I hope that this information will also help others planning vacations both to WDW and to other places.

What went well

Spending five solid days at the parks

We only visited Walt Disney World itself and avoided other attractions such as Universal Studios.  For just WDW, this time proved to be exactly what we needed.  Had the weather been warmer and we were visiting Blizzard Beach, we would have wanted an additional day.  Given the size of the parks and how much there is to do, five days was just right.

The Disney Deluxe Dining Plan

Disney food prices are quite expensive.  In particular their sit down restaurants are quite pricy.  Breakfast each morning for the four of us was $60.  Lunch varied from $70 to $110 and dinner varied from $90-$180.  These prices do not include tips.  Given these prices, the dining plan enabled us to save significantly.  It also provided us a good break to get away from the chaos of the parks and experience some very interesting restaurants.

Making dining a big part of the planning

In addition to spending a great deal of time figuring out how much time we needed at the parks and in which order we wanted to see them, I also spent a great deal of time planning which restaurants to visit.  A number of the restaurants – particularly Coral Reef, Citricos, and Sci-Fi Diner, have their own characteristics and provided as much enjoyment as the rides.  For future vacations, I will also spend time looking for interesting places to eat.

Planning what rides to go on and when

The parks were a lot more crowded than we expected, but by using the strategy of visiting popular rides early in the morning combined with FastPass, we rarely had to wait.  We did have access to the tour plans mentioned in the Unofficial Guide to WDW mentioned below – but they were basically worthless.  They either did not contain the rides we were interested in, did not factor in eating meals, or assumed we could get our kids up at the crack of dawn to get to the parks before they open.

Filling our days solid with entertainment, combined with resting intervals

In the past, we often felt that we spent too much time at some locations.  At other times, things just moved at too frantic of a pace and we became tired too quickly.  During this trip, we were quite busy while we went on ride after ride, but we had about an hour each for lunch and dinner that we used to relax.  This worked out quite well – allowing us to move at a fast pace but buffer it with relaxation periods.

Taking the new Canon G11 instead of an SLR

For once, I did not want to drag around a larger SLR and lenses.  A number of people did this at the parks and while WDW did provide storage for many of the rides, this wasn’t the case for all of them.  The G11 worked out quite nice here and fit in my pocket when not in use.

Taking the kids at ages 5 and 6

We saw a lot of babies and younger children at the parks and many of their parents looked quite miserable.  While WDW rides are in general tame, there are a number of them that will terrify younger children.  Our older son was still scared by many of the rides while the younger one had absolutely no problems.  There are also height restrictions on some of the rides that in a few cases did not allow our five year old to ride.  From this experience five years old is probably the bare minimum I would want my child to be to take them to the parks.  Younger than that and the trip becomes more for the parents than for the kids.

What went OK

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge

We stayed here for the entire trip in a room with a savannah view.  The idea was for the kids to see animals from the room when they wake up and this worked well on one occasion.  While the hotel definitely caters to kids, we were so busy at the resorts that we made little use of it.  In addition, the rooms were quite small and the bed was among the least comfortable we have ever slept on.  I had originally planned to stay at the Grand Floridian but decided against it because I was worried the kids would not find it as interesting.  We visited the Grand Floridian to eat at Citricos and for the hotel itself this assumption was accurate.  Therefore, while I was not very impressed by the Animal Kingdom Jambo House resort, it was probably a decent choice.

The Weather

Of course it is impossible to predict the weather and how was I to know that Seattle would be on average twenty degrees warmer than Orlando while we were there.  On the other hand, except for our last day it hardly rained there.  We were able to do all of the rides except for the water related ones, so it wasn’t that bad.

Going in the 2nd week of January

The guide book listed below stated that the second week in January – after New Years when all of the kids have gone back to school – is the best time to go.  Instead, the parks were quite crowded and we needed to strategize how to see things in order to not spend too much time in the lines.  Luckily, we did not spend much time in the lines do to careful planning – though some rides reached wait times as long as 120 minutes.

What didn’t go well

The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World

This book should be renamed – “The whiner’s guide to WDW”.  Most of this book was completely unhelpful and often completely false.  The reviews of restaurants were not accurate and the descriptions of the rides – in particular how appropriate they are for kids – was not correct.  I just really had the impression that the authors have never been anywhere outside of Disney World and have no concept of the outside world.

Disney’s vaunted customer service

When I visited the parks fourteen years ago, I marveled at how happy everyone at the resorts was and the degree to which people (called “cast members”) would go through to make sure you had the best trip possible.  This is no longer the case and I even found the service to be rude on occasion.  In general I would give their customer service an “OK” rating.

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However, while I do think I am gradually improving, I have recently been debating on which direction I will take in my equipment purchases.  The reason is, my next purchase will have a significant impact on which types of photographs I take in the future.  The question has become less, “what lens should I buy” and more “what types of pictures do I want to take in the nearer future”.

I would appreciate any opinions on the possible choices before me.

Option 1 – My original plan was to buy the Canon 180mm 3.5L to increase my range in macro photography.  I have often longed to photograph bees and dragonflies, but the truth is they are just too difficult to get with the MP-E 65.  A longer lens such as the 180L would make this much easier.  I currently have more than the savings necessary to do this, so it’s the easiest choice to act on now.  After the 180L though, I have several choices and I am currently undecided.

a) Go the strobists route and purchase some flashes and remote triggers.  Most likely I would go the pocket wizards route as I have seen the ST-E2 in use and was not very impressed by its reliability.  To be honest I am not very big into the type of portrait photography that this approach helps most with.  Still, as Nelya gets more real estate listings this will probably help out greatly.  Currently I use a tripod and hold the shutter for my real estate photos – but I am not very impressed of the results when there are lights I cannot dim or windows.  However, I do have a feeling I would use the approach with Eitan and Nathan.

b) Strengthen my lens “collection” more.  The main lens, other than the 180L, that I have my eyes on now is the TS-E 90.  I would use this chiefly for macro shots and it would fully complete my macro arsenal.  Other lenses I have an interest in are the 85mm 1.2 and the 14mm 2.8 (for real estate).

c) Improve my filters and accessories.  The chief filters I would look at are the Singh-Ray neutral density and blue/gold polarizers.  I may also look at a RRS panorama bracket kit.

Option 2 – Take the plunge into bird photography and buy the 600mm F4L.  I have long been interested in birds, just like I am interested in insects, but I was quite disappointed in the performance of my Sigma 80-400 OS here.  There were multiple issues with this lens – I found the sharpness lacking, autofocus was extremely slow, and 400mm was often not enough.  The Canon 600mm F4L, combined with a 1.4x extender would surely answer these questions.  I have already spent a great deal of time comparing this lens with the Canon 500mm F4L and the Sigma 300-800 and have chosen the 600mm F4L as the best choice.

The obvious disadvantage with this route is the fact that this lens is extremely expensive.  I will need to save my microstock funds for the entire year to be able to afford it.  Another disadvantage is the fact that I cannot really use this lens from the house.  I need to drive somewhere where I can find birds for it to be effective.  Actually, this isn’t exactly the truth.  I’m sure that I can put some bird feeders up and bird friendly bushes and then photograph from an opening in a window.

The main advantage of this lens is the new types of photographs and knowledge that it would open up.  The main difficulty with insect photography is it is extremely difficult to find someone with intimate knowledge of insects who is willing to walk around with me in the forest and teach me things.  This is not the case with bird photography – where there are numerous Audobon groups who would be more than happy to help me learn the basics.  It also helps that I have a cousin who pretty much knows everything there is to know about them.

Currently this is a gut wrenching decision for me.  Do I save for the entire year and enter the world of bird photography, or do I strengthen my equipment in macro and landscape photography?  One choice that I have already eliminated is upgrading my Canon 5D.  Almost assuredly Canon will release an update for it this year, but given the frequency with which Canon replaces cameras and new technologies come out, it is a far better choice right now to invest in lenses, which have much longer life times.

Each path enables new types of photography for me.  My immediate path lies in improving my skills with the equipment I already have, but I can’t resist looking towards the future and what types of photography I would like to add.

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