Pictures Taken by Pros

At most theme parks these days, it seems, they have their photographers wandering about taking pictures, and distributing little code cards to find your photos online later. An excellent idea, to be sure, another stream of revenue, and keeps people from having to lug their own cameras around and finding someone to take a shot of the whole family.



Here's what we got (even though, with the exception of the water parks, I had my own camera with me) submitted for your approval!!!











One of the better days we had was the day we went to the Disney Studios Park. If memory serves correctly, it was the 4th Disney park we visited. By that time, my wife & the younger boy were pretty worn out, so they stayed at the resort while the older boy & I went. This was coupled with the fact that the remnant of a tropical depression were blowing through that day. The day was mostly overcast & occasionally drizzly.



That made for many of the lines being pretty short. We pretty much walked onto the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror twice, and at the end of the evening we rode the Aerosmith coaster twice. Also, my older boy has patience for and even an interest in some things that my wife and younger boy would quickly find boring, and he's like me in that he'll stay as long as possible to get the most out of a park. We got to go through the museum-like area and the film of the Walt Disney story. The only ride I would have liked to visit that we didn't get on (due to the over an hour wait time) was the Toy Story shooting gallery ride, doubtless a clone of the one at California Adventure, one of my new favorites.







As opposed to last time, we actually made it on a few of the rides we missed out on last time. At Magic Kingdom, we made it onto Splash Mountain and Space Mountain (both much better than West Coasts'), although we didn't have time to visit the Heritage Square or whatever it's called area we missed last time, too.



At the Animal Kingdom park, they'd shut down the Expedition Everest coaster due to lightening last time, so that was our first stop this time. Made it on after a considerable wait, but also got fast passes to return later that night. Last time we'd gone, we'd seen a show on the in room programming that had that coaster as the best Disney coaster. It's pretty good, but I still like the Aerosmith one better. Got to ride the Dinosaur! ride, too, similar to the Indiana Jones ride out here, but differently themed. Got to take a good look at (and about a zillion pictures of) the Tree of Life. Oh, and the river raft ride that we waited for probably an hour or more last time was pretty much a walk-on. Rode it probably 3 or 4 times in a row.



At Epcot, they had Spaceship Earth open this time, so I got to ride it again, for the first time since 1983. They've added video screens to the cars, and at the end they use a photo of you taken at the beginning of the ride on a an interactive cartoon. Pretty hilarious. Rode it again later to take a video of that. Got to ride the Soaring, another California Adventure clone, and Maelstrom, which were both closed by the time we made it to them last time. Mission: Space we got to ride again, and the boy found someone's dropped fast pass for the GM Test Track ride.







The last few shots here are taken at Typhoon Lagoon, which is where we got the famous free shirts.

The Final Sleep Deprivation Post

Finally I'm going to post about our final vacation day. Nearly two months later.


This was the day that I had rescheduled to return the rental car on. The older boy and I got up early and went to Blizzard Beach again. He had kept trying to get the younger boy to check out the kiddy area there, and he wanted to go there that day. We got to go on a lot of slides.

We got the rental car back right on schedule, and headed back to the resort. Next, we headed out to the one Disney theme park that we had not yet been to, Disney MGM Studios.

Of all the theme parks, I think this one was my favorite!!! For one thing, it seems to be a lot smaller than the other three, so it doesn't take near as much walking to get around it.


It has a couple of duplicate rides, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror that we'd been on before at California Adventure, and Star Tours from Disneyland. The Tower of Terror was the first one we went on, it had a fairly short line. We had planned to let the younger wait with one of us while the other went, but he said he wanted to go. He was tall enough, so we let him. He didn't like it so much.

Over in the same area was the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster. We got fast passes for that to come back later.

There was a show featuring Drew Carey that was mostly sound effects that we went to, it was quite amusing. One of the cooler things they have is a live stunt show with lots of horsepower and pyrotechnics. I took quite a bit of video of that, maybe someday I'll post it.


Oh yea, finally bought a spray bottle with a fan for the youngest boy. He had been wanting one for a lot of the trip. They had them for about half as much at the shuttle launch, but they were sold out by the time I discovered this.

One of the other cool rides is one that goes through several scenes from classic movies.

Cool props galore there, too. See the umbrella attached to the light post (featuring an out of camera sprinkler overhead) a la "Singing in the Rain"???

Of course, our fast passes were for pretty far on in the evening. We made our way back to the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster, and wifey takes the older on it while the younger and I wait. After they get off, the older and I head on. It is nicely themed, you start out in a recording studio with Aerosmith (who the boy kept calling "Arrowhead"), then head out into the alley where a super stretch '59 Caddy limo roller coaster is waiting to take you to the concert. It gets into the launch area, and there are illuminated freeway signs saying traffic is jammed, etc. then it launches. It's supposed to be accompanied with a soundtrack of Aerosmith music, but there was no sound. NICE coaster, though!!! Mostly in the dark, with several inversions. It pulled up to the ride exit area, and the attendant apologized for the lack of sound, do you want to go again??? We all cheered loudly, to which the attendant shushed us and looked worriedly towards the ride loading area. It was quite amusing.

Second time around was even better, with the sound. Very cool that the last ride we went on there we actually got to ride twice!!!

Drift Away

A little something to try, now that Blogger has an add video function!!! We'll just see how this goes...

As promised, here is the video I shot of security guard Dave at EPCOT singing "Drift Away"

Just a side note, today is my one year anniversary of being at my job. I still like it quite a bit, and just yesterday my supervisor informed me that I'm getting a 5.9% raise in effect on the check I'll be getting this week. Strange, they give you a six month review, then every year from that date you get another review. Your raises, however, come annually from your hire date, so in effect your raises are six months from your review. My supervisor found it strange, too.

Water Park Pics

Here's something kinda cool. At the Disney parks, there are staff photographers wandering the park, taking pictures and handing out the number to find your picture online. This was especially helpful for me at the water parks, because I wasn't going to take my camera in the wave pool!!! Funny seeing them wading in the splash down pools with these REALLY NICE digital cameras, completely wrapped in plastic bags except the lens.

The other day I found the two little bracelets I'd gotten from the photographers at the water parks. Just in time, it would seem, it said that the pictures would only be available online for 30 days. I thought I might be too late already, but I wasn't. Of course, their deal is to try and sell you prints, a 5x7 for about $13 if I remember correctly. They have it so you can't just get the digital picture, but we have our ways, oh yes.

The top picture is on the end of the The Crushin' Gusher at Typhoon Lagoon, and the bottom one is on Team Boat Springs at Blizzard Beach. I don't believe I had made mention of this slide, but each water park had a variation of this slide, a giant tube raft for up to six riders at a time on a huge slide. Typhoon Lagoon has Mayday Falls, and Blizzard Beach has Team Boat Springs. Of the two, the latter is the best. It has a much longer slide, and it has a conveyor to haul the rafts to the top. On Mayday Falls, you have to lug your own raft.

Sleep Deprivation, Part 2

The second day we were in Florida was the day that Disney's Animal Kingdom was having the "Extra Magic Hours" in the evening, so when we finally got up after our late night, that was where we headed.




The park is divided up into various Continent areas, with a dinosaur land added in for good measure.


The first ride that we headed for was the Expedition Everest roller coaster, which my older boy noticed was the number one thrill ride on the Disney channel at the resort. It looks pretty cool, but it had a huge line. I figured we'd go there first and get fast passes, then come back and ride later.



When we got to the ride, it was far enough along in the day that they were no longer issuing fast passes for the ride. Oh well, I figured we would come back in the evening when all but the resort guests were out of the park.



In the meantime, there was a river raft ride that the younger really wanted to go on. It also had a sizable line, but we waited anyway. It was also no longer doing fast passes. A pretty typical river raft ride, we all got nicely soaked.



We then went on one of one of the animal exhibit walking tours. That was where I got the shots of the tigers, and the huge fruit bats. That was quite cool.



Not long after that, we went on an animal safari ride. It was near to the end of the time that they did those because the sun was going down. Got to see several animals on that, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions, gazelles, and many others.



After that, we headed over to the dinosaur land. They had a spinning wild mouse type roller coaster called the Primeval Whirl. The line was pretty short, and it was a decent coaster, although it didn't spin until the end, and before that it was pretty jerky.



By then the resort guests were the only ones left, so we went back to the Expedition Everest ride. The line was still pretty long, but not as bad as it had been. My wife and the oldest got into the line, and the younger and I went to go do other stuff (back in Dino land, where there was an elaborate play area), but on the way we found out that they had shut down Expedition Everest due to weather reasons. Huh??? Humid and warm keeps them from running it??? We met back up, and just a bit after that a lightening storm started up. OK, that makes some sense, I guess.


OK, one other ride that looked pretty cool, called "Dinosaur!!! The Ride", a time travel and motion simulator. All enclosed, it should be fine to ride on. Nope, it was closed down, too. Not long after that, the rain started up pretty good. Working our way through the park, we came upon the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show that they also have at Disney's California Adventure. It was exactly the same, but it was about the only thing open, and it was also indoors, out of the rain.

After that, we left. Everyone else had the same idea, and the wait for the shuttle bus back to the resort was pretty hellish. I was hoping to make it back to the park on one of the days to hit the two thrill rides we'd missed out on, but that never ended up happening.

The Sleep Deprivation Experiment

The flight out to Florida left of Saturday night, arriving a bit after 6 AM on Sunday morning, with a couple of hours layover in Las Vegas. Of course, there was a some delay leaving, but still in time to make the connection. Just enough time in Vegas to get a couple mini pizzas and bread sticks, go to the bathroom, and eat before getting on the Orlando bound flight.


Of course, the theory on travelling at night was that we could get some sleep on the plane. The youngest complied with this on the second leg of the journey without any encouragement. They did push the drink and snack cart through, and they had Shrek the Third for an in-flight movie, which the older boy and I both watched. I did a little bit of snoozing, as did the older boy, but wifey got none. I think she was too excited.



We arrived at Disney's Pop Century resort right at daybreak. Moved our stuff into our room, and then the boys and I decided to go to the Typhoon Lagoon water park during the first part of the day, while mom got a nap in. That didn't last long, the younger scraped his knee in the wave pool right at the beginning, and didn't want to have much more to do with that. We rode tubes around the outer river for a bit, then he was ready to go back to our room and nap some himself.

He fell asleep on the bus heading back, but when we got back he was ready to go check out the bowling pin pool. A little bit of that, and then back to our room (on the opposite end of the resort) through the buildings to check out some of the theming. Everyone was ready to eat by the time we got back, so we did that, then proceeded to the Disney World's Magic Kingdom park.



It was the featured park for Disney's "Extra Magic Hours", a plan where resort guests can remain in the parks for an additional two or three hours in the evenings, or get in an hour earlier in the morning. The featured park changes daily.



One of the first stops was to buy the Pal Mickey of which we had heard. He is pretty cool, but his volume is so low that you need to hold him to your ear to be able to hear what he says. The youngest wore him on the neck of his shirt almost every day.



We rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, shorter than the California version, but other than that virtually identical. The youngest was up for riding Thunder Mountain Railroad again, even though he didn't care for it when he got off last time.

Disney World has an area that Disney Land doesn't have, a Liberty Square, and the cars run four across instead of two by two in California. Also, they still have the People Mover ride there, although they don't call it that. Neither of my boys had ever seen that, it was before their time.

We never got a chance to ride Splash Mountain. It differs from the California version in that, instead of riding front to back, it has side by side seating. Interestingly, the older and I rode Space Mountain, and it has front to back seating, whereas the California version has side by side seating. It seems to be a quicker, better coaster in Florida, too.

And, look at this!!! Disney World has a rollable sphere, too!!!

I think it was around 1:30 AM when we left. Too much fun to do any sleeping!!!

Home, Home Again

Ah, it was a good vacation, but it is also good to finally be home!!!



Delays on both ends of first leg of the flights, but still made the connections.





I took 534 pictures



42 videos



and it took 28 minutes to copy them all onto my computer.



61 new messages in my E-mail



24 of them that I actually bothered to read.



There will be more to come, but for now, enjoy a few of the pictures I took!!!