Making Lemonade from Lemons.

[fractal]

Rain slowed down enough for me to dart into the Land.

Only to find out Sterg and Toni were no longer there. It did give me an opportunity to put on a new lens. Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D. Zero-D meant "Zero distortion". The Loawa is an ultra-wide lens like the fisheye but without the crazy curves and ceiling lights that defy gravity.

I wasted little time shooting it.

Sterg and Toni were at SSE and had arranged to meet our Ragland Road friends there. I was on my way!

Walking and shooting, walking and shooting...

See - wide angle, no "funkedelic" curves.

This is where we were to meet up with Bill.

While waiting...

We rendezvoused with Bill, and his family and after filling them in on why Val and Alex were missing we all went in to ride SSE.

And now my biggest regret of the trip. Bill and I shared a car and after the above photo I put my camera away. First because the 15mm was a manual focus lens and I didn't want to wrestle with that and second - I wanted to just relax and enjoy the ride with my new Disney friends. And it was relaxing and enjoyable!

The regret came at the end when the "Future cartoon/skit" came on our screen. We were laughing as both our heads appeared on the cartoon bodies and started scuba diving and putting on new clothes together. It really was funny!
But yours truly, Mr. Camera man who will take photos of ducks and "bokeh balls" didn't get one photo of that. After the ride I immediately thought of the lost opportunity of not being able to post that on my trip report.
And now here we are. So you'll just have to use your imagination.

More night time shots! This made me feel better.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

It's an ongoing dilemma for many of us how to find a balance between taking pictures and being fully present in the moment. There may be no perfect answer. If you had taken lots of pictures on that SE ride, you might have regretted not just relaxing and enjoying the time with Bill. I hope you can eventually let go of the regret and just enjoy the memories!

 

[fractal]

test

 

[figment52]

Rain slowed down enough for me to dart into the Land.

Only to find out Sterg and Toni were no longer there. It did give me an opportunity to put on a new lens. Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D. Zero-D meant "Zero distortion". The Loawa is an ultra-wide lens like the fisheye but without the crazy curves and ceiling lights that defy gravity.

I wasted little time shooting it.

Sterg and Toni were at SSE and had arranged to meet our Ragland Road friends there. I was on my way!

Walking and shooting, walking and shooting...

See - wide angle, no "funkedelic" curves.

This is where we were to meet up with Bill.

While waiting...

We rendezvoused with Bill, and his family and after filling them in on why Val and Alex were missing we all went in to ride SSE.

And now my biggest regret of the trip. Bill and I shared a car and after the above photo I put my camera away. First because the 15mm was a manual focus lens and I didn't want to wrestle with that and second - I wanted to just relax and enjoy the ride with my new Disney friends. And it was relaxing and enjoyable!

The regret came at the end when the "Future cartoon/skit" came on our screen. We were laughing as both our heads appeared on the cartoon bodies and started scuba diving and putting on new clothes together. It really was funny!
But yours truly, Mr. Camera man who will take photos of ducks and "bokeh balls" didn't get one photo of that. After the ride I immediately thought of the lost opportunity of not being able to post that on my trip report.
And now here we are. So you'll just have to use your imagination.

More night time shots! This made me feel better.

You have some amazing frameable photos - blow them up and hang them anywhere!!!

 

[fractal]

Such a good TR! Love the pics and narration.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks @Gamedog ! and thanks for following and commenting!

We haven't explored the World Showcase much (our girls are 11 and 9 so they would rather "ride the rides") but when we return in November I am going to make it a point to visit all these beautiful places! Thank you for sharing, I am getting SO excited for our upcoming trip!

I also love the "then and now" shots. I love to take pictures of my girls and compare over the years, and they actually really like seeing the changes, too!

I remember when my kids were younger saying the same thing. Now that they're more independent I'm keeping that promise to myself.

Thanks for following - how you have a great one!

Yes - my motto is to take more photos than necessary; especially of your children. Just wait till they hit their teens however, they don't like posing nearly as much.

It's an ongoing dilemma for many of us how to find a balance between taking pictures and being fully present in the moment. There may be no perfect answer. If you had taken lots of pictures on that SE ride, you might have regretted not just relaxing and enjoying the time with Bill. I hope you can eventually let go of the regret and just enjoy the memories!

Thank you for that perspective!

You have some amazing frameable photos - blow them up and hang them anywhere!!!

thanks @figment52! I don't print out nearly as many photos as I should.

 

[fractal]

We all then decided to ride Soarin' (dammit) together! This time I made sure there was photographic documentation - even if was from Sterg's cell phone.

It was on either our 2017 or 2015 trip I rode Soarin and the CM told me I could not just take off my flip-flops and leave them on the ground in front of me. They had to be stored in the "basket".
I'm happy to say that this trip I was allowed to leave them on the ground in front of me. For some reason I really love doing that because after dangling and swinging your bare foot in the digital clouds it's kinda cool to land back down and have them there waiting for your to slip back on. It made me happy.


Although we parted ways with Bill and his family after Soarin' and this was to be our last time meeting up, we continued to update each other over text for the rest of the trip.

Sterg and Toni gave me some time and space to take a few more SSE photos...

Where did everyone go?

My goofy attempt at a selfie. The light on the top of my camera is a small LED light that I used for the first time on this trip. It's not as strong as my "flash" but good enough and a lot smaller and lighter to handle.

This is one of my favorite shots of the trip. SSE in Black & White.

I used the LED light with this (and several other) shots just to throw some light on faces that would otherwise be dark. For those out there shooting pictures with cell phones - make use of your flash when taking pictures of people. Even in the day time a little extra light goes a long way especially if you are shooting in uneven light or if the light/sun is behind your subject. And for the record, Sterg was holding a candy bar in his hand to make this COVID Compliant.

We left EPCOT and made it back to the Contemporary without any drama.

When the elevator opened to our floor Sterg reminded me off our last trip at the Yacht Club when we walked barefoot to our rooms and how much we enjoyed the plush carpeting on our tired feet at the end of the day.
We decided to do the same and compare.

The verdict? Yacht Club by a mile!

UP NEXT - DHS morning/Awesome weather & awesome pool time/Val has her best day ever at WDW/dinner at Brown Derby.

 

[Chief Powhatan]

I don't have the words in my vocabulary to properly describe your SSE pictures! Thank you so much for sharing them with us.

 

[fractal]

Maybe Toni is finally turning into a teenager.

I was up early to get to DHS for the open. Everyone else decided to sleep in a little then go to the pool. It was promising to be a beautiful day - high in the low 80's and low humidity. Not typical late July central Florida weather. Back home in Pennsylvania they were suffering through mid 90's and high humidity. This really made me smile because of how many times I heard "You're going to Orlando in July/August? Are you crazy? Way too hot for me!"

My solo mission had begun and I decided early on it was going to be at a slow pace. So much so that my first picture of the day didn't happen until here.

On the way to Batuu I decided to take a quick trip on Star Tours.

I was hoping to avoid Imperial entanglements.

Some familiar faces. C3PO is just never happy.

The wait was about 15 minutes. There was a big guy in the couple behind me and every time the group in front of me moved up to the next floor spacing marker he would start moving whether I moved or not. He was breathing down my neck when I took these shots.

I turned around and gave him a squinty eye look. Like where does he think he's going? Eventually he took the hint (or his wife told him to show some patience). Last thing I need was to start "throwing hands" in the Star Wars queue line. Had me thinking of Sterg and his air boxing moves; "Chee,chee,chee."

These "TSA" droids are hilarious! Go on YouTube and listen to them if you've never. With "King Kong" pushing me along however I couldn't enjoy it as much.

Getting ready to board.

The ride itself on this day was excellent! I spent some time on Hoth dodging AT-ATs and then traffic on Coruscant. Loads of fun!

 

[fractal]

I didn't do Muppets 3D put did stop for a couple photos.

A photographic journey of Galaxy's Edge was next;

Took me awhile to figure out what this place was.

Inside now.

Neat little shop - especially for Star Wars nerds like me. Collectibles from all the movies were displayed and available.

Pet alien frog thingies from a galaxy far, far away...

Still has both his arms.

Wish I would have used a smaller aperture here to get more of these pieces in focus.

Next stop was the droid shop where for the cost of a few hours of your wife and adult children drinking around the world, one could build your own droid (or two).

I really liked K-2SO in Rogue One (a favorite SW movie of mine) and appreciated the reference here.

Hi there.

The authenticity here was amazing. I almost felt bad for these droids.

 

[buzzrelly]

Sterg arrived on the scene and Alex was sounding very happy! In fact they all were.

Looks like they were having a grand time!

and Liftoff!

Terrible seats, but that is an awesome picture!

I know the four letter word that's repeating in your brain right now...

Mine, mine, mine!

"I'm sure the alcohol bill won't be too baaaaaaadddddd." I mistakenly thought.

Omg! Yowza! I'm sure that was quite a bill!

It again reminded me of our previous morning adventures together...

Aw!

Basically it's a giant human clothes dryer. One can use one's imagination.

As the story goes, Alex was refusing to go on MS but her "dear caring brother" convinced her to go on the "mild" side. He was even caring enough to trick her into believing the Orange side was the "mild" side and Alex was in no real condition to figure this out on her own. Apparently it was a very boisterous trip to Mars as the tipsy siblings were actively screaming and repeating commands to each other. Again - one can only imagine. Thankfully they were the only two in that spinning contraption.

Things that seems illogical seem perfectly rational after X amount of drinks.

The good news was that Alex made it out of the ride without seeing all her drinks again. The bad news is that she couldn't say the same after visiting the nearest lady's room stall.

Omg, the poor girl

Flashback to 2007 -

So cute. Mommy must've done her hair

I remember my trip to Disneyland with Sterg as a teenager in 2012 . It was as if he thought the camera would suck the soul out of his body!

Ugh, teenaged boys are the worst. I have a couple trips worth of pictures that looks like my DS is absolutely miserable the whole time. He wasn't, but as soon as the camera came out, he'd frown

Alex had that glazed look on her face and after some back and forth it was decided that the best course of action was to take her back to the resort.

Probably for the best.

Loved the tile wall. The Morocco King apparently sent many craftsmen from his country to held build and maintain this pavilion and it shows.

It's so beautiful. I'm embarrassed to admit…I've never gone back there. Maybe next trip, whenever that is.

"Where's the ball? where's the ball?" She kept asking Val.

I'm happy to say that this trip I was allowed to leave them on the ground in front of me. For some reason I really love doing that because after dangling and swinging your bare foot in the digital clouds it's kinda cool to land back down and have them there waiting for your to slip back on. It made me happy.

I love that too

My goofy attempt at a selfie. The light on the top of my camera is a small LED light that I used for the first time on this trip. It's not as strong as my "flash" but good enough and a lot smaller and lighter to handle.

Not bad and definitely reflective of this weird 2020 trip

 

[I-4Bound]

We had a few people breathing down our neck in lines, too. My hubby always walked behind us to serve as shield! At Aquatica in July, I actually had to ask a gentleman to give us some space in line! Thankfully, he was embarrassed and not belligerent.

 

[Gamedog]

My wife can't stand when people are RIGHT behind us in line either. It bugs me too, but I'm a bit more tolerant than she is.

I typically just turn around and say, "oh my gosh sorry I just farted" with a teething grin - usually results in super awkwardness and them giving us our personal space back haha.

 

[fractal]

Some Galaxy Edge details shooting with my 85mm f/1.8.

"You came in that? You're braver than I thought."

It was late morning and I decided to grab something to eat. Rontos' Roaster intrigued me the entire time I was in GE so I decided on that.

 

[fractal]

So I guess the story is this droid is manning some kind of barbecue machine that is cooking up the meats in Rontos'. He's working pretty hard!

And the "oven" appears to be a repurposed pod racer engine.

I switched to the 24mm lens to present a wider view of the operation.

Here is what's being "cooked up". Not your typical BBQ animal but considering we were hundreds of lightyears away from home, it seemed reasonable.

I tried to order breakfast, but it was too late. Only lunch was available.

So doing what I have been trained to do, I ordered what the place was know for - the Ronto wrap.

 

[fractal]

The Ronto wrap was delicious!

After my quick lunch I explored more. This little room behind a locked door intrigued me. I saw Cast Members walk in and out of it and thought it was some sort of storage closet. Then I got closer to discover the detailed theming inside.

Maybe it is a storage closet of sorts? I was amazed at the length the imagineers went to make sure everything you saw was convincing.

Quite a system for a BBQ.

After bidding farewell to my oppressed BBQ droid friend I ventured into the "marketplace".

If you are a fan of Disney detail and Imagineering theming then this is the place for you. I thought about 10 year old me and my boyhood friends being plopped down in Galaxy's Edge. We would pretend a porch swing was the Millennium Falcon cockpit; this would have blown our imagination into hyper-drive spurring many little adventures and undoubtably getting into some kind of trouble.

One of the problems with getting older is losing your imagination. I look at all these things and appreciate it for being amazing props while the 10 year old me would have quickly sold into all of this being "real". It gets harder as you age to suspend disbelief as we dull our senses with the day to day reality of our lives. Dealing with COVID-19 this year certainly hasn't helped.

Several of the little shops were closed. Was it due to managing COVID-19 or did they not pay enough credits to the First Order? Depends if you're asking 52 year old me or 10 year old me.

Stormtrooper keeping an eye on things. No patrols on the streets, just from afar. I still appreciated the efforts Disney made to help me try to reconnect to that lost part in my adult mind.

One of the great optimistic themes of the Star Wars universe is how it handles "artificial intelligence". In Star Wars we have droids that exist basically to serve their master; in sharp contrast to most recent Science Fiction like The Terminator where AI/robots try to take over and kill their masters.

So instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger with a exposed chrome skull brandishing some kind of machine gun as he hunts you down, Star Wars gives you this...

On that positive note, I left Batuu and decided to do something 10 year old me couldn't do - go grab a beer...

 

[fractal]

Friday July 24th 2020 was a glorious day in Walt Disney World. It was barely 80 degrees, little humidity, blue skies and even a nice gentle breeze as I returned from another galaxy. My new destination was Baseline taproom.

Some storefronts along the way.

Whether you think Disney's introduction of more alcoholic opportunities in the parks is a cheap cash grab or not, I appreciated the fact I could walk in here and pick out a nice craft beer.

I was looking for something on the lighter side and chose the Golden Road Hefeweizen along with the Bavarian pretzel.

Finding a nice spot outside I relaxed, enjoyed my beer and pretzel, reviewed the photos I had taken earlier and just appreciated the fact that I was back in WDW with my family. This trip was deemed highly unlikely only weeks before but we made it down and despite all the weirdness and COVID mandates we were having a great time.

Thank you Baseline for the break, the beer and the time to reflex!

With the 24mm lens on I went on a mission to capture more of Hollywood Studios on this near perfect day.

Another of the many eateries closed during our stay.

Reflection shot.

And a "sort of" selfie.

I have always been a fan of the Old Hollywood motif present in DHS.

It seemed I was one of the few actually in the "Old Hollywood" area.

 

[fractal]

I spent the morning in DHS and didn't go on one attraction. But I continued to take photos.

Love the neon signs in Hollywood Studios - especially at night - but we'll take what we can get.

July 2020

July 2017

One more before leaving the park.

 

[fractal]

I don't have the words in my vocabulary to properly describe your SSE pictures! Thank you so much for sharing them with us.

Thanks @Chief Powhatan ! Glad you enjoyed them!

Looks like they were having a grand time!




Terrible seats, but that is an awesome picture!




Mine, mine, mine!



Omg! Yowza! I'm sure that was quite a bill!




Aw!





Omg, the poor girl




So cute. Mommy must've done her hair




Ugh, teenaged boys are the worst. I have a couple trips worth of pictures that looks like my DS is absolutely miserable the whole time. He wasn't, but as soon as the camera came out, he'd frown




Probably for the best.




It's so beautiful. I'm embarrassed to admit…I've never gone back there. Maybe next trip, whenever that is.









I love that too




Not bad and definitely reflective of this weird 2020 trip

Thanks @buzzrelly !

My overall booze bill for this trip was a bit out of hand.

The good thing about teenagers is that eventually they become human again.

Hopefully your next trip is soon!

Thanks for still following!

We had a few people breathing down our neck in lines, too. My hubby always walked behind us to serve as shield! At Aquatica in July, I actually had to ask a gentleman to give us some space in line! Thankfully, he was embarrassed and not belligerent.

Very annoying and sometimes nerve racking.

My wife can't stand when people are RIGHT behind us in line either. It bugs me too, but I'm a bit more tolerant than she is.

I typically just turn around and say, "oh my gosh sorry I just farted" with a teething grin - usually results in super awkwardness and them giving us our personal space back haha.

Not only was he well within 6 feet of me, he would watch the group in front of me and once they started moving he would move.

 

[KEK1]

Your photos make me feel like I'm there. Thanks!

 

[CruellaNY]

I'm happy to say that this trip I was allowed to leave them on the ground in front of me.

Funny I've always left my flip flops on the ground! I agree I definitely prefer that than if I had to put them in the basket!

One of the problems with getting older is losing your imagination.

Perfectly said