Off to Florida

D

Dylanlewis2000

Messages
965
Name
Dylan
Edit My Images
Yes
Well in a few hours i will be off to Gatwick to board a plan en route to Orlando. This is the first time for me in Florida so i dont know what to expect. I am going to be taking my 400d and 18-200 as a do it all lens but im after a bit of advice...

In the parks (Disney and co) is it advisable to take the SLR, or should i take my compact?

Is there anything i should look out for when taking photos?

Any help would be appreciated
 
Depends rearlly. Some parks have lockers on larger rides and a lot of mid to smaller rides wont care if your carrying.

Depends if you want to keep binning it off to go on things or have someone their playing the babysitting/child awapping role.
 
im not a lover of massive rides, and its just two of us going so i wont be giving the camera to anyone lol. We are going to Sea world and Universal, so thats why im thinking of taking the SLR mainly... to get some good action shots.
 
Do you like planes? Festival of flight, about 30 mins outside Orlando on the Tampa road is a brilliant place and very quiet.

Get to the parks when that open (about 9am) and you'll have the first hour or so to yourselves with very little queuing. Do the big rides at this time.

I found the SLR got in the way in theme parks so took a compact. There are lockers but usually a big of a squeeze /queue for them. Take the SLR elsewhere though.

Sea world is great, do discovery cove for a really chilling time. Harry potter is brilliant, although a long queue for the wand shop usually.

Have fun.
 
You will have to let me know how you got on with your dslr.....Im off there in September....One excited 41 year old "kid" :D
 
Oh Dear Oh dear
Its just been announced that Disney World has had to close down due to a health scare. The report states that when the inspectors went into one of the food halls they spotted 2x6ft mice trying to escape through the back door.:lol::lol::lol:

Realspeed
 
Lol good one yeah :-p

I've taken my slr on every holiday for the last 5 years. I really don't want it to miss out on this one lol
 
I have always taken my DSLR and a couple of lenses(18-70 + 70-200) but its a bit of a pain in the parks, this year I bought a Canon Si30 bridge camera for holiday photos.
 
canonrebel said:
I have always taken my DSLR and a couple of lenses(18-70 + 70-200) but its a bit of a pain in the parks, this year I bought a Canon Si30 bridge camera for holiday photos.
Click to expand...

How do you mean? Are there lockers around?
 
How did you get on :shrug:

As am off to Florida as well in November - doing Gatorland, Universal & Discovery Cove (swim with dolphins for the OH) Tampa Bay, Busche Gardens & a everglades ride during the evening....
 
Hi Steve!

Im uploading a few photos to photobucket now so i will attach them to this thread. With regards to taking an SLR to Florida, its totally up to you, but there are a few things i would consider.

I visited Florida in the summer (July and August), and it was incredibly warm and humid. The weather was great though, you normally get a very good thunderstorm in the afternoon with a bucket full of rain so if you are going to take some expensive kit, it may be an idea to take a plastic bag with you and a waterproof case.

Walking around parts of florida with an SLR isn't as bad as i thought although towards the top end of Florida you may want to leave it at home as this looked less touristy, if that makes sense.

With regards to the parks there are lockers next to the majority of rides which you can rent out for free for 30 minutes. Some will allow you 45 minutes depending on queue times, but we found that 30 minutes was the average. You can rent the locker out for longer but you have to pay a few dollars for the privilege. Some rides do allow you to take the camera on but this is at your own risk as it may get wet.

We went to all the Disney parks, Universal, Islands of adventure and Sea world. On the first day we went to Sea world and i was glad that i had the SLR. The high speed shooting and manual control meant that i could get the shots that i wanted, and looking at your kit, the D700 would be fab over there. I took the SLR to the majority of Disney parks but the days that we went to the water parks i left it at home as i wanted to relax.

I would probably leave it at the Hotel when going to Busch Gardens as i have been told that its mainly large coasters, but i would definitely take it everywhere else. With regards to getting around, we bought passes on the I-Trolley and found that was very convenient to get around on as its hop on hop off and you can buy day passes, however i went in the Summer and i know that they put extra trolleys on, so you may have to wait a little longer while one comes along in the winter months. To get to some of the parks we bought a Taxi through the hotel, i think it was around $18 per person return, which was not bad at all. Universal have their own shuttle service which is free!

Have you booked any other parks like the Disney parks? If you have any other questions please feel free to ask!
 
A few photos...

IMG_1734.jpg


IMG_2634.jpg


IMG_1904.jpg


IMG_1658.jpg


IMG_1497.jpg


IMG_1492.jpg
 
IMG_1434.jpg


IMG_2537.jpg


IMG_1616.jpg


IMG_1974.jpg


IMG_2005.jpg
 
Cheers for the pic's Dylan much appreciated :thumbs:

We've hired a convertible as it was a fly drive thru Virgin (OH fancied it as its her birthday treat)... As wasn't too sure about the transport side of it there from the hotel etc - plus it gives us a chaance to have a drive out an about..

Were not doing Disney as we felt its for the kid's really & as its just the two of us going (her b'day for the dolphin swim) we opted for Universal Studio's..

Were off in November so not all that sure on the temp there (will have to check the average weather page) but she will have her compact with her - was taking my D700 mainly for the Sea World & Discovery Cove parts but noticed that DC wont allow cameras in with the dolphins - which isn't a prob as I'll be in the pool as well (you have too really :lol: - shame that she wont come in to the sea with the great whites thou for my b'day treat in a few yrs time :naughty:)

Shall look out for the link to your pic's if you decide to post it..

Thanks again - much appreciated :thumbs:


edit: She loved the Dolphin picture by the way :thumbs:
 
Last edited:
Ahhh i would have loved to drive buy both my girl friend and i are under 25 which makes a huge difference to the cost of car hire over there. Some of the parks do not want you to take your cameras aboard for copyright issues and the fact that they will have photographers around the park waiting to take your photo at every chance.

We bought something called a quikpod which is an adjustable hand held gadget for taking photos of yourself. I would recommend one as its a lot cheaper than getting one of their 'pros' taking photos and you don't have to trust your camera to anyone else!

Universal is awesome as they have characters walking up and down the street and they are fantastic at what they do. There are loads of places to eat around the parks but you must be prepared for a meal costing you $20 for park food, or if you go to somewhere like the Hard Rock it can cost more like $40-50.

You can take water in with you, but they do search your bags before you enter, we did see them taking some form of food out of a lads bag when we were there, but i think they are looking for dangerous objects more than anything. Drinks are expensive around the parks, but you can get a re-fill drinks package in the parks for around 10 dollars, or you can purchase a meal deal with refill where you can eat a 3 times in the day and have as much drink as you want but this ranges in price. One thing that we used to do is just take a bottle of water in with us and then refill it around the parks as there are water fountains every hundred yards or so.
 
Dylanlewis2000 said:
We bought something called a quikpod which is an adjustable hand held gadget for taking photos of yourself. I would recommend one as its a lot cheaper than getting one of their 'pros' taking photos and you don't have to trust your camera to anyone else!
Click to expand...

:thinking: Another gadget to have a look at :lol:

edit:

Looked at the video on it - :thinking: how does the built in view finder work or have I totally misunderstood it :shrug:
 
Last edited:
Trig's said:
Were not doing Disney as we felt its for the kid's really & as its just the two of us going (her b'day for the dolphin swim) we opted for Universal Studio's
Click to expand...

Just my opinion and i appreciate everyone's is different, but i think Hollywood Studios kicks the cr*p out of Universal Studios, to be honest Universal and I.O.A were the biggest disappointments of our holiday there last year, maybe i just expected too much but i found they both just lacked the things that the Disney equivalents had in abundance. Animal Kingdom and Epcot's World Showcase are fantastic (not all Disney is made for little kids) :D

Sea World is fantastic too.

Have a great time whatever you choose.
 
Mark Anthony said:
Just my opinion and i appreciate everyone's is different, but i think Hollywood Studios kicks the cr*p out of Universal Studios, to be honest Universal and I.O.A were the biggest disappointments of our holiday there last year, maybe i just expected too much but i found they both just lacked the things that the Disney equivalents had in abundance. Animal Kingdom and Epcot's World Showcase are fantastic (not all Disney is made for little kids) :D

Sea World is fantastic too.

Have a great time whatever you choose.
Click to expand...

Everyones different but i will agree with you. Hollywood studios, Epcot and magic Kingdom were excellent, blue lagoon was ok nice to have a relax. Animal kingdom was pretty naff, the safari was awesome but apart form that, we were bored. Downtown disney is pretty cool though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top