CCIntrigue...aka Gwen

54 minutes ago, Mikeypro said:

Nice photos, Gwen! Cycled by your site today 7ish, but ya'll must have been in the parks. Perhaps we can all get together when NaCole gets here.

We were here!  You should have knocked.  Gretchen, another Fiend, was here visiting.  We found your site around 4:30 today but it didn't appear you were home.

Had planned to do an update tonight, but I got pleasantly sidetracked by Gretchen.

31 minutes ago, Travisma said:

What camera/lens are you using for the indoor and night shots.  

A guy on another Disney FB page had some pirates shots that were really clear, said he was using a Sigma 35mm 1.4.  Next day he had night time parade shots and said he was using a Nikon 70-200 1.8 lens.

I looked them up on Amazon, they were $900 and $2000, way more than I paid for my camera!

Yours are really clear and bright also.

I use two lenses.  My really low light lens is a Nikon f/1.4 50mm prime lens.  The one I use most is an 18-300mm Nikon zoom.

Check out B&H Photo's prices.  I have ordered all my equipment from them for years.  Both the prices you said are way, way more than you should pay for either lens.  

Thank you, Marty!

Our kids liked it when they were young too.

No, unfortunately they are just serving food.

Saturday, 9/17 -- Oldies but Goodies

This morning was beautiful and sunny.

We went to visit Bill and Christina for awhile before they had to leave.  Then we went to the MK for a few hours.  Our first stop was:

I had decided I'd like to spend the day seeing two attractions we haven't experienced in years.  Country Bears was the first.

Next I stuck my head into the Diamond Horseshoe.  We hadn't seen it since it has reopened.

You can see this awful crane from almost anywhere in the park:

Next up was another "it's been a long time."

I took lots of pictures of all four scenes, and once I get home I hope to do panoramas of each one.  The laptop screen is just too small to do it here.

See, I told you that crane is visible from almost everywhere!

We came back to the fort.  David had to blow off the top of the moho and a few other chores.  On the way back I took this picture of one of our neighbor's displays:

A thunderstorm came up suddenly just as David got off the roof.  We got ready for our dinner reservations.  I was really looking forward to this one. 

So where did we go?  Cape May!  Crab legs are one of my very favorite meals ... yum!  I had a little salad and veggies:

The brussels sprouts were so good!

Next up was 7 clusters of crab legs:

Followed by a few small desserts -- flan with berries, oreo cookie cheesecake, and flourless chocolate cake.

After dinner we went out to the Boardwalk area so I could take some pictures and play with my new star filter.

Just as we got to our car the fireworks began at DHS.  We saw a few of them through the trees as we headed back to the Fort.

11 hours ago, sherryberry said:

I'm enjoying your report and all of the pictures! Thanks!

7 hours ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

tarrive.

See you soon!❤️

14 minutes ago, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said:

Christina!! Great family picture of them all. Glad you had time to spend with family. It is so hard watching those we love fade, it gives great perspective to our current grumbles. Your food pictures have made me hungry.

Don't know what I did wrong.  Tried to quote four posts, including Marty's.  I got 2.5 posts!

Anyway, thank you all!  Marty, save!  NaCole, see you soon!

1 hour ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Especially the color of the golf cart.

Ugh ... that ugly Carolina blue color.  You know we aren't Carolina fans.

And that brings me to today ...

Friday, 9/16:

We headed to Brandon (near Tampa) to visit my aunt.  On the way we stopped in Lakeland for breakfast.

We spent most of the day with Jo.  It was a hard day watching yet another family member being confused and confined.  But she still looks good.

On the way back to the Fort I-4 was very crowded.  We enjoyed the scenery.  David and I love the low fluffy clouds.  We rarely see them at home, but when we do we say "oh, look, there are Florida clouds!"

This cloud looked like a mountain.  It reminded me of Everest.  But something got lost in the photo.

Finally we saw this welcome sight:

And then this:

When we got back to the Fort, we had some wonderful visitors:

Soon after they left it started to rain.  We stayed in for the rest of the evening.

No plans for tomorrow except for dinner at Cape May ... we'll see what the day brings.

4 minutes ago, Travisma said:

Where do you get the FP for Bobs Dock?

LOL!

Thursday, 9/15:

We had breakfast again at TE.

Then we went to AK for another first -- Flights of Wonder.

I had the opportunity for some truly great photos, and I blew it.  I was seated in the direct center on the last row.  Several of the birds flew directly over me -- some so close that I had to duck.  And I didn't get a single shot of them.  Next time I will be prepared.

We went through the Maharajah Jungle Trek to see the tiger, but he was over the hill in the shade.  But we did find this guy:

It was so hot in AK!  We walked the rest of the way through Asia and then left.

Once back at the Fort we went looping again.  The 200 loop is looking really bare.  They have cut back the shrubs and removed some large trees -- including one beautiful oak tree.

We then checked out Bob's dock.  He wouldn't like what we found.

Wednesday, 9/14:

We went to the Golden Corral on Vineland for breakfast.  It was just so-so.  Then to the Disney outlet and the Coach outlet.  I got some bargains:

Starting at the top and going clockwise:  Black Mickey shirt, Coach bag, Disneyland cap, winter scarf, Mickey rain hat.  I'd been watching this purse at our local Coach outlet, and they had it $63 less here!  

This was our first day with no plans and no FP+.  For the next few weeks we're winging it.  We decided to go to F&WF in the early afternoon.  We thought we'd be smart and drive to DHS and take the boat over so David wouldn't have to walk through Future World to get there.  

Big mistake!  It took us over an hour to get to EPCOT!

Our first stop was at Hops and Barley for David to get a lobster roll.

It was much better than it has been in previous years.

We stopped at Australia for me to get a lamb chop.  Sorry, I took a bite out of it before I remembered to take a picture.

Next we stopped at Hawaii for the slider.  I took a huge bite out of it before I remembered to take a picture.  Sorry.  But it looked just like and tasted the same as last year.

While we were eating the slider, I found the smallest pineapple I've ever seen.  It was only 2" tall.

Our last stop was at Ireland for the Cheese Plate and the Warm Chocolate Pudding.

David said he would walk back to DHS rather than spend another hour on the boat, so off we went.  It was a short walk to the Boardwalk area.  This was all a first for us.

The trip back took 20-25 minutes, and it was a very pleasant walk.

Once back at the Fort we went looping again.  We'd been seeing this "golf cart" for days:

The 200 loop was emptied out several days, and tree work has been going on:

And some kind of work was going on across the street from the Settlement bus stop, but we never figured out what they were doing.

Tuesday, 9/13:

Another MK day.

I spent more time and money in the Pandora store.  We visited a few attractions and then had lunch at BOG.

After lunch we walked around awhile.  It was a very low crowd day.  Standby at Space Mountain was only 10 minutes!

It looked like a storm was coming, so we hopped on the monorail and went over to the Contemporary.  The Orlando Eye from the fourth floor:

Went back to the Fort and looped awhile, and then it stormed hard for hours.

Okay, guys.  Wi-fi in the 700 loop went out about dinnertime yesterday.  We've been out of town all day, and now it's working again.  Will try and get some updates posted.

19 hours ago, dvccamper said:

Am enjoying reading along on your trip, Gwen! Just about 2 1/2 weeks for us and we'll be there for F&W. Can't wait! Is it still super hot?

Yes, it's been around 90 every day!

9 hours ago, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said:

Savor every . single . moment of your trip Gwen.

Thanks!  We are!

8 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

By the way- how were the scents working for your viewing?  When I went, I only smelled one, but there are three.  I miss the orange and pine scents from the original.

TCD

I remember scents, but they only specific one I can remember right now is the dirt in the elephant scene.

3 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

What did bother me a lot was all of the CGI they used in the film.  All of the animals are fake.  The polar bears and elephants shown in your photos are fake.  So is the entire Taj Mahal scene.  The building, the people, the stupid bird that flies in front of you- all of it.

 

What about the Great Wall of China?  Is it fake too?

3 hours ago, Travisma said:

was Anna and Elsa in it waving at you?

Thankfully they left the two of them out.

I just heard Kassie bark.  That low half bark, half growl she made when she heard something odd.  I looked up to find her.  

7 hours ago, Travisma said:

Potato salad in a Greek Salad is the real way to make the salads.  There was an article recently in the Tampa paper about how the potato salad got started in Greek Salads.

I hope that never catches on at home.  It doesn't sound good to me.

10 nights down at the Fort ... 20 nights to go ... and already I don't want to go home!  Could I just live here, please?

6 minutes ago, Katman1356...Jason said:

According to my pics back to at least 2012

Great!  But he is new to us.

6 minutes ago, Katman1356...Jason said:

 

We've never seen him before!

Monday, 9/12:

A DHS day.  First up was TSMM.  We got to ride the new track, which was great.  If you ride the original tracks, you either have to climb stairs or, like me, go up a disability ramp and board at a different location from everyone else.  If you ride the new track, ECVs can go along with everyone else because there are no stairs.  It was great!

The exit of the new track takes you all the way down to the end of the road and against the construction fence.

We had lunch at the Derby Lounge.  We each had a cobb salad ...

And then we split the HBD Dessert Trio.  (Okay, I had just a few bites.)

That was (left to right) Double Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee, Brown Derby Original! Mini Grapefruit Cake, and Chocolate Marscapone Spere Infused with Apricot-Orange Jam.  The creme brulee was liquidy (is that a word?}   I didn't care for the consistency.  The grapefruit cake was wonderful!  I thought I was in heaven until I tasted the chocolate.  Oh, my!  There are no words!

After lunch we saw Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

Then we left DHS and drove over to POFQ.  I'd always wanted to visit there.

Then we decided to walk over to POR.  We stayed there in 2004 when we drove down for a quick trip to attend Matthew and Erica's wedding.  We visited Boatwright's Dining Hall, where we held the rehearsal dinner.

We walked over to the bridge where we took prewedding photos.

We were disappointed that the water wheel wasn't working.

The entire area has really changed.

We walked back to POFQ, where I saw these two bromeliads:

Bromeliads are epiphytes.  They never cease to amaze me.

We made our way back to Dolly, and it started raining.  Just enough to cool things down a bit.  After the rain stopped, we went looping for awhile. Then I cooked dinner and we crashed.

Sunday, 9/11:

After a quick breakfast in Dolly, we headed to EPCOT to use our FP+s for Soarin'.  The new film is great.  But see anything odd?

We were seated in the last two seats next to my scooter.  Everything was so distorted!

After Soarin' we enjoyed WS.  I love this picture from the UK gardens.  The water drop looks almost like a diamond in this caladium leaf:

I've wanted to try Spice Road Table for years, and I finally convinced David.

I had the fried calamari.  Some of it was pretty good, but some of it was terrible.  David said it tasted like fried rubber bands.

He had the lamb sausage, which was a little spicy for him but I thought it was good.

Afterwards David wanted dessert, so we went to the CS at the American Pavilion and he got peach cobbler.

We both agreed it wasn't good.  It wasn't sweet enough, had very few pieces of peach, and, of all things, it was topped with oatmeal.

Here's the new entertainment in Italy. A little better than the flag wavers.

And this is the entertainment in Germany.  I didn't hear any yodeling.

We walked the rest of the way around WS and then came back to the Fort and went looping before I cooked dinner.

Yesterday Space Mountain's standby was 10 minutes.  It was a great day to be in MK.