We Defected to the West! DLR 2013

[DisneyFreak06]

WOW!!!

Beautiful parade pictures!!!!

And I just googled to see how many characters are hidden and there are a few that I don't think I found... and maybe some stretches too!!

 

[mom2rtk]

Such great photo of the parade! I agree having it go the other way to get SW in the background would have been cool. SW looks so great with its xmas overlay. I also love the HM makeover. I was stunned at how much detail went into it when they re-do it. It is always closed Labor Day when I go there. Gonna have to try and made a Nov/Dec trip out there again.

Thanks! What we figured out about the parade is that it alternates. One time it comes from Main Street, the next time it turns around and goes back the other way. Completely different from WDW where it circles around backstage and starts in the same spot again. And there is an afternoon parade in the lineup too. So very hard to keep up with where it's coming from next, especially if there's been a weather issue that cancels a showing.

Wonderful parade pictures. Great shots! Seems like reserved seating might be the way to go. Did you think it was worth it?

Thanks PiO! I really think it was more than worth it. I have struggled with whether we would spend the money to do it again. I'm leaning toward not doing it just because the anecdotal stuff on the tour would be likely duplicated. And I think I want to shoot the night parade over on Main Street this time. But if you haven't done the tour, it's definitely worth doing at least once.

Jen and Karen, do either of you know if you get parade seating with any of the other tours?

WOW!!!

Beautiful parade pictures!!!!

And I just googled to see how many characters are hidden and there are a few that I don't think I found... and maybe some stretches too!!

Thanks Tina!

And what a great idea. An IASW character scavenger hunt. Katie and I can have some real fun with that next time!

 

[PrincessInOz]

And what a great idea. An IASW character scavenger hunt. Katie and I can have some real fun with that next time!

I did this at HKDL in 2012. My DS is still contemplating reporting me for child cruelty.
I made him go through the ride 3 times in a row.

 

[petals]

Luv luv LUV you're parade pics. OMG can't wait to see all this for myself.

 

[mom2rtk]

I did this at HKDL in 2012. My DS is still contemplating reporting me for child cruelty.
I made him go through the ride 3 times in a row.

We rode it 3 times on this trip, but never back to back. In fact, I decided there was no better way to end a park day than by riding IASW Holiday at night. Next time I want to ride the train through there at night when the lights are on. I saw it go through several times. It looks cool.

Luv luv LUV you're parade pics. OMG can't wait to see all this for myself.

you are going to LOVE it!

 

[jenseib]

I am loving the parade shots. My favorite are the toy soldiers and I assume they are just as awesome there too!

Now I want to go back at Christmas time even more!

 

[ArwenMarie]

All caught up!
Great stuff!
The goat pictures are adorable

 

[mom2rtk]

I am loving the parade shots. My favorite are the toy soldiers and I assume they are just as awesome there too!

Now I want to go back at Christmas time even more!

Thanks Jen. The toy soldiers have always been my favorite. It was great to see them at DL after enjoying them at WDW so many years.

I see a little room left in your signature. Why not find a way to add a December trip?

All caught up!
Great stuff!
The goat pictures are adorable ��

Thanks ArwenMarie! Thanks for not giving up on me. It takes me a while to get going sometimes but it always gets done.

Glad you liked the goat pics. Now if I can just talk my daughter out of some goat selfies......... Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I've even seen them.

 

[Sherry E]

Janet --

Several things, as I remember them (and I am sure I will forget something!):

1. First of all, in the last photo of you and Katie in front of the floral Mickey/Train Station backdrop -- in this post -- I noticed that there are tiny characters on top of the station, near the top of the photo! I saw Mickey and Pluto in Santa hats and, I think, Minnie too. Were those enhancements added in to the photo after the fact? Was I merely seeing things and imagining characters where there were none?

Now you know that I am all about spotting details at DLR, but if those characters have been on top of the train station the whole time then I have clearly been slipping!



2. Your Haunted Mansion Holiday photos are amazing! There are a couple of shots that you got of the details in the ballroom/dining room that are fantastic, because they show those details up close -- some of which I have not been able to see too well on the ride because my eyesight is not that great!

I've always told people about the hidden "snowdrift" Mickey in that same ballroom/dining room scene (which actually looks more like a hidden cotton ball Mickey or a hidden bath rug Mickey, and is only there during the holiday season -- not during Halloween Time!!!) but I've never been able to see what was surrounding the hidden Mickey all that well while on the ride!

Please post those HMH photos when we get to that Theme Week in the Superthread!



3. Your IASWH photos are, of course, stunning -- especially the shots of the façade at night. Absolutely breathtaking and crystal clear. Unlike the lights on the Castle, the lights on IASWH, thankfully, have not been thinned out or toned down. Thank heavens for small miracles! I never, ever get tired of gazing at that glorious, colorful sight after dark!


4. The crazy Aladdin lady... Okay, where to start on that one? You are a more poised and graceful individual than I. I am too mouthy for my own good, I think, and I would have had to deliver a few sarcastic, snarky "pearls of wisdom" in Crazy Lady's direction -- especially after she instructed her kids to stand and block your view, and as soon as the show was over.

What was her specific issue? Was it the sound of your camera? Was it that deafening? She just sounds ridiculous, and I'm sure she had some other issues going on.


5. Since I know my first "cameo appearance" in your trip is coming up very soon, I wanted to mention now -- in case you end up forgetting the names -- that the people who were with me in NOS when I saw you the second time were DIS'ers PHXscuba, funatdisney and DizNee Luver!!!



6. You were asking about the Olaf "sandman" in the Superthread after I mentioned it. I just wanted to make sure you didn't miss my reply to you in this post, as I included a couple of links to photos of the sand sculpture, before and after.

Wouldn't it have been cool if the sculptor created a whole set of sand characters?

 

[mvf-m11c]

If I recall properly, we pretty much headed straight for the exit and over to DCA. We didn't really spend a long time over there though, just a few stops in the Carthay Circle area. I enjoyed it, and would do it again. Just not sure yet if we'll do it again this coming year. It would likely just feel like too much of a repeat. Does anyone know if they tend to change things up on the tours from year to year? I'm sure I'd love the Happiest Haunts tour though and hope to get there at the right time to do that some year.

I do love my Sigma 30mm f/1.4. Since they came out with the new version, I do hear about people getting decent deals on the older model. If I was going to rent though, I'd probably be looking around to see if you can find the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8. I love the idea of finally being able to shoot the dark rides with a little bit of focus range flexibility. I shoot IASW with my 2.8 lens and love the variety of shots I can get with more range.

After seeing the pictures when you were back at DCA, it was nice to have the tour to go to DCA. If the Holiday tour changes this year, it doesn't make sense to do it again after one year. I don't do a lot of tour at the parks but it is always nice to do try a different tour.

I will have to think about trying the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 lens one day with all the reviews about it. It is nice to be able to take pictures with f/1.8 and be able to zoom in and out.


Very nice pictures from "A Christmas Fantasy" parade at night. The spot for the guests who do the Holiday tour is a very nice area to watch the parade. I am a fan of the Christmas Fantasy parade at DL during the holiday season but it was a little disappointing last year with the changes to the characters on the floats.

 

[AprilRenee]

Wow! Those are beautiful parade pics. I felt like I was right there!
I like how they have the parade all lit up with external lights instead of spectromagic-esque lights. Does disney world do that too for party evening parades? I've only ever seen spectro and electrical light parade at wdw.

 

[mom2rtk]

Janet --

Several things, as I remember them (and I am sure I will forget something!):

1. First of all, in the last photo of you and Katie in front of the floral Mickey/Train Station backdrop -- in this post -- I noticed that there are tiny characters on top of the station, near the top of the photo! I saw Mickey and Pluto in Santa hats and, I think, Minnie too. Were those enhancements added in to the photo after the fact? Was I merely seeing things and imagining characters where there were none?

Now you know that I am all about spotting details at DLR, but if those characters have been on top of the train station the whole time then I have clearly been slipping!


2. Your Haunted Mansion Holiday photos are amazing! There are a couple of shots that you got of the details in the ballroom/dining room that are fantastic, because they show those details up close -- some of which I have not been able to see too well on the ride because my eyesight is not that great!

I've always told people about the hidden "snowdrift" Mickey in that same ballroom/dining room scene (which actually looks more like a hidden cotton ball Mickey or a hidden bath rug Mickey, and is only there during the holiday season -- not during Halloween Time!!!) but I've never been able to see what was surrounding the hidden Mickey all that well while on the ride!

Please post those HMH photos when we get to that Theme Week in the Superthread!



3. Your IASWH photos are, of course, stunning -- especially the shots of the façade at night. Absolutely breathtaking and crystal clear. Unlike the lights on the Castle, the lights on IASWH, thankfully, have not been thinned out or toned down. Thank heavens for small miracles! I never, ever get tired of gazing at that glorious, colorful sight after dark!


4. The crazy Aladdin lady... Okay, where to start on that one? You are a more poised and graceful individual than I. I am too mouthy for my own good, I think, and I would have had to deliver a few sarcastic, snarky "pearls of wisdom" in Crazy Lady's direction -- especially after she instructed her kids to stand and block your view, and as soon as the show was over.

What was her specific issue? Was it the sound of your camera? Was it that deafening? She just sounds ridiculous, and I'm sure she had some other issues going on.


5. Since I know my first "cameo appearance" in your trip is coming up very soon, I wanted to mention now -- in case you end up forgetting the names -- that the people who were with me in NOS when I saw you the second time were DIS'ers PHXscuba, funatdisney and DizNee Luver!!!



6. You were asking about the Olaf "sandman" in the Superthread after I mentioned it. I just wanted to make sure you didn't miss my reply to you in this post, as I included a couple of links to photos of the sand sculpture, before and after.

Wouldn't it have been cool if the sculptor created a whole set of sand characters?

Well Sherry, just to keep things interesting........ those are not a photoshop trick. They are actually there. And check out the tiny characters on the train station in this post. Katie actually noticed that when we were there and said something about them changing, but I thought she was imagining things. I didn't think to compare photos until you brought this up. I wonder if poor Goofy fell off or something!

So glad you are enjoying the photos. I am looking forward to posting some photos during theme week. Now that summer vacation is over, I'm looking forward to focusing on our December Disney trip, and that's a great way to get in the mood!

I'm so glad they apparently haven't done anything to diminish the light display at IASW. It truly is remarkable and it needs to just stay that way. I had planned to set up some tripod shots there, but just didn't get to it. I was pretty happy with the handheld ones though.

Now..... crazy Aladdin lady. She really caught me off guard, so I'm not sure I remember exactly what she said. But I think she was complaining about the sound of the shutter. And no, it was not deafening. Remember, the lady in the seat right next to me said she didn't even realize I was taking photos. And I'm guessing the crazy lady has a history of that sort of thing, which is why he didn't go address it with an usher when she told him to. She ended up crawling out over top of him when he wouldn't go.

And bless you Sherry! How did you know I had been racking my brain trying to remember the IDs of the people I met that day. Thank you!

And thanks so much for sharing those links to the Olaf sandman photos. How cute is that? And I agree..... it would be so cool to do some other Disney characters in sand for summer. Might as well have something positive going for dealing with all that heat.

After seeing the pictures when you were back at DCA, it was nice to have the tour to go to DCA. If the Holiday tour changes this year, it doesn't make sense to do it again after one year. I don't do a lot of tour at the parks but it is always nice to do try a different tour.

I will have to think about trying the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 lens one day with all the reviews about it. It is nice to be able to take pictures with f/1.8 and be able to zoom in and out.


Very nice pictures from "A Christmas Fantasy" parade at night. The spot for the guests who do the Holiday tour is a very nice area to watch the parade. I am a fan of the Christmas Fantasy parade at DL during the holiday season but it was a little disappointing last year with the changes to the characters on the floats.

Yeah, the more I think about it, as much as I loved the ride and parade access on a busy park day, I just can't justify doing the same tour again. It will have to be another tour or none at all.

I don't know what I'd think of having such a small zoom range with that Sigma lens. But I really just want access to a much wider field of view in a fast lens. If there was a 1.8 18mm prime, I'd probably have bought one years ago. I love wide shots. And I love fast lenses.

What sort of changes did they make to the characters on the floats in the Christmas parade? I know that's exactly the sort of thing that I noticed at the WDW parade. One of the big advantages of heading to DLR was that all the holiday offerings were new to us.

Wow! Those are beautiful parade pics. I felt like I was right there!
I like how they have the parade all lit up with external lights instead of spectromagic-esque lights. Does disney world do that too for party evening parades? I've only ever seen spectro and electrical light parade at wdw.

Thanks so much! I appreciate the kind words.

The WDW Christmas parade is similar in terms of lighting. Some floats have spotlights, and the parade route has some external lighting. It's still hard to photograph though since some elements look better without a flash, and some really need a little bit of flash.

 

[Sherry E]

Janet --

Well, you have confirmed my suspicions. My eye for detail is slipping! I arrived at DLR on 12/8, and I must have walked right past those characters on top of the train station (which, to my knowledge, were totally new last year, unless I have been overlooking them for years).

Then again, I am surprised the characters stayed up there. The poor reindeer positioned in front of the GCH took a beating, and one of them went flying when a heavy wind gust knocked it over! Maybe that's what happened to Goofy? Maybe he got taken out by some wind?

I think it would have been a very creative idea to have a whole sand character display - at least the main characters, in any case, with Olaf sort of holding court in the middle or something. Maybe it's something DLR will consider doing in future summers.

I had a feeling that you would need a reminder of who I was with when we ran into you in NOS! You met a lot of people on your trip!

It's funny because I, of course, saw you and Katie two more times after meeting you on 12/8, and I saw Kathy/ksromack (without knowing for sure it was Kathy) before the 12/8 meet-up, as she and her DH had been on the same ride that I was on. I also ran into her DH again on the way to the PPH Business Center. But I never saw Kim (kmedina) and her family again after the 12/8 meet. She posted in the Superthread, of course, but I fully expected to see her somewhere else since I saw you repeatedly and even saw Kathy's husband again.

It's wild how, in a place as big as DLR, we can keep running into the same people over and over (like you ran into Wendy), or we seem to see the same strangers over and over, but then if we actually set out to try to find someone we probably could not do it. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack!

 

[missangelalexis]

AMAZING parade pictures, felt like I was right there watching!

 

[BebopAngel88]

I LOVE how you stood up to that mean woman! I just can't believe how rude she was and especially in front of your daughter. Some nerve!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I loved the parade pictures so much that I had to go back and look at them again!

Wow. Just WOW. Did you use the 17-55 2.8 lens for it? Obviously it wasn't open all the way because the pictures are so clear. What settings did you use?

 

[mom2rtk]

Sorry to leave things hanging again. I was feeling under the weather most of the week. Time for catch-up again!

Janet --

Well, you have confirmed my suspicions. My eye for detail is slipping! I arrived at DLR on 12/8, and I must have walked right past those characters on top of the train station (which, to my knowledge, were totally new last year, unless I have been overlooking them for years).

Then again, I am surprised the characters stayed up there. The poor reindeer positioned in front of the GCH took a beating, and one of them went flying when a heavy wind gust knocked it over! Maybe that's what happened to Goofy? Maybe he got taken out by some wind?

Well, then my mind is slipping too. Because Katie is the one who had to point out the change in characters to me. And if that's the case, it will be interesting to see if they put them back this year.

I think it would have been a very creative idea to have a whole sand character display - at least the main characters, in any case, with Olaf sort of holding court in the middle or something. Maybe it's something DLR will consider doing in future summers.

I told Katie about the Olaf sandman. She said she couldn't wait to see him in December. Then I had to break it to her he might be gone by then. She hopes they do something Olaf then. Hopefully with it being holiday time they will. She's a big fan and has been working on "In Summer" as her next piano piece.

I had a feeling that you would need a reminder of who I was with when we ran into you in NOS! You met a lot of people on your trip!

Oh yeah..... just reference the above comment about the slipping mind!

It's funny because I, of course, saw you and Katie two more times after meeting you on 12/8, and I saw Kathy/ksromack (without knowing for sure it was Kathy) before the 12/8 meet-up, as she and her DH had been on the same ride that I was on. I also ran into her DH again on the way to the PPH Business Center. But I never saw Kim (kmedina) and her family again after the 12/8 meet. She posted in the Superthread, of course, but I fully expected to see her somewhere else since I saw you repeatedly and even saw Kathy's husband again.

It's wild how, in a place as big as DLR, we can keep running into the same people over and over (like you ran into Wendy), or seem the same strangers over and over, but then if we actually set out to try to find someone we probably could not do it. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack!

I agree. Even if I don't know somebody, I seem to notice them over and over. Thankfully I didn't notice my Aladdin friend again though!

AMAZING parade pictures, felt like I was right there watching!

Thanks so much! It's really hard for me to sit there watching that parade and NOT want to take a bunch of photos.

I LOVE how you stood up to that mean woman! I just can't believe how rude she was and especially in front of your daughter. Some nerve!

Thank you! I don't think Katie was too fazed by the whole thing. She's used to me speaking up when I need to. But I really did feel bad for her poor kids. There's no way this was the first time she's pulled this sort of thing. He husband just ignored her, and I think you have to build up to that sort of thing.

I loved the parade pictures so much that I had to go back and look at them again!

Wow. Just WOW. Did you use the 17-55 2.8 lens for it? Obviously it wasn't open all the way because the pictures are so clear. What settings did you use?

Thanks Tina! I did use the Canon 17-55 f/2.8. And I did shoot wide open at 2.8 and 1600 ISO for most of my shots. Part way though I did decide that a few of the wandering characters needed a bit of flash, so I swapped to a smaller aperture and a bit of flash. But I do typically decrease the flash exposure compensation when I do that so I can still get some of the ambient background light to show up.

In case you don't know, any photo you see me post is clickable. It will take you to Flickr where I post them and the settings are listed right there. I LOVE that feature and check out settings any time I see something interesting posted. Of course, it won't tell you if I knew what I was doing or if it was one of those shots I just totally lucked into!

 

[mom2rtk]

Friday December 6, 2014 Continued:

OK, this is starting to seem like the day that just won't end! LOL. It sort of seemed that way at the time too. But we had a ball, and knew that we were taking the next day off, so we went for it.

The parade ended in Fantasyland around 6:15 and we headed for the exit so we could still make our RSR FP time. I enjoyed that ride at night a lot, but it took a full 30 minutes in the FP line. And the area was just too crowded, and we were in too much of a hurry to get to fully appreciate the neon beauty. I really would like to go back closer to closing some night when I can take it all in better.

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Once our ride was over, we really didn't have time to spare. We needed to check in to see WOC. We were in line by 7:30 for the 9 PM show, but still behind a pretty decent sized crowd. Katie was hungry, so we bought hot dogs and wolfed them down while standing in line. We were let in around 8. I had wanted a spot by a rail, but of course those went quickly and we made a spur of the moment decision to head for the wet zone down front. Even those spots were almost gone. It was a long hour waiting for the show to get under way. We had been on our feet on the go since before 8 that morning. But I enjoyed the show. I enjoyed being close to the action down front too. It was cold, but it wasn't windy so we didn't get too wet. I can't wait to get back and see the regular version of WOC.


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[mom2rtk]

Friday December 6, 2014 Continued:



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I sure wish I had captured the entire "Happy Holiday" message on this shot!

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And I can see on these photos that my lens was starting to get a little wet, or fogged, or something:

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We exited through the Grand Californian and grabbed some hot chocolate at Whitewater Snacks on our way out. My feet were more than ready for a break the next day.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Very nice! WOC looks amazing!