Strmchsr Family Vacation 2010 part 4

[Strmchsr]

Cast: me, Renae (DW), Caleb (DS9), and Cole (DS4)

Days: May 9-10, 2010

We woke up early on Mother's Day to be at MK for the opening ceremony. DW had never seen it. Her wish for mother's day was to see that and get a family pic in front of the castle. We managed both then sent her off to the Grand Floridian to enjoy one of the fancy massages while the boys and I hit the parks. Caleb had desperately wanted to ride Splash Mountain since it was closed when we were there in January. We hurried back and found...it was closed. Mechanical problems. Caleb wasn't too happy, but we hopped on BTMRR then went across to Tom Sawyer's Island. We hadn't been there before and Caleb has just finished reading the books so we spent a good hour letting the boys explore and enjoy themselves. They loved all of it. Once a refreshed and pampered Renae rejoined us we had lunch at Cosmic Ray's then headed for DHS. RNRC had been closed with mechanical problems earlier in the week so we wanted to be sure to hit it, which we did with a fastpass (standby was 130 min at one point). Also, we were able to get in to LMA and Playhouse Disney as well as the Great Movie Ride before our supper at Prime Time. "Uncle George" was a lot of fun and we all ended up with clean-plate stickers.

Crowds were quite heavy at both MK and DHS, but we expected that on Mother's Day. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, though. We were able to move around without bumping into someone every other step like at MK the previous evening. Given that WDW extended hours and added a Spectro I think the big MK crowds on Saturday surprised them, too.

Monday we packed the van then headed to Epcot for our last few hours in the World. To start the park was almost deserted. We walked right on most of the FutureWorld rides (not Soarin, but we did get a fastpass and didn't have to wait long). The weather was also the nicest it had been since we had been down with a cool breeze. The crowds started showing up by noon, but it still wasn't too bad. We had lunch at Le Cellier and took one last stroll around World Showcase before loading up and making the 7 1/2 hour drive back to Millbrook.

I took around 700 pics for this trip, so I couldn't post them all, but if you want to see any of my pics, feel free to check them out on my FB profile. I did it in 2 albums here and here. I tried to do a lot of "scenary" shots so if you want any of these for your collection (or if you want something that I might have and just didn't post on FB) send me a PM and I'll be glad to send that along to you.

[mouseketeer mom]

Love your wifes Mother's Day morning!!! How wonderful is that?
I enjoyed the pictures. Thank you!

[DisneyorBust]

What a special Mother's day for your wife!
The Opening Ceremony at MK is a favorite of mine, need to catch it each trip. Looking forward to your pictures, thanks for the reports.

[cer]

It sounds like you had an amazing trip and the BEAUTIFUL pictures confirm that. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

What do you shoot?

[Strmchsr]

It sounds like you had an amazing trip and the BEAUTIFUL pictures confirm that. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

What do you shoot?

I have a Pentax K-x with an 18-55 and 55-270mm lenses. To get some of those silky water shots I used a neutral density filter (0.9). Glad you liked them! I had fun shooting those.

[RedSoxFan]

Nice end to your vacation. I wasn't able to see the pictures ---bummer. I don't belong to Facebook so I'm guessing that is why.

[SBETigg]

Love the pictures! What a wonderful Mother's Day for Renae. Great report, thanks!

[Kathy Jetson]

Loved hearing about your trip! I wanted to see your pictures but I don't do facebook

[Strmchsr]

Loved hearing about your trip! I wanted to see your pictures but I don't do facebook

Nice end to your vacation. I wasn't able to see the pictures ---bummer. I don't belong to Facebook so I'm guessing that is why.

Not sure why you weren't able to see those. I set the privacy setting to "everyone" intentionally so that you should be able to see the pics even if you're not my "friend" or belong to FB. I also posted some of the shots (but not quite as many) to my Webshots album. You can see that here if you can't do FB.

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the Report!

[PopPhan]

Great pics Chris! I so want to get a DSRL myself so that I can frame the pics I want, like you did. Point and shoot digitals just don't give you the opportunities to play with the setting.

Thanks for sharing these with us!!

[RedSoxFan]

Thanks for the link. Beautiful pictures.

[DizNee143]

great pictures!! thanx sooo much for sharing them and your vacation with us!

[KylesMom]

Lucky Mom - sounds like you made her day really special! Bummer for Caleb, though, that he missed his Splash Mountain "make-up" ride.

Your pictures are great, Chris. Thanks for sharing for those of us who didn't make it down for the Flower & Garden Festival. Crowds were obviously higher than you'd have liked them to be . . . but overall another great trip!

[yjgirl32]

What a great way to spend mother's day. Thanks for sharing.

[princessgirls]

Chris,

Thank you for sharing your trip with us. How nice to give your wife such a nice Mother's Day gift!!!

Julie

[vizsla]

Thanks for the report.

[murphy1]

Awesome, how nice you did that for her! Great photos! I just took my little one and we loved all the flowers at Epcot, it was really even better this year. I just sent you a friend req over on FB too, I kept meaning to do that before.

Shari

[SurferStitch]

Love the pics! We took a ton in just the six days we were there. We would have had a lot more pics with characters, but it was just too darn hot to wait in any lines for them!

Did you see Davy Jones in Epcot? We saw his first show before we left Epcot to drive back home to PA. He was awesome, and even walked out into the audience to get close to those of us who didn't wait 2 hours in the heat for a seat. Nice!

We almost stayed at ASM, too, but DH changed the ressie to CBR. Love the pics you took there. Now I'm thinking we have to give it a try!

[Pally]

Chris,

I enjoyed your vacation reports. Your family is lovely. Looks like you had a wonderful time. What a nice Mother's Day gift.

Your pictures are awesome. I think I need some photography lessons.