Nothing to See Here...

[Sherry E]

I want a link when the Hong Kong trip report starts. I would love to see it.

Signed,
A Sometimes Lurker Named Michele

Sometimes Lurker Named Michele -

I agree. I am especially interested in seeing photos of things I haven't seen and places I will probably never go (especially if it involves Disney parks). In the Christmas Superthread, NewbieMouse was mentioning that she and her family are headed to Europe for 6 weeks (!!!!!) - which would be the trip of a lifetime in anyone's eyes, really, seeing that they are visiting Italy, England, France, Germany and other countries. They are just going to get in a car and drive around Europe. That sounds amazing! BUT they are also adding a day trip to Disneyland Paris while they're there!! I can't wait to hear about it and hopefully see photos!

Ditto!

TK -

So that makes 3 of us (you, Michele and I) ready to see some Hong Kong Disneyland photos from guineapiggie!

OK Sherry, I'm ready for the wrap-up. I want to see which photos ended up being your favorites!

PHXscuba

PHX -

I have not forgotten! After going back and forth about whether I wanted to post photos of the trip highlights, or post my favorite pictures, or post the highlights from both November and December, and also searching for some links to something I wanted to add into the Wrap-Up...I had to temporarily shift my focus.

First of all, my PC has been acting up soooooo much, on and off the Internet, and it will literally just freeze up for 20, 30, 45 minutes as a time (which it has been doing as I type this reply!). So I could be 90% done with something I am typing, and it freezes up before I can add in that last 10%. I just can't deal with it. Some threads I can post in without much difficulty and others I can't (like this one - probably because there are so many pictures in the entire thread and it's too much for the PC to load).

When the PC stepped up its rebellion against me in the last few weeks, I started to get nervous that it would give out on me before I was able to complete my overhaul of the new Christmas/Holiday Season Superthread (which I had to start in December when we hit the page limit on the old Superthread). I am revamping the first 7 or 8 posts on Page 1 of the new thread to include a lot of stuff (blog links and things) and different categories that I didn't have in the previous thread. I was afraid my PC was going to die before I finished that project. So I shifted focus to try to go about collecting various links and info that will eventually all be put somewhere on Page 1 of the Superthread. Some of the links have already been added, but there is still much more to do, as well as adding in thumbnails to certain posts, etc. Now is the best time to get it done - while the Christmas planning is rather quiet and the Superthread has been quiet.



Also, there are at least 3 people interested in going to Catalina for one day this year, based on seeing my Catalina TR and/or my "Free Catalina Express Birthday Boat Ride" thread, so I have been answering questions and dispensing info about Catalina in the California and SoCal forums.

So everything here had to be put on the back burner - fortunately, I at least posted the actual last installment of the trip itself (with the Surf's Up recap), so even if I didn't get to the Wrap-Up for another few weeks, at least the trip itself was concluded and not left hanging.

Well I finally made it back over to see the end of your trip report!! Nice pics of Gavin's backside..... You should have just backed up like you were getting a picture of the whole area but then zoom in on him.....he would have never known.

I'm so glad you told me about the nutcrackers!! I just love my Mickey Santa one & might have to add to my collection.......

As for the character meal.....I still feel horrible that we forgot to wait....it would have been awesome having you both sitting with us. I'm usually so organized........ As for the treating you......consider it a Christmas Gift!!! It was my pleasure!!

I think you're probably right regarding Minnie & Friends.......We were probably at Minnie's 30 minutes before Mike & I were able to go up and get our food. The characters came one right after another. Great for pics & interaction.....but not always easy to actually eat the meal. Sounds like you got "jumped" right when you got to your table at Surf's Up......we usually have a few minutes before that happens, but it might depend on where the characters are in their rotation.

I do enjoy the different options and always avoid the scrambled eggs!!! lol I'm glad you're willing to try it again in the future!!

Goofy's Kitchen was really good for us this past December!! So it's back on my good list when it comes to our family. In 2010.....not so hot!! Always love the food there....so many choices!!! (our visit in Dec 11 was also a good experience).

Love the shirts!!! I've also noticed the shirts quality going down. I have a couple shirts I got years ago that are still in good shape, but one's I bought 2 yrs ago are full of holes. Derek says the thin tees are called California Tees and he said they were great for when he was in Florida......but for me to buy that style for Oregon wouldn't make much sense. Besides, I like knowing I have a good quality material! Especially for the prices they charge!

GREAT REPORT FILLED WITH AWESOME PICTURES!!!! Thank You!!!

Laurie -

Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it.

I just couldn't bring myself to snap a photo of Gavin when he looked right at me. He was standing next to Oswald's, but it was off to the side enough that I would have had to turn towards him to get the picture and he would have caught on to what I was doing.

The pictures that Mike got of Gwen and Kingston - especially that one shot, in particular - were so great, though. That one photo was so close-up and clear (and so obviously Gwen - there was no question about who it was) that I could easily envision it being posted in US or People, or some magazine like that. (Mike could have probably made a few bucks if he had submitted that specific picture to one of the magazines...)

Here is something I wondered about... Sometimes we all see those (obviously pre-planned) photos of celebrities with characters in the Disney Parks, like Will Ferrell and whichever character, or Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell and whoever, etc. They're always in front of the Castle or in some sort of PhotoPass location. Those pics usually pop up on the Disney Parks Blog. They are obviously not spontaneous shots, where a CM just happened to spot whomever it was roaming the parks. The photo ops were clearly set up.

So what I wonder is if, in exchange for getting 'lifetime free entry' to the Disney parks for certain celebrities, the celebrities have to do certain things like pose for the occasional set-up photo sessions in the parks (with the Plaids closely guarding them, of course). I would bet that something like that happens or is arranged, because you know that some (if not all) of these A-Listers are getting in free and Disney benefits from getting professional promo photos of the celebs in their parks.

I've also seen set-up photos of Sheryl Crow and her son in Cars Land, and Gwen/Gavin/their kids in the teacup photo spot in Fantasyland.

About the Nutcrackers - I'm so glad that you (and Liza) were able to get them. Disney cannot be trusted to sell those every year so you never know what will happen! I think you should definitely buy another one to give Santa Mickey a little friend! Besides, I would bet that Disney will add in new ones with different themes for the 2013 season.

You know, when I was researching and hunting down link after link after link to add to the Christmas Superthread, I stumbled upon a Blog about the Santa Mickey Nutcrackers. Apparently (from what it appears) the Santa nutcrackers first appeared in WDW in 2011, but just Santa Mickey. No others. Based on their popularity the Merchandise folks decided to add more varieties of the Nutcracker to the collection for 2012. And 2012 was also the first year that any of the Nutcrackers were sold at Disneyland Resort - so it was probably a direct result of the popularity of that one Santa Mickey sold at WDW in 2011!

As for Surf's Up - thank you again for treating. It was really, really nice of you - especially since I wasn't even at your table. If you and I ever happen to be at DLR at the same time again (for the holidays or for Halloween or whenever), I have to treat YOU to something. And don't worry about forgetting us! As soon as I spotted you in the restaurant and saw that you were all smiling and laughing and having a great time, I certainly didn't want to barge in on the fun. So I figured that Liza and I would quietly slip into the restaurant and wait for you to eventually notice us, or wait for a moment when it looked like we could go up without bothering you guys! We wouldn't have let you get out of there - and we wouldn't have left - without saying hello!

It was great to see you again. If I could get down to DLR for a day while you're there with the Divas, I would definitely meet up with you ...but it doesn't look like that will happen.

I will definitely try Surf's Up again. (I wish they would do a character dinner too - even just for only a couple of nights a week or something.) I didn't have a bad time there at all - in fact, I love the unique character selection (I can't believe with Mickey, Daisy and Stitch there that it is not busier than it is all the time!) and I think the interaction is fun. It looks like a great meal for kids because the characters are so 'present.' Also, I know that scrambled eggs at these buffets are hit or miss - so the next time I eat them they could be fantastic! I just wish I had more time to get settled and get situated, take in my surroundings, etc., before the onslaught of characters descended upon us. But that's just me - for other people, they want the immediate character attention so it would be perfect.

You know, I'd like to try Minnie & Friends once, anyway, even though I know the frenzied, frantic pace of it all would drive me nuts. I like the number of characters there and I would just like to be able to have that extra experience. I think I would just have to go there on a partially full stomach, knowing that if I wanted to get pictures taken with every character who came by I might have to give up the buffet! I would have to go in knowing that it was going to be all about the characters, and that eating food would be a bonus.

I saw your photos and read your recap of Goofy's when you first posted the pics in your TR - I was so glad and relieved to see that it went well for you this time and that it was a great visit. It looked as though the characters really went above and beyond what they normally do in terms of attention. They should be that way with every table, but I guess it's hard to devote that kind of time to every table so they sometimes don't deliver the goods to certain groups of people.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has noticed the T-shirt material being thinner, and that you and TK have also noticed it! I'm not going crazy after all! Even as recently as 4-5 years ago I could still get a shirt that was made of thicker material. My blue & pink "paint splattered Mickey" shirt (which I got in 2008) is made of a better material than these recent shirts I got in December.

You make an excellent point about the shirts - the thinness of the material (a.k.a. cheapness) is great for a trip to WDW...or maybe to Las Vegas...or to Arizona...and even a trip to California. But it doesn't make much sense in Oregon...or New York...or anywhere on the East Coast...

And you are absolutely correct - the prices of those Disney shirts are not cheap, unless you happen to get a good one on markdown from the Disney Store online or something (I think I got a shirt marked down to $6.00 online a few years ago, and it was thin material - but for $6.00 I can live with it). With those price tags should come good quality and not just cute designs! Even with the 20% discount that the AP got me at World of Disney, and even though I used the $50 gift card that I got from Disney Vacation Club to pay for them, still...all tolled, at the end of the transaction, I ended up paying roughly $43 for only two THIN shirts that will probably develop holes in another couple of years. $43 is not cheap for two THIN T-shirts! It's a good thing the designs are clever - otherwise, I think I would be giving up my black T-shirt habit forever and ever!

 

[lsulindy]

lsulindy -

Welcome! I'm so glad you made it over here, and I wish that I had seen that you posted before now! (I don't know why I didn't get an e-mail alert.)

Thank you! I knew the mask photos would be of particular interest to you, as you are a Mardi Gras attendee and a New Orleans resident. I definitely wanted to make sure that you saw the photos before your trip, as some of the masks are more 'out of the way' than others and not necessarily as noticeable. (Even Laurie/DizNee Luver didn't notice many of them!)

I am pretty sure that all of the masks will still be up during Disneyland's Mardi Gras celebration - I can't really see why any of them would be taken down. At first I thought that maybe the decorations/enhancement team might take down the masks that looked too Christmas-y and just leave the rest of them up. But the cool thing about those masks is that none of them - not even the red one - look too Christmas-y so they should all be able to stay up into March.

Many of the masks you will see if you kind of walk along the outskirts of New Orleans Square, parallel to the Rivers of America. There is a series of masks adorning the lampposts right along the pathway between NOS and RoA. And there are masks on both sides of those posts (which are not identical, but are the same theme and color). Those are the easier ones to spot.

Then, when you walk into the alleys and side streets of NOS you will spot more masks (like the red one and the white/gold one). There is one post with a mask located in the Cafe Orleans seating area (so I had to wait for people to finish eating before I could get to it!). There is a double-sided post/mask (the really cool one with the red & blue coloring) that is located sort of on the edge of the Pirates of the Caribbean queue. And then, of course, there are masks hanging from some of the balconies or ironwork.

Okay, I was about the painting of the owls! I must agree - that would have totally creeped me out to see those yellow eyes in the middle of the night. I think that anything that has a face of some sort - a painting or a sculpture or a mask - would start to unnerve me after a while because I've probably seen way too many TV shows or movies where paintings some to life, or dolls come to life, or whatever it is. Whenever something with a 'face' comes to life in TV or films, it's never a good thing!

Also - and I can't recall if I read this in your own Pre-TR or in another TR, as I read bits and pieces of many reports but don't always have time to pop in and comment - but I know you were saying that people have an idea about Mardi Gras in New Orleans as being this wild event all of the time, when it actually is quite family-friendly. I think you're right - the image that most folks (who don't live in NOLA) have is that Mardi Gras is one long debauchery-filled sort of celebration, and that it doesn't come across as necessarily family-friendly.

One of my (former) friends is from New Orleans and he has always talked about Mardi Gras as though it is as big of a 'holiday' as Christmas. He and his family always attend the festivities every year, including the young kids. He has never mentioned anything inappropriate happening at the parades or the daytime events.

I hope you get a chance to catch up on this TR but I totally understand the lack of time to do that, especially when you're preparing for your trip and working on your own Pre-TR!

My parents still have the owl painting in the garage. I need to take a picture of it. Sometimes I think that maybe I'm exaggerating my memory of it. And, then I see it again, and realize it's even creepier than I remember!! My son has started waking a lot at night. Maybe if I hang some big orange eyes on the wall, he'll be too scared to get out of bed!

Mardi Gras really is a family event. I'd never take my kids down on Bourbon Street, but away from Bourbon and Canal Street it's mostly families. One problem with the perception of Mardi Gras is that the family friendly stuff doesn't make good TV. But, also, the family friendly areas are not located near the hotels. And, with street closures and our already limited public transportation being closed, it is very very hard for a tourist to get down to the family friendly areas even if they wanted to. You'd have to take a taxi and with the crowds, I don't know how you'd ever get one to get back to your hotel at the end of the night. Tourists also don't have the "equipment" or ability to parade the way we do. For the big Mardi Gras weekend parades, a group of guys from our crew go out there in the middle of the night and camp out to save spots. They bring chairs and step stools and ladders to save our spot. Most people have seats installed on top of their ladders for the kids to sit in and wheels to pull them to the trucks to transport them. We meet up with them in the morning with ice chests full of drinks, snacks, and picnic lunches. We stay out there all day and the kids have fun running around playing, dancing, napping on blankets while we wait for the night parades.

That's just for the big "super crews." For the parades in the weeks leading up to that, it's far more laid back and we can just walk up to a spot right before the parade. But, Mardi Gras weekend with the "super crews" is when most tourists come into town, so that also adds to tourists having a different idea of things.

I've been on Canal Street and Bourbon Street one time for Endymion when I was in college. Never ever again. That is not MY Mardi Gras. Not just the debauchery, but the crowds. Miserable. If I were a tourist, and that was my only experience, I would think I hate it.

We went to a parade last night and came home with my husband's truck bed full of loot. Tons of beads, all different kinds of toys, light up toys, around 2 dozen footballs, finger puppets, glow necklaces and bracelets, 6 hula hoops and a ton of stuffed animals (some cheapo ones, but some REALLY nice quality. My son caught a nice Elmo that would probably cost at least $10. probably more at Wal-Mart and dd caught a nice penguin that was hugging a thick fleece blanket.) As a kid, I always thought that Mardi Gras was a holiday designed for children, and my kids feel the same way. I had no idea of the other, famous side of Mardi Gras.

Sadly, I really think the only way for a tourist to experience OUR Mardi Gras is if they know and stay with a local. And, that always makes me sad. Because people really are missing out. Well, the people wanting Girls Gone Wild aren't missing out. But, the clean fun is really fun!

My brother in law's family is from out of state and came down last Mardi Gras. After it was all over, my brother in law's brother in law said "I knew we were going with you and your kids, and I knew you said it was family oriented, but I can't believe I was here a week and I'm going home and didn't see a single ____ No one back home is going to believe me." I think his family was ready to call CPS when they found out they were bringing their baby down here for Mardi Gras. From what I hear, his family was none too pleased! He'll probably never convince them that it wasn't what they think it was!

 

[PlutoRocks]

Hi Sherry

Just wanted to stop in and say Hi...

Not much happening here - I had a great time at the golf tournament. My favorite guy won - which always increases the enjoyment factor, right?! It was a long couple of days with a LOT of walking and sunshine. I even got a bit of a sunburn but that's to be expected I guess when you spend 7-8 hours walking/sitting in the sun

My Mom's surgery went well - her recovery is up and down but she is making progress so that is good. Thank you for the well wishes - they were very much appreciated.

Take care! I'm going to go back and re-read the November posts and look at the pictures again...

 

[Markie Mouse]

Awesome TR!!! Again. Now I see what you mean by doing something unusual. Great I idea with the Mask pics. I would also like to thank you for the Goofy's Kitchen recommendation. I am doing 2 character meals on the next trip and was wondering which would be great but now I know, Goofy's kitchen for breakfast and Ariels grotto for lunch/dinner for my 2 leading ladies.

 

[jessinabox]

Late to the party! I've finally finished reading (ok...lurking) over your trip report and just thought I'd chime in before the thread was closed. Your pictures are great and have such detail. Some of my favorite pictures were those you took over at the pacific wharf area. You're right that it is commonly overlooked and you've given me a new appreciation! It's really opened my eyes to a whole new aspect of DLR that I'll be sure to pay attention to on my upcoming trip. You've also definitely sold me on a holiday trip! I've already told DH we have to go next Christmas!!

 

[Sherry E]

Hello, everyone - and Happy Monday!​

First - I apologize for the delayed replies. I must admit that I didn't know some of these latest replies were here because - you guessed it - I didn't get e-mail alerts, and the last couple of times I popped over here to read updates in other folks' trip reports I didn't check my own TR!



Second - Be sure you are not signed into the DIS as someone else! I don't know if TK, Dawn, PHX, Michele or anyone else here might recall, but last year (possibly while I was doing the June Cars Land preview TR, or just starting the "Aunt Betty..." TR??), fellow DIS'er deejdigsdis mentioned that when she was trying to comment on something in another thread she realized that she was somehow, mysteriously signed in as another DIS'er and she had no clue how it happened! I also recall reading a post from someone else on the board last year, stating that they had somehow been signed in as another person.

Well, yesterday the same thing happened to me! (<<I used both of those emoticons because it is both a funny and scary event at the same time.)

I was going to sign in to the DIS to answer a message and post in a couple of my threads, but instead of signing in first I went to the Just For Fun/Community section of the board to see if a particular awards show thread had been started. (I've been tracking Bradley Cooper's red carpet appearances for the whole awards season, so I needed to know if he had been seen!)

When I clicked on the thread I found to view it, and later went to the upper right corner of the page to actually sign in...I WAS SOMEHOW ALREADY SIGNED IN...AS SOMEONE ELSE!!!!!

I'm not going to name the other DIS'er whose account I somehow inadvertently tapped into, but I had neither seen nor heard of this person before! As soon as I saw that it said "Welcome, [name of other DIS'er]," I quickly signed out! Thankfully, I had not posted anything (unknowingly) under that person's name, or tried to send a private message from that account or anything! Yikes!

The scary thing is that this could easily happen to any of us on the board - someone else could accidentally end up in one of our accounts, posting under our names! I have no clue exactly how that sort of thing could happen - I assume it has to be a glitch in the server somewhere, but the fact that we know it was happening last year too (to at least a couple of folks) and is still happening is very scary!

So my word of warning to everyone is - even if you think you are not signed in, but are just simply reading or viewing a thread you clicked on - be sure to look at the info in the upper right corner to see if you are signed in as someone else!! I didn't even think I was signed in as myself, let alone as another person - so imagine my shock when I saw that I was signed in, but under a totally different name! Again...yikes!



Third - Photobucket is horrible. I am sooooo mad at them (as are thousands of other people). All I have to say is that it is a darn good thing I have basically already finished the December 2012 TR (I'm not counting the Wrap-Up post that I haven't yet done, which isn't really all that crucial) because if I were at a point now where I had to upload 1000+ photos to Photobucket to start the report, I would not be able to do it. And I won't be able to do any trip reports later this year unless Photobucket fixes what they have messed up, or unless I can find a suitable image hosting site to replace them.

I know there are a lot of people out there on the DIS who are Photobucket users, either with the free accounts or the Pro/paid accounts. I have one free account and one Pro account. The Pro account - when I first bought into it - was supposed to have a lot of bandwidth so there would be no fear of exceeding my bandwidth limit and having my photos disappear from forums.

Photobucket has changed its Pro accounts to "Plus" accounts and limited bandwidth anyway. BUT, worse than that is that they have now gotten rid of their old editor - which is okay because I don't really edit a lot of photos anyway - and changed their entire website layout.

In the process of Photobucket's website layout change (massive overhaul), they have removed several vital features that I was paying for, such as being able to choose the size of the photos before I uploaded hundreds or thousands of them! I could choose the 640 x 480 size before I began the upload process. They have taken away that feature, and the default size they have chosen for my photos when I load them now is something much, much larger than what I need or want. In order to get my newly uploaded photos to be the size I want would mean that I have to go through each one, individually, and resize it. If I come back from taking 300 or 500 or 700 or 1000 photos, I am surely NOT going to sit there and resize each one.

What Photobucket has done by choosing this larger default size for photos is make it so that the bandwidth limits on everyone's accounts will be reached much faster - unless you pay them even more money to upgrade to a higher level of bandwidth, of course. Or, if I get too upset and stop loading my photos on their site, it saves them extra time and money in operational, maintenance costs...so they win that way too.

Also, Photobucket has successfully managed to mess up the order/sequence of all of my photos in all of my albums. I had them all in "Sort by File Name" order, so the photos would fall in the order I took them. Now, they are all jumbled around, and because Photobucket has not yet reinstated the Sort by File Name option, I cannot put my photos back the way they were. I tried "Oldest First" for all of the albums, thinking that was better than nothing. It didn't help - everything is still out of order. It takes me forever to find even one photo in an album of 250 photos because everything is out of order.

The new Photobucket site is also much slower than it was - and on my specific ancient PC, it is next to impossible to get anything done. All week long I have been trying to create some thumbnails for the first page of my Christmas Superthread, and have been met with one hurdle after another because of stupid Photobucket.



Fourth - Photobucket shares photos that people don't want shared! Get this! Among the hundreds of angry complaints I have read from other Photobucket users - some of which included other people who post on forums, and who don't want the forced huge size of photos because the large photos take up too much space on their board and are hard to load with slower Internet connections - one or two complaints I read involved people who had either deleted or moved photos in their Photobucket accounts, or so they thought, only to go back to old threads they had posted in a long time ago and discover that Photobucket had 'replaced' the photos that had supposedly been deleted or moved with other photos in their accounts that were supposed to be private!!!! Again...yikes!!!!!

So this means that if you guys, perhaps, posted something in the dining thread 2 years ago and had since removed or deleted that specific photo from your Photobucket account, Photobucket just MAY have replaced that photo in your old dining thread post with another photo from your account that you hadn't planned on sharing!!!!!!!!!! Do you know how scary that is?

And I have to admit - even before I read about this happening to other people, I actually noticed an occurrence of this in a thread on the DIS fairly recently. Someone's photo in a thread had been replaced with another, totally inappropriate photo that they never posted here! I know they didn't post it here because I saw the original post when it came through! Photobucket put that image there in place of the one they had moved or deleted from their account!!!

So, if you are someone who has ever posted in a thread on any forum using your Photobucket images and then ended up deleting or moving photos in your Photobucket accounts, you might just want to revisit some of your old threads and see if anything has been...um...'replaced.'

Photobucket should be sued for that mess - letting people's private photos show up on forums in place of deleted photos! I hope they get sued. They should have coding and scripts in place to prevent that sort of thing from happening.



But even aside from that blunder, just the simple fact that Photobucket has removed vital organizational/uploading features from their website and fixed it so that everyone will reach their bandwidth limit faster, everyone will have to take more time to upload, locate or do anything with their valuable photos and everyone is now angry with them is enough to make me want to seek out another hosting site that will offer the sorting and uploading features I need. I don't think that Flickr is any better, unfortunately.

Anyway, I have been 'yelling at' Photobucket all week, as have hundreds (probably thousands) of other people in their Support/Feedback forums. Some of us have been tactful and articulate while expressing our disgust. Some others have just let the expletives fly! I was tempted to do that too, but there is that saying about 'catching more flies with honey,' and Photobucket doesn't really care about how they inconvenienced everyone and made everyone furious anyway...so what good does it do to curse at them? That doesn't mean I'm not thinking certain things, though!

​

My parents still have the owl painting in the garage. I need to take a picture of it. Sometimes I think that maybe I'm exaggerating my memory of it. And, then I see it again, and realize it's even creepier than I remember!! My son has started waking a lot at night. Maybe if I hang some big orange eyes on the wall, he'll be too scared to get out of bed!

Mardi Gras really is a family event. I'd never take my kids down on Bourbon Street, but away from Bourbon and Canal Street it's mostly families. One problem with the perception of Mardi Gras is that the family friendly stuff doesn't make good TV. But, also, the family friendly areas are not located near the hotels. And, with street closures and our already limited public transportation being closed, it is very very hard for a tourist to get down to the family friendly areas even if they wanted to. You'd have to take a taxi and with the crowds, I don't know how you'd ever get one to get back to your hotel at the end of the night. Tourists also don't have the "equipment" or ability to parade the way we do. For the big Mardi Gras weekend parades, a group of guys from our crew go out there in the middle of the night and camp out to save spots. They bring chairs and step stools and ladders to save our spot. Most people have seats installed on top of their ladders for the kids to sit in and wheels to pull them to the trucks to transport them. We meet up with them in the morning with ice chests full of drinks, snacks, and picnic lunches. We stay out there all day and the kids have fun running around playing, dancing, napping on blankets while we wait for the night parades.

That's just for the big "super crews." For the parades in the weeks leading up to that, it's far more laid back and we can just walk up to a spot right before the parade. But, Mardi Gras weekend with the "super crews" is when most tourists come into town, so that also adds to tourists having a different idea of things.

I've been on Canal Street and Bourbon Street one time for Endymion when I was in college. Never ever again. That is not MY Mardi Gras. Not just the debauchery, but the crowds. Miserable. If I were a tourist, and that was my only experience, I would think I hate it.

We went to a parade last night and came home with my husband's truck bed full of loot. Tons of beads, all different kinds of toys, light up toys, around 2 dozen footballs, finger puppets, glow necklaces and bracelets, 6 hula hoops and a ton of stuffed animals (some cheapo ones, but some REALLY nice quality. My son caught a nice Elmo that would probably cost at least $10. probably more at Wal-Mart and dd caught a nice penguin that was hugging a thick fleece blanket.) As a kid, I always thought that Mardi Gras was a holiday designed for children, and my kids feel the same way. I had no idea of the other, famous side of Mardi Gras.

Sadly, I really think the only way for a tourist to experience OUR Mardi Gras is if they know and stay with a local. And, that always makes me sad. Because people really are missing out. Well, the people wanting Girls Gone Wild aren't missing out. But, the clean fun is really fun!

My brother in law's family is from out of state and came down last Mardi Gras. After it was all over, my brother in law's brother in law said "I knew we were going with you and your kids, and I knew you said it was family oriented, but I can't believe I was here a week and I'm going home and didn't see a single ____ No one back home is going to believe me." I think his family was ready to call CPS when they found out they were bringing their baby down here for Mardi Gras. From what I hear, his family was none too pleased! He'll probably never convince them that it wasn't what they think it was!

lsulindy -

I think you're still at DLR now, if I'm mot mistaken (or maybe just about to come back?), and hopefully enjoying a fabulous trip with a dose of Disney's style of Mardi Gras fun. And I hope you tracked down all of the masks!

I know it took me forever to get on here and reply to you, and you probably won't have much time to check in here when you get back anyway. I just wanted you to know that I thoroughly enjoyed reading your above post! I was laughing out loud at times - about the creepy owl painting (I must see a photo of it!), about the Girls Gone Wild image of Mard Gras, etc.

Also, your explanation of exactly what Mardi Gras is like in certain spots and at certain times, and how to prepare for it, etc., is extremely informative! If I were ever going to go to Mardi Gras I would want you to be my guide, or to navigate me through the blocked off streets, etc.! For some reason, when my former friend used to explain Mardi Gras to me it was never all that clear!

It's good to know that a lot of what is believed about Mardi Gras is just totally wrong, or that it is not universally like that for the whole celebration.

My former friend used to also tell me about how the stereotypes of New Orleans residents eating nothing but 'New Orleans food' all the time are untrue as well. He was saying that people have a perception that everyone in New Orleans is eating gumbo or crawfish or Cajun cuisine all the time (when at that specific moment he was driving to a Papa John's to pick up a pizza), just as people probably have an impression of Los Angeles residents eating tofu or strange health food dishes all the time. He said he had never even eaten what would be considered "New Orleans food" until the early '90s.

Hi Sherry

Just wanted to stop in and say Hi...

Not much happening here - I had a great time at the golf tournament. My favorite guy won - which always increases the enjoyment factor, right?! It was a long couple of days with a LOT of walking and sunshine. I even got a bit of a sunburn but that's to be expected I guess when you spend 7-8 hours walking/sitting in the sun

My Mom's surgery went well - her recovery is up and down but she is making progress so that is good. Thank you for the well wishes - they were very much appreciated.

Take care! I'm going to go back and re-read the November posts and look at the pictures again...

Hellllllllllooooo, Dawn!

I'm glad to hear that your favorite golfer won! You're absolutely right - when a favorite wins anything (a tournament, a game, an award, etc.), it makes the event 100 times better!

I'm also so glad to hear that your mom is doing well. I know you mentioned that you have a sister (the one who loves Christmas music year-round) - have you and your sister been helping your mom out or spending a lot of time with her?

Thank you for going back to the November TR to have a second look/read - when I was working on the December 2012 TR I was hoping that any people totally new to my thread would realize that I was not skipping over Cars Land and Buena Vista Street, but that I had taken tons of photos of those 2 areas (as well as the Jingle Jangle Jamboree) in November and didn't want to force the same holiday photos on everyone all over again.

So, because I did the November TR and the December TR - and those trips were really only like a month apart - I kind of look at them as one big TR combined, but with a gap in the middle!

Awesome TR!!! Again. Now I see what you mean by doing something unusual. Great I idea with the Mask pics. I would also like to thank you for the Goofy's Kitchen recommendation. I am doing 2 character meals on the next trip and was wondering which would be great but now I know, Goofy's kitchen for breakfast and Ariels grotto for lunch/dinner for my 2 leading ladies.

Welcome, Markie Mouse!

I'm happy to see you posted here - I don't think you've posted in this TR thread in the past.

Thank you for the compliment. I was certainly not the first person to take mask photos but I don't recall seeing any other mask photos that were quite as extensive and in-depth, I guess you could say. I know that Belle Ella/Jessica took quite a lot of mask photos a couple of years ago (I always give credit to those who came up with certain ideas or did certain things first), but I'm not even sure if there were as many masks on display at that time. I think that more have been added in since then, and I got the bonanza of them!!

Anyway, I really wanted to take my time and try to get unusual vantage points, or frame the photos a bit differently. As I've mentioned, on each trip for the last few years I have tried to get something - even if it is just one photo - that is kind of unique, or that I haven't seen in anyone else's threads. The photos may end up being successful (or not), but I try. And I try to get at least a few pictures that I can look at and say, "I love that!" I'm my own worst critic, probably, by I can manage to like a few shots here and there.

I should mention that I happened to notice a certain photo on the cover of a certain e-book last year, and that e-book was released in 2011, if I recall. I am almost positive - and I could be wrong, and it could be a HUGE coincidence - that the person who did this e-book found one of my 'different' photo ideas in my December 2010 "Evil Chair and Peppermint Cone of Death" TR and then took her own shot of the same thing, putting it on the cover of her book. I don't think she used my actual photo, but I think that she was probably lurking on the DIS - or posting actively, perhaps - or possibly was "doing research" on the Web and saw the photo in my TR if she stumbled upon the DIS. She probably liked the photo, thought it was a good idea and decided to get her own copy for the book. The timing of it is just too perfect.

So, it's nice to know that there are people out there - silent or not - who like some of the photos I take or photo ideas I have. I take a lot of photos but I really do try to be creative now and again, about certain things, and if someone is inspired enough to want to get their own photo of the same thing(s), it is flattering!

I hope you enjoy Goofy's Kitchen! I'll be waiting for the review! I don't know if you should trust my recommendation, though, because you listened to me about the holiday season at Disneyland and how wonderful it is - and you didn't end up having a great trip, as I recall! But I hope Goofy's is a big hit for your family. For one thing, you might get the extra bonus of seeing an extra Princess or two there, in addition to seeing them at Ariel's. Usually there are a couple of Princesses running around at Goofy's in addition to the other characters. There could be anywhere from 5 - 8 characters onsite. Also, the buffet is very large and there is a good selection for the kids and adults.

One other thing - I saw you ask Laurie/DizNee Luver about getting the PPH park view room in her TR. While I would definitely say that specifically paying for a park view room at the PPH is the best way to guarantee you get that view, I have been lucky to have been upgraded (for free) to a park view for my last 3 PPH stays (and many others have gotten free upgrades too). My 2010 and 2011 views were even better than my December 2012 view. I've stayed at the PPH a lot (first time was in 2000), but never received free upgrades until 2010. So you might get lucky and get a great view even if you don't specifically pay for the view.

I suggest doing a pre-check in at the PPH as early in the morning as you can manage (way, way before actual check-in time), because that will put you on their "list" of people to call if a room opens up ahead of time. They make a note in their system to call you if a room is ready early, and often times that room will be a park view. If you show up closer to when the actual check-in time is, you are probably just going to get the room that has been pre-assigned to you.

Late to the party! I've finally finished reading (ok...lurking) over your trip report and just thought I'd chime in before the thread was closed. Your pictures are great and have such detail. Some of my favorite pictures were those you took over at the pacific wharf area. You're right that it is commonly overlooked and you've given me a new appreciation! It's really opened my eyes to a whole new aspect of DLR that I'll be sure to pay attention to on my upcoming trip. You've also definitely sold me on a holiday trip! I've already told DH we have to go next Christmas!!

Hello, jessinabox, and welcome!!

Thank you so much for joining in before this thread closes! I knew there had to be some lurkers out there who would eventually pop in and say hello before I hit that dreaded 250-page mark.

Thank you for the compliments - I'm so glad you enjoyed the photos.

The last time I passed by or through Pacific Wharf I noticed a lot of other things that I hadn't even paid attention to on previous trips but didn't have much time or incentive to take more photos at that moment. (I guess those can be tackled on a future trip!) There really is a lot of attention to detail in that area too - just as is the case for all of the areas in both parks - but I think that because the 'colors' (or lack thereof) are so drab and bland, and everything just looks so...wharf-y...people just don't appreciate how well-themed it is. I think we probably take it for granted because it's not bright and vibrant.

Yes, yes, yes - by all means, do a Christmas trip! If I could not go to DLR at any other time of year, Christmas time would be my one trip for the whole year - even if it's just a day trip and nothing else. If I couldn't go to DLR for a few years and finally made a return, Christmas time would be the one time I would prefer to go over any other time. It's a really special, beautiful time to be there, and the decor is so thorough and extensive. The details are amazing, too, from the themed music in each land and the holiday goodies, the different styles of Christmas trees, IASW Holiday, etc. I love Halloween Time too, but until Disney starts doing more with it the holiday season is at the top of my list!

Be sure to subscribe to my "Disneyland at Christmas/Holiday Season Superthread" on the main Disneyland forum for info, discussion and breaking news. Plus, in August I will begin our Third Annual Theme Week Countdown, when we focus on a different theme or aspect of the holiday season each week and everyone shares their photos from that theme. It's a lot of fun!

 

[kaoden39]

Oh that is too crazy! I made sure that I am signed in as me. I think emoticons are very appropriate.

I never have a problem with photobucket. But, I know several people that have. It is an iffy thing. I did find out that I can store pictures on Costco. I may do that next trip. If there is ever another trip.

 

[Sherry E]

Oh that is too crazy! I made sure that I am signed in as me. I think emoticons are very appropriate.

I never have a problem with photobucket. But, I know several people that have. It is an iffy thing. I did find out that I can store pictures on Costco. I may do that next trip. If there is ever another trip.

Michele -

Remember to check the sign-in area in the corner even when you don't think you're signed in at all. I hadn't signed in as anyone yesterday, not even myself! - I only opened up the BAFTA awards thread to read it - and there I was, signed in as another DIS'er!


A lot of these Photobucket problems have just now come up and are coming up because Photobucket has just begun to force everyone into their new format, little by little, whereas they had given us the option to stick with the old site until last week - and the new format has fewer features so people are flipping out because they paid for certain services (you should go to the Support/Feedback section of Photobucket and see the pages and pages of angry complaints under a couple of the threads!, not to mention read the hundreds of comments on their Facebook page in the last week or two).

Photobucket apparently did not work out the bugs in the new system when they began 'testing it' last year, and they forced everyone into it when it is still totally incomplete. That's why people are furious.

For example, if I come back from a DLR trip and have 1500 photos to upload, I can no longer choose the 640 x 480 size before the photos upload (640 x 480 is, I think, sort of supposed to be the universal photo size for discussion forums, but many, many, many people on our board post larger photos). Photobucket has defaulted me to a much larger size, thus causing me to hit my bandwidth limit (on a Pro account) faster because the larger photos take up more space. I would have to literally go through every photo and resize each one to get it to the 640 x 480 size before posting it in a TR, which is insane. And I can't do the huge photos in my TR because my PC will freeze up.

I've seen a couple of other folks from message boards posting on Photobucket's site, talking about the same thing - where is the size pre-selection tool - and Photobucket either ignores it or says "We'll see if we can add it..." Meanwhile, they've had that tool for years before this switch!

Also, I can't get my photos in the order I need them to be because they messed it all up. Imagine having 75 albums on a site and all of the photos in each one are messed up and out of order! Apparently they have messed up a lot of other albums in folks' accounts too.

But...knowing that Photobucket has been 'replacing' photos in threads that people deleted or moved with other private photos from their accounts is realllly scary. That's why I wonder what kinds of photos may be lurking in some of our older threads here on the DIS, like the dining thread! Surely some of those older photos have been deleted/moved from the Photobucket accounts, but Photobucket may have 'replaced' the moved/deleted photos with other photos! I stumbled upon a really DISboards-inappropriate photo in a thread a few weeks ago, and I deleted it right away because it was not what the person had actually posted there. It was one of those 'replacement' photos put there because of Photobucket's horrible, faulty website switcheroo! Lord only knows what might lurk in some of the older photo threads now!

Maybe all of the Photobucket mess will be sorted out and you won't have to deal with it by the time of your next DLR trip - and you WILL take another trip. (I can't believe it's already been a year since the last trip you took!) Right now, the functions take about 10 times longer to complete and everything is a chore. All flippin' week I have been trying to just resize some photos to thumbnails to put on Page 1 of the Superthread and it is one endless problem after another.

I looked at Image Shack - they DO allow you to pre-select the size you want before uploading. But do they give you IMG codes for posting on forums, I wonder? If so, then bye, bye Photobucket!

 

[PlutoRocks]

Well Sherry - that is kind of terrifying on all accounts. I hope I don't accidentally get signed in as someone else or someone else doesn't get signed in as me - that could cause all sorts of confusion! Also, alternative pictures being posted - wow that could get exciting!! Fortunately, I don't have pictures in a photo sharing site but if I did boy I would be a little worried - Yikes

Yes - you have such a good memory!! I do have a sister (two actually) but one that I've mentioned her. My mom and dad are actually staying at her house while my mom recovers. They live in a small town here in Arizona and she did NOT want to have the surgery there so she came down to Phoenix.

LSULINDY - I also found your view of Mardi Gras interesting because all I've ever seen are the Bourbon Street pictures/videos and seriously have never wanted to be anywhere near New Orleans during that time - totally not my scene. Your info sounds really fun and like something I would completely enjoy - thank you for sharing.

Have a great week Sherry!

 

[Sherry E]

Well Sherry - that is kind of terrifying on all accounts. I hope I don't accidentally get signed in as someone else or someone else doesn't get signed in as me - that could cause all sorts of confusion! Also, alternative pictures being posted - wow that could get exciting!! Fortunately, I don't have pictures in a photo sharing site but if I did boy I would be a little worried - Yikes

Yes - you have such a good memory!! I do have a sister (two actually) but one that I've mentioned her. My mom and dad are actually staying at her house while my mom recovers. They live in a small town here in Arizona and she did NOT want to have the surgery there so she came down to Phoenix.

LSULINDY - I also found your view of Mardi Gras interesting because all I've ever seen are the Bourbon Street pictures/videos and seriously have never wanted to be anywhere near New Orleans during that time - totally not my scene. Your info sounds really fun and like something I would completely enjoy - thank you for sharing.

Have a great week Sherry!

Dawn -

I think that by the time deejdigsdis noticed that she was signed in as another person last year, she had already posted something or sent a message from their account. She realized after the fact that she was signed in as the other person, and then had to send that other person a message to let them know that she had posted as them!

Thankfully, I managed to catch on to the fact that I was signed in as someone else yesterday and hadn't posted yet. But yes - it's scary all around, how easily that can happen. Anyone can somehow accidentally end up in someone else's account without even realizing it.

And the alternative photos thing is a major blunder by Photobucket! Yes, it could be very exciting, indeed...which is what I would think a lot of people might be afraid of if it doesn't get fixed. The changes they are making to their site are bad enough because they are taking away features that their users depended on, but compromising the privacy of some of their users by letting 'other' photos appear online in place of photos that were moved or deleted is just crazy!

Basically, these two examples I have shared today - the DISboards/sign-in weirdness and the Photobucket madness - show that we really shouldn't be doing anything online at all! Any info we store online anywhere - even if we think it's safe, secure or private or whatever - could easily be lost forever or compromised somehow, in the blink of an eye!

I definitely remember you mentioning your sister and how she likes to listen to Christmas music all year round! As much as I love me some Christmas music (remember, I did that survey in which I had to listen to over 600 Christmas songs last year), I do have to have a bit of a break from it after the holidays are over. Like, for example, right now I couldn't really listen to holiday songs. I have to get to summer before feeling the need to speed ahead to the holiday season!

I'm glad your parents are able to stay with your sister while your mom recovers. It's probably a great comfort to them to be able to stay there!

You have a great week as well - and a great Valentine's Day too!

 

[PHXscuba]

Uggh about Photobucket. I have been reducing my image size in Picasa before I export and upload to Photobucket, but now that I consider the mass amount of photos I will probably upload after our March trip, it could be a royal pain. I have noticed that Photobucket's order of my photos seems totally random, not by when the photo was taken or when it was uploaded. On a small scale it's just annoying; on a large scale it could be horrific.

I am under a month until my trip if you can believe it!

PHXscuba

 

[mvf-m11c]

It can be annoying when someone else uses your account when you have no knowledge of it. I don't like to sign in every time when I am on the DISer account which I have my computer, iPad and iPhone where I am signed in automatically and just like you said that someone could use my devices and say something that I won't know about.

I have never used Photobucket and after reading your latest about it, I am glad that I don't use Photobucket. I am using flickr and it is so fun to use and easy to install. The only downside of using flickr is that you are limited of uploading pictures unless you buy the subscription so you can upload as many pictures all in one time. I have uploaded thousands of pictures from all my trips and food porn which I am glad that I am using flickr.

 

[Sherry E]

Uggh about Photobucket. I have been reducing my image size in Picasa before I export and upload to Photobucket, but now that I consider the mass amount of photos I will probably upload after our March trip, it could be a royal pain. I have noticed that Photobucket's order of my photos seems totally random, not by when the photo was taken or when it was uploaded. On a small scale it's just annoying; on a large scale it could be horrific.

I am under a month until my trip if you can believe it!

PHXscuba

PHX -

The problem with the "new and improved" Photobucket site (what a joke that term is) is that it's not user-friendly at all. As you said, on a small scale it would be annoying to deal with resizing. On a large scale it is awful now. It was not awful before, but it is now that they are forcing everyone into the new website.

I'm not even just saying all this because I'm mad at Photobucket. I've tried to find the 'advantages' or benefits of the new format and there are none. Not one single thing is "better." They have reduced the functionality (which many people pay for), removed several important features (such as the Sorting options, which would put your photos and my photos in their proper order, as well as being able to choose the photo size before uploading) and made everything harder to use. They've messed up the order of everyone's photos. They've flat out lost some other people's photos. They'e somehow allowed private photos to appear on public forums. Everything now takes longer to accomplish on the site. It even takes longer to simply view an album because of the awful infinite scroll. When you're trying to scroll through 250 photos in one album - and they are all out of order because you can't sort them the right way - the infinite scroll in a nightmare!

There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of angry people complaining to Photobucket on their Support/Feedback forum and on their Facebook page in just the last 2 weeks because sooooo many things are wrong with the site. Occasionally someone from Photobucket will pop in and give a bogus "We're working on it; let us know what features you need and thanks for being so passionate about Photobucket" type of answer...which only prompts a near revolt in the forums! They should have had all of this worked out before forcing people to the new site.

It seems like Photobucket is aiming to push people into using up so much bandwidth (even the paying users) that they will have to pay for even more bandwidth and then Photobucket gets more money, OR the users will reach their bandwidth limits, get fed up and leave the site for good - which would free up tons of bandwidth for Photobucket, and save Photobucket extra time and money in operations and maintenance for everyone's albums. They are certainly not doing things in such a way that implies they want to keep customers. They appear to want to chase a lot of people - even the paying people - away.

Also, Photobucket is kind of setting itself up to be a place where only the casual photo-taker goes - like the people who take the occasional cell phone photos and want to share them. They are not really set up or functional enough at this point for the users who work with photos and work on photo-based projects all the time. Their current roster of features is not conducive to large quantities of photos. They are kind of treating it as though the average person just takes 10 or 20 photos and not much else.

Image Shack lets you pre-choose the photo size before uploading - I just don't know if Image Shack gives IMG codes to post photos on forums.

It can be annoying when someone else uses your account when you have no knowledge of it. I don't like to sign in every time when I am on the DISer account which I have my computer, iPad and iPhone where I am signed in automatically and just like you said that someone could use my devices and say something that I won't know about.

I have never used Photobucket and after reading your latest about it, I am glad that I don't use Photobucket. I am using flickr and it is so fun to use and easy to install. The only downside of using flickr is that you are limited of uploading pictures unless you buy the subscription so you can upload as many pictures all in one time. I have uploaded thousands of pictures from all my trips and food porn which I am glad that I am using flickr.

Bret -

It's a very discomforting feeling to know that any one of us could easily end up signed into someone else's account or have someone else end up in our accounts! There is no reason that should be happening - I guess it's just a glitch in the server somewhere - and yet it happened to Deejdigsdis and at least one other person last year, and it happened to me just yesterday! I have no clue how I ended up signed in as this other DIS'er when all I did was click on a thread but there I was, signed in as that person!

So definitely be sure to always check the info in the upper right corner - even if you think you're not signed in and are maybe just reading threads silently, you could be signed in as someone else without knowing it! Yikes!

Photobucket was a pretty good site for a long time, even though the site was often slow-moving. Now, though, I truly think they want to get rid of a lot of their customers and cater to the mobile phone photo-takers, not the serious picture-takers.

I'm glad you posted, Bret, because I had been planning on going to your TR in the next couple of days to ask you specifically about Flickr. I remembered that you use Flickr - and you obviously have lots and lots of photos stored there - so I knew there had to be some advantage to it. If you can take as many photos as you do and keep them all on Flickr with no problems, I knew there had to be something good about it.

Tell me this about Flickr - with a paid subscription, can you sort the albums the way you want them, like by file name or by number or whatever? And, can you pre-select the size of the photos (640 x 480, 860 x 680, 1028 x 800, etc.) before you upload them, so if you are loading 1000 photos to your Flickr account the photos will load in the size you want?

Those are the two main things I need - to be able to organize/sort my albums by file name or in the order that I want, and to be able to pre-select the sizes of the photos before loading. I can't go through and resize every single photo after it is loaded.

Image Shack appears to have the size uploading option that I need, and if I find out that they also provide IMG codes for photos to be shared, I'll jump ship and ditch Photobucket for Image Shack. I don't think that Photobucket cares if they lose many, many customers at this point.

 

[mvf-m11c]

Bret -

It's a very discomforting feeling to know that any one of us could easily end up signed into someone else's account or have someone else end up in our accounts! There is no reason that should be happening - I guess it's just a glitch in the server somewhere - and yet it happened to Deejdigsdis and at least one other person last year, and it happened to me just yesterday! I have no clue how I ended up signed in as this other DIS'er when all I did was click on a thread but there I was, signed in as that person!

So definitely be sure to always check the info in the upper right corner - even if you think you're not signed in and are maybe just reading threads silently, you could be signed in as someone else without knowing it! Yikes!

Photobucket was a pretty good site for a long time, even though the site was often slow-moving. Now, though, I truly think they want to get rid of a lot of their customers and cater to the mobile phone photo-takers, not the serious picture-takers.

I'm glad you posted, Bret, because I had been planning on going to your TR in the next couple of days to ask you specifically about Flickr. I remembered that you use Flickr - and you obviously have lots and lots of photos stored there - so I knew there had to be some advantage to it. If you can take as many photos as you do and keep them all on Flickr with no problems, I knew there had to be something good about it.

Tell me this about Flickr - with a paid subscription, can you sort the albums the way you want them, like by file name or by number or whatever? And, can you pre-select the size of the photos (640 x 480, 860 x 680, 1028 x 800, etc.) before you upload them, so if you are loading 1000 photos to your Flickr account the photos will load in the size you want?

Those are the two main things I need - to be able to organize/sort my albums by file name or in the order that I want, and to be able to pre-select the sizes of the photos before loading. I can't go through and resize every single photo after it is loaded.

Image Shack appears to have the size uploading option that I need, and if I find out that they also provide IMG codes for photos to be shared, I'll jump ship and ditch Photobucket for Image Shack. I don't think that Photobucket cares if they lose many, many customers at this point.

That was very weird that you were signed in as another DISer that day. Just like you said that it could have been a glitch on the server. I always try to logout of my name when I am not using it that night. But sometimes I don't like signing in and out where I could just get on the threads and start writing.

There are a lot of people taking pictures with their cameras instead of the point & shoot, DSLR, etc. today. I do take some pictures with my iPhone when I don't have my camera but as you know that I will depend on my DSLR when I take pictures at the park.

I am really far behind on my trip reports including my January trip where I want to get to it as soon as possible. I have used flickr ever since I have started writing my trip reports since 2009. I like the service of flickr where I can upload as many pictures and videos as possible with a selection of the size of the pictures.

With the paid description of flickr. The Flickr Pro offers access to your original files, unlimited uploads, unlimited storage, and unlimited bandwith which is very nice. The free account let's you have 300 MB of monthly photo uploading which is not that much in compare to the unlimited uploads. It costs about $25 a year for the subscription but I am able to upload all my photos from my trips so I can show them to my family and friends as well as showing them on my trip reports.

You can sort the pictures by files but I haven't done that yet recently since I just upload them. The sizes can go as small as 75 x 75 and go all the way up to the original size which my Nikon D5100 SLR goes up to 4928 x 3264. If I try to upload my picture at that size you will not be able to see the whole picture on your computer screen. Even my monitor which is a 28 inch does not even come close to showing the whole picture.

The Flickr Pro lets you organize/sort the albums by name in the order that you want and to be able to pre-select the size of the photo as you want. When you see my photos I always try to get them at a fine size where it is not too big. As you know in the past that I always try to make my pictures a decent size for you and other DISers so they can see them.

The only problem about flickr is that if you want to upload a lot of pictures you have to get the flickr pro subscription or be limited with only 300 MB of monthly photo uploading limit with the free account. At first when I used the free account, I was unable to upload a lot of pictures. Ever since I got the flickr pro subscription it has been great to use and upload all those pictures.

I have never used Image Shack and hope that it all goes well for you.

 

[Sherry E]

That was very weird that you were signed in as another DISer that day. Just like you said that it could have been a glitch on the server. I always try to logout of my name when I am not using it that night. But sometimes I don't like signing in and out where I could just get on the threads and start writing.

There are a lot of people taking pictures with their cameras instead of the point & shoot, DSLR, etc. today. I do take some pictures with my iPhone when I don't have my camera but as you know that I will depend on my DSLR when I take pictures at the park.

I am really far behind on my trip reports including my January trip where I want to get to it as soon as possible. I have used flickr ever since I have started writing my trip reports since 2009. I like the service of flickr where I can upload as many pictures and videos as possible with a selection of the size of the pictures.

With the paid description of flickr. The Flickr Pro offers access to your original files, unlimited uploads, unlimited storage, and unlimited bandwith which is very nice. The free account let's you have 300 MB of monthly photo uploading which is not that much in compare to the unlimited uploads. It costs about $25 a year for the subscription but I am able to upload all my photos from my trips so I can show them to my family and friends as well as showing them on my trip reports.

You can sort the pictures by files but I haven't done that yet recently since I just upload them. The sizes can go as small as 75 x 75 and go all the way up to the original size which my Nikon D5100 SLR goes up to 4928 x 3264. If I try to upload my picture at that size you will not be able to see the whole picture on your computer screen. Even my monitor which is a 28 inch does not even come close to showing the whole picture.

The Flickr Pro lets you organize/sort the albums by name in the order that you want and to be able to pre-select the size of the photo as you want. When you see my photos I always try to get them at a fine size where it is not too big. As you know in the past that I always try to make my pictures a decent size for you and other DISers so they can see them.

The only problem about flickr is that if you want to upload a lot of pictures you have to get the flickr pro subscription or be limited with only 300 MB of monthly photo uploading limit with the free account. At first when I used the free account, I was unable to upload a lot of pictures. Ever since I got the flickr pro subscription it has been great to use and upload all those pictures.

I have never used Image Shack and hope that it all goes well for you.

Bret -

Thank you so much for all the great info about Flickr. In the various complaint threads on Photobucket's forums I've seen a few people say that they had originally moved their pictures to Photobucket from Flickr, so that's why I wasn't sure what was wrong with Flickr (if anything). But, again, knowing how many photos you take and how many you have to load to your photo hosting site, I knew it had to work fairly well.

I may or may not switch any of my existing Photobucket photos to Flickr (that would be a LOT of broken links here on the DIS), OR I may just wait until I take an all-new round of photos (of whatever subject) and load those to Flickr. I have only briefly glanced at Image Shack so I haven't tried loading anything there yet to see if they generate IMG codes.

As long as I can pre-select the upload size (640 x 480 is the size I use and that's really the maximum size that a lot of message boards require their users to stick with, as I have learned in the last week and a half from some angry Photobucket users who run discussion forums) and sort the photos in the album by the file name, those are my main concerns and I don't mind paying the $25 or whatever.

Right now, I am about to tear my hair out over this stupid Photobucket. You know, I have been slowly but surely revising the first page (9 posts) of the Christmas Superthread - just working on little things in certain posts here and there, and jumping around between posts to add things in or take things out, and adding in thumbnails to certain posts (like the Holiday Treats post, the Hotels/DTD post, the Holiday Shopping post, etc.).

I'm not finished with the Superthread at all yet, but just the simple task of trying to create the thumbnails for the posts has been a huge ordeal because of Photobucket's madness in the last couple of weeks. They slowed down my progress so much when they messed up the order of my photos so I can't find anything, and they have put this obnoxious infinite scroll on the pages so it takes forever to load all the photos in one album. All I am doing is resizing the photos and adding borders, and it has taken this long just to get thumbnails for a couple of posts because nothing is working properly!

I have two more posts to make thumbnails for and at this rate it will probably take me another 2 weeks just to get them finished if Photobucket doesn't shape up fast.

 

[tksbaskets]

Hi Sherry,
It is soooo frustrating when technology fails and slows down our fun. I'm intrigued by flikr too. Bret, has it run pretty smoothly for you?

I've never had an issue with Photobucket but then again I'm a casual user. Got to have something reliable in place when I talk my guys into a DL Christmas vacation this year!

TK

 

[Sherry E]

Hi Sherry,
It is soooo frustrating when technology fails and slows down our fun. I'm intrigued by flikr too. Bret, has it run pretty smoothly for you?

I've never had an issue with Photobucket but then again I'm a casual user. Got to have something reliable in place when I talk my guys into a DL Christmas vacation this year!

TK

TK -

You may not use the features that others use (like choosing the size of photos before uploading), or you may not be on Photobucket very often. You may not have been switched to the all-new website. I'm not sure.

All of the specific Photobucket problems I have been describing for the last 2 days have just started to come up in the last 2 weeks for thousands and thousands of people - many of whom have paid for a certain range of services. Those services/features are either now totally gone, or they are so faulty and flawed that no one can use them. Photobucket switched everyone to a whole new website before they had the new one finished.

It is not only slowing down fun, unfortunately. As I have discovered, there are many, many people who use their Photobucket images to post listings on eBay, to write regular articles, to write blogs, to run websites or forums or to make edits to designs or art. These massive errors on Photobucket's part have impeded people's progress in getting their actual work done - and it doesn't look like anything is going to be fixed and back to normal for months.

Most of the stuff I do here on the DIS - my TR, my Superthreads, my Theme Week Countdowns, etc. - revolves around my images on Photobucket...and the crucial features I use and pay for have been taken away, as well as the order of my photos has now been totally messed up to where I cannot find anything. Imagine how hard it will be for me to create Theme Weeks for the countdown when I can't locate my photos quickly and easily!

Anyway, it's a mess...

 

[tksbaskets]

Sherry,
That is beyond awful. PB tried to change me to the new site and I clicked 'no'. The random posting of photographs is deplorable.

I may leave my PB account and then start a new one in flikr going forward.

Sorry you've had such a rotten experience. This should be FUN right?

 

[Sherry E]

Sherry,
That is beyond awful. PB tried to change me to the new site and I clicked 'no'. The random posting of photographs is deplorable.

I may leave my PB account and then start a new one in flikr going forward.

Sorry you've had such a rotten experience. This should be FUN right?

TK -

They will switch you over without a choice very soon - I think it's something like a couple more weeks or so before everyone is forced to the new site. They seem to be rolling people into it, in groups at a time. They pushed me there because I was editing photos and making thumbnails for the first several posts of the Christmas Superthread and they wanted me to use their "new and improved" editor. I was forced to the new site, only to find out that they messed up the order of all of my thousands and thousands of photos and that the editor doesn't work.

Since Photobucket won't have all of the necessary features reinstated for a long time time...well, let's just say that Photobucket can probably expect to be inundated with even more angry posts in their Support/Feedback forums for a long time to come, and they have already received thousands of complaints.

That is the one bright spot in this debacle - some of the posts by furious Photobucket users on Facebook and on the Support forums are hilarious! I think that one girl said she'd rather go and stand in the middle of traffic and get hit by a truck (though she put it much more humorously than that) than to use this "new" Photobucket. I have been enjoying reading the flood of angry messages to Photobucket since last week.

I am a paying user of Photobucket and their new mess will interfere with everything I do on this forum, but I really, really I feel awful for the ones who not only pay BUT who are also using their stored images for eBay sales, paid articles and blogs, running their businesses, etc. There are a lot of people who depend on Photobucket's services to run their businesses, as I've learned.

And you know what the screwy thing is? These people - whose actual work and livelihoods are being interrupted - can't even legally file a class action lawsuit because Photobucket has some fine print somewhere on their site that says, basically 'if you use the new site, then that means you have accepted the new site,' or some hogwash. So that means that anyone who has tried to use the new site and figure it out has "accepted" it and cannot sue them!!

Let's not even get into the fact that Photobucket has allowed some folks' private images to become public and to show up on public forums - I would bet that they fixed it so they can't be sued for that either!!

 

[mvf-m11c]

Sherry

Your welcome Sherry. Before I went with Flickr fully, I have heard about Photobucket from other people and I thought that this would be a good site to use over Flickr for uploading pictures and showing them on the threads. But since I use Yahoo mail so much, I went with Flickr which is part of the Yahoo company. Even paying $25 a month for the Flickr Pro, it is a good investment for someone who uploads a lot of pictures and videos and show them to the people.

Switching from one site to another is a lot of work and finding the links for those pictures on Photobucket will be hard where you have posted a lot of pictures on the threads. You can always leave the old pictures on Photobucket and put all the new photos on Flickr which will be easy. Also you can post some of your favorite photos to Flickr so you won't have to worry about them.

Even though I haven't use the full settings on Flickr, it is a really good investment in my opinion and you can select the size of the picture.

As you already know that I do appreciate all the hard work you have done on the Superthreads that give valuable information about the two season at the DLR which is so fun to go to. Hope everything goes well with you on the threads.

TK

Flickr is running smoothly for me TK. As I have said to Sherry that I use Flickr to store all my photos online so you and other people can enjoy them. I should be setting the pictures up in galleries and sets. But I just like to upload them to Flickr and look for them shortly. This does take a long time to look for them but I know where they are located on the site.

I have over 26,000 pictures uploaded on my Flickr ever since 2009 which is a lot of pictures.