Today's post comes with pictures from Walt Disney World! Today is a special day because on this day in 2006, Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom opened! So, without further ado:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY EXPEDITION EVEREST!
Expedition Everest is by far my favorite ride in all of Walt Disney World, hence all the pictures you will be seeing today! :) Next up is an on-ride photo of Expedition Everest taken at the peak of the mountain, just before you drop backwards into the mountain! That plus a picture taken on the lift hill while riding up to the top of the mountain.
The peak of Expedition Everest tops out at 199 feet high! I've always thought the peak looks beautiful at sunrise, which I was lucky enough to get a couple pictures of one day at Animal Kingdom!
Anyone who's visited Expedition Everest will know the story of the mysterious and dangerous Yeti. The Yeti is the guardian of the "Realm of the snows" and is a creature many explorers fear. Signs around the attraction and in the queue warn everyone of the dangerous Yeti and to remember to "Respect Tradition". If you haven't yet traveled to Expedition Everest, do make sure when you go to beware the legend of the forbidden mountain!
Another thing I really love about Expedition Everest and the surrounding area are the beautiful prayer flags that hang and blow in the breeze! Anytime I've seen picture of "real" ones of these I've thought they were so beautiful, so it was even a treat to see the ones at Animal Kingdom. I just think those flags are so peaceful to look at plus they just add that extra authenticity to the area. I made sure to get some good shots of Everest with these in the picture!
No trip to Animal Kingdom would be complete without me getting my picture taken with my favorite ride there, so that's exactly what I did! This pic is of my and my boyfriend Andrew right before we ran over and got in line for Expedition Everest!
Finally, to conclude today's Happy Birthday post, I have a pic of Everest that makes me want to get in line for it right now! I love pictures of the mountain with the train dropping out of it and I stood and waited to get the perfect shot of this! This picture makes me smile every time I see it and I hope it does the same for you. :)
So, to sum it all up, Happy 6th Birthday Expedition Everest and many wishes for years of roller-coaster fun to come! :)
Today, March 18, we celebrate the 45th Birthday of my all-time favorite ride in Disneyland, Pirates of the Caribbean!
This picture was taken from the back of the boat on Pirates, hence the different angle than usual! One of my favorite things to do is try to get pictures in Pirates, which is not an easy task. I'd like to point out, first and foremost, that I NEVER take flash pictures inside Pirates or any other dark ride for that matter. It bugs me when others do it, it's against the rules, and it can really ruin the experience for others. (ok I promise my sentence-long flash picture rant is over!)
I have been a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean since I was a little girl! At 9 months old Pirates was my first ride ever that had a drop on it! My Mom sat holding very tightly onto me in the front row and took me for a spin on what would become my favorite ride! I honestly cannot count how many times I have been on Pirates since then, but each and every time I enjoy it as if it were my first ride. Somehow the simple joy of floating through another world has always brought a smile to my face and I'm often guilty of singing along with "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me!" when I go on the ride! I'm sure many of you can agree with me that Pirates is one of those Disneyland classics that cannot be beaten!
The previous picture and the next are of combination of lots of tries to find the correct camera settings and sheer luck. Since you're floating and moving plus don't have a tripod to steady your shot, motion blur is a huge worry. I've taken lots of photos of this ride and have seemed to perfect the settings on my camera for both aperture and shutter speed (plus others) so that I get the right color, lighting, and avoid blur as much as possible.
The next photo I have to post is one of the plaque in the queue for Pirates! It's one of those little Disneyland details that just makes the place that much more magical! Sadly people seem to breeze by this beautiful plaque these days inching always closer to seeing Jack Sparrow, but this is one of those details that should not be passed up! This plaque was installed in Pirates of the Caribbean "the original" for the 30th Anniversary of the attraction opening (15 years ago, today). It features the names of the imagineers that made the attraction so wonderful as well as the memorable line: "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me!"
Probably the LUCKIEST picture I have ever taken on Pirates of the Caribbean occurred back in 2009. I came up with the crazy idea that, to get a picture of the skeleton at the ship's wheel, I could "use" the lightning as a type of "flash" to light it up for a picture! Somehow this crazy idea was a good one and actually worked!! I left the shutter open for a long time basically waiting for the lightning to flash and eventually it did. Usually the lightning flashes multiple times which would have been bad because that would cause my picture to have multiple exposures in it and make it blurry. My luck came to me this time because the lightning only flashed once! So in the end it turned out a very nice picture of the skeleton pirate at the wheel with lighting from the left! I hope you enjoy this photo as I very much do!
I thought I'd end this little "Happy Birthday" Pirates tribute with a couple simple photos of signs at the ride! They're not the most elaborate or fancy photos ever, but when I see these signs in person I always get excited knowing it's almost time to go on my favorite ride! So, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY Pirates of the Caribbean!! You're looking pretty good for 45 years young!
Just a quick post today to wish Happy 7th Birthday to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters in Tomorrowland at Disneyland!
This fun ride opened to the public on today's date in 2005!
To see more about this ride, please visit Disneyland's website for the ride HERE!
I thought I'd share one of the pictures of me from this ride from my most recent trip to Disneyland back in November! That's me on the left and my friend Erin on the right!
We love to take pictures with peace signs together and paused from shooting targets for a couple seconds for the picture to snap with our peace signs up! I remember me yelling: "I'll sacrifice some points for peace signs!!" LOL
Enjoy!
