Trip Report Yia-Yia, Yetis and Epcotonians. A sweltering Summer of '22 adventure!

It was the night before our Disney trip and I found myself scrambling. So much to do besides "Disney but "Disney" needed to get done. Where are my SD cards? Where are all my Star Wars shirts? Where is my camera bag? We had just moved after-all and things were not where they should be because well we were in a different house. Toni was scrambling too. She is spending the Summer waitressing in Bethany Beach Delaware and came home THAT DAY to get everything ready for Disney. Her Mom however also wanted her to help get her "crap" ready for college (leaving in a few weeks). Tensions were running high and the early morning flight out of Baltimore was like lighting a fuse to a stick of dynamite. Time was ticking away!

This was going to be a different trip for us. Just three of the five in the family as my wife Val decided to sit this one out and my daughter Alex couldn't get her schedule to work. So Val will be going to New Mexico to visit Alex in a month as the final three, the triumvirate headed to Walt Disney World to meet up with my sister Marina's family and my mom (Yia-Yia).

The Triumvirate -

Toni (center), Sterg and yours truly.

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As you may or may not know, one of the things I love about going to Disney is honing my photography skills. For this trip I decided to rent two fantastic (and expensive) lenses. The Sony GM 50mm f/ 1.2 and the Sony GM 14mm f/1.8 lenses to be exact. The cost to buy both of those lenses would be as much as the cost of the entire trip. Additionally I rented a lens adaptor to pair with my old Minolta 70-210 "beercan" lens that I wanted to try out on the Safari.

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I've been crazy after the 14mm lens due to it's wide angle nature. It's actually so wide it's referred to as an "ultra-wide angle" lens. Wide angle lenses have wonderful applications at WDW and I was going to see how this baby was going to work for me. The 50mm 1.2 is a lens with a great reputation. Very fast, very sharp and producing beautiful bokeh as your sharp subject stands in front of a background that literally melts into a dreamy blur of photographic delight.

By 11pm all that was packed, what was left of my Star Wars shirts was packed - "Chris, aren't we just getting a bit too old for Star Wars shirts?" Val quipped - and everything else on my list was packed.



Toni was also packed and had full-filled her "getting ready for college" obligations.

Val said her goodbyes and goodnights..
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and went to bed.


It was soon time for me to lay down for 3 hours of sleep. The hardest thing left for me to do was wake up with my alarm. I think I'll have a glass on wine (or two?). After-all, what could go wrong?
 
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Bullseye1967

Is that who I am?
Premium Member

fractal

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
During dinner I purchased individual Lightning Lanes for GotGCR much to the delight of the 2/3rds.

Thanks for another fine meal Spice Road!

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Let's go!

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On the move. Not as much dodging and darting required this evening but it sure was hot and humid!

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Sunset at EPCOT is a beautiful sight.

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A different view...

It was another thrilling ride for us Epcotonians - to give you an idea of how much I enjoy Cosmic Rewind, I once again opted out of taking on ride photos to just sit back and enjoy saving the planet again!

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After GotG we did Mission Space. Sterg and Toni choose the orange while I choose green mostly to view the new orbit around Earth trip. As a single rider I was put with a young family of 3 - Father, Mother and son. They did not speak English and if I had to guess they were from the country Spain or Portugal. It was very awkward to be honest. The new mission was worth seeing but I would have preferred Orange. Of course Sterg and Toni gave me a hard time about picking the "old man" color.

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With Magic Kingdom staying open until 11 we decided to venture there.

I did get some more night shots on the way out...

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UP NEXT - Night time at Magic Kingdom is the best time!
 
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Ghostdog

Well-Known Member
We LOVE Typhoon Lagoon too; my favorite is shark reef!! Living in a state that sees some COLD winters I prefer tropical theming over winter themes anytime, especially when I’m in FL. 🤣
 

LeighM

Well-Known Member
Finally all caught up on 18 pages (that took a while and will teach me for being late!)

You don’t need to hear it again but all your photos are stunning. You are the photo expert on this forum. I tried a course once but it was all too complicated so my point and shoot with a good Zeus’s lense will have to do.

I had so many comment whilst reading but most have now gone from my head

We are staying at Coronado in Sept. Not my beloved POR as that was another £1500. I’m not sure how I feel about staying there but your comments make me hopeful. We haven’t booked the tower but we will see what the resort is like in a few weeks.

Riverside is my favorite resort but I LOVED the updated rooms at Coronado! I was concerned the first time I stayed there after staying at POR for years but I really enjoyed it. The rooms are better, the main pool is better, and I found the transportation better than PO. I'm honestly surprised that CSR is normally so much cheaper than Riverside - it must be bc POR has the boat transportation to DS bc it's nothing to do with the quality of the resort. If I can't stay at POR bc of the price, I'm now very content to stay at Coronado!!
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
We LOVE Typhoon Lagoon too; my favorite is shark reef!! Living in a state that sees some COLD winters I prefer tropical theming over winter themes anytime, especially when I’m in FL. 🤣
I thought shark reef was permanently closed? We went to TL on our 2016 trip, and I had thought shark reef was free. We got there only to find that they were charging 20 bucks per person for it, so we opted not to do it. Then shortly after that, I thought they closed it. We didn't bother going there in 2019.
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
We LOVE Typhoon Lagoon too; my favorite is shark reef!! Living in a state that sees some COLD winters I prefer tropical theming over winter themes anytime, especially when I’m in FL. 🤣

I thought shark reef was permanently closed? We went to TL on our 2016 trip, and I had thought shark reef was free. We got there only to find that they were charging 20 bucks per person for it, so we opted not to do it. Then shortly after that, I thought they closed it. We didn't bother going there in 2019.
Shark Reef closed in October 2016. And when we went in the 90s, Shark Reef was free!
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Still wondering how Alex would have fit in that chair this time..... @fractal jr

Think Give Up GIF by Boomerang Official

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Poor YiaYia! So glad you ‘rescued’ her 😁and I bet it was nice when you & your sister’s family both wanted her to come with you after that. ❤️
I love the ‘evil squinty eye’.

Yes, we were fighting for YiaYia!

The "kid" staring at Toni was starting to get creepy and it was bothering her so we did our job.

I also enjoy Typhoon more than Blizzard! Both are a good time though.

Agree! 👍

That's the first picture of the Guardians ship from the "back" - very cool!


It seems like it should look "bigger" from the back.

We LOVE Typhoon Lagoon too; my favorite is shark reef!! Living in a state that sees some COLD winters I prefer tropical theming over winter themes anytime, especially when I’m in FL. 🤣

Unfortunately, Shark Reef is no more. I did it once and enjoyed it.

Riverside is my favorite resort but I LOVED the updated rooms at Coronado! I was concerned the first time I stayed there after staying at POR for years but I really enjoyed it. The rooms are better, the main pool is better, and I found the transportation better than PO. I'm honestly surprised that CSR is normally so much cheaper than Riverside - it must be bc POR has the boat transportation to DS bc it's nothing to do with the quality of the resort. If I can't stay at POR bc of the price, I'm now very content to stay at Coronado!!

It's hard for me to compare as the last time we were in POR was 2007 but the bus transportation from CSR was very good.

I thought shark reef was permanently closed? We went to TL on our 2016 trip, and I had thought shark reef was free. We got there only to find that they were charging 20 bucks per person for it, so we opted not to do it. Then shortly after that, I thought they closed it. We didn't bother going there in 2019.

You are correct.

Shark Reef closed in October 2016. And when we went in the 90s, Shark Reef was free!

I'm not sure when they started charging. I remember doing it in 2007 with the whole family but don't remember paying $100 for the 5 of us.
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I discovered I could not exit EPCOT without taking several photos of SSE.

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Then with the kids. Sterg was taking a photo of me for his BeReal app, whatever that means. Once again the Lume CUBE light worked well to illuminate their faces.

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More normal but what are they looking at?

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Never saw a Black & Red monorail, my high school colors!

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Made it!

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