Just returned last night from a quick trip to WDW. ; We surprised the boys Friday after school and told them we were going somewhere for the long weekend (the boys had Tuesday off also due to Teacher Professional days). ; My wife handed out the annual passes to everyone as she usually does when we get to the front of a park, but the kids thought it was a total joke. ; We told them they had 5 minutes to collect anything they wanted to take with them, books, iPods, etc because we had a flight to catch. ; My wife and I were also celebrating our wedding anniversary so well so the timing of this trip was great. ; The realization that we were indeed heading to WDW finally sank in when we boarded our Southwest Flight foam Providence to Orlando. ; After arriving at MCO and getting our rental car we headed to a Marriott Courtyard for the night. ; Since it was late and we were not going to the parks that night we decided to use a free night I had obtained from a Marriott promotion. ; In the morning we were checking into the Polynesian!! We did not let the boys know where we were staying until we arrived at the Poly and they were excited as we were to be staying there. ; We figured since we were only staying three nights to splurge and stay on site at one of the nicer places on property and we have always liked the Poly. The sweaty part of the thread title was apparent as soon as we landed and did not let up the entire trip! ; It was very hot and humid, I mean SUMMER hot and humid. ; Our previous trip in June/July felt a little cooler than what we experienced on this trip. ; We did not let it impede our fun though, in fact it helped us to take a bit slower pace and enjoy more pool time at the Poly and Grand Floridian (where Poly guests have pool privileges) as well as enjoying the Sea Raycers on Bay Lake and just plain relaxing. Saturday morning after checking in & dropping of the luggage at the Poly, we headed to The Studios and went right for Toy Story mania to get fast passes. ; After getting the fast passes we headed straight to Rock and Roller coaster and rode that after a very short wait. ; Overall, the wait times for the entire trip were pretty short and actually most of the time the waits were shorter than what was posted. ; After going on Star Tours and taking in Muppetvision 3D, we headed on over to Toy Story Mania. ; Brendan has been reviewing some of the advice about getting higher scores and it paid off because he now has the household high score, just missing the 200,000-point mark (I’m going to have to work on this during Pixelmania). ; After riding the Great Movie Ride and walking around a bit, we were notified that our room at the Poly was ready so we decided to head on over get and in our room and go for a swim. ; The main pool (Volcano) pool at Poly is really nice, but a bit on the small side. ; After swimming and relaxing for a bit we went to church and then headed over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our 7:30pm reservation for dinner. ; Due to a mess up upon check in, we were not seated until approximately 8:15 or so. ; Apparently when my wife checked in, the manager thought she was a walk up customer and did not have a reservation. He later apologized at the table and offered us drinks on the house. ; The food at Boma was great as usual although the lines at the buffet were longer than we have experienced in the past. ; After dinner we were all beat since we hadn’t slept much the night before and got up early for DHS, so we called it a fairly early night and decided to get some much needed slept. [attachimg=1] Sunday morning we had an 8am reservation for breakfast at the Crystal Palace and I took advantage of the early arrival to get some shots of the Main Street area and castle without too many people in the way. ; We had a great breakfast at the Crystal Palace and headed over to Splash Mountain since this has become Ryan's favorite ride. ; Luckily we did not get very wet to start the day and proceeded to the Haunted Mansion were the wait time was nothing! ; We then rode the Liberty Belle (great photo opportunities) and Jungle Cruise before heading over to EPCOT on the monorail. ; I did enjoy not having to do as much driving since we stayed at a monorail resort. Arriving at EPCOT we headed straight to Japan since we wanted to see the Miyuki the candy artist. ; On our Summer trip she made Ryan a panda bear and he got picked again and this time he requested an eagle. ; We walked around World Showcase a bit before deciding to go back to the Poly for some much needed pool enjoyment, it was like a frying pan at EPCOT. ; After relaxing and going for a swim we got ready for our dinner reservations at the California Grill. ; We checked in on floor 2 if I recall correctly and were then taken up in the elevator to the California grill. ; Before dinner I setup the tripod on the observation deck to take some shots of MK and Bay Lake Towers. Our plan was to enjoy dinner and then view Wishes from the outside deck. ; Dinner was running a little behind and by the time we were done it was too crowded to setup my tripod on the deck, so we just enjoyed the show from our table. ; After Wishes we headed over to MK to enjoy nighttime ride on the TTA and the Jungle Cruise. ; I didn’t enjoy the new spiel at all on the TTA; it has an American Idol/High School Musical feel to it and to me just doesn't sound right. [attachimg=2] [attachimg=3] Earlier in the day I had contacted Tim via Twitter or Test message and he mentioned he and Jeff would be shooting in MK during Extra Magic Hours. ; I was really looking forward to meeting up. ; After the family decided to head back to the Poly I tried to hook up with Tim & Jeff, but due to a couple of missed/delayed messages (probably due to being exhausted from the heat & humidity) I never did catch up with them which was too bad since I was looking forward to that. ; I did get some tripod shots of the castle while I was there along with some Tomorrowland shots. ; I headed back to the Poly exhausted from the heat and humidity that seemed to get worse at night for some reason. ; Could also have been the cappuccino I had at the Cal Grill!! [attachimg=4] Monday was the day we would be attending Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party so we decided to relax more during the day and use the facilities at the Poly. ; After a nice breakfast at Kona Cafe we headed off to the boating area and rented a couple of Sea Raycers and cruised bay Lake. ; I regret not taking my camera with me since I could have had some nice shots of Bay Lake Towers from the Lake. ; After that we took the launch from the Poly over to the Grand Floridian to use the pool facilities there for a change. ; The boys enjoyed the pool as well as the ping-pong tables available. ; I took advantage of being at the Grand Floridian and took some shots of the resort, overall a very relaxing day. ; We headed back to the Poly for some rest and prepared for the party at MK that night. ; Now when we planned on attending the party with costumes, we figured it would be a bit cooler than it actually was, so our costumes were a tad warm to be wearing in this weather. ; My wife went as Minnie, Ryan as Captain Jack Sparrow and Brendan and I dressed as Jedi Knights in long brown robes with long sleeves (very warm). ; Despite the heat and humidity, we had a great time at the party. ; The parade and fireworks were fantastic and we enjoyed the candy as well as the general ambiance of the park. ; The lighting of the attractions was great and we took advantage of the very short ride lines. ; The Haunted Mansion of course was cool, especially with the Cast Members having on their special Halloween makeup. ; We closed the park that night by one last ride on Splash Mountain. [attachimg=5] Tuesday we would be heading home later in the day, so we packed, dropped off our luggage with the bell staff and headed to Animal Kingdom since we had not gone there yet. We also made a last minute reservation at Tusker House for a lunch. ; We headed to Expedition Everest and decided to ride it right away since the wait was not very long and we wanted to see the regular queue. ; After riding we grabbed a fast pass for Everest and then headed over to the Safari ride. After a short wait and not seeing much activity on the Safari ride, we went over to ride Everest again and this time we ended up in rows 1 and 2 which the boys were excited to get. ; I also decided to hold onto my camera and see what shots I could get on the way up. ; The Yeti was fully functional both times we were on the ride. ; It was time for lunch so we headed over to the Tusker House for lunch and we were not disappointed. ; This is our favorite place to eat by far at AK. ; My wife really was disappointed we did not get to ride the WDW railroad at MK, so we had planned earlier to head back to the Poly and grab the launch over to MK and that is what we did. ; We took the grand circle tour and caught the parade at Main Street station right after, perfect timing. ; We headed back to the Poly via the launch, which was waiting for us it seemed after the parade, grabbed our luggage and headed to the airport for our flight to Providence. [attachimg=6] It was a great trip even though it was hotter than we had expected it to be and we were finally able to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party that we had dreamed of doing for some time. Some photography lessons learned based on this trip: ALWAYS have your camera ready on a ride if possible, you never know when the ride will stop and you have an opportunity to grab a shot you never thought would happen. ; We stopped once on TTA near the Progress City and on Haunted Mansion in the attic. ; I was ready on TTA, but not on the Haunted Mansion. Even on a roller coaster (Expedition Everest) there will be time when you can take a shot you weren't expecting, be ready with (and careful to hang onto) your camera. ; On the long climb up on EE there is a good shot to take looking right towards the Tree of Life. Practice and learn what you don't know how to do before your trip. ; I still struggle with flash photography and need to learn what I am doing. ; I also struggle with nighttime parade photography and always waffle about using flash or not using flash. [attachments posted prior to 4/27/2010 have been deleted by admin. be sure to link images to make sure they don't get removed]
Excellent trip report- I wish we had been able to hook up! ; Tim & I were in the MK until 2am on Sunday night/Monday morning and I was back there all day Monday with the family until it closed for the Halloween Party at 7pm. I agree with you on the heat- for some reason it seemed more hot and uncomfortable both evenings than it did during the day- I think it's because the breeze dies down.
Great report - glad you managed to have a great time despite our rather ridiculous Florida heat. ; You can't really explain it to people - they give you the 'yeah, yeah it's hot I get it' spiel...but only when you get down here and feel it can you understand 'Oh, you meant it's really miserable, convection oven, inside-the-sauna-with-too-much-water-on-the-hot-rocks, the-Congo-jungle-would-be-a-relief-compared-to-this hot'. ; And that's even for Florida, where this time of year is always upper 80s with high humidity...not exactly fall brisk. ; We haven't been out of the 90s since mid-May. I am still waiting for one of those stopped ride opportunities - I always have the camera ready, but have had no luck at all with them (one stop in September on the TTA found me sitting in the dark entry corridor of Space Mountain!).
Sorry we missed you the night if magic kingdom emh. ; My phone was on silent and I wasn't hearing the text message chime. ; Nice pics!
Thats awesome! I always wished my parents had done something like that. Not told me until we were leaving. I know a family at work that woke their kids up on Christmas morning and told them they were going to Disney. Aweosme!
Yes, Ryan said we could do that anytime to him! ; Timing was right to because they did not miss any school with the holiday on Monday and a no school day on Tuesday for teacher professional day.
Bring up this trip when he gets into one of those "worst parents ever" phases. You can tell him "we ; can't be that bad...remember that Disney trip?" Haha! Hey I just thought of something. Saw that commercial where you volunteer and get a free day at Disney. Don't they realize my JOB (teaching 3s and 4s) is volunteer work. LOL!
Down there at the same time and had an elderly woman pass out TWICE due to diabetes and the heat during the Backstage Safari tour. ; She was carted of to the hospital for recovery. ; I vote that if it gets that hot again in October that Disney build a Universe of Energy in each of the other parks.
