Cortezcapt (Derek)

Welcome to all the new people! 

I've seen scooters on loop roads
Kids riding scooters with and with out helmets
Same with bikes. 
I don't know what the policy is or if there even is one for helmets on scooters at the Fort. But unless you get a ranger who is board or your kids are really cause a problem like blocking traffic or riding out in front of vehicles I don't think you'll have a problem with them riding in the loop. I'm not saying your kids would do this but it things I've seen before. 
The thing that would concern me the most is people driving golf carts or vehicles around the loops who may not be paying attention or going to fast. Especially if it's a busy time and cars are blocking visibility around curves in the loop. 

You could check out the bat house for any activity, I haven't checked in awhile not sure if TCD or anyone else has or not. We used to see the turkeys a lot in the 500 loop but I think they just wander. 

We'll be out in all our winter gear here in Florida! We have to break out the hats, scarfs, and heavy jackets any chance we get. 

71 forecasted here for Christmas day, so will have to crank the AC down to light the fireplace

We have gone to Ichetucknee springs a few times and always enjoyed floating down the river. There is no campground at the springs but 2 in the area, unfortunately I can't be much help as we haven't stayed at either. 

How about a Fort Fiend corporate membership?

I don't disagree with your observations.  Kids mesmerized by tablets and phones are sad.
But, my biggest beef in the theme parks are the parents pushing strollers while engrossed with their phones.  They just plod along with their giant strollers in front of them, blocking traffic and running into other guests.  I wish it was OK for me to carry around an air horn to blast right behind them to tell them to put their phones away and enjoy their time in the parks.
TCD

Great report, looks like a fun day!

I guess I just don't get what the big deal is. It's one value resort, one moderate and one deluxe resort and then the Fort. If someone doesn't want to stay at a resort where dogs could be seen or be in a room a dog may have been in pick one of the other resorts, simple as that. If someone already has a reservation at a resort that will now be taking pets simply call customer service explain nicely why you don't want to or can't stay in that resort and I'm sure they will do something to get you into another equal resort.

It's not like all of Disney is going to be overrun with dogs, it's 4 resorts one of which already allowed pets in half of it.

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It's pretty simple. If you don't like their rules don't go. 
Does a business, that relies on profits, try to cater to a large group of people like dog owners. Or do they try to make allowances for the much smaller universes of "phobias" or "severe allergies"?  This is not a philosophical, philanthropic, or humanitarian decision. It's about profitability. If the company loses money, it won't be around for anybody long.
It's amazing the number of complaints before anyone actually witnesses the implementation. I will reserve judgment until then.

Someone needs to come up with a shirt like this. Giant Snarky head on the front and on the back #TeamFortFiends.

You never know in Florida, we are usually up there in early December. Most years it's been shorts and t-shirts weather other years we've ended up going to the outlets and buying warmer clothes or sweatshirts at Disney. 
 
If you're thinking of staying off property here's a link for a place we used to stay before we got our trailer.
 http://www.lbvorlandoresort.com
They have 2 and 3 bedroom units some with fireworks view. Not a bad drive to Disney though S Apopka Vineland gets pretty backed up around rush hour time. The resort was always nice they have 2 pools, one with a pirate ship slide and bar. 
We also stayed here http://www.likitiki.com/?mkc=googleus a few times but the last time was probably 8 years ago or so and I think it might have still been the Ron John resort back then. It was nice and had a great pool for kids and bar for adults. 
Just a couple of ideas if you didn't already have something in mind. 

What's the price of just a regular milkshake. 9 doesn't sound bad for Disney prices, especially bottomless. I love milkshake unfortunately they don't love me ?.  It may be just me but I don't get the Nutella constantly being pushed down our throats. 

We did make it up to Epcot for the 35th anniversary. Unfortunately my alarm turned off so ended up waking up late and missing the show at 10:01.  I have a feeling it was a mixture of it being a Saturday at F&W and the 35th anniversary with special day of merchandise that caused the park to be packed when we got there. I didn't pre order my shirt so we waited in line for an hour and a half to get our shirts and pins. The odd thing was they weren't really advertising where the pop up shop was selling things and/or where the line started. Which at 11 am was the third row of "monuments/legacy" things up to the turn stiles and then hugging the buildings down to innovations through the building towards the back doors, in all it took us about 1hr 45 mins from getting in line to walking out the back door bags in hand. One thing I did notice is they were making sure everyone in line knew there was a limit of 10 items per person, though if you bought your 10nitems then got back in line I don't think anyone would have known, and we were hearing where couples were going in and buying 10 items each and checking out separately (hopefully these were big families and not eBay sellers).  After that we wondered for a few mins, then headed over to get our October F&W buttons ?. Now here's a thing that annoys me, when we were there the 16th of Sept they had a MB scanner at the button pick-up, if you had your hard pass you could show that or scan your MB. Well today I made my mom leave her bag in the car (no way I was standing through bag check) and in her bag was her pass, ok no problem MB will work. Get to the counter to get our buttons the CM says "nope only with your pass and photo ID". Luckily he did just end up giving her a button, I kept thinking it's a 0.25 button. I could understand when they were giving out glasses but buttons??? At that point it was looking like it might rain and we were getting warm and ready to leave. They had closed the east bag checks and security line (where we had come in) and just had the center one open, and the parking lot had started to empty out some around where we were parked.  Traffic was horrible on I4 so I ended up getting off at county line Rd and taking 92 back to seffner then down to MLK and onto 75. 
 
To sum it up, I can say I was there, didn't see anything special, but wasn't a bad day out. 

We cleaned my car the other day and I did find something that was either grapes turned raisins or they actually were raisins when they were dropped between seats.

Things like this bother me, not just at the Fort but anywhere. We visit other resorts while staying at the Fort and also when not staying on property. But we rarely have more than 5 or 6 people and almost always are eating, having drinks or shopping. I don't agree with these larger groups or planned things, if they want to enjoying the amenities at a resort they should make reservations or contact the resort and set up a special event. However that would mean they would actually have to pay for it. Will Disney do anything, probably not because that would involve upsetting someone who may come and spend money. What upsets me the most is these groups don't think about the people who they maybe disrupting or even preventing from enjoying the amenities that they paid for by taking over. 

Things like this bother me, not just at the Fort but anywhere. We visit other resorts while staying at the Fort and also when not staying on property. But we rarely have more than 5 or 6 people and almost always are eating, having drinks or shopping. I don't agree with these larger groups or planned things, if they want to enjoying the amenities at a resort they should make reservations or contact the resort and set up a special event. However that would mean they would actually have to pay for it. Will Disney do anything, probably not because that would involve upsetting someone who may come and spend money. What upsets me the most is these groups don't think about the people who they maybe disrupting or even preventing from enjoying the amenities that they paid for by taking over. 

Things like this bother me, not just at the Fort but anywhere. We visit other resorts while staying at the Fort and also when not staying on property. But we rarely have more than 5 or 6 people and almost always are eating, having drinks or shopping. I don't agree with these larger groups or planned things, if they want to enjoying the amenities at a resort they should make reservations or contact the resort and set up a special event. However that would mean they would actually have to pay for it. Will Disney do anything, probably not because that would involve upsetting someone who may come and spend money. What upsets me the most is these groups don't think about the people who they maybe disrupting or even preventing from enjoying the amenities that they paid for by taking over. 

I am planning a trip to assess the damage Irma did to the 3000 loop.  Beer lines are already scheduled for replacement, so mainly I will be focusing on the massage parlor.  I can't hook up the Outback, however, until I hit at least 650 likes.  So it's all up to you! 

Not sure if this has been posted on here or not and to be honest did want to read through the whole thread (it's been a long day). 
 
They also have handicap accessible vans with powered lifts. I saw one tonight dropping off a power scooter at the French Quarter.  I don't know if the other companies do as well and or the availability of them. I do know that there have been times that we have taken a busses to the parks with the scooter and come closing have dreaded waiting for a bus to go back especially if there are multiple wheelchairs or scooters waiting, it can take awhile to get on a bus. 

So we checked in to the French Quarter on Thursday, this 5th wheel has been here since we arrived and I'd say probably longer. I saw their truck parked in front of it Thursday and Friday morning, came back from Epcot last. Night and saw this.    

Hoping they aren't planning on leaving today. 

Oh and just got an email from Royal Caribbean International, outlining their hurricane relief efforts in the Caribbean. They are also matching donations up to 1 million dollars. 

We are at the French Quarter, haven't had a chance to get past the Fort in the daylight yet. But from the trees I've seen down along the road, and the mess around here I can only imagine what the Fort looks like. Saw several trees leaning up against the tree house and down along the canals here. I will say it looked pretty rough here last night but this morning there was a least 50 workers wearing Buena Vista Construction Company yellow vests clean up branches, trees and debris around the resort. It the difference between night and day this afternoon.

Glad y'all are alright BigTom 
 
We made it through here in Bradenton, we were very lucky! Some fence down, branches in the yard, a few shingles in the yard but not sure if they are ours yet or not. Amazingly we only lost power for about 30 mins last night. When I looked at the FPL website it says out of 184,900 customers in Manatee county 122,640 lost power with 109,309 still without.  When it's safe to get out on the road we will go check my aunt and cousins houses. 
 
We are still praying for all those effected and still in the path of Irma. Even though she's loosing strength still a dangerous storm.