What's in a title anyway? How about 1300 pictures? 4/15/11-> Bonus Section pt1 & 2

[Marlton Mom]

PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES!

 

[mom2rtk]

PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES!

So are we all supposed to stomp and chant in unison?

 

[NateNLogansDad]

On my phone checking in. I actually started an update tonight and when I get back to my terminal I'm going to get right back to work I promise!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Wait a second. After all this time you guys are STILL sticking around? I can’t believe this thing is still going! Well, I’m on a time schedule here so let’s start day 7 shall we???


Thursday November 18th DAY 7

So, now that I’m officially 32 (Thank you Tina for pointing that out) I figure we should get the most out of the day so breakfast it is! My family isn’t really a breakfast-y kind of family but here in Disney every meal can be magic. I wish I had a picture of Tracey’s face the night before when I told her we had 7:30 reservations!!! (Apparently she’s not much of a morning person)

So, 7:25 we all rolled out of bed and made our way to the lobby where we were greeted by the new construction…..

OK, maybe not construction construction, but it was still cool to watch them building!

We checked in at the Cape May Café and were seated right away. I can’t imagine what it would be like if we had reservations at Cindy’s Castle this early, this was hard enough getting to and it was just about a 5 minute walk! But, here we are….just as they opened up.

And that’s about as close to food porn as you’re gonna get!

15 minutes later we had company come over to join us.

The owner herself came over to see how things were going!

Austin was loving all the cast coming over

Only in Disney can you play your cards right and have the characters come TO YOU to give out autographs…

Goofy came over one last time for a larger than life experience with Austin. I don’t think he ever got over how tall the Goof really is!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

They played around for a little bit and we were off. Brandon’s group went back to their room and my group went out to see the world. Whether it’s the beginning of the day or more towards the end, this is the one view that always tells me that we really are home.

Today we were heading back over to the Studios but we wouldn’t be there alone. Remember how we had said goodbye to Kyle and his family in my previous update? Well, Kyle’s dad felt bad about how Kyle didn’t get to enjoy the first few days because everybody in the room was sick, so what did he do? Booked another day of course! Unfortunately, he has a business to run so he needed to go home and took Kyle’s sisters with him but Kyle and his mom were still here! So, we hopped skipped and jumped over to the lighthouse to wait for a ferry….OK, after an all you can eat breakfast I wasn’t skipping, but we were on our way!

Can’t help but take in the view of our backyard…

A few minutes later, we were there!

Tina and her cousin were exchanging text messages and decided to meet up back by the Muppets so we headed off in that direction…

They chatted for a few minutes and the kids went to go check out some tattoos, I on the other hand did what I do….I took some more pictures!

One thing we hadn’t done on this trip or even our last, was go in for the show. With a 5 minute wait, what better time than the present? Besides, there was one thing I had never seen but had heard so much about…..

On that sign, it reads “Be back in 5 minutes. Key is under mat.”
And so it was!

I was so happy I had remembered to look for it! I know, i KNOW.....I’m easily amused

 

[NateNLogansDad]

So into the holding area we went, even though we apparently weren’t supposed to!

I must say that this room has SOOOO much detail in it that probably goes unnoticed by so many people every day. There was no way I was about to use a flash in here but it was so dark, I’m surprised I got any shots that turned out at all…..again, next trip will have the other lens for this!

The boys were ready for the show to start…

And within a few minutes, we were allowed in.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I love these guys…

Last year I had gotten some crappy pictures by holding the 3D glasses up to my camera. This show is pretty good so I wasn’t going to tarnish it for anyone by trying it again. If you’ve ever liked that Muppets or if you enjoy 3D effects put together in a wacky but funny script, go see it. There’s never any wait time and I’m sure you will enjoy it!

We headed outside and talked about what to do next. The boys didn’t eat enough at breakfast and by now a few hrs had passed so we headed out to their absolute “must do” in the Studios….Pizza Planet!!!

I continued on with my “must do….” Taking pictures of irreverent things!

Now Pizza Planet does have some good pizza for being fast food, but every time we go in there it looks like there’s a huge sale and the whole park heard about it! It’s the one place where I feel like I need to strap on a helmet and pads before I hop in line. Needless to say, the camera stays protected in there. Sorry, no pics from inside
Every time we go in, tell the boys we MIGHT give them a dollar to play games, (*side note, Tina hates video games and I’m still a computer geek at heart) and every time we go in I get $20 worth of quarters and have a blast playing with them. What can I say, it’s fun pretending your 5 again…..but this time with money in my pocket!!!
After we headed out, Tina and her cousin took the boys somewhere and gave me some time alone. If you haven’t yet pick up on the fact that I love Disney, I do. I’ve read so much about the history, both good and bad, and learned so much about the detail throughout the park that sometimes I even impress myself! There was one thing that I’ve always wanted to do but never had the time to really do it right……

Yea, we’ve been in there but within a few minutes everybody usually get bored and wants to do something “fun.” This was my chance to really get in there and for once in my life see the movie at the end.

This is Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in Disneyland built in 1954. Well, maybe not the real one, but it is a scale model.

And here it is from the back. Notice Walt walking through?

Cool stuff huh?
I spent a pretty good amount of time in there but not so much with the camera. That time, was me time. Time to just soak it in quietly and just picture how Mr. Disney would have felt, had he this dream come true. I hope he does get a chance to sit on a bench down on Main Street from time to time and just people watch. I hope that somewhere, somehow he knows what this park means to us 5 yr olds that just get it.
Sorry, there I go again….
So, after daydreaming around the museum for a bit I went to the show. I thought about this for a while on whether or not I should try to take pictures in here but I decided that I should in hopes that it may bring back some memories for whomever is still reading this trip report and make you want to go see it. The place was pretty empty, I think that was just sad.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

So here you are….

One Man’s Dream….

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I can honestly say that one day I’d love to go in there and see the whole place packed. It’s nice to know that sometimes people remember how this all came to be. It’s not just another theme park chain that was thrown up in another touristy area, this was one man’s masterpiece that he worked for his whole life, and completed it after his death.

OK Sappy time is over! Let’s go find those kids of mine!!!!

I headed back out into the Florida sun and figured I’d at least check out Toy Story mania. Fastpass return time isn’t legible but I think it said to come back sometime in the Spring.

So, that was out of the question.

If you haven’t gotten my trip report confused with the 27 others you’ve read since my last update, you’ll remember that Kyle hasn’t been able to go on any thrill rides in his previous visits so off we headed over towards

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I told Tina I would wait with Logan so she headed on to see Aerosmith. 15 minutes later she was on her way back to us with disappointment written all over her face. It turns out Nate made it past the first checkpoint but at the second one he was told that he was ¼ inch too short to ride. Kyle had no problem but Tina wouldn’t let him ride by himself. Now, remember all of that, because it comes into play later on!

So with some bummed out kids on our hands, we headed over to see the Beast. We all love that show and the kids were watching the movie the night before we left Philly. I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m really surprised at the talent that Disney has here. It’s not recorded and these guys could be on Broadway…..

I tried to get a little artsy fartsy…..at least I thought it was cool

Amazing, absolutely perfect!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

So, there was a ride that Kyle wanted to do. He had an idea what it was all about but had never gotten the opportunity to try it for himself…..

I’m telling you, the kid has no fear! Nate on the other hand still gets bug eyed when you mention the Tower Of Terror

I have seen some pretty cool shots taken inside here are wanted to try my hand in it, plus Tina had already been on with Nate, so off we went. Brandon and Tracey both tagged along and Tina stayed outside with Nathan, Logan, and Austin.

We MAY have made up a few tall tales to tell Kyle while standing in line….. The video they played only confirmed what we had just made up

He didn’t care….no fear and all!

We waited in line for maybe 10 minutes…..

But with a long shutter speed it looks like there may be a few ghosts haunting this ride

It was just about time….

I took one glance back, wondering if I should make a run for it……

And on we went….

 

[NateNLogansDad]

It was right about now where I thought out loud (very loud apparently) that I hate this &%*$# ride. Everyone else thought it was funny. I turned white.

And than it LAUNCHED us up.

After our heart attack inducing “ride” we were done.

We scooted out to go see our picture. Can you pick me out of the crowd? I’m telling you, that’s dedication right there. When I say I hate this ride what I meant to say is that I REALLY HATE THIS RIDE!!!!!!!! But I still tried to get the shot! I am going to suck it up again sometime soon and try it again. I want the one picture where you can see out the window perfectly and I know exactly what I’m going to do to get it…..if I do another TR for the May trip, you’ll have to check back to see if I was right or not!

With everybody laughing about how great the ride was (idiots) we headed out to meet back up with Tina and the boys. Tina has been brewing in her mind a way to get Nate onto Rockn rollercoaster now for about 20 minutes and the answer was clever yet simple. Nate had been wearing crocs all day which don’t really add any height to a kid at all. Kyle on the other hand, was wearing his sneakers…..so they switched!

Just like that, Nate grew ½ inch!

So we all headed on. Mommom Ginny stayed out with Austin and Logan who would have wanted no parts of this even if they were several inches taller.

We got to see the guys back at the studio….

And some of the weird stuff they had just laying around

Outside they had a limo waiting for us but there was a line….

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Nate was as ready as he’d ever be…

And we were off…..

Now, I just can’t see how it’s even possible to get a picture AT ALL on this ride so I didn’t even try it. Just to give you an idea on how fast this thing really is, this is my hairline during the ride…..

I know right?

Here’s Tracey and Kyle in the front of their car….

And I have no idea who this chick is but she gets a far out honorably mention.

I forgot to mention, that when we were walking in to RnR, the announcer guy came on and said something about the ride going upside down. This petrified Nate but I assured him that I hadn’t heard that. Am I a good dad or what
I know some of you are thinking what I butt head I sound like but we knew he would love it. Here’s the cousins posing just after the ride….

THEY LOVED IT! Nate is already super excited about riding it again and in May….now if we could just get Kyle to come……..


And this is where I will be leaving off this morning. This report is far from over and you all have not been forgotten I promise. This past week was pretty crazy at work and the home life just doesn’t stop for a minute. I wanted to finish up day 7 in one sitting but there is still another 100 or so pictures I may be posting to sum it up and I hear there may be a revolt soon by some of our subscribers…….I know who you are!

I hope this has been enough to be considered a peace treaty for now but I promise we will finish up soon!

Please oh please stick around!!!!!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Just downloaded GIMP - and I am having too much fun with color selection!!!

These are from the parade:

This is just fun from her birthday:

I can see you are going to have so much fun with your new camera! The color selection is something I need more practice with. How time consuming is it with GIMP? I haven't used it in a long time. Just an FYI, if you are familiar with photoshop, there is an add on to GIMP that makes it look just like Photoshop called GIMPshop. Like I said, it's been a LONG time since I've played with it, but I'm sure it still works for GIMP and it was free

Hi There...stumbled upon your TR this weekend and have enjoyed reading it. You have a beautiful family. Looking forward to the rest of your adventure!!

So glad you could join us! Sorry for the delays in updates.....about a week in between each one lately but keep your fingers crossed and maybe I'll be able to get a few done this week

Well Jennifer, since Rob isn't really keeping up with his TR, this post is for you. The pics of your daughter are so cute! And I love the black and white's with color. What is GIMP? I am a newbie to DSLR also, although I got a Sony because I had a lot of lenses from a 35mm. The weather has been so crappy, I haven't had much chance to play with it, I can't wait for a sunny day!

Rob- Sorry, but you're slacking! Good thing we're faithful.

I deserve that
GIMP is a program that lets you Edit pictures like Photoshop. The biggest difference in that GIMP is free. The one thing I'm not sure with is when you eventually start shooting RAW instead of JPG for more control over you final pictures. I'm not sure if GIMP supports it or not.

Oh yea, and Thank you for sticking around I think I've lost a lot of readers but this will get finished I promise.

EDIT: I just did a Google search and apparently it does

The pictures of the three boys hugging and laughing is the essence of Disney--just how everyone should feel when they are there!
We love riding the People Mover--so relaxing and in the summer it really cools you off! However this last December during one of the coldest days in Orlando history we got "delayed" or "stuck" or whatever you choose to call it for TWENTY minutes overlooking the Raceway cars! The view was wonderful but the wind was WICKED!! We were given Fastpasses to any ride of our choice so that was a nice compensation--hopefully the weather is nicer when we ride it in a little over 3 weeks!!

That stinks!!! That's how it was last year in January when we were walking around. I'm pretty sure that if we were stuck on the People Mover, I would have had a small campfire going I totally hate the cold!

- I am sure Rob won't mind our side-banter! Thank you - the black & white with selective color can be a bit time consuming, but the outcomes are well worth it! Gimp is like Photoshop - BUT FREE (Download Here) They have great tutorials to play around with. My only complaint is sometimes it gets a little "laggy."

If I remember correctly it used to be a resource hog. For the computers that didn't have enough ram, we would set up Virtual RAM somewhere in the program itself which let us use some of the hard drive space as Ram. The downside was that if you have a slower Hard Drive, it could end up hurting you in the long run. Can't hurt to check it out though.....just a thought

Jennifer- I downloaded gimp last night and spent a couple hours trying to figure it out. I finally went to youtube and watched some tutorials. Did you do your B&W with color with the layering? That is the only way I was able to get it to work, just curious if that is the best way. (Again, sorry Rob, but you don't seem to be anywhere in sight...)

Believe it or not, I'm glad to see people swapping info on here. I feel like I kind of had a part in it....you know, by not being here and all

Actually, a photo that I'm looking for is the Walt Disney World sign as you first enter the world. You had one that I copied but it's pretty far back.
If you had a closer up view of that, I'd appreciate that. I tried to take a shot myself but we entered on the magic express bus and I didn't get a good shot at all.

Thanks.
Debbie

I may. I took my pictures from previous trips off of my laptop and stored them on our network drive. I'll try to look through them soon to see if there's one from November or January and let you know either way.

PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES!

Ask and ye shall receive! (Just might not be right away when it comes to my TR's )

So are we all supposed to stomp and chant in unison?

I smell a mutiny forming

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Well, I think I'll give you guys some time to digest all of that. Logan doesn't have school today and wants to play Nintendo in my room. Last night I was only able to grab 2 hrs of sleep and I'm thinking it shows. He just came over and asked me if I would like to take a nap while he plays the Wii up on my bed. How could I say no to such a sweet kid?

 

[Tinkermom76]

Great update! One Mans Dream is on the must do list for my Sept trip!

I am dying to see Beauty and the Beast but for some reason I never do. Last trip we lined up then they canceled the show then we wanted to go after our rest but the bus didn't make it back in time.

Now you made me wanna play the Wii. Can I play Wii Bowling while the kids are at school????

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

Awesome update Rob!!! I totally had to lie to Devon and tell him RnR didn't go upside down either the 1st time he was tall enough to ride!!! Parenting at it's finest right there!

Now it's his favorite ride!

 

[brdlyleon]

Just as I was about to click the unsubscribe button...

JK! love youre updates! Esp. the pics! favorite part by far!

One Man's Dream was honestly amazing. Loved going with my mom and sister and we watched the movie! It was really late for me though and since I literally turn into a child at WDW, I fell asleep near the end :/

I WILL NEVER RIDE TOT AGAINNNN!! Its awful and to prove it, I bought the picture of me and my friend to commemorate my last time/first time on!

Still haven't done RnRC but thinking about doing it next week when i go...I'm terrified though!!

Beauty and the Beast show is great! Thinking bout skipping it next trip though...more of a family show and my priority is Fantasmic! We shall see though!

thanks for the update! was beginning to feel left out haha

 

[Purpleblanket]

Loved all the new photos!

I feel so bad because we did go into One Man's Dream and my 23 yrd old daughter was really enjoying reading etc... and we did rush her out!
Later when anyone had a question about Disney, she knew the answers from what she just read and kept telling us that if we had spent more time in there, that we would have known a lot more about Disney!

Guess we just have to go back!

We also would have like to have done Muppets 3D. That was one of the shows I'm sorry we missed. That and the backlot tour. But we did do Beauty and the Beast and loved that!!

Oh, and by accident, I rode Rockn roller Coaster!!
I wouldn't do that again! I don't like to go upside down and didn't realize it went upside down! All I did was focus on the back of the seat in front of me and kept my eyes open! I read somewhere, that the worst thing you can do is close your eyes! So my photo was pretty funny with my eyes bulging open and just staring!
When we got off the ride, the kids pointed out the limo that was upside down on the track and told me that should have given it away for me!!
At least I can say I did it!! and survived!

Debbie

 

[Marlton Mom]

BRAVO!!! BRAVO!!! BRAVO!!!