Prologue
I just want to set the stage a little bit. This is my 5th trip and my DWs 3rd trip to Disney. So we are pretty familiar how our Magical Express, deluxe dining plan and WDW transportation work. Thats why DW start making ADR 6 weeks ago so we dont have to wait until the last minute. We purposely book only up to 18 dining points for each person so we can reserve 3 point for any unexpected meal schedule. (Glad we did that.)
As for the camera bag situation, I have posted a pre-trip report plus the WL photo thread on how much gear I will be bringing to this trip.
I bought a new point&shoot camera for my DW just for this trip so she can do some shooting on her own. She did not like my tiny point& shoot I already have. In addition to that, I even bought an extra medium size and a smaller size camera for this trip as well. The medium size is for me because it can allow me to scale down what I want to carry on that day instead of lugging the monster bag everywhere. The smaller bag is from my DW.
This infamous camera bag has been a conversation piece among my friends for a while.
They always poke fun at me how much stuff I am carrying and how heavy it is. This bag even has a laptop compartment which house my 17 Apple laptop for my last trip to Disney. For this trip, I only brought a Sony VAIO UMPC because it only has a 4.5 screen, nice and light. The only time I did not bring my big camera bag was my last vacation to Aruba. Thats because I want to travel light since I was traveling outside the country. It will become a pain if custom wants to open and search everything.
One of my goal on this trip is to learn how to take pictures in low light condition without using the flash. Something I have not try regularly and want to take on that challenge. Photography has been my hobby for 30 years. I only do it occasionally and I do have a portfolio. I do mostly outdoor pictures but black&white only since I can develop the negative and make print on my own. I have switched to full digital about 4 years ago and I shot mostly racing, airshow and some sports. I dont shoot portrait but I did shoot a few weddings session as a favor but only one in film. The rest are digital. So I do accumulate quite a collection of photography equipment through out the years.
Lastly, please pardon my writing. Thats not exactly my forte and I know my grammar is pretty bad. I blame that as my Asian short fall. LOL
Having said that
Let the journey begins
Day #1 (Sunday) Part 1.
My DW and I spend yesterday morning to clean the house, vacuum, take out garbage and laundry, the usual chore. By noon, I begin to check all my photography gears. Making sure all the batteries were fully charged. All the flash memory were format so its ready for action. Making sure the little Sony UMPC has enough space for the pictures files. I dont want to deal with burning CD or DVD. I simply copy all daily picture into this little guy and then make a duplicate copy onto my iPod. Now I have backup of everything without a stack of discs.
My DW already had her luggage packed by then. I did not pack until when I was ready for bed. So I stayed up pretty late to pack my luggage. All I need is a few t-shirts and golf shirts, two pair of jeans and a few pair of shorts plus 1 pair of new hiking shoe. (That turns out to be a curse also.) If I have my way, I probably can get away with a back pack. But I dont think my DW would appreciate that one.
Our flight this morning is at 6:00am. Needless to say, I didnt get much sleep. My DW woke up at 2:30am and I woke up at 2:45am. I was a little groggy after only about 3 hours of sleep. Anyway, I took my shower. Carry my luggage and the camera bag downstair to the family room. DW was already ready to go. I ran back upstair to turn off all the water valves then come back down and do the same plus unplug some of the major appliances. A habit of mine so I dont have to come back worry a pipe might get busted or there was some kind of electrical storm that zap the house appliances.
After all that, I begin to load up the car. As I was loading the car, I thought to myself, I will save the camera bag last because I want to put that into the back seat instead of the trunk. So, I go back into the house and take out one bag at a time to load the car. Just when I load up the 2 big luggage plus my tripod, DW came out and hopped into the car. Normally, I have to chase her out of the house and then make one last sweep of the house before I lock everything up. So I thought, I guess we are ready to go and closed the door. Back out the car and head to the airport. Its was about 3:10am.
Road was fine and still a bit cold. We had single digit weather for weeks. Today was consider a heat wave, in the mid 30s. We arrived the Allentown airport at about 4:05am. Plenty of time to check in. DW even printed the boarding pass the day before, so no rush there. I parked the car. Unload the luggage and we start walking to the departure terminal.
Once we got inside. DW wants to go to the rest room. I said, Go ahead. I will sit here and wait. While DW was gone, I look at my tripod and thought the strap that hold it together wasnt tight enough for me to carry on my back. So I tried to figure some way to make it tighter. I know I packed some velco strap in my camera bag. I thought that might work better. I looked around to our pile of luggage and realize something is not right. I kept stare at the luggage in disbelieve thinking if I look hard enough, the camera bag is there. After staring for about 10 seconds, reality finally sink in. I know I have left my camera bag at home. My heart begins to pound from that point. My nightmare just begin. Suddenly, I felt my blood has completely drain out of my body. I want to run back to the car to see if I left it in the back seat even deep down inside I dont I didnt. But I was alone and I couldnt leave until DW is back. A very few long minutes later, DW came back and I told her the BAD news. I said, I am sick to my stomach right now. She was shocked. I ran back to the car to check it one more time and obviously the bag wasnt there. I ran back to the terminal feeling very depress and wanted to cry. But I know that would make my DW feels really bad and I dont want to let that ruin our trip. I tried very hard not to let it bother me but I was very quiet. The only camera we have with us was the new point & shoot I bought for her for the trip because DW wants to carry on her shoulder. Even that, the battery wouldnt last through the whole trip.
My DW knew I was not happy and tried to say something to make me feel better but it was very hard not to get upset after I spend so much time on getting everything together. She was such a real trooper. My head just keep thinking what can I do to solve the situation. So we scanned the boarding pass at the kiosk and check in our luggage, then begins to walk to the departure gate. Obviously, we were early and there was not a whole lot of people fly out of Allentown airport. We were alone pretty much for over an hour.
I kept thinking maybe somehow I can mail my bag to the resort then I would lose only 2 days without my gears. Regardless if that works or not, I took out my UMPC and connect to the airport wifi. The UMPC did not get packed into the bag. It holster onto my belt because its so small. When I took it out to go thru the x-ray machine, they did a double take and wonder what that was. Its a little smaller than 2 DVD boxes stack together. I told them its a computer. It has a built in keyboard, mouse and everything. I slide up the screen and show them the keyboard and they were scratch their head wondering how small this thing is. Luckily, the Allentown airport do have wifi and its free. I went to Disneys website and look up the address for Wilderness Lodge , where we stay. I wrote it down on a piece of paper just in case I figure how to get the bag to me.
By 5:30am, we boarded the flight and it left exactly at 6:00am. I watched Pirates of the Caribbean on my iPod but then fell asleep. Flight did hit some turbulence and my head was shaking around during sleep. DW has to woke me up so I dont get bounce around. While I was awake, DW told me I should ask our friend who lives about a few minutes away from our house and see if she can stop over to pick up the bag then UPS it to the resort. Normally, I wont suggest that because I know it will cost major $$$. But since she suggested it, I am clear for that idea. Beside, both of our cell phone charges were in the bag too. We wont able to call any one in a matter of 2 days. So I have to make a quick decision then.
After we landed at Atlanta airport and walked over to the connect flight terminal, we still has a little over an hour before our next flight. We stop at Starbuck for a Chai. DW said it again, You really should consider asking our friend to UPS the bag. After much consideration knowing I will regret it if I dont do this, I broke down and call our friend once we walked out Starbuck.
I sat down at the terminal where we will be board our next flight and start calling our friend. She answered the phone and I began to tell her the story. Even she couldnt believe I forgot The BAG. So I proceed to asked her if she can help me out and she agreed its not a problem. I gave her the WL address but told her wait until I call her again so I can give her the room# after we check in. I felt a little better after the call but felt unease at the same time knowing all my gears will be in the hands of UPS.
A little after 10:00am, we were in the air. Flight was ahead of schedule. We landed at Orlando at about 11:35am. First thing I did when we walked out of the terminal, I bought a cell phone charger at the airport for DW. My cell phone is a company phone and I don't want to sell the money for it. Cost for DWs cell phone charger, $30. Its expensive but at least I wont have to worry about the battery should the bag has any hiccup getting to Orlando.
We then proceed to take the shuttle tram and walked downstair to the Magical Express counter. There was a sea of people. We got in line and wait until we get to the next available CM. She was a very nice older lady. She asked us where are we staying and how long are we staying, the usual greeting questions. I told her we will be staying at WL and she stamp our book for the transportation then directed us to get on line #8 for the bus.
So we walked over to the bus line waiting area and there it was, the red carpet was there to greet us.
We found line #8 and hardly anyone is on that line.
But the other lines #1-7 were packed with people. After waiting for about 15 20 minutes, its our turn to get on the bus. Everything was pretty smooth from that point.
The bus drop us off at the WL. We walked in and got mesmerize by the lobby, as usual. Got in line to the check in counter. The nice CM gave us all the paper work and told us room is not ready yet. It should be ready some where around 3pm. He gave us a card to call for room status in case if we decide to head to the park right away. By then, it was almost 1pm. Not too bad. We then walked over to the concierge desk and try to sign up for the flag raising ceremony. Unfortunately, the CM told us we were too late because they were booked for the next 7 days. (A minor disappointment.)
By then, both of us were hungry because we havent eaten anything since we woke up. We did not make any ADR for lunch today because we don't know if we would make it to the reservation. So we are free to go any restaurant we want and off to Whispering Canyon Café we go.
I have to stop here because this is getting really long and my finger is getting tired from typing. If anyone think I am rambling too much, please let me know. I will try to shorten it. Day #1 (Sunday) Part 2 should be ready soon.
This TR sounds like it's going to be an interesting journey so I'm jumping on board. Looking forward to hearing all about it. 
. I saw your pics on the WL thread - how did you take the hallway shot - a little tripod on the floor? Looking forward to reading more.
got my corn popped and my 
drink ready. This sound interesting, bring on the TR.
