Amy and F1gment take on Thanksgiving 2011

[MmeLeota]

I think it was up until the 7th or 8th last year. I'll check....

Edit: just confirmed on Disney site, the Osborne Lights are on display until Jan 7th!

WAHOO!!!! Bonus!!!! We've never seen the parks at Christmastime and we truly thought we were going to completely miss out...but there's hope!!! Thank you for checking that out NaCler!

[Amy]

I think it was up until the 7th or 8th last year. I'll check....

Edit: just confirmed on Disney site, the Osborne Lights are on display until Jan 7th!

WAHOO!!!! Bonus!!!! We've never seen the parks at Christmastime and we truly thought we were going to completely miss out...but there's hope!!! Thank you for checking that out NaCler!

Now you have something extra to look forward to!! Yay!!!

[cy1229]

I agree about the Stacy Loop on resort tv. I used to like the loop when it was the must do's in WDW. Now it's must do's at every park and she is more serious. I don't like it anymore...

Also, that camera takes some awesome pics, especially those Osborne lights and panoramic shots! Was that your new water camera?

Thank you All the panoramic shots you will see in my trip report are from my new camera, as for individual shots I would have to pull them up to check which camera took the photo. My waterproof camera is a Sony Cybershot which is the same brand and model (although a different model number) as our bigger camera so I expect they are probably similar in what they spit out.

Of course, the USER of the camera(s) makes a big difference.

Sincerely,
Photography Nut (a.k.a. cy1229)

[dstrawn9889]

lemmie tell you, my Canon T1i was absolutely freakin awesome during MSEP in feb... thought i would not get much, boy was i wrong! set it to sports(fast shutter speed and no flash)
darn, i was gonna post a few, but 15mp is too big for image shack
lets try skydrive
https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=903 ... VVwwcWXoPY

[Amy]

I agree about the Stacy Loop on resort tv. I used to like the loop when it was the must do's in WDW. Now it's must do's at every park and she is more serious. I don't like it anymore...

Also, that camera takes some awesome pics, especially those Osborne lights and panoramic shots! Was that your new water camera?

Thank you All the panoramic shots you will see in my trip report are from my new camera, as for individual shots I would have to pull them up to check which camera took the photo. My waterproof camera is a Sony Cybershot which is the same brand and model (although a different model number) as our bigger camera so I expect they are probably similar in what they spit out.

Of course, the USER of the camera(s) makes a big difference.

Sincerely,
Photography Nut (a.k.a. cy1229)

This is true. I have seen some horrible photos from some really expensive cameras before!

[Amy]

Day 3 ~ The Magic Behind the Steam Trains tour
Up at 4 which was far earlier than I needed to be up, but I still wasn't sleeping all that well. I left the room around 6 am and headed up to the front of the hotel to find a taxi. The driver was quite confused and kept asking me if the Magic Kingdom was even open that early. I had tried explaining a few times that I was going for a tour and I wanted to be sure I had plenty of time. I finally gave up and told him I needed to go to the Contemporary which he seemed okay with taking me there. That is where the tour agent had told me I should be dropped off anyhow. It cost $16 to go about 12 minutes from the All Stars to the Contemporary
Since I was at the Contemporary, I decided to check out the view from the top. The concierge was kind enough to take me up to the observation deck. I could have climbed up the outside stairs for a higher view, but since I had not brought the bigger camera with the better zoom, I decided the 4th floor view was fine.

I'm thinking these seats are very much in demand during the fireworks shows!


How I would love to have this at my house Along with some full-time window cleaners of course


I walked over to the Magic Kingdom with plenty of stops for photos and got there with plenty of time to spare. I drank my chocolate milk and ate my leftover rice krispie treat as I walked over. This was the first time I had to carry my trash with me for any length of time. There were simply no trash cans that I could see on the walk over What happened to the trash cans every 25 paces?!

Empty Magic Kingdom!!


Our ride...


More empty streets ~ I loved this view of the Magic Kingdom, scrubbed and clean and ready to go...


There were 13 of us that started the tour. The first train huffed and puffed it's way into the station as we started our talk outside the main gate. A few managers kept coming over and talking with one person with a very active 2 year old. And the CM in charge of the tour kept excusing herself as well. This was a little strange but I didn't think too much of it. We went into the MK about 7:30, and after a few stops for talks about trains, we made our way up to the upstairs of the train station. We got onto the train and I was in the next to the last row of seats, right in front of the man who had been the center of much attention from the CM's. As the tour CM was continuing with her talk of the history of Walt Disney and the train, a manager came back to speak with the man. The conversation got quite heated with a lot of cursing (on the part of the guest) toward the end and ended up with the man grabbing his child and stroller and storming off. Shortly after that, we were off on our tour.

We had come in on the track leading back to the left. This CM was switching the track manually for us to reverse backstage on the track leading off to the right. After the track was switched is where photos weren't allowed.


I have to say, I didn't learn a lot of new things on this tour. Most of the trivia and interesting facts were things that I think the average park-goer would know about Walt Disney and the trains. The highlight for me was going backstage and seeing the roundhouse where the trains live. It is also the site of the monorail garage. I took a lot of photos back there so I will only share a few, but if anyone is interested in seeing more, let me know. We saw them take the one train that they use for the opening of the park out. They didn't have the characters on it yet, they pick them up along the way. They said that train is only used for the opening of the park as it has open sides that allow the characters to get in easily, but would not be able to carry guests safely. That train came back while we were still at the roundhouse. They took us in groups of 4 to let us see inside the engineer's cab and sit in the driver's seat. I found it a bit strange that they allowed photos everywhere except for when we backed the train up into the backstage area. Once we were backstage, photos were ok again which is usually not allowed on the tours.

The monorail tracks and our train we would get to look at up close...




Interesting wheel chock...


Inside the roundhouse, which isn't round at all...


Inside the engine cab...


And the train check-list...


It really was a pretty morning...


They lit up the fire in our train right before we left. They use kerosene soaked rags to start them.


On our way back we spotted this ~ rawr...


After everyone had gotten the chance to see the trains up close, we rode the train back to the park and stopped at the Toontown Station to fill up with water.

A little view of the Fantasyland construction on the way back...


We ended with a short talk inside the train station where we received our special gift, a pin. The one thing that made this tour quite nice was how obvious the pride and love the CM had for her role as a WDW train engineer. She actually got quite teary in the train station as she was finishing up the tour.

We got done around 10:15 and as I had made plans to meet F1gment at the hub at 11, I made my way down Main Street and found a good spot to watch the Dream Along with Mickey show.

Dream along with Mickey...it was a much longer show than I thought it would be, 25 minutes. And quite nice, even though it was getting on toward being broiling hot by this time...


All the blinky character heads were out for this show. Captain Hook was particularly disturbing



As the area got more and more crowded I doubted I would find Mom very easily but as soon as the show was over I found her with no problem. And we were off to the Haunted Mansion where we played with all the new interactive queue elements. Those are soooo awesome!

At the entrance to the graveyard...


Pretty steady stream of guests at this point in the day. Some were patient with others stopping to play and take photos, some weren't...

[Mousekedude]

Of course, the USER of the camera(s) makes a big difference.

Sincerely,
Photography Nut (a.k.a. cy1229)

Uh oh... don't get me and Len90 started...

[Mousekedude]

Awesome reporting, and awesome pics, as usual! I wonder what the deal was with that guy and his 2-year-old...? Oh well (shrugging shoulders...). Keep it coming Amy!

[Amy]

Awesome reporting, and awesome pics, as usual! I wonder what the deal was with that guy and his 2-year-old...? Oh well (shrugging shoulders...). Keep it coming Amy!

I was trying to concentrate on the tour commentary, but it sounded like the man had been guaranteed an extra spot on the tour for his wife and once they arrived, they were told the tour was capped at 13, or perhaps that his wife wasn't able to attend the tour and he didn't want to pay full price for his toddler. In any event, Disney had been trying to accommodate him and refund at least part of his money but he was definitely an unhappy camper. I'm just glad it didn't escalate further as it was getting pretty heated before he left. It made for an uncomfortable few minutes on the train for sure!

[boilerbabe]

I haven't had the time to read your entire report Amy, but I'm loving your pictures, especially your panoramic ones!!! I intend to read your full report when I have a little more time!

[MmeLeota]

Thank you for the details and the pictures of the tour Amy! That is one of the tours I really want to go on sometime...mainly to see the roundhouse. I am completely facinated by that kind of stuff since I used to drive monorails.
Sounds like a fab trip so far! Keep it coming!!!

[Amy]

I haven't had the time to read your entire report Amy, but I'm loving your pictures, especially your panoramic ones!!! I intend to read your full report when I have a little more time!

Thanks b-babe. I understand that you have healing and training to do. The report will be there for a looooong time! Lots more pictures to come

Thank you for the details and the pictures of the tour Amy! That is one of the tours I really want to go on sometime...mainly to see the roundhouse. I am completely facinated by that kind of stuff since I used to drive monorails.
Sounds like a fab trip so far! Keep it coming!!!

Thanks MmeLeota. I'll have to get some more of the backstage monorail shots put into photobucket and then I can share it with you (I'm pretty sure there is a way to do that...I'll figure out something! They all start looking the same so I'm sure no one wants more on here ) It was a nice tour, but I'm glad it wasn't really expensive. I would have been disappointed had I paid much more.

[cousininmiami]

Awesome pictures Amy!!!
About one of the only tours I have not gone on was the Train tour, but now I am most definitely going to do it!

[dichuy]

Awesome reporting, and awesome pics, as usual! I wonder what the deal was with that guy and his 2-year-old...? Oh well (shrugging shoulders...). Keep it coming Amy!

I was trying to concentrate on the tour commentary, but it sounded like the man had been guaranteed an extra spot on the tour for his wife and once they arrived, they were told the tour was capped at 13, or perhaps that his wife wasn't able to attend the tour and he didn't want to pay full price for his toddler. In any event, Disney had been trying to accommodate him and refund at least part of his money but he was definitely an unhappy camper. I'm just glad it didn't escalate further as it was getting pretty heated before he left. It made for an uncomfortable few minutes on the train for sure!

This could all have been about the fact that the tour is for ages 10 and up. Perhaps they were not allowing the 2-year old go, which meant part of the family would have had to split up.

I loved the train tour! Because of the hour the MK opened the day I took the tour we got to watch the opening show from "behind" while inside the train station! It was a cool perspective.

Great pics Amy!

[MmeLeota]

That would be awesome, Amy!
I forgot to mention earlier that the pic of Main Street all clean and purty with empty streets was one of our favorie pics...it's amazing the shots you can get without those pesky tourists in the way.