Craig's June 2009 trip

Craig

Craig

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We went to WDW for a long weekend June 4-7 this year. We love to go in June during Star Wars Weekends.

On Thursday we got up nice and early and got on the road early. When we arrived in Disney we called the hotel to see if a room was ready for us, but there wasnt one ready yet (it was only 10:30). The clouds were really heavy, with no blue sky showing anywhere, so we debated over going to Epcot or going on to the Florida Mall. We decided we didn't want to start our trip wet and have to unpack in wet clothes. Plus the hotel is always freezing. So we went to the mall and hung out like Mallrats for the rest of the day without buying much.
When we got to the hotel and got our room we were very happy. We got a very nice room up high with a great view. It was a Bay Lake view. We like the MK view better, but it was nice being up high with great views.
After freshining up a bit we met our friend Janet at the Wave to celebrate her birthday which was that weekend.
The wave still has great food and great service. All our meals were perfect. We hung out in the lounge for a while before dinner catching up and talking.
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Janet's Birthday suprise dessert!
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beautiful lighting on the pic with dina and janet in the wave entryway. ; very nice.
 
The next day we woke up early again to make sure we made it to MGM for the Star Wars parade. This years pictures aren't as good as last years parade pictures. I recommend watching the parade from the "main street" area for better pictures. We were near Drew's Sounds scary and the pictures have a lot of background distractions, plus the sidewalks on the main street form a definitive "line" of the front of the crowd. On the sidestreet, the line is a brass insert in the sidewalk which seemed to get over run easily by everyone. Most of my pictures this year have elbows, cell phones, and other cameras in the shot.
We skipped the Jedi training academy this year, since for us once is enough. Unless they pick me to fight Darth Vader, I don't really care too much about it. We stood in line for a while to take our picture with Boba Fett, but they announced that he was leaving and someone new was coming so we jumped out of line. Boba Fett was my second favorite character as a kid, behind Han. Oh well, maybe next year! The guy behind us jumped out of line too. We heard him tell his kids that "this is one of daddy's guys" there is a lot of the new star wars stuff now, that I just know much about.
We had to stop in the Wickets Warehouse for some shopping. Dina got a Star Wars t-shirt with the original logo on it. I didn't get anything. The shirts this year were super thin material, that I didn't like.

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rescuing Han!
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The highlight of the day for me:
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"Tim" said:
beautiful lighting on the pic with dina and janet in the wave entryway. ; very nice.
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thanks! I jacked up the iso to 2000 to keep the shutter speed decent and used "slow rear" flash. It usally is a great combo!
 
The next day we slept in a bit! This is WDW not work! Dina and I are not usually early guests at Disney! The day before I was up on the balcony taking pictures around 6am.
But sleeping in a bit gave us plenty of energy to have a great day! We were headed to the pool, but it started lighting so they shut the pool down. So we walked around the pool and marina and took some pics. and walked over as close as we could get to BLT and took some more pics. After that we headed into the hotel to look at the fourth floor and do some browsing while we killed time.
At this point we decided to rent a boat again. In 2007 we rented a boat and had a great time. in 2008 we never got the chance because of TS Fay's rains. We always rent the pontoon so we can take pictures easily. I'm afraid to take the camera on the water mice. I cant wait to rent one of those again, its been SO many years since I rode in one of those.
I drove and Dina took lots of pictures including some great ones of BLT and the contemp. The two buildings really look good together. I would love to see a 4 or 5 story version take place at the south wing. The new building looks much better than the wings. I used to think the wings were tacked on after opening, I never realized that they are original to the contemp.
We had fun on the boat.
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Here I got stopped by one of the lake police dudes because he was concerned my seltzer water was beer. Thats now twice those cans have upset disney security. Dina was laughing at me for getting in trouble!
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This is what happens when you stick a 9HP motor on a 21 foot boat and you really really want to go faster!!
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almost back to the hotel:
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Back in the room there was a great rainbow that Justin also saw at the same time from the boarwalk!
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After a quick dinner we headed over to the MK. It was open for a couple more hours. We never made it past the end of main street! we did however shop both sides of main street!
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then on the way back to the hotel dina spotted this shot and took the camera to get this shot:
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"jbwolffiv" said:
I love the stormtrooper pics, especially the first one with Mickey in the background.
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thanks! that may be the best shot I got that day.
 
On our last day we got up kind of early. We had a quick breakfast and made pb&J wraps to take to the MK so we wouldnt have to buy food.

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since we shopped Main Street we were able to go straight to adventureland. We were headed to POTC but the line was actually out to the first queu where the strollers are parked. So, we skipped that! The park was kind of busy. At this point it started raining. We weren't very concerned though, because there was blue skies all around. We just hung out in the POTC shop a little bit. We never got out our pinchos or umbrellas and I never put the camera away. When it just went to a drizzle we headed out. If were werent trying to get on the road, we would have been more relaxed and waited in some lines, but instead we just wandered around MK. Honestly, I love doing that. It is very relaxing to just walk around in there with no agenda.
We went through fantasyland pretty quick. Way to busy to try to do much in there.
In tommorowland we had our lunch under the old Skyway boarding station. It was perfect, nice and dry and the tommorowland music was playing nice and loud under there. Perfect lunch!

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At this point, it was time to head out and go home.

This was a perfect weekend at WDW. the crowds were never that bad. the rain came and went, just likes it supposed to in Florida! Even the heat wasnt that bad.

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Great shots. ; My favorite is Moon Over Contemporary. ; And great job mentioning both Star Wars and Mallrats in the opening installment.
 
Love the shot of the Contemporary at night. ; Why is it your night shots of the Contemp always look unlike anyone elses (in a very good way!)? ;

Nice Tiki Room Hawaiian shirt!
 
"WDWFigment" said:
Love the shot of the Contemporary at night. ; Why is it your night shots of the Contemp always look unlike anyone elses (in a very good way!)? ;
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thanks! I think it is a real love for the hotel that comes through.

"WDWFigment" said:
; Nice Tiki Room Hawaiian shirt!
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Good eye!
 
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