We're Doing WHAT For My Birthday??? - Final Thoughts

[cherbear]

Yes, very different and both for me are favorites. I gotta say that I still prefer the original at DL over WDWs. I know some of it is the thrill ride aspect of those drops at the beginning

what?? big drops?? I want!

 

[Trentmom]

I love all your POTC pics

Are you saying DL POTC has a lot of drops? Ours has the one in the beginning which I love

 

[natebenma]

OK, I will forgive the no FP!

Great pictures! I love that side of the line for POTC. So many interesting things to see. It is great that you were there when it was empty. I was trying to take a picture of the room with the table and fireplace and someone was sitting right in my shot!

Great picture of Jack in the treasure room!

The skipper really makes or breaks the Jungle Cruise ride!

 

[mnmrmustard]

I am inclined to believe that. The drops a huge part of making it great!!

Agreed.

what?? big drops?? I want!

Yes, DL has two of them

I love all your POTC pics

Are you saying DL POTC has a lot of drops? Ours has the one in the beginning which I love

It has a pretty big one at 52', followed by a 37' drop. Also DLR's has two scenes (Blue Bayou at the beginning and the Grotto of Lost Souls) that WDW's does not.

OK, I will forgive the no FP!

Great pictures! I love that side of the line for POTC. So many interesting things to see. It is great that you were there when it was empty. I was trying to take a picture of the room with the table and fireplace and someone was sitting right in my shot!

Great picture of Jack in the treasure room!

The skipper really makes or breaks the Jungle Cruise ride!

I've never gone on the other side of the line so I'll have to make that a goal for next time and take pics there. Glad I was able to get a pic of that room for you I hate when just one person is messing up a shot. I've honestly photoshopped people out of pics when possible

Thank you on Jack n the treasure room and you got that right - good skipper on Jungle Cruise = great time

 

[mnmrmustard]

Back to my cruise through the Jungle!

Lion King reborn

Up the pole they go

Open wide!

We see the backside of water as another boat comes by

Heading into the temple, which is certainly one thing that WDW’s MK has over DLR. The extra area inside the temple is very cool.

Coming back out the other side we find more elephants

I finished my cruise and wandered out the Adventureland gate, turning to take a quick shot

There was a well-dressed lady on the trolley as I walked back into the hub

The castle looked so pristine I had to take another look

Walking up I pieced together a perspective shot

Big Perspective Shot

Same compilation formatted in a different way

Big View of Second Shot

I walked back down by the Partners and snapped a shot. The early morning sun had washed out most of the color, leaving a silhouette with Tomorrowland in the background.

I decided to take it a bit further and turned it into a black and white.

In the big view you can see great detail of the crowds flooding into Tomorrowland and a girl holding up her camera to take a shot of Mickey

Large Shot of Walt

I worked my way back up Main Street; I was feeling the call of the train. It is something I must do on every trip and will eventually sign up for the behind the magic tour of it. I made it to the station just as one was pulling in. By now it was around 9:15am and I got a text from Roxy saying she was up and getting herself together to come join me :-]

I sat down and looked out towards the gate. The guests were streaming in and a riverboat was on its way in to bring more.

We chugged out around the track and for a bit I just enjoyed the scenery. Then we came across BTM, which was now starting to see some passengers

We chugged on to what I am guessing is either a different sort of Indian village or an African village?

And then your classic Indian village

And then we were on through more forest to the GRAND FENCE!

Can’t wait to see the end result of all of the work. How many of us keep checking online for new pics and vids of the construction? Hehehe.

I took a snap of some happy motorists

Coming up I meet some happy characters, am reunited with my sweetie, and we take in some history

Click here for the next chapter: Day 6 Part 6 – Daisy, Sweetie, and My Fellow Americans

 

[kaoden39]

Cinderella's Castle is so much fancier than Aurora's. Poor Aurora! I do love Aurora's castle though. It may not be nearly as fancy but it is special to me. I am anxious to see the changes to Fantasyland.

 

[Trentmom]

Great pics

I am excited to see what the new Fantasyland will look like

 

[cherbear]

great update Mike! Looking forward to seeing what happens when Roxy meets up with you! Afterall, it allows you both to take pics of each other so that we see you IN the pics every once in a while. LOL

 

[mnmrmustard]

Cinderella's Castle is so much fancier than Aurora's. Poor Aurora! I do love Aurora's castle though. It may not be nearly as fancy but it is special to me. I am anxious to see the changes to Fantasyland.

It is fancier but both have their own charms. Yes, gotta figure out how to afford coming back when the new Fantasyland opens

Great pics

I am excited to see what the new Fantasyland will look like

Indeed!

great update Mike! Looking forward to seeing what happens when Roxy meets up with you! Afterall, it allows you both to take pics of each other so that we see you IN the pics every once in a while. LOL

Well yes, there will be some more pics of me - I'm the birthday boy after all!

 

[mnmrmustard]

WOW!!! Over 10,000 views and I still have a day and a half of fun to go!!!!

 

[mnmrmustard]

Sorry everyone for letting my TR fall by the wayside. i spent the past couple of weeks preping for the Portland Pirate Festival which happened Labor Day weekend. It was a blast, here are some pics from it!

From left to right Missa and Kyra, both attending the Kumoricon Anime Convention the same weekend in Vancouver, WA. Then we have Jennyfer and Gillian, my pirate crew ;-D

Right when you go thru the main gate you are greeted by mermaids

Across from them were a bevy of piratey birds. Bean with a parrot

This one liked to fly to people, Bean was game for it

There was a Higland Pipe and Drum band

Down from there was a kiddie area with bouncy castles and some foam swords to duel with.

Bean took on Jennyfer

After beating her she moved on to the pirate who ran the booth. I think he was suprised by her skills!

There were pirates of all ages in attendance

by the gazebo they put on different shows including two different jugglers/comedians, a hypnotist, belly dancers, and several different musical acts.

Here is one of the jugglers

Bean after the hypnotist show (she was one of the "victims"). My favorite shot of the weekend

Me and my crew

A very cool drum band

Authentic pirate duels

At the main stage there were musical acts all day and into the night

Every couple of hours there were cannon firings

The 'redcoats' had authentic wares from on the ships

The girls returning from checking out the vendors - lots of cool stuff to be seen

Me and a fellow Barbossa fan (we had the same sword)

Bean got into trouble and found herself in a bit of a bind

Pirates roaming the grounds

Another duel

Me with one of Oberon's Tavern's bar wenches ....yaaarrrr!

Belly dancers performing at Oberon's

I would have posted more but I swore I'd limit it to DISboard's pic limit - lol

I'll get back on track with the TR and have something posted in the next couple of days. Hope y'all are having a fine Monday!

 

[kaoden39]

Oh that looks like a great time!!

 

[Trentmom]

That looked like so much fun

Loved the little baby Pirate

Great pics

 

[mnmrmustard]

Oh that looks like a great time!!

That looked like so much fun

Loved the little baby Pirate

Great pics

Thank you ladies, it was a lot of fun

 

[mnmrmustard]

When we left off I was finishing up a train ride while I waited for my sweetie to arrive.

I put the camera down then and just enjoyed the rest of the train trip. Soon enough I was pulling back into the Main Street Station

I stopped in the station to take a quick pic of some railroad memorabilia

As I came back down to park level I ran into Pluto and Daisy

And here’s Donald (courtesy of PhotoPass)

I noodled around for a few minutes in the shops and then Roxy was there! Here we are in front of the castle.

We headed back up Main Street towards the hub and came across a little show

By now it was about 10:30am and the heat was starting to press down on us. We decided to take in a mellow classic since we had no kids to get bored by it. That’s right, the Hall of Presidents! I’m a history buff so I love this kind of stuff

While waiting for the show to being I took in some Presidential memorabilia

And some famous portraits

One of the CMs started doing trivia and I was a natural – yay me! Then it was time to move into the hall. Roxy had her scooter so we had first entry and spots in the back. From there I couldn’t get enough light for pics so I only took a couple that turned out.

When we came out we headed around the bend to the Haunted Mansion. I hadn’t seen it since they started the remodel of the outside so I was really looking forward to it.

The carriage still in its rightful place

Some of the dearly departed relatives

Roxy made some music

I did my best Elton John

More musical notes

The Captain went down with his tub

Coming up we get spooked and catch a show


Click here for the next chapter:Day 6 Part 7 – Haunted Mansion and Magic at the Castle

 

[mnmrmustard]

A ‘cryptic’ bookshelf

The resting place of Dear Prudence

And of course the grave yard

Madame Leota wasn’t being very talkative when we went by

Then it was on into the spooky world of climate control! The ride broke down twice while we were in there, but thankfully not long enough for it to shut down. Here are some pics from inside.

The 3-D busts

Spooky portraits

The ‘eyes’ have it!

One blurry pic of Leota

The happy couple

The bride still waiting

Our singing ensemble

And of course the Hitchhiking Ghosts

I like the new ghost antics on the way out ...again blurry but the best I could capture

On the way out I snapped a shot of Roxy with the carriage

As we strolled out I took a quick shot of ye ole Pet Cemetery

We rolled up into Fantasyland and we totally in ‘how can we keep out of the sun?’ mode

IaSW was a good fit for that. They let Roxy take her scooter down but then the CMs down below unfortunately weren’t very organized and we ended up having to leave it and stand for quite a bit. Ah well, it was cool and shaded which counts for a lot. I didn’t take any pictures on this one either as I had done picture overkill in ’09 at DLR and in ’08 here at WDW. We just sat back and relaxed through the singing madness.

When we came out it was getting close to my B-Day lunch reservations so we cruised around the castle and caught the last part of one of the shows

Once we had a decent angle I did a couple of panoramas. First we have Wendy laughing at Hook’s misfortune

Large Shot of Wendy and Hook

Mr. Smee tries to help Hook while Pan runs down

Large Shot of Smee and Pan

Smee scolds Wendy while she sticks out her tongue

Large Shot of Smee and Wendy

The show was wrapping up and my birthday lunch was quickly approaching. Care to guess (no peeking at itineraries!) where I chose for my special lunch?

Next up, from Lunch to the Laugh Floor!


Click Here for the Next Chapter: Day 6 Part 8 – Birthday Pasta and Mike Wazowski!

 

[Trentmom]

Love the new stuff at HM

Great pics as usual

That is cool you got any pics to come out in HM. Didn't think that was possible

I am going to guess you eat at Liberty Tree Tavern for your bday lunch

 

[natebenma]

Day 6 Part 5 – Cruising, Strolling, and Riding the Rails

Fantastic shot of the castle with no peeps!

I love the things that you can see from the train- great views of BTM, the Indian villages, and the Fantastyland expansion signs.

 

[natebenma]

OT - Portland Pirate Festival

That looks seriously fun!!! Love your pirate garb and your crew looked great!

So, was Bean hypnotized and if so, what happened??? Or does what happened at the Pirate fest, stay at the Pirate fest?

 

[natebenma]

Day 6 Part 6 – Daisy, Sweetie, and My Fellow Americans

Great to have you two together again! What a super morning so far- some solo time doing what you love at your own pace then meeting up for more fun.

We haven't been to Hall of Presidents in over a decade, I'm ashamed to admit! Our bored kids have been along with us on all of the trips. But my youngest son is a history buff, and I think he is probably ready to check it out.

Did you happen to read about the Teddy bear in the case? I know the original is in the Smithsonian. I teach a short program about the first Teddy bear for elementary students as part of a history mini-camp.

Thanks for great pictures of the HM queue. We didn't take any time to explore it when we were there in July.

Day 5 Part 7 – Haunted Mansion and Magic at the Castle

More great pictures! I love the one with the eyes! So hard to get good shots in there. I have yet to capture the hitchiking ghosts with my point and shoot.

That bride is seriously spooky!

Lunch guess- Crystal Palace?