NateNLogansDad + party of 25 + AKL + MNSSHP = a few thousand pictures (Bonus Video!!)

[TinkerbellinNY6]

So glad to have you along for this one too! How were the crowd levels last week? I so wish we had another trip planned This is the first trip in 3 yrs or so that we didn't have another trip planned as soon as we came home. So far, it looks like we may be skipping Disney next year for something new....I'm not saying there's no way....just that right now we don't have anything planned

The crowds weren't that bad but then again we have been there during Christmas and New Years so crowds dont really bother us. But as we did get closer to our departure day it got busier. We normally do not have another trip planned so I usually feel those Disney Blues but this time we have another planned

 

[NateNLogansDad]

So, when we left off Tina, the boys and I were with Tina’s 2 brothers over at Mexico and about to go play a little joke. So, we headed out in the direction of Future World…..

I was really diggen this setup with the cranberry harvesters….

So yea, as you may have guessed, we ended up here….

Club Cool! If you’ve never been to Club Cool before, it’s a nifty little spot near the Fountain of Nations where you can sample different flavors of Coke from around the world. For the most part, they really aren’t bad (even without rum) BUT there is one flavor that most people just don’t care for…..the Beverly!

Yes, this is a real drink and Yes, many people have the same reaction. Did we warn Sean or Brian?

Well, I thought Tina did and she assumed I did. Yea, that’s it. There was a miscommunication and somehow Sean never got the message.
Yup, that’s what’ I’m sticking with.

Oh, and I stood off to the side with camera in hand to document it ….

Notice Tina off to the side trying not to look to shady?

Now, Brian witnessed exactly what went down from start to finish with Sean. He knew it wasn’t going to be the best tasting but still kept an open mind about trying it……

Beverly. She’ll getcha!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

So, we hung out in there for a little while longer and witnessed the exact same thing several more times by other families that came in. Apparently they had also dropped the ball on communicating the fact that the Beverly tasted like expired cough medicine! I think there was even one or two people that did it on purpose! Can you believe that??? Crazy huh? I’m told it’s not right to take pictures of other people trying the Beverly and than posting them online, so here’s my boys trying the other flavors.

I know, I know….not as funny but I should be considerate of other people’s privacy. Right?

Anywho, after a few good laughs we left there and took Sean and Brian out to show them around a little.

Everybody always says how EPCOT really doesn’t have that much going on so I wanted to try to prove them wrong…..And since they both love thrill rides, I figured why not mess with their minds a little and take them here……

MISSION SPACE!!!
Yea, we could have gone on the green side to get an idea of what the ride is really like but where is the fun in that? Orange Please! Full throttle all the way!

Disclaimer, if you have heart problems or motion sickness DO NOT GO ON THE ORANGE SIDE! Yes, it is that intense! I swear they bumped it up since last year!

Tina went on here once with me before and that was enough so she stayed out with the kids. The 3 of us went in and had no line whatsoever!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of standing in a line, but when a ride is walk-on, I have almost no time to get some really good pictures! Oh well, so many little details missed!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Right away we were placed into our briefing room…..

And a few minutes later we were ready for launch!

I’m not saying our mission went flawlessly, but we were able to make a lunar assist and land on mars. Not bad for a couple of numbskulls from Philly!

For whatever reason, after we landed and departed our rocket ship, there were signs for this…

Probably would have made sense to have advanced training BEFORE we left our atmosphere, but who am I to judge.

After leaving our mother ship behind, we entered into a room dedicated to help you remember such an ordeal and had a special friend there to great us…..

Looking up I noticed something. In the charts. Tilt your head slightly to the left….we are not alone!!!

A few minutes later we were reunited with Tina and the boys and they acted as though we had never left. *sigh* Oh well.

After exploring space I figured we’d head to a whole different form of exploration….UNDER THE SEA!!!

This is another MUST DO for us and the kids. I was enjoying myself so much I even took a self portrait to share with my fellow Dis’ers in case you forgot what I looked like….

No, I’m not a professional model but thanks for asking.

On our MUST DO ride, I have a MUST DO picture…..

I don’t know why, but I ALWAYS take that picture thinking I’ll get a better one than last time but I never really do. There’s just NEVER any line when we go so we always walk right past it. Oh well.
Here’s the boys practicing their underwater breathing….

And Sean looking forward to a ride that he’s never been on

And Sean still looking forward to a ride that he’s never been on

 

[NateNLogansDad]

This next section of pictures is for those of you who love the ride. If you’ve never experienced it, skip the pictures and go ride it without any preconceived ideas. The pictures just don’t do it any justice!

I can never get a decent shot of this little starfish! Why can’t the ride ever break down while I’m right here??

O.K. I’ll admit it, as much as I enjoy our little ride in the clam mobile’s, I was surprised that Brian and Sean did also. I think they still had the idea that Disney World is just the castle and It’s A Small World. I think slowly they were starting to see just how creative the imagineers can be.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

After our little ride under the see, we decided to go check out the aquariums and just make sure Nemo was doing O.K.

NEMO!!!

Now that we knew Nemo was safe and secure, we checked out some of the merchandise at the gift shop near the exit. Is there ANY rides that don’t have a gift shop at the end???

Guess not.

Another off topic question, how many fingerprints do you think they wipe off of the fish tanks every day? Everybody points at everything in there!

If you’ve never been inside the aquarium area, you really need to go see it! It’s not just another room with some fish tanks, it’s definitely been taken up a notch. Walt would be proud I think.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Moving on.

As we left out of “The Sea’s” I received a text and a phone call that our room was now ready!!! I was so excited to show off a WDW deluxe room to Brian and Sean but I had also made a promise to Logan that we would hit his favorite ride sometime today. A ride that I’ve learned to be a pain in the butt (and at the same time fun) to take pictures on. A staple if you will.

Any guesses? Need a hint??? How about….

Believe it or not, we had been on several trip and never actually stepped foot in the “big ball” but ever since the first ride, Logan has been hooked! So away we went to keep a promise……

 

[NateNLogansDad]

continued.......

Tina laughs and says this looks like some sort of 80’s photography thing…..

I don’t care, I still like it!

Logan picked our future living and loved every bit of it!

When you step off the ride you are shown a huge globe that maps out where everybody that rode Spaceship Earth is from that day along with your picture….

I love how there’s so many people from our area all the time!

After our Spaceship Earth adventure, we stepped back into the sunlight and headed out to go find our new home for the next week!

And this is where I will leave you for now! I hope I haven’t worn you out yet with too many pictures…we haven’t even gotten the first day yet!

Stick around, put your feet up, and have some popcorn!


See ya real soon!

 

[hjd0411]

I'm loving it Rob..!!! Hey - what lens did you use in Spaceship Earth? Just curious - I'm guessing a 50mm or 30mm. I've got a 30mm to play with when I go in October, so I'm interested in what you used! Many thanks.
Will wait patiently for your next instalment.
By the way - your boys look too cute!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I'm loving it Rob..!!! Hey - what lens did you use in Spaceship Earth? Just curious - I'm guessing a 50mm or 30mm. I've got a 30mm to play with when I go in October, so I'm interested in what you used! Many thanks.
Will wait patiently for your next instalment.
By the way - your boys look too cute!

Those little hams? They love getting their pictures taken! It's hard to get a picture of them not smiling!

Right on the money! It was a Nikon 50mm 1.8. I just got the 35mm 1.8 for Christmas and am like As much as I do like the 50mm the 35 will be nice for those shots where the kids are sitting in the next seat over and I want to capture their expressions. I can't wait to go out and play with it!

Who makes your 30mm? What's the aperture go down (up?) to? Are you going to be doing the MNSSHP in October?

 

[dvc4life]

I am loving your TR. Very entertaining and enjoyable to read. And you have taken some really great photos. Love the ones on Spaceship Earth.

Can't wait for your next installment.

 

[NLD]

Subscribing.

Looks like a great trip! And you've got some great photos already in the first day!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I am loving your TR. Very entertaining and enjoyable to read. And you have taken some really great photos. Love the ones on Spaceship Earth.

Can't wait for your next installment.

Thank you! I'll have another installment either today or tomorrow, but I need to upload some more pictures. Spaceship Earth is fun to photograph and a great "training ride" for beginners like me to practice on. It's dark, it moves, but it's not too dark or too fast It was a nice warm up exercise for the Halloween Party later on in the week

Subscribing.

Looks like a great trip! And you've got some great photos already in the first day!

It had it's moments...but overall, how can you have a bad trip in Disney???
Thanks for the pat on the back with the pictures....now if only I could find a trip report from someone behind a Nikon D700 wink wink. Probably be some killer shots in that one

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Hey guys, I'll probably post the few pictures left from day one in a little bit. Today's been a little rough because Nate had his tonsils taken out and tubes put in his ears early this morning and I'm just a little zonked. Also, I realized that I never did upload day 2 yet so that will need to wait till I get home later on. Sorry for the delay but hopefully there will be a little fix for you in a few.....

 

[Susan121302]

LOVING the report so far. you take such great pictures, it's like being there. Take care of your little one, we can wait!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

LOVING the report so far. you take such great pictures, it's like being there. Take care of your little one, we can wait!

Thanks Susan! I love doing these Trip Reports and re-living it all with people who enjoy Disney as much as we do! I have Day 1 finished and it should all be up in the next 5 minutes or so

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Sorry to cut it short with the last update but there’s just been so much going on around the house with the holiday’s, and Nate’s surgery, and just life in general that I really just needed to call it a night. I hope you all understand, and to make it up I’ll finish up Day 1 now!

So when we left off, we were just leaving EPCOT (and lunch in the American Pavilion…c’mon seriously??? OK OK, I’ll let it go) to go back and see our new home for the week. Our room was ready and I was so looking forward to getting some kind of reaction from Brian and Sean.

You see, the rest of the group would be coming down in 2 days and each family had their own Studio. I had talked with my Father In Law about possibly sharing a room and having a little bit more space to stretch out and relax in and we agreed on getting a 2 bedroom villa for the week! What’s so special about a 2 Bedroom Room? Well for one, it sleeps 9, has a full kitchen, AND with a total of 7 guys…having 3 full bathrooms was a big bonus!

Our room at Kidani Village…

continued.....

 

[NateNLogansDad]

We ALL LOVED that room! Our building was only 2 yrs old so everything was really up to date and just perfect for our tastes. The best part was, for the next 2 days we had all this space for just 4 adults and 2 kids! Yep, life is good sometimes.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

We hung out in the room for a bit and may have even taken a slight nap. By this time we were all running on fumes from being up so early with barely any sleep so we slipped our shoes back on and headed out to find the only quick service restaurant at “The Lodge” called The Mara. Unfortunately, The Mara wasn’t located in our building so every time we wanted a quick bite, it was at least 15 minute walk to find food. Oh well, guess it can’t always be perfect right? At least we are here!!!

From The Mara…
I had some kind of stew over some kind of rice. I like trying new things and I’m glad I did, it was delicious! Oh yea, and I'm soooo glad I had read about the Zebra Domes here on the Disboards! I think I had about 30 of them that week

The kids stuck with the classics, Plain and Pepperoni Flatbreads

I remember Sean or Brian had ½ of a chicken but I forget the rest. For some reason, they didn’t want their pictures taken while shoving food into their mouths! I tried to tell them that it was for the Disboards and that people from around the world would be watching them eat, but for some reason that just made them turn their backs to me even more! Oh well, what can I do???

After diner we headed back to our side of the resort and talked about what we’ve done up to this point. I was really happy with how much Brian and Sean were enjoying everything so far. Those 2 are so easy going and I’m so glad they came down early with us! We knew that things would be getting a little crazy in the next few days so on the way back to our room we decided to go down to the fire pit and check out the animals at night….and of coarse try out those night vision goggles!

Around the fire there was a gentleman telling stories about the country he came from. I wish I had written it down or at least gotten a picture of his name tag. Honestly, it didn’t matter where he was from. His stories were captivating and being told by the fire made them so much more than just stories. It was awesome.

I wanted to get a picture of the boys with the goggles on but really they weren’t all that great. I’m very familiar with focusing each side to zero in on my eyesight but the set that we were using had something seriously wrong with them and they actually hurt to look through. *Sigh* Oh well. I think the camera saw the scenery better anyway. Sorry these aren’t perfect but I didn’t have the tripod with me and tried leaning on a rock instead.
Crazy thing is that it was so dark out there you couldn't see 1/2 of that with the naked eye!

And this is again where I will be leaving you.
The ending to our first day was perfect. After traveling over 1000 miles by air and by car, walking a few miles in EPCOT, and checking in to our new temporary home, we ended it by the quiet fire and called it a night. Looking back, we should have ended every night like that one. I guess that’ll be on the list for our next trip!

Stay tuned!!! I hope to have Day 2 started either tonight or tomorrow!

 

[NLD]

Great update!

Had that same stew in September 2010 at AKL, it was good. Also totally loved the stories by the fire, too, though we heard them at Jambo.

So how many pics did you take total on this trip?

I'm taking my dd and MIL in January, hoping to do a trip report afterwards. It's just that processing all the photos takes so much time! Ugh. Still don't have them all processed from the last trip!

What are you doing to yours? Just converting to jpeg or are you doing any PP on them?