Trip Report Making Lemonade out of Lemons Fractal Family Trip Report - Completed

I think we can all agree that so far 2020 has been one big sour lemon.

For those that did not read my Pre-Trip report; my entire family (Val-wife, Alex - oldest daughter, Sterg - son, Toni - youngest daughter) has recovered from the Covid-19 virus. Myself, Val, Sterg and Toni got it in March and Alex in April while working as a nurse. Val had it worse with a fever for a couple days and flu like symptoms for about a week. The rest of us were either asymptomatic or had minor symptoms.

Add to that the mental stress of living in a society dealing with this pandemic, Toni missing out on a big chunk of her High School Senior Year and her last dance recital (where she was going to take on a major role as Jasmine), work reductions for Sterg and high stress work conditions for Alex on the front line. Yes, 2020 has sure been one big sourpuss.

But, as the saying goes; "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"

It just so happened that last year I made a reservation to attend the annual AHEPA convention in Walt Disney World, just as I did in 2017. We were going to stay at the Grand Destino Towers but that seemed very much in jeopardy when AHEPA (which is a charitable organization I'm involved with. Like a Greek version of the Knights of Columbus or Lions Club.) cancelled their convention. Soon after however, I received an email that Disney would honor our reservation in July. This was pretty tempting since we had convention rates and discounts on tickets. Long story short, we decided to go. We felt that having already had the virus gave us an extra level of protection and we knew that Disney would handle the health risks properly. In addition, we later found out that our rooms were moved from Grand Destino to the Contemporary in order to accommodate the LA Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks. Sterg's and my dream of playing Marco Polo with the Greek Freak and LeBron James in the pool were quickly dashed. But who could say no to staying at The Contemporary for $175 a night?

We were a go! It was frustrating however because although we had a resort reservation we did not have park tickets. We also didn't have a "park pass" which was needed during this reopening of WDW. We had to wait for all that to open and I had serious doubts it would by the time our first day at the resort (July 20th) rolled around. I decided to book flights without tickets or park passes. Southwest had roundtrip flights from Philly to Orlando for $90 plus if you had to cancel you got that credit for a future flight. No brainer. This was turning out to be the cheapest Disney trip we have taken as a family! Soon after I was open to buy tickets and book Park Passes. We had started to squeeze that lemon and add it's juice to our pitcher of cold water.

Now for the Cast of our adventure.

Myself - Chris/Fractal. A lover of Disney Parks for the many memories it has given me over the years with my family, the way it helps me completely unwind from my job, and how it taps into my creative side and challenges my skills as a photographer.

Here I am with my crazy kids at Christmas.

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Val - my beautiful wife. Not the biggest fan of Disney but in the end she was on board. I think secretly she likes it more than she lets on. I will make it up to her with a trip more to her liking.

Here she is with Alex.

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Alex - our oldest. Now a traveling nurse. Alex is like me in many ways but as she's getting older and more responsible I'm starting to see her take on a number of Val's traits. She's a good mix and always a delight to be with.

From a trip to Colorado we took last year;

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Sterg, aka Fractal Jr. One word to describe Sterg - catalyst - he just makes things happen. He creates reactions both good and bad. He graduated last year from Penn State. He was a captain on the Swim Team but not without drama. He had to miss his promising senior year of swimming when a series of concussions (all outside the water) forced him to medically retire. PSU handled it very well as he helped the team from the sidelines. He now works as a digital marketing consultant as well as helping his cousin get his music career off the ground. Never a dull moment when Sterg is around!

with our dog Prince (Charming).

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Toni - For long time readers of my reports you know that Toni and I have a special Disney connection. Many times she would be the only one up early with me to tackle the parks at opening. We have had many great adventures together in the Disney bubble. She's now technically an adult (how did that happen?) so I was going to find out this trip if the magic was still there. She's going to attend Clemson University starting next month and I couldn't be prouder.

Toni in front of the Theater her Recital was supposed to perform at.

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So Covid-19 made our family suffer in many ways, but we took that lemon, squeezed it's juice out into our water pitcher, now we just needed a little Disney sugar to make our Lemonade complete.

Coming up - Our trip begins with a WDW meet-up before our flight even leaves the ground!
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Every time I ride Haunted Mansion I remember the first time I rode it as a 9 year and how amazed I was by it; the Ballroom/dinning room scene especially. In my imaginative young mind those ghosts were all but real.

Val happens to be much more pragmatic than me. Part of the reason WDW is not her thing is because of that. These rides are just props, vehicles, lighting and special effects. She would much rather be engaged with real people and actively doing things together such as going to the beach, maybe a hike or long walk, canoeing, making and having dinner together instead of being a "spectator" sitting in a doombuggy in a dark ride. In fact her best times at WDW are when doing things like being at the pool together, the meals and experiences that open you up for more engagement such as Monster's Inc. Laughing Floor, walking and exploring World Showcase - one year her and Alex did that on a Segway and they still talk about it. I was thinking and analyzing this in my mind as we proceeded through the queue of HM.

As excited as I was Val really was not and would make comments along the way; "how many times to we need to ride this?", "aren't you sick of it", "I kinda think it's dumb."

Normally this would get me upset and I would counter with arguments from my perspective, but this time I really tried to understand her side.

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Everyone's different; there's a reason I love Star Wars, Marvel Films and Fantasy/Sci-fi in general. Val really has zero interest in that and prefers Reality type shows, and RomComs. Things based in our current world. The more I thought about her side of things I found myself slowly starting to see things differently.

In hindsight, going on the Liberty Belle would have been a great thing to do with Val and the kids but we never made time for it. It was good to see it running as on our last trip it never left the dock.

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It was a bit discomforting as we started into the ride because I was looking at things through Val's eyes and was starting not to enjoy it. As I was taking my photos I was asking myself, how many times to I really need to photography this scene?

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No stretching room pre-show. Just walked through.

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I continued taking photos none the less but I could tell Val was not really engaged and was just along for the ride.

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My favorite scene.

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A side note here. When editing photos, especially low light ones when you have to push up your ISO, you can use "noise reduction" to clear out the "graininess" in the darker areas which is what I normally do. The downside to that is as you smooth that out you loose a lot of detail in the photos. For many of these I decided to keep more "noise" than normal as it kinda fit the mood of the ride and also to hold on to more of that detail.

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RememberWhen

Well-Known Member
I love the pictures of the suits of armor at BOG. Sadly, I don’t think we’ll be going there again unless they bring back the lunch menu. We did the dinner years ago before the prix fix pricing and we didn’t love that either. Though pictures with the beast were pretty cool.
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
More photos from Haunted Mansion; for the record, I was back using the 24mm 1.4.

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I was happy for getting shots I never did before. The photographic advantage of riding something many times is you are more prepared for it the next time.

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I left the ride having not enjoyed it as much as I normally would. I really thought at that time that we were going to have a long and not very pleasant time and was starting to feel bad for my wife. Not because she was actively complaining but only because I was putting myself in her shoes more than I had before.

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We couldn't resist the stockades on the way to Splash/Big Thunder corner. Sterg and Toni were having a blast and their mind were firmly placed in the magic of being back.

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Just missed another ride on Liberty Belle.

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fractal

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
More photos as we continued. I love taking the separate wooden pathway along the water.

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The skies were clearing up but the heat on humidity were rising. Val kept asking me if our room was ready as she wanted to go back, unpack and freshen up. No such luck.

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Still not used to the new colors on the castle at this point. The crane in the background I believe was for the Tron Coaster construction.

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Splash was the longer wait...

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So we decided on BTMRR first. The 45 minutes was not even close to correct.

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fractal

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I had to stop walking for each one of these shots.

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In no time we were on the wildest ride in the wilderness! I wanted to be in the back rows, but under Pandemic rules you have to take what they give you.

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I knew we were going to be riding this again so I decided to enjoy more of the ride not looking through my camera's viewfinder. It was fun and as many would attest @Longers, @Tuvalu , a ride you can ride over and over without getting bored!

Next up Splash Mountain with plenty of photos!
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
Late to the party as usual, but so glad to see your beautiful photos and read your tr. I love HM too and seeing your photos was great. I wouldn't have been happy with the current BOG offerings either. Our favorite room is the BallRoom. As for the rose pics, I liked the second one with the 24 mm camera the best, though they were both great.
So glad to see your reports again. It helps when you are missing disney so much:)
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
@fractal , I got caught up on your TR today. As usual, your photos are outstanding, and that fish-eye lens creates some very interesting images. Thank you for sharing.

Also, congratulations to your daughter, Toni, on her graduation. (I was also happy to see a photo of Yia Yia -- she's always been one of my favorites from your past TRs. I assume she stayed home for this particular WDW trip though, but I'll bet she'll join the next trip with all of you! )
 

cfry06

Well-Known Member
Great start to the report! Photos and storytelling top notch as always👍. Beautiful (and fun!) family! Enjoyed watching the live sneak peeks, and look forward to the rest of the trip details. We cancelled a trip in June, cancelled one again in August...and now second guessing August! We are DVC and all of these empty wonderful pictures, resort availability (and the idea of getting away...) are really making me contemplate a last minute week as we still have it off. Just not sure how work would feel with us traveling...

I’ll keep reading - might help sway my decision 😁

PS - As close as we live to each other, almost surprised we’ve never crossed paths at an event or location! #TeamBerksCounty
 

BuckyMom

Well-Known Member
Your post on Haunted Mansion really made me sad. I love it too and my focus is on the creativity and humor that entertains without completely scaring the kids. I am also married to someone that doesn't see wdw as I do. I now travel with my 19 yr old that loves it as I do. The husband comes every few years to enjoy sunshine and family time. It's our compromise. He tries hard to not rain on my fun, but I understand that he has a different view. Also, was at a conference once where former Disney exec (Doug Lipp?) talked about opening HM at Tokyo. Pretty entertaining.
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I was trying to get my mind back to fully enjoying the experience. The photos were starting to help.

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Right before dropping into here I told Val the next part is the part Alex always getting scared; did she know why?

"It's the part with the bees." she correctly answered.

Alex has always had an extreme fear of bees or any flying insects. So much so that's she's run into walls or tables, etc trying to avoid them. We laughed a bit at her expense.

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I love how this photo came out...and by the way, I was now shooting with my 55mm 1.8; for those that remember my last report this was the lens that went kerplunk in Pirates of the Caribbean. I ended up buying another copy used.
Needless to say, I was very careful with switching out lenses on this trip. 😜

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senor_jorge

Barbara Eden+? Bring it!!
I love how this photo came out...and by the way, I was now shooting with my 55mm 1.8; for those that remember my last report this was the lens that went kerplunk in Pirates of the Caribbean. I ended up buying another copy used.
Needless to say, I was very careful with switching out lenses on this trip. 😜

Did you try to get it back? My somewhat warped sense of humor would probably have me putting it on a shelf in my office.

Hope you and the family stay dry and safe over the next couple of days! My wife is working on a renewable energy project off the Jersey coast and should be heading to port in Philadelphia anytime now, and then on the first flight out as soon as all of the equipment is packed up and off loaded.

P.S. Props to @fractal jr for showing off that man sweater starter kit at graduation!
 

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