DLR Trip planning help

[Markie Mouse]

Ok, So I leave on Dec 8th to DLR and will be taking my Flip camcorder, Samsung S50, my new Sony SLT-a55, and my laptop. With all this expensive technology I was wondering if anyone had any tips as how to take them, store them, charge them,and secure them while at the park. If not at least a link to a current thread about this subject. My biggest concern is no one stealing my Macbook or a55 and then my next worry is were are places to charge my cameras. I know I should just leave my laptop at home while on vacation but I need my Macbook to store my photos every day.

 

[HydroGuy]

Ok, So I leave on Dec 8th to DLR and will be taking my Flip camcorder, Samsung S50, my new Sony SLT-a55, and my laptop. With all this expensive technology I was wondering if anyone had any tips as how to take them, store them, charge them,and secure them while at the park. If not at least a link to a current thread about this subject. My biggest concern is no one stealing my Macbook or a55 and then my next worry is were are places to charge my cameras. I know I should just leave my laptop at home while on vacation but I need my Macbook to store my photos every day.

Where will you be staying?

 

[kylieh]

The Dis photography forum may be able to provide some assistance as well: http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=97

Edited to add: Don't forget travel insurance or some type of insurance for your gear.

 

[taaren]

Hydroguy is right - where you are staying will affect your options. One of the reasons I like staying at the VGC is since there's no housekeeping service most days we are okay with just leaving our laptops out knowing that no one will go into our room without permission/notification (though yes, I've heard it has happened on occasion at WDW ... we've never had it happen at DLR).
Most of the nicer hotels tend to have safes you can store small items in the room; not sure how small a MacBook is as I'm a pc person. If your room doesn't have one call and ask the front desk and they will probably have a safe you can use for a fee if it will put your mind at ease. Alternately there are laptop security cables for about $5. They must make something comparable for Macs. (http://www.amazon.com/Notebook-Lapt...MM5C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1289985150&sr=8-2)
As for carrying stuff around in the park, I recommend a back-pack (we usually make my DH carry it with snacks/water/jackets/cameras, and sometimes we help too). In the backpack have some gallon-sized Ziploc bags to keep the electronics dry for water rides. We usually just keep our smartphones in the quart sized ones, but after having my wallet drenched a few times we put those in too.
As far as taking them, do not check in anything you don't want to lose! Being the child of an airline employee I get to hear way too many stories about lost/damaged luggage. Yes, its a pain taking everything out for security lines, but its well worth it when you're standing next to the guy whose bag exploded on the tarmac and all you had in yours was clothes that went to a different city. Enough said.
Not sure if any of this was what you were looking for.
Hope it helped some!

 

[Markie Mouse]

I will be staying at the Castle Inn and from the reviews there are no theft issues reported. Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. I have taken my own camera but never my Macbook. Im worried because it has my entire lively hood on it. Im an audio engineer and all my mixes, music, and audio files are on my computer. Maybe taking my sisters netbook and an external hard rive would be a better option after reading what I just wrote right now. Thanks guys!!!

 

[azax456]

I'll be there December 8th and 9th as well @ Best Western Anaheim Inn. Really really hoping for low crowds. There is a convention with 20K people in town, hoping it wont affect things too much, hotels are full though. I work in law enforcement (being generic) so if you have any problems let me know

 

[HydroGuy]

I will be staying at the Castle Inn and from the reviews there are no theft issues reported. Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. I have taken my own camera but never my Macbook. Im worried because it has my entire lively hood on it. Im an audio engineer and all my mixes, music, and audio files are on my computer. Maybe taking my sisters netbook and an external hard rive would be a better option after reading what I just wrote right now. Thanks guys!!!

At GCH and BWPPI I just my laptop out on the desk. I really did not worry about it. I would not leave money out and I also would not leave small electronics like iPods. I hide those in luggage, use a safe or take it with me.

You can see if they have a safe there or leave valuables with the front desk?

 

[lwilkison]

Ok, So I leave on Dec 8th to DLR and will be taking my Flip camcorder, Samsung S50, my new Sony SLT-a55, and my laptop. With all this expensive technology I was wondering if anyone had any tips as how to take them, store them, charge them,and secure them while at the park. If not at least a link to a current thread about this subject. My biggest concern is no one stealing my Macbook or a55 and then my next worry is were are places to charge my cameras. I know I should just leave my laptop at home while on vacation but I need my Macbook to store my photos every day.

We were going to have to bring our macbook as well until we got an iPad!

Have you checked into something like that? iPads are nice and small and they will easily store all kinds of info. Great battery life as well

Have a great trip!

 

[lwilkison]

I'll be there December 8th and 9th as well @ Best Western Anaheim Inn. Really really hoping for low crowds. There is a convention with 20K people in town, hoping it wont affect things too much, hotels are full though. I work in law enforcement (being generic) so if you have any problems let me know

Ugh! azax456...that is horrible news! I have been told before that when there is a huge convention DLR usually swells with attendance!

We are going to be there from Dec. 7 - 15, and we were hoping for some lighter crowd days...oh well fingers crossed for us all!

Have a great trip!