UPDATED! They've Been Some Long Ones! Nov. 9-23, 2008 PLUS 2006, 2007 & now WDW 2009!

[mariezp]

Hey Sherry! I am a little slow at getting back to respond but you know.... better late than never. Birthday trip went by fast and we had a great time. I did get to try out the new camera some. I imagine if I read the manuals too more I would get some even better shots. The outdoors shots were excellent. Indoors I am apparently going to have to learn what settings work best. The majority of my picture taking took place while we were driving since that is how the majority of the weekend was spent so the camera was not really used in the best of situations. Oh well, when December comes I will put it to every imaginable test possible! Then we will know for sure how great a camera it really is.
I recently read a trip report where someone lost their brand new camera so I think I will be taking my old one... just in case. I would hate to lose every picture I took and then not have any camera for the remainder of the trip. That would really stink!
I am really ready for our big trip to get here! Of course, who isn't right? (have you made any planning progress?) I've been thinking I really should get to work on a pre-trip report but if I don't get started soon it will be time for us to leave. Time is starting to go by pretty fast. So now, I just have to come up with a way to find the time. I think maybe I have enough info gathered that maybe I can start relaxing a little. If I can maybe stop reading the plethora of trip reports alone I could probably manage to get to work on my own. Something to think about....

P.S. You are certainly welcome! Can't wait to see some more posting on your thread too! I will get back to your PM soon. Just gotta have more than a few minutes to sit down and write a decent reply.


Yakety76, thank you for dropping by! I am so ashamed for not getting back to thank you sooner. We did have a great time and it was a pleasure to share it with everyone. Looks like we are skipping out on Disneyland this year but I have high hopes we will make it back in 2010 so we can see what we have missed.
Ooooh, I glanced at your reports. You have a beautiful family! So have you got another trip on the horizon? I saw where you mentioned going to WDW someday. We will be heading there in December for our first trip. I am hoping it is just as magical as Disneyland.

 

[mariezp]

Just in case anyone is interested I started my pre-trip report! Feel free to drop by and say hi or offer any great advice you have for someone taking their first trip to WDW. We will be there December 2-16, 2009.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2254103

 

[Sherry E]

I subscribed to the WDW Pre-TR! I need to follow along with the adventures because I hope to one day make my own 'first trip' to WDW too, and I need to hear how it all goes from another newbie's perspective!! I am so excited for you all that you are going there during the holiday season! Since that is my absolute favorite time at DLR, I know it would be my favorite at WDW as well. I am so excited for you that you get to see Epcot and Animal Kingdom (those are the ones I would make a beeline to if I were there)!

I just can't believe your WDW trip is only about 3-1/2 months away! Wow! Time will fly by in the blink of an eye! Look at how fast the last 3 months have flown by. With any luck, HOPEFULLY I will have made a couple more small trips (maybe not the weekend extravaganzas I am used to) to DLR by the time you get to WDW, or perhaps my DLR Christmas trip will be overlapping your WDW trip, so we will both have news to report when we get back.

 

[mariezp]

I hope you are able to get in a quick trip before December and I wish I was there to go with you!

Overlapping trips in December would be great! Only problem there is that you will probably be through with yours way before I am and it will slow me up reading yours when I should be posting.

 

[Sherry E]

Hey Sherry! I am a little slow at getting back to respond but you know.... better late than never. Birthday trip went by fast and we had a great time. I did get to try out the new camera some. I imagine if I read the manuals too more I would get some even better shots. The outdoors shots were excellent. Indoors I am apparently going to have to learn what settings work best. The majority of my picture taking took place while we were driving since that is how the majority of the weekend was spent so the camera was not really used in the best of situations. Oh well, when December comes I will put it to every imaginable test possible! Then we will know for sure how great a camera it really is.
I recently read a trip report where someone lost their brand new camera so I think I will be taking my old one... just in case. I would hate to lose every picture I took and then not have any camera for the remainder of the trip. That would really stink!
I am really ready for our big trip to get here! Of course, who isn't right? (have you made any planning progress?) I've been thinking I really should get to work on a pre-trip report but if I don't get started soon it will be time for us to leave. Time is starting to go by pretty fast. So now, I just have to come up with a way to find the time. I think maybe I have enough info gathered that maybe I can start relaxing a little. If I can maybe stop reading the plethora of trip reports alone I could probably manage to get to work on my own. Something to think about....

P.S. You are certainly welcome! Can't wait to see some more posting on your thread too! I will get back to your PM soon. Just gotta have more than a few minutes to sit down and write a decent reply.

I thought of you yesterday, Marie, because I was fiddling with that darn Canon. See, my friend who lives in New York sent me 3 Disney-New York City pins from the World of Disney store in NYC. I was trying to take pictures of them to show a couple of other people, and I have to say, I cannot get used to this camera yet. I used my old 35 mm Canon for ages and ages, and the only digital I had was a sort of really cheap point and shoot model that came out years and years ago (I don't even remember the brand). This Canon that you and I both have (and also Merrrydeath has) was not the most expensive point and shoot available, but it is not the cheapest either. So I thought it would be a step up from the Canon 35 mm I had gotten so used to using. I think I just cannot get the hang of this camera. I was taking pictures of the pins, and because it was indoors, the flash was going off. So there was a glare from the flash showing on one of the pins. I decided to try to take a picture without a flash. I thought I could figure out how to turn off the flash without consulting the manual but I was wrong. So I got out the manual and read the instructions on how to turn off the flash, and I thought I was doing the right thing but it just didn't seem to be working. Also, no matter how still I held my hands, some of the pictures would come out looking vaguely blurry. Plus, you are supposed to just have to press the shutter once half-way down to focus and then once all the way down to snap the photo, but for some reason I keep needing to press the shutter down more than twice, and that gets to be a pain after a while.

So I don't know. I suppose there are settings I could tinker with on there that could, perhaps, make things less blurry or whatever. But I am still baffled as to why it is not simple to turn off the flash. I even looked under Flash Settings, and there are two options. I selected Off for both of those, but it still did not seem to turn the flash off! I have to at least be able to turn the flash off! Some folks turn the flash off and use the night setting to be able to take on-ride pictures, but it seems light years away for me to figure out how to do that!!

I can imagine that my indoor and nightime DLR pictures will be all askew (whenever I get there again) unless I can figure out what I am doing wrong. The thing is, with point and shoots, they are supposed to be easy. You are supposed to be able to just point and shoot - like the 35 mm I had, which was super easy. Once they start getting too complicated, they may as well be the DSLR models!!!

 

[mariezp]

I hope when you thought of me I did not pop in right between a few unpleasant expletives! I gotta say that me discussing camera's with you is pretty much like the blind leading the blind!
I certainly feel for you. I know the camera frustration cause I have been there and done that too. I guess the only thing that has helped me out is that it operates fairly similar to the last one I had. I do know that I was having trouble navigating with the new Canon on something, that I cannot even remember now, and had trouble finding how to do it. I don't think I ever did. As for the shutter... I don't think I ever just hold the button half way down. I just hold it down forever until I hear the thing click! I noticed there is a setting in there somewhere you can pick if you are wanting continuous shooting. Maybe that's what you need? I have learned that if you turn the flash off that if you change modes or a setting you will have to go back and turn the flash back off every time you make a new change. (found that out on a few dark rides last year... OOPS!) Any chance that is why yours kept flashing? You will get it! It will just take a little more practice. Nothing like an upcoming trip to motivate your determination as the day gets nearer!

I do agree that maybe some of my images in our trip were not as WOW as I had hoped for but I attribute most of that to the operator and the fact that I was snapping a lot from the back seat while we were driving. I am going to take so many pictures in WDW that some of them are bound to come out okay! And taking the old Panasonic as a backup too just in case I give up trying to figure things out myself. Lord help us both!

 

[jnjusoioa]

Hi There, I just went through your report, I must say, I am really bad at reading them but love the photos and really enjoyed yours, you have some great shots. I have a really weird question and forgive me if you answered this and I just totally missed it. In your photos with those characters in the background and stuff, how do you do that?? Is that like a special effect?? I am just really curious because it is really neat. Thank you ahead of time.

 

[mariezp]

jnjusoioa, I am so glad you enjoyed the photos! There were enough of those to keep anyone from wanting to finish reading, weren't there? No short quick read here! I have to confess that my favorite part of trip reports is the picture part too so no offense taken... just glad you stopped by.

Certainly not a weird question and I don't mind in the least sharing any info I might have. The pictures with the characters imposed on them came from a software that came with a little Disney Camera that I had gotten for my DD to take on the trip. There is also a setting on the camera that allows you to put characters directly on the photo as you take it. The camera is called a Disney Pix Max. It only takes 3.0 mega pixels photos so they are not nearly as good as my "grown up" camera but she was happy just to have her own camera. It actually ended up being a life saver when I loaned my camera out to DS's friend. That's when we ended up doing musical chairs for the first time so I would have hated to miss that photo opportunity. Anyway, the software I think was even more fun than the camera...well, at least for me. It allows you to make frames and add quite an assortment of characters. At the time I got the camera they were retail about $79.00 but I found mine on ebay for less although I do not remember how much less, seems like around $40.

 

[jnjusoioa]

jnjusoioa, I am so glad you enjoyed the photos! There were enough of those to keep anyone from wanting to finish reading, weren't there? No short quick read here! I have to confess that my favorite part of trip reports is the picture part too so no offense taken... just glad you stopped by.

Certainly not a weird question and I don't mind in the least sharing any info I might have. The pictures with the characters imposed on them came from a software that came with a little Disney Camera that I had gotten for my DD to take on the trip. There is also a setting on the camera that allows you to put characters directly on the photo as you take it. The camera is called a Disney Pix Max. It only takes 3.0 mega pixels photos so they are not nearly as good as my "grown up" camera but she was happy just to have her own camera. It actually ended up being a life saver when I loaned my camera out to DS's friend. That's when we ended up doing musical chairs for the first time so I would have hated to miss that photo opportunity. Anyway, the software I think was even more fun than the camera...well, at least for me. It allows you to make frames and add quite an assortment of characters. At the time I got the camera they were retail about $79.00 but I found mine on ebay for less although I do not remember how much less, seems like around $40.

Hi There, Thank You So Very Much for getting back to me, I was so curious about that, I went to ebay and see they have several different ones, one with a Pirate theme, one with a Giselle theme, do you know which one you got, I want to be sure and purchase the same one as you, I think those photos are just so cool, that is so neat that you can just put it on a setting and have characters show up, that will be fun!!!!!

 

[mariezp]

The one we have is silver with stars. I do not see a model number on it anywhere. I am sending you a PM which might just help you find one.

 

[mariezp]

Howdy, fellow Disneyland lovers! Lordy, how I have missed this side of the board!!!!! Well, I am back and eager to start planning my next trip to Disneyland.... hopefully in the fall of 2010.

I have been MIA over here for a good part of a year now while planning our most recent trip. We just returned last month from our first ever trip to WDW. Let me tell you there is so much information to gather it is almost overwhelming! Anyway, following a suggestion made by Sherry E I am going to post a link here for my trip report. Sherry suggested that it might be of interest to those of you over on this side of the board who are DL lovers but who are considering a trip to the other Disney park. So here's hoping some of you come on over and visit.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2362766

 

[QueenDoOver]

Hi Marie!
I am off to read. We are working on planning our first family Disney World Trip. I have been by myself 3 times, so I know how darn big that place is. Looking forward to hearing about your trip. Tracey

 

[mariezp]

Yay! I am so glad that posting a link here was of some interest to someone! Welcome, QueenDoOver! There is a lot more planning involved for WDW... at least there was for me. Hopefully, your previous solo trips will help you get a head start. When are you going and how far in to your planning are you?

I am assuming since you are on the DL board that you have been there as well? How many times? I am looking forward to returning there as soon as possible.

 

[Sherry E]

Yay! You took my suggestion! Yes, I think it is very good to have the link to the WDW TR here in this TR - not only to help folks who are planning trips to WDW for the first time but also because lots of folks became familiar with you from your last DLR trip, or many others already knew you from the DLR side of town and may just think that you disappeared. So anyone who followed along on your DLR adventures can see what you have been up to over in WDW!

Hopefully Molly (Bumbershoot) will see this thread and jump aboard your WDW TR too, as she begins the early, early, early planning for WDW. (Plus, she is just a hoot to have in any TR thread because of her keen observations and humor!!)

 

[mariezp]

Yep, Sherry, I know a good idea when I hear one! It will be nice to see if anyone else trickles over there. I am sure getting a slow start! I may have to go beg Bumbershoot to come on over and lure some of her followers with her! I've read some of her posts and she is a hoot!