Classact....Mike

I should thank Dave and Gwen for both helping me figure out how to (finally) post pics - so thanks to both of you!

We are headed "over the (Red) River and through the (Piney) woods to Grandmas house we go" later today, so we'll check in with you all next week.  Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays to all.  

OK, I found it!    

Then...and now.   Note that the t-shirt still fits.    :laugh:

Lost my Dad in March, and my Mom 11 years ago. They first took us to the park in 1974, and several times after that.  Great memories!

I'm on a trek to find out where the huge log in the first picture came from, and where it ended up.   FW staff took me back to a service area to show me what they thought was the original log, but as it turns out the they took me too is the one that replaced the one in the pic above.   The one they still have is actually made out of concrete. The one I'm in front of in 1974 was real.   But here's the mystery....where would have a log that big come from? Not Florida.  My theory is that it came from California, perhaps sort of a monument to the first Disney park there.       If anyone has any info, I'd love to hear!

OK, be gentle.  This is a first try.   This may be more like  some "pics with comments" than a bona fide trip report, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

First things first...set up camp.    Get the Mickey Lamp up (oops forgot to make a base for it...bungee cords on the front of the motorhome will have to do.   Pinecone Mickey magically appears at our campsite.   It is....a magical place...after all!

Oh, of course, the new blow-up Mickey and a homemade Mickey leftover from Halloween.  Bikes out, ready for action.

First night....have to run down the beach and watch fireworks and water pageant.  Susan decided her EZip scooter needed some festive lights this year.  She LOVES that scooter!

Wed spend most of our time around the Fort while visiting. Sometimes don't even hit the parks.   Opted for a little Canoe action one day. Saw these guys along the way. I don't think we've ever been canoeing and didn't see a lot of deer and other critters.

I don't remember ever seeing more turkeys than we saw on this trip.  One evening while sitting outside at our site, I looked along the channel to see a BUNCH of them running straight for us. As they got to our site, some ran on one side, some ran on the other. They must have been frightened or something was chasing them...It looked like a scene out of Jurassic Park or something.

Add "gator" to our list of critters for the trip.  He didn't seem any to frightened of our presence.  

Susan caught this trophy black crappie one day.  I caught a couple monster catfish as well, but I'll spare you their ugliness.

We did visit Magic Kingdom one day.   Nice to see the Christmas decorations. 

We timed our visit just right as they were just starting a show in front of the castle featuring all the characters.  Man...the pointsettias were beautiful.

Why take a photo of the treats in the display case?  Why not?!  I wanted one of each. Or several. Of each.   Little works of art for sure.

Amazing.  Just amazing.  Hard to look away.

A little lunch the next day.     Amazing how all things become Disney-fied at this place.    :laugh:

They were just starting to put up the Christmas decorations at the Fort during our visit.   I kinda like the contrast of a Christmas tree in the background with tropical flowers in the foreground.  

We love the decorations at Wilderness Lodge too.  What a tree!

More from Wilderness Lodge

I took a long walk the day before we left.   Found the meadow area so serene and quiet. Couldn't resist taking a few snapshots.

I have a pic of myself in this exact position from 1974 I posted previously. I'll try to locate it again and post it with this one.  

Till next time, I have to sign off now.  More later!!!

-Mike

Funny how the magic happens at the Fort, eh?

Bummer.  Sending Fiend Power your way.   Always a helpless feeling when that happens.   Hope you're on the road again soon.

Good job, Tim. Have a great time.  And post frequent reports for those of us suffering from FSA.   Fort Separation Anxiety.

-Mike

I like your style, Mo.   There indeed should be a period of hazing by Fiends before he assumes full control.

Seems like Disney upper management should be required to first let all of us Fiends vet any possible management changes, and give us right to veto.     Sounds reasonable, no?!

Queue the laughter.....

Heat strips will work to knock the chill off, but not a lot more. If temps get down to 40's or less, you'll prefer to use furnace or other heat, as the air moving from the heat strips (through the AC ducts) may feel a bit chilly.    We use an oil filled electric heater for most of our heat, with the furnace set to come on if it's get's cooler.

FWIW, adult beverages were involved when I widened our drive, and it worked out very nicely.  :wine:

^{All good points.} 

^{We keep rain panchos packed in my dayback every time we hit the parks. Even if it doesn't look like rain we end up using them to sit on, use for a windbreaker when DW forgets to bring a jacket, etc, etc.  I try to wear breathable / quick dry shirts. Same with shoes.   I don't remember a visit to Disney that didn't include some showers at some point in our trip, but hey....it's Florida, it rains.  No worries.}

We had to widen the end of our driveway for the exact same reason ...a little too much drop on either side and the longer RV we got would necessitate wider shoulders at the end of the drive.   I don't know how fussy your local codes are but I did mind myself in an afternoon.

Good luck!

I'll echo comments already posted.

We prefer to use the campground electricity instead of our LP whenever possible.  We use an oil filled radiator heater for the primary source of  heat - it does not dry out the air, it's safe, and even heat.  DW uses an electric blanket, but unless it gets brutally cold, the oil filled heater does quite well. 

I'm always paranoid about running out of LP gas, so we use it sparingly.  But I really shouldn't be so concerned - I'm amazed at how long a tank of propane lasts. We keep our water heater set to the electric mode most of the time, but even in the gas mode, and using the furnace nightly, you should have enough propane to last a week, maybe 2 weeks.  In our previous class C, we took a trip to Indiana for my Dad's funeral of all things, and stayed in the coach for 5 days with temps in the teens, with 25+ MPH winds, ice and snow.  Horrible conditions to "camp".  The oil filled heater did not keep up, and DW was coming down w/ the flu so I wanted it warm in the coach, and we ran the furnace - a lot.  I was amazed that after a week of heavy use, we still had about 1/2 tank of propane. 

The Magic Bands are indeed still in the test phase but our experience with them was positive. We did not get them ahead of time but they fixed us up with them at check in. Will be nice when you can use them to open comfort stations, etc but it was great to sync them with our account, charge items to them, and using them for fast passes is awesome.

DW would be mortified if she knew I posted this. But she doesn't, so she won't be.   But who wouldn't be proud of two Dole Whip's of that magnitude?

Here's a crowd calendar with average temps on it. Obviously things can vary greatly though. We arrive Jan 29th.

 

http://www.easywdw.com/feb14-v4.jpg

Great reference tool!

Well we are home in Nashville and none too happy about it. I took a dip in the meadow pool exactly 24 hrs ago, then we started driving north. Like I needed to be reminded, I monitored the outside temp reading on out coach as we drove.....80, 78, 77.........54, 53......29, 28, 27.... ugh! DW now has a fire in our fireplace with the logs placed exactly as they do at the campfire at the Fort

We are already planning our return!

We had an issue with our fridge soon after checking in at FW. Fields Appliance Repair out of Orlando came out andwe were very Iimpressed with their service.

Tina in their main office is a big FW fan, and they know the routine for coming out to the park for repairs.

I can't speak to their rates as our issue was covered under warranty but they were great to work with. Our tech was "RC" and he arrived exactly when he said he would.

Fields Appliance Repair. 407-299-2040

Speaking of pics...I can't seem to figure out how to post pics from my Android. Any tips? You...to show-and-tell things like invading ants and DW's collossal Dole Whip that turned every head at the Polynesian. On second thought I might not better post that one. But I would like to figure out picture posting just the same

Thx

Mike

I know they were bad last Spring Break. I was hoping not to have to deal with them this winter. What kind of spray is being used on the perimeter? What kind inside?

All I had was your basic Raid crawling insect killer. It killed the critters lined up to get in our motorhome and stopped any additional ones from entering.

Like I said though we didnt have any issues at all until we got quite a bit of rain. Last night anyway they disnt seem the least bit interested in food but just to get to higher ground.

We hate spraying on the inside because of thw smell so hopefully we can rid them with non-smelly measures.

Oh yuck! We are big fans of mixing borax with sugar to get rid of ants.[/quote

So the sugar attracts them and the borax kills them. Hmmm makes sense. As long as they are sugar-loving ants.

We've been here for 10 days and no ants anywhere to speak of but with the heavy rain tonite, wow! I just did a perimeter check and the spray seems to have done the trick. But for the ones that made it inside already...killing them as we see them. They are the tiny tiny black ones. They seem to gravitate to the highest point so at least they are easy to spot on our white ceiling.

So it rained all afternoon and evening at the Fort...steady rain, and a good bit of it. Which caused a first for us...ants. lots of ants apparently trying to escape the wet ground. Saw a few on the wall of our motorhome and went outside to inspect and found a trail of them pretty much circling the coach, many trailing up along the slides. I had a can of raid and went to town...hopefully stopping the invasion. Whew!

I carry big granules for when we are camped in rougher conditions than the Fort, but spinkled some around the perimeter.

Congrats!

I vote a noodle bowl AND a Dole whip.

I could use a Dole Whip! Try it with Rum if you haven't already...

Hmmm smuggling some rum into the Polynesian...I like your style!