25th Anniversary Trip.. A bit late and picture heavy

Food from Polite Pig looks pretty good! I come from a big BBQ area so I am always a little skeptical, but those brussel sprouts and tots look intriguing! Question about your room at Saratoga - was the door that leads into your room off a hallway or open air like at the moderates? I couldn't quite tell from the photos and am always curious!

My husband said the Brussel sprouts were really good and I really enjoyed the tots. To me the sides were the best part of the meal but I am going to give a main dish a try again on our next trip. Really good. I think it was the heaviness I felt after eating such a big meal after eating lighter meals the two days leading up to it.

The hallways are open at Saratoga, but I find them a bit more sheltered than at the moderates and Values. You could have a room two turns in that has a wall across from the door in.
So many people I have noticed don't like Saratoga Springs. We really do. It is our first choice if we can't get the boardwalk or beach club. And those we like better because of their location. If Saratoga was in one of their locations we would probably pick it over them. Just a nice overall laid back atmosphere, and pretty scenery.
 
Now for a quick review of Disney Florist to wrap up Day 2.

I had mentioned that Todd sent me a glass bottle holder with 2 glasses and a bottle of cider. Well I hadn't realized the glasses were in there at first, and this afternoon we opened up the wrapping to chill the bottle and one of the glasses had a little chip in the edge where you would drink it. Todd calls Disney florist and they said they will replace it tonight so he gives them our room number and says we had switched resorts since it was delivered.
The whole time I am twitching because my anniversary gift for him was I had saved up and purchased the "From Mickey and Minnie with Love" to be delivered that night as a surprise and I was afraid they would say something to him about it like, "We will replace it when we come for your other delivery..."

Well we get back from Disney springs and I was so anxious to see his reaction as we walk into the room and we were both surprised because he thought how cute it would be to send a little thing from each resort and there was a snack package of Disney popcorns on top of what my package came with. We couldn't stop laughing at how much we think alike. We have an odd habit of getting each other the same or similar gifts since we started dating back in HS.
And Disney florist replaced both of the glasses and added an extra bag of the Giradelli chocolates.18789547_10212582973706638_800608123_o.jpg18818071_10212582974026646_1569017195_o.jpg18789609_10212582974266652_1458300950_o.jpg


It made waiting the year to celebrate worth it. Only 2 days in and a great trip so far.

But tomorrow was going to be a crazy day. Attempting 4 parks in a day....
 
Such a great report! I am so sorry to hear of the hard time you have been going through. I am glad that you were able to take the time and celebrate such an awesome milestone! We are hoping to celebrate our 20th at WDW in 2019. Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures! :)
 
Such a great report! I am so sorry to hear of the hard time you have been going through. I am glad that you were able to take the time and celebrate such an awesome milestone! We are hoping to celebrate our 20th at WDW in 2019. Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures! :)

Thank you!
I hope it works out for you for your 20th. It is such a great place to celebrate something special.
 


Love your report so far! Happy Anniversary!! We didn't get to celebrate our 20th at Disney this May, so I will hope for the 25th :) BTW what lens did he get you?
 
Love your report so far! Happy Anniversary!! We didn't get to celebrate our 20th at Disney this May, so I will hope for the 25th :) BTW what lens did he get you?

I hope you get to for your 25th. The wait made it even more magical, although I know I wasn't feeling that last year..... :)

I got the 50mm f1.2. We rented it for a trip about 5 or so years ago and I fell in love with it and have dreamed about it ever since.
 
I hope you get to for your 25th. The wait made it even more magical, although I know I wasn't feeling that last year..... :)

I got the 50mm f1.2. We rented it for a trip about 5 or so years ago and I fell in love with it and have dreamed about it ever since.

I have the 50mm f1.8 but I would love the 24-70mm f2.8. A girl can dream :)
 


Happy 25th Anniversary! I am so glad you were able to go to Disney to celebrate your 25th and to get away from the stresses of everyday life. You certainly deserved the time away to recoup after all you went through.

My hubby is an amazing photographer like you and even though he does not love Disney like I do, he really enjoys taking photographs of all the wonderful things that make WDW so amazing. We go to Disney ever four years or so and each time he has been able to use the trip as a reason to get a new camera body or lens! I love the photos of our trips and I am really enjoying your photographs. The quality of the images are fantastic! You can tell your hubby the cost of the new lens was worth it.

Looking forward to reading more and seeing more of the photographs! I just love the close up details you have been able to capture. And the lighting of the images make the details sharp and crisp.
 
Happy 25th Anniversary! I am so glad you were able to go to Disney to celebrate your 25th and to get away from the stresses of everyday life. You certainly deserved the time away to recoup after all you went through.

My hubby is an amazing photographer like you and even though he does not love Disney like I do, he really enjoys taking photographs of all the wonderful things that make WDW so amazing. We go to Disney ever four years or so and each time he has been able to use the trip as a reason to get a new camera body or lens! I love the photos of our trips and I am really enjoying your photographs. The quality of the images are fantastic! You can tell your hubby the cost of the new lens was worth it.

Looking forward to reading more and seeing more of the photographs! I just love the close up details you have been able to capture. And the lighting of the images make the details sharp and crisp.


You made my night!!!!
I am so new at all this that it is so great to hear. Thank you!
We have been taking pictures of our kids and their teammates in the sports they played growing up, but never much else. It is the details I love about Disney and try so hard to capture, thank you for seeing them!!
Although I have to say I have reached this success through snapping away and hoping one of them comes out. I think I deleted at least twice as many as I saved.

I have the 50mm f1.8 but I would love the 24-70mm f2.8. A girl can dream :)

I hear you, I dreamed for 5 years for this one, I was even afraid to ask about renting it again for this trip. Well worth the wait.
 
Day 3

Today we took on the challenge of hitting all 4 parks in a day. To make that a bit easier we decided to buy the one day of the express bus service.
Park 1
Animal Kingdom

We decided to head right to the safari as we had the good camera with us and that is back where the express bus check in area is.
Shortly after the park opened it was a 40 min wait but we never wait in the long without using fastpass so we figured we would wait it.
It was early so there were a good amount of animal out. But not as many as the last time I was there and was early enough to make it out on one of the first few trucks.

When we got out we walked over to ask about the express service. We told them where we were planning on going next and they told us what time to come back. The busses come
every 30 min on a staggered schedule.
To kill the little bit of time we had we decided to get some pictures that we didn't have to take :)

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After our pictures we headed back to the express bus check in. We had to put it on a credit card. Not sure if that is always the way. We thought you could room charge it.
We were then escorted to the bus pickup spot backstage. The cast member was great and chatted while walking with us.

We were the only ones on this bus and once we got on it whisked us off to the Magic Kingdom.
The drop off spot was in the cast member behind Buzz.
It was still pretty early so we hit Buzz before the line got too long. We are a competitive family and it is always "who is going to max the ride"???
Todd got it this time. I could complain I was having issues with my gun but it would get laughed at anyway :)
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From there we saw Mr Incredible and didn't have his signature on my photo mat so we had to see him.
While we were waiting this bird was in the plants hunting and caught and ate 2 of the little salamanders..... everyone was interested even Mr. Incredible.

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Todd and I both agreed that "The Circle of Life" was going through our heads....

Next up was Merida. She is my middle daughters favorite and is always so great to meet and Todd had never met her.

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By this point we are hungry but want to do some eating at the Flower and Garden. I love the caprese flatbread at Pinocchio so we decided to split that.
It was good as always. And even got to sit looking at the small world loading area. The hours we spent with our daughters when they were little. We always had to eat there so they could wave at the boats.

Looking at the clock it was time to head over to the express bus check in and catch a ride to Epcot.
This bus ride had a good number of riders. And realized what a value it would be to use if someone in your party has a handicap. It was calm. You know what time the bus will be there. No crowd or anyone upset that you are getting on the bus before them or taking a while to load. Waiting for the family to load it looked like such a different experience than what you see at the regular bus stops.
I was actually excited to be dropped off at the Epcot backstage area. Our oldest did the college program there and always talked about backstage.

No pictures backstage so I had to take it on the bus :)
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Next up park 3 and a quick taste of the Flower and Garden.
 
You made my night!!!!
I am so new at all this that it is so great to hear. Thank you!
We have been taking pictures of our kids and their teammates in the sports they played growing up, but never much else. It is the details I love about Disney and try so hard to capture, thank you for seeing them!!
Although I have to say I have reached this success through snapping away and hoping one of them comes out. I think I deleted at least twice as many as I saved.

My hubby says active sports shots are the hardest to get. So, if you were able to get good sports shots, then you must be better than you think. And you are right that a lot of the shots you take do not turn out well. I just appreciate this TR more than you know because you have gone through the photos and deleted the out of focus shots. I have started several TRs in the past with lots of photos but many people upload every shot they took, with most of them blurry or just really bad shots. It pains me to go through them, so I usually end up skipping that TR and finding another one to read.
 
Thank you! The sports shots took time but they are my comfort zone now. With 3 kids that played ice hockey and the youngest at 17 is playing on multiple teams I have had a lot of practice :)
 
The express stop in Epcot was in Future World by Guest Relations.
With having a few bags with us I think the real time saver has been not having to go through security each time we switch parks.
Picture to show we are at Park 3:
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Now off to sample some of the offerings at flower and garden.


First a drink:
From The Berry Basket Todd got the Raspberry Ale and I got the Blueberry Moscato.
Both were good but I liked Todd's better and he liked mine a bit more so we swapped.
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Next up was the lettuce wrap from China.
It was good, but very difficult to eat, we just couldn't get it to wrap well.

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I don't know what it is about the Frushi but for some reason it is always a favorite and didn't disappoint this time either. It was my goto dessert in Epcot again this trip and had to get it each time we were in the park. Maybe because it is cool on a hot day and light, but always hits the spot.

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It was really starting to get hot and we decided to take a break for a bit and went back to the room for a rest.

After that we were off to park 4!!!! And Studios is where we had our fast passes for.

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We decided we needed to eat before we started to hit some rides. After accomplishing all 4 parks in a day we needed a treat so we ate outside at the lounge for the Brown Derby.
It was our first time there and was great!!
We each ordered something we thought sounded good then shared.
Todd got the Conchita Pibil Steamed Buns:
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I got the Charcuterie Board:
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Everything was AMAZING. It was so nice in the shade by this time, we were able to eat, people watch everyone walking by and our server was great. A wonderful time all around.

From here it was off to use our 3 fast passes:
Toy Story:
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Star Tours and Tower.

I didn't download the Tower picture because the person in front of us had their arms up and we were blocked :(. We always try to wait until after the picture point not to do that to others but realize not everyone knows about that.

I have to say. Even with the express bus service 4 parks in a day is exhausting. We were so tired we decided to skip the Star Wars fireworks tonight!!!

But we did it!!!

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Day 4

Today was our day to move to the Boardwalk so we started the day with bell services coming to pick up our luggage to move to the Boardwalk. When we were talking to bell services when they dropped our luggage off they suggested making an appointment for our check out morning and so that is what we did. They called about 5 minutes before our scheduled time to say they were on their way up. That worked out great.

After that was all done we wandered over to Studios again.
After we rode our rides:
Toy Story again, Tower again and Star Tours again we remembered that BB8 was meeting so decided to check it out. We waited about 5 minutes and went in. It was cute but not much interaction from the cast members in there with us.

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We decided to share a pizza at Pizza Rizzo. I know a lot of people hate on it but Todd hadn't been there since it was pizza planet and it looks so cute now we decided to share a pizza then head over to snack a bit more at Flower and Garden. Tonight is our nice dinner we planned for our anniversary so we didn't want to eat too much.
We love the walk from Studios to Epcot. We find the walk along the water so relaxing. Well it was even better today. As we were making the walk I get the text that our room is ready at the Boardwalk just as we are approaching the resort!!!!

We got the wing I requested! It is perfect for walking to Studios, close to the quiet pool and go down a hallway and out another door and you are across from the busses. Perfect location for us.

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After we checked out the room we went to Epcot to grab a drink and some snacks.

Our first stop was in the UK and we got the cider flight. They were all good but the black cherry cider was AMAZING. I am away with my son for hockey right now and my day was made when Todd texted me and said he found a place at home that carries it. I can't wait to have one when I get home.

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To go easy on the food because we are having a nice sit down dinner tonight the only other thing I got was the antipasto in Italy. It was good and light for a very hot day. Oh and I didn't take another picture, but yes, I got another frushi :)

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Our anniversary dinner was at Flying Fish. It was amazing. Todd had never been there and I hadn't been there since they redid the menu. The food was great and our server, Johnny, was perfect. Always there when we needed something but not in the way. His suggestions were right on too.

I got the Wagyu Filet and Todd the sustainable fish.

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I can't find the picture of the little anniversary dessert they brought us, but I will post it if I do. From here we went back to Epcot with the goal of wandering after the park closed to get some night pictures. Staying at the boardwalk we go in and out the back international gateway entrance. We plan to watch Illuminations from Canada and then do a full lap to the exit but the long way.
 

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And we had success!!!!!

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And I just realized we rode Spaceship earth twice before it got dark and I didn't post those pictures. Will have to put them together now. The first time I took pictures, the second time Todd did and I Face Timed my middle daughter. She is 20 and loves that ride. I did keep my hand over the phone screen so nobody would be bothered by the light from my screen while she enjoyed the ride!!!
 
Day 5

We were heading to Epcot for an early start to the day. Then rest and going to the last wishes :(

First stop was the butterfly house with the macro lens:

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Next stop was a special photo op outside by Club cool just for the Flower and Garden festival.
This was painted on the ground but in such a way that one a picture is taken it looks 3D. Had to give it a try.

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I think they are cute. Since we got home I heard they have Banchee ones at Disney Springs celebrating the opening of Pandora.

After a ride on Soarin we made our way to the World Showcase for a bit more snacking.

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this is the Potato pancake with cartelized ham, onions and herb sour cream.
It was good but heavy in the heat. I am thinking the potato pancake with the applesauce may have been a better choice today.

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This was the Joffery's special offering for the Flower and Garden at the American Pavilion location.
It was a Frozen Strawberry-Lemon Sunset. Layered frozen Strawberry and Lemonade topped with Grey Goose Vodka.
It was really good!!!! Wis it was offered all the time.

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This was the Falafel Pocket with cucumber-tomato salad and Tahini sauce. It was good with the sauce but very dry without it.

Now off to rest before what we fear may be a LONG night of sitting in the hub waiting for the last wishes.
 
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The photos using the Macro lens are just spectacular. So glad y'all were able to have this lovely trip to celebrate your anniversary. Congrats.
 
Your photos from the butterfly house with your macro lens are stunning! I just love the two with the butterflies. This one you can really see how delicate and fragile the wings are and it looks like the white wings are almost transparent. Very cool!
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