Cortezcapt (Derek)

On 11/7/2018 at 10:06 AM, Country Coach Guy said:

We are traveling with some friends and when we made the reservations it was for two premium sites together. We were told that it would be no problem by our agent. Anybody have an opinion on the likelihood of getting those two sites together in the 500 loop? Another friend recommended it as being the best as far as big rig friendly.

We have been lucky to get sites next to each other or across from each other when we have had our reservations linked with friends as traveling together.  Whoever checks in first makes sure to check that they know we are traveling together.  We have had to pass on a preferred site or loop to get sites next to each other. It all depends on the time of year you are going.

8 hours ago, Beckers said:

Hey Derek how is your momma doing?

She doing well, on the way to recovery. She's hanging in there and the prognosis is good. We took a little trip between surgeries. Thanks for asking.

58 minutes ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

Hope that helps.  

Thank you so much Ray and thank your friend.   We we're going to wait another week to head home but my grandfather want to leave sooner. This info makes me a little more comfortable heading back.

Calling all Fiends, we left for Texas the Saturday before Michael hit have had a nice trip but now we need to head home. Wondering the road conditions and availability of diesel along I10 through the panhandle. We will probably be heading home in a day or two and have been having a hard time getting any info other than that I10 is open. Also are there any other routes that may be better to take to avoid the panhandle? Will be towing the trailer. 

Thank you ahead of time, trip report to follow.

Yum! Definitely going to have to try that. 

Very nice, won't lie I'm a little jealous.......

They forgot drinking around the world. Give them a sip in each country, then mom and dad can have a relaxing evening.

Yes I'm joking

On 6/7/2018 at 11:16 AM, Seals said:

We ate at Starfish Company.  Food was excellent, staff was friendly and eating right on the water and watching the birds and boats was perfect. I love places like that.    I'd like to explore that whole area more some time. 

It is a great area although I might be a little biased having been born and raised there. I will admit the whole area has become much more touristy and built up compared to what it used to be, but still retains some of it's old Florida charm.

Great trip report, glad you were able to do it and had a safe memorable trip. Even with the trailer troubles nothing can beat spending time with your family and sharing those experiences. Thank you for sharing them with us.

As far as kids remembering, my grandparents and/or my mom took me traveling in the summers growing up. I can honestly say I don't remember all of the things we did or saw, but I do have many memories of the trips. Some more random memories of spending time with them as opposed to memories of actual places we visited (ie. My great aunt teaching me to roll down a hill after my grandpa had to teach me how to walk up a hill, don't laugh this is a real problem for Florida raised kids....). I only wish as I got older I had continued to travel with them, but as a teenager spending time with friends seemed more important. Now as an adult my lists of places I want to travel to includes many of the places I remember going as a child to see them through the eyes of an adult. I definitely caught the travel/rving bug from those trips as a kid and if or when I have kids I plan to do the same with them.

24 minutes ago, Beckers said:

Yup, that’s my bathroom. We redid it last year. The wood was a huge labor of love lol. After this Brian said he’ll be paying people to do the work from now on 😂

 

each one is up individually, they are screwed into the wood. 

Tell him that takes all the "FUN" out of it. (I said the same thing after we did our kitchen walls similar to that) 

Also in Bradenton just s few blocks from DeSoto is Robinson Preserve there are nice walking paths and a observation tower. You can bring your own kayaks or rent them on Manatee Ave on the way to the beach and kayak back through the mangroves.

In Cortez is the Florida Maritime museum on 119th street it's small but worth checking out if you're in the area, gives a good idea what life was like in a small fishing village from when the first settlers came down from the Carolinas thru to the present day. Captain Kim is also worth checking out for boat/eco tours around Cortez. Tide Tables and Star fish Company are the restaurants I'd most recommend, both are very laid back/come as you are type places run by locals who were born and raised in Cortez. Star is located in part of a old fish house and located next door to a working fish house. Tide Tables is located right on the intercoastal waterway and actually occupies the building we ran our party fishing boats out of for 25 years before moving to the north side of the bridge and later getting out of the business. If you like to fish check out Captain Sam with Legend Fishing Charters.

On Bradenton beach Gulf Drive Cafe is a great place to have some food and/or drinks and enjoy the sunset or watch the kids play on the beach and in the water.

In Bradenton is the South Florida museum and Bishop planetarium. Formally the home of Snooty the Manatee. Nice little museum and planetarium. 

Also in Bradenton is Manatee Village Historic Park. Another nice little museum that is free. If you go here and they have any sugarcane syrup I definitely recommend buying some and not just because my cousin makes it. He grows harvests and processes all of his own cane and boils it down over a old fashioned boiler to produce the syrup.

In Palmetto is Gamble Plantation the only surviving plantation house in South Florida. The grounds are nice for a picnic and the tours give a good history of the area from that time. 

If you're not into the museum's and history Anna Maria Island ( which encompasses the cities of Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach, and Anna Maria Island) offers beautiful beaches, shopping, jetski and boat rentals all in a laid back atmosphere. There is a free trolley that runs the length of the island. Coquina beach offers a lot of shaded parking with picnic areas, restrooms, and RV parking (day use only) with a trolley stop close by. 

If you're coming to the area for more than a day there are a good amount of campgrounds/RV parks in the area and lots of hotels and rentals. Just remember the closer to the beach the more you pay and in the winter plan far ahead as most campgrounds fill up with snowbirds and the prices go up. 

32 minutes ago, Beckers said:

I saw that idea too! I had these flowers so I popped them in.

Oh I wasn't paying attention, didn't realize you'd already done it, thought it was an inspiration photo. I like the wood on the wall!  

Did you screw or attach them together so they hang as one piece or each hung individually?

Very cool.

Would also be cool with some succulents planted in them. 

So went to my brother's house the other day and my sister-in-law had bought one of these, along with all the extras including beach tires. From talking with her there seem to be a few companies selling them but only 2 are approved for use at Disney. They must have a 5 point restraint system in them to be approved by Disney, per her. 

I haven't been in the parks with a ton of them yet but seeing one in person I do think it would be better than the dreaded double wide strollers and folds up as small or small then they do. Although once you add the cooler and everything else maybe not. 

Seems like they are the new must have thing though. She bought 2 because she couldn't decide what color she wanted. When they arrived she picked the color then sold the other on Facebook the same day for 60.00 more than she paid. 

6 hours ago, Beckers said:

I think it is going to be fun to pick it apart!

Yes it will. 

I'm already wondering how many sweaty people were standing around staring while that picture was taken, golf carts going by, kids screaming, people walking by from the busses unloading....... So very romantic!

Smart on Disneys part. Let someone else pay to develop, manage and care for it and still make some money. Hopefully Disney will make sure they are contracted to keep the rates reasonable for the students or at least in line with what Disney was charging them. 

10 hours ago, Travisma said:

That's just for a seat.

It's an additional $99.95 is you want to use a safety harness to hold you in the seat!

Who needs safety harnesses? That takes all the fun out of it. 

11 hours ago, Beckers said:

Really? That seems low! 

That does seem low and I'm surprised by that price. But being so low that's something when the kids see it and say "I want to do that" 12.00 is a lot easier to fork over for parents that are budgeting a trip. 

When I worked for a parasail company we charged 65.00+ per person for a 15 min flight. Overheard a lot "if we do this we can't do that" type of discussions. 

12 hours ago, Duane said:

Derek, I will go with you! 

Does anyone know how much they charge to ride that thing?

Ok!

36 minutes ago, ImDownWithDisney said:

A fool and his money are easily separated. 

Exactly! 

If you take a bus from Riverside to the MK it's also just an easy walk over to the Contemporary, there you can catch the launches (small boats) to wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness as well as the monorail to the other seven seas lagoon resorts. Walking to the Contemporary from the busses may allow you to bypass some of the security, just remember every time you get on the monorail you will have to go through security. 

Port Orleans depending on what days you're there it's definitely worth heading down to the river roost and checking out yehaa Bob.

I want to go on this!!!

Thank you all for reading along and all of the comments. 

It's great they found you a tow company and you were able to find a repair place that could do it quickly. I hate to even think of how long it could have taken had you had to go to camping world. 

We have the same problem with the door on our travel trailer not shutting easily. It drives me nuts because it seems to happen randomly. Sometimes when the trailer is level, or out of level, then sometimes it doesn't do it, I can't figure out what to do to stop it. 

One snake encounter is more than enough for me!

My mother had her surgery on the 7th of May, the day after we got home from the Fort. Everything went well and she is recovering slowly but surely. She did have to have a follow-up procedure this past Friday and will have to have some more treatments, but the Drs are all happy with her progress and the progress of all of her treatments. 

A Fort Wilderness / Disney trip the weekend before major surgery might sound strange to some but it did help to relieve some of the anxiety of the surgery and stress from the months of chemo leading up to it for both her and myself. I sort of stressed over going as lists of thing I should/could be doing at home ran through my head, but once we hit the campsite that all drained out and the Disney bubble took over. My mind frame went from there's all this stuff not getting done to oh well it'll still be there and it's nothing that can't wait. 

Though we have annual passes and have kept them up over the years we tend to do Disney differently then most. The Fort is what really draws us in with the parks being an added bonus of something to do while staying at the Fort. That's not to say we won't/don't do day trips up to the parks for events or things we want to see, but spend as much if not more time out of the parks as we do in them. We like visiting the other resorts, or attractions around Orlando and just relaxing at the Fort. 

Thank you all for reading along, again I apologise for not having any pictures in this report. I promise the next time I'll step up my picture taking and hopefully don't loose them all again. This report started as kind of a way to kill some time and get my mind off things and it really helped to do that. I'm looking forward to setting up a trip with with some close family friends in the fall and a possible Texas trip within the next year.

One more side note, talking with one of the surgeons nurses about having just got back from the Fort we found out that the surgeon is also a Disney pass holder and fan. So I have been trying to come up with a unique Disney themed thank you gift for him.

Well its been busy around here with Drs appointments and some stomach issues with my dog, kind of forgot about this. 

So Saturday i wanted to go fuel up the truck so we headed out, got some diesel and decided lunch was in order. So in the now pouring rain we headed out for some lunch. Ended up at Fridays in the Crossroads plaza. My mom wasn't feeling great so we headed back to the trailer and just hung out took naps and relaxed. Debated going to the MK later Saturday evening, but just didn't trust the weather so called it an early night and went to bed.  

Woke up Sunday more it was still sprinkling but had quit by the time I started packing up. Everything went smoothly got all packed up and ready to go just had to hook the truck to the trailer. Well for some reason at this point I decided to go change my clothes before I put the slide out in. Got cleaned up and changed and started hooking the trailer up, well of course that's when it decided to start pouring rain again. Now when shopping for travel trailers I had 2 things I looked for 1-being able to get to the bathroom with the slide in and all packed up, 2-getting to the fridge with everything all packed up. Well when it came down to it access to the bathroom won out over access to the fridge. Luckily I had packed all of my clothes into a bag to make it easier when we got home and was able to grab some, get dry and changed. It was a slow but uneventful trip home.

Wasn't the best weather, but it was the get away we needed before the busy stressful upcoming weeks. 

6 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Exactly. 

Guests swam in Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon at WDW for over 20 years before those beaches were closed. Thousands of guests for more than two decades.  How many of them were eaten by alligators?

Thousands of people tube every day in Florida's rivers. No alligator bites. 

The risk is too minuscule to quantify. 

TCD 

6 hours ago, Beckers said:

Stupid question. I see people tubing in springs (or something) what about alligators???

We have tubed at ichetucknee springs many times and have never see a gator. Gators tend to stay away from people unless the have been fed or are protecting their nests or young. 

This is a horrible example to make but, a small child at night or even a lone person splashing around in the water looks a lot like a bird or other prey to an alligator. Where as a group of people, boats, rafts, lots of noise does not. 

I think the biggest problem we have with alligators is people feeding them. They then associate people with food. I actually sat on one of the Disney launches one day and listened to a family from up North talk about how they had been feeding a gator everyday at WL and how much the gator liked breakfast sandwiches. 

So far I have made it 36 years swimming in some very questionable water without being eaten by anything. Infact I'm much more scared of getting bit by a snake while swimming or on land than I ever have been about Gators.