Let's get this party started!!! 2 weeks of food, pics, and fun!!! **UPDATE 2/20**

[wannago2disney]

Again, your pictures are fantastic! I loved the video with Crush. He is one of my fav's. I have a habit of saying "Dude..." when someone is beign a little exasperating or annoying! I don't even know where I picked it up as I am from South Western Ontario not some surfin' coastal town

 

[oregondaddyof2]

Loved the video, you guys were the stars of the show!

It was awesome!

We loved the Crush video, it was wonderful that they talked to you and Alec!!

I couldn't believe it... It def made the day very memorable...

I'm all caught up- I am amazed at your pics! Your first two days were packed with lots of fun. It is hard when you get up at 6am and your body thinks it's 3am Good job getting up on time and then getting that nap in!

It was tough but we had to do it... We cancelled Chef mickeys last year becasue we couldn't wake up enough to get out of bed, and we were not going to do that again....

Again great pix!!!! Your DD does NOT look like she had fun on TT!

Those pix at MouseGear of the "Hidden Mickeys" came out great. I'll have to be on the look out!

Jet Lag at WDW wreaks havoc on plans..

I tried to pay more attention to the little details this year and hunt those things down... It is so neat seeing how much time and designing effort Disney staff put in to these areas...

Just got caught up. Great update!

Great job on the pictures, Terry! I especially like the approaching monorail and second Grand Floridian chandelier shots. Looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks man! I appreciate it... I am so new to the photography realm it is hard for me to picture the shots ahead of time, but I think I am learning...

Again, your pictures are fantastic! I loved the video with Crush. He is one of my fav's. I have a habit of saying "Dude..." when someone is beign a little exasperating or annoying! I don't even know where I picked it up as I am from South Western Ontario not some surfin' coastal town

Dude..... I say it all the time too


I will try to get another day posted either tonight or tomorrow...

 

[winkers]

disney does have the best customer service!! It's great that they gave you a ride to your adr.

We loved Park Faire! I think it's the best buffet. And the characters are a hoot!

 

[tinkerbell3747]

Great update, Great Customer Service at Pop, LOL - TT Picture DD definately not into that one........love the "pack mule" shot of DS as well...

We've never been to the princess character meal in epcot...just spoke with DD to see if she would swithc out CRT for this and 1900....she was excited once she saw the pics of Anastasia and Dresella ( I am sure I spelt that wrong...sorry)and the Prince of course.....

Getting some great Ideas from this TR....

Thx!

 

[oregondaddyof2]

disney does have the best customer service!! It's great that they gave you a ride to your adr.

We loved Park Faire! I think it's the best buffet. And the characters are a hoot!

It was amazing food, and you are right, the step sisters had us laughing so hard... It was an experience I will def be back for...

Great update, Great Customer Service at Pop, LOL - TT Picture DD definately not into that one........love the "pack mule" shot of DS as well...

We've never been to the princess character meal in epcot...just spoke with DD to see if she would swithc out CRT for this and 1900....she was excited once she saw the pics of Anastasia and Dresella ( I am sure I spelt that wrong...sorry)and the Prince of course.....

Getting some great Ideas from this TR....

Thx!

She will love them both... We have never tried the CRT meal, but I honestly think both of these meals would be better than that one... We enjoy the atmosphere and the great food at both places... Glad we could help out with some things for your trip...

 

[MaryAz]

Jumping on board. I will say that you have a good camera (just bought one myself) but you a great photograher. Really. Can I come to OR for lessons??
We are also on west coast time (Az) works great for the first night or so then it gets rough....
Your photos are outstanding, commentary very funny and a half nekkked Jordy-what more could I ask for??

 

[oregondaddyof2]

Jumping on board. I will say that you have a good camera (just bought one myself) but you a great photograher. Really. Can I come to OR for lessons??
We are also on west coast time (Az) works great for the first night or so then it gets rough....
Your photos are outstanding, commentary very funny and a half nekkked Jordy-what more could I ask for??

Thank you very much for the kind words... It really means a lot to hear those...

 

[oregondaddyof2]

Day 4 - Part 1

Our alarm came very early again this morning, 6:30am to be exact... But we were really looking forward to today so we were up without hesitation... We had an 8:00am ADR at Tusker House in AK! We absolutely loved this breakfast last year... We were at the bus stop around 7:10am...

It was about a 40 min wait for the bus this morning... I am not sure what the issue was, but we arrived at AK without any time to spare... We love seeing this when we approach the entrance!

We made it to Tusker House around 8:10, but they did not have any issues and we were seated right away...

I happen to take a picture of me and Toni's plates today as the food looked so good I couldn't help but take the picture...

Our waiter was the best... he was such a comedian and was into photography... He saw my camera sitting on the table and talked to me about it for at least 5 minutes... He then offered to use it and take our family pics with the characters... It is hard to find someone who knows what they are doing, but he did great!

There was a little jungle parade that the characters lead, and I couldn't help but take this pic of Mickey... He was the leader of the group...

At one point, I looked over and snapped another pic of Alec... I think he was returning with more food...

After breakfast, our waiter took my card to pay for the meal and said he would be right back... He came back to the table, and said, "I ran your card, and it says that you are checked out at the resort and our food credits were no longer there since we no longer had a room... Toni and I both looked at him very puzzled... He then said he called our resort and they said that they had our stuff packed up for us and down with luggage services waiting for us to pick them up. I was like, "What the heck?!?!?! We still have 10 more days. I was about ready to come unglued when he looked at Toni and said, "That was for you. I got him didn't I!" He looked at me and gave me a huge smile and explained that he was joking around... I had no choice but admit that he had me so far involved in that joke that I was about to cry... It is people like this that make the vacation memorable... I wish I would have gotten a better picture of him, but here is what he looked like... His name was Neil... We ended up tipping him about 50% of the bill cause he absolutely made our morning... Between the camera talk, the pics he took of us, and that wonderful joke he played, he was going to be unforgettable...

After breakfast we headed out towards Kilimanjaro Safari... We missed this ride last year, and I was looking forward to taking some pictures on it... I didn't really have a good lens for something like this, but I used one without any kind of vibration reduction, meaning that blurriness was going to be an issue if I couldn't get steady hands... Especially moving, but it is the only lens that I had that would work... here are some pics from the excursion...

I didn't even notice until right now, but in the next picture, Alec is in the side mirror...lol

Even Jordan came with us for this ride!!

These next couple of shots I got was for Winkers... lol

Next up - continuation of Kilimanjaro...

 

[oregondaddyof2]

Day 4 - Part 2

As we continued on the Safari ride, I couldn't help but see how the kids were enjoying it...

There was so many animals out this morning... This bridge was kinda tought to cross... lol

At one point, I lost Jordan, but then I looked and he was hanging out with our kids...

After the ride finished, we walked over towards Kali River Rapids... On the way i found some cool scenery that had to be in a picture...

We also found Turk and Flick hanging out so we stopped by to say hi...

Of course, I had to take a picture of the Tree of Life!

By this time, my camera batteries went dead... I went for my spares, and I went, "Oops... I forgot them on the charger this morning." I cannot believe I didn't have batteries... I bout 4 so that i would have 3 spare on this trip.... After putting my camera away, i went on Kali River Rapids with Alec while Tailor and Toni walked around a bit... Tailor can not stand to get her face wet, and she did not like this ride at all... After Kali, we met Toni and Tailor in the Expedition Everest gift shop... I wanted to hit EE so bad, but noone else wanted to go... Alec said he wasn't in the mood... How can you not be in the mood for EE?!?!? Toni found a cool looking t-shirt for me that I absolutely loved, and told me to go ride EE by myself if I wanted... I jumped on the opportunity and went through the single rider line... I was on the ride within 5 minutes... I sat next to an older woman that had never riden it before... The ride was awesome, and kinda comical seeing her reaction to the ride... I thoght she was going to jump out of her own skin when it started going backwards... lol... After the ride, we walked over to Dinoland and me and Alec rode Dinosaur... That is a very fun ride, but not for the person who does not like jerky motion rides... After Dinosaur, I took the kids to It's Tough to be a Bug... Toni does not like 3D movies, and cannot stand bugs, so this was not a good combo for her... I love that show... The kids really enjoyed it also... We met up with Toni in a gift shop and then shortly after that, headed back to Pop... On the bus, I dug in my backpack, and realized at this point that I was an idiot... I packed my camera batteries in a different pocket... I had the batteries the whole time and missed half a day of pictures cause I didn't check that pocket... doh!!! We arrived at Pop to find that mousekeeping had arranged Tailor's stuffed animals so that they were watching TV... It was so cute!

Once at the resort, Toni said she needed to do some laundry, but I wanted to get going for more fun... I wanted to hit a water park for a few hours... I decided to take Alec and Tailor to Typhoon Lagoon...

Me and Tailor couldn't help ourselves...

We arrived to find that wonderful sign!

First thing, we hit the lazy river... We all loved that river, and Tailor does not like any of the rides cause it gets water in her face...

Naturally, I had to dump Alec off his tube a few times lol

Within the first 10 minutes, I realized that I lost my neoprene camera case and hotel key cards somewhere between the locker room and the lazy river... I tried to track them down, but no luck... I went to Guest Services and reported them missing, and called Pop to put a stop to the cards since the had charging abilities... Back to the lazy river we went for some fun.. After floating around for about 1 hour, we got out around the Ketchakiddie Kreek... Last year, Tailor loved this area of the park... They have a kid size tube ride that is perfect size for her... She rode it again this year about 15 times in a row... Click on it below to view it...

After this, I told Tailor that I wanted her to go on a family raft ride with me and Alec... At first she was a little hesitant, but then she said okay... We started up the stairs, and about halfway to the top, she had second thoughts... She stopped in her tracks and refused to move any further... I told her that I was not going to force her, but she had a choice to make... Either go on the ride once and then go back to having fun in her area, or leave the park... She had to understand that there was more than just her here and we all wanted to have fun too... She decided just to leave cause she was not going on that ride... We left the park and headed back to Pop around 3:30 or so...

After getting back to the resort, we decided to rest for a bit... Around 5pm, we decided to head to DTD and try to get into Planet Hollywood.. We arrived at PH around 6:00pm... We walked right up the stairs, and were seated within 5 minutes... This was crazy... There was no lines... It was amazing food, and the milkshake that Tailor ordered was the best one I have ever tried... Bythis time, Toni was in a lot of pain... She had gotten blisters on both feet from the past couple of days... After dinner we headed back to Pop for the night... After darkness fell, Toni and I went on a little walk to Generation Gap, the bridge that connects Classic Years to Legendary Years (the unfinished buildings)... It was interesting seeing the nice bridge that ends with bushes so that you can't get all the way across... I took a few pictures while we were out there... I think the bridge would be a great picture if there wasn't 2 burned out light bulbs... lol

This ended a really good day... We were in bed and asleep within minutes..

Up next - Is it going to be another early morning? Or do we get to finally sleep in?

 

[jordanyosh]

This ended a really good day... We were in bed and asleep within minutes..

Up next - Is it going to be another early morning? Or do we get to finally sleep in?

i loved these pix!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Terry, I am drooling over these pictures. They are fantastic. I especially love the ones with the kids in the mirror, I might have to steal that idea.

I showed Bill your Pop pictures and he says that we need to get a camera like yours . Those are gorgeous! Makes me miss Pop so much. We have 17 days until we are there!

 

[mickeyfan71]

Thats cool that yall got to talk to Crush! I really enjoy your pics! My DD was looking over my shoulder and is loving Flat Jordan!

 

[oregondaddyof2]

Terry, I am drooling over these pictures. They are fantastic. I especially love the ones with the kids in the mirror, I might have to steal that idea.

I showed Bill your Pop pictures and he says that we need to get a camera like yours . Those are gorgeous! Makes me miss Pop so much. We have 17 days until we are there!

Thanks... I thought the mirror shot looked really cool too... Feel free to stel it! Make sure you post it so i can see it too Those Pop pictures are nothing... I actually spent a couple of hours taking night pictures around the resort a few nights later... I will hopefully get those pictures up here before you leave... I think they turned out amazing...

Thats cool that yall got to talk to Crush! I really enjoy your pics! My DD was looking over my shoulder and is loving Flat Jordan!

The Crush video was sweet... And flat Jordan was a blast trying to find pics for him to be in... I wish I would have had him around more, but I kept changing bags and would forget to transfer him over...

 

[jordanyosh]

I love the one of the juiced version of me where your DD seems to be just holding me like I'm supposed to be there....

The tongue and power fist pix....I laughed when you did it, but again getting DD into it too...

 

[disneygirlinnj]

finally caught up! You guys are having an amazing trip so far! Your server at Tusker House seemed awesome...wish we had him when we went. Sorry you couldn't go on all the rides this year Toni!

Great picture Terry, can't wait to see the rest!

 

[MaryAz]

Great update. You have totally sold me on Tusker House! If only Minnie were there. The waiter was awesome! Wonderful safari pics-elephants and giraffe's are my favorite.
The pics at night were really awesome. I really liked the bridge one!
Took my new camera out yesterday to the pumpkin farm. If you are interested they are on my PTR-link in my siggie.

 

[winkers]

this reminds me of sesame street and "one of these things is not like the other..."

After breakfast, our waiter took my card to pay for the meal and said he would be right back... He came back to the table, and said, "I ran your card, and it says that you are checked out at the resort and our food credits were no longer there since we no longer had a room... Toni and I both looked at him very puzzled... He then said he called our resort and they said that they had our stuff packed up for us and down with luggage services waiting for us to pick them up.

that is hilarious...because it wasn't me!
No one would have blamed you for punching him.

[SIZE="3"
These next couple of shots I got was for Winkers... lol

hey, that does look like me from behind!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

I'm worried about Jordan, did you put some sunscreen on him? He looks rather exposed!

Again, the pictures are fantastic!

 

[oregondaddyof2]

Day 5 - Part 1

This morning, we had an ADR at Chef Mickeys for 8:20am... So that means our alarm was set for 6:30am again! Last year, we missed out on this breakfast and decided to sleep in, so this year, we were really excited to try it... We made it out to the bus line to bus it to Mk around 7:20... We were dropped off at MK around 7:45 and we ended up walking to the Contemporary... It seemed about the same distance walking to the Contemporary as it was walking to the monorail... Here is a couple of shots I got on the way...

We made it inside and to the entrance of Chef Mickeys around 8:15, so it was perfect timing... We checked in and waited for about 10 minutes... We got called over for the family picture and were seated shortly after...

We got seated near the buffet and quickly left to get our first plates... Here is what ended up on my plates...

The first character to our table was Goofy... I like that guy....

The next one was Donald...

This shot was for you Winkers...

Minnie was next... Toni really likes Minnie...

Pluto is the best dog you can ask for... He was next to our table... Alec spent about a minute scratching his head and had Pluto's leg movin... It was cute...

I saw Alec standing next to the table, and had to snap a pic...

Then it was the one and only....

There was a dance party shortly after the characters left... Everyone stood up and was swinging their napkins over their heads... Tailor really got into this...

Naturally, after a nice big, healthy breakfast, I had to get desert right?

Those brownies were AWESOME!

We left and headed towards the monorail... On the way, I snapped these pics just because I thought they were kinda neat...

On the way tot he monorail, we stopped in at the giftshop in hopes to find Toni some Crocs to wear... her feet were killing her... Luckily, we did find some Croc sandals that were in her size... While we were there, Toni also found a Mickey Mouse watch she loved, so I bought her that as well... Here are some more gift shop pictures I ended up taking...

Now, it was back to MK to catch the bus back to Pop... We caught the moorail over to the T&TC and decided instead of riding the monorail through the other 2 resorts and then to MK, we would take the Ferry Boat since we were in no hurry and it was something new... It was very relaxing and a great chance to shoot a few pictures...

Next up - A few more pics and a lot more fun!!

 

[oregondaddyof2]

Day 5 - Part 2

More pics from the boat ride to MK...

We headed back to the resort to get ready for the rest of the day... Where were we going today?

My favorite water park of all time...... Blizzard Beach!!

When we arrived, I figured I would snap a few pics of our room window... It was decorated to show our Disney spirit... We were hoping to attract attention of other Dis members that might be around... Figured we would meet a few others that we hadn't even talked to on our PTR... No such luck, but seeing these decoration in the window was really nice every time we returned....

Now it was time for some fun! Off to BB...

This is my favorite ride of all time, the Summit Plummit, but I didn't get a chance to ride it today... Alec was a little intimidated by it still, and so I waited to ride it...

First thing, we headed over to the little kids area for Tailor to get her feet wet... She headed straight for the tube ride...

Next up was the Ski Patrol Traing Camp, the pre-teen area for Alec... This area was fun for all of us...

I even was able to record me going down the tube slide... Not the greatest video, but you get the point...



Next, both kids did this net thing where they use a net above them as balance and walk across ice bergs...

You will notice, that when Alec starts to struggle towards the end, I try to slice the ice berg farther and farther away, but Toni catches me and makes me put it back... I was hoping to see him fall into the water... lol





Up next... More time at BB....