Trip Report I'll stop the World and Melt with you.

It's been two years since my family and I visited WDW. Two long years. Thankfully, my son Sterg and I got a three day Disney fix last summer at Disneyland.

Curiously, this trip report is being written at a time when a lot of negative Disney vibe is emanating from other regions of WDWMagic - as it was two years ago. The Doom & Gloom is running free and wild. I'm just thankful I stayed clear of most of it before our trip because I may have cancelled what turned out to be an amazing time. It is also fortunate that we got this trip in because from the sound of things there may not be a WDW to go to in a few years.

To be truthful, some things that Disney has done has me scratching my head; but this is neither the time nor place to discuss it. Putting that aside - let's get on with the trip report!

We left on Sunday July 21st. Maybe the longest day of my life. The night before, my oldest daughter Alex went to see Taylor Swift in Philadelphia ( about 50 miles away ) and due to a long rain delay she didn't make it home until 2 am. This meant that she would not go to sleep since we were being picked up at 3 am for the drive to Philly airport for our 6 am flight. At least we were supposed to be picked up at 3am.

Here is my Mom ( Yia-Yia )and my youngest daughter Antonia ( Toni ) up and ready at 3 in the morning waiting for our ride. Yia-Yia ( grandmother in Greek ) is 77 years old and joining us for the first time on a Disney adventure. Toni is now almost 12 and the little Yorki-poo in the front is Prince. Prince is short for Prince Charming ( named by Toni ).

When the driver didn't show up by 3:15 I started to worry. I called the limo company at the same time he called me to tell me he was lost. I reeled him in and we were on our way by 3:30. The drive down was nerve wracking as I kept watching the clock and praying for no delays. That is until our driver eased my tension by telling us his son works for Disney and he goes down to the World 4 or 5 times a year. The resulting Disney conversation lasted until we hit the airport around 4:30.

More tension as we went through security. My carry on was stopped in the machine and I was pulled aside. I had put a container of Vitamin C powder in my bag that garnered some attention. Of course, my Mom came over as I was being held and my bag inspected.

"Why didn't you put that in your suitcase, Christo?" she said to me in her Greek accented voice.

"Mom, please go wait over there" I responded.

"No, I want to see what they are doing" Then she followed with this one for the TSA officer.

"It's not drugs, my son doesn't do cocaine!"

OK, I thought. I'm definitely going to be held in some prison cell for the next week.

After the chemical test proved my Mother correct, I was allowed to go on my way. We had time to grab coffee and some food and make it on the Southwest plane to Orlando. A plane full of smiling happy faces! Including these;

This is my wife Val ( not the biggest of Disney fans ), with Yia-Yia in the middle and Alex by the window.

On the other side was yours truly sporting a Hawaiian shirt ( since we were staying at the Poly ), Toni and Sterg.

Before we knew it we were up in the clouds...

 

[erstwo]

I LOVE the title of this TR! That is all. (for now..... until I can actually read the report! )

 

[plaz10]

Nice photos, Toni!!! You're a chip off the old block!

 

[Lynn1030]

She did a great job on the photos and looks like it was a good time with the animals out of hiding!

 

[fractal]

The zebras got real close!

Instead of Pangani Trail we decided to head back to the Poly.

On the way back, we called Sterg and Alex to see if they wanted to go back to Typhoon Lagoon. Sterg was game but Alex wanted to stay with Val and Yia-Yia at the pool. We quick changed and I swapped cameras to the NEX-3. I felt much more comfortable taking that into TL vs. the new camera. After two bus rides we made it to TL

As we were walking in, it started to pour. We spent about 20minutes stuck in the gift shop.

It stopped raining but they kept the park closed for another 20 minutes or so. The wave pool was unusually peaceful.

 

[ksr99]

Your eye for color is great in those pics of Epcot. Your making me think of getting a new camera for my next trip. Im one of those iphone camera type guys, but things may have to change. Im also digging toni's kicks...wife wants a pair now too!

 

[fractal]

While we were waiting, Toni and I took some pictures.

Will I ever be able to get Sterg to smile properly?

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Oh wow. The awesome-sauce just keeps on pourin'....

I've only been to 1 signature: The Yachtsman, Sept. 2011, twice in 1 week. I wouldn't recommend it. My brother went back last year and said it was a night & day difference. He said it was awesome. Personally, if I'm going to spend a couple hundred bucks on a meal I'd rather it wasn't a crap-shoot whether it'll be good or not. That's just me. I have no idea if the 2-credit restaurants are consistantly better than the 1-credit meals. I'm pretty sure that's not a rule-of-thumb just because Disney assigns a restaurant "signature" status.

Toni did a beautiful job with her pics! I love that you included them and credited her.

Sterg...I hear ya. His grin is kinda a Grinchy thing, isn't it? Hmmmm...something tells me when he does get around to a true heart-felt smile it's like the sunshine on a rainy day. Handsome fella, Chris. All your children are gorgeous. You & Val make some good-lookin' kiddos!

 

[mickeykoala]

Well, thanks for making me stay up until 2:00 am, reading this report! I'll add in with the rest and say the pics are great. I appreciate the artistry that I don't have and appreciate even more you taking the time to share them.

 

[fractal]

Happy Labor Day everybody! Enjoying the day off and wishing I were here;

 

[ShookieJones]

Amazing pictures of Mouse Gears!

Reading along and (still) enjoying every moment!

 

[fractal]

We sat at the side of the wave pool for about 10 minutes; waiting for the announcement the park was open and watching the lifeguards yell at the idiots running in and out of the pool. Finally we were allowed in!
At first the pool didn't create the "big wave" and before long the impatient swimmers started chanting "Big Wave...Big Wave!" Finally the Kraken was released - to the delightful screams of everyone. It was pandemonium in the pool!
Once again, I found myself standing right at the point I could keep my toes on the bottom and my head above water. I wanted to venture into the deeper end, but was petrified of my 11 year old daughter clinging on to me and dragging me down to a watery and frantic death. Not only would that suck for me, but it would likely scar the child for the rest of her life. So I played it safe. At least that's what I thought.

It just so happened that a very large woman did not fear going out deeper. In fact she was about 5 yards in front of me when she caught the top of a wave. I started swimming away from her but not fast enough. She came slamming into me and knocked me down fairly hard - and it's not like I'm a small guy. After I broke the surface of the thrashing water I watched as she continued towards shallow end leaving a wake of unsuspecting victims. "OK" I thought, "Got to keep an eye on that one". Quick check on the kids - Toni was out deep with dolphin-man Sterg. Sterg was not only a good swimmer, but also a licensed life guard so I felt comfortable with that. Toni with Sterg out deep and I with my toes bouncing off the bottom was a pretty safe setup, as long as "large woman" wasn't body surfing into me.

Toni would swim out with Sterg then come in on a wave. Then she would hang out with me, trying to figure different ways to meet the crashing water. Sometimes she would try to ride it, sometimes she would go underwater and let it pass above her. I would usually try to stand my ground with my back to the wave and let the water engulf me. It wasn't too long before we turned this into a game which unfortunately distracted me enough to miss the human torpedo - and this time her target was Toni. She came down on top of Toni, sending her to the bottom of the pool and scraping her knee pretty bad ( she still has some of the scab ). At that point I was getting pretty upset, and tracked her as she made her way towards the shore. This time she stood up and walked out of the pool. Moral of the story - when in the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon - especially on busy days - make sure you are aware of your surroundings. Disney does a good job of having several lifeguards watching around and in the pool, but that won't reverse the laws of physics.

We stayed in the wave pool for another 10 minutes or so until we discovered that Toni was bleeding, so that pretty much ended our day there. We made another long bus ride to the resort to get ready for our dinner at Whispering Canyon.

Ready to Go!

We took the monorail to MK, then hopped on a boat to Wilderness Lodge.

We ended up spending more time on boats this trip than any other and I really enjoyed that. It just seemed so much more relaxing to be moving slowly through the water vs. on a cramped bus, dodging traffic. I enjoyed the monorail and boat transportation that staying at the Poly afforded us. People are always complaining about how expensive Disney is - and it is. The Deluxe resorts are not cheap. But one does have to factor the transportation, especially when it is as enjoyable as taking a boat ride or the monorail. They not only get you to where you are going, but are an attraction of their own.

The whole crew was settled in our schooner.

The little boy between Yia-Yia and Alex didn't look too happy. Yia-Yia had her Itouch out and as the kids would say; was going "mad hard" on her games.

We had a nice vessel and not crowded, which made for an enjoyable trip on Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake.

Hey, I even got in a picture.

At one point, Sterg started picking on Toni, which pushed my buttons. He got a pretty good picture of my "P'ed off look".

What a view!

Time for some pictures...

 

[fractal]

You really get a different perspective being on the water.

We had never been to Wilderness Lodge. We considered staying there on this trip before deciding on the Polynesian. For some reason I always thought of WL as a "lesser" Deluxe. I don't know why, it certainly looked great in pictures. Maybe I figured that staying there with the expectation of mirroring the great national park resorts would somehow be disappointing. For whatever warped reason, I really wasn't expecting to be blown away by Wilderness Lodge - and once again I was totally wrong. As you approach the Lodge from the water you are immediately impressed by the size of the resort. It is big in a way that makes you feel that you must have been transported to some other State. Nothing this big could be hidden so well this close to all the activity around 7 Seas. "Wow" I thought, "Where did this come from?".

We disembarked and made our way to the lobby. Everybody in the family was impressed and another possible future resort for Val based on her comments.

Are we in the swamps of central Florida or are we near Lake Tahoe??

I've seen plenty of pictures of the bubbling hot spring in the lobby and I always thought "eh". Even as I look at my picture it doesn't really invoke more than just looking at a wet rock. In person, however, the spring is pretty awesome. It gives you enough realism to tie into the theme of the resort, especially as you see the water flowing outside and cascading into the falls. I loved it and was dragged away from it by the rest of the impatient crew.

The actual lobby/atrium of the WL is just amazing. Big, Open and "manly" - just like the National Parks. I immediately started taking pictures.

While the Grand Floridian is beautiful and well "grand", it is not a place you immediate feel comfortable in. It's like being in that special room your aunt had with all the fancy furniture and rugs. The WL also has the "Wow" factor but it makes your feel as comfortable as an old pair of jeans almost immediately. My kids agreed.

We checked in to Whispering Canyon and were giving a pager. It took a good 10 minutes to be seated, but that was ok as it gave us time to enjoy...

all the details.

Coming up; JPEG vs. RAW and Sterg gets a taste of his own medicine at Whispering Canyon.

 

[WDW_Princess24]

Toni took some great pics there, go girl!

How fantastic is WL!!? We stayed there, although only for one night, on our last trip. It was incredible! I couldn't agree more about GF, one big fancy room, you can look but don't touch!

 

[fractal]

On many cameras you can choose what kind of file to save your image. There are typically RAW files and JPEG files. There are even different levels of JPEG files. When you take a picture and open up you lens, the light off the image is captured by your camera sensor and then saved. A RAW file will capture all the "light" or information that hit the sensor. A JPEG "engine" is really a program that takes all that information and condenses it into a JPEG file. It does this by taking out some info and enhancing other information. It is your own pre-set editing software in your camera. A JPEG file will always be smaller than a RAW file because of the information taken out. If you look at a RAW file vs. the JPEG version of the same shot, the RAW file will often times look "duller". This is because everything is still in there. So why shoot RAW? Because most people with a bit of practice can edit a RAW file ( with the right software ) much better than the one size fits all JPEG machine in your camera. A good RAW file will contains all information about the image that you took allowing you to manipulate it as you please. Is the picture too bright? You can easily correct the exposure. Is the sky too dull? You can easily make is blue and true.

For much of that day I was shooting JPEG files vs. RAW files I was shooting previously. Part of the reason was because I wanted to capture some JPEG shots to enter into the weekly Photo Contest on this site ( see photography section ) and they do not allow you to edit a shot. Anyway, most of the shots that day were JPEG up to the point I put on my fisheye for some shots of the WL lobby. I took a shot of the lobby then checked the file size. It was JPEG. I switched to RAW after that.

These are the shots. Can you tell which is which? One is JPEG and one is RAW that I edited in Lightroom.

Some more shots of the atrium. This is looking towards Whispering Canyon.

You can see the family sitting in the back.

Straight up.

Before too long we were seated. This was my view of the rest of the restaurant. It was smaller than I anticipated.

We were all in a silly mood that night.

Yia-Yia decided to play table hockey with the pepper shaker. We ended up sliding it between each other and even across the tables. At one point I told everybody to stop, but that didn't work until the shaker slid off the table and broke. Everybody became wide-eyed for a few seconds until a attentive server showed up with a broom and dustpan and told us not to worry. Embarrassing.

For those that don't know, Whispering Canyon is family style. They give you a bunch of sides and you pick three meats. Our waitress let us pick a fourth. She was perfect for us. She had a great personality and was quick to scold anybody for just about anything. We really fed off of that - especially Sterg.

By the way, the first image is the RAW image. Some may like it more, but I think it's actually over processed and really didn't look like how I remembered the lobby.

 

[Billy6]

We sat at the side of the wave pool for about 10 minutes; waiting for the announcement the park was open and watching the lifeguards yell at the idiots running in and out of the pool. Finally we were allowed in!
At first the pool didn't create the "big wave" and before long the impatient swimmers started chanting "Big Wave...Big Wave!" Finally the Kraken was released - to the delightful screams of everyone. It was pandemonium in the pool!
Once again, I found myself standing right at the point I could keep my toes on the bottom and my head above water. I wanted to venture into the deeper end, but was petrified of my 11 year old daughter clinging on to me and dragging me down to a watery and frantic death. Not only would that suck for me, but it would likely scar the child for the rest of her life. So I played it safe. At least that's what I thought.

It just so happened that a very large woman did not fear going out deeper. In fact she was about 5 yards in front of me when she caught the top of a wave. I started swimming away from her but not fast enough. She came slamming into me and knocked me down fairly hard - and it's not like I'm a small guy. After I broke the surface of the thrashing water I watched as she continued towards shallow end leaving a wake of unsuspecting victims. "OK" I thought, "Got to keep an eye on that one". Quick check on the kids - Toni was out deep with dolphin-man Sterg. Sterg was not only a good swimmer, but also a licensed life guard so I felt comfortable with that. Toni with Sterg out deep and I with my toes bouncing off the bottom was a pretty safe setup, as long as "large woman" wasn't body surfing into me.

Toni would swim out with Sterg then come in on a wave. Then she would hang out with me, trying to figure different ways to meet the crashing water. Sometimes she would try to ride it, sometimes she would go underwater and let it pass above her. I would usually try to stand my ground with my back to the wave and let the water engulf me. It wasn't too long before we turned this into a game which unfortunately distracted me enough to miss the human torpedo - and this time her target was Toni. She came down on top of Toni, sending her to the bottom of the pool and scraping her knee pretty bad ( she still has some of the scab ). At that point I was getting pretty upset, and tracked her as she made her way towards the shore. This time she stood up and walked out of the pool. Moral of the story - when in the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon - especially on busy days - make sure you are aware of your surroundings. Disney does a good job of having several lifeguards watching around and in the pool, but that won't reverse the laws of physics.

We stayed in the wave pool for another 10 minutes or so until we discovered that Toni was bleeding, so that pretty much ended our day there. We made another long bus ride to the resort to get ready for our dinner at Whispering Canyon.

Ready to Go!

We took the monorail to MK, then hopped on a boat to Wilderness Lodge.

We ended up spending more time on boats this trip than any other and I really enjoyed that. It just seemed so much more relaxing to be moving slowly through the water vs. on a cramped bus, dodging traffic. I enjoyed the monorail and boat transportation that staying at the Poly afforded us. People are always complaining about how expensive Disney is - and it is. The Deluxe resorts are not cheap. But one does have to factor the transportation, especially when it is as enjoyable as taking a boat ride or the monorail. They not only get you to where you are going, but are an attraction of their own.

The whole crew was settled in our schooner.

The little boy between Yia-Yia and Alex didn't look too happy. Yia-Yia had her Itouch out and as the kids would say; was going "mad hard" on her games.

We had a nice vessel and not crowded, which made for an enjoyable trip on Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake.

Hey, I even got in a picture.

At one point, Sterg started picking on Toni, which pushed my buttons. He got a pretty good picture of my "P'ed off look".

What a view!

Time for some pictures...

I know that look, it's the "dad is about to swing look"..Sterg beware!

If you,like the view from that boat, you should try the watermice boats! You can get really close to the edge of the lake!

 

[MinnieM123]

Even though the wave pool at Typhoon is a blast, you really have to be careful of others around you if it gets crowded. I always do a quick 360 degree scan around me every time I hear the horn sound, before the wave is released. I wouldn't want a linebacker to come crashing down in a wave on top of me. Sorry to hear that your daughter scraped her knee after being knocked down by another swimmer during the wave sequence. Hope her knee is fine now.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Love the WL & Whispering Canyon pics. It really is a relaxed atmosphere at that resort. We enjoyed our stay a lot in 2011. Haven't had WC dinner since...oh...Nov 2010. I loooove their breakfast! Such a fun restaurant.

Good info on the file types. Definitely noting what's what.

 

[DisneyFreakEst1994]

I just ready your whole TR from beginning to now.. I'm so entertained! Definitely one of the best I've ever read on here. And Definitely with the best pictures, but you already knew that haha. Your family is a lot like mine, I love reading this! Can't wait to read more

 

[lbrad]

Chris,
Enjoying your TR!!
Love the pictures.

 

[FlaggNL]

Still a marvelous report Love the fisheye pics!!