Yep, I took a picture of that (9100 total) COMPLETED 9/1

[mouse_ears]

I must ask... was the 9100 a typo, or did you really take 9100 photos?!?! We are going to take our first trip in September with our two little boys. I am very camera happy :O) I LOVE taking photos. I have been wondering how many memory cards to bring for the camera... now you really have me thinking! Your photos are wonderful, and I am loving reading your trip report, as I will be bringing my two little boys too! Thanks for posting all the great photos and report!

 

[hjd0411]

What a delightful family you all are!! I'm loving the photos - I, too, love to take photos, so I love to see everyone's photos and their perspectives. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to reading along.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Hi, I'm subbing.

You have a lovely family. I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip and see more of the pictures that you took.

Hopefully I'll have some more up sometime today.

Great report so far! Did you get one of the renovated rooms? I couldn't tell very well from the pictures.

Glad you had a great time!

No unfortunately. We used DVC point and stayed in the villas. I think the other building was the only one renovated so far.

I'm loving your report! You have some super cute little guys!
Love all your pictures! Keep them coming!

The little guys really make the trip! Enjoy the popcorn, there's free refills ya know.

Signing on! I'm enjoying your trip report so far, especially the promise of so many pictures! (I know you didn't use your flash on It's a Small World, right? ) Your boys are adorable, btw! My little guys are 3 & 1. It's nice to see a report minus all the girly princess stuff!

Flash? Can I use the excuse that it was my first day and my head was still spinning. What about jet lag? Can you get jet lag even if you stay in the same timezone? I really don't remember using the flash, I even rolled my eyes when I saw someone else doing it during the week! Usually, for a dark ride, I would use the sports setting which uses a 1/15 shutter speed at 13 pics a sec. At first when I read your post I thought it was one of the shots where I caught someone elses falsh, but when I actually looked at the pics...... I'll have to own up to it I guess! My kids must have borrowed my cam......I mean, ummm....sorry about that.

Nope, no girly princess stuff! Just pirates and cars!

I must ask... was the 9100 a typo, or did you really take 9100 photos?!?! We are going to take our first trip in September with our two little boys. I am very camera happy :O) I LOVE taking photos. I have been wondering how many memory cards to bring for the camera... now you really have me thinking! Your photos are wonderful, and I am loving reading your trip report, as I will be bringing my two little boys too! Thanks for posting all the great photos and report!

Well, no the 9100 isn't a typo but I can't take all the credit. My beautiful wife snapped about 100 or so and I took the rest. Keep in mind, that's a total #, not all of them are good shots.
I took a 4 gig card with me into the parks each day and imported them to a laptop each night. Without the laptop, 4 or 5 cards(4 gig each) would have lasted me the week.

What a delightful family you all are!! I'm loving the photos - I, too, love to take photos, so I love to see everyone's photos and their perspectives. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to reading along.

Next year, I want to do a trip report with picture taken only by the kids. I think that would be pretty cool.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

DAY 2

Well, it’s been over 2 weeks now so I’m not 100% on what all we did on the first FULL day. I do remember that I realized I left my extra batteries and charger for the camera at home. I had to have my brother overnight it to me because like I said, I was definitely taking more than 100 pictures this trip! I know we were up and caffeinated by 10am and I really wanted to check out the world showcase. Last year we strolled through it not even to look in any of the shops. It looked nice and all but not something we would enjoy. Again, I want to throw a shout out to all the Dis’ers who showed me the way via their own trip reports! The World Showcase is an awesome place to spend the day. The crowds were light, and believe it or not, there are a few rides hidden inside the countries! We never knew ½ of this even existed till we started reading the Dis!

So where were we? Ah yes, the report. For those of you out there who want autographs and pics with the Characters, the morning is the only time to go. I’m waiting for my Photopass Cd to show you more pics but till then, here’s a small sample.

We also met Belle and a few others that I can’t remember off the top of my head but will post them later when I get the CD.

If you’ve never seen the shows and have the time, try them out. There are a few web pages out there that have show and event times for everything going on in each park. You can plan ahead or grab a schedule when you get into the parks and do it on the fly. Each country has its own thing going on throughout the day and you are missing out if you don’t check it out at least once. By chance, we ran into this guy

Another new found favorite in the World Showcase is definitely Mexico. The restraint is something I’d love to try out next time but maybe just the Misses and myself. The ambiance (sp?) seems like it would be a nice quiet relaxing place and you can get a view of the boats going by for the 3 Caballeros. Here’s a pic of the dinning area and from the ride itself.

There’s also a shopping area that had lots of cool stuff that the boys just had to play with.

We were lucky enough to get Mexico when we did the Kim Possible adventure, but I’ll get into that later.

While waiting for FedEx to bring my batteries and charger for the camera, I put the camera away for a bit just in case I’d need it later. After walking around just taking it all in and tasting the different drinks from different countries, we headed back to the hotel to relax and go for a swim. Before you know it, it’s time to eat AGAIN! We hopped on a bus and headed over to the Magic Kingdom for dinner with some big fuzzy friends.

The food here is pretty good but then again I’m not a world class taste tester like a lot of people’s reviews I’ve read. Maybe I just have lower standards who knows. The kids really get a kick out of the parade they do there also.

I’ll continue on the next post so I don’t exceed my number of pics. I forsee this happening a lot throughout the rest of the repot. Sorry bout that!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Ok, we left dinner around 6:30 and figured we’d head over to Toon Town since we never went through it last year. Yea, last year we missed out on so many things because we weren’t really into Disney enough to really do our homework. Here’s a few pics from on the way over. I’m pretty happy with the way a lot of them came out since I was walking while taking them all…can’t slow down a woman with a stroller don’tcha know!

Finally we made it over. I’ve been telling the boys that some day we will actually get to see where Mickey and Minnie live, not just Disney World itself, but their actual houses. I’m assuming that thousands of other parents have been saying the same thing, and we all showed up at the same time. There were so many people crowded into the houses it felt like cattle getting pushed through as quickly as possible. As small as the houses are, we got separated for a while and had to meat up back outside. I took Nate and tried to let him take in each little thing as best as possible along with the other hundred families doing the exact same thing.

Toon Town was nice, don’t get me wrong, it was just too crowded. The boys ran through Donald’s boat and got a little wet. Most of the water that the kids run around it wasn’t really working right so we moved on. And than it happened, my battery was dead. Luckily Tina had her little pocket camera so we could still save a few memories here and there, but I wanted my camera! Oh well, the charger and batteries should be back at the beach house by now. Moving right along……

We hop on the train for a ride to the main gate and call it a night. Home Sweet Home. If you’ve ever stayed at the Beach Club, you will totally understand this. There is nothing like sitting in Stormalong Bay with a Captain’s Moheto (sp?) with your feat in the sand listening to the fireworks go off at EPCOT. Sorry there’s no pics. The first couple never made it all the way back to the seats. After the first couple, I forgot I had a camera!

The next day……I have my charger so there are many more pics to come!

 

[MagicShell]

Your resort pictures at dusk are great. My favorite picture so far is the family pictures with Donald Duck. He is one of my favorites. Those crowds you had to get through were huge. Glad you fought through and got to ride some great rides on your first night. I love the MK, it is my favorite. I could spend a whole week in that park. I love looking at all your pictures.

 

[lhart]

subbing! loving your report so far. you take great pictures and your family is beautiful! leaving for my next trip in about 2 months and seeing all of your awesome photos helps me pass the time until its my turn!

 

[Blesseddaddy]

Hey Rob. I was surfing around and ran across your trip report. I have to admit when I read your title I was a little in shock and then a little in awe as well. I guess you can say, you shocked and awed me right in!! Then as I read what "brought" you to Disney, man did that hit a cord with me. Both of my parents died in '07. My Mom 4 1/2 months before my Dad. Our first "family" trip to Disney was this past March......and even though my parents didn't have the foresight that yours seemed to have, I still give them credit for "leading" me to Disney, even though they never went themselves. That's a whole different story.......anyway, ever since my two daughters were born, we spent all of our "off" time traveling back and forth to spend our time with my folks.........for which I am truly THANKFUL....along with NO REGRETS!! However, after their deaths, I knew it was time for our little family to spread our wings to create our own family memories....then came the 4/3 deal. We had for years been talking about going to Disney, we live in Alabama and many from here make a yearly trek down, since it's not that far. However, we always found an excuse......wait until the girls are older, need to do this first, the "usual" stuff as you said it!! I am hooked now and so thankful that I found the Dis before our first visit. You are right about learning so much from just reading these boards and going down to Disney with the knowledge to turn JUST a trip into a Magical Time for our families!! I don't know when we will return.......but I know we will.

Looking forward to the rest of your trip and ALL the pictures!!

I really do think it's neat that your family has a Magical Place to spend time together, to refocus or just to escape, cherish and enjoy every minute of it and of EACH OTHER!!!!!!

 

[nickandregan]

chiming in again. That's a great picture of your mom w/ pooh. The forgot the camera because of the mojito's works for me. I'll be sure to borrow that excuse in Sept.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Thanks for all of the replies everybody, I'm thrilled so many people are hopping on Every time I hear a compliment about so many pictures, I lean over and tell my wife, to which she rolls her eyes at me

Now I don't want this to come off the wrong way, so I don't want to say it's nice to know I'm not alone. It tears me up to hear of people losing their loved ones, but thanks for connecting (how's that?) Sometimes it does feel like no one could know what you may be going through mentally, but there are others out there that have been through it, and I'm sure I can too. I'm pretty sure there's always going to be up days and down days, but I always fall back on Tina and the boys and everything seems to even out. Thank you.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

My jaw just dropped when I saw that this post had over 1500 views!!! Who else is out there?!?!? I like to hear from people subbing! I think there's going to be another update on Tuesday so staty tuned.

Mods, don't move this over to "Coping and Compassion" just yet, I promise to bring some more happiness pictures real soon!

 

[NWOhioAngela]

I'm in! Really enjoying your trip!

 

[AmyBWV99]

Great report!

You captured the 'Mass of Humanity' as we refer to the crowds at night perfectly!

 

[liz9132]

great TR. your family is so cute. and im loving the pictures. cant wait to be there myself with my family in September!!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Ok, second morning waking up at the Beach House, er ummm, Beach Club and everybody is still sleeping. Myself, not so much. It’s 8am and I want to get moving. Last year we didn’t get a chance to try Soarin’ out since the wait time was always over an hr and with the little guys, it wasn’t going to happen. So, I get the brilliant idea (I’m such a nice guy) to take everybody’s room key cards over to EPCOT and get Fast Passes for the family so we can get on after everyone wakes up. Nice of me isn’t it? Well, Nate woke up as I was getting dressed so I put some clothes on him and off we go. We get to future world right at rope drop and off we go. Following the crowds we head right to Soarin’. I was so proud of Nate for walking the whole way after being up for only 10 minutes so we grabbed some snacks along the way. Here’s the wait line for Fast Pass.

And here’s the prize for being so nice.

Nate wants to hit up a ride or two with just the both of us so I let him pick…..NEMO IT IS!

Granted, I didn’t take any pics of that ride either, but they will show up later in the report, I promise! After Nemo was over (and became our new our new Must Do at Disney) we went over to talk with Crush. I must say, Crush has got to be the coolest turtle I’ve ever met!

Well, I was sure everybody would be waking up soon so we started heading back home. Along the way we snapped a few pics, he is such a ham when I’m holding a camera!

Poor guy has been doing so good with all this walking so we grabbed some overly priced slushies from a cart and hopped onto the ferry at the International Gateway.

For all the nice people out there thinking that this is a great idea, hold tight for a sec. to the people who have already tried this, yes, I too can laugh about it now. I hope that this may save someone some aggravation somehow somewhere. You see, Disney has already expected this to happen. They know if you came into the parks or not. When we got back to the room I told everybody we have Fastpasses for Soarin’. I pulled them out to show Tina and noticed 3 of them look different than the top two. They said “this is not a valid Fast Pass. The ticket used to receive this pass was not used to enter the parks today” I was floored. With so many people getting them this morning, I was in a rush and didn’t read them when they came out. Oh well, off to Epcot we go with spirits slightly dampened.

We walk around the World Showcase, my now favorite park, and grab a Fastpass for Kim Possible for later. We were told to report to Norway for our communicator. As we head over that way, I was really trying to take it all in. I couldn’t believe we just flew through here last year not really paying attention to what all they were offering. We get to Norway and found this

Granted, the Showcase may not have the top thrill rides, but you can’t beat the wait times! Since the boys are big fans of Small World, I figured they would enjoy it. It was ok but definitely not a must do. Here’s a little teaser…..

And the gift shop…..

Just outside, we found the Kim Possible stand and got the communicator. Off to Mexico again! I didn’t take any pics of any of our mission but I can say it was interesting. The kids really enjoyed it and it’s pretty cool how it interacts with the things in the country you are in. After we saved the world and returned our communicator to a secret drop point, we started getting a little hungry. Where to eat………hmmmm…..

 

[PrincessKsMom]

NALD:

"I hope that this may save someone some aggravation somehow somewhere. You see, Disney has already expected this to happen. They know if you came into the parks or not. When we got back to the room I told everybody we have Fastpasses for Soarin’. I pulled them out to show Tina and noticed 3 of them look different than the top two. They said “this is not a valid Fast Pass. The ticket used to receive this pass was not used to enter the parks today” I was floored. With so many people getting them this morning, I was in a rush and didn’t read them when they came out."

I had no idea! I was actually going to do this on our last trip, but my mom and DD woke up, so I scratched that idea. Holy moley did you just save me some aggrevation on our upcoming trip. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I have more.....stay tuned!

 

[*DisMom*]

I am enjoying your TR so much. The pictures are great!! Y'all seem to be having an awesome time already, and I can't wait to read more!!!

 

[SunnieRN]

Hello, I've been reading your trip report at work, but can't post there. I was oohing and awwing, like the grandma I am, looking at your adorable sons! I love your sons eyes on Small World!! So cute!! Looking forward to more!!
Remember for next time that you can always combine fast passes and stroller swap on rides and that will increase the number of riders for each attraction. It could have gotten 4 or 5 of you on Soarin.

 

[disneydusted]

Hey, I am one of the ones out there reading, so I am now subbing! This TR title grabbed my attention... I too am the official photographer in our family. My DH rolls his eyes at the amount of photos I take but what great memories!!
I am enjoying your photos of the Boardwalk/Beach Club/Yacht Club area. We stay in the Boardwalk Villas so the area is quite familiar.
While in WS, did your boys do the masks? Or the passports?
Can't wait to see more pictures!