Magic in the Kingdom 2012! BIG 2/16/2014 FINAL UPDATE!

[mom2rtk]

Hi! I haven't posted since your last pre trip report when we were hoping to get to WDW ourselves. That didn't work out but we are trying to go again soon
And I have to add Katie sure has changed! (Katie, what a pretty young lady you are!) My DD is also 12 and wants to trade in her glasses for contacts too eek!
Your side trip to Sanibel was special for me, we went there for our honeymoon (nearly 20 years ago!) it brought back a lot of sweet memories
Enjoyed your leisurely girls day trip too!
...anyway, I'm so glad I caught up with you! I so enjoy your pics and details of WDW

Thanks so much for the kind words. Yes, Katie sure has been changing. I wish she'd stop that. OK, not really, but she could slow down a little and I'd be fine with that.

A honeymoon in Sanibel would have been awesome. So happy I could take you back there with my photos.

Good luck getting some plans together for a return trip to WDW. I hope it works out for you soon. I'm sure you're fully aware how quickly these 12 year old girls are changing on us.

I really want to start buying some of those ordamnants, the colors are just beautiful.

I love seeing AoA again, how is it that my memory is foggy from the long end of day walks but longing to go back to see it all again? Is it like childbirth, the memory of the pain fades until you do it again?

Janet, those firework pictures are breathtaking! Kadence wants to go and see them where you sat to see them like that! I told that would require a visit to you.

I am STILL back and forth on those dang ornaments. I've also been looking at the Mary Poppins ear hat ornament on ebay. But I still haven't pulled the trigger. It just feels like it needs to be part of a set. And the last thing I need is another set of ANYTHING around here!

LOL on visiting the LM section being like childbirth. I sort of think it must be. I actually thought about staying there on our 2 night stop. It was the price that slapped me back into reality. We stayed in December when it was cheaper. It was crazy high in June. I think I looked and weekend rates in June the LM was around $190 a night. We ended up not having as much down time again as I hoped so we STILL probably would have missed out on a lot around the resort. So spending $127/night at the POP was perfect for us. I'm sad to say it did feel a little more dated for us though after staying at AoA last time.

Tell Kadence thanks for the nice comment on the FW shots. I'd love to sit and watch them with you guys.

That magnetic board is a cool idea!

Katie was right about the picture from the middle of the road- it turned out nice!

Where is the Pearl Factory at DTD? Katie's pearl is gorgeous! I don't blame her for not taking you up on the idea .

Omg aw those ducks are just too cute!

Katie looks too perfect in the Drizella dress! All the pictures from 1900 Park Fare are great. I'm glad Katie enjoyed herself. We're looking forward to having dinner there in September!

The MK entrance photos came out gorgeous! Wow!

Watching Wishes from the Poly beach is definitely on my to-do list too! The pictures are so pretty and watching Wishes in a hammock does sound like paradise!

Thanks! I'll tell Katie her AoA road shot was a hit!

The Pearl Factory was down near the water, not far from Earl of Sandwich at DTD. And I have to agree, that pearl Katie got was the prettiest she has gotten yet. And I think that was our 4th trip to get a pearl.

1900 PF is always a lot of fun. You'll have a ball there. Maybe you can go watch Wishes from the Poly after you eat that night? I know we'll be doing that again.

It's great to mark something off of our "Disney to do" list. But it's even greater when it makes it to the "Disney must do every trip" list!

Another great TR! I'm going to have to go back and catch up some more.

I am in need of advice- you are a camera expert! I was going to post on the photography board but figured I'd ask here first. How do you take such good photos in low-light and the dark? Scenarios like-

-the Wilderness Lodge lobby
-the sleigh ride
-the fireworks
-out in the parks in the dark
-a meal somewhere like Garden Grill (we are eating here and I'm worried about the photo-taking!)
-the Christmas parade

And also whenever it's dark and I use the flash it looks dreadful, but when I take the flash off it comes out blurry. It doesn't seem like it needs the flash though, so I'm confused!

We have a Nikon DSLR but don't know too much about how to use it yet- although we've had it for over a year we've just not gotten round to it. Our last photos of WDW were mostly terrible with a little digital camera, so now we have a DSLR we really want to know how to get the good shots throughout our trip.

It's the darker shots that really I struggle with mainly.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

Meg~ Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Hi Meg! So glad you found us!

And congrats on the Nikon! Do you have any extra lenses, or just the kit lens that came with it?

You have already figured out that the low light shots are the hardest to get right in photography. The different scenarios you ask about can vary a lot depending on the situation. Really though, the lens really does make a difference. I do have a decent selection of "fast" lenses that open the aperture bigger to allow in the most light. If you are just using the kit lens, then the largest aperture varies, maybe 3.5 to 5.6 or something like that. The larger that aperture is, the smaller your aperture is. To get low light pictures it really helps to have a 2.8, 1.8 or even 1.4 lens.

In the absence of a fast lens, you have to get the most out of what you have. You can increase your ISO setting which will make your camera more light sensitive. But it's a trade-off in that the higher your ISO, the more grain (noise) you will have in your photos.

The other thing you can do is to use your flash properly. I still struggle with this. If you just put your camera on auto and let the flash fire, it is indeed quite common to get an overexposed foreground and an underexposed background. You can bump up your ISO some. But my favorite approach is to dial down the flash exposure compensation. I don't shoot Nikon, so don't know where you access that on your camera, but I'm sure it's there. Experiment with that and I think you'll be much happier with the results.

Now on to some specifics:

-the Wilderness Lodge lobby:

I shot this with my 2.8 lens and no flash. In the absence of a fast lens, I would try a high ISO and using my lens at the widest focal length (not zoomed in at all). That's because the largest aperture on your kit lens will be at the widest focal length.


-the sleigh ride

The tricky part here is that we were moving. So the challenge is to get your shutter speed up fast enough that it won't matter if you are moving. I honestly don't know if you can do that with a kit lens. I would only use a flash for photos of people on the sleigh, not for shooting the displays. So you'll need the highest ISO you can stand (remembering it gets grainier as you raise the ISO). Once again, go with your widest focal length to get the largest aperture.


-the fireworks

This is an entirely different creature. You don't need a fast lens for this. In fact you probably want a smaller aperture so you can get a longer exposure and have more of your photo in focus. The real key here is to use a tripod or find a way to stabilize your camera. You will also want a remote shutter release so you don't make the camera vibrate when you push the button. Without a remote shutter release, you could use a 2 second delay. Here's the standard advice for shooting FW:

1) tripod
2) remote shutter release
3) focus to infinity then back off just a smidge
4) f/16
5) ISO 100 or 200
6) 4-6 second exposure

-out in the parks in the dark:

This depends on what you are looking for. If people are in the shot, you'll need the flash, but dial down the flash exposure compensation. If you're taking photos of scenery, turn off the flash. Turn up the ISO and use the largest aperture possible. Here again a fast lens really helps.

-a meal somewhere like Garden Grill (we are eating here and I'm worried about the photo-taking!):

Some shoot these without a flash, but probably only with a fast lens. I really prefer a flash because I want the faces to be well-lit without funky shadows from the ambient lighting. But definitely turn down the flash exposure compensation.

-the Christmas parade:

I have shot this with and without a flash. Without a fast lens though, I'd probably go with flash. Like the other low light settings though, you'll want to turn down the flash exposure compensation.

This is a low light situation with movement, so you need a fast-ish shutter speed. You won't get there without flash.

I hope I didn't confuse you with too much all at once. If you have questions, let me know. If you are fairly new to photography, I highly recommend reading "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It's a great starting point for understanding the exposure triangle and interplay between ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

 

[mom2rtk]

Tuesday June 11th, Departure Day:

Well, it was fun to have our little dose of Disney after Sanibel, but man that really was a "little" dose!

When we got up the next morning it was time to pack up already to head home. I had asked about checking our luggage at the resort, and they were very non-committal. They said we could try that morning, but couldn't guarantee they could help. OK. Whatever. Thankfully when we got there, nobody else was in line and they were more than happy to help. They even took some time to go in back and call to see if they could get better seats for Katie and me on our return flight.

This was the craziest part of our issues with the Air Tran/Southwest merger on this trip. The return flight was booked through Southwest. But it was an Air Tran plane. So seats were assigned. Arbitrarily. And with no concern for keeping parties together. I had wasted a TON of time on this when I booked the flight, and they assured me they would try to place us together. Nope. I checked in right at 24 hours in advance (while waiting for dinner at 1900PF the night before) but we were in different rows on the plane. I give kudos to the airline check-in staff at POP for trying to help, but they came up empty and said we'd just have to check at the gate when we got there. Ok, whatever.

I snapped a photo of Katie out by the POP sign before heading to the car:


IMG_1296 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

I clearly should have had my camera out of the bag during that time I was waiting at airline check-in. Because all of those shots I took out in front of the POP sign were foggy. The one I posted was the first one. They got progressively worse from there. I'm just so spoiled usually only going to Disney in December.

Our destination that morning? Right back to the Grand Floridian. I can't tell you how many times we have scheduled breakfast there and cancelled it. We always have the best intentions, but it just never seems to make the cut. So I decided with a car this time, and no park tickets to call us away, this was the time.

We pulled back up to the guard shack and she directed us to self-parking. We had done valet the night before, but as we were departing that day and crashing back down to reality, I decided I didn't want to part with $20 on top of an expensive breakfast. Man, I should have just forked over the money. Take my advice. If you're driving to the GF, just fork over the cash. It's not worth the hunt. I drove through that lot over. And over. And over. Not a single spot in sight. Eventually after looping around so many times, the guard told me to try the convention center. We had a long walk back over, but made it in time.



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We ended up with most of Katie's autograph book signed after the December trip. But the Mad Hatter was one who is not out in the parks, so it was nice to find him at breakfast.


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Time for some food! That girl sure loves her fruit.


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I went for a little more variety.


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And time to see another friend. Katie seems to have a renewed love for Pooh characters, and I'm enjoying that. I was surprised when she picked out a Pooh shirt on our last Disney Store order.


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We had a little Pooh traffic jam near our table!


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And now one of our absolute favorites:


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And finally Alice.


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While Katie finished eating, I snuck around the restaurant taking pictures. We were one of the last seatings so it emptied out around us:


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Between dinner the night before, and breakfast on this day, it started to feel like we were staying there. I could totally get into that. But alas, it was time to move along. Before going, I gave Katie some options on what we might do with the bit of time we had left and she chose taking a spin on the monorail before heading out.

 

[mom2rtk]

Tuesday June 11th Continued:

So off on the monorail we went.


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I wanted a photo of the MK entrance in the daylight. How hard could that be? Um..... apparently pretty hard when you get in the Monsters University WRAPPED monorail! Oops..... Maybe next time?


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At least we thought to get on an unwrapped monorail for the tour through Epcot.


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And back to the GF for a few more shots before heading out to find the car again.


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So on we went...... to our final destination before leaving:


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Yep. Back to Downtown Disney. Katie has a thing for Earl of Sandwich and really wanted to eat there again before leaving. I know, I know. We had just eaten a big breakfast. But Katie didn't care, and it's not like we could just pop back over the next day. So I decided to just eat half a sandwich and take the rest along to eat at the airport while waiting for our flight.

It was pretty hot out so we headed for EOS through all the shops along the way. I'll take 2 of these please:


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A quick juggling stop at Team Mickey:


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And finally our destination:


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After eating, I packed up my half sandwich and cookies for the road and off we went.

Thankfully we had no trouble finding the rental car return and grabbed our things. I love how efficient they are there!

Apparently they are just a little TOO efficient though. When we got through security and sat down to enjoy that little piece of sandwich I had left........ it wasn't there. Katie says she knows it was in the car, so we must have left it there. I was REALLY looking forward to that sandwich too. Sigh.

We usually take these shots on the way in, but had gone through Ft. Myers, so got our shots on the way home this time.


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We hustled to our gate to see if there was anything they could do with our seating assignments. So I hustled down to the gate where I was 3rd in line to talk to someone. And when the 2 people in front of me were done......... the agent just left. Not one word to me. Just left. And didn't come back. I tried standing there for a while......... and nothing. So I sat and just waited. Eventually someone else come to man the station since it was getting close to loading time. They explained to me the flight was full so they couldn't move us. DUH. That's what I've been saying all along about this arrangement, that waiting until it was almost time to leave would be too late. So he took my information and said he'd see what he could do. And one person after another came to that desk to explain that they were traveling with minor children and not seated together. It was the dumbest thing I've seen an airline do in a long time. Eventually he called me back up to say he had moved us into the same row, but on opposite sides of the aisle so at least we could SEE each other.

So then as they are starting to board, some lady comes running up to complain that she is not seated with her 3 YEAR OLD TWINS. YIKES! I was like, man, I feel for the person seated next to someone else's TWINS. Then I get on the plane.... and guess what? It's me! I guess I was due for a lucky break, because it turns out she was seated next to Katie and we were able to swap spots. So I sat next to Katie and she got to take care of her own twins. Whew! Big relief.

And thankfully we had a peaceful direct flight home.


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[jenseib]

Fun day!
I did the self parking at Gf before too. wow that is far out!!!!!

 

[mom2rtk]

Fun day!
I did the self parking at Gf before too. wow that is far out!!!!!

Yep. Next time I'll just fork over the additional $20.

 

[Caretames1]

Beautiful pictures of the GF!

It's a fun breakfast, but apparently the dinner is better because it won the ADR game at our house for this year. I think because Kadence and her cousin are doing the Wonderland Tea.

Fogged up camera, UGH that happened to me when we went in Sept, I had to sit it outside the room (with me holding the strap in the room getting Kadence ready to go) , opened for it to acclimate.

You loss your sandwich! Say it ain't so!

Lucked out on the airplane with the twins! Yikes, I'd rather be squeezed between two talkers!

 

[Britard]

That was lucky that you were able to sit next to Katie! I can't believe they would have moved the lady away from her twins in the first place!

 

[czmom]

Love your last day! Seemed like a perfect way to end the trip.

I still have yet to take the monorail to Epcot....one day.

And that is so crazy and dumb about Air Tran seating. I hope SWA and Air Tran would just complete the merger soon. I would hate to work for AT and deal with that every.single.day.

Glad it worked out for you and the momma with twins!

 

[mom2rtk]

Beautiful pictures of the GF!

It's a fun breakfast, but apparently the dinner is better because it won the ADR game at our house for this year. I think because Kadence and her cousin are doing the Wonderland Tea.

Fogged up camera, UGH that happened to me when we went in Sept, I had to sit it outside the room (with me holding the strap in the room getting Kadence ready to go) , opened for it to acclimate.

You loss your sandwich! Say it ain't so!

Lucked out on the airplane with the twins! Yikes, I'd rather be squeezed between two talkers!

Yep. We feel the same way about 1900PF. We have always done the dinner. The breakfast is good, but just always missed the cut.

The bad part about the camera is that I was standing outside at that airline desk for a long time and could have easily had the camera out of the bag acclimating to the humidity. But did I do that? Of course not.

And the sandwich...... Yep, I was more than just a little sad about that. I don't know if you remember, but either in 2010 or 2011 I had lost my bag of chocolate croissants at the airport. I guess I just get too flustered on my way home.

I really couldn't get over the crazy way they went about SO many things with that AT/SW merger. But the seating on the way home really took the cake.

That was lucky that you were able to sit next to Katie! I can't believe they would have moved the lady away from her twins in the first place!

I couldn't believe that the lady had seat assignments AWAY from her twins and didn't get to the gate before it was time to board. She just breezed in at the last minute and thought they'd take care of it I guess. Or maybe if they didn't she'd have a more peaceful ride home. As it was she played on her phone the entire time. Thankfully they occupied each other pretty well so didn't cause any trouble. Still..... not a risk I'd like to take though.

Love your last day! Seemed like a perfect way to end the trip.

I still have yet to take the monorail to Epcot....one day.

And that is so crazy and dumb about Air Tran seating. I hope SWA and Air Tran would just complete the merger soon. I would hate to work for AT and deal with that every.single.day.

Glad it worked out for you and the momma with twins!

It really was a peaceful ride around on the monorail. We were really just killing time at that point knowing it was too early to go eat lunch yet, but not having enough time to go do much of anything else. We had thought about going to the Disney outlet stores, but just didn't really have enough time for that.

And I really did feel bad for the AT/SW employees. They were getting it from all sides. Not a great place to be employed during the merger.

And yeah, I told Katie when we saw twin mommy stroll up to the counter I felt sorry for the person who got to care for the 3 year olds separated from mommy for the trip. I really didn't think there was much chance it would be ME! I still can't believe I dodged that bullet. Turns out they were pretty quiet, but there's no way to know if that would have been the case if they were seated with a stranger.

At least 1) I didn't have any wine spilled on me and 2) nobody sitting next to me felt the need to meow.

If that makes no sense, then check out my 2011 trip report.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

Not sure if it is the same thing but coming home this poor family was divided yours truly was the divider so I gladly switched

 

[mom2rtk]

Not sure if it is the same thing but coming home this poor family was divided yours truly was the divider so I gladly switched

LOL, that was nice of you. Sounds like a win/win for everyone involved!

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

LOL, that was nice of you. Sounds like a win/win for everyone involved!

Not to get off topic but like you I don't under stand why people wait till the last minute if they see the problem ahead of time

 

[mom2rtk]

Not to get off topic but like you I don't under stand why people wait till the last minute if they see the problem ahead of time

I couldn't believe she was there alone with her 2 little kids, knew they weren't seated together.... and didn't show up until the last possible moment. One of the reasons we made sure to get to the airport early was to try and get this taken care of. And that was after spending a lot of time on the phone already earlier in that day and the day before.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

I couldn't believe she was there alone with her 2 little kids, knew they weren't seated together.... and didn't show up until the last possible moment. One of the reasons we made sure to get to the airport early was to try and get this taken care of. And that was after spending a lot of time on the phone already earlier in that day and the day before.

I hope you had a great trip

 

[mom2rtk]

I hope you had a great trip

What a sweetie. Thank you. And yes, we did.

 

[Glennie5]

Just catching up on your TR. Fabulous pictures as always! Julia thinks Katie is all grown up now.

 

[KCmike]

Wonderful photos again Janet. The GF photos are especially stunning. Love that first one of the roof with the 3 big ovals. Just spot on perfect.

Crazy about the flight! Glad EVERYONE got their seats together.

Just curious....When you gave Katie the option to do one last thing and she chose the monorail ride what was the other options...do you remember?

Mike

PS. Bring on Disneyland!

 

[Sydnerella]

I loved your last day stuff. What great ideas, especially the monorail tour - to Epcot as well. Nice way to end a quick trip and soak as much in without entering the parks between the character meal, GF/1900PF, monorail rides and DTD. love it. thanks for sharing.

And the beach trip was neat to see, especially the kayaking and shell hunting. We will have to check that area out when on the gulf coast this fall post Disney. Thanks for the ideas!

Sydnerella's Mama

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[fabulousfive]

Monday June 10th Continued:

A few more photos before changing out of Drizella:

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Don't you just love the color matched flip-flops? She didn't plan it though. It was more of a "happy accident".

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This Disney stop was really about picking up some of the things we always MEAN to do, but never quite get to because we spend so much time in the parks.

I can't even tell you how many times in a row I've planned to go watch Wishes from the Poly Beach. But in the end, I'm always just too tired to follow through. I purposely timed our dinner to leave us time to get over to the Polynesian and finally give it a try.

I'm glad I left extra time in the schedule, because as we left 1900 Park Fare, we started hearing people complain about the monorail being down. So we hung out, did more shopping and waited for the situation to resolve itself. So why not take even more photos of the Grand Floridian?
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Soon enough we started seeing folks line back up for the monorail and we were on our way.

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I wanted one more shot at photographing the MK entrance, so we rode around again. It's harder to do than it looks, especially in low light. But I love the perspective.

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It was dark when we got to the Polynesian and we didn't have a lot of time to spare. We haven't watched from this spot before so I wasn't sure what the best spot was. We found the beach. Then we found that raised sidewalk on the other side of the beach. I thought that extra height would be good so set up there. I got the tripod out and everything out and set it up. Then I looked to the right..... and saw the other beach. KATIE!!!! We have to move! So we packet it up and moved to the other section of beach. That was the best perspective to get the fireworks head on. And Katie loved our new location so she could watch from her very own hammock.

There were only a few other people on that beach. And we both loved watching from there. We'll definitely be doing it again one day.

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You totally have me wanting to see the fireworks from the Poly! Not sure if we can squeeze it in, but were you really that close or did you have a super zoom on your lens? And was your spot hard to find? We just may see if there's time to see them there. Thanks!!!

 

[rndmr2]

Awesome fireworks pics, that really is a good view from the Poly Beach, I assume you were zoomed in some, but still...

Great that you were able to get to both breakfast and dinner at 1900 PF.

That's crazy that so many people weren't seated together on the plane.