My trip report ALL DAYS 1 thru 6 - LOTS of pics
- Thread starter AndrewWG
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AndrewWG
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Thanks everyone for your comments! 
Ok, here is Day 2:
Day 2: Got up a little late and let the kids (DD and her cousins) play in the pool for a bit. I walked around the hotel area nearby and shot some photos while they swam. They were all wanting to go on the slide which unfortunately didn't open until (I think) 10am. We were there at 9am. Oh well. We'll return later...
After some relaxing time in the pool, we headed out to Animal Kingdom. With all my lenses in my camera bag, this was quite a feat. I imagine the bag weighed approximately 10lbs and the bag just barely holds all my lenses. The strap wears into my neck over time. Mental note to me is to buy a new camera bag and make sure it is comfortable before trying this again!
First stop in Animal Kingdom was Bugs Life 3D movie. DD loves this movie and we see it everytime we go. Got some great photos of the tree of life which I won't bore you with here. From here we headed to Dino Land! Not my choice of supreme fun, but entertaining nonetheless. We rode Primeval Whirl (bad choice for DD) and played a bunch of the games. DD won two stuffed dinosaurs! That was great for her, bad for me. I carried two stuffed dinosaurs around for the rest of the day...
After we left DinoLand, we watched a street show of Smear, Splat and Dip. At least I think those are their names! These guys do some amazing juggling acts and other acts. Very talented group of people!
When leaving Dino Land we stopped at my favorite Everest photo spot behind Flame Tree Barbecue. Everytime I go there, the character boat goes by, so I tend to get a few shots of them as well.
The whole group of us wanted to do Kali River Rapids and when we got there, to our surprise we were met with a 0 minute wait time! Then we realized that it was shut down for some reason. As we were walking away, they yelled to us that it was back up and running so we hopped right on with no wait. Of course, me and DD ended up going down the big hill backwards so we were soaked.
After this we went on our separate ways with me, DW and DD going on the trail behind the Rapids. We got some great photos of bats, deer, tigers and other animals. On our way out, we caught a little bit of the parade but had to get to Epcot for dinner.
We then left and went to Epcot to have dinner at the San Angel Inn. Again, the food was TERRIBLE but this time we also had a TERRIBLE waiter as well. He even put a margarita in front of my 8 year old nephew! Wow. That was about all I could say. He had NO IDEA how to do the meal plan if everyone in the party didn't have the meal plan. 6 of us did and 6 of us didn't. I again was thankful that we were on the meal plan but was hoping to get a GOOD meal out of it eventually.
A little time in Epcot after dinner riding Living with the Land while DD and her cousins went on Nemo, then watching the fireworks (which I did not get ONE good shot of) and we were off to the hotel and a good nights rest. I didn't realize it at the time, but this was the last we would see of Epcot on this trip. I wanted to go back and do more, but we just never made it there. I've done it all before though so no real loss.
Ok, here is Day 2:
Day 2: Got up a little late and let the kids (DD and her cousins) play in the pool for a bit. I walked around the hotel area nearby and shot some photos while they swam. They were all wanting to go on the slide which unfortunately didn't open until (I think) 10am. We were there at 9am. Oh well. We'll return later...
After some relaxing time in the pool, we headed out to Animal Kingdom. With all my lenses in my camera bag, this was quite a feat. I imagine the bag weighed approximately 10lbs and the bag just barely holds all my lenses. The strap wears into my neck over time. Mental note to me is to buy a new camera bag and make sure it is comfortable before trying this again!
First stop in Animal Kingdom was Bugs Life 3D movie. DD loves this movie and we see it everytime we go. Got some great photos of the tree of life which I won't bore you with here. From here we headed to Dino Land! Not my choice of supreme fun, but entertaining nonetheless. We rode Primeval Whirl (bad choice for DD) and played a bunch of the games. DD won two stuffed dinosaurs! That was great for her, bad for me. I carried two stuffed dinosaurs around for the rest of the day...
After we left DinoLand, we watched a street show of Smear, Splat and Dip. At least I think those are their names! These guys do some amazing juggling acts and other acts. Very talented group of people!
When leaving Dino Land we stopped at my favorite Everest photo spot behind Flame Tree Barbecue. Everytime I go there, the character boat goes by, so I tend to get a few shots of them as well.
The whole group of us wanted to do Kali River Rapids and when we got there, to our surprise we were met with a 0 minute wait time! Then we realized that it was shut down for some reason. As we were walking away, they yelled to us that it was back up and running so we hopped right on with no wait. Of course, me and DD ended up going down the big hill backwards so we were soaked.
After this we went on our separate ways with me, DW and DD going on the trail behind the Rapids. We got some great photos of bats, deer, tigers and other animals. On our way out, we caught a little bit of the parade but had to get to Epcot for dinner.
We then left and went to Epcot to have dinner at the San Angel Inn. Again, the food was TERRIBLE but this time we also had a TERRIBLE waiter as well. He even put a margarita in front of my 8 year old nephew! Wow. That was about all I could say. He had NO IDEA how to do the meal plan if everyone in the party didn't have the meal plan. 6 of us did and 6 of us didn't. I again was thankful that we were on the meal plan but was hoping to get a GOOD meal out of it eventually.
A little time in Epcot after dinner riding Living with the Land while DD and her cousins went on Nemo, then watching the fireworks (which I did not get ONE good shot of) and we were off to the hotel and a good nights rest. I didn't realize it at the time, but this was the last we would see of Epcot on this trip. I wanted to go back and do more, but we just never made it there. I've done it all before though so no real loss.
DizneyNutz
DIS Veteran
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- Sep 19, 2004
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- 3,250
Can't wait to go back!
Thanks for the great photos.
Thanks for the great photos.
Wishes2you
Mouseketeer
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- Oct 13, 2006
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- 410
Andy,
The pictures look great and I am enjoying the trip report. I love the picture of the water with the small water fall. That is the one I was talking about in my PM. I love how the water comes over and then it fans out in the wisps of white. It looks so nice.
The pictures look great and I am enjoying the trip report. I love the picture of the water with the small water fall. That is the one I was talking about in my PM. I love how the water comes over and then it fans out in the wisps of white. It looks so nice.
LivingtheWDWdream
Dreamin of Disney!
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2006
- Messages
- 1,467
That picture of the bird eating off the ground is awesome the colors came out so crisp!
more please
more please
AndrewWG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2007
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- 1,879
Thanks again everyone! I was hoping for better pics of that bird but that was the best I could get as it was running around. If I could have got it feom the side, the colors were awesome! I think that pic shows most of them quite well though.
Well, here is Day 3:
6 of our 12 people headed out to MGM for a 10am arrival. The others slept in for a bit. I wasn't expecting much from this park as it is my least favorite of all the parks. We rushed over to Rockin Rollercoaster to get in line. 30 minute wait time was bearable to us so we decided to ride it now and get fast passes for later to ride it again. As we waited and the line didn't move, the wait time switched to 100 minutes! This was unacceptable so we shot over and got the fast passes. Only 4 of us were going to ride it anyways, so why make the others wait for us that long. We picked up 6 fast passes (us 4 plus the two that weren't going on anyways). I eventually gave mine to my nephew for him to ride it twice. I've been on it already and did like the ride but not nearly as much as he does. When we got those fast passes, 6 fast passes for Lights Motors Action came out with them. The show time was in only 15 minutes so we decided to get there and check it out. Fast passes aren't really needed for this show, but we figured what the heck. We were all pleasantly surprised at how great that show is! Even DD was getting into the things that they were doing. If you get the chance to see it, it is pretty neat to see what they can do with those cars and motorcycles.
After the show, the rest of our party showed up so all 12 of us were there and 6 of them went on RnR with the fast passes we got earlier. The rest of us went on Voyage of the Little Mermaid and watched the High School Musical 2 show under the hat. One suggestion I would make is to NOT try to be the first one in to see shows like the Little Mermaid or any of the 3D movies as you will be forced to walk all the way down the aisle to the very end and your seats may not be all that great. This was especially true with the Little Mermaid show. If you want to take pics, you want to be towards the middle or in the back of the pack as most of the action is on the left side of the theatre and we were getting a bit of a blocked view at times. Also try to sit behind a child and not someone who is tall or has a big head! They
will certainly be in your photos. This is very low light and hard to photograph so if you don't have the equipment, just sit back and enjoy the show. My photos came out ok I guess but my seats were terrible and my photos aren't very sharp. Slightly blurry at best.
The High School Musical thing is ok I guess. DD loved it and got to go out and dance with the people there. They aren't the real actors from the movie of course but she loved it anyways.
There were a couple street performers, a policeman and a guy tap dancing and playing a ukelele. They were fun to watch. Quite funny.
We left MGM at around 2:30 and headed back to the hotel to take the boat to Downtown Disney. This is a cool feature that the Port Orleans hotels offer and we wanted to make sure we did it. The boat ride is about 12 minutes and takes you past the old Treehouse Villas that are now occupied by overseas students who work for WDW. They aren't used for hotel rooms anymore because the updates that needed to be done on them, including handicapped access, was not possible with the way the structures are made. At least they are putting them to good use.
After a little shopping, we took the bus back to the hotel then a bus back to MGM for dinner at the 50's Prime Time Cafe and viewing of the Osbourne Lights. I must say that dinner at 50's PTC was FANTASTIC! Finally, I got the meal I was looking for. Very tasty! Also, the waitresses are just too funny! They entertain you while you eat by pretending to be your Mom and yelling at you for elbows on the table and eating your vegetables but they do it in a funny way that isn't annoying. We enjoyed it very much and had a ton of laughs. I give it a two thumbs up if you get the opportunity to go in.
The Osbourne Lights are a must see. It is amazing to see the whole street lit up like that. It is a tough thing to shoot, I would suggest a "night" setting on your camera or have your ISO cranked up and your F-stop wide open. I did it all hand held at about ISO 1600 and f4 to 5.6 for about a 1/30 shutter at 17-24mm (+1.6x crop) for most of my shots. This worked out "ok" for most shots. I could have thrown on the 50mm 1.8 but I didn't feel like changing lenses. Too lazy I guess. A tripod would have been nice but also would have been a pain in the neck with so many people walking around with their heads up not watching where they are going. I saw one or two people set up tripods and they didn't seem to be having too hard a time of it, but I can't imagine that it was too fun to try to do. Another suggestion that I previously made is to bring some lens cleaner with you and a soft cloth of some sort. You will almost certainly get some "snow" on your lens and since it is soap bubbles, it can make the glass a mess after awhile. It cleans off just fine, but every once in awhile you should check your lens to see if it has any spots on it.
After viewing the lights, we headed back for a night itme swim in the pool and off to bed.
Well, here is Day 3:
6 of our 12 people headed out to MGM for a 10am arrival. The others slept in for a bit. I wasn't expecting much from this park as it is my least favorite of all the parks. We rushed over to Rockin Rollercoaster to get in line. 30 minute wait time was bearable to us so we decided to ride it now and get fast passes for later to ride it again. As we waited and the line didn't move, the wait time switched to 100 minutes! This was unacceptable so we shot over and got the fast passes. Only 4 of us were going to ride it anyways, so why make the others wait for us that long. We picked up 6 fast passes (us 4 plus the two that weren't going on anyways). I eventually gave mine to my nephew for him to ride it twice. I've been on it already and did like the ride but not nearly as much as he does. When we got those fast passes, 6 fast passes for Lights Motors Action came out with them. The show time was in only 15 minutes so we decided to get there and check it out. Fast passes aren't really needed for this show, but we figured what the heck. We were all pleasantly surprised at how great that show is! Even DD was getting into the things that they were doing. If you get the chance to see it, it is pretty neat to see what they can do with those cars and motorcycles.
After the show, the rest of our party showed up so all 12 of us were there and 6 of them went on RnR with the fast passes we got earlier. The rest of us went on Voyage of the Little Mermaid and watched the High School Musical 2 show under the hat. One suggestion I would make is to NOT try to be the first one in to see shows like the Little Mermaid or any of the 3D movies as you will be forced to walk all the way down the aisle to the very end and your seats may not be all that great. This was especially true with the Little Mermaid show. If you want to take pics, you want to be towards the middle or in the back of the pack as most of the action is on the left side of the theatre and we were getting a bit of a blocked view at times. Also try to sit behind a child and not someone who is tall or has a big head! They
will certainly be in your photos. This is very low light and hard to photograph so if you don't have the equipment, just sit back and enjoy the show. My photos came out ok I guess but my seats were terrible and my photos aren't very sharp. Slightly blurry at best.
The High School Musical thing is ok I guess. DD loved it and got to go out and dance with the people there. They aren't the real actors from the movie of course but she loved it anyways.
There were a couple street performers, a policeman and a guy tap dancing and playing a ukelele. They were fun to watch. Quite funny.
We left MGM at around 2:30 and headed back to the hotel to take the boat to Downtown Disney. This is a cool feature that the Port Orleans hotels offer and we wanted to make sure we did it. The boat ride is about 12 minutes and takes you past the old Treehouse Villas that are now occupied by overseas students who work for WDW. They aren't used for hotel rooms anymore because the updates that needed to be done on them, including handicapped access, was not possible with the way the structures are made. At least they are putting them to good use.
After a little shopping, we took the bus back to the hotel then a bus back to MGM for dinner at the 50's Prime Time Cafe and viewing of the Osbourne Lights. I must say that dinner at 50's PTC was FANTASTIC! Finally, I got the meal I was looking for. Very tasty! Also, the waitresses are just too funny! They entertain you while you eat by pretending to be your Mom and yelling at you for elbows on the table and eating your vegetables but they do it in a funny way that isn't annoying. We enjoyed it very much and had a ton of laughs. I give it a two thumbs up if you get the opportunity to go in.
The Osbourne Lights are a must see. It is amazing to see the whole street lit up like that. It is a tough thing to shoot, I would suggest a "night" setting on your camera or have your ISO cranked up and your F-stop wide open. I did it all hand held at about ISO 1600 and f4 to 5.6 for about a 1/30 shutter at 17-24mm (+1.6x crop) for most of my shots. This worked out "ok" for most shots. I could have thrown on the 50mm 1.8 but I didn't feel like changing lenses. Too lazy I guess. A tripod would have been nice but also would have been a pain in the neck with so many people walking around with their heads up not watching where they are going. I saw one or two people set up tripods and they didn't seem to be having too hard a time of it, but I can't imagine that it was too fun to try to do. Another suggestion that I previously made is to bring some lens cleaner with you and a soft cloth of some sort. You will almost certainly get some "snow" on your lens and since it is soap bubbles, it can make the glass a mess after awhile. It cleans off just fine, but every once in awhile you should check your lens to see if it has any spots on it.
After viewing the lights, we headed back for a night itme swim in the pool and off to bed.
LivingtheWDWdream
Dreamin of Disney!
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- Nov 20, 2006
- Messages
- 1,467
Great Photos! Makes me miss WDW during the holiday timeframe
Pea-n-Me
DIS Legend
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- Jul 18, 2004
- Messages
- 41,370
Nice report and beautiful pictures! 
I thought the color in the pictures was especially nice. I like that spot at Flame Tree too!
Now, some questions.
How would you say it compared in terms of "user friendliness" (for lack of a better term) using a DSLR vs your S2? Did you feel like you had a good handle on using your equipment, or were you feeling like a real newbie? LOL What will you do differently next time (besides the bag)?
You mentioned your camera bag was hurting your neck - what type will you buy instead? I think it is challenging trying to get the type of pictures you really want to get when you're with others who are waiting for you and you want to keep going, etc.
How did you like Port Orleans overall? Did you do the campfire or carriage ride at all? How were the buses - wait times ok? Crowded? Have read mixed reviews.
Looking forward to seeing more of your pictures. As I said before, I'm living vicariously through you, being on the fence about making the move to a DSLR myself. I feel like I won't know what I'm doing.
I thought the color in the pictures was especially nice. I like that spot at Flame Tree too! Now, some questions.
How would you say it compared in terms of "user friendliness" (for lack of a better term) using a DSLR vs your S2? Did you feel like you had a good handle on using your equipment, or were you feeling like a real newbie? LOL What will you do differently next time (besides the bag)?
You mentioned your camera bag was hurting your neck - what type will you buy instead? I think it is challenging trying to get the type of pictures you really want to get when you're with others who are waiting for you and you want to keep going, etc.
How did you like Port Orleans overall? Did you do the campfire or carriage ride at all? How were the buses - wait times ok? Crowded? Have read mixed reviews.
Looking forward to seeing more of your pictures. As I said before, I'm living vicariously through you, being on the fence about making the move to a DSLR myself. I feel like I won't know what I'm doing.
ukcatfan
DIS Veteran
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- May 11, 2001
- Messages
- 5,271
If it were 8 more days, he would still be there. I believe that his whole trip was 6 days.Kevin
AndrewWG
DIS Veteran
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- Mar 3, 2007
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- 1,879
Nice report and beautiful pictures!
Now, some questions.
How would you say it compared in terms of "user friendliness" (for lack of a better term) using a DSLR vs your S2? Did you feel like you had a good handle on using your equipment, or were you feeling like a real newbie? LOL What will you do differently next time (besides the bag)?
You mentioned your camera bag was hurting your neck - what type will you buy instead? I think it is challenging trying to get the type of pictures you really want to get when you're with others who are waiting for you and you want to keep going, etc.
How did you like Port Orleans overall? Did you do the campfire or carriage ride at all? How were the buses - wait times ok? Crowded? Have read mixed reviews.
Looking forward to seeing more of your pictures. As I said before, I'm living vicariously through you, being on the fence about making the move to a DSLR myself. I feel like I won't know what I'm doing.
Thanks! I love the camera and that spot behind Flame Tree!
Ok, to answer your questions:
User friendliness is not a term for DSLR's I don't think. I think it is learning curve after learning curve. I went into the trip thinking that I had a great handle on the camera and it's functions. I do know all the basic functions just fine, but I had a terribly hard time with metering. After day 2 I was completely frustrated actually. I was glad that I was shooting in JPG+RAW as I knew I would need the RAW files to PP the photos alot. That was not my intention. I had hoped that I had come far enough with my learning that I could actually get decent shots the first time. I was getting many dark subjects and light backgrounds. It was a constant problem. I learned alot about that while I was on the trip. I think I can hit a shot pretty good now knowing what I know. Fireworks? Forget it. I got basically nothing like the other DSLR users on this board. I got some nice ones, but I'll show them later and you will see that they just don't come close to comparing with the others. Of course, I have only had a DSLR for 4 months so I'll give myself that anyways.
I can tell you this for an example of the DSLR vs the S2IS: Me and DD8 were taking pics of a stork at AK. I took about 5 pics with the 30D and none of them came out good. She took one pic with the S2IS and it was fine. Here are the results:
Mine:
Hers: Edit- now that I look at the EXIF, this was with the older A85 camera, not the S2. Still a p&s though.
Quite a difference.
I have no idea what camera bag to buy at this point. I am guessing the slingshot type but I am going to go and look at them before just purchasing online. The 2 main problems with the bag I have now are size (too small) and the strap is just too thin and has no padding.
The challenge of taking photos with family waiting is terrible. I needed much more time as with that time I am learning but they don't understand cameras so they don't understand how much goes into learning. Like I said, try to come up with specific times that you will be shooting photos and let them know about it well ahead of time. This will save alot of frustration in the end.
We liked Port Orleans very much. We were in the French Quarter. The Riverside part seems a bit large and could be tough on the bus schedule. The bus stops first at POFQ and then if it isn't full, it continues on to Riverside. If it is full, it goes right to the park. The wait times weren't all that bad. It seemed like we waited the most for the MK bus. The others were there somwhat quickly from what I could see. Many of the return trips from the parks were crowded and I found myself standing alot. Of course, I give up my seat to kids usually as most people should and generally do.
We didn't do any of the carriage rides at POFQ. I saw a few of them go by and it looked like fun. I never even got to the point that I found out the price for them.
Do let me know if you have any more questions. I will do my best to answer them for ya!
garate55
A Brick in the Hub
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2007
- Messages
- 187
I do agree about the shoot times and taking multiple photos with different settings to get the shot you want. I do have to say great photos by the way.
I will say some of the pictures I took my wife also got the same shot, some of hers turned out better than mine. (she was using our Canon A520)
My wife (even though she won't tell me she was) was getting annoyed with me cause I would stop and take pictures and she would stop and I would be nowhere in sight. So she had to wait for me to get the shot I wanted and I felt rushed so when I caught up I looked at the photo and got 5 pictures of nothing.
We were at Disneyland for 5 days and I took 2200 photos I have only had my Nikon D40 for only 2 months and wasn't really comfortable with it so I had a huge learning curve. I wish I had another 5 days to get the details of the park I missed or didn't get to cause I felt like I would be asking too much if I pulled my family around just to get that great photo.
I will say some of the pictures I took my wife also got the same shot, some of hers turned out better than mine. (she was using our Canon A520)
My wife (even though she won't tell me she was) was getting annoyed with me cause I would stop and take pictures and she would stop and I would be nowhere in sight. So she had to wait for me to get the shot I wanted and I felt rushed so when I caught up I looked at the photo and got 5 pictures of nothing.
We were at Disneyland for 5 days and I took 2200 photos I have only had my Nikon D40 for only 2 months and wasn't really comfortable with it so I had a huge learning curve. I wish I had another 5 days to get the details of the park I missed or didn't get to cause I felt like I would be asking too much if I pulled my family around just to get that great photo.
AndrewWG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2007
- Messages
- 1,879
Yep. I agree with this totally. Sounds alot like my trip! I would say that if you are a single person with a new DSLR, there can't be a better place to learn how to use it than at WDW (or maybe even DL but I've never been there). I ended up using manual mode MUCH more than I ever have on this trip. What I ended up doing was putting the camera in Av mode, and seeing what it says for a shutter on the brightest part of my scene and what it says for shutter on the darkest part of the scene and shooting somewhere in between. For example, if the meter said 1/1000 for the sky and 1/400 for the subject at f8, I knew that I could not take the photo at f8 1/400 or the sky would be blown out and I couldn't take it at f8 1/1000 or the subject would be too dark. Therefore I switched to manual, set the f stop to f8 and the shutter to something like 1/640 or 1/800 and bracket it a bit to see what the best balance was. It worked like a charm! However, it takes more time to do and therefore DW gets annoyed a bit more....
DizneyNutz
DIS Veteran
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- Sep 19, 2004
- Messages
- 3,250
O.K now you are making me nervous! I was really hoping this would be the TRIP to capture those fantastic fireworks, esp. with the new castle decorations.
Wishes2you
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2006
- Messages
- 410
I am enjoying your report. Tell DD that she did a great job with her picture. I would also like to see more of her pictures. Looks like you two will have to go out on a few photo shoots together. Start teaching her now. Just think of what she could do down the road.
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