A massive, huge, extensive, amazing Disney trip for me - and I just booked it this afternoon to start this weekend...truly amazing I was able to work this out with my schedule, and to be so lucky... Starting Saturday, July 23, I'll be checking into my Old Key West studio villa...spending the night roaming the park of my choice to kick off the grand trip. ; After a fitful sleep, I'll rouse the next morning to pack, checkout, and leave. ; Quite a trip! I've got a business trip to take to Tampa for Monday and Tuesday, of which I'm staying in Tampa Sunday night and Monday night...so I figured it was a waste of a weekend to sit around at home for Saturday, wake up early Sunday, and drive 4 1/2 hours to Tampa that day, when I could instead wake up Saturday, take the 3 hour drive to Disney, hang out there for the afternoon and evening, have a long relaxing sleep, sleep in, have breakfast at Ohana, then take the fast 1 hour drive to Tampa around noon to check in there. ; I'll arrive in Tampa much more relaxed after a much shorter drive, and even some time to pop around some favorite spots in Tampa Sunday afternoon and evening. I've decided as this is primarily a business trip, and I'm going with just a small weekender bag, that I'll just bring the mirrorless camera this time, and leave the DSLR kit at home.
Thanks Scott - and too bad on just missing, John. If I could only work out a way to not have to leave my business meeting at 4pm and drive back home that night and work the next day, I'd do it...another Disney trip on the back end! ; Unfortunately, it's a 4 1/2 straight shot home and 8am work day Wednesday. ; At least it will make the week feel shorter!
OK...so I'm here. ; And it's hot. ; Not so crowded at Epcot, where I went first. ; But it is hot. ; Got an awesome room at OKW across from the main building, and got here around 3pm today - jumped right on the Epcot bus after dropping my bags in the room...I was the only person on the bus. ; Oh, it is a bit hot though. ; Because I skipped lunch (and breakfast) I decided an early dinner would suffice - so at 5pm I was passing Le Cellier, and I figured I'd get a laugh out of being turned down without a reservation. ; Instead, I was sitting inside in 3 minutes, ordering cheddar beer soup and iced tea (because it's hot). ; Had a great rib eye steak and lots of pretzel bread, and a bunch of iced teas (to counter the heat). ; When I got out, Off Kilter was just about to start, so sat in and enjoyed the guys belting out the Celtic Canuck rock (Jaime seemed to agree that it was hot - Randy and Tony weren't with the band - they had the fill ins). ; Circled World Showcase, had a margarita (frozen...because it was so hot out). ; Decided to pop back to the room right around sunset - so I could go to the store, get some milk for the room tonight (and coffee tomorrow morning), then shower, change (because I was sweating, because it's hot), and head back out to MK which is open until midnight tonight. ; Hey, did I mention it's hot? ; As in 104 degrees in the shade hot. ; Now that the sun went down, it should be cooler - hoping MK isn't too packed. That's it for now...heading to the shower, so I can get back out there!
LOL about the weather description. For some reason I suddenly heard the Robin Williams line from Good Morning Vietnam. Erich
LOL! ; I have to laugh because, yes it is hot down here, but back home in New Jersey it was close to 110! ; This is the second summer in a row where I traveled and the temp at home was in the 100's! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well I'm now in Tampa, looking out over the bay to St Pete, and it's still hot - but not as bad as Orlando. ; The coasts get a bit of the breezes off the sea and usually don't get quite as hot as the center. I must say, I experienced a *first* for a Disney trip last night, coming back from Magic Kingdom. ; I stayed until about 12:30am or so, then headed out to the bus back to OKW...of course at park close the busses get pretty full, but we were late enough to not be a standing-room bus, just a well packed all-seats-taken bus. ; As many of you may know, the busses have 'theme' music for the resort you are staying at, and the OKW theme music is a mix of drunk country, reggae, and Jimmy Buffet (whatever category you put him in!). ; It all started when Margaritaville came over the bus speakers. ; A group of 5 or 6 in the back of the bus started singing along with it, at first lightly...but then a few others near them piped in as well, and they got louder. ; Well, within 10 seconds the whole bus, excluding some confused kids wondering what was wrong with all the adults, was singing the lyrics out loud. ; With gusto. ; There was noone not participating who was over the age of 20 or so...old couples, families, forty-somethings, groups of college-agers and 20 somethings...it was quite something to witness! ; When Margaritaville ended, and everyone was chuckling and chatting, Bob Marley's One Love started, and a good 70% of the bus continued the singalong, the others probably just not knowing the words or they'd be in it too. ; They picked up on the choruses, but couldn't keep up during the words. ; Twas a Disney moment indeed! BTW - that Magic, Memories, and You castle show was pretty darn cool - first time I've seen it. ; I didn't stay late enough in June, so this time I actually had forgotten about it completely, watched Wishes from Frontierland, then was wandering over to Tomorrowland and crossing directly in front of the castle when the P.A. announced the show starting in 5 minutes. ; I was front and center with noone standing in front of me, so I decided to set up the tripod and watch the show. ; It took the first few minutes to figure out that shorter shutter speeds were better, so I cranked up the ISO to 800 so I could run 2-3 second shutters, and started firing off the changing castle images. ; I can't wait to get home later this week to sort through the photos on the big screen, because they look awesome on the camera's LCD!
