Disney World, January 2008

Kellie and I took a trip to Disney World on January 19-23, 2008 to celebrate Kellie's birthday. She got an "It's my birthday" pin on the first night and wore it around the parks for the rest of the visit. She really enjoyed all the Happy Birthday wishes from the cast members and some of the guests too.

Arrival

We arrived Saturday evening after leaving nasty weather in NC, having a long and bumpy delayed flight, dealing with a credit card snafu at the rental car place, a late dinner, an even later scary trip to Walmart for supplies, and eventually finding a second hotel after the one with our reservation didn't have a spot for us. Sunday was a new day, and except for the cold weather, a very good one. We checked out and went straight to Epcot.

Sunday Morning - Epcot

We started Epcot in the Land pavilion. I got fastpasses for Soarin' while Kellie grabbed breakfast. We ate, then rode living with the land and saw the Circle of Life movie before our time was ready for Soarin'. After that we walked to get passes for Test Track, rode Ellen's Energy nap, and go to preview the soft-opening of the remodelled Spaceship Earth. Next was Test Track, then a walk to Morocco for lunch and a hike back to the car so we could take a break and check in to our room at the Boardwalk.

Sunday Evening - Epcot

After our break we returned to Epcot to wander around the countries to Germany for dinner in the Biergarten. The sunset was beautiful that evening, but it was still cold and windy. We had a good dinner and planned to camp out on a bench in Japan for the 9pm Illuminations. We sat there for less than 5 minutes before deciding it was much to cold to wait, so we headed back to the room for the night.

Monday Morning - Disney Hollywood Studios

On Monday we went over to DHS, which was recently renamed from Disney MGM Studios. Since this is a ride park, I put the SLR away and just carried my pocket camera. We fast-passed the Tower of Terror but couldn't manage the long wait for the Rockin Rollercoaster. We went to the Beauty show then a quick lunch that included discovering that we could get a pack of celery and carrot sticks to share for a low-carb snack. After lunch we went to the Muppet 3D show and then stayed for the parade before heading back to the room.

Monday - DHS Beauty and the Beast

This was Kellie's first time seeing the Beauty and the Beast show at the Studios. I put the cemera in manual and took most of these shots on the same settings, so they need to be adjusted for brightness in many cases.

Monday - DHS Stars and Motor Cars Parade

We'd heard ahead of time that Disney plans to replace this parade before our next visit, so we made sure we caught it while we could. I had a pretty good vantage point right at a bend in the path, where I could shoot over the heads of the people in front of me.

Monday Night - California Grill

We celebrated Kellie's birthday with dinner at the California Grill in the Contemporary hotel. We tried to setup our reservation to be able to watch the fireworks over at the MK, but there was a Pirates and Princesses show that night that changed our schedule. We still had a wonderful meal and view of the lagoon. After dinner we did some light shopping at Downtown Disney.

Tuesday Morning - Magic Kingdom

On Tuesday, we planned to spend the whole day at the Magic Kingdom. We arrived early and took the paddle-wheel boat across the lagoon to the park. Mickey and Minnie was done up in Pirate and Princess topiaries at the front gate. We stayed long enough to catch most of the rides in the NW corner of the park. It was so crowded, we decided not to stay the evening.

Tuesday - M R Dux!

We stopped for another carrot and celery snack in the Magic Kingdom. I noticed the passing crowd was suddenly splitting right in front of us, as a momma duck and her 13 chicks came waddling across the path! They came right up to our feet, and played around under our table looking for scraps and drinking the rainwater between the bricks. They stayed about 10 minutes, so all the while we had a crowd of kids around us staring and trying to pet them. It was very cute.

Tuesday - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

We rode the Thunder Mountain roller coaster, and I played with my camera. Kellie thought I was crazy for not holding the lap bar, but it wasn't that hard. These are the best shots from along the ride. It was hard to aim the camera from my chest, but I certainly didn't want to drop it!

Tuesday - Disney Dreams Come True Parade

After our ride on Thunder Mountain, we took the train around to the front of the park. We settled in the middle of town square for a front row seat for the 3pm parade, since neither of us had really sat and watched it before.

Tuesday Evening - Epcot Canada

After the parade, we went back to the room to figure out what we'd do for dinner. Kellie called Disney Dining and got us in to the San Angel Inn in Mexico. Dinner was surprisingly good. I had Pollo a la Rajas (Chicken with peppers and onions) and Kellie had Plato Mexicano (Beef Sirloin, Chicken Enchilada, and Beef Flauta). After dinner we found a bench in front of Canada right on the water. We sat there for nearly 3 hours waiting for the fireworks and listening to Off Kilter nearby. While there, a Disney Photopass photographer setup right in front of me, so a lot of these are my shots of him shooting other people.

Tuesday Night - Illuminations

Fireworks as seen from our bench in front of Canada. The smoke dirfted over us in the middle for a bit, but then it cleared out again.

Photos of Us

All the pictures taken of us, or of each other, from the whole trip.