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?

 

[Bob]

He's missing his leisure suit.

 

[fractal]

This whole "job" thing can be so inconvenient sometimes! My manager doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that I have a Trip Report to finish.

Great report as per the usual. I've found that when I organize a big family trip that Scotch coupled with the occasional gin and tonic is key. Also, I love the HoP. Several years ago, I met @sshindel and I indulged in everything that is hard for me to do when traveling with any other subset of my family....HoP, CoP, Tiki Birds, Country Bear Jamboree (words can't convey how much my wife hates this...we did it together once and it was made very clear that a repeat viewing may be grounds for divorce), American Adventure, etc. When I got back home and mentioned this to the wife and kids the response I got was, "Good. Now next time we go you won't suggest any of those things."

Thanks @George! I can certainly related to your strategy.

Sorry I'm a little behind but I just got to see the video of boys' day.
And I noticed one very glaring omission. Sorry, but Fractal Jr is just not ready for prime time. A true professional would have known that there was trouble a brewing at HEA and instead of "having your back" should have been filming the beat down you were about to give the intruders in front of you. Or at least have interfered and help create a little magic when the confrontation was fizzling out.
Alas, the pacifist photojournalist missed the best footage of the day. (but saved a little of his father's bloodshed).
PS- you really should be proud and honored, he is following in his father's footsteps and doing a great job at it.

You are so right! An all out melee in front of Cinderella's Castle would have been YouTube gold!!

Thanks @docdebbi ! I am very proud of @fractal jr

He's missing his leisure suit.

Is that Shawn Cassidy? My sister must have played his verison of Da doo ron ron a million times. It took me several years to get it out of my head.

Crap, now it's back in my head.

 

[amjt660]

Leif Garrett
same time frame - different teen idol

Max

 

[Courtney6682]

WOW! All caught up! Your pictures are INCREDIBLE!!

You're very talented!

Glad to see that Sturg is feeling better and your in-laws are safe and sound!

 

[fractal]

Not sure what I was doing here, but somehow Sterg ticked my off enough for me to try and grab the camera.

From the photo it looks like I was on Kali River.

I love taking photos of my children;

Here's Toni

and Sterg.

It was starting to heat up so we all decided to go to the most terrorizing indoor attraction on Disney property.

It's Tough to be a Bug!

Don't be fooled by the friendly persona of Flick and his buggy friends. This show always - I mean always results in psychotic screams of horror, panic and fright. Untold numbers of hysterically screaming children have been wisked out of the theater during the attack of the bugs. I've had to carry Alex out twice and Toni at least once.

This time we got front row seats to the carnage.

Close up of The Master of childhood nightmares.

This may be my best shot of the black widow spiders. The camera was shaking a bit as I was chuckling at the mass pandemonium occurring all around me.

After being saved by a lizard we made our way out of the Tree of Life.

things are just so much more pleasant when the kids get along.

Dinoland was our destination as we had a rendezvous with Courtney who was meeting us there.

For some reason, on this day I remembered taking Toni to the Boneyard when she was little. She loved it and I had fun taking photos.

Toni circa 2009.

Toni circa July 2017

For all you parents out there with smaller children my advise to you is enjoy this time. Yeah they can often be a big pain in the neck and be very demanding, but it doesn't last forever. One day you will wake up and realize those little turds are now grown up and they will never again be as cute or adorable as before. You can't go back and it's funny that when you remember the good times of their childhood it almost makes you want to cry and some of the bad times now make you want to laugh. So appreciate this time and of course take many more photos than necessary.

Frozen treats while we wait.

Dad, are you crying?

No, no...not me little girl. Hey, let's go on a fake dinosaur trail.

This wasn't fake. This plant's been around since the age of the dinosaurs. Not sure the Human Race will beat that record.

 

[fractal]

A quick social-media review was in order.

Courtney was in the park - we decided to meet in front of Dinosaur.

Dinosaur is that-a-way.

Well hello there.

Have I created a monster?

Courtney joined the team!

Before long it was one last trip back in time.

Apparently, unlike Banshee riding, Time travel does not require potable water.

Portal to the Cretaceous Period.

After another bone rattling, jaw knocking trip back to Prehistoric Times, we exited Dinosaur.

I had arranged to meet with another WDWmagicer. Actually @dis_mike initiated it. He was in Animal Kingdom on the same day so the meet was on!

@dis_mike is a true Disney fan and an all around great guy. I was also extremely jealous of his shirt! If not for the tug of other commitments I think we would have spent more time together exploring AK.

Always great to meet someone else from the boards!

Our next stop was picking up an order of buffalo chips. We saw the stand at the entrance to Dinoland earlier and finally succumbed to the temptation. They were as good, if not better than they looked!

We then went to our favorite lunch nook to enjoy.

Sterg was keeping me up to date on our Youtube views.

While this guy was begging for scraps.

 

[Bob]

BTW @fractal , another thing which I appreciate about you photos. You photograph almost everything in "landscape". Something that drives me up the wall is photos (and especially videos) taken in "portrait". Irks me to no end. The only time that you take photos in "portrait" is when the framing of your shot requires it. Thank you!!!

 

[bcoachable]

"For all you parents out there with smaller children my advise to you is enjoy this time. Yeah they can be a big pain sometimes and very demanding of your time, but it doesn't last forever. One day you will wake up and realize those little turds are now growing up and they will never again be as cute or adorable as before. You can't go back and it's funny that when you remember the good times of their childhood it almost make you want to cry and some of the bad times now make you want to laugh. So appreciate this time and of course take many more photos than necessary."

Very well said, Fractal...
Every one says it, no one listens... They grow up sooo fast!!
Enjoy the good and the challenging times! Even the challenging times end up being good times (eventually!)

 

[donaldtoo]

Another stolen photo update. I followed the link @Bob posted and reported it. Within a few hours I got a response that the photo was deleted from his post.

Meanwhile my social media director was more concerned that I didn't post his video he made of our Boy's Day. So here goes.

Again, I'm no George Clooney but I do need to say that many of the wide angle shots of me are not particularly flattering. Especially the ones taken from low angles - like the one walking up Main Street shot from below my chin and up into my nostrils. Very nice camera work @fractal jr ! I look like the freakin' Carnotaurus. Anyway, I have thick skin and other than that it's a pretty entertaining video.

In regards to that last paragraph...!!!
Actually, your luckier than I...I actually AM the carnotaurus...!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

Good Morning Saturday at Walt Disney World!

Because of the new land we spent a lot of time at Animal Kingdom this trip. On this day we had FPs to River Journey, Everest and Safari but those could easily be changed. I asked Sterg and Toni if they wanted to change them and go to another park, but they not only declined that offer they wanted to hit AK at rope drop and wait for Flight of Passage. Who was I to argue?

Up early and raring to go! Toni, although showing some "teenager" tendencies is definitely different than her older brother and sister. Neither of those two would have gotten up this early at age "almost 16" unless hit with a cattle prod or even worse - threatened will the loss of their phone.

Extra Magic Hours started at 8am so we planned on getting to the park around 7:45ish for the opening and make a mad dash to FoP. It seemed we were not the only ones with that plan.



After we finally get through that mess we are then led to another line in the park to have our magic bands scanned proving we are staying at a Disney resort.

From there we hustled to Pandora. I lead the kids through the gift shop that I was stuck in during the rainstorm shaving some time. "Alright Pops! Good move!"

We enter Pandora, cut to the right and zigzag our way down to the FoP entrance. Our experience with FoP taught us that the Standby line began to the left of the entrance and then into the "mountain". We were further educated that morning that the early standby line goes to the right and towards, onto and over the bridge connecting Pandora to Africa (Festival of the Lion King area). This video will give you a good idea of just how long the line was!





The wait was listed at 180 minutes which we at first thought had to be wrong. It seems they let people in the park well before 8am and have them make there way to Pandora and wait there. If you don't have a fastpass, either you get to AK at 7am and wait for an hour or more until the ride opens - or you just wait in line during the day for an hour or more. Either way you are going to wait awhile.

This is a photo of the line...from in front of Festival of the Lion King!

We all agreed it was crazy to wait and decided that it would be far more interesting to explore what promised to be a near empty "rest of" Animal Kingdom!

Boy were we right! The calm, quiet and peaceful serenity of the rest of the park was an amazing contrast to the loud, rush of the Pandora pandemonium we had just experienced.

Literally no one here. I was starting to feel a little like @Tuvalu !

Wait, I see somebody ahead!

One would never guess that at this moment there were thousands of people in Animal Kingdom and thousands more piling in.

Picture time! Show off those $thousands of dental work your poor Father with the crooked teeth paid for!

I was really enjoying how the early morning sunlight was making the park glow.

I knew it was going to be a great morning for photos.

But, as we were getting ready to embark on yet another Expedition to the Forbidden Mountain I still had an unfinished photographic challenge; To capture the Yeti on camera and be the one to finally prove her existence!

That video of the FoP queue is just beyond nutso! Woof...!!!

Glad y'all got to experience the calm and the relaxation of the early morning hours in the rest of AK, though...!

 

[donaldtoo]

We did plenty of praying yesterday for everyone in Florida. Last week my in-laws, Al and Sue drove up to our home in Pennsylvania from their new place near Clearwater. A nerve wracking time and we await word today on what damages may be. Thankfully the worst-case scenario with Irma did not play out but she was still dangerous and remains so. I hope everyone in her path is safe.


Back to a warm sunny day in late July.

Everest was a walk-on. We didn't get front seats but close.

Higher and higher.

The sun was rising over Walt Disney World.

Bird on a stick was still working. I'm a fan of the bird. It also diverts attention from the pile of hair bands.

Backwards we go, then forward as we barreled through the mountain chased by the Yeti.

She almost got us (maybe if she would be working properly), but I also (finally) got her!

A respectable photo of our dear, damaged Yeti..

In hindsight, if I really wanted a good shot of the Yeti I should have switched to manual focusing, focused somewhere close to infinity and set my shutter to speed priority (rapid fire) and betting on at least one good shot.
Here I lucked out a bit that my autofocus managed to latch. A faster lens would have also helped (vs. f/2.8). There's a better shot of the Yeti in my future but I'll take this one for sure.

Indeed we do.

Of course, one ride with no waiting prompted another (or 2).

Happy faces. We were having fun!

Apparently, I and my family are some of the relatively few that ever saw the yeti in A mode. That thing was amazing!
Good shot, btw. I'd bet few, if any, have better...!

 

[donaldtoo]

More Yeti artifacts.

maybe time for a new radio.

Great start to the day!

Best shot I got of the temple painting. I found it interesting to look at the details you miss while passing quickly underneath.

After our third Expedition I called it quits and decided to photograph some newer areas while Sterg and Toni continue to ride EE.

Just in case someone has too many magic beers I suppose.

These little creepy dolls.

creepy dolls always remind me of this guy form "Trilogy of Terror". 1970's ABC Sunday Night Movie of the Week.

Eye see you!

The new River of Lights stadium offers some great new sight lines.

Up Next - another WDWMagic meet-up, Showtime with Yia-Yia, and some disappointments.

Temple mural shot is awesome!
Such clarity...!

 

[MinnieM123]

We then went to our favorite lunch nook to enjoy.

That's pretty -- don't think I've ever see this place before. Where is it, and is it a QS restaurant?

 

[Tuvalu]

That's pretty -- don't think I've ever see this place before. Where is it, and is it a QS restaurant?

It is one of the dining pavilions for Flame Tree BBQ.

 

[MinnieM123]

It is one of the dining pavilions for Flame Tree BBQ.

Thank you--that explains it! Believe it or not, I've never had lunch at Flame Tree BBQ, but the reason was that it was never open on time (at least during my park travels). I eat lunch just as soon as the QS restaurants open up in the parks each day, and for some odd reason, FT was always slower to open. I've heard good reviews about the food, though.

 

[fractal]

Leif Garrett
same time frame - different teen idol

Max

Not sure if I should be impressed you knew that or worried.

WOW! All caught up! Your pictures are INCREDIBLE!!

You're very talented!

Glad to see that Sturg is feeling better and your in-laws are safe and sound!

thank you @Courtney6682 !!

BTW @fractal , another thing which I appreciate about you photos. You photograph almost everything in "landscape". Something that drives me up the wall is photos (and especially videos) taken in "portrait". Irks me to no end. The only time that you take photos in "portrait" is when the framing of your shot requires it. Thank you!!!

Thanks @Bob! I do like landscape and also sometimes framing 3:1 . As you said, there is a time and place for portrait.

"For all you parents out there with smaller children my advise to you is enjoy this time. Yeah they can be a big pain sometimes and very demanding of your time, but it doesn't last forever. One day you will wake up and realize those little turds are now growing up and they will never again be as cute or adorable as before. You can't go back and it's funny that when you remember the good times of their childhood it almost make you want to cry and some of the bad times now make you want to laugh. So appreciate this time and of course take many more photos than necessary."

Very well said, Fractal...
Every one says it, no one listens... They grow up sooo fast!!
Enjoy the good and the challenging times! Even the challenging times end up being good times (eventually!)

thanks @bcoachable ! It does go fast. Are you a coach?

In regards to that last paragraph...!!!
Actually, your luckier than I...I actually AM the carnotaurus...!!!!!

Lol!

That video of the FoP queue is just beyond nutso! Woof...!!!

Glad y'all got to experience the calm and the relaxation of the early morning hours in the rest of AK, though...!

It was nice having nearly the rest of the park to ourselves, if only for a hour or so.

Apparently, I and my family are some of the relatively few that ever saw the yeti in A mode. That thing was amazing!
Good shot, btw. I'd bet few, if any, have better...!

Thanks @donaldtoo ! A-mode was awesome! Hopefully we'll see it again some day.

Temple mural shot is awesome!
Such clarity...!

Thanks, I never really noticed the skeletons until I saw this shot.

That's pretty -- don't think I've ever see this place before. Where is it, and is it a QS restaurant?

As @Tuvalu said, it's the area behind FTBBQ.

Thank you--that explains it! Believe it or not, I've never had lunch at Flame Tree BBQ, but the reason was that it was never open on time (at least during my park travels). I eat lunch just as soon as the QS restaurants open up in the parks each day, and for some odd reason, FT was always slower to open. I've heard good reviews about the food, though.

This area is worth the time just to explore!

 

[gaga4disney]

creepy dolls always remind me of this guy form "Trilogy of Terror". 1970's ABC Sunday Night Movie of the Week.

Great Show!

Thanks for sharing your trip experience. Always look forward to them.

 

[bcoachable]

@ Fractal-
I do coach, yes-
When you love what you do for a living, it makes life an E ticket!!

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

For all you parents out there with smaller children my advise to you is enjoy this time. Yeah they can be a big pain sometimes and very demanding of your time, but it doesn't last forever. One day you will wake up and realize those little turds are now growing up and they will never again be as cute or adorable as before. You can't go back and it's funny that when you remember the good times of their childhood it almost make you want to cry and some of the bad times now make you want to laugh. So appreciate this time and of course take many more photos than necessary.

Ugh, now I'm on the verge of at my desk! I remind myself daily that they are only little for a moment. Hoping to have a our first trip soon, and I plan to snap as many photos as possible and soak in every moment. Enjoying your trip report!

 

[amjt660]

Not sure if I should be impressed you knew that or worried.

I will let Star Lord answer that one..

Max