Koi Fish – Japan Pavilion, Epcot
Posted in All Posts, Epcot, Photos & Pics, Walt Disney World | Tagged animals, disney world, disneyworld, epcot, fish, japan, japan pavilion, koi, nature, pond, walt disney world, water, wdw, world showcse | Leave a Comment »
Fiery Sunflower at Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival
Posted in All Posts, Epcot, International Flower and Garden Festival, Photos & Pics, Special Events, Walt Disney World | Tagged daisy, macro, macro flower, macro flower pics, macro photos, macro pics, orange daisy, orange sunflower, red daisy, red orange yellow flower, red sunflower, sunburst, sunflower | Leave a Comment »
Flower and Garden Festival, Epcot
Posted in All Posts, Epcot, International Flower and Garden Festival, Photos & Pics, Special Events, Walt Disney World | Tagged blooming flower, flower and garden festival, flower in bloom, macro flower, macro flower pics, macro photos, macro pics, macro purple flower, purple flower | Leave a Comment »
Monorail goes by gardens during the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot
Posted in All Posts, Epcot, International Flower and Garden Festival, Photos & Pics, Special Events, Walt Disney World | Tagged flower and garden, monorail, reflection | Leave a Comment »
The weather finally got a little cooler and nice at the end of January, so we went over to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The park is very animal-centric and has a strong focus on environmental awareness and responsibility as well as conservation. It’s a very lush park with tons of plants and foliage, but all that plant life makes it very hot in the warmer months so we normally only go in the winter. I haven’t gone since I got my DSLR for my birthday last May so I was excited to get a chance to take some pictures.
Here’s a few shots I took. Most of these were done with my Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II Telephoto lens. I got it super cheap last year on a combination of sale price and saved gift cards and it worked out nicely for capturing the animals from distance. Most of these were also taken from a moving vehicle on the “Safari†so I was quite pleased with the shots I got.
Click any image for larger!
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- Silver back gorilla.
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- Beautiful owl.
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- White rhino and baby
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- Lion
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- Cheetah
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- Zebra
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- Flying Fox (A fruit-eating bat, it has the largest wingspan of any bat in the world – up to 6ft!)
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- Meerkat
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- Giraffe
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- Giraffe reaching out to eat the palm tree
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- Elephant
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- The baby elephant was playing and flinging his trunk around!
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- Lion on the prowl
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- Tiger
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- Tiger
Posted in All Posts, Animal Kingdom, Photos & Pics, Walt Disney World | Tagged animal kingdom, animal kingdom safari, bats, canon eos rebel, canon eos rebel xs, disney's annimal kingdom, DSLR, flying fox, gorilla, lion, photos of animals, photos of animals on safari, pictures of animals, rhino, safari, telephoto, tiger, walt disney world | Leave a Comment »
My story is tame and it’s not what I did wrong to Disney, but what I (and my friend) did wrong at Disney.
I was in 7th grade, so it must have been…*counts* about 1989-1990ish. I was about 11 or 12. (Yes, I’m getting old. Hush.) A group of us in the “Gifted” program where going on a field trip to Epcot. (Because it was “educational.” It’s a perk of living in Tampa Bay. LOL) Anyway, my friend and I had AP’s. (Technically, mine wasn’t even mine. Mine was a girl I babysat, but back then, no biometrics so her parents let me borrow her pass.) We talked about skipping out and heading to MK since we could park hop and MK was MUCH more fun then Epcot. Problem was, we were in a group with a parent or someone herding us through the day. It was SO lame.
Until lunch. At lunch, we all went to The Land and broke up for an hour to eat in the building as we wanted. We were supposed to meet back with the group in an hour. Instead, we decided to enact our brilliant park hopping plan and ran for the monorail.
We hopped over to MK. Where it promptly started pouring rain and we wound up taking off our shoes and walking around barefoot. We rode Haunted Mansion and I bought one of those “ghost dog” leashes. It amused the heck out of me. Realizing it was now getting late, we hurried back to the monorail and Epcot. But the travel time took us a lot longer then expected and by now, we were late for the time to return back to the buses!! This was bad. We didn’t want them leaving without us (of course, as an adult, I realize they would never leave two kids behind but then, all I could think about was having to call my Mom to drive out to Orlando to come get me.)
We couldn’t remember where the bus was parked. We were running around and FINALLY found it. They were worried and mad and separated us to grill us about what happened. (And so we couldn’t come up with a story together on the ride home.) We had agreed no matter what do NOT admit going to MK. If you don’t admit it, they don’t have proof and we’ll get away with it.
They did the whole “(other person) admitted you went to MK, so you might as well just confess” thing to both of us. I didn’t fall for it. I stuck to my story that we wandered around the countries trying to find our group again for hours. My friend did. D’oh!
We wound up each getting 1 day of out-of-school suspension. A day I wound up spending over at the same friend’s house.
It was totally worth it, we had a complete blast and as the only “bad” thing I ever did in my school career, I don’t regret it one bit. To this day, I still have fond memories whenever I see those “ghost dog” leashes at HM! 🙂
Posted in All Posts, Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World | Leave a Comment »
The counter service location, Liberty Inn at Epcot in the American Pavilion, has added a steak option since my last visit. I’m sure it’s because of the busy holiday/seasonal traffic and Disney trying to offer more options closer to those found in sit-down restaurants as an alternative when they are sold out of reservations. Sometimes you can only eat so many burgers and/or chicken nuggets so additional options are welcome.
The steak wasn’t on the menu board, but rather on a sign at the register. Here’s the description:
6 oz New York Strip Steak – with red wine butter, roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli $10.69
Now, a 1/3lb Angus burger with bacon is $9.39 and the “Smokehouse Burger” (with pulled pork and an onion ring on a 1/3lb burger) is $9.99, so the steak fits in well price-wise. But how was it?
Surprisingly, it was really tasty. The red wine butter was superb and really made the steak. The steak itself was cooked medium-well (which I prefer) though people who like a bloody steak will be disappointed. It took a little longer for us to get our meal; the person behind us got their order before we did; but, not an exceptional amount of wait.
The potato wedges look pretty sad in the photo, but were soft and tasty. I hate broccoli so I didn’t eat it and can’t comment. The steak wasn’t tough and had very little fat or gristle and I was able to cut it with the plastic utensils available. (Though real silverware would certainly have been preferred.)
I ate every bite and could have eaten more, especially because of that butter. 6oz is a good size, but if you have a large appetite, it might not be enough, especially given the fact you do a lot of walking at the park. Still, I felt it was good value for the money and I enjoyed it much more then I would have expected. I would get it again.
Posted in All Posts, Epcot, Food, Photos & Pics, Restaurants & Dinning, Reviews, Walt Disney World | Tagged American Adventure, American Pavilion, dining review, epcot, Liberty Inn, photo of steak, pics of steak, review, review of steak at epcot, review of steak at liberty inn, steak at epcot, walt disney world, wdw | Leave a Comment »
Saturday, December 15th, we went out to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to see the ever-amazing Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights! Here’s some photos. Click any image for larger version!
And for those of you who always look for the hidden Halloween Black Cat each year, I’m going to put it and it’s location behind a cut.
Posted in All Posts, Christmas, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, Photos & Pics, Special Events, Walt Disney World | Tagged black cat 2012, christmas lights, dancing lights, disney hollywood studios, disney's hollywood studios, disney-mgm studios, halloween cat 2012, location of the hidden cat 2012, mgm studios, osborne family spectacle of dancing lights, purple cat 2012, where is the black cat hidden osborne lights 2012, where is the black cat osborne lights, where is the halloween cat osborne lights, where is the purple cat osborne lights | Leave a Comment »
We have a lot of ornaments. And, after so many years of visiting Walt Disney World, a large portion of those ornaments are Disney related! So here’s a peek at just a tiny few of the many, many ornaments that make up our Christmas tree!
Click any image for larger version!
We also have a Disney Christmas Village set up around the tree. I have a Disney Monorail that circles the tree too but it hasn’t been set up yet.
And, every year when the village comes out, so does the cat! Gracie loves sleeping in withe buildings.
Posted in All Posts, Christmas, Disney at Home, Special Events | Tagged christmas, christmas tree, christmas tree ornaments, dept 56, dept 56 disney, dept 56 village park series, disney christmas, disney christmas tree, disney village, disney village park series, ornaments | Leave a Comment »
This image of New Fantasyland came from the Winter issue of the Mickey Monitor. It’s a Passholder newsletter that goes out four times a year. While similar to other concept art in the past, this one does show something interesting:
Compare this to the concept art given before:
I’m sure it’s likely artistic license, but there is a small water feature (a little pond or fountain?) in the lower left of the image on the old Fantasyland side of the Castle Walls. I can’t help but wonder if there is some truth to this? Will we see an additional water feature in some of the open expanse of Fantasyland?
Posted in All Posts, Fantasyland Expansion, Magic Kingdom, Photos & Pics, Under Construction, Walt Disney World | Tagged concept art, fantasyland 2012, fantasyland concept art, fantasyland expansion, imagineer, imagineering, magic kingdom, new fantasyland, walt disney world, water feature, wdw | Leave a Comment »