Dec 2010: Mayhem Invades Disney World!!!

[Mousekedude]

Alrighty, fellow Subsonicers... it's time to get down to some serious trip report posting here. This first post is a pretty comprehensive narrative of our first day, which was actually November 30th. Not all the posts will be this detailed because I'm trying to jog my memory by rummaging through almost 1300 pictures (which was actually whittled down from over 3,000...). But anyway, here we go with Day 1.


We left Houston at dark-thirty in the morning, and were met up at the airport in Orlando by our limo service, right on time:


When we arrived at Coronado Springs, we were disappointed to find that our room was not the one we had reserved. It was in the wrong location, didn't have the right bed, etc. Undeterred, we decided to change clothes (it was warmer here than when we left Houston), and explore the grounds a little. We would get the room situation straightened out later. Coronado Springs is a beautiful resort:








Then we headed to Epcot for our lunch ADR at Biergarten. We first stopped to get a couple of "artsy" shots of SSE and the fountain in front, then went to Guest Relations to buy our Tables in Wonderland card:





Then it was time to catch a Friendship boat over to the Biergarten where we enjoyed our lunch and the floor show:










After lunch, we decided to head over to explore China because we love all the natural beauty there:








After that we went to Norway and rode Maelstrom, then paused for some nice pics in the gorgeous afternoon sunlight:





Then it was time for Margaritas in Mexico. We first got a nice shot of the Mayan Temple (or is it Aztec...?), then went into La Cava del Tequila where we felt bold enough to try the Jalapeno Margaritas... and fell in love with those things (as noted on another thread, I've since duplicated the recipe at home):




Okay, this post is getting pretty big with all these pictures, so I'll end it here and then start another one for the rest of Day 1.

[MmeLeota]

WOW! Those are some gorgeous pics!!! I love all the artistic angles you used!
(on a side note, that pic of Mouseoholic is so beautiful! That's got to be one of your faves....)

Jalepeno margaritas, eh? Hmmm, not sure about that....well, I guess as long as there's tequila in it

Looking forward to the rest of the report!

[Mousekedude]

...okay, here is the continuation of Day 1. After finishing up our margaritas in Mexico, it was time for a little excitement. So we went to Test Track. It's hard to get good pics while you're on Test Track, but here's a few that came out good. Notice the hidden Mickey in the first one:










Next we decided to take a shortcut through MouseGear on our way to The Seas. I shouldn't have done that, because as soon as Mouseoholic saw this little beauty:

...she wanted it, and I felt a cold chill run up my spine. I soooo did not want her getting hooked on those nefarious vinylmations (I later swallowed the Kool-aid, as you can see on the vinylmations thread, but for now at this point in the story I was still adamently opposed to the things). I talked her into not buying anything at that time, and we moved on....


When we got to The Seas, I just had to stop and take a picture of one of my favorite night views of SSE, followed by some other cool night shots of the area:







We went ahead and rode the Clam Mobiles, and in walking through the queue, I happened to notice something I had never caught before: Dory, Crush and Squirt, and the three sharks (Bruce, Chum, and the other one whose name I can't remember) all appear on various signs in that one sign display in the queue. See 'em?



After the ride, we saw "Turtle Talk with Crush" (which was actually very good, by the way...), and then goofed off a little in the play area:




Then we decided to ride Test Track again, where we got a couple more good pics:




When we came out of Test Track, Illuminations had started. But we weren't too worried about it because this was only the first day of a twelve-day trip, and we knew we were going to have a lot of other chances to see Illuminations. So we grabbed this one cool shot and then headed over to ride SSE before leaving for the night:



SSE is another ride that's tough to get good pictures on, but here's a few that we liked:






Well, that was a long and tiring day. We had left home in Houston at 4:30 in the morning, so by now we were pretty tired. The park was closed anyway, so we headed on back to our resort for a good night's rest to prepare for another day of mayhem in the morning.

It literally took me hours to upload all these pics to photobucket and post this two-part report on Day 1, so I don't know when I'll have a chance to do Day 2. But stay tuned, and hopefully in the meantime the Boilers or someone else will post something as well.

[Mousekedude]

WOW! Those are some gorgeous pics!!! I love all the artistic angles you used!
(on a side note, that pic of Mouseoholic is so beautiful! That's got to be one of your faves....)

Jalepeno margaritas, eh? Hmmm, not sure about that....well, I guess as long as there's tequila in it

Looking forward to the rest of the report!

Thanks! Yes, that shot of Mouseoholic is indeed one of my faves. As for the "artistic angles," glad you liked them. I've always had a knack for photography, and now that we finally had a decent camera on this trip we were able to get some really good ones.
More to come!

[Amy]

Yay for the start of the trip reports! I've started to whittle down the photos on two different occasions now and haven't gotten through day one! It is going to have to be a weekend project sometime soon. Then the photos have to go to photobucket before I can put them on here...sigh...
I love the close-up photo of the fountain in front of SE, the pretty reflection-y photo in China, and that is an absolutely gorgeous photo of Mouseoholic! I am envious of both your TT and SE photos...I took some photos on each attraction as well and am looking forward to see what I captured. SE is a lot darker than I remember it being 10 years back!

[MadEye]

Looks like you got a nice shot of Crusty (yes they do have names).

...and the three sharks (Bruce, Chum, and the other one whose name I can't remember) all appear on various signs in that one sign display in the queue. See 'em?

The other sharks name is Anchor.

[mindflipper]

Great trip report, Mousekedude! Glad to see you're back and fit after being sick there before the holidays!

[Amy]

...We went ahead and rode the Clam Mobiles, and in walking through the queue, I happened to notice something I had never caught before: Dory, Crush and Squirt, and the three sharks (Bruce, Chum, and the other one whose name I can't remember) all appear on various signs in that one sign display in the queue. See 'em?

And isn't that Nigel on the Pelican Preserve sign?!

[Future Guy]

Wow, great pictures!

[Mousekedude]

Oh yeah... and I forgot to mention Nigel. Thanks, Amy!

[Amy]

Oh yeah... and I forgot to mention Nigel. Thanks, Amy!

No problemo! And I started working on the photos last night, I have about 800 flagged so far and am nearly one-quarter of the way through my photos! A friend of mine thought I only had taken 800 pictures ~ silly

[NaCler]

Excellent job so far! I'll comment a little bit more in depth when I return home. I may steal some of your pics as they are really good! Keep it coming!

[mindflipper]

I like this one...It looks like EPCOT is burning down LOL! Is Future Guy somewhere nearby playing the fiddle?

[Amy]

I thought it looked a bit like EPCOT was on fire too!

[theBIGyowski]

Haha...that fire pic makes me think Maleficent is about to pop up as the dragon!