WDW - Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. – My August 2011 Trip Report

WDW - Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. – An August 2011 Trip Report

Welcome to my trip report! First, about the title. Reading the WDW boards lately one would think that Disney World was coming apart at the seams; Overrun by vicious gangs of Brazilian tour groups, Pop Warner boys and cheerleaders. Filled with broken down, outdated rides run by snarly cast members. The resorts infested by bedbugs, nasty housekeepers, and moldy shower curtains. The Restaurants serving up Dogfood burgers and steaks served with the leather hides still attached. The fireworks shows reduced to open fire pits and a few boxes of sparklers.

To be totally honest and sarcasm aside (kinda), I was really getting concerned about this trip. I had gone to great lengths and compromise ( see my Pre-trip report) to make this trip a reality. Now I was worried that once my family would see first hand the crumbling vestige that was once our favorite place on earth; this would seal this trip’s fate as our last one to the World. Well, I’m happy to say, with photos as proof – the rumors of Walt Disney World’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

First Day and intro to our family;

Our countdown was over. The paper chain in Toni’s room that started at day 178 was now down to day zero. It was 4 in the morning on August 6th and I woke up Toni and we tore up that last chain and started to get ready for our trip. By 4:30, Toni and her brother Sterg, were ready and waiting.

I have a good friend that happens to own a limo business, so we hired him to drive us to Philadelphia International. The limo came at 5:00am. This is my wife Val and my oldest child, Alexandra, getting spoiled in the limo.

Sterg and I on the other seat…

While Toni caught a few z’s.

Everything was going fine. We were making great time on the Turnpike until we were detoured off of it an exit too soon. Unfortunately, this was only the first of our several delays that morning.

 

[HollyBelle]

^^HILARIOUS!! Seriously, I'm loving the running commentary throughout - what a great trip report.:sohappy: Your family rocks!

 

[fractal]

We got off at the YC/BC pier. The rest of the family went to bed while I strolled around with the camera attempting to redeem myself. I was wishing I had my tripod but I took a few shots anyway, nothing spectacular - but this is my favorite.

Across the lake; The Boardwalk.

I remember walking back to the Villas thinking how much my feet were killing me. Tuesday was a long day but a good day. Monday remained our "worse" day of the trip, and that was a good thing.

Coming up - Another rainy day @ Animal Kingdom, Hoop-de-doo and Late Night @ Magic Kingdom with fireworks! Plus - did the pictures improve?

 

[erstwo]

I am really enjoying this trip report!

 

[fractal]

I just found this great website today and have thoroughly enjoyed your trip report. You have inspired me to write my own!

Now I just gotta get my 500+ pictures to finish downloading and figure out how to post them (scratching head.....)

Glad I could do my part! I was also inspired by others here. To be able to post pictures, you should find a hosting site. I use Photobucket but there are many. Then you can copy and paste a pictures "image address". If you need more help just PM me.

Thanks for reading!

OMG Val hates Wizard of Oz? That is my obsolute favorite movie. The Great Movie Ride is one of my favorites.

We had a really great time at 50's too. We didn't get the guy you had but we had a lady that was our cousin. She was pretty good.

Still loving the trip report!!

Val claims that she first saw Wizard of Oz at a young age. The scene when the house lands on the witch and her feet curled up completely freaked her out. She has been scared of the movie since.

Thanks! and thanks for following along and the comments!:wave:

 

[fractal]

LOVING the trip report and pictures so far fractal!!! Hadn't been on the site for a LONG while, so when I came across your post yesterday in the wee hours of the morning and saw that it was 13 pages, I had to decide if I should start reading it before bed or not. You see, once I get caught up reading something that interests me, I tend to want to read it right from start to finish all in one sitting. Well, I spent a good hour to two hours last night reading it right from the start while listening to some music on the computer. Let me tell you, I lost ALL track of time! LOVED all the gorgeous pictures of the family and the food and parks! Brought back many great memories of our recent WDW family vacations. Only have two kids myself (15 year old son and 20 year old daughter), but had to laugh at some of your stories pertaining to your son and your youngest daughter during the trip. Have been there many a time, only with my daughter referring to her younger brother as "the golden boy" or "our precious boy" who gets what he wants all the time and gets all of our attention while on vacation!!! Kids...what can you do!? :shrug: :ROFLOL:

Like I said at the beginning of my post, haven't really been on this site for some time. I used to visit it on a daily basis too, usually more than once a day. But since returning from our last trip in March of this year, I found myself not coming to this site as often. It went from once a day, to maybe once a week, to maybe once a month, if even that lately. I know why I stopped visiting though - the prospect of another WDW trip in the near future was looking bleak at best, so I figured I should try and ween myself off of my WDW obsession a bit.

Well....so much for that!!! After reading your trip report yesterday, I feel like I owe you a big THANK YOU for giving me that WDW bug again! Heck, this is my third time on the site today! And earlier today, I called my wife down to share some of the highlights from your report and I think it caused my wife to get bitten by that same magnificent bug! We started talking while looking at some of your wonderful pictures about how much we missed it and how much fun we always have and now it looks like we are going to try and shoot for another WDW vacation in 2-3 years time! Hey...two to three years may seem like an eternity to some, but it is definitely better than NEVER!!!! :ROFLOL:

Anyways, just wanted to compliment you on a job well done and say thanks again for helping this Disney nerd get his ears back! The report and pics were truly top notch...bravo! :sohappy:

Thank you! I see how you can definitely relate to dealing with teens.

I'm really glad you caught the Disney bug again and I helped in a small way to bring it back out. It is a magical place, especially if you go there with the right mindset. Our last three trips have been spaced out by two years after a seven year hiatus. The wait can be tough but worth it in the end! Just think, the new Fantasyland we be completely built and waiting for you in a couple of years.

Thanks for all the comments and for following along! It made my day.
Btw, I love your avatar!

 

[fractal]

Your 50s dinner sounds hilarious! Love the picture of Uncle Tim using the airplane method. :lol:

That's great that you got to spend some one-on-one time with the kiddos. Yay!

Thanks! We had a great time there. I been waiting for an opportunity to pull out the "airplane" trick with my kids since getting back.

^^HILARIOUS!! Seriously, I'm loving the running commentary throughout - what a great trip report.:sohappy: Your family rocks!

Thanks Holly! It pays to jot some notes down during the trip. I still feel like I forgot a bunch of things.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

OK- now I thought all of Sterg's joking around with the name Fractal was pretty funny- especially the call, but this- oh wow- this really topped it all!!! :ROFLOL: DH is sitting here looking at me all funny b/c I just keep giggling. I'm going to think of this every time I hear anything Michael Bolton!

Of course I grew up in central NJ and not the Bronx, but I could totally hear the Bronx guy in my head and found myself falling back into my now dormant accent while reading. Just seeing the word "tawk" makes me so happy

I feel your pain with Fantasmic. We didn't see the show this trip, but last trip I tried a few early pictures, but even my pictures of the packed house pre-show were a blurry mess. I too should have just switched to automatic settings! Yours still turned out MUCH better than mine!

Can't wait to read more!!! :wave:

 

[WDW_Princess24]

I had tears in my eyes laughing at the MICHAEL BOLTON story! You all remind me so much of my family, except its my poor father with three daughters lol

 

[Mikester71]

Thank you! I see how you can definitely relate to dealing with teens.

Yeah - it's too bad they couldn't stay young forever. Is it just me or do they not grow up WAY too quick! Miss the days when they didn't have their faces buried in their phones or computers constantly and actually enjoyed doing family activities - AS A FAMILY!!! :ROFLOL:

I'm really glad you caught the Disney bug again and I helped in a small way to bring it back out. It is a magical place, especially if you go there with the right mindset. Our last three trips have been spaced out by two years after a seven year hiatus. The wait can be tough but worth it in the end! Just think, the new Fantasyland we be completely built and waiting for you in a couple of years.

Reading your trip report here the past few days brought back all my memories of our past trips - the good memories as well as a couple of the not so good ones! :lol: And that was exactly my mindset when thinking we might be best to wait 2-3 years actually. The prospect of getting to see the Fantasyland expansion finally completed and getting a chance to experience it definitely appeals to me! Here's hoping!!!

Thanks for all the comments and for following along! It made my day.
Btw, I love your avatar!

And thank YOU again, for taking the time and putting so much effort into this wonderful trip report. It's been a real pleasure reading it and looking at all your terrific pictures! Feels like I am right there again! Thanks on the avatar pic. I don't know why, but as simple and as stupid as it is really, it actually is one of my fave WDW vacation pictures for some reason. I was laying on a chair at Blizzard Beach back on our March 2009 trip thinking about how cold and snowy it was back home at that very moment and just HAD to take that picture. Everything just seemed so perfect and right with the world while laying there. That, and I was kinda just fooling around with the camera and it struck me that if I would have had a beer next to me, it would have looked like the perfect beer commercial! :ROFLOL:

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

50's is one of our FAVORITE places to eat in the world!! The first time we went we had Cousin Cliff... He was really good. Then we had Aunt Elaine and she was the best... Kept telling my aunt to stop playing on her walkie talkie. lol.. This last time we had Cousin Amy and she was pretty good as well. I think how in character your waiter/waitress is can definitely impact the experience. We're eating there on 11/12... Can't wait to see who we get!!!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Oh my word, the Michael Bolton story is hilarious!! I thought it was Michael Bolton too! Who is it? I must have missed People Mover's post.

Your trip report has me constantly laughing. I think your pictures are great. Especially for a newbie to manual.

The Fantasmic shots are tricky for anyone. I have one piece of advice for night time shots. Figure out how long you can hold the camera steady. In other words, how quick does the shutter speed have to be for you to avoid blur. Depending on how heavy the lens is, I usually aim for at least 1/160. Some people can hold it still longer than that, but not me. If there's a lot of movement in your picture it needs to be even faster. I start with that and then adjust everything else. If I can't get the ISO high enough, and the f-stop wide enough to expose correctly with my shutter speed, then I don't bother. You need a really fast lens for some of these shots. Auto with that horrible pop up flash just won't help.

Another trick is to learn how to read your histogram. Sometimes something looks good on that little tiny screen, but blown up, as you said, not so much. Your histogram can tell you if you are over or under exposed.

Trust me, you will get faster. When I started out, I couldn't believe how long it took me to find the correct exposure. I read about how people would start with the settings close to right and adjust from there. I thought, "How the heck do I even start close? I have no earthly idea!" But it comes with time. You will reach a point where you can look at most scenes and know immediately about what you are going to dial in.

Okay, sorry, that was probably way more information then you wanted!:lol:

Back to the report! I'm loving it!

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

LOL at the Michael Bolton story :ROFLOL:

Your family seems like so much fun; I am seriously enjoying your TR!

Disneyfalcon, the singing voice of Herc is actually an actor named Roger Bart (the speaking voice is Tate Donovan). Michael Bolton recorded Go the Distance for the end credits. Hercules was my favorite movie my senior year of high school, so I am a geek and know random bits of trivia

Can't wait for the rest of your TR, but I won't heckle you to post faster :lol: Until I started mine, I never realized how much time it takes!

 

[BoardwalkGlenn]

I think I need to ask for Uncle Tim's section at the 50's Prime Time Cafe next month. Last time I was there, I didn't get the full 50PTC experience.

"C'mon, Let's get in line for Fastasmic!" I urged, as I was having images of the 15 Chinese from the Philadelphia airport appearing out of nowhere to jump in front of us.

I watched as a beer vendor passed by, thinking that was a bit strange to see a beer vendor at Disney.

At this point I waved down the beer vendor and ordered two. I was beginning to understand the brilliance of having a beer vendor at this particular spot.

I can picture the 15 people coming out of nowhere and getting right in front of you.

And you could definitely use the beer by that point. I guess we all know why they're strategically placed there.

AND - As somebody (PeoplemoverTTA) replied earlier in my thread, Michael Bolton isn't even the right answer. Which to me makes the entire thing even funnier. :wave:

So I'm reading this hilarious boat ride post and thinking to myself, "Isn't it Roger Bart? I have 'Go the Distance' on my iPod." I must have missed the earlier post where someone pointed out that Michael Bolton isn't the correct answer.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Disneyfalcon, the singing voice of Herc is actually an actor named Roger Bart (the speaking voice is Tate Donovan). Michael Bolton recorded Go the Distance for the end credits. Hercules was my favorite movie my senior year of high school, so I am a geek and know random bits of trivia

I had no idea! I totally thought it was Tate Donovan and Michael Bolton!! You do know random trivia.:lol:

 

[mamamouse]

MICHAEL BOLTON!!! lol

 

[minnie2000]

I'm really enjoying your report!

 

[Captain Chaos]

If we had rewards for best trip reports, I'd have to cast my vote for fractal's... His reports are making me wish I was leaving today and not 21 days from now...

Thank you for taking the time you share your vacation memories with us... The pictures are awesome!!!!

 

[disneygirl1]

All caught up!!! Greaet report! We just got home last night and already planning the next trip!

 

[fractal]

I woke up Wednesday to another dark morning. The rain was coming down pretty hard. It was going to be tough motivating anybody to get moving today; at least that's what I thought. Val was in a deep "REM" sleep. I made my way over to the "kids" side of the villa and was pleasantly surprised to see all three kids up and getting ready.

"We want to go to Animal Kindgom!" they said.

"You do know it's raining?" I replied.

"We don't care, we'll wear our ponchos."

That sounded good to me. Val decided to sleep in some more. 30 minutes or so later we hit the Marketplace for a quick breakfast and hopped the next bus for AK.

As I said before, I do love this park. We all know it's weaknesses but I really feel like I'm in a special world at AK. My kids also like AK, but that has mostly to do with EE and Dinosaur. The details amaze me. They even made the restroom area look great.

Walking into the park we caught a bit of a break from the rain and were able to take a nice Tree of Life picture.

Our plan for AK was to grab FP for Kali River and then ride EE. The last time I did Kali River was in 2007 so I was looking forward to riding it again. We got to the River expedition to discover it was only a 20 minute wait. We decided to go in the standby line. I've always thought the Kali River queue was one of the most under appreciated ones in WDW. Very exotic, authentic and it does a great job of telling the ride's environmental "story".

As we entered the queue, the rains followed us.

Kali River queue, I love you!

Funky Cobra fountain. I wonder if Val would let me put something like this in our front yard. Nah, probably not.

Details with a capital "D".

 

[fractal]

Getting closer to our ride. Toni was getting excited as was I.

As you enter the last room of the queue you hear a Kali River guide over a radio reporting back that there are some bad things going on along the banks. Sounds like some illegal logging and burning of trees. The suspense was starting to build.

I put away the camera at this point to protect from water. We sat with another family. Everybody in our raft was wearing a poncho. Everybody that is except for the Dad of the other family. "That's ok" he said, taunting the Hindu Gods, "I feel like getting a little wet."

We went up the first hill on the big conveyor belt and were dropped into the river. A big wave of water came crashing over the Dad's shoulder and head. Within 2 seconds of hitting the river, the man was COMPLETELY SOAKED head to toe. Apparently the Hindu Gods do not like to be taunted.

This guy sat in the wrong seat. Every wave, and nearly every extra water effect just creamed him. It was unbelievable and utterly hilarious. I barely got wet - I could have kept the camera out and snapped away at the drowning he was going through.

I know what you are thinking. C'mon, you expect me to believe this? You're making it up. A good fictional "yarn" to add to your trip report. Last night it was "MICHAEL BOLTON" and the next day this?

Well, believe me or not - it happened. Everybody in that raft was wearing a poncho EXCEPT for "other DAD" and he got absolutely hammered with water.
I'm not saying nobody else got hit, but if he were a sponge he would have doubled in size and tripled in weight.

The ride itself is great except for one thing. It is WAY TOO SHORT! I would have been really ticked off if I would have waited more than 30 minutes in line. Disney, what is up with that? The only one that was happy the ride was short was "other Dad". They got off in front of us and I just remember how soaked he was and hearing the water "scrunch" in his sneaker as he walked away. Sorry Dude, that's what you get for messing with Shiva.