Seals

Love this photo, of course!

Also this one. I collect lighthouses (small replicas, not the real things unfortunately).

Beautiful. I love New England in warmer weather. My parents used to love to stop at Naragansett/Port Judith on their way home from visiting my younger brother at Roger Williams College.

I think we have the same Coleman tent from Walmart.

Enjoying this different perspective on a Disney cruise. And the ______ Mickey was kind of cool too.

Add me to the jealous of the "left at 1:00 / arrived at 2:00" club.

This is one of our favorite Disney lines, said quite frequently in our house just for entertainment value:

Loving your whole TR. I hope to get to Disneyland some day. Only time I've been to Calif. was a family vacation way way back in 1979 (I was 16). I begged to go to Disneyland but my parents decided our theme park would be Knotts Berry Farm because we'd been to WDW twice so we'd already "done" Disney. I remember giving them the silent treatment for many hours about that decision.

We have all of one Vinylmation, and my youngest spent his own money on it. Whenever they ask me to buy them I tell them no. But, I do spring for a pin every now and then.

We do have a small pin collection but my family and I are amused by the whole Vinylmation thing and discuss how it is another Disney attempt to suck money out of our pockets. Then this trip we saw Vinylmation pins! We all yelled "nooooooooooooooooooo..."

And when we were in DTD a year ago we saw a glass top table that was filled with Vinylmation. My DH got a "how awesome would that be! " look in his eyes and we had to hurry him out of the store as quickly as possible.

I get sad when I think too much about the Olympics also. In 2008 my boys and I had an impromptu party during the opening ceremonies (my favorite part of the Olympics). It was so much fun we did it again for the Winter games and then this summer also. In 2016 they will be 17, 15 and 15 and I doubt will want to hang around the living room in their pjs eating popcorn and mini egg rolls with Mom. Sigh.

I am pro- "oh-so-flattering tankinis with a skirt to cover up my cottage cheese ass" having several of those myself. Also anti-vinylmation. Although the River Country Mickey is sort of cute in that odd vinylmation way. I was in the S TP a couple of times and apparently never looked up. That's one reason I love TR -- people take pictures of things I haven't noticed.

Wow!! -- a TR of what is a dream trip for me. The rest of my family has talked about going to Roswell sometime (I'm not so big on aliens). My older DS would love the giant pistachio, esp. if he could eat it. He's adicted but pistachios are expensive.

In Hershey did you go on the free ride in the visitor center? Very Disney like with the singing cows. Plus you get a free chocolate bar at the end. We have been known to detour 40 miles or so from our route to go through Hershey and ride it twice.

Enjoying your report but Please please please -- do not mention that c word [that would be c-r-a-n-e] again. It's making my head hurt.

Enjoying your humorous trip report. I always thought it would be blazing hot to camp in Fla in August. I guess not always. We've camped in the 2000 loop a couple of times and I think it's easier just to mention when the ice machine DOES actually work. It doesn't seem to be that often. Of course reading that made me think of the rhyme my DSs learned from friends: "the drink machine is out of order, kiss my butt and give me a quarter." Now I'm hopeless whenever anyone says "the [blank] is out of order..." I feel I must fill in the rest.

Yay -- first time I read a TCD TR from when I was there. And I've already seen something we missed. Didn't know the Wreck It Ralph stuff was at HS or we would have looked for it.

I'm looking for myself in your photos, except like everyone else i wasn't up yet. I walked over to Pioneer Hall around 8 am Friday to fill my mug.

Yay for procrastinating on TRs. Makes me feel better that I won't be able to get to mine for a while.

My boys love playing tetherball at the Fort. I know they wouldn't play if we had one in our yard.

While we were there we were daydreaming -- what if we lived close enough to go to the Fort on weekends? We knew we'd go all the time.

Enjoying this TR. We went to KSC last summer for a day and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would and my husband and sons, who are more into space stuff than I am, really enjoyed it.

Love the daughter Cinderella and the green sandal glass slipper picture too.

The Dream trip I thought I was going to be planning for this Dec. is likely not going to work out, but I'm determined to go on one in 2013 if it doesn't. So I'm following your fun closely.

Nope, it was the real deal.

We ate dinner at Epcot Friday night. And then we headed back to the Fort, and later hit the MK for EMH.

I wish Seals had said something. It would have been my first time spiking a VIP in the 100 loop cabins.

TCD

If I'd seen you close up, and likely without my family (HOW do you know that man? You're talking to someone you MET ON THE INTERNET - I can hear it now, my own words coming back to haunt me) I would have said something. But we were in the middle of the line and you and your daughters (who are even cuter in person!) were striding purpsely toward MK while I was determined to get on that ferry and back to my bed before I actually fell asleep. Although, I was also briefly tempted to follow you because I was sure some fun was going to be had.

And note that the CM dutifully explained to us that although they are called the VIP cabins, plain old ordinary people (like us - I filled in that part) do sometimes stay in them. And also that they are in no way different from the regular cabins except for the fire pit.

Just got back from WDW last night and it will be a while before I have time for a TR. But, we had a fantastic time spending one night at Art of Animation (Nemo) and 3 nights in one of the "VIP" cabins at FW. The kind CM at check in offered us one of the two cabins in the 100 loop. And now we're spoiled. Previously we've only tent camped in Loop 2000. We also spent 2 days at Universal.

And, the most coincidental part of the trip -- I'm pretty sure I saw TCD and Twin #1 and Twin #2 getting off the FW boat at MK on Friday night around 11:20 pm. I only "know" TCD from reading his trip reports but as I watched people get off the boat, in my exhausted state from being on the go since 8 am, I thought "where do I know that man and those girls from?". I'm pretty sure it was them -- like seeing their pictures come to life. I was in the middle of the line waiting for the boat so no chance to say anything. We also happened to run into my son's cross country assistant coach on one of the FW buses (500 miles from home). So, it truly is a Small World After All.

More to come, hopefully with a couple of pictures, when I get a chance.

Jealously enjoying your TR. I've sometimes thought that if I needed to get away from it all some day I'd go to the Fort by myself and pitch a tent and go where the wind took me.

OK, you have totally gotten me interested in doing a Disney cruise. Me, who has never thought of going on a cruise because I don't like to be away from solid ground. The forces are converging to make this a strong thought bordering on a slight possibility at this point. So I've been looking at the DCL web page. One question that they are vague about, at least as I read the wording - does one need a passport for the type of cruise you did? Also, I am contemplating this November. When do the "reduced last minute" rates that you mentioned come out? My feeling is that I don't care what type of room we have as we would be in it only to sleep exhaustedly and shower.

A short TR but full of emotion -- first I LOL at GI Jordan, then I got a little (lot) teary at the homecoming. Much admiration for Jordan and all his fellow soldiers.

And I see this is generating a lot of views. And a lot of those views are from Guests.

Guests=Lurkers.

Nothing wrong with lurking.

We all probably started out that way.

But to you lurkers out there, I have a special request: please register and join this site.

We are just shy of 900 members here.

900!

That's pretty awesome.

And, it would be a real honor to me if a lurker or two joined and posted on this report.

It's free.

It's fun.

So do it!

I am following your request because I'm enjoying this trip report, as I have many other trip reports by you and many others. Enjoying this one so much that I too am considering making reservations for a cruise.

Actually, when I went to register I discovered I already had registered about a year ago and forgotten so I'm not technically a "guest" but definitely a lurker. Unfortunately (and the reason I haven't really posted before) I don't have time to do a real introduction right now. Full time job, 3 kids (including twins!), yada yada.... In my eventual introduction I will mention my first trips to the Fort in 1974 and 1977, which gives you a clue why I'm such a fan of the Fort and all things Disney. Also, a clue that I'm kinda old. Although I was only a teenager during those trips.

Anyway, I wanted to "de-lurk" temporarily at this point and I will try to post more after finishing a couple of big projects at work (which I'm using this TR as a break from at the moment) and a vacation, which will include a trip to the Fort (cabin this time for the first time for us usual tent people). I will try to do a TR but I have to warn that with 3 teen/tweens who I remind daily not to reveal any personal information on the internet, especially to strangers, it will have to be a stealth report. I'm also a very poor photographer.

Interruption over. More TR, please.