Got Pixie Dust? A June 2009 PTR ~TR Link, Page 180

[jewels1916]

I'm a definite park hopper. Between making my different ADRs, and the EMHs, I just can't seem to stay in one place. Usually, when I am making budgets for Disney I just include park hopping.

So..park hopping is always my vote.

 

[JenAusty]

Hey! I just wanted to let you know! I started my ptr last night. It's short and sweet.. but I had to get it started. I'll add a lot more info later. Here's the link but I also posted a link on my signature!
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?p=29853658#post29853658

 

[wigdoutdismom]

That's one of the reasons I am toying with the idea of getting hoppers -- being able to dart over to Epcot for various yummy things in the evenings (and watching Illuminations). What better way to end a day than to eat pastries in France while watching fireworks?

My thoughts exactly, just a short walk and we are in France, how fun is that??
I've been catching up on your pre-trip after being gone to a conference. I was tickled to see that Laura is planning a trip and taking the baby!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Well, I have to go spend my Saturday being the gatekeeper at the four basketball games at our school. That means I get to take up money and hand out tickets. Everytime I say "gatekeeper" I can't help but think of the movie Ghostbusters and Sigourney Weaver being the gatekeeper. Anyway, no Saturday update today -- I will update tomorrow with about a million questions on using a digital camera.

I can't think of many things that top that!

My March trip will be the first that I won't have either a hopper or an AP, so it will be different. We're trying to go on a tight budget, though, so we'll be happy just to be there at all.

How many days are you staying? Disney in any form is good enough for me!

I think I am going to get them because the Food and Wine festival will be going on and I think we may want to go over and eat allot. My dh loves to try different foods so he will love the F&W festival.

Oh, I so want to do Food and Wine sometime. Maybe this fall for my 35th birthday present?

To Hop or Not To Hop---that is SUCH a difficult question!!! I know there would be days where we wouldn't hop at all, but there would be the days that it would really come in handy too!!! I do like the flexibility of being able to add them even at the last minute!!!

Reading this also made me ponder another decision---should we bump up to an AP? My Mom has already made the comment that she wants to go back as a family in June 2010---we would be able to use them again then. MeMom---how many times do you need to use an AP for it to make fiscal sense on purchasing them? Anyone know? Jackie---you might want to eventually want to consider that too when you start thinking about the other trips already planned in your mind! Can't you always change your tickets over to an annual pass?

You can change your tickets over to an annual pass. I think about that everytime. I keep wondering if we could use Charles's soccer stipend to do that -- it would mean not going anywhere for spring break, but then we could go in September for Connor's b-day (he turns 10 this year) and then in November for my b-day (I turn 35). Hmmm...

7day w/ PH=$297.06 (gate price)

AP= $499.50 (give or take a couple pennies)

so 2 trips... w/ PH save about $100..... if you skip the PH, you break even (or abouts)

Does that help??? I actually had just figured that out for someone else today

I upgraded my tix to an AP..couple of days after I used it...no problem

Paula

Were you on the dining plan at the time? I always wonder if switching would impact that.

I'm a definite park hopper. Between making my different ADRs, and the EMHs, I just can't seem to stay in one place. Usually, when I am making budgets for Disney I just include park hopping.

So..park hopping is always my vote.

I agree, but then when I go into my fiscally responsible moods, park hopping is always the first to go.

Hey! I just wanted to let you know! I started my ptr last night. It's short and sweet.. but I had to get it started. I'll add a lot more info later. Here's the link but I also posted a link on my signature!
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?p=29853658#post29853658

Hurray! I will definitely head over there this weekend!

My thoughts exactly, just a short walk and we are in France, how fun is that??
I've been catching up on your pre-trip after being gone to a conference. I was tickled to see that Laura is planning a trip and taking the baby!

Are you doing an annual pass or regular tickets? Isn't that great about Laura? I am so excited for her!

 

[carissanboys]

Have fun Gatekeeper!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Have fun Gatekeeper!

No Rick Moranis as the Keymaster though.

 

[Charleston Princess]

As many of you know, until Christmas, I was using a 35mm camera. It was a Canon with three lenses and all sorts of bells and whistles. I loved it, but I knew it was time to enter the digital age. Besides, it is heavy, had its own camera bag, and I wanted something that I could just put in my hipster.

So, for Christmas I got a new Canon PowerShot SX110 with nine megapixels. I love it so far, but as I am sitting here, I realize there is still a lot I don't know about digital cameras when it comes to taking them to Walt Disney World.

I hope you all can help me out.

Batteries
Do I use rechargeable or just regular AA batteries? What is everyone's preference?

Memory Cards
How many should I plan on bringing? We don't have a laptop so I can't download photos every night. How many GB should each memory card have? This is my biggest problem because I don't want to overbuy on the whole memory card thing, but I don't want to have to limit myself on photos either. Not to mention, I definitely do not want to have to pay Disney prices for additional memory cards either. HELP!

Night Shots
Do I need a tripod for fireworks no matter what? What about regular nighttime photos? I noticed there was a nightshot option on the camera and I took a practice one that seemed to turn out okay.

Any other pointers? This digital camera challenged Princess needs all the help she can get!

Speaking of cameras, it has been awhile since I shared any photos of Nala. Can you believe that we have had her over a month now? She is 13 weeks old. Somedays she drives me nuts!!!

Charles took this one night. All three dogs sleeping on the couch (can you say spoiled?) and Nala chose to sleep ON Bella. Poor girl. She woke up for the picture and seems to have a, "Please save me" look on her face.

 

[Lady Lallie]

I use rechargeable batteries. I bought an energizer recharger that plugs into the wall, it charges up to four batteries at a time. My Canon is really good on batteries and I think I only changed them twice on our last Disney trip. I used rechargeable Energizers as well, they are silver, black and green. The auto shut off is good because it extends the life of your batteries and doesn't drain them as quickly or so I have read.

I tend to over do it with the memory cards but I have this great chart for you. This will give you an estimate on how many pictures a memory card can hold.

As for the night settings, the great thing about your camera is that you can preview your photo. I am constantly tinkering with my settings, so take one in the night setting and then maybe the auto setting or whatever you want to try to see which one comes out best.

 

[IluvXU]

My two cents... first I love LL chart on the cameras.. way cool.

I used a 2G card last year... for WDW through Halloween. (remember I took tons of baby pics in August and birthday and well lots of pictures.) I would recommend having a second smaller one though in case you have trouble. I did have one card go "bad". I now have a 2-2G cards, got one cheap day after Thanksgiving. I plan to take both.

As for batteries... you need to get to know your camera. My last camera seemingly ate batteries... so I got a 1 hour charger and 8 batteries. This camera did me great at WDW... I barely changed batteries, but always took extras. These two cameras were virtually the same, just the current one was a bit newer model!

My camera case btw is a vera cosmetic bag... thought you would like that!


As for night pics.. not my thing... I take poor ones! I am afraid of the super nice cameras because I seemingly always break mine!

 

[Lady Lallie]

My two cents... first I love LL chart on the cameras.. way cool.

I used a 2G card last year... for WDW through Halloween. (remember I took tons of baby pics in August and birthday and well lots of pictures.) I would recommend having a second smaller one though in case you have trouble. I did have one card go "bad". I now have a 2-2G cards, got one cheap day after Thanksgiving. I plan to take both.

Thanks! I forgot to say that you should have at least two cards no matter the size just for back up!

 

[KatGarcia]

I have a canon myself, but it takes the ion battery so I'm no help there. But whatever you decide bring back up batteries because you know how much they charge in WDW for those puppies!

I have 2 memory cards for my camera, a 4GB and an 8 GB. The 8 holds like 5000 pics at a great quality, the 4 I use for video mostly so it doesn't eat up space on my card. Backups are always a good idea!!!

 

[carissanboys]

Love the pictures!

I use rechargeable batteries. The camera zaps the life out of them so quickly that I'd be paying a fortune if I didn't.

I think two cards would be plenty. I have two 1 GB cards, but you also have a much higher megapixel. I'd say two 2 GB cards would be sufficient.

My experience has been that it's difficult to get decent fireworks pictures wihtout a tripod. The shutter speed is so slow that it makes my pictures blurry trying to take them by hand. I was able to get some decent ones last year at the Pirate and Princess Party fireworks, but I think I was able to rest my arms on something (we were in the Tomorrowland Terrace).

 

[MeMom]

Nala is cute enough to get away with a little 'driving you crazy'! That's such a sweet picture of them all sleeping together.

Nothing new to add on the camera. Like most others, I use rechargeables and have a spare set, so I never run low. I carry two cards, a 2 and a 4, but we usually put them on a laptop every couple of days. I take an ungodly amount of pictures, as you know, so if I know I won't have a laptop with me, like in March, if we go, then I'll just take another card. I think it would be safe for me to have another 4.

As for getting good pictures, I take a bunch on different settings and just see what is working best. Real professional-like, huh? Drew tries to explain things to me, but I forget, or I get in a hurry and just start shooting before I recall what he said. I think I'm going to make him write down the basics and take a cheat sheet with me this time.

 

[Happy Elf]

I LOVE it!!!! So cute! Nala is a cutie!


As far as batteries go I use rechargeables. We have two digital cameras. One "nice" one that is good with batteries, and a cheaper one that eats batteries like crazy. I would go broke if I didn't use rechargeables in that camerea.

As far as memory cards go I would say at least 2. We have several between the 2 cameras. We have a little memory card wallet that they fit in. It's about the size of business card.

 

[TarzansKat]

I actually use the Energizer Lithium batteries and they work very well for me. I'd say I take a fair amount of pictures, and change the batteries 1-2 a year. I could see the benefit of the rechargables, though.

I usually bring one memory card (a rather large one) and then a smaller one as a backup. Also, I'm usually traveling with Mom and Nana, who both have cameras, so we always have backups. I can see that you might want some spares as it's just your lovely family.

Nala is so stinkin' cute! I can't believe how big she's getting. And that picture of her on top of the other dog? Priceless.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

OMG Nala and all the dogs are adorable! I love the picture of them lounging on the couch with Nala ON Bella! My dog sits on the couch too but luckily there is still some room left over for me!

Re:the memory cards, if you run into an emergency I've heard (but haven't tried myself) that you can go to any camera center and they will download the pictures from your card to a DVD for you. The advice I've seen is to be sure to check the DVD before you leave the camera center. Good to know in case you ever need back up.

I also use rechargeable batteries but ran into an emergency one day and just replaced with regular. No issues - worked fine.

As others have said I think experimenting with the settings is probably the best way to learn about night shots.

In general I think that the photography board here on the DIS and The Magic in Pixels have good photography tips.

 

[MRYPPNS]

Rechargeables here....I bring 3 sets. I put freshly re-charged batteries in every morning and have a set with me in the camera bag. Then I have another set that is re-charging in the room while we are in the park, that way I can change them again if we go back out at night.

I can't speak to the memory cards....I have two but I download every night to the laptop. In fact my memory cards are usually empty as I download them very frequently even when I'm not on vacation.

For night shots/fireworks if you don't have a tripod, try using a trash can or fence to steady the camera. Practice with those settings are much as you can before hand.

And if you are going to take food porn shots......learn how to use the "up close" setting so there are not blurry. So many DISer's don't know about that setting and it shows in their pictures.

 

[dddisrunner]

I am definitely not the one to ask about cameras BUT I LOVED the pictures of all the puppies together! Too cute!

 

[jewels1916]

Yay for new cameras!! For night shots, you can try using either a ISO setting or a Twilight setting.

This is (not a Disney photo) a fireworks photo on ISO setting. July 4th at the Jefferson Monument in Washington DC.

Hope you don't mind me sharing.

It's decent. Try using a no-flash setting, at the least.

 

[xoktenox]

Wow CP, those dog shots are just adorable! Nala is getting sooo big! Shes cute so I'm sure she gets away with being bit of a pain sometimes! haha

With the camera, I've pretty much a novice too. My camera is really really crappy but I just bought BF one for Christmas, a 10.3 megapixel Kodak something or other (is it bad if you buy a present for someone that you want too? ) Anyway, his has an actual setting specifically for fireworks. We haven't tried it yet but you should see if your camera has one. I always run into the problem of having such blurry pictures so I can see why you're nervous about wanting to bring a tripod. As for batteries, definitely use rechargeable. You'll save yourself tons of money on batteries because cameras do tend to eat them alive. And memory cards, I'd agree with everyone else and get 2-2GB, it seems like that should be enough.