BradyBzLyn...Mo

my Fortfamily

Since Genia was in charge of putting people in the appropriate jobs, and she's....well who the heck knows what she's doing? I hereby declare Todd as the "Acting like a local" distraction.
Todd, do not forget chairs, coolers, towels, a few bratty children and make sure you're stalking the pavilions before the sun comes up.

OK, have time for another installment. OOOOOH, this is soooo cool. I just got back to my office and my dual wide ratio monitors were waitin on me!!! Photobucket on one monitor and Fort Fiends on the other, pickin pics is EASY!!!!!!

(Sorry about that, just had to share)
As I said, the tour we booked was the See and Sea. It is a semi sub, similar to the Disney Subs, where you sit on little chairs and can see out the window. There is also a bus tour portion. What we didn't realize is you first board a regular boat and you get a narrated tour of the harbor as it takes you out to the semi sub.
Here are some of the pics on the regular boat. Some of the famous homes mentioned were Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, The Jackson Estate, Tom Cruise.
First Off - Atlantis


Now the rest of the boat ride


















We then met up with the semi sub and transferred over there.
The driver took us to the reefs and fed the fish and we saw lots of fishies:








I "think" this will ve a video. Hope it works

Well that's probably my picture limit, so coming next, the bus portion!!

Doggie Support Teams
Security Guys Backup Plan - You need the doggie distraction squad
One or two taco dogs, a border collie, and a Great Dane. The cuteness of the taco dogs will distract them, to allow the border collie to herd them into a pin and circle the enclosure, and the Great Dane to block the exit. Great Dane can also be used to love them half to death or pin them in place by sitting on their feet.
Beverage Delivery Squad -
Labs for beer runs
Dog Sentry -
Taco dogs placed at strategic locations to alert team members of possible intruders.

It is truly miraculous how much Anna has blossomed from the love and care your family has given her!! She finally looks like a healthy child without a care in the world - which is far cry from the child you brought home.
I had a young, Down's man in my church choir in Sarasota. He couldn't sing a note, couldn't read the music or lyrics, but he had to sing in the choir because God loves singing. This man was terrified of heights and as luck would have it, our church had a choir loft. That didn't deter Stephen. He would climb the stairs on his hands and knees, very carefully work his way to his chair, and watched for my every command to the choir. He often "stood out" from the rest of the choir but hey, his music came straight from his heart to God's ear. I never stopped him and actually came up with a special phrase between the two of us when I needed him to quiet down a little. The phrase was "milkshake".
You see, Stephen's dad told me that Stephen was the official milkshake maker of the family so, one day I asked Stephen how he made milkshakes. Here is his recipe in his own words: "1 scoop vanilla ice cream, just enough milk, and a BIG squirt of hershey's syrup, hit the switch until it's mixed up good. Good recipe, huh?"
So, I used that recipe to my advantage. I asked him if he could see the ice cream, milk and syrup as separate pieces of the milkshake before he hit the switch. Answer, yes. Then I asked him if he could see them as separate pieces after he hit the switch. Answer: "No, silly! The switch made the stuff a milkshake!" "Okay, Stephen. The switch "blended" the three things you put in the blender and you ended up with one milkshake, right?" "That's how you do it!", says he!
I then went on to tell him that all the people in the choir were like the ice cream, milk, and syrup, and I, as the choir director, was the switch that blended everything together, and when the choir sang we did not want any one part of the milkshake to stand out. So if I heard he was standing out I would mouth the word "milkshake" to him and that meant he needed to sing softer. I told him it was our secret choir language and he was delighted that I had special instructions just for him!
As in every volunteer choir, you have a couple of prima donna's who are looking for perfection out of the group and they would comment to me that I should find a way to discourage Stephen from singing in the choir. There was no way I would ever do anything like that and would take 50 Stephen's, who had a true delight and overwhelming joy singing praises to God, than 1 perfect voice who thought he/she was God's gift to the choir.
I have since moved away from the Sarasota area, Stephen's family moved to a small town outside of Nashville, and Stephen still sings in the choir. He taught his new director the "milkshake" trick!
Stephen also has an older brother, Peter, who is also Down's. Stephen is now 37 years old and his brother is 46. They hold full time jobs and are contributing citizens of not only their church, but their community and country.
Moral of the story? Never think because someone has a disability they can't do things!
God bless Dave, Christy, and their other 4 daughters for rescuing this precious Anna; nurturing and guiding her to reach her full potential in life. You are a remarkable family in my eyes, and certainly in God's eyes!

All I heard was
Scot, does this canoe make my butt look fat?

I would LOVE!!!! to be there for Thanksgiving, but that is way out of the budget. My contribution to the revolution will have to be in the form of prayer (mostly that you don't get caught!).

Dear TCD, you are being way to short sighted on this project addendum. Why not refurbish River Country with said large machinery?

OK-
Since we have some Fiends joining in the revolution, I will go ahead and assign areas of responsibility:
Great!
Please bring about two dozen. Maybe three.
That will be a good start.
I always liked the all white one. Please see if you can get one of those.
Genia- We will put you in charge of the beer and bacon.
We don't need no stinkin' bail. We're not going to get caught. This is going to be a stealth operation.
We will do it when the old men Security guards are on duty. As long as you can run faster than an old geezer using a walker and oxygen tank, you're good to go.
TCD

Preach it brother Dave!
My girls, who love all things Disney, hate Lemonade Mouth too.
Me? I've never seen it. Nor do I intend to.
Are you overreacting?
Heck no!
Enough is enough.
I am hoping to be at the Fort around Thanksgiving.
Here's what we need to do:
1. Get a copy of Snowball Express.
2. Gather up all of the new poles they have placed around the Fort to block golf cart access.
3. Use the poles for a bonfire at the campfire area. While we are at it, maybe we can throw the new Settlement Trading Post sign on the fire too.
4. I will have my cousin Yuri arrange for access to the projection building.
5. After the movie, we go hotwire a back hoe from the Golden Oaks construction area, and re-dig the deep end at the pool.
6. Someone can bring in a flock of peacocks, and we can release them around the campground.
7. If we have time, we can go look for Melvin the Moose.
Who's with me?
TCD

All true, and ultimately we don't really know what happened on either side. Honestly I'm not so sure I care. I think like most of you, I just want to know that either/both operation is on the up and up if I'm ever going to consider renting from either. And that's why, until we have confirmed Fiend reports of how each operation is to deal with "post-split" I've taken information for both off the Golf Cart page.
The Golf Cart page is meant as an informational resource for Fiends to find vendors that have been recommended by other Fiends - i.e., it's not something where a vendor can just request their information be put up there.
Jen and Chris have site sponsor/advertising opportunities available for anyone wanting to take advantage of them to promote their business here on FortFiends.net.
I'll continue to keep tabs on what people are reporting when it comes to dealing with outside cart rentals, and when we get to a point where I've got some first hand accounts of good service/pricing/operations by either/both of these vendors, I'll be happy to put their information back up on the page.
Also, TCD is right on the money. If ANY outside vendors start playing fast and loose with the golf cart rental business, eventually Disney WILL shut it all down completely. And that won't be good for any of us or any of them.
So Fiends - be sure to share your experiences! Your fellow Fiends are counting on you.

In addition, the phone numbers have been moved, by request, on our information pages for golf cart rentals. These numbers have been removed and put in their proper places. If you need information directly, contact the personnel involved for your questions. This is really not the place to promote one place over another with the plugging of phone numbers in each post. You can buy ad space for that very soon. :heart:
We do hope that you join our fun here and not just to defend your company from bad experiences. I have been in your shoes. It is not fun.

Mod note: I am going to allow further discussion here. My spider-sense is telling me that this is not your run-of-the-mill spam situation, what I'm piecing together here is a fluid situation where a company is in the unfortunate position of having their dirty laundry aired in public. I don't think we gain anything as a community by shutting this down, and if we find out what actually happened from both sides (to the extent they're willing to share with us), then we could learn something.
We will keep an eye on things, but for now, carry on. :)

From the walkway by the pool Rick got this shot.