enjoyable, it made me feel like I was there too. My trip is coming up in just a couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to my first trip with a dslr. Such inspiration from your TR/photos!

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Hi Clearskies: I just had to check out your pictures. Danielle said you are an awesome photographer. as you can tell I am not even halfway thru you TR but am loving your pictures so much. I am a photo nut too. Have not bought an Digital SLR yet. I do have an old Canon AE1 that I used for many years so I know what it means to be lugging 25 to 30 pounds around

Hoping to own a cool SLR soon but in the mean time I will steal Danielle's

Hope to finish this TR soon.

Jackie

 

[clearskies]

I'm all caught up! I absolutely love your nighttime EPCOT photos. They are awesome! The photos from inside American Adventure are great! I don't think I have ever seen photos of that show before. I'm sad your TR is almost over, too!

Hi April! Thank you very much. EPCOT WS is such a scenic park to photograph. We never end up allocating enough time to truly appreciate it during the day but we'll always end up there at night to see Illuminations since that is a must do for us.

You know you're right. I don't recall seeing many pics of the American Adventure. I am not sure why other than it may not be the most popular attraction. I enjoyed it though.

Thank you as well for staying with me throughout the TR!

Awesome!!

I am hoping to run into Chef TJ again on my upcoming trip!

Wow, I love the night time photos of the pavillions at the World Shocase! Thanks for the American Adventure photos. I didn't get a chance to see it the last time I was there so looking forward to seeing it in October Have a fun trip this week! I hope the weather isn't too bad.

Hi Chaitali. Thank you very much for your comments. Oct is a great time to go. You will have an awesome time. I hope you can fit in MNSSHP.

We should be ok with the weather thank you. My only real worry was flying in but we will be there before the storm hits. I may need to change some plans while we are there but it will all work out. The one good thing is that a hurricane will be gone within a day.

I just love the Epcot photos!!

Your TR was so enjoyable, it made me feel like I was there too. My trip is coming up in just a couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to my first trip with a dslr. Such inspiration from your TR/photos!

Thank you so much Lisa! It is great to hear nice feedback on this TR. I hope you get some fantastic pics with your DSLR!!

Hi Clearskies: I just had to check out your pictures. Danielle said you are an awesome photographer. as you can tell I am not even halfway thru you TR but am loving your pictures so much. I am a photo nut too. Have not bought an Digital SLR yet. I do have an old Canon AE1 that I used for many years so I know what it means to be lugging 25 to 30 pounds around

Hoping to own a cool SLR soon but in the mean time I will steal Danielle's

Hope to finish this TR soon.

Jackie

Hi Jackie! Great to see you over here! I only got really interested into photography after I had my kids and even at that it took me a while to enter the SLR world. I only started with DSLRs. Oh boy the AE-1 goes back a bit. It is about time to get yourself a DSLR (but borrowing from Danielle is a great strategy until you do )

Looking forward to meeting you at Willie's

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Hi Jackie! Great to see you over here! I only got really interested into photography after I had my kids and even at that it took me a while to enter the SLR world. I only started with DSLRs. Oh boy the AE-1 goes back a bit. It is about time to get yourself a DSLR (but borrowing from Danielle is a great strategy until you do )

Looking forward to meeting you at Willie's

We are excited about meeting you and the family also. I know what you mean about it being about time to get myself an DSLR but my taste is a little too much for my husbands pocket book Every time we go and look at them he ends up having sticker shock. My older brother was a camera buff he had several cameras himself and a gazillion lenses. One of my favorite ones he had was given to my son Jason after he passed away was his Minolta but off course it is totally manual too and just like my AE1 you need to buy film.
Hoping that the hurricane won't be a problem the first few days you are there.
See you soon

Jackie

 

[aprilisis]

Have an awesome trip! It looks like the hurricane will avoid FL!

 

[clearskies]

We are excited about meeting you and the family also. I know what you mean about it being about time to get myself an DSLR but my taste is a little too much for my husbands pocket book Every time we go and look at them he ends up having sticker shock. My older brother was a camera buff he had several cameras himself and a gazillion lenses. One of my favorite ones he had was given to my son Jason after he passed away was his Minolta but off course it is totally manual too and just like my AE1 you need to buy film.
Hoping that the hurricane won't be a problem the first few days you are there.
See you soon

Jackie

Oh boy do I understand the expense part of this DSLR hobby Jackie. It seems no matter what you have in lenses there is another one out there that you want.

Looks like we will be in the clear with the Hurricane. I hope the impact in the new path further north is not too bad.

See you next week!

Have an awesome trip! It looks like the hurricane will avoid FL!

Thank you April!! it seems we lucked out! It is still a rainy season so hopefully we'll stay relatively dry.
Thank you again!

 

[clearskies]

Ok, I said I would finish this up before I left and by golly I am going to wrap this up. On to my last installment......

We always plan at least one Day during our Disney trips to visit my wife's Uncle and family in Gainseville (about 2 hours north/west). I planned this last day to make the excursion on this trip. In retrospect, it's darned tough. It is our last full day before flying out the next day and we are leaving the Happiest Place on Earth behind and won't be back until late after the parks are closed. We are also pretty doggone tired (probably because someone does not have the common sense to build more down time into his trips ) and it really catches up with you when you are not heading into the excitement of another day in the parks. I did try to ease the pain a little by planning breakfast at Chef Mickey's before we hit the road. So we headed over to the Contemporary for our final dose of Disney.

I believe I mentioned somewhere previously that we have become a bit disenchanted with the Dinner Buffet at Chef Mickeys the last couple of visits. It has always been a "must do" for us though so I figured that we would give breakfast a try on this go-around. As always the Character interaction is good. If you really want to see the "A list" Disney celebs without waiting in long lines in the parks then this is the place to be. Here is who you will come across.

I am not sure if it because the kids are getting older, or if I had run them into the ground too much no this trip and they were beat but sadly the excitement level for my family with the characters was a little lower than in the past. It is not that they couldn't care to get an autograph and a picture with the Fab 5 but it was definitely low energy for them.

Ok, let's talk about the food. I would unfortunately say it was just ok. Some of the food was decent and other....eh...cold and not the best (ex cold tater tots are not very satisfying). I was going to say something to the big Cheese since his name is on the place but my wife didn't think it would be a good idea so I held back my tongue. Sadly we have removed Chef Mickeys from our "must do" list and this upcoming trip is the first time we are not eating there. I think if we do go there again in a future trip however we will probably opt for a breakfast since there is not as much to go wrong with things like bacon, pastries, etc.

Goodness I think I am making this sound worse than it is. So let me clarify before I move on that I would not say the experience was bad. The food was ok and there is enough selection that you should be able to find something you will like well enough to eat. Also, if you are excited to see the Fab 5 then you should be very happy with the character experience. If you are tired and not as excited with the characters and all you want is a good breakfast though then I think you could probably do better elsewhere.

Ok, so after our breakfast we had one more thing to do before hitting the road. We still had TONS of snack credits left and some CS credits left as well. My wife is just not going to leave them on the table so we stopped at Coronodo Springs on the way out to deplete El Centro of almost all it's snack bags so that we would bring goodies to Gainseville and share with the family there and we used whatever CS credits we had left to bring some food to reheat later while there.

Here are a couple of pics from Coronodo springs...

This resort seems awfully spread out to me but I think my wife will enjoy staying there so I am thinking this is next on the list after our POFQ stay this coming trip.

There is not really more to say about this day. We headed on the road after our pit stop at CS and did not come back until late. We then had to get up an an ungodly hour to get to MCO in time for our 8AM flight home. You think we were tired at Chef Mickeys you should have seen us dragging ourselves out before 6AM to get to the Airport! The only good thing was that we were back home early enough to recover the rest of the day.


OK, that is the end of this journey. I meant to write more to recap our experience but I have just plum run out of time. Sorry for a lack luster ending. I will end this though by saying that overall we had a fantastic trip! We always love our time in Disney and I think that what Disney offers is unparalleled. That does not mean that we can't enjoy experiences outside of Disney as well though and I am very happy that we took the time to see other parks (especially IOA and Universal). I think my family essentially has a good time wherever we go and we don't really get caught up comparing other parks to Disney because for the most part they don't stack up in my opinion. We have been to a heck of a lot of amusement/theme parks and we enjoy them all for what they have to offer and yes in some instances they offer experiences you can't get at Disney or dare I say you may even find SOME things you enjoy more. Well, anyway that was our experience.


I would like to say one last thing before I go. THANK YOU to all of you that read though this TR and provided comments. It truly makes the experience more satisfying knowing you are reading along. I am also grateful the many positive comments on my photos. Photography obviously means a lot to me and I truly appreciate the nice feedback.

OK, I have to get some shut eye to head off in the AM for my next adventure.

Thank you again!

 

[clearskies]

Oh, one last thing. Don't feel compelled to comment back on this last post since I am not going to be around for a while to respond. If you do respond though please realize that I am not ignoring you and I will catch up at some point when I return.

Also, I apologize for those of you with TRs or PTRs that I was following since I have been very busy trying to get ready for this trip and have been getting woefully behind. I also fear I will be buried when I get back for a bit with work so I am dreading my return. For now though I am .

Ok, I really need some sleep ... good night and take care!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Hope you are having a great trip Clearskies! We will be there in 20 days!!

The pics of the fab 5 are great though remember you saying how you didn't think the food at CMs was anything to rave about.

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Looking forward to meeting you and family a week from today.... YEAH so excited

 

[ntikos]

Bravo on an exceptional Trip report!


Hope you have a great trip.

 

[wingedjojo]

Awww...it's over. I really enjoyed your pictures and hopefully you'll do a TR for your current trip too. Hope you're having fun!

 

[JaneBanks]

I just finished reading BOTH of your TR's and I'm hoping that you'll do another one for this current trip!! We are staying at POFQ this Feb. and I would love to see your photos of the resort!

Your photos are stunning!

 

[clearskies]

Hi. I am back. We had a fantastic trip! We came back to a few issues (likely hurricane related) including no internet for a few days until Verizon fixed it but I am back in business now.

Hope you are having a great trip Clearskies! We will be there in 20 days!!

The pics of the fab 5 are great though remember you saying how you didn't think the food at CMs was anything to rave about.

Thank you Tanz! It was awesome. You are leaving any day now and you will have a great time. Except for one day we had very manageable crowds and it should be even better for you now that all us Northerners are back in school as well.

Looking forward to meeting you and family a week from today.... YEAH so excited

Hi Jackie. It was such a pleasure meeting you and Rick in EPCOT!!! I hope the rest of your trip was fantastic!

Bravo on an exceptional Trip report!


Hope you have a great trip.

Thank you so much ntikos! I truly appreciate the kind feedback! we had such an awesome trip. The only problem is we come back far more exhausted than before we left.

Awww...it's over. I really enjoyed your pictures and hopefully you'll do a TR for your current trip too. Hope you're having fun!

Thank you Jo! I'll have to find some way to post something but it will take some time before I do. I have over 10,000 pics to go though and I am hammed up with work and other commitments. Honestly I need a break as well. I will have to find some time to catch up on your TR as well as others.

I just finished reading BOTH of your TR's and I'm hoping that you'll do another one for this current trip!! We are staying at POFQ this Feb. and I would love to see your photos of the resort!

Your photos are stunning!

Hi Jane!!! Thank you for reading my TRs and your kind words. It will take me some time before I get though pics. We actually don't spend too much time at the resort but I do have a lot of pics from wandering around when I could. I think the aspect of POFQ that I enjoyed the most was the smaller size relative to other resorts. If you have any questions on the resort let me know.




I will give you all one pic of Wishes that fantastic TTC spot. I was playing around trying to get even longer exposures with more bursts by using an ND filter.

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Hi. I am back. We had a fantastic trip! We came back to a few issues (likely hurricane related) including no internet for a few days until Verizon fixed it but I am back in business now.





Hi Jackie. It was such a pleasure meeting you and Rick in EPCOT!!! I hope the rest of your trip was fantastic!

It was great to meet you and your family too. Rick and I had such fun spending time with all of you. We will treasure that for a long time. thank you so much for the fantastic anniversary present you did not have to do that it was a wonderful surprise.

 

[JaneBanks]

Stunning! I love it!