Gastronomical Adventures at the Grand (Feb 8-12, 2015) - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Sounds like a great day! Looks like you had beautiful weather!!! Your photos are beautiful as always - bummer the dragon was out of sorts. I am aiming to find a spot on the 2nd level of the train station to watch wishes!
And I think your new hair is beautiful!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
Earlier in your TR you mentioned that you only took the food & fireworks with the DSLR; so,what were you utilizing to take all the rest of these amazing photos? I especially love the monorail & scenery shots. And if you have any tips you could share that would be awesome. Thanks for sharing and making these endless winter days more enjoyable.
Wonderful day so far at the MK, breakfast at CP is always a great way to start the day (I love the puffed French Toast). Love your pictures of the parade (I just fell in love with all the colors and the floats when we saw it).
Looking forward to hearing all about dinner at the CG.
Thanks - I was very happy to see the Parade - it's just a little edgier than most Disney Parades.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great day at MK! Love all the pictures, but especially the parade ones!
Thanks, Marnie.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Finally, a CM who can and did fix the MB problem. Breakfast looked fun, and your pictures around the park really make me wish I were there right now. You had an awesome location for viewing the 3:00 parade. Love your photos!
Yes - we tried to tell the other CM the problem was the finger print, as the band worked for FP entrances just fine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I love watching the parade (and the fireworks) from the train station. It's true the angle from above means you don't have the characters waving right at you and I think the dragon shows better with the sky as background, but it's so nice to have an unobstructed view. The floats look amazing. It looks like Peter Pan smiled right at you! The photos from breakfast are wonderful. I like your curly hair! I don't want to call it "short" curly hair, because it's really LONG in comparison!
I had always wanted to try the Train Station for the parade, and it didn't disappoint. Next time I will watch from the street.
LOL @ this SHORT hair - had another trim so it is getting tamed, and I don't mind it.
Wonderful photos from the parade! I can't wait to see it someday! Hopefully you'll get another chance to see the fire breathing dragon.
Thanks, Pam.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alaskan Mom
What beautiful parade pictures, I loved seeing the entire viewpoint from the train station. I'll have to try that. Love your GF photos.
Thanks for the nice comment. I have enjoyed reading about your move from Alaska.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lfredsbo
Sounds like a great day! Looks like you had beautiful weather!!! Your photos are beautiful as always - bummer the dragon was out of sorts. I am aiming to find a spot on the 2nd level of the train station to watch wishes!
And I think your new hair is beautiful!
. The flagpole gets in the way for Wishes from the Train Station, unless you catch one of the days it is down for the Christmas Parade taping. I still would like to try it, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
Glad someone was able to finally sort out Lou's MB issue! It was another great day, and your view for the parade was great
Thanks for following along, Jenn.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily
I love all the pictures, but especially the ones of the parade.
Thank you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cattailmarsh
Earlier in your TR you mentioned that you only took the food & fireworks with the DSLR; so,what were you utilizing to take all the rest of these amazing photos? I especially love the monorail & scenery shots. And if you have any tips you could share that would be awesome. Thanks for sharing and making these endless winter days more enjoyable.
Hi, and thanks for joining in. The Point & Shoot camera I'm using is the Panasonic LUMIX FZ1000. It's one of their newer models and has a zoom from 25-400 (35mm equivalent). It is on the high end for cost for P&S cameras, but takes nice photos and very easy to carry.
Tuesday, Feb 10, 2015 - Dinner and Wishes at The California Grill
After showers and sprucing up, we took the Boat from the GF to the Magic Kingdom. From there, we took the relatively short walk over to the Contemporary, since we had plenty of time and the weather was nice. We purposely arrived early enough to have a relaxing cocktail before dinner.
We had a nice table by the window to watch the sunset. I do like the newer setup at the California Grill, where the bar/lounge is in the middle, and dining is on either side (I think that's new?). We were called to dinner right at our ADR time of 7pm, and taken to a nice window table on the MK side of the restaurant.
We had a nice dinner, everyone enjoyed the ambience. Kathy & I went with the Goat Cheese Ravioli and Sushi, and the guys had the Bison steak. Lou started with a flat bread that was delicious. The Ravioli is one of my favorites, and the guys enjoyed their Bison. We rated the sushi as just above average.
The focus was slightly off in most of my food photos, but I'll share so you can see we had a nice meal Perhaps it was that one glass of champagne I indulged in.
We finished dinner with time to go outside and find a spot for Wishes. I took my time setting up the tripod, receiving lots of constructive criticism from Lou (who has never taken a photograph of Fireworks in his life )
I wasn't sure exactly where the fireworks would show, since I'd only ever seen the Holiday Show from here before. So, I set up for a very wide view, and then zoomed in closer once I saw where the bursts would be. I'm sure the photos would be better if I'd paid attention to Lou
That was fun. There's no place like Main Street to see Wishes, but it's interesting to see it from on high once in awhile. I do think you can hear the music and the narration much better when in a small venue like the deck at the California Grill.
For comparison, here are a couple of shots taken Christmas 2012 from the same spot. You can see how many more fireworks are going off, and how they are set up around the periphery of the park:
We hopped on the monorail with minimal wait time, and made it back to the Villa. Everyone was ready for some sleep, but first we had to agree on the plan for the next morning. We had a 9:30am ADR at the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Epcot. I made an executive decision that we could sleep in some, and we would grab a taxi over to the Beach Club.
In summary - we had a great day, starting with breakfast at The Crystal Palace, a day in the MK, including the parade. The evening was great as well; hard to beat the atmosphere at The California Grill - great views, good food, good friends, and Fireworks!
Dinner looked delicious! It's been a long time since I've been to California Grill, I really want to get back there and try it after the refurb. You're fireworks photos are beautiful! I really like the second shot of the bursts going off over Space Mountain and the fan like bursts behind the castle. It needs to be framed
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Beautiful shots of the fireworks! It's too bad they didn't build the Contemporary where the TTC is, so you'd have a dead-on view of the castle from the balcony! That's the only thing I don't like about seeing the fireworks from anywhere but Main Street. You're right about the music and narration being easier to hear from there, though. Looks like a wonderful meal. I'd go to CG just for the flatbread-- awesome!
So glad you got to see the parade! Dinner sounded lovely and the view was awesome for fireworks. I think my favorite picture was of the Liberty Belle and Harper's Mill -looked like a postcard.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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Alaskan Mom aka Bonnie
Breakfast looked fun, and your pictures around the park really make me wish I were there right now. You had an awesome location for viewing the 3:00 parade. Love your photos! 
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