May 2015 Flower Wars weekend mini meet!

The last days of Flower and Garden and the first weekend of Star Wars Weekends intersect during the week of Monday May 11th and Friday/Sat./Sun May 15th, 16th, 17th

So far 5 Pixelmaniacs will be taking trips during that time period.
Joanie Eddis-Koch
Dennis Dunkman

Mike Christoferson ‏
And Dave and Gillian

This is the perfect time to capture those two events

and meet up with some fellow friends.

Is anyone else thinking of coming? Perhaps we can tempt you??


Does anyone want to meet up for a lunch or a dinner at one of the parks?
Post here with your thoughts and suggestions.

~Joanie

 

As am I! I have a reservation at 9:15 am on that Monday for that breakfast. Great minds think alike! So far it's just me going but I am hoping to talk my husband into coming along for this trip.

~Joanie

 

I checked for Monday morning but the earliest available is 10:40am. I guess I should have planned sooner. Who am I kidding... I'll be eating my way around World Showcase at the food kiosks anyway. Lol

 

What are everyone's arrival/departure dates/times?

I will be on property from about noon on the 12th till about 4PM on the 19th. I'll be solo the first two days and the last day.

My FP+ window opens up in 10 days but I probably will not plan anything for the weekend yet since we don't know whats going on for show FP+ for the Star Wars festivities. Based on this thread from last year, we won't see a schedule till May 1st.

Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone will be the featured performer for the weekend for the Garden Rocks Concert Series at Epcot. If anyone is interested in that, shows are 5:30PM, 6:45PM and 8:00PM Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you don't know who these guys are (I didn't), here's a video:



@ddindy and I are opening MK on the 13th and as he mentioned above, we are doing the Star Wars Dine-In Galactic Breakfast! at Sci-Fi at 8AM on the 18th.

If anyone else has any plans or thoughts for anything you want to do as a group, please share...

 

I plan on buying Memory Maker for this trip so if anyone wants all their character and ride photos let me know and I will add you to my account and we can split the cost. OR, if anyone else already has it and wants to split up costs let me know.

 

I'll be flying down on Wednesday May 13th and arriving at Pop Century at around 11:00am. I'll be doing Epcot on Wed and Thursday and then I'll be hitting SWW Friday Sat and Sunday.
On Monday I have a breakfast reservation at the Sci Fi diner at Monday at 915 am.

I'll be leaving on Tuesday night the 19th on the last plane out, kicking and screaming. Listen for my cries of desperation at around 8pm somewhere near the Southwest terminal.

So far this is a solo trip for me but I am waiting to hear if a friend can make it.

There is an excellent thread on the Dis Boreds (It pains me to use excellent and the Dis boards in the same sentence) on Star wars weekends. About now is the time of year to start paying attention to this thread because all sorts of relevant information is going to be released about SWW and the collective consciousness of the hive mind tends to post some excellent info here: http://www.disboards.com/threads/of...nd-tricks-2015.3324422/page-130#post-53158346

So there is your tip of the day!

~Joanie

 

Does anyone want to meet up for dinner or lunch at some place??? I have a Dinner commitment on Monday night the 18th but I am free for the other times.

~Joanie

 

I'll be flying in on Wednesday, May 13th in the morning. I plan on going to MK first thing (kind of a tradition) and also first thing in the morning Thursday for EMH before sliding over to Epcot. Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be a mix of Epcot and HS for the two events. I generally have an idea of where I'll be going each day but I'm up for anything. I fly out on Wednesday, May 20th in the late morning.

 

@rocket2722 Dennis and I will be opening MK on the 13th. Let us know when you can met up. Not sure about @ddindy but I will likely hop to Epcot for the afternoon/evening hours and IllumiNations, then probably back to MK for close.

My girlfriend and her son arrive late on the 13th. On Thursday (14th) we will be opening MK again and then heading to Epcot at some point for a dinner, likely at San Angel Inn. If anyone would like to join us, (tagging @Joanie Eddis-Koch here, but all are welcome) let me know. Its one of the few places we have not tried at Epcot so if anyone has been and thinks we should avoid it, let me know.

Friday the 15th will (obviously) be reserved for an early arrival at Studios. We like to be in the lot by 7AM.

That's about the extent of the detailed planning at this point...

 

@ExploringWDW & @ddindy, I should get to MK between 12-1pm and staying till close. I was going to catch the FoF parade and then just wander around. I have a list of images on my wish list but generally approach the parks in a relaxed walk-around approach. We'll have to meet up sometime at night. Would love to get some fresh takes on the parks at night.

Last year there was a pretty good fireworks show at HS for SWW. Looks like they are doing it again this year. I captured it from Echo Lake but would like to improve my take-aways if possible.

 

I'll join you for Dinner Thursday night at Epcot no matter where you decide to go. I have not been to San Angel Inn in ages and ages so I don't have the scoop on it. Thanks for the invite!
~Joanie

 

I just wrote up a little thing on my recommendations for shooting the Festival of Fantasy parade. Here is the link to the write up on my Flicker page : https://www.flickr.com/photos/marlton-mom/16551179499/

and here is a bonus link with a shot I got from the Train station platform, to the right of the flag pole: https://www.flickr.com/photos/marlton-mom/16001788102/
This last one was taken in November on a partly cloudy day...

And I am right there with you concerning the SWW fireworks. Supposedly there are some good spots outside of the park, kind of near the walkway up at the DHS end, heading towards the Boardwalk inn. I'm wondering if that far back the 70-200mm would be the best lens to use but I won't know until I get to the spot and set up with that lens to see how it would look.

Also of note is that Illuminations now has laser beams as part of the show. The only two I saw were mounted on the English and Canadian pavilion buildings. I had originally thought that they would be mounted on all of the buildings in the world showcase but the one night I saw them they were only on those two buildings. If it's foggy or smokey, like when you have the Holiday Illuminations tag I think that is when the laser beams really "shine".

I think I'm going to try processing some of those Illuminations Laser beam shots I took last week to see how they came out.

~Joanie

~Joanie

~Joanie

 

Does anyone who is coming in May need a spare NIKON EN-EL-3e battery (Nikon D 90) ?
We sold the D90 but I have this extra battery. I can't mail it but I can hand it off to a nikon user that can use it during the May trip.
~Joanie

 

Joanie: The place on the walking path is either here or here. Dennis' shot was from one of those locations. I shot from the front entrance.

 

Very nice! Thanks for the great info. Don't you just love how you can figure out how to line up shot's using Google Earth. And now I'm thinking that wider is definitely the way to go.

~Joanie

 

Google Earth is definitely great for photography. Have you ever used The Photographers Ephemeris? Awesome for sun and moon angles...

 

Here is the Lazer Beamz Illuminations shot. I was right outside of Germany on a little bump out over the water. I'm now seeing that one of the Laser beams is on top of Canada (somewhere) and the other one looks like it's on the bridge between France and England.
~Joanie
2 25 15 long windy Illuminations exposure, now with lazer beamz! by Joanie Eddis-Koch, on Flickr

 

I LOVE The Photographers Ephemeris!!! I have it on my phone and now that the one for PC's is web based I think it's a little easier to use.

~Joanie