Lantana

It looks cool. I wonder how they plan to use it though. Pandora is so small and crowded I don't see how they can just walk around the area for atmosphere so Disney must have a staging area to make it a show. 

https://www.purewow.com/news/sesame-place-certified-autism-center#
 
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Trip Number Two:  Spring Break at The Fort
Ok, enough with the wedding and Commodore 64 distractions.  The wedding was a 2016 event, and this is a 2017 report.  So, moving along....
When we left off, our first trip of 2017 had concluded.  That was in mid-February, and was only INC and me.  But we only had a month to get through until our family Spring Break trip....and this one was to the Fort!!!
It's been several years since we've stepped foot in a Disney park, but for our Spring Break trip I did buy park tickets.  Only....they were water park tickets.  We still aren't ready to go back to the theme parks.  But we'd never done Disney water parks, and a water park annual pass is fairly reasonable.  
I don't have a full photographic record of this trip....as I have previously stated, I had no intention of doing a trip report, so I just took pics here and there.  Accordingly, this section of the report will be a bit sketchy but I'll post what I can.
We left home on Friday afternoon and made it to our overnight spot just south of Dothan in time for dinner and some sleep.  That got us to the Fort on Saturday in the afternoon.  We got settled into the site and enjoyed our evening.  On Sunday, we headed to our first water park....which was Blizzard Beach.  No pics from this day, so I won't say anything about it because I do have pics from other water park days I can share.  I'll just say we enjoyed BB, but having visited Splashin Safari at Holiday World in Indiana, BB was underwhelming.  Great theming, just so-so rides and attractions.  
On Monday is where my first pics of this trip pick up.  We spent the morning hanging around the campsite to relax and do some laundry.  Izzy, as is her custom, was up early.  And she was hungry for some biscuits and gravy, so she headed over to Trails End and got herself some takeout.


We were all set up in 530...which was one of the sites I requested when I faxed my request in that last week.  


This is one of the sites that backs up to the canal.  

How do I remember that we did laundry that day?  This pic was my clue.  

We also took Elena of Avalor to the playground....which we do pretty much every day at the Fort.  
I raced her down the slide.  
We also got in some pool time that afternoon.  I recall the weather was beautiful.




Do you see that food truck sitting there in the field by the pool?  I was pretty stoked about one thing on their menu that I wanted to try....the roast beef on kimmelwick roll.  I posted back at the time about it, and about my disappointment in it.  So I won't rehash that here.  If you want to read my review of the sandwich, you can find it here:  http://www.fortfiends.net/topic/18327-fort-wilderness-food-truck/?do=findComment&comment=503050
That evening, we went to the campfire program and movie....primarily because I wanted to check out the food truck, and everyone wanted Mickey ice cream bars!!



My advice on this is....if you want Mickey bars, get them from the Trading Post.  The ones on the food truck are soft.  So you need to eat them quickly or they'll fall off the stick and/or melt.  
I'll leave it here for now.  Coming up....we go out for breakfast.  Any guesses where?  And INC and I go on a date!  Oh, and we'll eventually get to some water park pictures.  Stay tuned....
 
 

#MeToo

I have decided that I too need some emotional support.



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It's a free for all. 
https://instagram.com/p/Bd_l4kpD45W/
check out that instagram acccount to see three dogs enjoying every part of a cabin. 
TCD

So I'm trying to catch up since getting back from WDW. But I just read your post about Raglan Road and you asked if anyone had been there recently. Well we were, last Tuesday!
We had never been before but we went with some friends who were also down there and they go just about every trip. I had the salmon, DH had the chicken pot pie and we were both very pleased with our meal. When it came time for dessert, which we don't normally order, our friends said "We're all getting the bread pudding. There is no other choice, that's what you're getting." So DH and I split one and we both thought it was delicious. Of course it was our first time so I can't compare but our friends seemed happy with it and they always get it.
Just my two cents. 
 

Trip #5 - Fall Break at Dollywood
Our kids typically get 3 days off in October for fall break, which makes for a 5 day weekend.  Not long enough to head to the Fort unless we pulled them out of school, but perfect to head to the Smokies and visit our favorite fun lady, Dolly.  
I've shared our visits and opinions on Dollywood many times in the past, so I won't rehash all of that.  I'll just say this....Dollywood is probably my favorite park anywhere, Disney included.  So I am always excited to plan a trip here.  And I was particularly excited about this trip, because I had planned it to include all 8 of us, son in law included.  Since we have 3 kids in public school this year, and our other 2 girls both work in Special Education for the school district, all 5 girls had the same break.  We had hoped that we would all get to the Fort for our March trip that I covered earlier in this trip report, but that didn't work out.  So this was a do over.  
Well...as we got into fall, plans started to fall apart.  First, INC had a major conflict.  She either wasn't going to be able to go, or at the very least would have to be home by Friday evening.  Since break started on Wednesday, that really put a crimp on things.  Then, it turned out that our son in law was not able to get time away, and our daughter decided against going without her husband.  That I understand.  So, this trip was looking unlikely.  But INC suggested that, perhaps, I go and take the remaining kids less Anna....since the rest of us are the huge coaster fans.  She figured she'd stay back and keep Anna so that we could hit the park hard.  Ultimately, DD17 decided to stay back as well and work.  So, this trip will only include me, and DD21 and DD11.  Those two are my biggest ride fans, and while I wanted to ride the coasters, I also wanted to take in some shows and entertainment, so this would work our nicely.  
I made a reservation at the Pigeon Forge KOA, as it's walking distance to the trolley depot where we could easily hop the trolley to Dolly.  We've stayed here a couple of times before, and it's proven a good base camp for Dollywood.  We left our home Wednesday morning, arriving at the KOA by mid-afternoon.  After checking in, we headed to the trolley to head to the park for the remainder of the day.  I had purchased  3 day park tickets via an online special they offered....if I remember right I paid around $99/person for those tickets.  Not a bad deal.  We headed in, and immediately we were immersed in the Fall Harvest and Gospel Festival....a festival focused on food, fall decor, Gospel music, and FUN!  

Even though there were many, many things I wanted to see, do and eat, we had a mission to jump immediately on upon entering the park.  We needed to get in our first Lightening Rod ride!  
If you aren't familiar with the Lightening Rod, let me first tell you that it is the biggest adrenaline rush I've ever gotten from a ride.  It is a wooden coaster that opened in 2016, and is the World's first launched wooden coaster.  It is also, with a peak speed of 73 mph, the world's fastest wooden coaster.  The ride was built in the Jukebox Junction section of the park, which has a 50's theme that feels kind of like Back to the Future.  I think they did a phenomenal job theming the ride....this is where you enter the queue.  

We got a ride in, and this thing is insane.  You leave the boarding area, and the cars launch up the first big hill at 45 mph.  When you crest the hill, you get airtime for the first of 12 times during the ride.   12!!  It feels like you spend more time off of your seat than on it.  The ride lasts 3 minutes and 12 seconds according the website, but it sure feels shorter.  It's a blast, regardless.  
After riding the Lightening Rod, we did some exploring before it got dark.  We were excited to see the park after dark, because they were advertising the Great Pumpkin Luminights as part of the festival this year.  But we first wanted to check things out in the light.  


We made our way to the Mystery Mine, which is one of the girls' favorite rides.  

This is a really cook dark ride coaster through an abandoned mine, with completely vertical hills.  
Waiting to ride....

We grabbed dinner in the park, then wanted to experience the Lightening Rod in the dark.  We had a Dollywood cast member pull off an outstanding photobomb.  

Bravo to that young man.  
I thought the Lightening Rod was insane in the daylight.  It's is beyond insane in the dark.  I wasn't exactly sure whether we'd survive.  Not being able to see the hills or banked turns was wild.  But still, we loved it.  Funny thing was, being that there were 3 of us, and you sit 2 across on the ride, we were paired with another rider.  It was an old woman dressed in a pant suit, jewelry and full face of makeup.  Before leaving the station, we chatted for a moment, and she told us that her grandchildren were riding and, rather than walk back down to the exit, she figured she'd just ride down.  She said she'd never ridden a roller coaster before.  I chuckled and said, "and THIS is the one you picked?".  LOL.  She looked nervous, but it was too late.  As I mentioned, the ride was crazy, and the poor woman looked shell shocked at the end.  I felt bad for her.  Bet she never rides another coaster again.  
We headed back to the KOA, and rested up for a full day at the park on Thursday.  
In the morning, we had a quick breakfast at the camper and headed to the trolley.  Those clouds looked a bit fall like, but the temps were blazing hot.  It was in the mid-80's that week, and very humid.  

We got to the park in time for rope drop, and where do you suppose we headed first?


After that ride, the girls went off to ride some more coasters, while I wanted to just explore the Craftsman Valley and listen to some live music.  


I decided to go see the Birds of Prey show, which showcases Eagles, Hawks, Falcons, Owls and other birds that reside in a sanctuary at the park . 


The show features some endangered species, but none are more endangered than the Silverbellied American Flip Phone.



The culmination of the show is the American Bald Eagle, of which quite a few reside in the park at the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary.  


That's probably enough bird pics.  
I made my way to the grist mill to get some of that famous Dollywood ooey, gooey cinnamon bread.  




I wish I had some right now.  That cup of icing on the side, melted into the crevices in the bread....oh my.  
Ok, moving on.
I also got myself some fried green tomatoes. 

I met back up with girls and gave them some of the cinnamon bread.  What, you think I ate the whole loaf myself??


I'll leave it here for now.  
Coming up, some music.  And some Great Pumpkin Luminights.  
  
 
    

A friend's mom has a Sugar Glider (not as a service animal) and that thing is a riot.  It's a marsupial and the babies are called Joey's (like a Kangaroo).  First time I've ever met that little critter, it climbed into my pocket when I sat down and stayed there with it's head peaking out for most of my visit. 

I wonder if there is a big enough "service animal" vest to fit me.  I could get into the park free, and it would definitely cut down on my wife's stress level knowing that I wasn't at crockets running up my tab.

My parents too, loved their cruise to Alaska (and that's saying a lot as they are beach people).  I want to say, that they've been on 4 cruises and Alaska was their favorite.

I can't recommend the Alaska cruise enough, non stop amazing scenery. Of all our DCL cruises, it was by far the best. Sharing it with Dave and Linda made it even better.

So what’s the deal with that animal? I don’t get it.

What a great cruise! I can’t wait to sail on the Wonder.

Good thing you hate Disney.


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Let's get this portion of the Trip Report wrapped up.  I have a lot of ground to cover with our other trips, so we should wrap up the cruise and move on to Spring Break.
But before we wrap up, we have some very interesting pictures to view first.  
As I have teased, our encounter on the beach with the dog wasn't the only time we'd run into our 4 legged friend.  After returning to the ship from our day on Castaway Cay, we went to the cabin to get cleaned up for the evening.  As I did the day before, I called down to room service to order a cheese plate that we could enjoy on the verandah with some wine.  I really, really would love to be doing that right now.  Anyways, we got cleaned up and headed out to enjoy our evening.  
We had to finish up the wine we brought onboard, so we walked with our glasses.  I think you aren't supposed to do that....but after a couple of glasses of wine I turn into a rule breaker.  Also, as is often the case when walking around the World Showcase at Epcot, I can't resist a British phone booth when I'm drinking.

Don't judge.  I've seen y'alls pictures.  You can't resist the phone booth either.  
Our first stop of the evening, as I'm sure won't be a surprise to anyone, was the pub for a drink and some wings.  Instead of beer tonight, I opted for a scotch.

As you can see in this picture, the place was still empty.  It was early, but the place does fill up later on.

Even though it was early, they brought out the wings and we enjoyed some.  
At this point, we still had a little time before that evening's entertainment, which was the new Frozen show they debuted on the Wonder after the refurbishment.  The Navigator indicated there was a Minnie Mouse character meet in the lobby atrium, so we wandered over there to check things out. 
We arrived in the atrium, and INC grabbed my arm and said "look who's in line for Minnie".   
I turned around, and there they were.  
Yes, you guessed it.  

But wait....was the dog wearing a hat??
Yes, indeed, it was.
And not just a hat.  When it was their turn to meet Minnie, they turned and I got a better look.  The dog was wearing a full captains uniform.  
I bet you've never seen a mouse high fiving a dog before.

The interaction lasted for a few minutes.  And they turned to face where Mom was standing so she could take pictures.  




When the interaction with Minnie was over, they started to walk away.  I wanted to ask where Tennille was, but INC wouldn't let me.  
Part of me feels a tad guilty about taking pictures of strangers on a cruise.  But I came to the realization that, if you dress your dachshund up in a captains outfit and take it to meet Minnie Mouse, you are probably ok with the attention.  
So, after that episode was over, we went to see Frozen, A Musical Spectacular.  Like most of you, I was fairly sick of Frozen by the time we sailed on this cruise.  But I love the productions they present on DCL cruises, so I didn't want to miss it.  And it was excellent!  Very well done I thought.  I would love for Anna to see it some day.  She'd go nuts.  
After the show we made our way to Royal Court for dinner.  Mr and Mrs Perky Prepperson were again dressed in matching outfits.  They really annoyed the crap out of me, and gave me at least one reason why 3 nights was plenty.  Anyways, dinner was good, but this was our least favorite dinner of the 3.  Animators Palate and Tiana's were both fun experiences, while Royal Court is just a nice restaurant.  There isn't a fun atmosphere or show...it's just dinner.  Still enjoyable nonetheless.
So what did we eat?
I started with some delicious garlic butter.  They threw some snails in to round it out, but let's be honest...we order it for the garlic butter and crusty bread.

INC had some mushroom ravioli...this was not a good dish.

They had duck on the menu, and I love me some ducky.  It was served with roasted root vegetables.

Dessert.....



And that was that for dinner. 
Not wanting our last evening to end, we headed back down to the nightclub section to listen to some music.  One observation I've had on my two DCL cruises, which may not always be the case, is that the nightclubs are never packed.  They seem to get a decent crowd, but I imagine being geared more toward families than some other cruise lines may impact that.  The places were probably half full.  Regardless, we enjoyed ourselves, and I got some artsy pictures down there.

I thought the lights down there were really cool.  I thought it might make a good picture of that last light if I stood directly under it looking up.

It didn't.
But that didn't stop me from trying it again on another light.

After that excitement, we turned in for the night.  We had put our luggage out in the hall earlier to be picked up, so all we had to do was go to bed and wait to be kicked off the ship in the morning.
After breakfast and debarkation, we made our way to the luggage pickup and then to our DCL bus transport to MCO.  We had to get our bags and take them to the bus, but I think if you purchase your air travel through Disney and do onboard checkin, your bags will go to the airport automatically.  (I think....maybe someone can confirm that).  
We made it seamlessly back to MCO, and safely home to Nashville.  Cruising out of Port Canaveral is SO easy, IMO.  MCO is an easy airport, having Disney transport available takes a lot of stress away, and the entire process is easy to me.  
My overall thoughts on the cruise?  Awesome!  Yes, 3 nights is too short.  There is no doubt about that.  But our only option was not going.  So it was completely worth it to us.  I wouldn't hesitate to do another 3 night Disney cruise if that was all we could get away.  But truth be told....7 nights to Alaska would be better!  (no, that's not foreshadowing.  We have not done or booked that cruise.  Yet.)  
Well, that's it for Trip #1 of 2017.  But don't go away....this report is just getting started!  Coming up next....Spring Break at the Fort!  And yes, Carol, that will include Anna pics.  

Ray, I was glad to read that you also consider it blasphemy to eat your wings with ranch.  I just had a good laugh while reading a column from the local Buffalo newspaper.  A columnist named Rod Watson wrote this week, after the Bills reached the NFL playoffs for the first time in 18 years, that Buffalo fans need to keep football in perspective...because there are far more serious issues that deserve thought over football.  Bills fans didn't take too kindly to his admonition, and hundreds of them wrote comments on the paper's website.  The best comment, though, was "Rod Watson eats his chicken wings with ranch dressing."
LOL!  See...that is a SERIOUS slam against a man's integrity in Buffalo.  
http://buffalonews.com/2018/01/05/hey-rod-watson-heres-what-we-think-of-your-bills-column/?utm_medium=more_stories

Thanks for following along -
Monday -First full day at Disney and the Fort.
DH, DD, and I went looping that morning and headed to MK for a little while. We went to the Arribas Bros store and bought my mom a mug and had it engraved. 


This is the Tumbler we bought for my mom.

We also went to Guest Relations to get dd her new AP card. Went back to the Campsite to get DS who slept in, and We then headed to Hollywood Studios around noon. 
I had gotten FPs for Toy Story mania for all 4 of us so we headed there.  Loser was supposed to buy lunch. 

Well, I lost as usual, but since I stopped to watch the Star Wars show, they all left me and had already ordered and paid by the time I got there.  We chose Baseline Taproom for Pretzel and a Cheese plate.  The kids hadn’t eaten here before as they weren’t with us in October.  The pretzel was really good.  The cheese plate was great as usual. We really like this place for a midday snack. Somehow I didn’t get a pic of the pretzel, but here is the charcuterie board.  The goat cheese is my favorite.

We headed back to the Fort for a break since  we were heading back to MK that evening.
 
DD wanted Sushi from the Poly for dinner, so we got on the boat and headed to MK boat stop.
We then were faced with choosing monorail, or boat to Poly.  DS chose monorail, and the rest of us took the resort boat.  He beat us by 10 minutes.  Upstairs to the Sushi Bar – alas, her hopes were dashed when they said the menu changes all the time, and they were not offering the sushi she wanted – headed over to tambu lounge, they were very crowded, so just decided to go down to Captain Cook’s.  Captain cooks was very crowded and very loud, but we managed to place an order and find a table.  Fun night of family conversation and laughs.  The food wasn’t all that great, but it was edible.  It started to fill up more and was getting very loud, so we left and took the monorail to MK.
Tree at the Polynesian

 
Upon arrival it looked really crowded at the entrance lines, but after getting in, it wasn’t too bad.  I was able to snag us a FP for the Jingle Cruise, and that’s about it.  FP were hard to get that week.  I had made a few for what we really wanted but plans change, and apparently not a good week to be randomly changing plans. We did ride the people mover, and stayed in the park until around 11, then we headed back to call it a night.


 

The crowds were thick depending on where you were in the park.  It was weird.  Tuesday will be a non-park day for us.
 

Just out of curiosity I called Carnival cruises. And spoke with the people in charge of guests with special needs. They will allow true service dogs, at no charge on any of their ships. She was very specific about what a service dog is. A service dog must do an actual job for the guest. I. E. Guide a blind person or react to a seizure. 
 They absolutely do not allow any sort of emotional support dogs/animals on their ships with one exception. A PTSD dog that does an actual job for the person. Example,  if the person gets anxiety from being in large crowds and the dog is trained to sit on the person to relieve the anxiety.   They just can’t be there to be petted. They will provide a pet relive box on stateroom balcony but not in a regular room. You must use the box(es) process on deck. Animals are not allowed on ANY furniture and are not allowed to be fed outside the stateroom.  And you must provide the food for your animal. 

That's what a police officer told me at the Daisy Festival last year.  We saw a few people just walk in with dogs (even though pets are not allowed), so I asked the office of the policy.  Of course, our daughter especially, always wants to bring and show off her pup, so she kept asking why we didn't bring Simon.  I keep explaining to her (at the Daisy Festival, in Costco, at the market, etc...) that Simon is not a service animal and we're not going to lie, just to bring him with us.  
See...this upsets me, just typing this.
It's, just... WRONG.

Yep.  Pet peeve of mine, for the reason that (some) folks are now bringing Fido into parks, restaurants, markets, etc... simply because they don't want to leave them.  I've personally met people, who have flat out told me that they didn't want to leave their pet, so they simply buy (which anyone can do) a "service animal" vest and in they go.  One couple at the Fort, actually went so far to have friend whose a doc, write a letter to say that their 4lb mutt "needed" to be with them for support (just in case anyone asked...but people are so afraid of not being "PC" anymore, that they rarely ask),   This because (he admitted) they didn't want to leave their dog behind.
Service animals, like handicap parking, should be protected.  It's boils my blood, to see people abuse the system because there are people who truly need assistance.  Some, whose lives may depend on it, and there are people who (basically) flick mud on that need because they want to bring their pet with them.   

I don’t know how you willingly walked back on the boat after the private island day, pretty sure they would have had to take me kicking and screaming. That looks like pure heaven.

In fairness to the dog... It appears to be an older Dachsund. We have a 10 year old mini dachsund that is turning white/grey around the nose and feed. Poor guy is falling apart and we basically have to baby him.

If you pay for my cruise, I will watch the younger girls while you and INC go to Serenity Bay.

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My best friend was like that with any kind of boat. So much so that we had to give her Xanax to get her on the ship we took to the Bahamas one time. Finally convinced her to go on a cruise for my grandparents 60th anniversary, she really didn't want to go but wanted to be there for my grandparents. Well that's all it took now she goes on at least one cruise a year, she's hooked!