Tag Archives: Mickey Mouse

Three Stages of a Disney Vacation

Three Stages of Disney Vacation
Photo-A-Day #1999

Our last day at Disney. We were up very early getting ready and packing the last minute stuff into our bags. We packed most of the things last night but left a few things out. One thing was my camp counselor hat with all my Disney Pins on it. I packed that into one of the pockets of Allison’s duffel bag (mistake), cinched it up tight and we brought all the bags to the hotel lobby. There we were able to check in for our flight (so we thought) and check our bags into our flight. Our flight was to be at 3:30pm (not gonna happen) and we’d be back at the hotel for the Magical Express to pick us up at 12:40pm.

The photo is a cool technique that I learned about from Jennifer Cisney from Kodak. I was tweeting about using the panorama stitching feature on the M580 and she directed me to what is known as a Triple Portrait. This is a very fun thing that you can do with the auto panorama feature. You take a photo of someone in one frame of the panorama then when you move to take the next shot they move as well. And on the last move they also move so you get a great panorama with the same person in the scene three times. Pretty cool. It wasn’t until I looked at this that I noticed Eva’s expressions in the image. She was excited and then a bit drained and then upset. I think of it as the three phases of a Disney vacation. The excitement of going and the first few days followed by being exhausted from everything that you have done on vacation to being upset and irritable that you want to be home and in your own bed but at the same time don’t want the vacation to end.

Today we went to Hollywood Studios for our very last Character Breakfast. This time it was at Hollywood and Vine and the characters were from PlayHouse Disney. There was some Little Einsteins and Handy Manny and also Jojo. Eva did not know who Jojo was and she was not thrilled seeing her. I think it is seeing a six foot clown that can be a little scary. We had a nice breakfast and then went back to the Animation area where Eva played with some of the interactive stuff and as a family we took a drawing lesson. We learned to Draw Mickey Mouse. I enjoyed that very much. Then it was time to head out and back to the hotel for the flight home. I’ll talk about that tomorrow though.

Talking with the Animals at Tusker House

Tusket House
Photo-A-Day #1996

Today Allison, Eva and I went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We were joined by Mimi and Grandpa Dano as well as with Auntie Mo. We drove over this morning and went right to the Safari Ride. We were able to see many of the Giraffes and other animals because it was very early in the morning and they had just eaten. I was able to get a few decent photos but those jeeps bounce all over the place and my DSLR is just not fast enough. I was also on the wrong side for best viewing, I seem to always do that.

After our safari ride I checked us in to the Tusker House for a Character Breakfast. We were lucky and they accommodated Mimi and Grandpa Dano too so we could all eat there. The host of this breakfast was Donald Duck and he brought along Goofy, Daisy and Mickey Mouse. Eva was excited to see Mickey again. I think she is most excited to see Mickey out of all the characters including the Princesses.

We caught up with Auntie Mo after breakfast and then went to see the Lion King show as well as the Little Nemo one. Eva feel asleep during Nemo. Before that however, we went on the flying Triceratops. Eva also got her photo taken with Goofy and Pluto. Allison, Mo and I went to see It’s Tough to be a Bug and then watched the parade as a family. We made one more loop around the park and then headed for the hotel.

Animal Kingdom Park closes early and that made it perfect for us to go back and relax at the pool. After we had done all the swimming that we wanted to do we had some dinner. Using the Disney Dining plan we were able to get two pizzas and desserts as well as drinks for everyone. We sat out by the pool and talked and had fun, it was very relaxing. Eva was going to go back with Mimi and Grandpa Dano tonight but I guess she missed us because she decided to stay at our hotel.