DaveInTN

Even though I've been to the MK many times, that magical moment when you enter the park and look up the street at the castle never gets old. On our last trip, we were able to visit the park unexpectedly, and this big dope had tears in his eyes when the rope drop show ended. And then when we saw Main Street, I felt a joyous calm come over me. I was in my happy place.

I think I can help out here. I'm not real strong in my Russian, but I do believe it translates to "hey, the f*ing dog pooped in the trailer and I'm out of vodka."

Andrew, keep in mind that Lou's first date was to take a girl to see a live performance of Beethoven's Fifth. Performed by Beethoven.

Even though I've been to the MK many times, that magical moment when you enter the park and look up the street at the castle never gets old. On our last trip, we were able to visit the park unexpectedly, and this big dope had tears in his eyes when the rope drop show ended. And then when we saw Main Street, I felt a joyous calm come over me. I was in my happy place.

He may have found out that I am coming......Yes, I am ducking out on the wedding and making reservations tomorrow.

The only logical explanation I have come up with is that they are remaking the entire hall into the all new, grand reunion of the Melvin the Moose Breakfast Show! That would certainly take at least 5 months. 3 weeks to renovate the space...and 4 months to find Melvin.

A Magic Bullet blender, some red solo cups and a well stocked liquor cabinet. You can survive without anything else.

You were right until 1996. The MK originally had two riverboats: The Admiral Joe Fowler and the Richard F Irvine. The AJF was accidentally destroyed during a refurbishment, and the RFI was renamed the Liberty Belle in 1996 after its own refurbishment.
Interestingly, and as pointed out in another FF.net TR recently, two of the three ferries that cross Seven Seas Lagoon are now named the Admiral Joe Fowler and the Richard F. Irvine. So while the riverboat naming has changed, both men still have watercraft named after them.
And even MORE interesting, Richard F Irvine Irvine is the late father-in-law to Walt Disney Imagineer / Disneyland Art Director, Kim Irvine, whose mother is the late Leota Toombs of Haunted Mansion and other fame. The Disney organization sure was a family back in those days, both literally and figuratively.

You were right until 1996. The MK originally had two riverboats: The Admiral Joe Fowler and the Richard F Irvine. The AJF was accidentally destroyed during a refurbishment, and the RFI was renamed the Liberty Belle in 1996 after its own refurbishment.
Interestingly, and as pointed out in another FF.net TR recently, two of the three ferries that cross Seven Seas Lagoon are now named the Admiral Joe Fowler and the Richard F. Irvine. So while the riverboat naming has changed, both men still have watercraft named after them.
And even MORE interesting, Richard F Irvine Irvine is the late father-in-law to Walt Disney Imagineer / Disneyland Art Director, Kim Irvine, whose mother is the late Leota Toombs of Haunted Mansion and other fame. The Disney organization sure was a family back in those days, both literally and figuratively.

ATTENTION!!!!!!!
We have reached the 100 day mark!!!!!
:jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy :jumpforjoy
That is all.

Warren, that is a beautiful monument. I notice that you and Tricia were born just 9 days apart. I can't imagine how difficult last month was, with both Christmas and Tricia's birthday just days apart. I feel very honored that you are sharing your grief and your trip plans with us. Again, if there is anything that we can all do to help you with your trip please let us know. This is one heck of a supportive group, that I know from experience. God bless you and your family.

I noticed that you are around my age. I can't imagine how hard this has to be for you. I pray that you and the kids have a wonderful trip, remembering your wife and enjoying each other. I'm praying for you. If there is ANYTHING you need to make this trip special, please let us know. I can tell you that the Fiends are very good at helping folks make the most of their trips.

I have heard that they are retheming the slide to Musket Mickey!

Wow Rita! That is incredible and abusive. Either those people have a bizarre obsession with Winnie the Pooh, or they are the most self centered jackwagons I've run into in quite some time.

Well, Christmas is over. Now we can really look forward to this! 5 more months....

We've owned our Big Easy since 2007. That was the first year we spent Thanksgiving at the Fort, and I bought it for that trip. We've not used it enough considering how well it works. Probably 8 or 9 times total in the 4 years I've owned it. I need to try some different cuts of meat in it in 2012, like a pork roast or something. It is a very versatile cooker.
Let us know how that prime rib comes out! And I sure hope you are celebrating with that prime rib on Christmas Day.
We should have a stupid hat contest on SM. Winner loser gets to take Bob's cart for a spin. :rofl2:

:rofl2:

So apparently they randomly pick an old clueless guy to be the Rebel spy, too?
I never knew.
And VERY COOL about the double decker bus. I've never seen that thing out and about in the MK. Pretty neat to have ridden it, and been upstairs while going up Main St. Sounds like a great way to end your evening!

Ok, let's move on from our little mission to the rest of Tuesday. We had ANOTHER mission to go on...but this one is not as controversial. Well, at least I don't think it is. We had a Fiend Dole Whip Excursion to go on!
But before we get to that, I snapped a pic of this sign on the laundry room door at the CS. This has probably already been posted somewhere, but just remember from now on that you need to bring you KTTW card with you to access the laundry rooms at the Fort.

Ok, back to our Dole Whip Excursion. Let's generate a bit more controversy! Why would it potentially be controversial?
Let's just say that a certain unnamed Fiend (TCD) has made fun of me for a couple of years about a Dole Whip I included in a previous trip report that was "modest".
This was the Dole Whip in question...from October 2010, is this.

Sure, it's not too impressive. But I was happy with it. So there.
But on this trip, I was going to allow peer pressure to get the best of me. I was going to make a bigger Dole Whip!
So that afternoon, Alli (Keylime8675309) and her DD came by our site and off we went to the Poly.
We boated it. We monorailed it.

We arrived at the Poly and headed to Captain Cooks.
My Emma made hers first.

Pretty nice technique, eh? Kudos to Emma!
Alli's is pretty impressive too!

And then there was mine. The pic is kinda washed out...but I was happy with my Dole Whip.

It was so tall the top was beginning to fall over!
We all enjoyed the beautiful surroundings of the Poly, the great company and the Dole Whip!


We talked for a while, and it was getting late in the afternoon when we started to head back to the Fort. We monorailed to the MK and boated from there.






We had a great time. And then we were back at the Fort. We rested a bit, and then decided to go down to the porch to grab some pizza for dinner. We'd never had Trails End pizza before. We'd read the reviews. We weren't expecting much. So we weren't disappointed.
INC and I each had a drink on the porch.

Before too long, our two pizzas were ready.


I have to say...the pizzas were not the worst I've ever had. They tasted like any frozen, rising crust pizza. But at that moment, on that porch, with my beautiful wife and awesome kids (and a slight buzz from the Mai Tai), they were the best pizzas ever!
Coming up...Anna kisses up to TCD. And TITWIT!!

I know, Rita. It breaks my heart to see him that way. And yet it inspires me to complete the mission someday!

Lorna, you know I love you. But I am so weak when it comes to peer pressure. Weak, I tell ya! :rofl2:

Since 2goofy has posted to the report, I'm going to jump out of chronological order in my pics here for a minute to share something with y'all. 2goofy (Mike and Jan) were camping in the 600 loop Thanksgiving week. I think they are in 600 every year for Thanksgiving. We were fortunate to get to meet them and spend some good Fiend time with them, including a visit during TITWIT while Mike was in extreme pain from an accident I alluded to above. And after tasting some of Jan's punch, I wouldn't be surprised if that had something to do with it. In any case, I want to share a pic of a gift they gave us....a real deal, Fort WIlderness tire cover!

They had purchased it several years back at the trading post for their trailer, but since moved into a MH and weren't using it. And now it has a cherished place on our trailer!! Thank you Mike and Jan for thinking of us and passing along a new cherished possession!

That turkey was probably scared of Jen's dog. He got a piece of one of them.

Love the pictures, Carol!! Thanks for taking us with you. :)

Alright, I don't want Judy to have a conniption, so I undocked the computer from the network and hacked into the wifi signal from the company next door. What won't I do for my Fiends!! So here ya go....
Magic Kingdom!!!
Friday November 18th dawned, and it was yet another beautiful day. And not just beautiful, I’m talking sunny, perfect temps, low humidity….in other words, a perfect park day!!!
We had breakfast at the camper, and headed toward the marina around 8:00.

Anna looks SO excited, doesn’t she?

The Settlement was looking spiffy this morning, including the Christmas tree.



We grabbed a cup of crap coffee from Trails End and headed to the MK boat.



Rope drop was at 9, and we were at the gates and met up with my cousin just a few minutes before that.

We got through the turnstiles, thanked him from the bottom of our hearts, and moved inside a bit to watch the rope drop show.


We’d seen rope drop at the other 3 parks, but somehow had never made it to the MK one. Until today, that is!!!
We made our plans for the mad rush. I was taking my 4 older girls to SM to ride right away while INC took Anna toward BTM for fastpasses for when we were done at SM.

Unfortunately, as often happens with us, SM was CLOSED for technical difficulties when we arrived. We couldn’t get FPs for later, as INC had our tickets. We waited a few minutes to see if it opened up, but it wasn’t looking good, so we took off on a mad dash to the other side of the park to ride BTM and Splash Mtn.
The standby time for BTM was 5 minutes, and in reality it wasn’t even that much, so we got on right away.


I've told her before...if you're gonna make those faces, I'm gonna post them.

Afterward, we found INC and Anna at the playground beneath the train station next to Splash Mtn.



Said some hellos, and then we left them again to ride Splash Mtn. This is one of my favorite MK rides, mainly for the music and the theming. We didn’t get too wet!


I then switched places with INC so she could ride BTM, and I took Anna for a leisurely stroll through Frontierland and Liberty Square toward the HM.

Grabbed a pic of the CHH menu. I really like this place, but we never got there to eat on this trip. Next time!!

I took a look at this place next to HM, along the river. It clearly looks like a former attraction, with queues and everything, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was. Was it used for the riverboat at one time? Something else? Who can help me out here??


You get a good view of BTMRR across the water from here.

By now, INC and the girls had caught up with us. They also only had a 5 minute wait for BTM. That was our experience with the entire day…no crowds! No lines, perfect weather…what more can you ask for??
So at this point we all went to HM together. When they constructed the interactive queue area, I followed it closely online but figured it would be sometime before I got to experience it myself. Wrong! We were going to experience it right now!!




I was pretty impressed. They added some really fun elements. Since there was no line, we didn’t play with everything. I can imagine during busy times this has got to be very cool. I like this concept. The interactive queue at Space Mtn is awesome and really helps pass the time. We got to check out the Pooh queue (hey, I just rhymed!) later in the day, and that looked cool too. I like these changes!
Anna thought the HM was pretty cool…not too scary for her. But she didn’t LOVE it. Anna is all about music. And while the HM ride music is pretty cool, it isn’t the focal point of the ride. But very close to HM there is another ride with music. Infectious music. Music that permeates your mind, wraps it tentacles firmly around your brain stem and doesn’t relinquish control for days, if not weeks.
Yes Lou, I’m referring to Small World!