"Am I lazy, or just uninteresting" Trip Photo Collage (Dec 8-15, 2012)

So, I've thought about writing my first trip report after our last trip. I sat down, sorted through 900+ photos, picked the ones that represented just about everything that we did on our last trip (Dec 8-15th 2012). For my friends, I posted all of those pictures (214 in total) on Facebook, tagged them, made little quips about each, all of which probably could make into a nice long trip report. I highly doubt anyone looked at all 214, or even half of them.
Then I realized, really, nothing in this trip is probably any different than what most folks do on their trips. We didn't have any uber-special backstage tours, meets with famous imagineers, special occurances or anything like that which would be different than probably 90% of the trip reports in this forum.
So, I decided, either out of laziness, or respect to any potential reader's time, I'd go about 1/4 of the way. Instead of detailing all about the time we spent enjoying our 4th character meal of the trip, or how I got to walk down the first lift hill of Big Thunder when it broke, I'd just put together a simple photo collage of some of the better trip pictures we took and post that. The collage I tried to make quite large, so it could be zoomed in and out on if you so incline. Sorry if that becomes a pain.

Trip Collage

Some quick notes for those interested. The trip was my family (myself, my wife, my daughters aged 5 and 2 doing a little rounding up), my parents, who have been taking me to WDW since 1978, and joining us for the last few days of the trip, my wife's brother's family (his wife and 2 boys aged 8 and 6) who were first-timers. Other than that, we just did as much as we could, saw some things a bunch, missed a whole lot that I wish we hadn't, and overall had a very good, very busy, and very memorable trip for our family.

If anything pops into your mind as a reader that you'd like to hear about, feel free to ask and I'll be happy to expand and explain.

 

[epcotisbest]

Enjoyed the photo collage. Thanks for sharing.

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Great idea for the collage! I love the photo of all the kids at Cosmic Rays with Sunny in the background. They look kind of tired and disinterested, yet you know they're psyched!

What were some things you wished you hadn't missed as you mentioned briefly? We can relate to that feeling-happens every trip, usually with a dining experience we wish we had done.

 

[sshindel]

What were some things you wished you hadn't missed as you mentioned briefly? We can relate to that feeling-happens every trip, usually with a dining experience we wish we had done.

Thanks!

Cosmic Ray's was on the last day, and everyone was kind of beat and ready to run over to Space or Splash mountain before rushing off to the airport! I think that was about the 20th picture we took of them, being the last day of the cousin's first trip together, and they were sick of posing.

Some of the things we missed were mainly in the MK, and due to the fact that we had the group of first timers with us, and they were slightly cynical boys, so I didn't budget enough time early in the week when it was just us to do some of the things I probably could have guessed they were not interested in. Things we missed this trip (and still had a blast)

• Philharmagic
• Storytime with Belle (that one kills me, as I was dying to take my girls there, but my youngest decided to be terrified of being inside in the dark as soon as we got there, so it made the trip a big juggling act of someone staying outside with her while others rode). cThe line was just too long on the days when we were planning on doing it, at around 90-120 minutes.
• I wanted to see a few of the new Meet and Greets, like the one in Storybook Circus and Town Square, but it just never worked out
• Jungle Cruise
• Aladdin's Carpets (which my kids would have liked, but Dumbo was plenty)
• Country Bears (post new refurb)
• Carousel of Progress
• I did not ride Peter Pan, again, staying outside with the sleeping young one
• My oldest was 1/2 inch too short for the 44 inch limit, so she was devastated while everyone else rode Space Mountain. I nearly bought her a pair of Jasmine shoes that had heels on them that probably would have pushed her over the edge, and probably should have.
• Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Disney Junior Live, Beauty and the Beast on stage, the great movie ride
• My beloved Tiki Room, which my oldest is a bit sad about missing, but for me is a knife through the heart, as it is my favorite thing in the world and it would have been my first trip back after they got ride of UNM. Sacrificed to the group at that one. I was going to sneak it in at the very end, and we just ran out of time.

When I list them like that, it seems like I didn't see or do much, but honestly, we had a blast. We rode Space / Splash/ Big Thunder Mountain and Star Tours many, many times, spent an hour or so just going back and forth on Kali River because my kid loved it. My oldest was just about the perfect age right now, and getting to see the whole park as a kid again though her eyes was amazing. My youngest, while afraid of a lot of things, still really loved the trip, loved the meet and greets so much, and will be over her fears next time we go. So, that list above, while it sounds like a lot, really didn't make the trip any less special.

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

Sounds (and looks) like you all had a blast!! What a beautiful family! Thanks for sharing

 

[Britt]

What site did you use for that collage?? ADORABLE

It's ok, I posted 1000 pics in one album and 190 in another!! Haha! My friends went through most but it's a lot to mull through! LOL

 

[sshindel]

What site did you use for that collage?? ADORABLE

It's ok, I posted 1000 pics in one album and 190 in another!! Haha! My friends went through most but it's a lot to mull through! LOL

I honestly just used Google's Picasa (picasa.google.com). Creating that was as simple as picking the ones I wanted and hitting "collage", then playing around with the layout a bit. I used it for my wallpaper on my computers as well. It's not quite photoshop, but has some great simple tools.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

That picture of Norway in the mist looks great. Can you repost it as a single picture? Got any more?

Norwegian architecture's natural environment is not subtropical sun, but fog, tones of grey, the mist of a winter morning. It makes it look great. I wouldn't mind some more pictures of EPCOT Norway in the cold december morning!

 

[sshindel]

That picture of Norway in the mist looks great. Can you repost it as a single picture? Got any more?

Norwegian architecture's natural environment is not subtropical sun, but fog, tones of grey, the mist of a winter morning. It makes it look great. I wouldn't mind some more pictures of EPCOT Norway in the cold december morning!

Here you go.

I was looking again at my pictures and realized that I basically took next to no pictures of locations or scenery at Epcot (or honestly, for the entire trip it seems). It's basically the one above, and one more, which really isn't quite as good as the Norway one (IMO):

 

[mickey2008.1]

great collage! We know how it goes to miss things, it stinks, but gives reason to plan another trip! What's the storytime with belle?

 

[sshindel]

great collage! We know how it goes to miss things, it stinks, but gives reason to plan another trip! What's the storytime with belle?

Sorry, Enchanted Tales with Belle, in New Fantasyland. I guess I still had the old name in my head when it was in the Fairytale Garden, and not it's new enhanced location in her cottage. In all, I wish we would have spent a little more time in New Fantasyland, but at least we did get to do everything in there except Belle.