So… Disney World… Again

Yeah, I know we spent two weeks in Disney World about six months ago. I know that. It was a great trip.

However, the minute we got home, Jen and the kids started fantasizing/planning the next trip. Initially I had talked them into going to Disneyland in California for the next trip. That was tentatively scheduled for mid-September, and it was going to be another huge two week deal. We never booked anything, but we did get far enough to put in vacation time requests at work. Harry wasn’t going to be able to go with us due to school, but Bellana was planning to go. Unfortunately some work issues arose, mostly pertaining to the amount of time we were asking for, and we decided to scrap the plan.

Then a few days ago Jen was on a Disney World forum and she read posts from people who live in the Philadelphia area taking weekend trips to Disney World. They jump on a plane after work on Friday, fly for a couple of hours, then fly home on Sunday night. That’s insane, isn’t it?

Isn’t it?

Now Philly is a whole ton closer to Orlando than Boston. We are a little too far away to pull off a trip that short. Having said that though… what about a three day weekend? What about a four day weekend? What if we fly after work on a Thursday and then fly home on a Monday? We could have a long weekend at Disney World and only take two days off from work.

What if we planned a trip to Orlando in September and stayed at a mid-level resort? Say the Port Orleans Riverside? What if it were just me and Jen because the kids can’t quite make it work with their schedules. We’re a lot farther away than Philly, and the kids are a lot farther away than we are. Also, what if the day after we got there, the Friday, there was a Magic Kingdom after hours event similar to the after hours events we have gone to on our last couple of trips?

I guess there are only two questions left then. First, what new wider angle lens do I buy for my Z5 to use on this trip, and do I bring a film camera too? A third question would be, how many times do we ride Rise of the Resistance? What’s the over/under on the maximum number of times we could ride it in one four day weekend?

One more question could be, are we serious? That one I can answer… Yes. Yes we are.

Florida Recap Post – The Fourth

This one is going to WAY over do it. You’ve been warned.

Our first visit to Magic Kingdom was first thing in the morning and we were shocked at how packed it was. We stayed for a couple of hours and then went back to the hotel for a while. My picture taking plan was to start with film and switch to digital when I burned through one roll. As it turns out, we weren’t in the park long enough for me to take 36 pictures on film so I don’t have any digital pics from that morning.

When we went back after dark though… I really went nuts. My YouTube schooling has taught me to keep the ISO setting as low as I can when using manual mode. I was struggling a little at night so I said screw it and set the ISO to auto, and then eventually just switched to auto mode and WOW can this new camera handle lights at night. It was crazy, so I went crazy with it. I took soooo many pictures. Here are mountains of them.

It was January 7th and the christmas decorations were still up. That was disappointing. Worse, they were still playing christmas music.

Another example of an utterly mobbed theme park.

I think this is my favorite picture from the trip. I haven’t seen any of the film yet, but I can’t see anything I took topping this one.

We rode Pirates and got wet and it was under 60 degrees out so it was not the most comfortable experience.

Shooting through windows sort of became a thing on this trip. There are a lot like this from both Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

There was another night visit to Magic Kingdom and there will be a ton from that visit. Next up though will be Hollywood Studios. We got there early and stayed until they closed so there will be a ton of pics, including a bunch at night. I think. I might do something else instead, but that’s what I’m thinking right now.

Florida Recap Post – The Third

This installment of the Florida Recap Post series isn’t terribly exciting. It’s just a few spots around The Riviera hotel, the Skyliner, The Caribbean Beach resort, and the Art of Animation resort. In short, it started with us just hanging around, and turned into us riding the Skyliner and just getting off at random spots.

I just liked the light here by the bus stop

Our room was on the right but on the back side of the building

The Skyliner runs direct from the Riviera to Epcot, but to go to Hollywood Studios you have to change cars at Caribbean Beach

I think this is at the Caribbean Beach but I’m not sure

Art of Animation has an arcade. Maybe next time we’ll stay here.

A fountain at the front entrance of The Riviera

We were waiting for a ride to Magic Kingdom. That will be the next post.

Florida Recap Post – The Second

Here is the second in an open ended series of Disney trip recaps. This one will cover our one stop at Animal Kingdom where we discovered that our least favorite park can be pretty fantastic when the temperatures outside are in the 70’s instead of the high 90’s. It made a huge difference.

I took a lot of pictures that day so… here’s a shit load of them. There is little actual significance to any of these.

The park was insanely mobbed that day. I tried to shoot over people’s heads when I could, but it wasn’t always possible.

Almost all of my safari pics were garbage. It was the only time on the entire trip that I wish I had a zoom lens. I actually had a zoom on my film camera, so maybe there might be one or two from there that are okay, but I doubt it.

We need to go back at night so we can see all of these lights when they are lit.

As shitty pics of the tree of life go, this is one.

Oh my god does the f2, 40mm prime lens do the portrait thing well!

I think I posted this already, and I think I said the same thing in the caption, but there is a film shot of two bikes that I am sure was in a different location, but I am also equally sure that it’s the exact same two bikes. We’ll see when the film comes back.

The next post is either going to be from the resort, as well as a brief little resort hopping jaunt that Jen and I went on, or it will be Magic Kingdom at night… or both.

Epic Road Trip Part 2: Day One in the Books

I really wanted to get us across the state line into Virginia, but I didn’t get us that far. We’re in the middle of North Carolina somewhere. North of Fayetteville, but still maybe 100 miles from Virginia. The kids are in the air, flying home, as I type this. They got to the airport, through security, and onto the plane without issue. Here’s hoping things continue to run smoothly.

I was able to musically mourn the passing of one of my heroes on the day’s drive. Jen let me listen to a playlist I created that I titled Jeff Beck Memorial. It is meant to be shuffled, of course. I know I once said I was done with Spotify, but I guess I am a hypocrite. Enjoy this is you can.

Epic Road Trip Day Two

We hit the road at 1:50pm yesterday and called it a day around 9:00 in Aberdeen, WA. Umm, I mean Aberdeen, MD. We are about 50 miles north of Baltimore.

Nothing terribly interesting happened until we were checked into a hotel room. Jen was asleep and I was about to go to sleep. That’s when I started getting a migraine. Yippee. I turned out the lights and went to sleep. I woke up six hours or so later with a touch of a headache, but I think the actual migraine fun has passed. We will see how it goes as the long day rolls on today, but I think I’m okay. I’ll just have to watch it, just in case.

Okay, time to pack up the room and get day two rolling. We want to be in Florida tonight at the very least, if not somewhere close to the airport in Orlando.

Let’s go!!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: