DaveinFallsChurch
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2011
Hello, welcome, and thank you for checking in on what will be my 4th WDW trip report! I cant wait to share with you all of the stories from our trip that began in the middle of the last week of January and had us returning home on Super Bowl Sunday. Yes, my Disney addiction has now grown to the point where it dwarfs the Super Bowl in importance as we were flying home during the game. Turned out that I really didnt miss much. Through my TR I hope to relive our magical trip with my old and new DIS friends. The trip was filled with fun, magic, pirates, princesses, and a certain rubber ducky that joined us halfway through the trip. Theres also a subplot of my journey in attempting to convert a non-Disney believer in our group.
Introducing, the Ducky of Death!
Which gives me the perfect segway to introduce my fellow companions on this trip: DW who may not be as big of a Disney fan as I am but still enjoys our trips, DD7 who is slowly becoming an aficionado of Disney World, DS4 who recently discovered the awesomeness of the Star Wars universe, and myself who according to DD am ALWAYS planning out next trip. We also had my younger brother (DB) who is the non-believer after their last and only trip two years ago that led to lots of heat, crowds, and feet pain, his wife and my sister-in-law (DSIL) who was happy to let me take the reins on all aspects of the planning, and my nephew (DN4) who is the same age as DS and LOVED his first visit to Disney.
We had been trying to convince my brothers family to join us for a trip to Disney for the past couple of years. As I mentioned, their first visit in May of 2012 was less than of an ideal experience. While DN had lots of fun, my brother felt that it was too much work and energy to call it a vacation as he put it. Too much walking, too much heat, too many people, and too many minutes spent in line. Of course you know that I had a rebuttal for each of those points but instead of arguing the details with him I just simply said Why dont you come with us next January and leave the planning completely up to me? I think I can give you a completely different experience. So they agreed and we were excited. The kids were excited to have their cousin join us. Since I was their travel agent for this visit, all they had to remember was bring their Magic Bands with them from home and follow us around the rest of the way. We picked the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our visit. It was our first stay at this intricately gorgeous resort.
As my DIS friends know from my past TRs, photography has become a very serious hobby in the past two years. I picked up my first DSLR in April of 2012 after returning from a wonderful trip at Disney and wishing I had some better pictures to remember it by. Since then photography snowballed into an obsession that is now equal to my Disney addiction. I was able to fully immerse myself in photographing Disney World during my October 2013 trip when I traveled by myself to attend a conference. If you would like to take a look through the TR heres the link: Discovering A Whole New World of Disney
Not surprisingly, I came back home with far fewer pictures this time around. Chasing after three young children in Disney is a full time job as parents on DIS can attest and its challenging to point the camera at a photogenic Disney scene while a 4 year old is tugging on your arms. On top of that, the weather didnt do any favors as the rain forced me to tuck the camera away more than I wanted to. Nonetheless, I had a wonderful time enjoying Disney with my family! Plus the pictures I was able to get at AKL alone made up for the lack of photos in the park.
This TR is going to follow the model of my last one as I ditch the chronological order and jump around in time. So sit back, relax, and hope you enjoy this edition!
Introducing, the Ducky of Death!
Which gives me the perfect segway to introduce my fellow companions on this trip: DW who may not be as big of a Disney fan as I am but still enjoys our trips, DD7 who is slowly becoming an aficionado of Disney World, DS4 who recently discovered the awesomeness of the Star Wars universe, and myself who according to DD am ALWAYS planning out next trip. We also had my younger brother (DB) who is the non-believer after their last and only trip two years ago that led to lots of heat, crowds, and feet pain, his wife and my sister-in-law (DSIL) who was happy to let me take the reins on all aspects of the planning, and my nephew (DN4) who is the same age as DS and LOVED his first visit to Disney.
We had been trying to convince my brothers family to join us for a trip to Disney for the past couple of years. As I mentioned, their first visit in May of 2012 was less than of an ideal experience. While DN had lots of fun, my brother felt that it was too much work and energy to call it a vacation as he put it. Too much walking, too much heat, too many people, and too many minutes spent in line. Of course you know that I had a rebuttal for each of those points but instead of arguing the details with him I just simply said Why dont you come with us next January and leave the planning completely up to me? I think I can give you a completely different experience. So they agreed and we were excited. The kids were excited to have their cousin join us. Since I was their travel agent for this visit, all they had to remember was bring their Magic Bands with them from home and follow us around the rest of the way. We picked the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our visit. It was our first stay at this intricately gorgeous resort.
As my DIS friends know from my past TRs, photography has become a very serious hobby in the past two years. I picked up my first DSLR in April of 2012 after returning from a wonderful trip at Disney and wishing I had some better pictures to remember it by. Since then photography snowballed into an obsession that is now equal to my Disney addiction. I was able to fully immerse myself in photographing Disney World during my October 2013 trip when I traveled by myself to attend a conference. If you would like to take a look through the TR heres the link: Discovering A Whole New World of Disney
Not surprisingly, I came back home with far fewer pictures this time around. Chasing after three young children in Disney is a full time job as parents on DIS can attest and its challenging to point the camera at a photogenic Disney scene while a 4 year old is tugging on your arms. On top of that, the weather didnt do any favors as the rain forced me to tuck the camera away more than I wanted to. Nonetheless, I had a wonderful time enjoying Disney with my family! Plus the pictures I was able to get at AKL alone made up for the lack of photos in the park.
This TR is going to follow the model of my last one as I ditch the chronological order and jump around in time. So sit back, relax, and hope you enjoy this edition!
