BradyBzLyn...Mo

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!

Great update, Dave. I was reading along quite nicely but then
Yes, I am easily distracted! :rofl2:

Y'all are great, thanks for all the kind words. I apologize for not being real active over here. I have checked in a read a few posts here and there, but just hadn't spoken up until yesterday. I'll try to fix that, and I'll also remember to pack my purple thong, clothesline, and pink flamingos for the trip in January.

Holy Cow that Heifer has got Big Ears. :rofl2:

After the carousel, I headed over to the Plaza to check in for lunch while INC stayed back with whoever wanted to ride the teacups. I am always willing to forego the teacups, especially right before lunch. :barf:
While waiting for our table, Anna enjoyed hanging out on my head.


I think she's giving me a facelift here.

We were seated on time, and got a nice table right by the windows looking out at the castle.
Our waitress was nice, but a bit of a ding dong. She messed up Emma's order twice, and forgot other things as well. But when you are a party of 6 or more, it doesn't matter how the service is; you pay 18% gratuity automatically. Oh well, she was friendly enough we would have tipped well anyway. But sometimes it burns your britches to pay 18% without a say...especially for a buffet when all they do is bring you one diet coke! :argh:
Anyways, we ordered and our food didn't take too long. INC got the chicken strawberry salad, with field greens, grilled chicken, strawberries, gorgonzola cheese, and a white zinfandel vinaigrette dressing. She like it.

Anna had the kids grilled cheese. It was good...I tried a bite!

One of the kids had the grilled chicken sandwich. It had ham and cheese on it.

I had the tuna salad sandwich on croissant. Look at those awesome fries!!!!

Gwen had the club sandwich.

Lunch was quite good. We always enjoy eating at the Plaza. And if they ever get rid of those fries and go to the standard Disney limp fries, I will probably stop going and just stick to CHH.
After lunch, there was a show starting up in front of the castle, so back up on top of Daddy went Anna.

Somebody is getting sleepy.

This is a good show.

Looks like the Ho crashed Cindy's party.



I actually feel sorry for this clown. He's dancing with a Ho, and his hair looks plastic.

I bet he doesn't know she lives with 7 men.
The true stars of the show.


And that's that.
At this point, we went back to Space Mtn to check out the situation. It had reopened finally, so we grabbed FPs for that afternoon. The girls went off to ride the Peoplemover while INC and I sat with Anna, who had fallen asleep in her stroller.

Then we switched places, and Emma and Gwen sat with Anna while we rode.



Why is this so funny?

When we were finished on the PM, it was time for our Space Mountain FPs!
We are big fans of SM. And this was to be Stella's first ever ride!!
That's a big deal. And she was excited. And nervous. But Stella is a coaster fan, especially for a 5 year old. Her favorite ride is BTMRR. From the time she was 3.
So off we went to SM!

I don't know who was more nervous.


Getting closer now!

Before long, we were loaded up and off we went! I sat behind Stella and kept my hands on her shoulders. Mostly to give her comfort, but also to ensure me she wasn't falling out. :rofl3: But not to worry, they haven't lost a kid on Space Mountain in at least a few months.
I was proud of my girl!!

We all had a good ride. And again...if you're gonna make that face, I'm gonna post it.

So that was that. And we still have MORE Magic Kingdom coming up, plus a bonus evening at Epcot!!! Can you believe how much we are accomplishing in one day???
Oh, and stay tuned....because Now I Have TWO Princesses To Mock!

Slacker??? I posted an update this afternoon on pirated wifi just to satisfy my fellow Fiends.
Slacker?? I think not!

Oh no, I'm going to have that song stuck in my head all week!

My daughter bought these for me! I knew I raised that kid right. :)

I cannot say all of them are handed out yet, but I just placed an order for 5,000 more cards, which will make 20,000 cards going through our hands. Keep up the good work guys and gals!
We are growing by leaps and bounds! Happy Holidays to one and all!

don't let her fool you... I was all Oooh-ing & Ahhh-ing over the popcorn bowl and mickey hand plates while Starla was mumbling "content... Mo says we need to all post more content..." :rofl2:

I'm beginning to think Anna and I may be related! :heart:
1. We're almost the same height
2. We both like to pull our dresses over our heads
3. I look just like that when I eat ice cream.
The carved bear pictures are great.
It's great that you got to take the family to MK. Can't wait to see those pics!

I think the length of the word has something to do with the speed of his cart. The longer the word, the longer it takes to say, the further you travel in Bob's cart while he is saying it. This way it seems like you are going faster than you are.

Lorna went to the Fort and rode around in a snazzy red golf cart with Ritchie.
The End.
:rofl2:

That's my trip report :rofl2:

You might even run across these two somewhere!

This is the reason why I don't wear dresses! It's cute when Anna does it though.
Love you & Anna in this picture. I think you have an unfair advantage in the TR department, with those beautiful girls. :popo:
I only get pictures of drunken fiends with red solo cups. (Though some of them are awfully cute too)

Our first morning at the Fort was a gorgeous one. INC and I did what we love to do every morning at the Fort...we enjoyed our coffee outside under the awning. The temps were a bit chilly that first morning, but nothing a sweatshirt or pullover couldn't handle.
I had made an ADR at Kona for breakfast at 9:50. We were up and ready much earlier than that, so we headed down to the Settlement, grabbed another cup of coffee from Trails End, and headed to the resort boat.





We docked at the Contemporary and headed inside. After taking the elevator up to the 4th floor, we caught these CM's decorating this year's Gingerbread Tree.



Now that's remarkable. Think about it. An enormous Christmas tree constructed of gingerbread and other edible items. 17 feet high! The design is inspired by the artwork of Mary Blair, who designed the characters of "it's a small world" as well as the huge mural on the wall of the Grand Concourse at the CR. Remarkable. And only at Disney. Those CM's are not amateurs. They are professionals. They don't come cheap. The materials are not cheap. (Imagine how much 136 pounds of honey costs?) People complain all the time (sometimes rightly so) about how expensive Disney is. I myself complain at times. But it is details like this tree that put that into perspective a bit. All of these things, like the tree, the gingerbread house at the GF, even the beautiful decorations that grace each and every bus stop at the Fort, cost Disney money. And Disney World would not be the same without them.
Ok, so after admiring the tree, we headed up one more floor to the monorail station and took off toward the Poly.

Stella seems to end up in front of the camera often.

We arrived at the Poly safe and sound via the high tech, highway in the sky!
Yes, Lou. I love the monorail. :rofl2:
And I also love the Poly. We seem to find ourselves there several times each trip. I'm not necessarily a fan of the overall design of the resort, with all the dark brown colors (although the Fort is full of dark brown paint and somehow I love it there ), but the "feel" of the Poly is incredible to me. And I love the tropical landscaping.

The Kona Coffee Bar always catches my eye. One of these days we are going to sit at the counter and just get pastries from this case.

But to date, we have not done that. Maybe next trip.
We were quite early for our ADR (like 45 minutes early), but I checked in at the podium and they seated us within 5 minutes or so.
And within another couple minutes a carafe of their Kona blend coffee was sitting in front of me. :jumpforjoy

I would love to try the french press pot of the real Kona someday. But INC is not a fan of french pressed coffee. And I don't want to drop $8 on coffee just for myself. But someday. Maybe when we get those pastries.
Anna was enjoying pulling her dress over her head.


I ordered the Steak and Eggs. It was pretty tasty.

Stella and Isabel had Mickey pancakes.

I expected the pancakes to be the standard Mickey shaped ones you see on Kids menus, but they way they did it here gave you a heck of a lot of pancakes! They both were stuffed.
INC had an omelet. She said it was good. We both swapped our breakfast potatoes out for fruit. Didn't want to be too weighed down at this point of the trip. Which is why neither of us ordered the Tonga Toast. Even though we both wanted the Tonga Toast.
We would remedy that later in the trip.
But on this morning, one of the DaveInTN gang did order Tonga Toast.

And she wasn't sharing! :popo:
After all that food, we were quite sasified heading back to the monorail. For the trip back, we took the monorail to the MK to hop the Fort boat from there.
When you are visiting WDW and not planning on doing any parks, is it cruel and unusual punishment to march your kids right past the front gate without going in? :rofl3:
Regardless, we soon were on a boat headed back to the Fort.

Won't be too long and this boat will be gone forever.


I thought this was a cool looking boat.

And that was that. Our first morning was a hit. We were back at the Fort for some downtime. I spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon decorating the site, and we then awaited the arrival of a guest.
Coming up...I'm A Blessed Man!

Oh geez, the Queen of Content is at MK. Can 300 photos of the EWP be far behind?
If only that fancy dancy Nikon camera fell in the lake while you were snapping photos.
At least give me a warning.

Nice update Mo!
I'm glad you love the camera as much as we do. Karla deserves a kickback from Nikon for turning us onto this little gem.

Wow, you are good. I even want to camp with your family.

GAG Me With A Fry
We pulled out of the Atlanta South RV Resort early…I think around 7:00 or so. And we hopped back on I-75 south. I figured we’d get some miles behind us before stopping for breakfast. By the time we got to Macon, we were all complaining a bit about hunger, so we pulled off at one of our favorite breakfast places. And I know it is one of livluvsdisney’s fave places too!

We parked the trailer across the road from the Chick Fil A in a plaza, and I handed the camera to one of my daughters to carry while I got Anna out of her seat. That daughter handed it to another daughter, who mistakenly thought I wanted the camera placed into the TT. So, it never made it into the restaurant to photograph our breakfast. But I assume you’ve all seen a Chick Fil A chicken biscuit before…in my opinion one of life’s greatest pleasures.
After a great breakfast, including some conversation with the restaurant’s manager who explained how they are introducing chicken tortilla soup this winter (Yum!), we hit the road again. INC snapped some candid photos of me driving.
My candid serious look.

My candid stupid look.

Yes, quite candid. As Hank Hill once said...I look like a jackass!
We pressed on, and made decent time through GA and FL. Took the Turnpike to 429, and before too long we saw this sign.

Ah, good old Western Way.
I normally am a proponent of taking 535 down from 429 to Vista Blvd, rather than going all the way down to Western Way. And now I remember why. 429 is so dang long! Just when you think you are almost to Disney that road goes on forever.
But it wasn’t long until we saw this!


And then, of course, the Magic Kingdom gates themselves!

The booths were decorated for Christmas.

A quick right turn, and then we saw the most blessed sight in the World!

Notice how the Fort Wilderness sign was not decorated yet when we arrived on the 16th. Within a few days it would be, per TCD's trip report showing the sign decorated when he arrived that weekend.
The security guard was on top of his game, and we were soon being directed to check in.

I love how INC got him in my mirror. Reminds me of a pic someone else posted recently showing the guard in their mirror…was it TCD?
We pulled up to an empty lane. No waiting!


I had used online checkin, and our process was very fast and smooth! I had faxed a site request in 5 days earlier requesting a site backing up to the canal in 500 with room for our trailer, van and an easy up. I asked for 528 or similar, but we were given 523. I was disappointed! 523 doesn’t directly back up to the canal. But, once we pulled into the site, I was absolutely thrilled! This site is HUGE! We had tons of room for our stuff…even more so because I decided to park the van in overflow. I loved this site.
After putting out the slides and hooking up, I took the van to overflow and swapped it for our super fast, 6 passenger Kenny cart! And then we headed straight to Pioneer Hall to order our standard first night dinner…the Giddyap n Go!
We LOVE the GAG. And the primary reason? No, not the chicken. Not the mac n cheese. And certainly not the cowboy beans. While those are all very tasty, the primary reason we love the GAG is the big, crispy steak fries!
On previous visits, we have been given an entire chicken bucket full of steak fries. That bucket of fries, along with about 20 packets of ketchup, and I am in HEAVEN.
So, I ordered the GAG, all white meat, with mac n cheese, fries and biscuits. While waiting, the kids played some checkers.


Anna didn't do too well. She's more of a chess player, being Russian and all.
I snapped a pic of the horrible Nescrappe machine. Man, I miss the real brewed coffee. But at least we got used to the instant crap in Russia and can actually drink it and somewhat enjoy it.

It wasn’t long until our chicken was ready. I excitedly grabbed the bags that the Trails End clerk so carefully packed for us, and headed out to a picnic table on the side porch. And here is our bounty.

Say what??
Where’s the bucket of fries?? Oh, wait. They just gave us a bag of fries. Well, that’s ok. That’s still a lot of steak fries. But wait…those aren’t steak fries. Those are standard Disney floppy fries! Yuck!!
I wasn’t pleased.
Stella wasn’t pleased.

Anna wasn’t even pleased, and she never even had the old steak fries.

But, truth be told, I enjoyed my meal anyways. The chicken is still good. And you can’t beat the ambiance of eating on the porch. Not in a million years.
Despite having to choke down cold, floppy fries, it was still an awesome meal, in an awesome place, with the best wife and kids any man could dream of having. At least in my humble opinion. So I consider our first night back at the Fort, and Anna’s first night EVER at the Fort, to be a complete success. Floppy fries and all.
Coming up….Breakfast at Kona Café, and I’m A Blessed Man!

Ok, got the video on youtube. Will try posting here... 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pei4x-yXMs&feature=youtu.be

MO' or MO' HANA!

Hilarious! It would be perfect if she still had her braces. Gwen has become quite the ham..she used to avoid all cameras, now she jumps in front of one whenever she sees one....even if it's not ours.