Disneyzombie-Brenda

Thanks everyone for the Happy Birthdays! This is really a special day for me! Today is the anniversary of my second favorite place on earth to vacation, Yellowstone, and it is National Peanut Butter lovers’ day, my favorite food.....and I announced my retirement today! We get to start our full-timers journey on May 4th. I'm so excited!

So who's in for the 3rd annual SMGG??? :jumpforjoy
I sure as heck know we are....even though some JACKWAGON has stolen our site for next Memorial Day weekend already. :argh:
So we can't get our beloved site 20-A....which through a miracle of tree placement was shady all day, every day. I just feel sorry for the guy that booked it for next year....he sure as heck doesn't have a clue what he is going to be surrounded by. And I also doubt he will appreciate me hanging under his awning every morning enjoying my coffee. Sucks to be him, for sure. :rofl3:
In any case, I will have to find a substitute site. Who else is going to book soon? Sites seem to go quickly in this loop.
Of course, if anyone has any other ideas for a location shout them out. I think Stone Mtn works as far as proximity to a lot of Fiends. The only unfortunate thing is that it sits in Atlanta. But there is a lot to do and we all seem to like it. Open to other ideas, but if nothing good comes along I'll go on and book a site.

Thanks everyone for the Happy Birthdays! This is really a special day for me! Today is the anniversary of my second favorite place on earth to vacation, Yellowstone, and it is National Peanut Butter lovers’ day, my favorite food.....and I announced my retirement today! We get to start our full-timers journey on May 4th. I'm so excited!

There are a lot of really good benches at Walt Disney World and I have tried most of them. I like ones next to the rose garden in the MK.
The brunches looked good too!

There are a lot of really good benches at Walt Disney World and I have tried most of them. I like ones next to the rose garden in the MK.
The brunches looked good too!

At least they didn't commit a truly egregious crime against humanity....like getting free tattoo's for their own signatures and memorabilia. That would have been just too much to allow them to go on living in our free society.

How long until the NCAA sticks its big, bowl-banning nose into this mess?

I am thinking of faxing in three sites from the 1400 (close to the comfort station) and 2 from the 600 close to the path to the campfire (thus not too far from the 1400 CS).
Dh may never go preferred again.

Thank you! Your family is adorable! I love the DS's shades. Thank you so much for sharing.

Great start!
I actually had a lime green ford truckster just like the one in Vacation....way back in the 80's and we took a spontaneous trip to Disney World with my parents, my sister and her three little ones, my youngest DD and me all in the family truckster. My Mom's name is Edna. That was one crazy trip. My oldest was performing at Epcot in a dance show for thanksgiving and we all decided to jump in the truckster to go and watch her.
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Looks like a good option also! Thanks!!

Is the Eagle's name Tiger? We vistied Aubern when my oldest was looking at schools....I was confused about the Eagle.

Well the worst day of the trip was here and here are the last sad pictures to document the trip home...












It was too dark to get a shot of the Welcome to Tennessee sign, but all in all our trip home was as easy as it has ever been. It was a wonderful trip. We got to meet the following Fiends: Lou, GaDawgFan...Kelly, Stacktester...Donnie, PartlyConfused...Marilyn and Grumpy Gary, We kept missing Disneyitch and Kimski.
So, this was my first attempt at a trip report. I tried to report daily while we were there and then follow up upon returning. We are going back in two weeks. Here is what I want to know, would you prefer me post live or when I get home? I don't plan on doing both so give me your thoughts. Thanks for reading and my posting on this trip is DONE.....

Star Wars Weekends for 2012 began this past weekend at Hollywood Studios.
These have been going on for years.
The TCD gang has never had much interest.
But, last year, we visted during a Star Wars weekend so we could ride the new Star Tours attraction.
We ended up liking that a lot.
That led to us watching Hyperspace Hoopla a couple of times.
And, we liked that too.
The only problem was that the TCD twins had not seen a single Star Wars movie.
And, I had missed a few as well.
So, we vowed that before Star Wars weekends rolled around in 2012, we would watch all the movies and we would return for the opening weekend.
And so we did.
The TCD twins ended up liking the movies.
And, armed with our new knowledge, we set out to the opening weekend on Friday May 18.
The girls had school that day, and with the end of the school year so close, they couldn't skip.
So, we left after school.
Because of other things on our schedules, we could only stay one night.
So camping was out.
It's too much trouble to haul the camper, set it up, and break it down for just one night.
So, I booked the cheapest WDW room I could.
That put us in All Star Sports.
Which we like just fine.
Now you know the plan.
We headed East at about 3:30. That meant we would probably catch the beginning of rush hour traffic in Tampa. And that we did. But, it wasn't too bad, and we made it to WDW by 5:30.
Hollywood Studios was open until 10, and we knew that we wanted to at least see Hyperspace Hoopla at 8.
But, the girls also wanted to pick up some new Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards at the MK. So, we didn't even bother checking in at the hotel, and headed straight to the MK. We got the cards fine.
And then we wanted to head right to Hollywood Studios. That meant we would have to head over to the TTC and catch a bus.
We decided to go another way.
We walked to the Contemporary and caught the bus from there.
I wanted to get a photo of something I had seen on a previous visit.
It was something posted on the little bus driver's shack over there:

That shack:

It looks like there is a map of something familiar posted on the wall over there:


Do you recognize it?
How about now:

That's a map of Fort Wilderness!
An old one, too.
It has Musket Mickey on it.
What is that doing there?
I don't know.
If anyone sees Lou, please ask him.
I know he won't answer the question here, because he doesn't read trip reports.
So, we have all seen the Avengers monorail by now.
But that didn't stop TCD twin #1 from taking a few pics:



I haven't seen that movie yet.
And, based on how well it has done, I guess I am only one of a few who haven't.
The bus for Hollywood Studios from the Contemporary stops at the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian on the way out.
Isn't it funny that us scummy campers get better service than the deluxe folks?
Our long trip was worth it, though, as we got to see Cinderella's coach drive by:

Sorry for the photo quality, but we were on a moving bus. I missed the photo op all together. Twin #1 was able to snap that photo.
We finally made it to Hollywood Studios and found it to be pretty much a madhouse.
Which is what we expected.
Our main objective was to see Hyperspace Hoopla at 8, and then maybe do some looking around and possibly ride a couple of attractions if it wasn't too busy later in the night.
As soon as we entered the park, we tried to get one of the special Star Wars Weekends maps.
But, they were all out.
That wasn't a good sign.
But, as often happens, I found some pixie dust. It was right there in one of the empty map racks.
Somebody had left some Fastpasses.
For Toy Story!
Look! :

And they were for a perfect time.
We could head over there after Hyperspace Hoopla.
it is good to be TCD.
We decided to stop by the tip board to see how the waits were for everything. And, we thought maybe we could get a SWW map there.
On the way, we saw the first of many interesting guests that we would see over the next two days.
Check out this young lady:

We thought that was a C3P0 costume.
My momma always said that if I couldn't say anything nice, I shouldn't say anything at all.
So, we will move right along.
Here's the tip board:

The wait for Toy Story was 80 minutes.
Not for us.
This also told us that there were still Fastpasses available for Rock N Roller Coaster.
So we headed right there.
And we got Fastpasses.
So, we were no holding Fastpasses for two rides.
Awesome.
And, since we were here, we headed over to something that they set up just for SWW.
It's a big tent.
Last year it was called Jabba's Hut.
This year it's called:

Disney has some clever people working for it, no?
Last year, we didn't know what half of what we saw in Jabba's Hut was.
But, now that we are Star Wars experts, we found it all very interesting.
The had some costumes for sale in there:

Yes, those were for sale.
How much do you think they were asking for those costumes?
Go ahead, guess.
Well, Chewbacca was $650:

You think that's a lot?
Well, Darth Vader was $1300!
You think that's a lot?
Well, check this out:

How much do you think the stormtrooper costume was?
Look:

Makes the Chewbacca costume look cheap, huh?
These Disney people are smart.
They had a display here next to those costumes for something new that they are selling this year:

How awesome is that?
You can have your image frozen in a block of carbon.
Just like Han.
Only smaller:

How much, you ask?
$99.
But, wait.
You get one of those wristbands with it, too.
And, please don't notice that everybody's hands and bodies are the same.
What do you want for such a cheap price?
This Watto was hanging up here next to the costumes:

I didn't see any sign saying how much he cost.
Maybe they were afraid to say.
But, there was a bunch of other stuff for sale here in Darth's Mall.
We will take a look at some of it in the next post.
TCD

Crowd levels at the parks are picking up.
The Art of Animation resort is opening later this month and it's bus stops at the parks are ready to go. Lots of new buses and drivers have been added to handle the load.
Fantasyland stuff is coming online.
The weather is getting hotter, it's getting very exciting.
Summer time is the longest busy stretch at WDW. While it's just a tad less busy than the spring break period, it lasts much longer. Can't wait.
Come on down and ride the Magic Bus with me.

Could we add a choice like "noticed missing fiends & went off searching" or something like that perhaps?
I don't see a box that applies to those of us who found you but weren't flushed?