Trip Report *Food Update* The Get Out of My Way, Watch Your Child, Turn Your Flash Off & SHUT UP Trip Report!!!

Food Update here *Food Update* The Get Out of My Way, Watch Your Child, Turn Your Flash Off & SHUT UP Trip Report!!!


Wow, so I am just digging in here on this thing. Picture editing, camera issues, and pure laziness has had this on delay.

Before I get started though I want to say thanks to Tom (WDWFigment). He really has helped me in so many ways with camera questions, photoshop, lens stuff. Anything I asked he has been great and always willing to take a phone call from a disgruntled "photographer". Pretty much any great or good pictures you see...he knowing, or unknowingly had a hand in there some how. So in all seriousness...thanks bud.

Now a little bit about my upcoming trip (that already happened)...

Travel Dates were August 25th through September 7th.

We have a 6:30pm flight to leave Pittsburgh.

The stars of this show will be my fiance Colleen, and myself. There will be some guest appearances but you guys only are here because of me so screw them. HAHA no we will get to them once their spot come up.

Leading up to this trip the time FLEW BY. 1 year went by so fast that it's pretty crazy when I sit back and think about where all that time went. It seemed like 180 days was here in an instant. Then 100 days, then before I know it my Magical Express and Vouchers are in my mail box. Then I am on the airplane...

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The flight was pretty interesting to say the least. I am not the most relaxed person so to speak when on an airplane. It's not my most favorite thing in the world to take part in...flying, that is. We were flying down as the Hurricane was flying up. So winds in Orlando were pretty wild, and the flight was pretty bumpy. Nothing CRAZY but still...the more smooth the better. With that said the captain kept giving us weather updates for Orlando saying it was windy and raining. We flew right in and touched down and there was no wind or rain. I was very happy about that.

So we exit the plane and walk over to the tram and this greets me...

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Yeah so now I am pretty amped up at this point and I am starting to get that feeling that "Okay...we are here"

So off the tram and down to the Magical Express area. Now anyone who "knows" me or read my trip before you know that I am a huge fan of taking pictures of people who are doing weird things, wearing odd clothes, or speedos. Some of you are fans of it and some of you are not. I have said time and time that I do not look for this, if it presents itself I will snap it and so on. Well we are not even in line yet and something crazy presents itself...

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Yeah this lady was dragging her child around on her luggage through the whole first level of the airport. Aint that like half a mile, or does it just seem like it? Anyways for the most part that is pretty much the only "people pics" I got. There are 2 or 3 more so I am sure that will have some of you on the edge of your seat biting your toe nails...

Anyways back to the adventure...

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We are on the bus!!!

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We arrived at All Star Sports and Nick was waiting for us at the front door. I quickly said what's up and ran to check in before everyone else. Online check in this time was pretty shocking. I walked up to the counter and everything was ready. Dude basically handed my packet and room keys and basically was like "peace dude". I was like ummm is that it?

Our room was located right on the first building outside the cafe on the left. Touchdown something...I forget. But to my surprised the football field was all fenced off. I am immediately ed. I go look and they have new turf down, painted plays all over the field. It looked pretty much like it was almost finished so I calmed down a bit. So we went to our room, put our carry on bags down and headed out the door to go to Planet Hollywood and to meet up with a buddy! We got to Planet Hollywood where we met up with Karen (MillerPoppins) who just happened to be hanging out in Orlando while we were there! Prior to leaving she messaged me and told me she would be down there for a good portion of our trip and she wanted to try The Crunch Chicken. I agreed to meet up with her after careful review. Turns out she was okay. My review was dead on and we are very happy to have got to meet her/know her.

After Planet Hollywood we said out goodbyes and discussed meeting up again and that was that. Nick dropped us off and I dragged Colleen back to the lake at Sports that I wanted to fish at. First we stopped at "The Tennis Court" because I wanted to get a picture of Donald with a new friend next to him...

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After seeing the lake we walked back through the lobby for some stupid reason...

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Here are a few room shots...

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That concludes the first night....

More to come!
 
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tink65

Active Member
Hey Black, just finished up your trip report & it was awesome! Loved all your pics and the great commentary! I understand completely about the kids.....our DD turned 17 in Sept and has been going to Disney since she was 3.......Never any tantrums or fits (anywhere for that matter) At the first sign she knew what would happen. Kids today have no discipline and then they grow up to raise even more kids with no discipline!

I will say this....don't wait til you don't have to push a stroller! Took Allison for the first time right before she turned 3. Had to have a stroller of course! The memories I have of her meeting Mickey & the gang for the first time are priceless & worth every push of the stroller!! I know you....you'll know how to be a considerate stroller pusher!! LOL!

Thanks for the great report!
 

muse1983

Well-Known Member
The biggest one here is the flash photography on rides in the dark. I seriously hope that a satellite would fall from space and land right on your face. No lies. It's THAT annoying. If you are alone on a ride or whatever...go for it. Stay in the parks late so you can go last and flash away. But you know the rule. You read the sign. You heard them tell you before your ship set sail on Pirates. Nobody want to be in the dark and have a flash going on in front of behind them every 7 seconds. For real man...right on your face from space.

There needs to be an applauding smilie because I would give you about a dozen of them for this and the entire "rude people etc" post. You hit it right on the head man. I had a similar experience with flash photography at Fantasmic. We were sitting by a woman who was speaking fluent English and was constantly taking pictures with the flash on. The flash on her camera could have lit up a football stadium. I let her slide on the first 5-10 pictures until she received the stare...the stare that says if you choose to take another picture and light up the entire section of the theatre that we were sitting in, I will take it upon myself to see if I can hit the ledge that Pocahontas is standing tall upon right now. Almost out of spite and I swear while she was looking straight at me took another picture. I said " You seriously can't be that ignorant and rude can you?" and I swear she looked right at be and started speaking spanish faster than rosie perez. So I made it easy for her, I spelled it out using hand motions along with a throwing motion towards the lagoon (to the amusement of a father of 3 behind me). She huffed and scooted over away from me (a blessing in itself) and never touched the camera again.

Insane trip report by the way, enjoyed reading it at work!
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
There needs to be an applauding smilie because I would give you about a dozen of them for this and the entire "rude people etc" post. You hit it right on the head man. I had a similar experience with flash photography at Fantasmic. We were sitting by a woman who was speaking fluent English and was constantly taking pictures with the flash on. The flash on her camera could have lit up a football stadium. I let her slide on the first 5-10 pictures until she received the stare...the stare that says if you choose to take another picture and light up the entire section of the theatre that we were sitting in, I will take it upon myself to see if I can hit the ledge that Pocahontas is standing tall upon right now. Almost out of spite and I swear while she was looking straight at me took another picture. I said " You seriously can't be that ignorant and rude can you?" and I swear she looked right at be and started speaking spanish faster than rosie perez. So I made it easy for her, I spelled it out using hand motions along with a throwing motion towards the lagoon (to the amusement of a father of 3 behind me). She huffed and scooted over away from me (a blessing in itself) and never touched the camera again.

Insane trip report by the way, enjoyed reading it at work!


Yeah I have just had it with people ignorance.
 

Dads 2 Boys

Well-Known Member
Final Thoughts...

As always...who could imagine that 2 weeks could go so fast? The whole entire year actually flew by like that though, it was pretty crazy when I actually think about it. If not for doing this report and going through all those pictures I would have a tough time remember a lot of it to be honest.

The parks were all VERY clean. The refurbishments on Main Street were awesome to see. Especially at night when they were all lit up. It was really awesome!

Cast Members:

They were all very good as usual. They were not as "giddy" as they have been but they were still good at what they were doing, always around, always a smile and a happy birthday!

Wait Staff:

I said this is my last TR about people who complain that the quality of service goes down once free dining takes effect and I will say it again. It must be you and your family. We had the best service we could get from all the places we ate. Nobody "hated" on us because we were on free dining. Our wait staff the whole entire trip was amazing and I can not say it enough.

Resort:

We had some issues with our room, and the story with the football field being closed down without warning. Other than that it was good. Can't be great because of the issues we had (I'm not going to get into that because they fixed it and it's not worth talking about) but All Star Sports NEVER had waits for the buses. There were COUNTLESS times our bus filled up and we did not even go to Music, and Movies like we are supposed to. There were times we would go to Movies and there would be a line full of people waiting and we only took 2 and left. For that reason alone...I don't care how nice or little bit bigger the rooms might be at Movies, and Music...that is what makes Sports 10X better than the other two. You are ALWAYS picked up first, and dropped off first. There is no room (that we BARELY are in during our vaca) that could make all that waiting, and cramming into a bus more "worth it". Not that Sports rooms are small or dirty, my point is that a bigger, "cleaner" room will never out weigh how the buses run. I've stayed at Pop, and I stayed at Music...NIGHTMARES waiting for buses. Not so much at Pop the issues at Pop were there were just SO many people staying there and the bus drivers took the long way to the parks 90% of the time.

Guests:

Wow...can people you see for 30 seconds in a day really make you want to just punch 34 people in the face?

People are so unbelievably rude, ignorant and inconsiderate. I do not care where you're from. if it's America, Brazil, the UK or wherever. The park is not yours. You do not own the park. You and your idiot families are not the only guests in the park. It's just crazy to me the way people were "picking on" CM's. It was beyond people just being rude...they were in a state of bullying almost.

People leaving garbage everywhere...Smoking everywhere. It was just insane.

The foreigners were especially out of control. I know some of you on here are not from The States. I am not going to hold you accountable here because I am sure from you being on here you are aware of "manners" and such. If this does offend you...then you're probably the jerks who I am complaining about. I understand that different countries do things differently than we do here. That is fine. I am not knocking them for that. However... YOU ARE IN AMERICA. If I was going to go to a different country for a week or 2...you better believe that I am going to freshen myself up on things that are custom, and how the people there act. You can bet your last dollar that you will not catch me over there making myself look like a fool.

The language...Yes we all know that you do not speak English...BUT that does not mean you have to talk like you learned how to whisper in a helicopter. Everywhere...especially the resort, it was AWFUL. Just adults, and kids SCREAMING to each other in a different language. You are right next to each other SHUT THE F UP. :mad: I don't care if your foreign or local...there is NO need for all that.

Ignorance is bliss...I love standing in line with a group of people who are speaking perfect English...but they are not American. However when they are flashing their camera on dark rides and someone says something to them, they no longer speak English. Unreal. I just want to go to that glass shop on Main Street, buy a $600 sword and stab someone in the ear hole with it.

People just do not follow rules...

The biggest one here is the flash photography on rides in the dark. I seriously hope that a satellite would fall from space and land right on your face. No lies. It's THAT annoying. If you are alone on a ride or whatever...go for it. Stay in the parks late so you can go last and flash away. But you know the rule. You read the sign. You heard them tell you before your ship set sail on Pirates. Nobody want to be in the dark and have a flash going on in front of behind them every 7 seconds. For real man...right on your face from space.

Trying to cut in line. I was not having it. This goes on more than people are aware I think. Especially at The water parks. I don't really eve care that I have to wait maybe an extra 20 seconds to get on a ride cause you cut...it's the fact that you think you are entitled to cut the line because someone you know is up there. Let alone you just try and walk by everyone like it's your right to be up there with them. No I aint having it. You are not getting by me. Its the principle. If you said excuse me can I get in my family is up there. I would have no issue. But there is no chance you're knocking me over and not saying sorry so you can cut the line.

Kids:

Parents you need to discipline your kids. I don't really care WHAT you have to do. If you have to go behind a wall and beat the tar out of them, or just go back to the room. Do it. Just because you built a tolerance to your child acting like an idiot does not mean that the rest of us have. We were walking through Italy and some little idiot kid is running around with his stroller pushing it through people and ran over Colleen's friends foot. They watched it and said NOTHING. So I stopped and walked over and yelled oh she is okay...don't worry. The father looked at me and said whats the problem. I said oh yeah my bad...god forbid little Tommy does not get to run around like an idiot and do what he wants, and just walked away. I can't tell you how many times kids are standing by me and in crowds swinging swords and I just look at the parents with the look like "You know that thing is getting broken if it touches me"

Colleen and I were raised that we are not going to act that way in public. Colleens mother would have taken her home, my parents would have pounded me. I am not sitting here saying we were angels, but if we went somewhere...we knew our place and our parents weren't going to let us let them look like idiots. Because after all the kid is being a kid...you are the one who looks like an idiot.

Wow I almost forgot this one...if you've even been in a show and someone stepped all over you, and "accidentally" hit you in the face with his camera/tripod bag...That was me. You're supposed to keep moving, not stop in the middle so your 6 month old has a better seat.

"Friends"

We did meet some great people though. Just regular people we sparked up conversation with, people who recognized us, or people we were supposed to meet up with.

SeaCastle - Was really nice running into you at Epcot and was really glad we were able to get you that Filet...even more glad we could make you feel alive! Haha

Monty - What can I say? I can say $9 that is how much it cost me to text you while we were in Disney. But it was GREAT meeting you and Morgan and hearing your stories about the naked lady and the spider, and Morgans punishments. Hopefully we are there together again!

Tater - Good seeing you and the wife after Wishes that one night. Sucks it was not earlier so we could not get a lunch or hang a bit longer.

Miller Poppins - Karen Karen...My nudity. Haha :D It was WONDERFUL meeting you at Planet Hollywood. So glad we got to give you your first dose of Crunch Chicken. Also glad we got to spend the night in MK together as well. Hopefully you and your boo are down there again next year. Maybe we can eat at Via Napoli this time!

Other than that...We DID have a great time. It was so much fun being there alone with Colleen everyday and not really having anyone else on vacation with us. Normally someone is always joining us at some point...it's not a bad thing. It was just really nice being us two.

There I am done. And before Wednesday too! I am sure I will remember things and add to this...I am also sure someone will get their panties in a bunch and I will defend what I have said. Before you do though. Just remember that you're not going to change my feelings. Saying "wait till you have kids" won't change my feelings either. When I do have kids there is not chance I am taking them with us until they are able to walk themselves. I am not pushing strollers, or carry ANYTHING around all day. I hated carrying my 2 pound camera around all day let alone a child. If I do end up doing all the above some day then I am an idiot and you can call me one. Until that happens I stand by what I said! :king:

We've never met and yet our opinions mirror each other entirely too much. :lol: I cannot begin to agree with you more on virtually every signle damn thing you said.

The ignorance of people astounded me on our trip....especially foreigners but most people in general. When someone actually did act courteously I thought I was going to pass out. My youngest son almost got trampled while walking to Kilimanjaro Safari after rope drop and the guy never said a damn word. His wife grabbed him cursed him out and said "wth is wrong with you" and she apologized for him. Politely to her I told her she's fine but that her husband is an a-hole and he's lucky my son wasn't hurt.

Also, when a kid bumps into you and says "sorry" or "excuse me" it's now a shock and it shouldn't be. I was incredibly proud of my kids in the way they acted and I was commended a few times. My oldest son bumped into a woman kind of hard by accident in Epcot and he immediately turned and said "I'm really sorry, are you ok?". She said she was fine and then said to me that he was the first kid in 6 days that bumped into her that said anything remotely resembling an apology.
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
Love the TR as always.

I'm so jealous of your pictures. If someone who has only ever used a point and click camera invested in a camera like this, would they (ie. me) be hopelessly confused as to how to use it. :confused:

I confuse easily...

It's an interesting challenge. Not THAT bad. Just need to practice with it before you go. Shoot fireworks at home, stuff in the night, stuff in the day. It is just all about getting used to the settings. Honestly I am still not used to them really.

I am TERRIBLE at reading an retaining information. If someone shows me I will remember it forever. Well...I have been pretty much been teaching myself how to use this thing by winging it. Tom has really helped me a great deal. There were a few other posters on here that helped as well. I also searched a lot of image info on Flickr just to see the differences in settings that people used. THAT was a huge help.

I would say I am at a 70-75% comfort level with the camera and taking pictures. Once I get better at editing though it will jump to like 90%. I am working on it though!

Thanks for enjoying the TR!
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
We've never met and yet our opinions mirror each other entirely too much. :lol: I cannot begin to agree with you more on virtually every signle damn thing you said.

The ignorance of people astounded me on our trip....especially foreigners but most people in general. When someone actually did act courteously I thought I was going to pass out. My youngest son almost got trampled while walking to Kilimanjaro Safari after rope drop and the guy never said a damn word. His wife grabbed him cursed him out and said "wth is wrong with you" and she apologized for him. Politely to her I told her she's fine but that her husband is an a-hole and he's lucky my son wasn't hurt.

Also, when a kid bumps into you and says "sorry" or "excuse me" it's now a shock and it shouldn't be. I was incredibly proud of my kids in the way they acted and I was commended a few times. My oldest son bumped into a woman kind of hard by accident in Epcot and he immediately turned and said "I'm really sorry, are you ok?". She said she was fine and then said to me that he was the first kid in 6 days that bumped into her that said anything remotely resembling an apology.

It's just astounding to me the things parents let their kids do. It's even more astounding the things that adults/parents let themselves do. :brick:
 

lebeau

Well-Known Member
It's an interesting challenge. Not THAT bad. Just need to practice with it before you go. Shoot fireworks at home, stuff in the night, stuff in the day. It is just all about getting used to the settings. Honestly I am still not used to them really.

I am TERRIBLE at reading an retaining information. If someone shows me I will remember it forever. Well...I have been pretty much been teaching myself how to use this thing by winging it. Tom has really helped me a great deal. There were a few other posters on here that helped as well. I also searched a lot of image info on Flickr just to see the differences in settings that people used. THAT was a huge help.

I would say I am at a 70-75% comfort level with the camera and taking pictures. Once I get better at editing though it will jump to like 90%. I am working on it though!

Thanks for enjoying the TR!

My problem is that in addition to being easily confused by gadgets and gizmos, I'm also fairly lazy when it comes to learning about them. Also, two kids means I'm broke. So it may be a moot point. Odds are I'll stick with my point and click on the next trip. But I do dream of someday having a decent camera along for a trip and getting some half-way decent pictures.

No, the thanks goes to you for posting such excellent pics. It's the next best thing to being there. I keep looking at when we could possibly take our next trip and it seems like it keeps getting farther and farther away. TRs like yours allow me to live vicariously.
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
My problem is that in addition to being easily confused by gadgets and gizmos, I'm also fairly lazy when it comes to learning about them. Also, two kids means I'm broke. So it may be a moot point. Odds are I'll stick with my point and click on the next trip. But I do dream of someday having a decent camera along for a trip and getting some half-way decent pictures.

No, the thanks goes to you for posting such excellent pics. It's the next best thing to being there. I keep looking at when we could possibly take our next trip and it seems like it keeps getting farther and farther away. TRs like yours allow me to live vicariously.



Well thanks anyways!

There are some things my camera does that I have no idea what it's called or what its function really does but I know when to use it by turning it "up" or "down" haha its just how I learn things.
 

blackthidot

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
i would love to learn how to do this!

Forget that your camera is on a 10 second exposure while you're shooting fireworks at home and start you twist your lens to zoom out...Haha it was a mistake but I learned something cool by it. Here are some from light up night on Friday!

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And is that a helicopter or is Santa coming earlier this year!!!

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Holy Crap I think I just went blind! /B]


Day 5

We had a 11:30 ADR at Le Cellier and we left the hotel at 11...Yeah we kind of slept in but we were at Epcot by 11:15 somehow so we figured we would stop in Club Cool on the way to Canada and boy am I glad we did. I got to see Sponge Bob Square Pants...

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So we leave Club Cool and head to Canada, and yet again...

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Now I really don't think it's that funny or that weird that people are laying passed out on the benches I just never seen it before and I am seeing it a lot this trip. Oh well...Canada, we are here!

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Here is a shot of what is behind the caged door at le Cellier behind the check in counter...

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Colleen is REALLY serious about her Filet...

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chrissyw14

Active Member
Forget that your camera is on a 10 second exposure while you're shooting fireworks at home and start you twist your lens to zoom out...Haha it was a mistake but I learned something cool by it. Here are some from light up night on Friday!

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And is that a helicopter or is Santa coming earlier this year!!!

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thanks sooo much for these tips! those pictures came out awesome

can't wait to try out my new canon rebel t3!
 

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