Trip Report When can we do this again? A Fractal family Odyssey. *COMPLETED*

Definition of odyssey:

• : a long journey full of adventures
  
  
• : a series of experiences that give knowledge or understanding to someone

Not too long ago I had a lot of doubt this trip would ever happen. The financial cost of higher education, the fact my wife Val wanted to go anywhere BUT Disney, the crazy and conflicting schedules of the kids, made the odds of keeping our 2-year WDW trip tradition a large long-shot. But maybe things do happen for a reason...

A great deal came our way and before we knew it we were on our way back to the World. Not without a major sacrifice however as my eldest daughter Alexandra had to miss the trip due to her schooling ( she graduates this Friday as an Registered Nurse!). She is a bit of a kindred spirit to me with a personality closer to mine than the other two, so I knew I would miss her dearly on the trip.

Here she is at Christmas with my Mom (Yia-Yia).

Speaking of Yia-yia; she will join us again at WDW! We had a great time with her on our 2013 trip at the Poly. We would meet up with her, my Sister Marina (here with me)...

and my two nieces; Courtney...

and Mia...

at the Yacht Club on the second leg of our journey. The first part of our trip took us to my in-law's (Al & Sue) who moved to Florida (Tampa - St. Pete area) last year. They would also join us at WDW!

Here they are from a 50th anniversary party we had for them last Winter...

It was early evening Thursday July 20th when we began our Odyssey. My good friend Wally picked us up to take us to the Baltimore (BWI) airport.

Excitement was building for our trip but the real Disney excitement would come later.

Sterg and Toni occupied the back seat. They were almost late for the pickup as they decided a last second Starbucks run was in order. Sterg ended up paying for that about an hour later as his bladder protested strongly.

Val was next to me and could barely contain her enthusiasm.

Not only was she not fully in favor of another Disney trip, she was (rightfully) concerned with the potential problems, complications, and stress of merging these 3 parts of the family together in the already chaotic environment of managing reservations, room assignments, getting to the parks, fastpasses and dinner plans. I had much of the same worries, which were also amplified by the fact Yia-Yia and Al would be using electric scooters during our time at the World. But hey, it's Disney, what could go wrong?

 

[spacemt354]

Seriously, TDO should be paying you for these photos to use in all of their promotional material.

Ditto.... @fractal your pics are better quality than the ones on the disney world website where people are influenced to willingly put up $500+ per night to stay at the Yacht Club

WDW Website Picture
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/yacht-club-resort/

Fractal's Picture

 

[Missy_May]

Your pictures make me feel all the feels!

 

[becca_]

Love love love (and appreciate) all the BC/YC/BW photos... hands down, it is my favorite resort area!

 

[Gurt]

I love your trip report your pictures are amazing, you and the family look like you are having a amazing time.

 

[MinnieM123]

Ditto.... @fractal your pics are better quality than the ones on the disney world website where people are influenced to willingly put up $500+ per night to stay at the Yacht Club

WDW Website Picture
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/yacht-club-resort/

Fractal's Picture

Yikes! What a difference in clarity and composition between the two photos.

Fractal is THE MAN!!

 

[fractal]

I forgot to include Youtube Sterg's video of our day. It's pretty funny.

 

[Courtney6682]

100% agree on your observations of the "Uh" guy in the FoP pre-show.

Do you suppose the Imagineers were trying to "connect" with the under-30 crowd? Or - for anyone who has seen Avatar - does he reflect a scene/tone from the movie itself?

In either case, big thumbs down from me.

Funny, I took it as he was telling us something he wasn't supposed...like he was rushing, looking over his shoulder waiting for someone to ''catch'' him telling us secrets or something...just my take

 

[Tiggerish]

I have yet to go into the Buckingham palace replica

Just FYI, that's Hampton Court palace, not Buckingham.

Yia-Yia's reactions are great, I'm really enjoying all of your insertions of dialogue. Adds to the "we are there" feeling of this report!

I started out with a 5 second exposure of the Boardwalk area. I also used shutter delay to keep my heavy fingers from causing any unwanted vibrations. The Friendship boat crossing the lake was moving at a perfect speed.

Can't have too many shots of the lighthouse.

My memory is a bit fuzzy but I must have dragged my tripod with me that night, only because I know I didn't drag a trash can into the middle of this walkway.

The Yacht Club.

A wider view of the boardwalk taken from the pier (on the other side of the lighthouse). This was a 15 second exposure and you can tell by looking at the Friendship boat on the right side which is just streaks of color.

Back on the pathway. The smoke coming from the direction of the Swan is from the Star Wars fireworks at DHS.

Tighter shot. I was now up to 20 seconds.

A closed Storm-along-Bay. There was a lifeguard still stationed there (which you can see in the photo). I wonder if they keep one on duty all night light.

This was my attempt of this shot in 2011 when I first started to get back into photography.

One more before I packed it in.

It was overall a really great day! Thrills at DHS, some good pool time, great dinner and company and I got a number of shots crossed off my pre-trip list. I went to bed a happy man.

UP Next - A morning alone at MK which was good and bad. Happily Ever After.

These photos. Wow. Just Wow.

 

[fractal]

Out of any attraction, SE, and CoP, are mine and my son's thing. Even when he was in the obnoxious mid teenage years, both were a must. First trip, in 2015, with his stepson, he chose portuguese (I feel like I spelled that, so wrong) for the language, DS and I were the only ones that had a clue, what was going on. We quoted it to each other, almost word for word. Amazing photos, as always!

Thank you @DisneyShe !

Your photos are absolutely incredible - you have a talent! And looks like an awesome trip!

Thanks @spacemt354 - enjoying your report as well.

Second one is my personal favorite of the bunch.

Hands down and without a doubt the best photos of SSE, ever!

Like that one too. Thanks @Bob !

Seriously, TDO should be paying you for these photos to use in all of their promotional material.

Want to be my agent?

Ditto.... @fractal your pics are better quality than the ones on the disney world website where people are influenced to willingly put up $500+ per night to stay at the Yacht Club

WDW Website Picture
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/yacht-club-resort/

Fractal's Picture

Do you want to be my agent?

Your pictures make me feel all the feels!

Thanks @Missy_May !_

Love love love (and appreciate) all the BC/YC/BW photos... hands down, it is my favorite resort area!

Love it too. Thanks @becca_ !

I love your trip report your pictures are amazing, you and the family look like you are having a amazing time.

Thank you @Gurt ! We had a great time!

Yikes! What a difference in clarity and composition between the two photos.

Fractal is THE MAN!!

Thanks @MinnieM123 !

Just FYI, that's Hampton Court palace, not Buckingham.

Yia-Yia's reactions are great, I'm really enjoying all of your insertions of dialogue. Adds to the "we are there" feeling of this report!



These photos. Wow. Just Wow.

thanks for the correction @Tiggerish ! Yia-yia had a great time. She said this was her favorite trip.

Thanks - I was really happy with how they came out!

 

[Weather_Lady]

Your photos are absolutely amazing.

 

[spacemt354]

Do you want to be my agent?

Haha! Sure, you make it easy. For fun, here's some more comparisons

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You even make Pandora look better!

...
.

 

[Uncle Lupe]

Caught up again and still loving it. Had to close my eyes and do some blind scrolling to avoid spoilers. Really like the long exposure shots of YC at all night. When the starbursts form around the lights, beautiful. This trip is the embodiment of Walts idea. A place built to be enjoyed by young and old alike.

 

[fractal]

It was already Friday! Val, Toni, Marina, Yia-yia, Courtney and Mia were leaving the Disney bubble to go to Discovery Cove and Seaworld. We had been going back and forth about doing this. I didn't want to waste a day at Disney and Sterg agreed. Toni always wanted to swim with the dolphins so her vote was obvious. Val was interested but we both didn't know if the cost was justifiable. Marina, who had been there before made the choice easy by generously treating Val & Toni as a 50th birthday gift to Val. So the "girls" were on their own, which meant one thing...

Boys' Day at WDW!

Excitingly I woke up early, got ready and checked my camera gear for properly charged batteries and lenses. I then woke up Sterg and went out on the balcony to enjoy a glorious morning and my room-made coffee (which wasn't too bad). I also had a hard boiled egg. We cooked a ton of these at Al & Sue's and brought them along as a solid breakfast option and/or snack. I think we had enough hardboiled eggs to cover each of us for an entire week, assuming we each ate 5 eggs a day. We may have gone a bit overboard on the eggs.

I was watching an early morning crew vacuuming the sand from the bottom of Storm-along-bay with one end of a hose connected to a big red metal box, while another hose coming from the same red box was spitting out sand and being used to rebuild the "sand-bar" in the pool. The sliding door opened and Sterg stepped out with nothing on except his boxers. He lifted his arms up to display a rash that had now covered more of his body than ever. Arms, chest, legs, back were all red and bumpy and he felt miserable after getting little sleep. We deduced that he was having an allergic reaction to "shellfish" and although he didn't have any seafood at Chef's he did have escargot.

I immediately called the Clinic and asked if he should change his dosage (he was scheduled to cut it in half that day). They got a hold of a Doctor and indeed told us to double up for today and take the regular dosage for the next few days. They wanted him back in the Clinic the next day if there was no improvement for another shot. Needless to say, he was not up for a full day out in the sun. As disappointed as we both were, the decision was made for him to sleep in until late morning/early afternoon. Val & crew were not leaving for a couple more hours which made me feel better about leaving him. With much trepidation, I set off and went to Magic Kingdom by myself.

Boys' Day was on hold.

Magic Kingdom was beautiful that morning. I arrived just after the park opening and Main Street looked great.

The sun was just starting to peek over the buildings.

I caught a quick glimpse of the Main Street performers doing their morning act, but we were going in opposite directions. My plan was to go to Pirates first then take the opportunity to do some slower paced and different attractions.

Too early for a hot dog, sir.

Ready for Adventure. After playing around with this photo in Lightroom I decided it looked best in black & white.

It didn't take long for the rising sun to warm things up. If I didn't have my camera gear I would have enjoyed a nice blast of mist.

The Tiki Room looked great and compelled me to add it to my morning "to-do" list.

But first I wanted to check in with those Tropical Buccaneers. Since all our fast-passes were for later, I took my spot in the 20 minute standby line.

20 minutes later I was not yet in the building and both the Standby and FP line came to a stand still. Having observed a few people check their phones and leaving the line I decided to abandon ship myself. No pirates for me that morning.

I felt a jungle cruise was in order but that was already up to a 50 minute wait! A small sense of panic started to build up. "Should have just waited it out at Pirates" I thought to myself. I looked up to once again see the Tiki Room tempting me like a Siren.

OK Tiki Room, I'm game. But before I enter your lair there's something I need.

It may have been too early for hotdogs, but it wasn't too early for this!

 

[Bob]

It may have been too early for hotdogs, but it wasn't too early for this!

 

[disneypearl]

Poor Sterg with that rash! I hope that his medicine kicked in quickly. It's awful to be uncomfortable and sick on vacation.

 

[Tiggerish]

Argh, Boy's Day started out so well (hard boiled eggs!) only to come to a crashing halt.

My mom's favorite attraction is the Tiki Room. She most recently visited in 2014 for her 80th bday, just the two of us. There was no question of her getting an ECV--I pushed a wheelchair. You are fortunate to have such a big family group at WDW.

 

[Nubs70]

Before I found this thread, I could really care less about going back to WDW. Your pictures have me considering a return.

 

[MinnieM123]

Before I found this thread, I could really care less about going back to WDW. Your pictures have me considering a return.

That's the power of a positive message that Fractal shares. That's why he has a big following here. I was just looking at his Main Street USA photos and they made me happy--they look so colorful, and are just delightful to view here this morning, prior to 6:00 AM (I'm always up early). Welcome to the fan club!

 

[imthewalrus79]

That's the power of a positive message that Fractal shares. That's why he has a big following here. I was just looking at his Main Street USA photos and they made me happy--they look so colorful, and are just delightful to view here this morning, prior to 6:00 AM (I'm always up early). Welcome to the fan club!

@fractal is great at both telling a story and photography. His trip report is actually helping me. I decided on doing a year without Disney between my last trip to the World and next year's trip to Disneyland. It's definitely been hard and at times I've thought about taking a least a few days down there. But, living vicariously through Fractal's family via their trip report, it really has helped.

 

[mousefreak]

Feel bad for Sterg. Not a way to feel on vacation especially in the hot FL sun. Hope that rash disappears and he gets relief soon.
Stunning pictures again! Some of the best I've seen anybody take of WDW.