Disney World, May 2008

We made this trip late in the spring to catch the Epcot Flower and Garden festival, and to make a visit to Sea World and their private swim park, Discovery Cove, during the warmer weather. It was plenty hot, and we got burned pretty badly, but the memories were well worth it.

Friday - Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

We arrived Thursday night and had a late dessert at Ragland Road before staying at our favorite Comfort Suites hotel. On Friday morning we drove over to Epcot to see all the flowers and gardens. We only rode a couple rides... Soarin' and Journey in the Imagination, and spent the rest of the day sightseeing.

Friday night - our room and Epcot

We went back to the car and drove over to the Boardwalk to checkin. We had room 2009, on the Boardwalk-side of the building just above the brewpub and with a great view of the sky over Epcot. We went to dinner at Chefs de France in Epcot, then back to the room to watch the fireworks from our balcony before taking an evening swim.

Saturday - Discovery Cove

We spent Saturday at Discovery Cove, the limited-access animal park run by the folks at Sea World. They let only 1000 people in per day to swim in their reef, visit the aviary, float around the lazy river, and have a close-encounter with live dolphins. These photos were taken with my A620 point-and-shoot, and are mostly from the aviary.

Saturday - Discovery Cove Reef

We spent an hour or so swimming around the artificial reef in Discovery Cove. These photos were taken with a disposable waterpoof film camera and then scanned to a CD by the developer.

Saturday - Discovery Cove Dolphin Encounter

We had our turn with the dolphins just after lunch on Saturday. They took a small group of us over to a cove to meet Scarlet, who is a 27-year-old dolphin who used to perform in Sea World's shows. We got to pet and feed her, ask all kinds of questions, and see her swim. At the end of the visit, they took us out to deep water to get a dolphin-ride back to the shallows! It was truely amazing. They didn't allow private cameras in the dolphin coves, so all of these were professionally taken by the DC staff.

Saturday Night - Epcot dinner

After finishing our day at Discovery Cove, we returned to the room and then headed over to Epcot for dinner at the English Pub. I took some dusk photos around the waterfall in Canda while we waited for our reservation. We were not able to get an outside table for the firworks, so we just enjoyed our meal and watched what we could through the windows of the restaurant.

Sunday - Sea World

Our Discovery Cove admission included complimentary admission to Sew World for the rest of the week. We went to see all my favorite shows: the sea loins, the housepets, the dolphins, and the orca show. We also wandered through the penguin and shark areas where it was cooler anyway. We were pretty burned at DC the day before.

Sunday Night - Magic Kingdom

After our afternoon break, we went to the Magic Kingdom for the evening, with a stop at the Polynesian for dinner at the Kona Cafe. We arrived close to dusk, so we picked a familiar curb on Main street and watched people go by while we waited for dusk and the Electromagic Parade. After the parade and fireworks, we wandered around late at night, catching our favorite rides and a few more night pictures.

Sunday Night - Electromagic Parade

We sat on the curb in front of the park across from Tony's restaurant, in the same spot we'd had for the afternoon parade back in January. I had a good, front-row view so I could use my tripod for steady pictures. Couldn't stop the motion blur from the floats going by, though.

Sunday Night - Wishes Show

We tried to get another good spot near the Tomorrowland Noodle Station, like we had last October for Hallow-Wishes. Unfortunately we were further under the roof and had a bad angle on the castle... most of the show was to the right of our view, and blocked by the roof. I had a lot of castle shots with pretty colors, so I kept them anyway.

Monday Night - Disney's Hollywood Studios

We stayed up pretty late at the Magic Kingdom, so we slept in on Monday and spent the late morning/afternoon shopping around Downtown Disney. That evening, we had a Dinner/Fantasmic package at Hollywood and Vine in the Studios, and we stay for extra magic hours to ctach some rides between and after the Fantasmic show. I took my tripod with, and I was asked twice if I was a Photopass photographer and could I take someone's picture.

Monday Night - Fantasmic Show

Had a pretty good aisle seat in the reserved section of the theater. I had room for my tripod, and the people in front of me left a space so I could shoot unobstructed. I couldn't do much justice to the water-curtain projection parts, but I tried. Some of them turned out pretty well.