Mouse House

Last August, our Seasonal Passes were still in blackout, but we wanted to get in one more trip before school started. We did a six day stay at the Fort and never went in any of the parks!

This year we have AP's again, and are going back to the Fort for another six days, starting next Sunday. We were actually lamenting the fact that going into the parks cut into our Fort time. So when I picked our Fast Passes I made sure they were in tight time chunks so that we weren't in the parks all day.

Love me or Hate me, I need help... We came to the Fort for my Birthday weekend and (I don't know why I am surprised) people are really getting into Halloween around here! Here is my problem, we are coming back in time for Halloween night. What do I need to pull off a successful representation of Fiend Cred?

Do I hand out candy or walk with my kids? Do you pick up candy on all the loops or are there designated areas? We have school on Friday, if we get there in time to throw on costumes and start TorT, will we be shamed by overachieving neighbors? How much candy do I buy? I have 11 days!!! What have I not done?!?

As a seasoned Disney Spring-Breaker, I would say,"Don't let the crowds keep you away!" Like you, once our little kids hit school age, we had to do spring break for our annual vacation. My number one tip for high volume days is to take advantage of the Magic Hours. When MK stays open until 3am... Don't miss that! We came into the park as the last parade was finishing and stayed until 2:30. We did more in that evening than we had done the day before, with a school group. (I think the totals were Friday Daytime 10:30 to 4:30: 3 rides, lunch, and the 3:00 parade; Saturday night: 12 rides, and we left early)

I love being included in your vacation! Thanks for the "live" updates! I'm in Florida, and walking into work is really sad on stunningly beautiful days like yesterday and today. Maybe I'll walk out to get the mail, several time today

I usually offer an incentive (read: bribe) to my kids for being helpful and no fighting or complaining. I'm sad, they are sad and sometimes negative feelings can color the end of a nice trip. Give them one more thing to look forward to.

I usually send them on "spot checks" around the campsite, give them a bag or a cup from the garbage, and tell them to look for little stuff that God didn't put there. Leave it better than you found it.

I'm sorry you have to go, but come on back and see us again now, 'ya hear?

May I add, one of the little coolers has wheels, and often joins us at the pool or grilling at the pavilion.

When we stay for a week at the fort, we plan on eating most meals at the pop-up. Nothing fancy, but we do love to eat so we do plan it out, somewhat. My menus typically get us through half the stay, then Mikey runs out to Publix (my favorite, 'cause they are from my hometown) for more food and ice. I have a list of what I want him to buy, prepared before we leave (or this is also a nice little game to play on the drive to Disney). There is always editing before he actually goes, plus his motto is "I'm on vacation! So I'm gonna pick up some... (Insert your vice here.)" Since I told on him, I'll add that Publix bakeries that serve populations with lots of Hispanic people (Orlando) will have Guava Pastries, don't miss it, because it is on my list.

We use a 4 ice chest method. The first one is huge and is one of those fancy ones I call a hurricane cooler. It has clean ice and gets to sit outside in the shade, on the tongue, under the pop-up bed. It is inconvenient, and therefore ideal to keep frequent "ice chest inspectors" out. The other three have "stuff" in them. One big one for all the chilled food that couldn't fit in the pop-up's tiny fridge (may I suggest gallon zip locks for anything that may leak) and two smaller ones for drinks. The kids have one with kid drinks and adult drinks in the other.

When it's time to go to Publix, all of the remaining clean ice goes in the smaller coolers and the big cooler goes to Publix for a refill.

I am sure there are more efficient ways to accomplish the same thing, but this method has served us well for MANY years of camping at the Fort.

This was there, too:

Sounds interesting

Has anyone done this? It looks like Food and Wine Festival lite or a great way to "train" for October. Is this fun? Anyone tried yet?

Knowing we were coming back, and after reading Kelly's TR about it, we decided to come back when we were here with the kids in two weeks. So we are here, and we went, and it was wonderful! After a very filling lunch, we were looking around the Germany stores and discovered this tiny sign in the wine/ beer store:

Excuse my ignorance, I couldn't figure out how to start a new chat. However, this discovery/question came as the result of this original post about beer.

On our mission to find grapefruit beer, we discovered a restaurant we had previously never tried, the Biergarten.

bord1niowa......Curt wrote:

I check in the 31st and we booked a partial and had requested the 1500 loop. So there is a possibility that we will be put in a premium loop instead?

As of today, the 18th, 1500 is still closed

We ate lunch here today, beside running water on the 300 loop, and I was thinking if ever there was a day to go fishing, this would be a lovely spot.

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Today was our last day and we wanted to see the Flower Festival without rain. The weather was beautiful and to finish our trip we went back to Germany for one more beer.

Here is the sign, it looks permanent, thank you Vanna White.

Here is Mike with his, you can get it in two places. There is a beer stand out front, and this place in the back.

Funny side note, we were leaving Germany with our prize, and I spotted one of Mike's favorite college friends standing in the beer line! He was getting his special grapefruit beer that he can't find in Arcadia, FL! It's a small world after all.

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Just got out of EPCOT After Hours in Mexico, it was awesome. If I could text better, without weaving, I would post more now. I did take some pictures, but it is a bar, so they are pretty dark. More later!

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And as previously reported ... It is delicious.

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Even better, it can be obtained within two locations within Germany, as we have purchased ours here:

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This is Mindy, live at the scene, where we have discovered that Germany does indeed still serve the fabled "Grapefruit Bier."

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I'm in!

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On our way to EPCOT!

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I accept your challenge! Mike and I will be at Epcot this Thursday. We will swing through Germany on a beer run. Then we are staying for after hours wind down in Mexico, I'll tell you about that, too.

Hmm, following random clues on a hunt for objects in the World Showcase... It's like Kim Possible for adults.

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