Ten days of Groucho at SSR, lotsa pics

[tiggerwannabe]

Very, very, nice pictures Groucho!

I am impressed~

Keep em coming...

 

[Gdad]

And hey, even a photo of my wife! (The third one from the left, nearly invisible.)

Too bad she does not like her picture posted. Always like to see shots of fellow DIS'rs and their SO's. My DW hates it also but I usually post them anyway. I told her the other day that in a public forum she has no reasonable expectation of privacy. I'm sure you can immagine how well that went over.

 

[BlakeNJ]

Great TR. I have been able to see things I've never seen before or was too busy to stop and look at. Thanks again!

 

[Groucho]

Too bad she does not like her picture posted. Always like to see shots of fellow DIS'rs and their SO's. My DW hates it also but I usually post them anyway. I told her the other day that in a public forum she has no reasonable expectation of privacy. I'm sure you can immagine how well that went over.

Well... there are pictures of her on her site (where I've pulled pictures from once or twice in the past, not here), but I try to let her do it on her own terms. I generally hate being in pictures so you probably won't see much of me outside of maybe an arm here or there or a distorted reflection.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Thanks for the kind words. My camera is a modest Pentax *ist DL, an entry-level DSLR that I got for $367 after rebate - an astonishing deal. Current prices on Pentax DSLRs are still a terrific bargain and I recommend them whole-heartedly. With a DSLR, much of the quality comes from the lens, and I used a variety of them, but most commonly the Pentax 50mm F1.4, which is a great one.

I hope to move up to a Pentax K10D before my next trip but that'd a good bit more expensive!

I also brought my old Pentax K1000 film camera and took a couple rolls of film but haven't had them developed yet (hopefully I will early this coming week.)

Loving you TR and photos!!!!

I have a film AF Pentax SLR. Think I can use my lenses on a Digital Pentax SLR? I just bought a Sony H5 as I wasn't ready to make to leap to DSLR yet but its something to think about for the future.

 

[Groucho]

Loving you TR and photos!!!!

I have a film AF Pentax SLR. Think I can use my lenses on a Digital Pentax SLR? I just bought a Sony H5 as I wasn't ready to make to leap to DSLR yet but its something to think about for the future.

Yes, Pentax has the best lens compatibility in the business. All Pentax lenses work on their DSLRs. You can even use old screw-mount ones with an adapter (I have a 30-some-year-old 400mm screwmount that I brought with me but never actually used.) Some of the pictures I took with with an old manual-focus Sigma 28mm 2.8 that I had bought for my K1000 long ago, it still produces great results. If your lenses are AF, they'll work seamlessly with no loss of functionality, and the "crop factor" means that they'll effectively be 1.5x as strong - ie, a 50mm will be a 75mm, a 200mm will be a 300mm, etc. The only downside is that a fisheye will lose a bit of its fishiness (which is why some of my photos look slightly "fishy" but not completely.)

 

[Groucho]

We stopped into Mickey's house in Toontown Fair and snooped around a little... looks like Minnie's getting a cell phone for Christmas. (She's a little late opening her stocking, though!)

And the kitchen improvement project has got a ways to go...

We wandered around a bit more and then took the monorail to the Contemporary and waited for a Downtown Disney bus. We even saw a rabbit go hopping by while we waited. At DD, we headed for our dinner reservation at Raglan Rd. Unfortunately, one of my sister-in-laws, the one who was most looking forward to this, had a very upset stomach and couldn't even eat it, we just got it to go (thank goodness for the fridge in the room!) Fortunately, we go a nice, secluded booth that was a nice respite for her. I got the shepherd's pie:

It may not look like much in the picture, but it was very good, and it went down very easily! The dessert of strawberry and apple crumble was very good, too.

Afterwards, we wandered over to The Art of Disney, which is full of neat things to look at and photograph.

We walked back to Saratoga Springs...

...and called it a night.

Coming next... breakfast at Crystal Palace and the day at Animal Kingdom!

 

[disney-super-mom]

WOW - just SUPERB pictures and descriptions! LOVIN' IT!

 

[tomshortridge]

GREAT pictures. My family is hooked on your trip and photos!

 

[TIGGER'SFRIEND]

Great TR--lovin the pics--Can't wait for more

 

[Groucho]

We got to MK bright and early, lots of cast members were greeting the early arrivers.

We headed for Crystal Palace...

By now, Jack was doing pretty good with the characters.

It was a little warm for scarves but that didn't stop Tigger.

I had to do some manual dust removal from this and some later blue-sky photos.

It's mandatory on the photo board to take a balloon photo, so here's one of mine:

Can't forget the Pose-a-Matic!

We took the ferryboat over to the Ticket and Transportation Center.

...and headed for the Animal Kingdom - hoping that it wouldn't be too busy, what with the marathon going on and all. Were we right? Find out soon!

 

[KerriSue]

Your pictures are fantastic. They are postcard quality. I am really enjoying your report. Thank you.

Kerri

 

[mommykds]

I love your pictures!!!! Your son is adorable.

 

[kissy]

I LOVE your pictures! Absolutely stunning! Can't wait to see the rest!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

This is an amazing trip report-I'm really enjoying it. I just bought myself a tripod for Christmas, and I'm hoping to take it to WDW in March. Did you lug your tripod around every day or only certain times? I was thinking that when I go back to POP for a break and lunch or supper, I can get it then for my night shots. What do you think? And do you check your tripod or can you have it with you as a carryon in the plane? Thanks Groucho, and again, awesome pictures.

 

[BrerMama]

Really enjoying this! I think you've convinced me to carry 2 cameras this summer. Thanks, now my back will be killing me by day 2. And I'll know who to blame.

Seriously, loving it. Keep it coming!

 

[tinawv]

Still enjoying the pictures and still enjoying your trip report. Looking forward to the next post.

 

[Groucho]

This is an amazing trip report-I'm really enjoying it. I just bought myself a tripod for Christmas, and I'm hoping to take it to WDW in March. Did you lug your tripod around every day or only certain times? I was thinking that when I go back to POP for a break and lunch or supper, I can get it then for my night shots. What do you think? And do you check your tripod or can you have it with you as a carryon in the plane? Thanks Groucho, and again, awesome pictures.

Thanks for the compliments! I brought both a monopod and a tripod but I think next time, I might leave the monopod at home. Maybe if I had a lighter/smaller one... the monopod is an aluminum one and is longer than the tripod (and probably heavier, as the tripod is carbon fiber.)

Since we had our stroller with us, I would just toss the monopod or tripod in the bottom of it during the day. At night, I'd carry it by hand if I was doing a bunch of tripod shots, or strap it across my back (I was often that way on the bus to and from the parks.) The strap was one I'd cobbled together from my original camera bag strap (as that now has an Op/Tech SOS strap on it) - I'd probably seriously consider an Op/Tech tripod strap but I was trying not to nickel and dime myself to death beforehand! The homemade one worked well, though.

If you're planning on stopping back to Pop during the afternoon, that'd be a great time to pick it up. The only concern would be if you try to do any thrill rides - I was fortunately never in the situation of wanting to do one but not having anywhere to stow my gear. (Though I'd usually bring my camera on the ride, along with an extra lens in my belt pouch, and would flip between them.) Either way, I'd definitely bring it and plan on at least a couple nights where you'll bring it (preferably when the parks are open later, to give you more time) as you can really get some neat shots at night. Don't forget a remote shutter release, too.

I think you can probably carry-on the tripod onto the airplane, but no guarantees. I had hoped to bring the monopod as a carry-on but was denied, but supposedly others have not had problems.

 

[Groucho]

Really enjoying this! I think you've convinced me to carry 2 cameras this summer. Thanks, now my back will be killing me by day 2. And I'll know who to blame.

Seriously, loving it. Keep it coming!

On a serious note - I didn't get nearly as sore as I feared, or as I have in the past. I really recommend a good neck strap - I used the Op/Tech Pro Strap and have heard it's the best out there, but some other companies make competing stuff, too. The relatively narrow, non-stretching, rough straps that come with the cameras are definitely much more uncomfortable!

And I really, really liked having a belt pouch, where I'd store a lens all the time. Usually my 50-200mm with hood, but often my 16mm fisheye, and I could easily swap lenses without needing to go into my camera bag at all. It was convenient and helped move some of the weight from the bag to the hip.

 

[Groucho]

Back to the TR...

We arrived at Animal Kingdom and I spent a minute looking at the Christmas tree out front and taking a few photos.

There are a variety of interesting toys underneath - how about a crocodile xylophone?

The entrance has one of the few references to the "Beastly Kingdom" that was originally supposed to be part of the park... a dragon head.

As we went through bag check, the checker teased Jack about his pacifier. "You don't really want that!" He showed me a collection that they have of pacifiers that kids have given up when they've gone in the park! Now there's something that's easy to miss! If you go in, the bag check on the right has them, you need to look back towards the parking lot, and there's a whole bunch of them on the ledge inside the roof. Come to think of it, it might even be the actual admission turnstiles, but I think it was bag check.

Animal Kingdom is chock full of interesting architecture...

I love rats, so I liked this pot:

Again, we made a beeline for Expedition Everest, to hopefully pick up some fastpasses. We tried our usual route - towards Dinoland then across the bridge past Finding Nemo - only to find that the bridge was closed. We had to turn around and go the other way - which meant standing in a long line of people who were being whisked through where the runners were running, a few at a time. It took a while but finally we got up there and got our chance and made a mad dash across - with one of my sister-in-laws mowing down people like crazy with the stroller!

We made it to Everest...

We were happy to find that there were still fastpasses left and we grabbed four. Now, here I realize that I misspoke earlier - it was this day that we saw the Finding Nemo show. It was wrong about the day, but it was still a great show! Afterwards, we were waiting near the exit and a couple of our group stopped into the bathroom, and I noticed that you can see backstage a little through a crack between a big door and a building... shh! Don't tell anyone!

I'm not quite sure what the clownfish were for - they weren't in the show. Part of the parade, maybe? (I've never really seen it.)

After the show, we passed an interesting bird on our way to Dinoland...

Somewhere around here, we had some minor strife in our group (happens with every group and I haven't mentioned every time it did in this TR ) and we ended up splitting up for a few minutes. The sisters-in-law did Primeval Whirl:

...while the rest of us did Triceratops Spin.

We did the baby swap so that we could all ride Dinosaur...

There's some weird stuff in the queue for that ride. What's a "parallfl tim converter"?

Dinosaur's control panel is a bit more modern than the Snow White one I showed earlier.

Afterwards, we stopped by the Boneyard to let Jack burn off some energy.

By now it was time to head back to Everest! We were getting pretty excited to finally ride it. (It opened just a few weeks after our last trip and it was quite a tease seeing it sitting there complete back then!)

We decided to let my sisters-in-law ride it first, while my wife hemmed and hawed - her vertigo was leaving her really scared of the big drop in the above photo.

While they hopped into the Fastpass line, I killed time taking pictures, both outside:

...and inside:

Continued... (Disboards tells me that I have too many photos for one message, so I'll break this into two.)