WDWFigment's August 2009 Photo Trip Novel

[WDWFigment]

PREFACE: Trip Report or Russian Novel?

If you’re like me, you probably scrolled from top to bottom of this post to see its length and determine, based upon said length, whether it was worth reading. When you scrolled, you might’ve seen that it’s pretty long. However, unlike most trip reports that people seemingly drag on for several years, this report is here in its entirety right when posted. One option is clicking the report, letting it load for a couple minutes, then coming back and scrolling through the pictures, I took 4,547 so there should be plenty here, and skipping my commentary. The pictures are really far more interesting than what I have to say, anyway.

Another option is that, rather than attempting to read it in full right now, you could treat it as one of the other trip reports, and read it in increments. To that end, I have divided it into chapters for your reading pleasure. Perhaps you could print out a copy, and read it before bed each night for a week. I promise it’ll put you to sleep!

Also of note is that I am posting this trip report in multiple locations (admitting loyalties to more than one Disney forum may sound like treason to some, but how many of you really only check this board?). ; Two of these locations are photo-specific boards. ; As a result, this report goes on tangents at times about photography. ; I try to keep these tangents as brief as possible and in lay terms, but these aspects of the report may not appeal to all audiences. ; Just including this as fair warning.

Further, if you're interested in the photography here and would like EXIF data for the pictures, it can be found on the Flickr page for each image that is on Flickr (donated by little watermarks that read “Brickerâ€

 

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We then headed to guest relations to buy our first Annual Passes. I was not thrilled about the price, and not because I didn’t think we would get enough value out of the AP, I was disappointed because, had we gone on the trip 12 days earlier, they would have been somewhat cheaper. Oh well. As far as ticket prices in general go, we belief as a result of this trip became that ticket prices should be increased even more. The parks were busier than they have been at this time of year despite the economy, and I think I would be willing to pay 20% more if that would mean 30% less crowds (although the economics of this don’t result in an equilibrium for Disney that would make it prudent for Disney to raise the prices, I’m looking out for me...). Being but meager college students who are financially emancipated from mommy and daddy, we are hardly made of money, but I really think it would be worth it.

With our crisp new Annual Passes in hand, we felt as if we could do anything. We essentially owned a piece of Disney, and as such, were entitled to go wherever we wanted, act any way we felt like acting, obey only those rules we saw fit to obey, and demand whatever we fancied. In light of this, I promptly removed my pants and enjoyed the park in my underwear. Okay, so maybe we didn’t have quite this sense of entitlement, but it sure was nifty have those Annual Passes. We no longer had to carefully use 10 day no-expiration park hopper tickets over the course of three trips. We could now go to the parks every day of our trips! What a feeling!

We finally stepped inside the park just after 5 p.m., roughly four hours after arriving in Orlando. Suffice to say, in the interim, my skin was itching and my legs twitching, as, like any good Disney geek, I was going through Disney withdrawal from not being in the parks. As soon as we made our way onto Sunset Blvd., we met our friend Nick, who is a Cast Member at Coral Reef and Sunshine Season, and encountered the heavy crowds we were expecting given that Evening Extra Magic Hours were taking place at the Studios that evening. We quickly made our way to Rock ‘N’ Rollercoaster to get FastPasses, then headed back to Great Movie Ride, where we anticipated little wait.

As usual, GMR was spectacular. This is one ride that, aside from periodic maintenance, I would be happy with if Disney left untouched for the foreseeable future. While it might be nice to have a few updates, I would be too concerned that Disney would swap out a classic that isn’t currently popular for whatever is their marketing flavor of the month. Made I’ve seen too many forum threads suggesting National Treasure be inserted into the attraction so I am overly worried about this. In any case, I’d rather the Great Movie Ride not become the Hit Disney Movie Ride Starring the Cast from High School Musical 7! If people don’t recognize some of the films in the attraction, perhaps they should check out TCM (which I have heard is doing quite well now as younger generations actually are becoming curious about classic cinema–whoddathunkit!) or Netflix.

Following GMR, we headed to the American Idol Experience. I will admit that I was pretty hard on this show when it was first announced. That said, I will admit that it exceeded my expectations. The hosts were energetic, albeit visibly ‘trying too hard’, the stage and production values seemed reminiscent of American Idol (at least what I’ve seen from commercials–I’ve never watched the show), and the performances were entertaining. I wish we would have seen the end-of-the-day show, as I’ve heard those are even better, but we didn’t want to wait for that. All of that said, I still don’t think it was a good move for Disney to get this show at this point in its run. It’s already been on for what, like 7 years? Americans will eventually tire of it, and I predict this will happen sooner rather than later. Then what? It becomes another Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and stagnates for a while. Why couldn’t we get a wholly original Disney show without latching onto a popular entity that will sour? I would’ve loved to see something in the vein of Superstar TV return.

After that, we headed to MuppetVision 3D. MuppetVision is, without a doubt, one of my favorite attractions. Incredibly nuanced and rife with those Disney Details, I think I could spend an entire day just exploring the pre-show room. Following another excellent show of MuppetVision, I called up Cory Disbrow (who, I believe, posts here), and we met up with him. We chatted for a while, hitting Rock ‘N’ Rollercoaster, GMR again, before queue’ng up for Tower of Terror.

 

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CHAPTER II: Storm Clouds are Raging

After about 10 minutes of standing in what promised to be a 40 minute line, the rain began coming down. And it came down! We wisely packed ponchos with us, but me being the tough guy (read: idiot) that I am, I thought the rain would quickly pass, and I might end up only slightly damp, so I didn’t get mine out of my bag. Within 2 minutes, I was completely soaked, at which time there was no point in donning the poncho. Sarah was infinitely smarter than me, as she immediately put on her poncho. After standing in the rain for 20 more minutes or so, we entered the attraction, rode, and enjoyed. As usual, it did not disappoint. I only wish we had more chances to ride so I could have looked for little Twilight Zone (one of my favorite TV shows) details that are littered throughout the queue and attraction itself.

Upon exiting, we found that, in typical Florida fashion, the storm had subsided. We took in some more attractions, including Star Tours and the Magic of Disney Animation (we drew Pluto–quite fun, much to my surprise!) before heading over to Rosie’s All American Café to grab some burgers. At dinner, we broke the horrible news to Cory–that we would likely not be staying through Evening Extra Magic Hours to do After Hours photography (for those unfamiliar, my favorite type of photography at the parks occurs after the parks close) as Sarah was still feeling sick, and it was important that she got some sleep so that she didn’t remain sick throughout the trip. Although he was clearly devastated, he took the news like a trooper. We decided to start shooting right then, and we headed over to Echo Lake.

Then, I suffered a personal trauma that I almost cannot repeat here without becoming ill. I discovered that my the handles that control the pan and tilt head (on the Velbon Luxi F) had fallen off during the day somewhere, rendering my tripod useless. I was at a loss. Luckily, Sarah had brought a tripod of her own, which she offered to let me use, sensing my disappoint and not being quite so entrenched in photography as myself. The problem with this was that the tripod she had (which was the same tripod I purchased to use with my point and shoot camera three years ago) could not support the weight of the D90 adequately. Thanks to that problem, I only managed one decent shot of the Studios that evening, and even that is not as sharp as I would like thanks to that wobbly tripod.

In light of that, I would really appreciate it if anyone could recommend a reasonably priced ball head to replace the current head of the tripod. ; I would like something compact, and possibly a joystick head, but I am open to just about anything. ; Price is most certainly an issue, so I would like to go with something as cheap as possible (although I understand you get what you pay for—so I'm really looking for value).

Sarah took the above shot—for not having a tripod, I thought it was fairly good.

Following some shooting, we said our goodbyes to Cory, then headed towards the buses. When we arrived at the bus stop, we realized why we usually stay after the parks close. It was near the end of Evening EMH, but holy cow, was there ever a line! When we first saw the line, we considered heading back into the park to do more shooting, as it would easily take 30 minutes for us to get a bus, and that time would be better-spent shooting. Ultimately, we decided against this. It took us three bus loads before we were finally loaded. Yet another reason why I cannot wait until we put the Value Resorts behind us.

The entire bus ride back, I thought of what I could do about the tripod. I hoped I left the handles back in our room, but knew that I didn’t. I considered called B&H photo, and having them overnight me a new ballhead. Ultimately, I decided the best course of action would be removing the Luxi F head, and attaching the cheap-o tripod head to it. At least this would let me use the stable Luxi tripod.

However, that was easier said than done. The method by which you are supposed to remove the head from the Luxi is by tightening the handles of the pan and tilt head, and using those for leverage to unscrew it. I tried everything, doing my best 2001 monkey impression as I squirmed on the floor trying to brace the tripod with my feet as I turned it. Nothing. I determined that I would need a wrench or a screwdriver. No problem, I’d get one in the morning.

The next morning, we awoke at a later-than-normal time to allow Sarah adequate recovery time. ; Given how late we were out, and how late we expected to be out the coming days, it was still relatively early. ; As soon as I got up, I quickly readied myself and headed to the concierge to see about getting a wrench or screwdriver. I discovered that they would have to send maintenance to my room, and that they would be there in a half hour. No problem, I thought, as Sarah is like most women, and it takes her roughly 6 hours to get ready in the morning (kidding dear). Sarah was ready relatively quickly that morning, so 45 minutes after speaking with Guest Services in the main lobby, we left our room. I felt bad about leaving with maintenance still on their way, but they didn't arrive within the time frame promised, so I guess they only have themselves to blame for finding an empty room when (or rather, if) they arrived.

That morning we headed off to the Magic Kingdom. ; Normally, the Magic Kingdom is a nighttime park for us—not just “aâ€

 

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Following BTMRR, we got in the standby queue for Splash. ; It's one of our favorite attractions, so we figured twice in one day would not be too much. ; Plus, the wait was short and the standby line was going through the lower areas with all of the little bird houses, which are really neat to examine, and something we don't normally see close-up, due to FastPass. ; If there is one reason I don't like FastPass, it's because I know we are missing so many great details in the queues. ; Prior to Space Mountain going down, I was thinking about those cool 3D space effects out the windows in the queue there. ; There last time I remember really looking at those was shortly after I was tall enough to ride the attraction, as it's been a FastPass-must for us ever since!

After years of me capturing 'candid' shots of Sarah in which she has odd facial expressions, this trip was her chance to enact her revenge!

I suppose this is as good of a segueway as any to provide the countering reasons as to why I love FastPass. ; I have read 20 page threads before debating the merits of FastPass, and I can honestly say I come down squarely in the “Pro-FastPassâ€

 

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Following dinner, we headed over the the Imagination pavilion area, where Sarah called her family and I took some pictures. ; It was fairly dark out, but I didn't anticipate hanging around much, so all of the shots were handheld. ; I experimented with some bracketed shots for HDR, but I have not quite gotten the hang of merging multiple shots yet for tone mapping. ; Hopefully I can master the art soon.

With Illuminations quickly approaching and the crowds fairly heavy, we decided to go stake out a spot. ; We normally aren't the type to get to a spot more than 20 minutes prior to the show, so we anticipated all of the good spots being taken. ; Further, given my tripod difficulties, I doubted I would be photographing them anyway. ; Okay, that's a stretch—when I am near fireworks I have a hard time not busting out the tripod. ; After setting up, I took some practice shots, and I discovered that none of them were sharp. ; I discovered (or assumed, rather—but my assumption proved correct) that the D90 with 18-200 lens was too heavy for Sarah's tripod. ; The quick solution to this was using her D40 for the fireworks, which worked without a problem. ; The only problem was that I did a poor job capturing the bursts. ; I think I was still photographically shaken regarding the whole tripod problem, and thus not on top of my game. ; I started out 0 for 1 on fireworks.

Illuminations was spectacular as always. ; This show is unquestionably one of Disney's “home runsâ€

 

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CHAPTER III: ; Our Kingdom Awaits

Given the late start, there was little point to head to the Studios, especially since the attractions we most wanted to experience would likely have long waits and far-away FastPass windows, and we were only planning on staying in the Studios until noon. ; Instead, we headed off to the Magic Kingdom.

When we first arrived on Main Street, we went to City Hall to pick up Celebrating buttons. ; Having just become Members of DVC two weeks prior, we decided to celebrate that. ; I was a bit weary at first to celebrate having purchased something appear too much like flaunting, but it's the season of Celebration at WDW right now, so I figured what the heck. ; We ended up receiving many comments from the DVC kiosk attendants with whom we traded pins, and it provoked some interesting conversation, so in the end it was definitely a good move.

Having forgotten to go to the Hall of Presidents on our first day in the MK, we got FastPasses for Big Thunder Mountain RR, then headed to the HoP. ; All I have to say about it is “wowâ€

 

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With so many long lines, we focused more on pin trading than in the prior days. ; Luckily, Sarah and I had purchased 100 pins prior to our trip for the purpose of trading, so we had quite the inventory to trade. ; We love trading not just for the thrill of finding something neat or because we are die-hard collectors (we aren't), but because of the interactions we have with Cast Members that we otherwise probably wouldn't have. Sure, we could approach Cast Members and strike up a conversation independent of trading, but honestly, that wouldn't often happen. ; Pin trading is a vehicle that facilitates guest and Cast interaction, and one that makes the park experience better for both parties. ; Critics of pin trading seem to easily overlook this, and they should not. ; If you've never tried pin trading before, pick up a lot of 10 pins on eBay before your next trip. ; It'll only set you back $15 or so, so what's the harm in giving it a shot? ; I will bet that you will enjoy it!
That evening marked our first time getting Dole Whips on the trip! ; When we're on the dining plan, we normally make a point to use all of our snack credits on Dole Whips, but when we actually have to purchase them ourselves, we don't seem to buy them as often (even though we actually are paying for the dining plan, too, but I suppose that's the psychology behind the plan). ; They were delicious as always, and they even made for some nice photography props!

By the time we finished the Dole Whips and photography fun, SpectroMagic was about to start. ; We had planned on getting seats at the train station one night so that I could get “the shotâ€

 

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Following our departure from Frontierland, we headed to the front of the Castle, and got the classic Castle shots. ; We then slowly made our way down Main Street, and while doing so, it became apparent that we were the last guests in the park. ; Usually we try to have other people in the park until we at least make it to the train station, so we don't feel obligated to leave. ; However, it was clear that we wouldn't be getting any shots there that evening. ;

On our way towards the exit, Sarah approached a group of managers to see their pins. ; One of them, Katie, said that she recognized us. ; It turns out that Katie had talked with us on both our August and November/December trips last year (Sarah remembered talking to her, I didn't). ; I was surprised that a Cast Member would remember us after such long absences and given the number of guests they see daily, but it was nice. ; While talking with her, she suggested that Sarah and I become seasonal Cast Members, a role that could take as little as 40 hours per year. ; Definitely an intriguing idea, but not a 'seed' I wanted to have planted with Sarah, especially after she finally recovered from the dreams I ; dashed of her becoming friends with a princess. ; Katie was very friendly—if anyone here knows or sees her, tell her Tom and Sarah from Indianapolis (the late night people) say hello!

We then exited the park and headed for our bus stop. ; Guess what, there were people in line waiting for the bus! ; This was somewhat odd, given that there were some buses idling there. ; It seems any bus could have taken us, but I guess there is some protocol that must be followed. ; This soldified our hypothesis that less buses were being used at night.

When we arrived back at the resort, it was around 3:30 a.m. ; Much to our surprise, there were still people out in the pool! ; We thought we were night owls at Disney! ; We had an early morning the next day, so we didn't take an evening dip.

CHAPTER IV: ; The Return of the Luxi F or, How I Learned My Fiancee is a Terrorist

The next morning, I awoke and immediately proceeded to use a screwdriver acquired from our friend Nick to switch out the tripod heads, thus enabling me to use my more stable, and taller, Luxi F tripod. ; Now, nothing could get in the way of sharp night shots, besides possibly human error!

We then go ready, and headed to EPCOT. ; We started by getting FastPasses for Soarin, then headed off to Test Track and Mission: Space, followed by The Living Seas and Maelstrom. ; I was surprised to find very short waits at all attractions. ; Following that, we found Stitch and Daisy near the park entrance. ; Following the duck and alien photo shoot, we headed to The Land to experience Soarin'.

 

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Soarin' once again did not disappoint. ; A beautiful score, stunning visuals and an experience that can't be beat. ; You know Disney hit a home run when the guests applaud a ride after its conclusion, and Soarin' has received applause everytime we have ridden it. ; My only complaint is the specs on the projection. ; It sure would be nice to get a digital projection for the attraction. ;

After Soarin' we decided to share the chicken breast and potato meal at Soarin', which turned out to be a mistake (we should've each ordered our own). ; Then we headed onward to Test Track again, the Disney Visa Character Greeting, the Electric Umbrella for a second lunch, and Universe of Energy. ; Universe of Energy is another attraction that seems to take a lot of heat. ; We like it. ; Not only is it one of the few attractions to still have the spirit of EPCOT Center in it, but it also has dinosaurs, and a good sense of humor. ; I suppose it could have a bit more 'teeth' to it as it pertains to energy, but I can't imagine Disney taking on any controversial topic with the attraction.

 

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It was then time to head back into the World Showcase. ; We made our way slowly around the lagoon, stopping multiple times to take pictures, making our way towards the American Adventure. ; It's always nice to take a leisurely stroll around World Showcase, and that day was no different. ; When we arrived at the American Adventure, there was roughly a 20 minute wait until the next show, so we wandered around for a little while. ; Then, there was a startling revelation...

Sarah revealed to me that she is not that wild about the American Adventure. ; The American Adventure! ; The best attraction at EPCOT!! ; The most patriotic, emotionally stirring attraction in all of Walt Disney World!!! ; My instinctive reaction was to accuse her of being a terrorist. ; How can she not love the American Adventure? ; I just don't get it. ; I long have suspected that she harbors a dirty secret about being a Canuck, and I believe her statement confirmed these fears. ; At least she likes the Hall of Presidents. ; Or so she claims...

I don't need to tell you good Americans how great the American Adventure was, as usual. ; After American Adventure, we headed to Soarin' again for another excellent flight to California (although we exited the attraction into Florida—odd) and then headed to the Camera Center for our “freeâ€

 

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After Wishes, the park closed. ; 11 p.m. Is far too early for us to retire, so we began the photo shoot. ; I'll be honest, I did make a slight blunder here. ; On our schedule, I plan the times when we will likely be out of the park. ; That morning, when I consulted the schedule, I looked at that time, and confused it for the time that the park would be closing. ; So when 11 p.m. Hit and we weren't allowed on an attraction, I was taken aback. ; Then it dawned on me what I had done. ; Although it wasn't a huge deal, we weren't in the land we wanted to be in for pictures. ; Thus, our first few pictures in Tomorrowland were not so great. ; We were struggling to think of good locations. ; We finally did get in a grove, and got some better shots. ; Although these are mostly pictures of us, there are similar shots without us for each location. ; Those images are decidedly better and will be posted, eventually, on Flickr.

We finally made our way to Main Street, and were the last guests in the park again already at that point. ; That meant no Train Station pictures. ; Dangit. ; We did see Katie again, and talked with her briefly before heading for the exit. ; Our bus experience this time flew in the face of established precedent. ; Many buses were waiting for us, and none had passengers. ; We found a bus, and boarded for All Star Sports.

 

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CHAPTER V: ; Characters on Parade

The next morning began for me as any morning does: ; by rocking out in an extreme manner. ;

With that accomplished, we headed off to Animal Kingdom. This would prove to be a very good day for character pictures. ; Going into the third day, Sarah and I were concerned about our character picture count. ; Sure, we had found Pioneer Donald, but other than that, it seemed that not many characters had been out. ; We are big character hunters, so we were a bit disappointed in not having seen many unique ones. ; We wondered if the weather was to blame, as the temperatures had crossed 90 several times the first couple of days. ; However, that day alleviated our fears as we saw Brer Rabbit and Meeko at the park entrance, and Pooh and company with no wait inside.

 

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Although we wouldn't normally stop for character pictures so early in the morning, we had a luxury that day. ; The consolidated FastPass area at It's Tough to be a Bug gave us FastPasses for ALL of the attractions. ; Although the tickets said you could not get your next FastPass until XX time, each of the machines gave us a FastPass. ; My guess is that the system uses some sort of central computer to prevent distribution of FastPasses prior to that time, and the time it takes to update that system is longer than the time it takes to move to a nearby machine and get another FastPass. ; This normally wouldn't be an issue because the machines are spaced throughout the park and the time it takes to walk to another machine precludes exploiting this loophole, but when the machines are right next to one another, it's possible. ; That's just my hypothesis, it could be entirely wrong. ; Anyone know for sure?
Anyway, with FastPasses for Everest, Kilimanjaro, and Dinosaur in hand, we headed off to enjoy the sweltering weather. ; Prior to the trip, I had resolved myself to getting a decent photo on Dinosaur. ; Easier said than done. ; We rode the attraction twice that day, and this is the closest I came to getting anything worthwhile and this picture is hardly impressive. ; It really stinks when even your best isn't good enough (although the shortfall here lies squarely with the D90, and not the photographer). ; Looks like I will have to get a D700 after all!

We also had the best ride on Kilimanjaro (or one of the best) that we have experienced to date. ; We saw lions, which rarely happens, among other cool animals. ; Photography-wise, Kilimanjaro doesn't do much for me. ; Maybe that's because I only have the 18-200 for this ride (hmmm, maybe a 70-200 f/2.8 is in order...) or maybe it's because it's moving around so quickly, but I've never had much luck with it. ; The most compelling shots I've ever previously gotten have all been of the ride vehicles.

In fact, I have to say Animal Kingdom in its entirety doesn't do much for my photographically. ; I know this might sound like heresy for some, especially given the myriad of details present in the Park, but I have never had much success at all in the park. ; I think this can be attributed to three reasons: ; 1) it's the park I've spent the least amount of time in, and I don't know the setup well at all, so I can't envision my shots ahead of time (for the most part) so they are almost all spontaneous, and I guess my eye for photography isn't so hot; 2) all of my shooting has been day time shooting since we've sadly never done evening EMH there, and my day time shooting generally isn't that good, plus the Tree of Life is not that compelling of a subject matter in my opinion, and without fail, the skies are overcast when we're there, and; 3) I'm more of a big picture person. ; I'm the guy shooting 50 shots of the Castle. ; I all too often overlook the little things, although I did work on that this trip. ; Plus, Susan (Kiki, KeeKee, KikiFL, etc.) already has the market cornered on this type of shot, so I figure “why bother?â€

 

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While waiting for our FastPasses to Everest, we caught Finding Nemo: ; the Musical. ; Perfect as always. ; We were quite lucky, as we got in line for the show 5 minutes prior to it starting, and as we entered, we thought we would be in the metal seats in the very back, where they were seating us late-arrivers. ; However, about 5 people before us, a Cast Member started redirecting parties of 2-4 to the front aisles where 'room had been made' by having the audience scoot towards the center of their rows. ; Thanks to that, we got the best seats we had ever had for the show!

Sarah discovered her niche for photography while we were eating at Flame Tree BBQ: ; Disney Duck shots. ; Later, she even expanded her horizons by getting some shots of the Egrets in the Magic Kingdom. ; I think she will quickly corner this market.

Both shots by Sarah

After Everest, we hopped the bus to the Ticket and Transportation Center, then boarded the monorail for the Magic Kingdom. ; Our first stop there was the First Aid Center, as I needed some band aids for my feet. ; Ahh, the joy of wearing sandals each day and the blisters therefrom. ; In my defense, I had only worn sandals each day because the first day I had worn shoes and was incredibly uncomfortable when they got wet following the rain.

The park was packed just like the previous days, so we headed for one place that we expected wouldn't be too busy, the Country Bear Jamboree. ; However, even it was stuffed to the gills! ; The crowds were too much to bear, so we figured we'd head over to Bay Lake Tower to scope out our (hopeful) honeymoon location, and then head over to the Polynesian for dinner. ; When we arrived at the Contemporary, we discovered that we wouldn't be able to check out BLT, so we quickly left. ; The only truly important thing about it for us is its location, so unless they move it between now and our honeymoon, we will likely still want to stay there even though we haven't been inside (although we did tour the model rooms at Doorway to Dreams in Chicago—so that counts for something).

When we arrived at the Poly, we debated between dinner at Kona and Captain Cook's. ; We balked at Kona after considering our dire straits financially, and opted for the cheaper counter service option. ; Probably a mistake in retrospect. ; Much to my surprise, I only took one picture in the Contemporary, and one in the Polynesian (you may notice that I changed lenses between the two—I don't change lenses for one shot, so I guess I expected more use out of the UWA at the Poly?) ; They aren't that good, but I guess I will post them to 'prove' we were there.

After diner, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for the conclusion of the evening. ; As we entered, the afternoon Main Street parade was being performed, so we stopped to watch it. ; Definitely a neat little piece of entertainment, and a lot better in our opinion than the Family Fun Day (or whatever it was called) parade. ; As one of the floats passed, we saw our nighttime Cast Member-friend, Katie pass, who waved to us.

We then headed over to Space Ranger Spin, which became a favorite of the trip for its quick FastPass use (we could typically get one per hour), before heading to Splash Mountain. ; Then, it happened. ; That's right, I scored 961,400 points on Space Ranger Spin, my highest score ever. ; It was a personal coup for me, and vindication for the previous trip when Sarah beat me. ; I know some folks have no problem maxing out their guns each time they play, but I don't care. ; I was proud.

 

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We hit Wishes, this time from Main Street, and I decided the UWA would be a good lens choice, as I could catch some of the lights from Main Street, too. ; Somehow, I had not noticed (or thought about it, rather), that the lights on Main Street are not on during Wishes. ; Instead of cool shots, I got shots with darkness in about 2/3 of the frame, and a very distant Castle. ; After cropping, some of them are passable, but the quality is nowhere near what I wanted or expected. ; So far, 0 for 4 on fireworks.

After Wishes we headed back into the lands, hitting some of our favorites again, and even stopping for a tripod shot (before the park had closed!) ; It was a must-get shot for me, and one I had inexplicably botched with the previous night. ; This time, I nailed it. ; It probably isn't all that impressive to anyone else, but I love the shot. ; Probably one of my favorites from the trip. ; It's actually my desktop background right now (the version without us, that is). ; It was tough to set up without us, as even at 11mm, there is very little room to maneuver (or else you risk not getting the entire palm leaves) and the angle of the camera prevents you from seeing into the view finder. ; Live view doesn't help much more, but it's definitely the only option without guessing. ; The shot was even tougher to get with us in it, as I could line Sarah up in advance, but I could only guess as to where I should stand. ; To add to the difficulty, you have to stand in just the right manner, otherwise the UWA distortion makes you look like a heifer.

When the Evening EMH started, I was in the zone, if I do say so myself. ; It was the UWA's turn to come out and play, and Sarah, feeling somewhat ill, had asked if we could not take any pictures of ourselves that evening. ; Without having to change lenses or settings between shots, I quickly rolled through my shots, capturing some areas I otherwise have overlooked. ; We also managed to again unintentionally be overlooked when Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were cleared. ; This time, no one told us to leave, but I saw the ropes up. ; In light of this, we cautiously moved around while getting the pictures (as a bit of an aside, Sarah and/or myself have been asked by Cast Members several times during these shoots if we're photographers for Disney and/or Cast Members. ; Most of the time, I avoid any problems by briskly walking past Cast Members and pleasantly saying hello when I sense that someone might tell us we cannot be in a given location. ; Surprisingly, that works almost every time.) ; During the following low angle shot of Tomorrowland, I actually stayed low behind the globe for the entire shot, weary that a manager from a previous night who had 'pushed' us to exit Tomorrowland was standing nearby. ; Probably my most clandestine act in a Disney park.

It was again obvious that we were the last guests in the park by the time we hit Main Street, so we again couldn't stop by the Train Station for any shots (or rather, didn't stop—I'm sure we could have stopped). ; When we approached our bus stop, we again found we had our choice of buses. ; So much for our hypothesis that costs were being cut with the buses. ; I still standby my assertion that they should be cut, but for our own sake, I am glad they haven't been!

 

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We hit Wishes, this time from Main Street, and I decided the UWA would be a good lens choice, as I could catch some of the lights from Main Street, too. ; Somehow, I had not noticed (or thought about it, rather), that the lights on Main Street are not on during Wishes. ; Instead of cool shots, I got shots with darkness in about 2/3 of the frame, and a very distant Castle. ; After cropping, some of them are passable, but the quality is nowhere near what I wanted or expected. ; So far, 0 for 4 on fireworks.

After Wishes we headed back into the lands, hitting some of our favorites again, and even stopping for a tripod shot (before the park had closed!) ; It was a must-get shot for me, and one I had inexplicably botched with the previous night. ; This time, I nailed it. ; It probably isn't all that impressive to anyone else, but I love the shot. ; Probably one of my favorites from the trip. ; It's actually my desktop background right now (the version without us, that is). ; It was tough to set up without us, as even at 11mm, there is very little room to maneuver (or else you risk not getting the entire palm leaves) and the angle of the camera prevents you from seeing into the view finder. ; Live view doesn't help much more, but it's definitely the only option without guessing. ; The shot was even tougher to get with us in it, as I could line Sarah up in advance, but I could only guess as to where I should stand. ; To add to the difficulty, you have to stand in just the right manner, otherwise the UWA distortion makes you look like a heifer.

When the Evening EMH started, I was in the zone, if I do say so myself. ; It was the UWA's turn to come out and play, and Sarah, feeling somewhat ill, had asked if we could not take any pictures of ourselves that evening. ; Without having to change lenses or settings between shots, I quickly rolled through my shots, capturing some areas I otherwise have overlooked. ; We also managed to again unintentionally be overlooked when Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were cleared. ; This time, no one told us to leave, but I saw the ropes up. ; In light of this, we cautiously moved around while getting the pictures (as a bit of an aside, Sarah and/or myself have been asked by Cast Members several times during these shoots if we're photographers for Disney and/or Cast Members. ; Most of the time, I avoid any problems by briskly walking past Cast Members and pleasantly saying hello when I sense that someone might tell us we cannot be in a given location. ; Surprisingly, that works almost every time.) ; During the following low angle shot of Tomorrowland, I actually stayed low behind the globe for the entire shot, weary that a manager from a previous night who had 'pushed' us to exit Tomorrowland was standing nearby. ; Probably my most clandestine act in a Disney park.

It was again obvious that we were the last guests in the park by the time we hit Main Street, so we again couldn't stop by the Train Station for any shots (or rather, didn't stop—I'm sure we could have stopped). ; When we approached our bus stop, we again found we had our choice of buses. ; So much for our hypothesis that costs were being cut with the buses. ; I still standby my assertion that they should be cut, but for our own sake, I am glad they haven't been!

 

[WDWFigment]

CHAPTER VI: ; Magic Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, & Magic Kingdom

The next day, our last full day, was all MK. ; It may be apparent at this point in the trip that we did a lot of Magic Kingdom and not a lot of Studios or Animal Kingdom. ; I do not think this was a wise idea in retrospect. ; While the MK is our favorite park, and the embodiment of WDW, in our opinion, given the crowds and the lack of Space Mountain and TTA, we were there too much. ; If we did the trip as planned, we would not have been there as much, but we changed our plans because there are more unpopular attractions that we like in the MK than in any other park and because the MK was typically open the latest (if you'll notice, if another park was open later, we concluded the night there instead). ; It simply wouldn't have made since to go to the Studios on these days if the only attractions we really like there are Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania, Rock 'N' Rollercoaster given that the wait times would have been ridiculous for those attractions, and FastPasses would have been gone (or at a far-away time that would force us to stay in the park longer than we wanted). ; One of the benefits of staying in Bay Lake Tower for our honeymoon is that we will be able to adopt the best touring strategy of all: ; rise early, stay late, nap in the middle. ; We were effectively precluded from that this trip by the 1.5-2 hours of commuting that would entail.

Anyway, with that in mind (and so you don't think we're “MK onlyâ€

 

[WDWFigment]

Given that I had been waiting so long to get this shot (and since it was at the "top" of my list), I wanted to get it as quickly as possible. However tripod issues and large crowds postponed it until the last night, when I expected crowds to be lighter. Of course it was just as packed the last night as the night's prior, with the only difference being that the last night only had 1 showing of Spectro, versus the previous night's 2 showings. ; It didn't end up working out the way I expected, but I was pleased with the results nonetheless.



Since we had waited so long for the spots, we decided to stay for Wishes! ; That meant I would be precluded from any truly good shots, as the flagpole would fall squarely in the middle of the frame. ; I'm hoping some of these shots can be salvaged with more thorough post processing. ; That left me at 0 for 5 on fireworks shows for the trip! ; I guess there is always next time.

Taken by Sarah

After Wishes, the park closed. ; Given the crowds, a 10 p.m. closing seemed highly inappropriate (I learned that the next day, park hours were extended with a PA announcement during the day). ; If one thing is for sure, it's that I don't think we'll ever set up camp at the Main Street Train Station when the park is closing right after Wishes! ; Fighting the crowd to get back to Liberty Square was extremely difficult. ; Before heading to Liberty Square, we decided we'd hit Adventureland (for the first time) as we anticipated heavy crowds at least for an hour and a half after closing given the time. ; However, Adventureland was already cleared! ; I guess we'll have to wait until next time for any shots there.

 

[WDWFigment]

The following shots were taken by Sarah:

We immediately headed to Liberty Square to get some shots in front of the Haunted Mansion and the Liberty Belle. ; After that, we noticed the park quickly clearing, so we headed towards the Castle. ; With those shots accomplished, we proceeded on to the Train Station area (the Roy and Minnie statue, specifically) to get some shots there. ; That done, and with us the last guests in the park, we headed towards the exit. ; Before we left I turned to snap one last shot of the time just for “proofâ€

 

[WDWFigment]

CHAPTER VII: ; The Final Act

The next morning was morning EMH at the Magic Kingdom, and our last day. ; We decided to sleep 20 minutes after our alarm went off, which meant getting to the Magic Kingdom by 8 a.m. would be a race against the clock. ; When we got up at 6:25, I began racing, packing our bags to take them down to Bell Services, and getting on the bus. ; When we got in line for the bus at 7:35 a.m., we thought we had no chance of getting onto the bus that was already there. ; We made it, along with about 5 guests behind us. ; Phew. ; From there, it was a race against the clock. ; The bus finally arrived at the MK at 7:54 a.m., giving us 6 minutes to race to the turnstiles for the opening ceremony. ; We made it! ; 7 days, and only one park opening, but at least we accomplished that one!

We raced to Frontierland to get FastPasses for Splash Mountain. ; Unfortunately, Splash was not running (technical difficulties), so the line for Big Thunder was already 20 minutes. ; The wait was worth it, as the ride was fun as always. ;

At this point in the trip, the reality that it was almost over set in. ; Barring the advent of a time machine or money tree (either of which could allow us to stay perpetually), it seemed our vacation was about to end. ; When such a realization sets in, what do you do? ; What last minute attractions do you visit? ; For us, the answer was clear: ; Pooh's Playful Spot!!!!

Okay, maybe not. ; We then actually headed for two trips around the Haunted Mansion, where I had my best morning of shooting. ; I successfully captured the caretaker (albeit not with full frame ISO quality) and several of the graveyard scenes. ; Following Haunted Mansion, we checked on the status of the money tree and time machine, and still found nothing. ; Come on, Disney, if you can build a walking dinosaur, you can sure build a time machine.

We then headed over to Tomorrowland to experience our favorites, Carousel of Progress and Buzz, and there we saw Buzz, and he had a short wait. ; After meeting our hero and informing him of our prowess at defeating his enemy Zurg, we headed to Frontierland to use our Splash FastPasses.

On the way, we saw Cowboy Goofy, who also had a short wait! ; In fact, the park in general was less crowded than the previous day, although it was still busy. ; Somehow, though, the park hours were extended that evening. ; If only the same would have happened the previous day.

Seeing the old logo being used again on a lot of merchandise was really, really cool. ; I hope Disney continues with this trend!

We then committed a Disney Sin. ; We ate at Peco's Bills. ; I felt, and still feel, like we betrayed our good friend Sonny Eclipse, but hopefully I will someday move on. ; After lunch, the day was almost over for us. ; We took in a few more attractions, then bid our Magic Kingdom goodbye.

The trip back to the Magic Kingdom was sobering. ; We were slowly coming back to reality, thinking about terrible topics such as “workâ€