AndrewWG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2007
- Messages
- 1,879
Ok, so I just returned from 6 days at WDW and wanted to post a report in words and pictures, so here it is! I'll start with day 1 and add days as I get photos processed, etc. Day 1 was just really point and click, so I didn't really bother post processing RAW files for it to make them look better.
Day 1:
Left Providence at 7:20 and arrived at Orlando at 10:00 or so. Disneys Magical Express worked perfectly for us. They were there to take us to Port Orleans French Quarter within 15 minutes of arrival and got our bags to our room before we even got in our rooms! Very pleased with this service.
Port Orleans French Quarter was great! I was very happy with my choice on that one. We had room 6321 (building 6, floor 3). It was a great location, not too far from the lobby at all (none of the buildings really are) and also just taking a quick shortcut through building 4 (I believe) got you to the bust stop.
Since we had 6 day expiring park hopper tickets we had decided to go somewhere everyday we were there. On day 1 we decided to just go to Magic Kingdom and do a ride or two. Since this was Thanksgiving day, we knew it would be busy so one or two rides was fine with us. We decided to take the train from the Main Street train station over to frontierland and ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as my DD had been bribed by my sister with a gift if she went on that ride. She does not like fast rides, however she was a trooper and did it and got a stuffed Minnie doll for her bravery! Since it had started to rain a bit and we had dinner reservations at Concourse Steakhouse at 4pm, we just decided to walk through the park a bit and then walk over to the Contemporary from there. It was a nice relaxing walk and we were able to see my nephew's brick in the sidewalk on the way. It is still in perfect condition.
Thanksgiving dinner at the Concourse Steak House was AWFUL! I gave thanks that I was on the meal plan and having travelled all day (we had to get up at 3am), I could have eaten a shoe if it was prepared well enough. We were all starved. The wait staff was great, but the food (especially the turkey) was terrible. The turkey was that processed stuff, kind of like turkey SPAM. I don't know what I expected, but I had certainly hoped for better.
After that meal, we went back over to Magic Kingdom via the monorail and just walked around and rode the carousel, watched the lights light up on the castle and went back to the hotel for a much needed rest. It was at this point that I realized that I was going to have a real challenge on my hands taking photos AND enjoying family time. It is a real tough balance to do both effectively. I chose to leave the tripod behind after this and just hope for the best with my shots and enjoy the family time. I only took the tripod out two more times after this night and left it in the locker one of the nights until we left and never set it up the other night. Therefore, 99.99% of my pics were either handheld or assisted by railings, trash containers, etc.
By the way, my tripod measures 24" and it JUST fit in the locker on an angle top top left corner to bottom right corner. Also, if you plan on attending the Christmas Party, the lockers are free. You just pay $2 for the key which is refunded to you when you return the key.
That was about it for day 1. Here are some pics from that day:
Day 1:
Left Providence at 7:20 and arrived at Orlando at 10:00 or so. Disneys Magical Express worked perfectly for us. They were there to take us to Port Orleans French Quarter within 15 minutes of arrival and got our bags to our room before we even got in our rooms! Very pleased with this service.
Port Orleans French Quarter was great! I was very happy with my choice on that one. We had room 6321 (building 6, floor 3). It was a great location, not too far from the lobby at all (none of the buildings really are) and also just taking a quick shortcut through building 4 (I believe) got you to the bust stop.
Since we had 6 day expiring park hopper tickets we had decided to go somewhere everyday we were there. On day 1 we decided to just go to Magic Kingdom and do a ride or two. Since this was Thanksgiving day, we knew it would be busy so one or two rides was fine with us. We decided to take the train from the Main Street train station over to frontierland and ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as my DD had been bribed by my sister with a gift if she went on that ride. She does not like fast rides, however she was a trooper and did it and got a stuffed Minnie doll for her bravery! Since it had started to rain a bit and we had dinner reservations at Concourse Steakhouse at 4pm, we just decided to walk through the park a bit and then walk over to the Contemporary from there. It was a nice relaxing walk and we were able to see my nephew's brick in the sidewalk on the way. It is still in perfect condition.
Thanksgiving dinner at the Concourse Steak House was AWFUL! I gave thanks that I was on the meal plan and having travelled all day (we had to get up at 3am), I could have eaten a shoe if it was prepared well enough. We were all starved. The wait staff was great, but the food (especially the turkey) was terrible. The turkey was that processed stuff, kind of like turkey SPAM. I don't know what I expected, but I had certainly hoped for better.
After that meal, we went back over to Magic Kingdom via the monorail and just walked around and rode the carousel, watched the lights light up on the castle and went back to the hotel for a much needed rest. It was at this point that I realized that I was going to have a real challenge on my hands taking photos AND enjoying family time. It is a real tough balance to do both effectively. I chose to leave the tripod behind after this and just hope for the best with my shots and enjoy the family time. I only took the tripod out two more times after this night and left it in the locker one of the nights until we left and never set it up the other night. Therefore, 99.99% of my pics were either handheld or assisted by railings, trash containers, etc.
By the way, my tripod measures 24" and it JUST fit in the locker on an angle top top left corner to bottom right corner. Also, if you plan on attending the Christmas Party, the lockers are free. You just pay $2 for the key which is refunded to you when you return the key.
That was about it for day 1. Here are some pics from that day:
At least it did not hit us in the middle of our trip. The DW started feeling bad Saturday evening and then felt really bad all day Sunday. I started feeling bad Monday and had to call in sick yesterday, so no RAW processing for me yet. 
The oldest DD felt bad during school Monday then came home and slept from about 4:00 to 10:00. Luckily, the two youngest DDs have been fine. Hopefully this weekend I will get the time to do some processing. I took 899 shots over the four and a half days, so I have my work cut out for me.
Felicia had to get us to ride the big rides. We rode Expedition Everest and I thought I was going to pass out when I got off. The worse thing you can do is close your eyes and pray for it to end. 
Next time we go we have to take a friend for her to ride all those big rides with her. So DH and I don't have too. 
I think I will be throwing out about 1000 of them right off the bat due to duplicates and out of focus shots and then picking and choosing from there. Of my 2000, I have bunches of like 20 shots in a row of Everest and MANY bad fireworks shots and many of the different birds in AK, etc, so it should be easy to pick my favorites and trash the rest. I can't even tell you how many I have of the castle! The trip was trial and error for me. I had a REAL hard time with metering. I was fighting that the whole trip and was getting a good handle of it by the time I left. My DD did better with my S2IS than I did at times. I have a bunch of those to show too. There was a thread a long time ago about photos taken by children. If anyone knows where it is, let me know. She did real well for herself. 
The one and only time she rode it, you could probably hear her screams in the MK! 
Welcome back!
