Hijinks & Shenanigans but not much Mayhem@The Dark Side+Disney:Link to DL/Hawaii TR

Of course I'm joining in!

:welcome: Franklin!!!

I'm so glad you're here! :woohoo:

But I have a little confession to make, to you, and Wendy (teekathepony) and all of my other photography enthusiast friends.

Although I did bring my new Canon DSLR to Florida, I didn't use it.

I purchased a camera case right before the trip, but couldn't figure out how to put the camera into it. :confused3

At US/IoA, I didn't want to take the camera because of all of the wet rides we did and the locker restrictions at the parks. It was nice having my point and shoot, weatherproof cameras with me at all times.

At Disney, it rained. A lot. I didn't want to go through the effort of babying the camera there, either.

So I did not get a chance to test out the Canon in what is a true proving ground.

*hangs head in shame*

:blush:
 
I did not get a chance to test out the Canon in what is a true proving ground.

*hangs head in shame*

:blush:

That just means you have to come back and take a solo, PHOTOGRAPHY CENTERED trip.... LIKE IN OCTOBER OF THIS YEAR!

Hint Hint!!!!

~NM
 


That just means you have to come back and take a solo, PHOTOGRAPHY CENTERED trip.... LIKE IN OCTOBER OF THIS YEAR!

Hint Hint!!!!

~NM

Totally with NM on this one! Especially since there will be other photographers in attendance *cough* my fiance *cough*.
 
Ooo, ooo, sign me up!

:welcome: Glenn!

Consider yourself signed!

:cool1:


That just means you have to come back and take a solo, PHOTOGRAPHY CENTERED trip.... LIKE IN OCTOBER OF THIS YEAR!

Hint Hint!!!!

~NM

Are you trying to tell me something???

;)


Totally with NM on this one! Especially since there will be other photographers in attendance *cough* my fiance *cough*.

But you won't be there with your fiancé in October...

:love:


There will be a forest of tripods, if you will. :lmao:

A troop of (gorilla) pods?

:banana::banana::banana:
 


Are you trying to tell me something???

;)

Oh all right. The kids got me a camera for my birthday. It's not the crappy one in a Cell phone. I was hoping to get a better cell phone with a better camera in it but DH said that this is the way to go. It does not take film... can you imagine!

So we can struggle together. :confused: Maybe you can help me??

~NM
 
Oh all right. The kids got me a camera for my birthday. It's not the crappy one in a Cell phone. I was hoping to get a better cell phone with a better camera in it but DH said that this is the way to go. It does not take film... can you imagine!

So we can struggle together. :confused: Maybe you can help me??

~NM

Congrats on your camera acquisition!!!

With all due respect, I suspect you need more help than I can offer.

;)

Love ya!
 
Why am I always late to the party??:confused3 Dee, sign me up! So looking forward to the TR and of course Ninja Moms responses...:rotfl2::rotfl2:


(For those of you who haven't figured me, Ninja Mom out, I'm ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) )

Dee, as for your trip report.... I just have one thing to say... Those zip lock bags better be filled with pretzel bread and other menu items "liberated" from the restaurants! (especially the buffets!! :stir: ) Never mind the ponchos.... Soggy people are one thing but soggy pretzel bread is a crime against humanity.

OK, I have two things to say. There had better be refillable mugs in this trip report. I want to hear about how you lugged them hither and yon and filled them with all manner of alcoholic delicacies while riding the boring rides like Spaceship Earth and that ride in Canada where they show the movie, you know, the one where the room spins when you've emptied that refillable mug of too many Margaritas. (See! Nobody has figured out that those theaters in the round really ARE rides.)

I'd also like to see lots of action in this trip report. Don't give us any of that "I went on the Tower of Terror and it was really FUN!". I want to hear about how you stole the hat off of the CM and cut through the line screaming chants learned from international tour groups.

Finally, I want to hear a lot of complaints. There aren't nearly enough complaints posted on the Dis Boards so lets hear it! Don't hold anything back! If the sheets were too white I want to hear about it! If the crew from CSI examined your room and found a rogue cat hair, I want to hear how you got Disney to comp you for the whole trip because you threw SUCH a Hissy fit, Bob Iger himself came to your room and ran the vacuum.

As for the pictures I'd like to see many out of focus, half eaten, food pictures and lots of pictures of awkward towel animals. You know, the ones that Mouse keeping makes that apparently are not found in nature, like the "Platty Mouse" and the "Ele-fish".

In the shenanigans department I'd love it if there was a story in your trip report about how you artfully applied plops of sunscreen to those reserved but unoccupied Storm Along Bay chairs and made it look like those Seagulls from Finding Nemo had really bad Mexican food and left a 100 reasons why people shouldn't hog the chairs.

OK that's enough from me. BRING IT Dee! Lets get cracking on this trip report and for God's sake it best not be boring! Make it up if you have to, embellish and especially steal from others to make it interesting. And none of this "I'll post another chapter after a 2 week hiatus" bull. I want to see a chapter every 3 days, even if it isn't from your actual trip. Now keep in mind that if I don't see regular reports from you I MAY have to take over your trip report and provide all the dirty details myself. If it comes to that it's not going to be pretty or even remotely true so get to posting!


~NM

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
 
I'm in!!!! I can't wait to read more as I love your trip reports and all of your posts in general. Very entertaining :) Bring on the shenanigans!

:cool1::cool1:
 
Yeah, remember the forest of tripods? I think my fiance will be rather distracted. ;)

He's not going to be your fiancé in October!!!

I need to get caught up on your reports, especially after begging for the proposal update.

:bride:


Why am I always late to the party??:confused3 Dee, sign me up! So looking forward to the TR and of course Ninja Moms responses...:rotfl2::rotfl2:

:welcome:

Not late at all- my first "official" update is about to be posted.

:goodvibes
 
Dee, Love the Wishes anniversary pic!:thumbsup2 Sometimes my kids photography is sooooo much better than mine!:rotfl2:

We are hoping to do the Wishes fireworks party as well. Would you recommend it? Any tips? I am sure there is a thread!!:cool1:
 




Saturday, July 13- Countdown to the Trip reaches 0!!!


I woke up shortly before the alarm went off at 4 am. It had been a short night. I always seem to have a lot of last minute things I want to get done before leaving for a trip and even when I think I am ahead of schedule, I'm not. I was up until about 11:30 putting together a gift for a special friend I would see during our trip.







At any rate, we were all ready when our car service pulled into the driveway at 4:45. We had booked a flight on Southwest and were flying to Orlando from Manchester, NH. We arrived at the airport around 5:30 for a 7 am flight.

After checking in our bags and walking to the security area, we endured the first cutting incident of the trip. A family of 6 or 8 people pushed through the line exclaiming "Our flight is boarding, we have to get through!" I think we saw them later in the gate area, but, whatever. :rolleyes:

As we passed through security, I was called aside because my bag apparently had some suspect contents. I wracked my brain to try to figure out what it could be. I have been known to "accidentally" forget that a chapstick or two was in my carryon, but this time I was clean. Turns out that the roll of quarters I had packed in an empty Airborne container for laundry and squished penny souvenirs (neither of which I ended up doing) triggered the extra scrutiny. Dangerous pocket change identified and cleared, we were on our way.

To a line.

Manchester is pretty small compared to Logan, our usual departure airport. There were just a couple of places open to grab breakfast goodies before the flight, and those in the know were getting the last of their Dunkin Donuts fix before entering the land of Starbucks and Nescrape. The slogan on commercials for DD is "America runs on Dunkin" but really they just mean New England.





Not too long after our breakfast was procured, it was time for the cattle call- I mean boarding process- on our Southwest Flight.





It has been a while since our family has used Southwest- the last time was in 2004, when the boys were young enough that we had priority boarding.

This time, I called 23 hours, 55 minutes before our flight, and received boarding numbers: B50, B51, B52, and B53

I wonder where we will be at 7:20 pm Friday night, when we can check in for our return flight. Guesses???
Hint: we have the Wishes dessert party booked for 9 pm that night.


When our boarding position was called, we made our way up the aisle, I believe I spied 4 seats fairly close togther, 2 in front and 2 a row behind about mid-plane. Mark said I see seats in the back When we got there, we discovered those seats were occupied by little ones- we couldnt see their heads over the seats.

There was one empty seat in the very back row. I took that. The 3 boys doubled back. Nate and Ben found seats together, 8-10 rows in front of me. No idea where Mark was (turns out he was pretty close to the front). Seating fail!!! Mark HATED this.

My seat mates were a family of 5. On my side of the aisle were a girl, maybe age 7-8 and her dad. Across the aisle, next to me was the mom, then a child in a car seat and another young child. They were QUIET!!! The baby cried just a little bit as we were going through the pressure change, but other than that I didnt hear much from them. At one point, I politely asked where they were staying- some offsite place and I asked the little girl if she was excited to be going to Disney. She didnt answer and stared at me in terror, so I spent the rest of my flight reading- the manual for my new Fuji underwater camera and Joyland by Stephen King- a hard case crime novel about a haunted amusement park. I thought that would be a relevant story for the trip.

Even though I was on the center aisle, I managed a couple of pictures from the plane as we were approaching Orlando. I used the zoom, I didnt poke the camera in the faces of my seatmates.







Uneventful flight. My family reunited in Orlando. We proceeded via the faux-no-rail to baggage claim and met Rick, our driver, who would be taking us to the Hard Rock hotel today and from the Hard Rock to the Beach Club on Tuesday. We arranged for the car service through Ed Korgan Transportation. I found information about the company in the Transportation forum on the DIS and we had used them on our previous trip in 2011.








I snapped a few pictures as we approached the Hard Rock Entrance.








The Hard Rock employees all have their favorite musical artist listed on their name tags (like the hometowns on Disney tags). The doorman had Bob Marley. Another woman I saw had Celine Dion. My Hard Rock name tag would profess my worship of Jimmy Buffett. There would be a tie for second place between Jersey rockers Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and local favorites The Fools.

Which performer would appear on YOUR nametag?




No line at the check-in desk. The person who helped us was super friendly and helpful, and even better- OUR ROOM WAS READY!!! We received our keys, went over to the nearby kiosk to print out our express passes for the parks.






More pictures of the lobby coming up in a future post- On Tour at the Hard Rock Hotel

Next up: Room 5112
 
We are flying Southwest, for the first time, to Disneyland and that seating process that they have is worrying me. There is no way I want to sit with strangers for that long of a flight. Glad the boys got to sit together anyway.

The Hard Rock looks really cool. I haven't seen many pics of it before so thanks for sharing :)
 
We are flying Southwest, for the first time, to Disneyland and that seating process that they have is worrying me. There is no way I want to sit with strangers for that long of a flight. Glad the boys got to sit together anyway.

The Hard Rock looks really cool. I haven't seen many pics of it before so thanks for sharing :)

I had 3 uninterrupted hours when nobody needed anything from me.

I didn't hate it!

:ssst:

The boys sitting together was the priority for us.

We loved the Hard Rock! Lots more pictures coming up in the next two posts.
 
Great update Dee!!

How did you like Manchester? We are 5 minutes from Logan but have always wondered how flying out of Manchester or Providence might be, given how chaotic Logan is all the time!

We took a walk over to the Hard Rock a couple of years ago when we visited Universal. We loved it! My DW, who is very picky, thought it was great and said she would definitely stay there some day. We walked the grounds, checked out the pool, lobby etc. It looked like a fun place to stay.

The artist on my Hard Rock name badge would be James Taylor!!

Can't wait for the next installment!!

Jay
 
Congrats on your camera acquisition!!!

With all due respect, I suspect you need more help than I can offer.

;)

Love ya!

Bummer! It's got so many buttons too. I guess I will have to read the manual. :crazy2:

We are flying Southwest, for the first time, to Disneyland and that seating process that they have is worrying me. There is no way I want to sit with strangers for that long of a flight. Glad the boys got to sit together anyway.

The Hard Rock looks really cool. I haven't seen many pics of it before so thanks for sharing :)

The way I look at it, there is no one stranger than my own family. Sitting next to people I don't know is a welcome respite from the insanity that follows me where ever I go... Mom, Mom,Mom,Mom,Mom,Mom,Mom,Mom,Mom,Mom,Mom,Mom,Mommmmmmmmm!!!

~NM
PS My artist would be Tiny Tim
 

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