ftwildernessrick

My wife and I did a more laid back 10 night trip mid September. No kids.

We did MNSSHP one night. Originally was not going to do it, but wanted to see the Sanderson sisters thing. We used to always to the Halloween and Christmas parties, but what was once a limited number of tickets sold has now become what appears to be a 'limitless" number of tickets. Went mid- week and it was packed, but still enjoyed the show.

Campground was good and noticed the improvements, especially the separate walkway from the cart path at the Settlement.

Caught the first day of the Food and Wine Festival and it was in the 90's with high humidity. Not much change there that I saw.

Like everyone else, I am sad that this is the last year of the Osborne Lights. I asked several cast members if they knew if it was going to be moved elsewhere, but they had no idea. My kids are actually going to make a long weekend trip in December just to see it one last time.

Everything went smooth and all in all it was enjoyable.

The weird stuff happened as I was leaving. I had been staying in the 400 loop, and as we were going down the road to exit, I noticed a class C camper pulled off the road in the grass across from the dog park. I first assumed they were headed out and was walking their dog, but as I passed i saw the front drapes closed and their jacks down. Weird? Next, as I came up to the 4 way stop, I stopped and was starting to turn left, when another motorhome that was approaching the stop sign slowed down then went through it. Lastly, I was going to pull into the dingy hitch area and there was a motorhome already there parked in the middle of. Now this has always been one of my pet peeves because there is room enough for two if the first one pulls to the end. What it made it worse in the case was the motorhome had no tow vehicle, nor could it have because it had a bicycle rack in its rear hitch.

Have been to MK, Epcot, and Studios for NY eve in past. The last time I did one was 2012 at MK and it was so insanely crowded my wife and I left, went to the Fort and celebrated it there. They had a DJ on the dock, gave out party favors and hats and we had a blast. The view of the fireworks was great, especially since they were shooting some off from the islands in the 7 Seas Lagoon.

So I would say ressies at Trails's End and fireworks on the beach.

It sure was nice back when an AP discount was at least 10% any time of the year. They used to even send me letters for campsites around 40% during the slack season as long as you stayed at least 2 or 3 weeks, depending on the offer

I am probably late posting this, but just called reservations and found that there is an AP discount available for my dates of September 16 - 26. This applies towards a premium site, but I had to change from my preferred 100 loop. The price went from 912.41 for a 10 night stay, to 780.81 for a premium site.

If you book your resort stay, then log on and order your AP, they should link automatically. A note about the AP and Magic Bands I found out the hard way. I assumed the AP linked to my Magic Band automatically, but it doesn't. You have to go to guest services where they will exchange your AP voucher for a hard card and link your Magic Band to it there.

So much for getting through at line drop at the MK, when I found out.

Fast pass+ still has some glitches and I called tech support and they could not fix it. What happened is this. My daughter, her husband and two grandchildren decided to come with us on our Easter week trip, so I was adding them to our fast pass+. I knew that some rides and times would not be available, especially being Easter week and this late. Anyway, if none of you have added guests to your Fastpass+ itinerary it works this. You select your own itinerary as what you want it copied from, then select everyone else on the next screen that you want to add to this. Also, my spouse was selected, even though she has the same as mine already, just in case it has to find a different time for everyone, so we can all stay together.

For all the dates it worked fine, except for two different rides on different days and it did the same on both. On the 7 Dwarfs, it put everyone in the morning, where it was originally, but threw my time to late afternoon. The same thing happened to Toy Story. I called tech support, she looked at it and did not how it occurred, but she could not add me back to my original time, nor could she add me to their time.

OK, they don't have some sort of overide to be able to add just one person? Really?

Yes, that is who I meant. Did they make her move or did she just want to relocate?

One place I usually unload (with ramps), is in the overflow lot. The "main road" as I call it going through the overflow parking, as head towards the old kennel. On the right side, about halfway down the road there is a light post in a grassy area between the marked parking spot. If you look you will notice that this grassy area has a large depression. I pull around to the parking lot side and back my truck's rear tires into this depression, which significantly lowers the rear of my truck, making it a lot easier to load and unload my cart with the ramps I have.

Oops, my bad

They used to periodically give the dining plan if you rented a cabin $$$$

However; the recipe for Congalush is

1/4 cup Blackberry Brandy

1/4 cup Capt Morgan's spiced rum

1/4 cup strawberry daiquiri mix

1/4 cup orange juice

Semi hi-jacking

It is not the same in the 100 with Judy not there. And I was surprised during my October trip to see Wanda in the 400 loop instead of her usual 734?

I have been the week before Labor Day and the week of Labor Day. The weekend before Labor Day is fairly slow, but starting about Wednesday, check ins pick up until Friday when it maxes out. As previously stated,, there is a mass exodus Monday and Tuesday, then the week becomes quiet again.

I don't see it mentioned yet, but there is also a place called Camping on the Gulf RV park. I think it is listed as In Destin. Everything is full hookup except the beach front sites in which you are virtually in the sand. There is no sewer on these sites, but they do have pump out available. Like any campgrounds that are on the beach, it can be pricey.

First, I remember that at one time they gave out a brochure showing the acceptable and unacceptable personal carts allowed. One of the drawings depicted a cart towing a trailer of some sort as being unacceptable. I remember at the time wondering why that would be the problem, because most cart trailers I had seen were well built.

As far as the alcohol thing, either Florida or Orange County has an open container law. I found this out when I started to walk out of Epcot with a frozen margarita from Mexico and was told I would either have to finish it or throw it away. So I opted for the brain freeze. The same would probably apply to consuming alcohol at your campsite verses walking around drinking one. As far as Crockett's goes, most laws have an exemption for to go drinks. I know in my area you can go and get a frozen daiquiri at a drive through and you are ok as long as you leave the lid on and don't put the straw in.

The heated mattress pad works great and eliminates needing to put something under the mattress to insulate you from the cooling effect form the ground. An electric heater is ok for knocking the chill out of the air on cool nights, but it virtually useless on cold nights. One of those quartz radiant heaters works better, but only the side facing it gets warm. I wish they made one that you could hang from the tent ceiling to radiate down,but they don't.

For cold weather when I camp (usually with a Boy Scout troop), I have one of those Mr. Heater propane heaters that has the ceramic grills that glow hot. These are designed to shut off if the oxygen level drops. I bought the bigger one that has two ceramic grills and holds two propane bottles, but I only have to use it on the low setting, which only heats one of the ceramic grills, which can heat my Coleman instant tent in weather down to the teens.

I still leave a window cracked open to help vent moisture out. If you have electricity, a small fan will help circulate the heated air around. The heater has a built in fan, but it is very small.

Have not been on the boards in a while, but this is what I did last year. My wife and I retired for a while and did a lot of traveling, including staying at the Fort last year from the first of October through the first week of January. We normally use electric heaters unless it gets really cold and then the furnace cuts on. So the first thing I did was buy an extend a stay system so I could use the smaller propane bottles and get them refilled. You can even leave them at the meadow trading post and they will be picked up and filled. The next problem I worked on was an electrical one. As we probably are all well aware, almost all rv's are woefully underpowered for electrical outlets inside. Most have about a total of 3 circuits to cover the interior outlets. So when you start running electric heaters, you will begin to trip breakers, especially when you turn on the coffee pot, a hair drier, etc, along with the heater. Even my motor home with a 50 amp service had the same problem. I decided to make my RV more efficient by doing a few things so I would not have to rely on propane. Fortunately, my hot water heater is the electric/gas type, so I could just leave it on electric.

Next, a friend of mine, who is an electrician, and I looked at the breaker box, saw there were several spaces available for additional circuits. We next ran 4 additional circuits to individual outlets we installed. This was not as hard as it sounds, since most of the wiring is run underneath cabinets, drawers, etc. we ran one up to the front of the motor home to power my electric fireplace heater, 2 to the kitchen area, one for another heater and one to power an electric cooktop, then one in the bedroom for another heater. Next I made a counter top cover for my gas stove/oven, that I can lift off if need be. I then bought two of those induction cook tops you see advertised on TV and put them on the removeable counter top. One runs off the new circuit and the other runs off an existing one. I next removed the small microwave that was mounted over the stove along with that cabinetry. I then installed a large micro-convection oven and replaced the old larger cabinet with a smaller one I built that slides out. The microwave was already on its own dedicated circuit, so there was enough power to run the new one.

The end was result was a system that no longer blows breakers, with enough heat being generated to keep it warm in 20 degree weather, and I have not even turned my propane on in a year and a half.

Make sure when they do apply a discount, that it is for the type of campsite you are wanting. They have different discounts for different type campsites at different times. I had one CM try to put me into a discounted partial hookup once. If there is no discount available, keep checking back every 2weeks and even up to the day of check in.

If you need 4 tickets for MVMCP for this Friday night (12/21), Eric in 117 has 4 he needs to get rid of. If Eric is not there see Fiesty in 114.He is just selling them for what he paid for them and I believe Disney is sold out for this Friday night.

I was just thinking the other day about all those people who have built and are building those milliom dollar homes in Golden Oaks. They have their own security, gate only access, and all that privacy they paid for and expected.

I bet you they did not know and Disney did not tell them they were going to build a muti-story Four Seasons Hotel almost in their backyard, where anyone with a pair of binoculars or a telephoto camera lense, can peer into their backyards.

When they switched in November, they did not let any of us know who were already here.Coincidentaly, the cable in part of our loop went out when the change over occurred. They were working on it to about midnight. Asked one the managers that was hanging around what the problem was. He told they were having problems with some equipment and connections some contractor Disney used. My internet was also down (I have one of their modems).Since I also have satelite, I did not worry about it for now. About 3 days later, still no TV bit finally got internet back. Drove up to front desk and asked them when the cable would be back, then I was informed they had gone digital (gee thanks). About 1 week later, the left a note on my door that they had gone digital.

I would feel better if they could point a gun at me while I pay it

During the holidays we ride and do what we can, then just relax and enjoy the atmosphere. I generally will quit riding rides if the line is over 30 minutes long.

That's the one I meant. They must be there for a long period of time because they were there at the beginning of the month.

If you are talking about the guy who has the little haunted walk-through with the lights synced to Thriller, he has been here since July 2010, but has moved a few times since then. I talked with him last week. He is not on Dis or Fiends boards.

Karla-

Good job! I have been waiting to see these.

For once, I think the Fort management did a decent job putting their rules in writing.

Of course, the "good taste" requirement is going to be an interesting one to see them enforce.

The biggest change will come from the 30' from the main road requirement. That is going to most definitely change some of the most popular sites from years past.

All-in-all, these new rules still allow for plenty of decorations.

TCD

The 30 foot rule could be a problem since there are a few sites that the rear backs up less than 30 feet from the road.

I have seen them do this before for the 'off' season, only to continue when the crowds pick back up. Sometimes they will hold you at Spaceship Earth.

I can't see them waiting until opening for larger crowds, they would definately upset some people, considering how bad the turnstiles back up at any of the parks.