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 Filled with broken down, outdated rides run by snarly cast members.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.

 

[fractal]

Hoop-de-doo-review was worthwhile for us. The show was entertaining and fun ( who wants serious @ WDW? ). The food was acceptable. Val and I were big fans of the endless beer and wine. :animwink: It's something we will always remember.

On the negative side - It's a pain to get to and plan your day around. We were lucky to get great seats, but I would have been disappointed if we were stuck in one of the side tables. It's not a gourmet meal and it's not cheap.

I'm glad we did it but I don't think we will do it again on our next trip. Maybe the trip after that. My rating for the entire experience was an 8.5, the family rating was an 8.

After our frontier meal and show, we walked to the dock and grabbed the next boat to Magic Kingdom. The setting sun took some edge off of the hot air.

I took a picture of these buildings next to the Contemporary because I didn't know what they were. Does anybody know?

Not too many better sights in the world.

We spent some time with the Photopass photographer. Man, those pictures are not cheap! $15 a photo.

 

[Captain Chaos]

Fractal, I believe those buildings next to the Contemporary are what is left of the Garden Rooms... One section, on the other side, were demolished to make way for Bay Lake Tower. But the ones on the other side remain.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Great update, Fractal. You got some great pictures of Hoop De Do. I love your family ratings, great idea!

I believe dxer is right, that's the garden wing.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

We did the Hoop-Dee-Doo last November for the first time and the whole family LOVED it. While you're right that it's not cheap, it is a really fun experience. It was my cousins birthday and I got a great picture of him getting a kiss on the cheek from two of the girls, one on each side. lol

 

[fractal]

Fractal, I believe those buildings next to the Contemporary are what is left of the Garden Rooms... One section, on the other side, were demolished to make way for Bay Lake Tower. But the ones on the other side remain.

Thanks for the info. Can you still rent these?

Great update, Fractal. You got some great pictures of Hoop De Do. I love your family ratings, great idea!

I believe dxer is right, that's the garden wing.

Thanks! We were lucky enough to be right up front. Is the garden wing open?

We did the Hoop-Dee-Doo last November for the first time and the whole family LOVED it. While you're right that it's not cheap, it is a really fun experience. It was my cousins birthday and I got a great picture of him getting a kiss on the cheek from two of the girls, one on each side. lol

Yes, we enjoyed HDDR very much. That's sounds like a great pic!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Thanks! We were lucky enough to be right up front. Is the garden wing open?

Yes! The garden wings have been there a long time. The other one was leveled to build BLT. I stayed in that one before it was leveled and it was very nice! The tower is nicer, but the garden wing is a much cheaper way to stay at the Contemporary.

 

[Captain Chaos]

Thanks for the info. Can you still rent these?



Thanks! We were lucky enough to be right up front. Is the garden wing open?




Yes, we enjoyed HDDR very much. That's sounds like a great pic!

As Disneyfalcon said, yes, you can still rent and stay in the Garden Wing rooms...

 

[fractal]

Yes! The garden wings have been there a long time. The other one was leveled to build BLT. I stayed in that one before it was leveled and it was very nice! The tower is nicer, but the garden wing is a much cheaper way to stay at the Contemporary.

As Disneyfalcon said, yes, you can still rent and stay in the Garden Wing rooms...

Thanks to both of you for that information. I never knew they existed.

 

[fractal]

We continued down Main Street USA. The spotless streets, the turn-of-the-century architecture, the immaculate painting and details, the families and couples walking together, takes you to different place. You feel like you are in a simpler and friendlier time in America. Whether that ever existed or not doesn't really matter because in some real way it exists here in Central Florida. I regret not taking more pictures of Main Street and also regret not spending more time there. Next trip I promise myself to treat it as an attraction itself rather than a gateway to the rest of the park.

Taking a right at the end of Main Street, we made our way to Tomorrow Land for another "first time" experience. Carousel of Progress.

Talk about stepping back in time! I was a bit nervous about the rest of the family's reaction to CoP. "Boring" and "stupid" were words I was prepared to hear. We sat right up front in a half empty theater. Everyone loved it! From the spinning sets, to the AA, to the stories and progression through time. We all enjoyed the show! It's an attraction that should never leave Magic Kingdom, in my opinion. It represents what Walt Disney was all about. A progressive optimist that always believed in "A great big Beautiful Tomorrow".

As we exited CoP we heard some Top 40 tunes jamming "next door" and saw Goofy, Pluto and Stitch dancing away with the crowd. Toni loves Pluto so we had to go check it out. Surprisingly, she was a bit shy about jumping in the dance line. The kid behind Pluto was absolutely not shy about dancing, singing or even pulling poor Pluto's ears.

Toni did manage to dance some and I was able to get her and Pluto in the same frame.

 

[fractal]

We slowly made our way to Fantasyland. My niece was turning two soon and she's in love with Winnie the Pooh - so we had to stop in the gift shop for her gift.

This wasn't it however, but I thought it was cute. We ended up getting her a Pooh blanket and a completely round Pooh bear. She loved them!

Toni and Sterg each tried to pull the sword - but no luck.

How mad would Toni have been if Sterg pulled it out?

Val was getting tired and wanted to go back to the BC. The kids agreed to go with her to swim in the pool. I was disappointed because I planned the night out so we would be in the MK to see Wishes for the first time. After a bit of arguing, it was agreed that Val would go back with the kids and I would stay to watch the fireworks. It had been 11 years since we saw a Disney fireworks show and I didn't want to miss it. - First though, we would all see Mickey's Philharmagic! You can see how happy Val was.

After Philharmagic, Toni was inspired and she decided to stay with me for the fireworks! Alex and Sterg still went back to the pool with Val. They thought swimming in Storm-along-Bay at night would be cool - and they did have a good time.

Toni and I were back alone at MK again. Which was perfectly fine. Before the fireworks show we walking on to Buzz. She was getting pretty good at it.

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

As Disneyfalcon said, yes, you can still rent and stay in the Garden Wing rooms...

We stayed in the garden wing back in 2000 and 2003...and we loved it. From the small details (when you exit on each floor in the elevator, a different character announces the floor number...or at least they did back then ), to the short walk to MK, to just about everything, the Contemporary was a magical place for our family to stay twice. Now that there are fewer garden rooms (half, to be exact), I assume it's harder to book them, but I would definitely consider it again in the future.

 

[fractal]

Auntie Gravity was our next stop for some ice-cream. :slurp:

Our plan to watch Wishes was severely lacking.

Step 1) - walk over the bridge from TL towards the castle.

Step 2) - find an open spot.

We started to put this plan in place just as "Magic, Memories and You" was starting. Our view from the bridge was not great, but the show itself was impressive. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would, in fact Toni and I both loved it. This projection show is not to be missed.

"Daddy, over there!" Toni said after the MM&Y show.

She was pointing to the small garden at the end of the bridge - and there were some open spots to sit. We took advantage of that. Our vantage point was not great, but we were closer to the castle. Photos, however, would be a challenge.

We did have a good view of Tinkerbell flying almost directly above us. Yes - this is Tink. :shrug:

We enjoyed the show. It's perfect for MK. The story, the music, the fireworks. Toni was very happy she stayed with me. I even managed to get some half decent photos.

After the "kiss goodnight" we made our way out of the park and into a long line for the bus back to our room. We didn't make it on the first bus. We boarded the second bus - which was delayed after a big argument started. Apparently some kids tried to skip to the front of the line and boarded the bus in front of a family. They almost got away with it until a older gentleman up front exposed them. The driver kicked them off and let the family on.

Toni sat on my lap and fell asleep before we got back. It was a very long day but another great one. Monday continued to hold the mark as our worst day of the trip.

Coming up - Two Special Tours @ EPCOT and our first visit to California Grill.

 

[accord99cutie]

I am loving your report! It is getting me so excited for my family's trip in 2 weeks!!!! Can't wait for more!!!

 

[flynnibus]

Great TR! Some help for you...

I was really impressed with the way they changed sets. I would love to see how that looks below and behind the stage

The AA is actually quite an engineering feat. If you want some 'behind the scenes' views of what went into AA and the building of EPCOT, you can read
http://www.amazon.com/Building-Bett...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316055709&sr=1-1 which is written by some of the Imagineers about their tales of building EPCOT.. and specifically AA.

The sets are actually all on a massive carriage.. lined up in sequence. The carriage actually moves forward and back to line a scene up with the stage, then it's lifted up into view.. then dropped.. the carriage advanced.. and the sequence repeats itself. The seating area is actually suspended over a massive 'pit' where the carriage actually sits and travels.

I was struggling badly with the camera during the whole show. There were several problems.
I said at the beginning of my report that I shot about 80% of my pictures in manual mode. Looking back at it, I should have shot 20-30% in manual.

Looking at some of the settings in your shots.. you had settings all over, and things like ISO well out of where it should be. You probably were carrying settings over between photos unintentionally. You had the ISO at 3200 for many of the outdoor shots.. that's way out of order and just introduces unnecessary noise and exposure problems.

Instead of shooting in manual, you should have tried using Shutter or Aperture priority modes.. or the scene modes on the camera for the sports stuff. Aperture and Shutter modes are better because they give you control over the important parameter for your shot, and let the camera balance the other values as needed to get the exposure right. I'm not sure, but it looks like in some you were using manual exposure too unnecessarily.

Using those modes, you can limit how many parameters you must balance while still giving you control over the important value for a scene.. like if you want speed or blurring (shutter speed).. or depth of field or softness (aperture).

This will give you some of the control you want.. without requiring as much work out of you. Use exposure compensation if the auto-exposure is too hot.. and crank up the ISO when you know you will be shooting in low light and you need to avoid blurring.

Leave the manual mode for studio work S and A modes.. and probably the scene mode for quick sports action would probably serve you best.

Good luck and keep up the TR

 

[fractal]

Val and Alex woke up Thursday morning around 7am. I booked a "Segway Tour around Epcot" for them. You have to be 16 or older for this tour, so Sterg and Toni were out. I had something else planned for them.

When I first told them about the tour a few months before, Alex was pretty excited.

"That sounds awesome!" she said.
"What's Big M gonna say?" she followed. "Big M" is what they sometimes call their mother. I'm "Big Pops". I like to think they are terms of endearment.

"Chris, what are you talking about?" Val questioned when I told her.

Remember that Val isn't a big Disney fan to begin with. Her idea of a vacation is waking up whenever, hanging by a beach or pool, having a few drinks and just "chillin'". Now I was telling here that she had to get up early, learn to ride a Segway and spend her morning exploring a Disney Park.

"Oh, you and Alex will have a blast!" I said in the most convincing voice I could muster.

Well, they got up and left that morning with nary a complaint. We checked the day before about how they should enter Epcot. They could enter at the International Gateway for their early tour.

They were led to the guest services area near SSE to sign in. There they met their two instructor/guides. These CMs took them to Innoventions to train them in the art of Segway riding. This took about 30-45 minutes. They had to learn how to maneuver these machines before they let them loose. Alex and Val said that they were both great - one CM was really cool but the other was kinda "dorky-funny" and was flirting with Alex. I'll let you figure out who was who.

2015 edit : can't find pics.

They were given a tour of Epcot for almost two hours, which revealed many hidden Mickeys and interesting tidbits of WS. Both of them agreed that it was a blast. They didn't have a camera but did get some pics on their Iphones. On a scale of 1-10 they both gave it a 10.

Double thumbs up from Alex!

After their tour they went to grab something to eat. Meanwhile Sterg, Toni and I were entering Epcot for our own special event. The Epcot Seas Aqua Tour!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Oh, I'm so excited you did the segway tour!! We want to do that one so badly but our 13 year old would never forgive us if we don't wait for her! I'm so glad they loved it!

You did get some good fireworks pictures! Your location worked out!!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Kristia]

So glad to hear the Segway tour was great! I am thinking about that for our upcoming trip. My husband has always wanted to do this and I am thinking about adding it to his surprise birthday trip.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

The Segway Tour looks AWESOME!! Definitely something I want to try out! Maybe in the spring!!

 

[fractal]

We stayed in the garden wing back in 2000 and 2003...and we loved it. From the small details (when you exit on each floor in the elevator, a different character announces the floor number...or at least they did back then ), to the short walk to MK, to just about everything, the Contemporary was a magical place for our family to stay twice. Now that there are fewer garden rooms (half, to be exact), I assume it's harder to book them, but I would definitely consider it again in the future.

That does sound neat! Very intriguing.

I am loving your report! It is getting me so excited for my family's trip in 2 weeks!!!! Can't wait for more!!!

Thanks! That should be a great time to go. I'm so jealous.

Great TR! Some help for you...



The AA is actually quite an engineering feat. If you want some 'behind the scenes' views of what went into AA and the building of EPCOT, you can read
http://www.amazon.com/Building-Bett...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316055709&sr=1-1 which is written by some of the Imagineers about their tales of building EPCOT.. and specifically AA.

The sets are actually all on a massive carriage.. lined up in sequence. The carriage actually moves forward and back to line a scene up with the stage, then it's lifted up into view.. then dropped.. the carriage advanced.. and the sequence repeats itself. The seating area is actually suspended over a massive 'pit' where the carriage actually sits and travels.



Looking at some of the settings in your shots.. you had settings all over, and things like ISO well out of where it should be. You probably were carrying settings over between photos unintentionally. You had the ISO at 3200 for many of the outdoor shots.. that's way out of order and just introduces unnecessary noise and exposure problems.

Instead of shooting in manual, you should have tried using Shutter or Aperture priority modes.. or the scene modes on the camera for the sports stuff. Aperture and Shutter modes are better because they give you control over the important parameter for your shot, and let the camera balance the other values as needed to get the exposure right. I'm not sure, but it looks like in some you were using manual exposure too unnecessarily.

Using those modes, you can limit how many parameters you must balance while still giving you control over the important value for a scene.. like if you want speed or blurring (shutter speed).. or depth of field or softness (aperture).

This will give you some of the control you want.. without requiring as much work out of you. Use exposure compensation if the auto-exposure is too hot.. and crank up the ISO when you know you will be shooting in low light and you need to avoid blurring.

Leave the manual mode for studio work S and A modes.. and probably the scene mode for quick sports action would probably serve you best.

Good luck and keep up the TR

Thanks for the detail on AA and the link. Truly a great Imagineering achievement!

Using manual that much gave me a good feel on how a camera works - but at the cost of missing way too many shots. Thanks for the tips and feedback. I now do use more of the pre-set scene modes - like sports or night shots. I need to explore the Aperture and Shutter priority modes more.

It's a steep learning curve and I appreciate any and all comments and suggestions.

 

[fractal]

Oh, I'm so excited you did the segway tour!! We want to do that one so badly but our 13 year old would never forgive us if we don't wait for her! I'm so glad they loved it!

You did get some good fireworks pictures! Your location worked out!!

Can't wait to read more!

They had a great time on the Segways. Val has been talking it up to everyone since we've been back!

Thanks!

So glad to hear the Segway tour was great! I am thinking about that for our upcoming trip. My husband has always wanted to do this and I am thinking about adding it to his surprise birthday trip.

Well worth it according to my wife and daughter.

The Segway Tour looks AWESOME!! Definitely something I want to try out! Maybe in the spring!!

Just do it - although the tour I did with Sterg and Toni was pretty awesome too!