Everyone Hail To The Pumpkin Song! October '14 TR **Cadaver Dans 11/24

[DaveinFallsChurch]

wonderful shots of Celebrate the Magic! Actually, much clearer than I have ever seen it in real life

I love how spread out the fireworks for Hallowishes is ... we really got a sense of it watching from the Poly Beach - felt like it spread from the Grand Floridian over to the Contemporary

I know what you mean. Even the regular Wishes looks and feels so much more spread out when watching from Poly or even just from the Contemporary. I love love love the panoramic perimeter fireworks for Hallowishes! I think they use similar perimeter shots for the 4th of July fireworks as well. Hoping to catch that one of these days.

You know, so many people think that dead center of the hub near the partners statue is a perfect Wishes (or Hallowishes, or Merry Christwishes) spot. Not so much. I find there to actually be too close and you miss out on much of the bigger fireworks. I like to be back a bit like you did.

Geez Dave, your Celebrate pictures actually look likea painting they're so clear. Beautiful.

Haha, the first time I saw the Frozen segment, nobody knew the words.

And then your Hallowishes photos. Just... WOW.

Totally agree Rob. Even from where we were standing on Main Street you can see that some of the lower fireworks were obstructed by the Castle. If you move up to close pretty much all of the big bursts will be hidden by the castle and you won't get the full effect.

 

[khertz]

BEAUTIFUL Hallowishes photos! I have always loved watching from smack in the middle of Main Street, so I'm glad you got to experience that for the first time. There is really nothing like it! I wonder if DH knows about that ground elevation trick? I'll have to make sure I tell him before our next trip.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

BEAUTIFUL Hallowishes photos! I have always loved watching from smack in the middle of Main Street, so I'm glad you got to experience that for the first time. There is really nothing like it! I wonder if DH knows about that ground elevation trick? I'll have to make sure I tell him before our next trip.

Thanks. And completely agree that Main Street viewing is the way to go!

I bet your DH knows about the Main Street hump for photography. I have a vague recollection that he and I talked about it last year while we were photographing Hallowishes in front of Crystal Palace?

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

I took this photo at the end of our second MNSSHP on Halloween after DW and the kids turned in early to our room. After the second Boo To You parade I had spent most of the final hour of the party taking in the scenery. I really enjoy the lighting they use for some of the attractions during the party.

Pirates of the Caribbean was my last stop as the party was winding to a close. During previous passes in front of the building I had noticed the cool lighting scheme accentuated by the fog machine so I had made a mental note to come back to this spot for a picture.

It was about 11:55pm by the time I set up my tripod and took this shot. There was almost no one around at this point so it was relatively easy to take this photo. In the distance I could hear a couple of CMs celebrating the official close of the last MNSSHP of the year.

 

[MomoMama]

Love, LOVE your photos!

We came back from Disney few weeks ago, but looking at them makes me want to go back there right now! And look at the fireworks from the Main Street!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Love, LOVE your photos!

We came back from Disney few weeks ago, but looking at them makes me want to go back there right now! And look at the fireworks from the Main Street!

I know how you feel. It's been only a couple of weeks since we returned from our trip but it feels like it's been months while wishing I could go back right now. I'm starting to work on the planning for our next trip so that seems to be easing my post-Disney depression.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

very, very cool shot of the outside of Pirates of the Caribbean!

"celebrating the official close of the last MNSSHP" ... and then enjoying their roughly 2 day break before the start of the Christmas parties

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

very, very cool shot of the outside of Pirates of the Caribbean!

"celebrating the official close of the last MNSSHP" ... and then enjoying their roughly 2 day break before the start of the Christmas parties

That is very very true.

The next evening I was chatting with one of the CMs in Tink's meet and greet and asked him how he felt now that MNSSHPs were over. His response was exactly the same as what you said. I guess Disney World is magical place where one can live in perpetual holidays.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

If you're interested in taking a look at some of my non-Disney photos like these, head on over to dhphotogallery.com that includes all of my DC area photos as well as others taken from my recent trips.

Thought this would be a good point in my trip report to share a couple of photos from our visit to DW's aunt and uncle's place in Port Charlotte. We spent a couple of days with them after we finished our Halloween stay in Disney. On our second day, they took us to Stump Pass Beach where I took these pictures. The beach and the park was not very crowded. While the kids were happily playing in the sand and collecting seashells, I walked down the beach with my camera gear in tow. Walking on the sandy beach with my full backpack and tripod was a bit taxing. Not knowing what kind of scenery was ahead of me I decided to bring my tripod along just in case I wanted to try for a daytime long exposure with a neutral density filter. Sure enough, once I arrived at the section of the beach where the dead and bleached tree stumps and trunks were I was glad that I hauled my tripod all that way. That second photo was a long exposure shot with a ND filter giving that silky and smooth appearance of the water.

The scene of the first photo was a very curious one when I first approached it. A tree had fallen over and on the roots were all these seashells hanging from it. I moved up close to take a better look at them and take photos. One of the locals walking by told me that people hang those seashells as a way of making a wish.

When I got back to the kids and the rest of the group, DS eagerly showed me all of the shark teeth that were washed up on the shore. Later in the day, he spent a good amount of time molding a shark out of Play Dough and then inserting the shark teeth he collected from the beach into the mouth of his sculpture.

 

[JDUB]

Wow awesome location for HalloWishes. I knew about the decline as you exit MK but never heard of the hump. You certainly nail it again Dave. I need to steal these photos for my wallpaper pics.
Loved the interaction of your DD with Tink too. She was ear to ear smiles. Makes it all worth the vacation!!

 

[MEK]

Too funny that the CM's were actually happy that MNSSHP was over. They may have been the ones giving out candy when I saw the same man get back in the candy line twice when he already had two shopping bags full of candy. I mean grocery store bags. Seeing that on a regular basis may burn a few good CM's out.

Good picture of pirates and the pictures from stump beach (or whatever it was called) are really cool. I love exploring other areas of Florida. There is a lot of beauty in the state.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Wow awesome location for HalloWishes. I knew about the decline as you exit MK but never heard of the hump. You certainly nail it again Dave. I need to steal these photos for my wallpaper pics.
Loved the interaction of your DD with Tink too. She was ear to ear smiles. Makes it all worth the vacation!!

Definitely. Watching how much fun the kids have is the biggest reason why I love coming to Disney.

It's funny that I never noticed "the hump" either before I took up photography. Basically that decline you mentioned goes in both directions from this particular point on Main Street - towards the Train Station and towards the Castle. It's probably too subtle to call it a hump but that's what I've been calling it.

Too funny that the CM's were actually happy that MNSSHP was over. They may have been the ones giving out candy when I saw the same man get back in the candy line twice when he already had two shopping bags full of candy. I mean grocery store bags. Seeing that on a regular basis may burn a few good CM's out.

Good picture of pirates and the pictures from stump beach (or whatever it was called) are really cool. I love exploring other areas of Florida. There is a lot of beauty in the state.

Well at least there's no trick or treating for the Christmas parties, right? That's really an expensive way to get candy - paying for a party and spending all that time and energy for the treats. Unless of course he didn't pay for party admission and snuck in there.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

For the morning of Halloween in my touring plans I had one item penciled in just for me while the kids and DW slept in from a late MNSSHP on the previous evening. It said “MK Guest Relations” at 7:30am. It was typed in red bold underlined font indicating a very special and monumental moment. I was going to upgrade our park passes that morning to annual passes. Our first annual passes. You see, we were about to make two more trips within the next year: a short SWW trip in May followed by a family reunion for the in-laws in June. The math showed that the annual passes would be cheaper than three separate park passes.

There were several but mostly paranoid reasons on my part why I chose to do this on the morning of our second full park day. First, we were planning on spending the morning and most of the afternoon at the resort to rest up the kids before MNSSHP that night. Second, but more importantly, I was extremely paranoid of any errors or glitches occurring during the upgrade process. Specifically, I was most concerned about protecting the hard earned FP+s for Anna/Elsa and the Mine Train from suddenly being lost once the upgrade occurred. Like I said, I was probably being extremely paranoid but I didn’t want to take any chances. Since both of those FP+s were on our first park day I decided to wait until we used them before we upgraded. MK Guest Relations was chosen also out of my paranoia after hearing from friends how they seemed to be the most knowledgeable and capable.

With that plan in mind I picked up a cup of coffee from Contempo Café and walked over to the MK gates. There was no one in line at Guest Relations and I quickly found myself at a window with a very seasoned and experienced CM who had worked for Disney for more than 25 years. She knew exactly what to do and upgraded our tickets one by one. I finished off the transaction with a purchase of a Tables in Wonderland card. By the way, we made up the cost of the TiW card from our meal discounts during this trip. Everything worked out smoothly. Our remaining FP+s were intact. All of our APs appeared on MDE accurately. The only minor glitch was that the MNSSHP tickets for later that night was no longer linked to my MDE account and the website wouldn’t allow me to link it back. It wasn’t a big deal as I had printed paper copies of our party tickets.

After finishing the upgrade I took this photo with my phone and posted in on FB with the captions “Sniff. Excuse me, I just got something in my eye.”



The kids were still asleep according to DW’s text. I decided to go through the turnstiles and wait for the opening show. What better way to celebrate our APs than to be welcomed into the Magic Kingdom? I spent the next 30 minutes sitting by the center planter behind the Photopass photog and watching the various guests file in and take their pictures with the train station as the backdrop. This day being Halloween there were a lot of people already in costumes and a lot of families with matching t-shirts. Two of my favorites were one family who wore matching green t-shirts with a picture of Yoda wearing Mickey Ears and a family of 9 all wearing batman t-shirts and the 7 kids wearing batman masks.

Once again, the crowd mostly gravitated towards the side tunnels as they tried to position themselves a few feet close to Arendelle. The show finally began and the Mayor of Main Street USA led the proceedings.



With the refurbishment of the railroad still in progress the show had a slightly different look to it. The green railings were covered up to block the view of any construction. Of course more noticeable was the absence of the train and the grand entrance of all of the Disney characters that usually came with it. This also meant that the Casey Junior song and the Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah song and dance portions were completely omitted which has always been my favorite goose bump inducing part of the show.

Mickey and his friends did appear from the station and who did he bring with him? Why, it was the Queen and Princess of Arendelle.



The park officially opened and everyone entered the park. I followed in and parked myself at the flag pole hub to watch the waves of crowd make their way up Main Street. I did the same thing last year one morning. If you don’t have to be anywhere in a hurry it’s a fun thing to do watching the guests enter the park some of them for the very first time and react in the most delightful ways possible when they see the Castle.





While I was standing there another guest who turned out to be a professional event photographer in town from Jersey covering an event at the Swalphin struck up a conversation after spotting my gear. It’s always nice to get a chance to talk shop with photographers.

I had to leave shortly after that as the kids were finally awake and our breakfast at Chef Mickey’s time was fast approaching.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Congrats on the APs! I have read some horror stories that indicate you were not wrong to be a bit paranoid with the process ... definitely (to me at least) a better safe than sorry scenario

I am not surprised you had already made up the cost of Tables in Wonderland - for our dining style (splitting food, enjoying an adult beverage or two) it was one of the best purchases we have ever done and works better than the dining plan for us.

That sounds super nice to watch the faces of people coming in to the Magic Kingdom for the first time. There aren't a lot of places in the world that still can capture that raw emotion and sense of wonderment and innocence - but I think that is oen of those moments.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Congrats on the APs! I have read some horror stories that indicate you were not wrong to be a bit paranoid with the process ... definitely (to me at least) a better safe than sorry scenario

I am not surprised you had already made up the cost of Tables in Wonderland - for our dining style (splitting food, enjoying an adult beverage or two) it was one of the best purchases we have ever done and works better than the dining plan for us.

That sounds super nice to watch the faces of people coming in to the Magic Kingdom for the first time. There aren't a lot of places in the world that still can capture that raw emotion and sense of wonderment and innocence - but I think that is oen of those moments.

I've heard a good number of stories where things went terribly wrong during the upgrade process. Just happy that we survived the process.

I'm absolutely loving our TiW card and it will be put to very good use when we head over in June with 11 people in the traveling party. Original plan was perfect when it was 10 people and everyone would have been covered under TiW. I guess we'll have to put one of the kid's charges on a separate check.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

I totally get your paranoia Dave. When I activated my AP renewal, I had those FP's as well and was terrified they would be lost somehow when the upgrade was finalized and put on my Magic Band. Thankfully, no hiccups at all.

Isn't having an AP the best though??? Even if I don't get some of the US only perks (basically anything that has to be mailed).

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

I totally get your paranoia Dave. When I activated my AP renewal, I had those FP's as well and was terrified they would be lost somehow when the upgrade was finalized and put on my Magic Band. Thankfully, no hiccups at all.

Isn't having an AP the best though??? Even if I don't get some of the US only perks (basically anything that has to be mailed).

I love having an AP! I had to keep reminding myself to get the AP discounts when we were buying merchandise. The only slight downside to having an AP: it keeps tempting me to make more trips to Disney than I already have planned.

 

[khertz]

Yay for being a passholder! I loved our "year of a million Disney trips (but really only 4)" when we had our Golden Ticket Premiers and how exciting it was to make that upgrade. Only a few more months and we will have them again. I can't wait! There's something so exciting about knowing you just pretty much locked yourself into a boatload of Disney trips.

Boo for the abbreviated welcome show, but hey...it was Halloween in Disney! And you had a brand spanking new AP! Not a bad start to the day.

 

[ElenaJane]

I loved your AP photo! For the first time ever, I just bought AP for Will and I 2 weeks ago. All I have are the green redemption cards right now, but I still think it is cool! It was more cost effective for our 2015 trips, but with the extra awesome feeling that I could just fly down for a weekend at any time!

AP question...did the AP get linked to your MB once you were there? So your AP MBs would be the ones you actually pre-ordered for your trip?

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Yay for being a passholder! I loved our "year of a million Disney trips (but really only 4)" when we had our Golden Ticket Premiers and how exciting it was to make that upgrade. Only a few more months and we will have them again. I can't wait! There's something so exciting about knowing you just pretty much locked yourself into a boatload of Disney trips.

Boo for the abbreviated welcome show, but hey...it was Halloween in Disney! And you had a brand spanking new AP! Not a bad start to the day.

Couldn't agree with you more about the feeling of locking in Disney trips That's awesome that you're getting them again! I'm sure you'll be putting them to good use.

Even the abbreviated version of the opening show made me smile! I didn't quite appreciate how integral the train was to the show until I saw one without it.

I loved your AP photo! For the first time ever, I just bought AP for Will and I 2 weeks ago. All I have are the green redemption cards right now, but I still think it is cool! It was more cost effective for our 2015 trips, but with the extra awesome feeling that I could just fly down for a weekend at any time!

AP question...did the AP get linked to your MB once you were there? So your AP MBs would be the ones you actually pre-ordered for your trip?

Don't forget to look and ask for AP discounts once you get them and are in the parks.

Yes, our MBs that we received for the trip prior to upgrading continued to work and serve as our MBs for our APs. In fact, when I went to upgrade I had to make sure to bring all four MBs. The CM scanned each MB as she upgraded one ticket at a time. Oh, and don't forget to bring a form of ID as well.