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

[NateNLogansDad]

So here’s my second trip report coming at ya strait from the home of the 2011 World Series Champs.

First, let me introduce the stars of our show.
Mommom Ginny (My mom)
Tina (the best wife ANYONE could ever ask for)
Nate (DS6 wants to be the next Capt Jack Sparrow)
Logan (DS5 Can be quiet but is also deadly with a toy sword)
Rob (me Family Historian)
Brandon (DB)
Tracey(DSIL)
And Austin (DNef2)

Just to give you a visual here’s Tina, myself, Nate, and Logan…….

This is Brandon, Tracey, and Austin

And here’s Brandon and myself along with Mom Mom Ginny

Now, you may be sitting there thinking to yourself, why should I keep reading THIS trip report when there are so many others? And Why in the world does this guy think Philly is going to win the World Series of baseball this year? Well, for both questions I guess you’ll just need to stick around to see what happens! With as many pictures as I am about to force upon you, and the fact that the Philadelphia Phillies now has the best pitching lineup in baseball HISTORY, I’m thinking this is going to be a good time…..unless you’re from NY )

My last trip report was started about a year and a half ago and gave you the background of how Disney came into our lives and just how much it means to me and why. I’m not going to put you through the tears and what not, but if you’d like to start from the very beginning, feel free to check out my past………

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2207850

Ok, all caught up? No? No big deal. In that TR I took over 9000 pictures and posted many of them. For this TR, I know I took more than that but I’m hoping to only show you the better ones. This year I have not only a better camera (Nikon D5000) but also a better understanding of how to use one thanks to the unbelievably tolerant good people in the Photography section of the Disboards to which I owe so much and would like to thank ahead of time. Thank you guys!!!!

So, hopefully this is the largest section of words you’ll find in the rest of the report, after all, you’re here for the pictures right??? If you’ve read this far, I thank you. If you haven’t, I’m assuming your feelings are still hurt from when Cliff Lee signed with the Phills. So, without further ado, lets get this party started!!!!!!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

So, real quick, before we get started, I just want to fill you in on where we are at. 2010 was a big year for my little family. Tina finished Nursing school and past the boards

which now makes her a full fledged nurse! She started working for a fertility clinic and I can’t tell you just how proud I am of her. One thing I promised her was to head down to Disney before everybody for some bonding time with just her and the boys. Originally it was set for two days before the trip was set to begin, but I kind of crashed the party a day early which only gave her a full day to herself (Sorry sweetheart.)

So Thursday November 11th started pretty normal. Logan doesn’t have preschool on Thursday so he was home. Tina took the day off, and Nate went off to school at 8am. Dude, seriously. Is that just not mean or what!?!?!? Poor kid knows he’s going to Disney World that day and has to spend the morning wondering when he will be getting picked up.

So, 12 noon comes around and we all show up at the school, car packed and ready to go. I wish I had a video of him running down the hall from his classroom because it was better than any Disney commercial I’ve seen so far!

Off to the airport we go. The excitement was high and the smiles were had by all. We drove to the airport and said our goodbye-for-now’s and I left them there……with all the luggage….including mine! (on purpose haha!)

So, no wife, no kids, no responsibilities, what’s a guy to do?!?!?!?

I slept.

Yep, for me there’s nothing like an uninterrupted nap.

Working 7pm-3am I get roughly 3 hrs of sleep a night before the kids need to get ready to go to school. Sleep was something I was looking forward to because the next day would be the longest I’ve had in a very long time!

I promise, coming up next will be when the pictures start, and once those floodgates open……

 

[NateNLogansDad]

So, now that I’ve bored the crab out you with all my babbling, I think it’s FINALLY time to start this thing up. Thanks for sticking with me. Hopefully, you feel like you’re on board with us and now it’s time for vacation!

Friday November 12th.

I walked in the door at 3:30 am and put the dogs out. I checked on my carry on stuff which included my camera, laptop bag, and some cash. I love not having luggage! My flight was set for 10am so I needed to be at the airport by 8 which left me about 3 hrs to sleep. No problem right? Yea, OK. So, after tossing and turning with excitement, my ride pulls up and off to the airport we go. First stop was a power breakfast.

Yea I know, just fulfilling the Philly boy stereotype eating a cheese steak for breakfast. Well, in my defense, it was a CHICKEN cheese steak. Yep, I’m eating healthy. The gate I was sitting at had tons of kids running around with their Disney shirts on, but I kept to myself and left the camera in the bag. After all, I am traveling alone and don’t wan’t to look like that creepy guy us parents always keep an eye out for.

Anyways, I hop on a flight and tried to get some sleep but to no avail. By now I’m in a daze and probably looked like I may have been under the influence, but honestly I was just tired. Once we touched down I get a text message from Tina saying she forgot to pack one thing…. underwear for the boys. So, now I’m walking around the gift shops in the airport…..alone…..looking for little boys underwear. Yep, I know *sigh*

So now I’ve lost about an hr wandering around the airport and not finding a single shop that sells little boys underwear, but I did find plenty of weird looks from plenty of people. Sleep deprived, head spinning, and probably being watched by security I stagger outside and onto a bus only to see this…..

and instantly the world is in perfect balance.

Our driver is Bill Kanack. Nice guy, loves Disney, and takes great photographs. He had a binder that we all passed around of pictures he’s taken over the years that was very impressive. He even slowed down so we could check out some gators on the way to the hotel. Everybody, say hi to Bill…..

Of coarse I had to get the obglatory picture going in…..

Finally at our happy place!

Our first stop was at

And if I ever have a need to buy a golf cart, it’s gotta be pimped out like something like this…..

Next stop was to go see Tina and the boys at

The magical express dropped us off at the main building and I hopped on another bus that goes around the resort. Apparently Friday’s are a good day to check in, and apparently everybody knows it. Here’s the resort shuttle bus….

Hopping off the bus I was determined to make a grand entrance and surprise the boys but they surprised me by hiding at the bus stop! It was the best thing ever after not seeing them for 24 hrs!

I dropped off my bags to the room and off we went. After seeing the shuttle bus first hand we decided to walk to the food court which was by far the best option because I got to see the resort a little.

The gift shop…..

We grabbed a bite to eat and the boys lead the way to my first park. The night before Tina took the to Epcot but the boys refused to get on any rides until dad got there. Is that not too sweet or what? I really am a lucky guy.

We hopped on a bus……

And in a very short half hr we were here

I love the big Epcot Ball. I could take pictures of it all day. Just move a little and it’s a totally different picture

Zoom in a little and maybe you’ll get another ball in the picture

Go inside it and there’s even more opportunities

 

[NateNLogansDad]

If you’ve never been there, the ball hides a ride inside it’s belly called

Spaceship Earth is a slow moving ride good for all ages from infant to elders or as I’d like to say diapers to diapers ) If you’ve ridden the ride, I’d like to invite you to ride it again with all of us. If you’ve never been, please note the spoiler alert!
SPOILER ALERT!!!

Told you I had some pictures to show you! If you’ve stuck around this long, I hope you’re hear to the end and I hope you’re looking for some visual stimulation Disney Style!

But for now I’m going to take a break. I promise to be back with an update real soon. After all, we have 9 days to get through and so far I’ve only covered an hr since we left the hotel room (which you still need to see some cool pics of!)

See ya real soon!

 

[ddstratton]

Great pictures!!! Am looking forward to seeing more.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I took over 10,000 and plan on posting at least 1,300-1,700 of the better ones.

Stick around. The popcorn is complimentary and the intermissions will be brief.

 

[__disneygirl]

Hopping on board for this one! I love all the pics! You are bringing me back to CBR with all these fabulous pics. I miss it there so much! Same with Pop. I've never seen the pimped out golf cart before, that is so awesome. Keep up the good work!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Hopping on board for this one! I love all the pics! You are bringing me back to CBR with all these fabulous pics. I miss it there so much! Same with Pop. I've never seen the pimped out golf cart before, that is so awesome. Keep up the good work!

There will be more pics of CBR among other hotels, I promise!!! I was surprised how much I liked that resort! It really is beautiful. The golf cart was so sweet wasn't it!?!? Some day......

 

[__disneygirl]

There will be more pics of CBR among other hotels, I promise!!! I was surprised how much I liked that resort! It really is beautiful. The golf cart was so sweet wasn't it!?!? Some day......

You know, while we were there in April of last year, I loved it but not as much as I thought I would. I didn't feel the need to return right away. However, as the months have passed, I find myself REALLY missing it there! Every time I happen to hear Caribbean style music, it takes me right back there and now I really want to stay there again soon!

 

[luckylady]

I'm in. Handsome boys you have. Can't wait to see pictures of CB it's been so long since I was there and forgot how cute is it.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I'm in. Handsome boys you have. Can't wait to see pictures of CB it's been so long since I was there and forgot how cute is it.

Thank you and welcome aboard! Unfortunately I didn't get around the whole resort but what I saw was really nice. Definitely a step up from the value resorts!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

deleted.....brb

 

[NateNLogansDad]

So, the last time we left off we had just left Spaceship Earth and I had now been up for just over 36 hrs strait. One thing I forgot to mention, believe it or not, was that that was our first time ever riding that ride. Can you believe it? We’ve been to Disney now 4 times, and it took that long to finally get on it! I thought it was pretty good myself!
So, we head out and took a minute to just take it all in. The boys decided to share a snack with a couple of Donald’s cousins

and we moved on to one of our family’s “must do’s”

The boys love riding along with figment and always jump at that one part when it does that one thing……you know what I’m talking about. I don’t want to spoil it for everybody else!

A couple of my favorites……

Now do you believe me when I say I have some pictures for ya? Ladies and gentlemen, we still have not yet begun to scratch the surface! C’mon, follow me this way. There’s so much more to see!!! First we have to get out of here. Right this way through Imagine Works……

 

[NateNLogansDad]

There’s some more pics I have from in here, but we’ll save something for later )

We headed outside and stumbled across this

I managed to get a few pictures of the holding area but when we were seated they kindly asked us not to take any photographs of any kind. Even though it’s not like me, I complied. They did say please after all.
The holding area….

If you’ve never seen or heard of Captain EO, don’t worry, many people haven’t. It was created by Disney around 25 years ago and starred Michael Jackson. When the pop star passed away, Disney brought it back as part of a little tribute towards him. If you’re not really a Michael Jackson fan, you aren’t missing much. If you saw it when you were younger and would like to re-live that feeling in 3-D, go for it.

We headed out somewhat confused and maybe a bit gypped of our time, but hey, it was another first that we can check off our list. And this would become a thing for us this trip…getting in as many firsts as we possibly could! Outside, what kid walks by without trying to catch some flying water?

We decided to head to one of the rides in Epcot that was not only another family favorite, but also either pretty forgotten or just downright overlooked. So many people don’t even know it exists in the world showcase…..The Three Caballeros! Excited about the idea, we head towards the World Showcase with full intentions of running strait for the border when we were stopped by another family of four, heading in the opposite direction. The mother of the bunch asked us if we would like to have their fastpasses to ride Soarin’ but the only thing is, they had to be used in the next ten minutes. Another first for us! We’ve always given out our fastpasses but have never been given passes back at random!
We took them and made a 180 back towards The Land.

SCORE!!!

We head down the chosen path past all those people that have been waiting an hour in line, feeling slightly guilty but giggling at the same time.

Within a few minutes, we were watching out training video

Professionally done by this man

Now you may not recognize him at first, but he’s also a star on Family Guy when he’s not off flying around over California.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

We head in to our assigned seats

and set sail for the joyride of a lifetime. I can still hear the music as I look back at these pictures……..

Now granted I’ve never been hang gliding, but I’m sure it is EXACTLY like Soarin!!! OK, maybe not exactly but it is really cool. MOVING ON!
By now it’s going on 7pm and even with the Disney air in my lungs, I’m running out of steam pretty quickly from the lack of sleep. Somehow it took us almost an hr to get over to the Seas with Nemo so I’m going to guess we stopped to do something but thinking back, for the life of me I couldn’t tell you what that may have been. I’m not one for taking notes on a trip but usually I’ll snap a picture. Not this time. Nope, Notta, Nothing. The next hr I may have been abducted by aliens, I’m not really sure but ,eventually we made our way over to find Nemo. The great thing about going to Disney in November is the fact that the lines are almost non-existent. The bad thing is when you want to take some shots of the queue and your family is sending you dirty looks for slowing them up. Dirty looks aside, welcome to that big blue world called The Seas……

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I remember seeing myself in a restroom mirror right around then and noticing my eyes only opened about ½ way no matter what I tried. We started heading down to the Showcase again to try to catch Illuminations

But tonight wasn’t really going to be a “fireworks pictures” kind of night especially with the food and wine festival going on. The crowds were just insane down there. We did enjoy most of the show but tried to cut out a little early to beat a few thousand people back to the busses.

See, no firework pictures tonight but I promise to make up for it later.
Making our way out of the park with 30,000 of our closest friends, I reached up and grabbed a shot of the ball.

Have I mentioned how much I like shooting that thing? Thought so. Just change your angles, or wait a bit till the sun goes down and you can always get a different picture.

We made our way back to CBR and walked up to our room right around 9:55. Not quite sure what time the boys fell asleep or how long Tina was up, but by 9:56 I was out cold.

I needed to get some Z’s, tomorrow was going to be a big day for us. After all, we were going home!

Our home resort that is!

Stay tuned, I’m hoping to have another update VERY soon!

 

[ddstratton]

More great pictures! What a nice thing - being given Soarin' fastpasses to use RIGHT NOW!

 

[luckylady]

Lots of wonderful pictures. Hope you got enought sleep. Ca't believe you were up that long with none.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

More great pictures! What a nice thing - being given Soarin' fastpasses to use RIGHT NOW!

It was really nice to just have gotten there and be handed the passes. So, if anybody else ever decides to do that for someone, I just want to let you know that it is appreciated.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Lots of wonderful pictures. Hope you got enought sleep. Ca't believe you were up that long with none.

My average night I get about 3 hrs of sleep before I take the kids to school and during the day I steal any naps I can get since Logan only has school 3 days a week for 2 1/2 hrs at a time. That day was just skipping my nap times Granted, if we weren't at Disney I probably would have passed out in the middle of the day

Who goes to Disney World to relax anyway?