JanJ and KenJ's September 2014 Trip Report

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Happy Anniversary...

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Happy Anniversary and I hope you have a wonderful dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse. Love the TR.

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Happy Anniversary - beautiful pictures

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Happy Anniversary muchlove

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Happy Anniversary from me, as well!

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Thanks everyone!

We had an EXCELLENT dinner at the Yachtsman. This is my favorite restaurant at WDW.

Started off with getting our "customized" menu. It was a nice touch.

For drinks, Jan got a Pimm's Punch. And I got a Rye Manhattan. Thanks to MrHub for introducing this drink to me. awesome

Bread was served.

For the appetizer, we both went with the Caesar Salad. This is one of their signature items and I could see why when they served it! It was delicious.

For the entree, Jan got the filet and I got the prime rib. Both were absolutely excellent.

We didn't order dessert as we were both stuffed. But, we were served a nice after dinner sampler plate on the house. We ate it then realized I didn't take a photo of it. Oh well.

It's been raining all evening and doesn't look like it's going to let up. But, we'll probably walk over to Epcot as it's open late tonight. Illuminations just started as I'm typing this. BOOOM!

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The pictures alone have me tempted to do the afterhours!!!!!

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congrats date

Happy Anniversary!

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that salad looks impressive. I find it just about impossible to get a good salad at most restaurants.

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Happy Anniversary, many more magical years to come x

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Happy Anniversary to you both..Great pics..Looking forward even more to our ADR at YS... awesome

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KenJ wrote:
Kristen K. wrote:
I was wondering what you're shooting with! The low light imagery is really sharp and colorful. What did you buy?

Hey Kristen, it's a Panasonic Lumix GX7 with a 20mm 1.7 prime lens. Very small package with a micro four thirds sensor (same as my GH3 which I've used in the past). It's really good in low light and I never use a flash (or very rarely). All of the photos in this TR so far are without flash except the one of Jan trick or treating. I'm extremely pleased with this camera. I'm shooting RAW of course then processing in Lightroom.

Here's the camera and how it fits into the small bag to carry around with my sunglasses in the parks. I've included my magic band for size reference.

Is that the standard lenst that comes with the camera ?

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Mr F you can buy it as body only or with a lens and yes the lens pictured is the one you get if you buy both.

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Sally-Ann wrote:
Mr F you can buy it as body only or with a lens and yes the lens pictured is the one you get if you buy both.

Was just wondering what lens KenJ was using as i am thinking of buying a "pancake" lens for my Canon.

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Mrferret wrote:
Sally-Ann wrote:
Mr F you can buy it as body only or with a lens and yes the lens pictured is the one you get if you buy both.

Was just wondering what lens KenJ was using as i am thinking of buying a "pancake" lens for my Canon.

Hi Mrferret,

As Sally-Ann mentioned, the GX7 comes body only, or in a kit with either a 20mm prime lens or a 14-42 zoom lens. Since I was after low light ability and compactness, I went with the 20mm prime.

The GX7 (and any other micro four thirds camera) has a crop factor of 2. So, my 20mm lens has the equivelant field of view as a 40mm on a full frame camera. This is fairly close to the "nifty fifty" that almost every photographer has in their bag. Canon APS-C sensors have a crop factor of 1.6 I believe, while Nikon DX cameras have a 1.5 crop factor.

I took almost all my photos on this trip with the little 20mm pancake lens. I've found it to be great. I wasn't sure if I'd miss having a zoom lens on the camera but as it turned out, I did not. I just had to zoom with my feet a few times.

The 40mm FOV is good since it's not too wide, but wide enough to take shots of buildings and such. My other camera (GH3) has stayed back in the room this entire trip. The size of the GX7 with the pancake lense has been perfect for me.

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Thanks again for all the anniversary wishes. We truly appreciate it. awesome

Well, it's Saturday and we woke up this morning to find our MEEN (Magical Express Eviction Notice) under the door. Stark reminder that this is the last day of our trip.

Not sure what we're doing yet today. It's wide open.

Oh, check out our FP page on the Disney app from yesterday...

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Thank Ken and belated Happy Anniversary

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Belated Happy Anniversary! Sorry I missed ya, we were celebrating my fathers 74th b- day last night.

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KenJ wrote:
MEEN (Magical Express Eviction Notice)

rolling rolling rolling rolling

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MrHub wrote:
Belated Happy Anniversary! Sorry I missed ya, we were celebrating my fathers 74th b- day last night.

Thanks MrHub! Happy birthday to your Dad! mickey

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happy anniversary!

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Happy Anniversary from me too! Thank you as always for your awesome TRs and pics. Helps me wait till November. mickey

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The hub construction is confusing me. I've never seen disney leave construction in the parks so obvious. Do they have walls up to block the view of the construction? We love to watch wishes from the seats outside the plaza can you still sit in this area?

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Magic Days wrote:
The hub construction is confusing me. I've never seen disney leave construction in the parks so obvious. Do they have walls up to block the view of the construction? We love to watch wishes from the seats outside the plaza can you still sit in this area?

They do have walls up, but you can see the construction from the bridge into Tomorrowland. The view from the Plaza restaurant is completely blocked now with a wall, so although you can still sit there, you won't have much of a view.

This is the best picture from Tomorrowland - you can see the Plaza restaurant in the background.

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Thanks again for all the anniversary wishes! We had a great week and a great dinner last night as Ken already mentioned.

The Magical Express notice was already waiting for us under the door when we got up this morning - nothing like putting a damper on your last day! We get picked up just after 10am, so not too early and not too late. We'll be back home by dinner time and although we have had a fantastic holiday, we are both looking forward to getting home and seeing our fur babies.

Ken suggested Kona Cafe for breakfast again this morning - he was craving some pancakes and has enjoyed them from there before. So off we went through Epcot towards the monorail. We noticed that there were a few people going into Epcot with suitcases, which we found kind of odd and there was security with a dog at the International Gateway sniffing all their luggage. I thought it was a convention of some sorts and it was. Ken asked one of the hundreds, upon hundreds of people lined up and it was a pin trading convention. They were lined up from the big doors that open to the big blue building between Canada and the UK, all the way around to the entrance to Future World, and it was only 9:15am. And we saw a lot more people as we made our way to the front of the park.

Since we were heading to the Poly, it was only natural that we would end up at MK, so I quickly booked 3 FP's, one right after the other - Little Mermaid, Peter Pan's Flight and Big Thunder. We had missed Big Thunder on Friday due to a storm moving through. Love the new FP+ system!! awesome

So we made it to the Poly in good time and were seated right away for breakfast. As mentioned, Ken had the pancakes, and I had the 2-egg breakfast, same as I did the other day (hence, no picture).

After breakfast, we hopped on the monorail for the short trip to MK. As we were coming in, the Shake It parade started, so Ken took a photo as it moved past.

We then made our way into Fantasyland to catch the clamshell to "Under the Sea" and Ken snapped a few pictures. Love the colours on this ride.

I had already previously contacted Mandy from the forum, so knew she was working today at MK, so I texted her to see if she was able to meet for a quick hello. In the mean time, our next FP was up, so off we went to Neverland. Once off the ride, Mandy had texted back and she was just finishing up her break and then would be working at the FP kiosk at the Jungle Cruise. So off we went and look who we found. It was great meeting you Mandy!!

Then it was time for our last FP - Big Thunder Railroad so off we went.

After getting off the ride, Ken suggested one more ride on HM before we left. We went to the FP kiosk by the Diamond Horseshoe Tavern and picked our 4th FP for HM, which was for 5 min later. Fantastic!! As you may know, you can get in at 5 min before your FP time, so it was immediate.

We walked right on and then made the slow walk out to Main Street and out of the park. Ken took one last picture that will have to hold us until our next trip in January.

Waiting for the resort monorail to take us to the TTC:

Then, it was on to Epcot. I had yet to have a cronut this trip, so that is where I wanted to stop first, but since Spaceship Earth had no line up, we rode that one more time.

Then, it was off to get my cronut. We stopped in Canada and checked out the Off Kilter CD's, which Ken bought and talked to some of the CM's there. It was almost 3pm and we were starting to get hungry, so off to Italy we went in search of some pasta. We decided on Tutto Italia and enjoyed the food immensely.

Ken had the Gnocchetti Sardi (cavatelli pasta with sweet sausage ragu) and I had the Caprese panini with a house salad. The panini came with deep fried fettucine noodles with a little parmesan dusted on them - OMG, they were so good. We would definitely recommend this restaurant and we prefer it over Via Napoli, but that is just our opinion.

Ken's pasta:

My panini and house salad:

I also had a Rossini to drink, which is Prosecco with strawberry puree - delicious!!

We are now back at the hotel and it has been raining for the past couple of hours, but it looks like it's just beginning to lift. We plan on staying just around here tonight and enjoying the Boardwalk entertainment. It's been a great trip and we have enjoyed sharing it with you all.

Firsts for this trip:
MNSSHP - so impressed with this and we would definitely attend again
Treats - school bread from Norway, Butterfinger and Red Velvet cupcakes from DHS (Red Velvet is by far the best) and the Nutella and fruit waffle from Sleepy Hollow in MK
Attractions - 7DMT awesome , The Lion King and Finding Nemo at AK
New restaurants - Tony's Town Square Restaurant, Tutto Gusto and Tutto Italia
We also became annual passholders and saved $$ with the TIW card

Bring on January!! mickey

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Rain is just ending here when this rainbow appeared. There must be a pot of gold at the Eiffel Tower!

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WHooo hooo! Horrah for APs!

It sounds (and looks) like you guys had a great time, and January isn't that far away at all. I can't wait for your next trip report.

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Kristen K. wrote:
WHooo hooo! Horrah for APs!

It sounds (and looks) like you guys had a great time, and January isn't that far away at all. I can't wait for your next trip report.

Thanks, Kristen! We had an absolute blast here this week. The APs and TIW was a smart move. Jan just finished calculating that we saved $200 on this trip by having them plus we'll save a huge amount for the coming January trip. Really was worth it.

Looking forward to your trip report in a few months too! awesome

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Great trip report, Jan & Ken! Your photos are fantastic! So glad that you had a great trip and a wonderful anniversary muchlove

Which floor were you on at Boardwalk? It looks like the photo where the wing is blocked off is the same wing that we stayed in two weekend ago. We were on the 5th floor and I feel like our room was a cross between "freshly updated" and "could use a little sprucing up".

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Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

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Great TR guys! I'm so glad that you had such an amazing trip mickey I loved reading about it and seeing the awesome pictures (I better get practising with my camera before my trip Shock ) Thanks for sharing!