Maui Welcomes You to Disney's Polynesian Village Resort

A statue of Maui welcomes you to the Polynesian Village Resort at Walt Disney World.

You may have seen some posts about Maui around here before (hint: if you haven’t seen them, they are here and here). I still like that he is there, and on this most recent visit, I didn’t miss the fountain that used to be there nearly as much as before. And he looks nice in this wide angle view, too.

Perhaps you have seen the trailer for the upcoming Disney animated movie Moana (hint: if you haven’t seen it, it is here). In the movie, Dwayne Johnson (you know, The Rock) is the voice of Maui. But that Maui doesn’t quite look like this Maui. So which Maui is the real Maui? Will the real Maui please stand up?

It doesn’t really matter, I suppose. One is a character in a movie, and the other is a statue in a hotel, and both are by Disney, and they are quite different from each other. Although to be fair, the statue in the hotel is based on the old logos for the hotel that go back to the time before Dwayne Johnson was even born. So there. Just don’t tell Dwayne I said that, because he is a little bigger than I am.

Anyway, as we were on our way out after I took this photo, I figured I might as well get a photo of Laura and Jaylin in front of the statue, too. So here it is:

We really aren’t sure what Jaylin was doing there. Laura said, “Maui isn’t meditating, you know!” Jaylin said, “But I am anyway.” Who can reason with a 13-year-old, anyway?

And although most of the photos that I post here are still of buildings and landscapes and stuff like that, I am trying to take more family photos than I used to. Because as Jaylin grows up, I realize more and more that he won’t be around forever. And even more, he changes all the time, so it is nice to look back and see how little he used to be.

And one day we can show photos like this to his kids, and they will laugh while he just shakes his head, wondering what he was thinking at the time. No, it’s not blackmail. It’s just a whole lot like blackmail. That’s what parents do, right?

Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children. - Proverbs 17:6

About the photo:

As with the previous photo, this photo does not look all that different from the original version from the camera. In fact, this time around I didn’t even bother making a before and after version, because you really can’t tell much of a difference at all. Not that I am complaining, of course. Having it right on the front end makes processing go by really quickly. I could have done some sort of really wild processing to give this some sort of strange look, but I really like the way that the whole Polynesian lobby looks, so I wanted to present that instead of something that really doesn’t look like the lobby at all. So that’s what you get here. Why mess with a good thing?

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: June 10, 2016
Location: Polynesian Village Resort, Walt Disney World, Florida