desiphil

Welcome to the Forest River Club. That's a really cool layout. As the kids get a bit older we plan on looking into something similar.
Congrats.

WDW does not have a right to enter someones personal RV. They do have, however have the right to ask. They also have right to ask any guest to leave their property. 
What each of us does with this new information is up to the individual. I take personal responsibility for maintaining the safety of my family and will continue to do so.

In fairness to the dog... It appears to be an older Dachsund. We have a 10 year old mini dachsund that is turning white/grey around the nose and feed. Poor guy is falling apart and we basically have to baby him.

I will take part of the blame for that.  I have been very sick during 2017 and I am not a very public person.  The WWW group has known because we all talk privately on our phones.  However, I have been doing all I can just to keep my head up at work.  In addition, I was attacked at school after my surgery (to fix what was wrong) and had to immediately change jobs.  If you noticed, I disappeared.  I didn't mean to but something had to give and that is why I have some other people who help me in the background who I could not thank enough.  My goal in 2018 is to hopefully get everything back up to steam.  I cannot and will not beg people to come back, however, I can recruit new people to stop by for information.  I am not here to spread pixie dust, but the real deal.  I am working on being at Disney more often and reporting from there for the site.  The app will be updated this year come hell or high water and work on all platforms.  (or supergeek will not go to Blizcon, hahaha)  I apologize for not being the admin you expected me to be.  Unfortunately, when I get sick, I get really sick.  I will do better.  We will also be camping more and hopefully we can get some GG's planned for the year as well.  I know it is not much of a comfort for 2017, but it can be a building block for 2018.  Every site goes through ups and downs.  We have had our down and now it is time to go up again.

Right now I am doing really well except I am freezing my flat butt off.  I am very happy that super geek gave my last Christmas this very cool heated blanket for the Jeep.  Now that I have an hour commute to work, it really came in handy this morning!  I didn’t really need it last winter.  I do now!  
I still cannot do sit ups and crunches for karate, but I am back up to 100 jumping jacks four days a week and I passed my advanced green belt test right before Christmas for Tang So Doo.  I broke two boards together with my hand and one with my foot.  
I plan to go to Disney for MLK weekend so hopefully I can keep that going and not have to reschedule like I did NYE.  That one I had to chalk up to my storage place for my pop up.  Ugh
I am tired of being sick, so 2018 for me is a plan to be void of sickness!

They don't enforce any of the other Fort rules so it is just a matter of time till we see the dogs driving golf carts around.
Or for that matter I guess they will be in the pool too.

So our trip to disney for the boys 3rd bday is just over a week away.  He got some great Disney swag for his birthday.  His favorite

Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks they're of little value.

The end is near.
 
This is the second to the last batch of bonus content.
 
And then this TR will finally be done. 
 
So enjoy it while it lasts.
 
We left off on the Epcot monorail.  I love the Epcot monorail.  Especially the part where you loop through Future World on the way in.  I always like looking around to see what the crowds look like.  Back when they still put up the Lights of Winter display, we would ride the Epcot monorail just to see that display.  Unfortunately, that is not something you can do anymore.
 
And here we are approaching the Big Golf Ball.  We can also see that the parking lot is not very busy, which is a good thing:
 

 
There aren't many people in the tombstone area.  Also a good thing:
 

 
Over to the west, we can see that the sky is finally clearing.  Hopefully the rain is done.  Also, if you look below, you can see that there are small colored stakes in the grass below.  Sometime in the next few weeks, all of that grass is going to be replaced with huge beds of flowers for the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival:
 

 
As we pass over the walkway that leads to the World Showcase and look back at the Golf Ball, we can see that it isn't very crowded here this evening at all:
 

 
The low light and moving monorail made this photo blurry, but you can kind of see the colored markers in the grass here- they're getting ready to plant those big flower beds that are an icon of the Flower and Garden Festival:
 

 
I always like how the sun reflects off of the Golf Ball.  We got to see that as we passed right by:
 

 
This big flower bed at the Epcot entrance will soon be filled with topiaries themed for this year's Flower and Garden Festival.  A couple of years ago, it was Toy Story characters.  Last year, it was Mickey and friends.  This year, based on the cover of the Mickey Monitor I just received, I think it might be Muppet characters.  You know, there's a new Muppet movie to promote?:
 

 
Our Biergarten ADR was for 7:10.  It was just a bit past 6.  We had an hour to kill before we could check in. The girls suggested a stop at Ice Station Cool, and then a visit to Norway.  OK by me.
 
As you should know by now, they replaced a lot of the soda flavors in Ice Station Cool.  They got rid of some of the good ones, like Mezzo Mix, and replaced them with all fruity type sodas.
 
I don't know the names of the new ones, and I don't think I've tried them all yet.  This one is from Russia.  It's called Sochi Water:
 

 
Actually I made that up.  I don't know what that was.  One of the girls handed it to me.  You see, it was really packed in here, and it was hard to get to the machines, because people just parked themselves in front of the machines:
 

 
You know what's gross?   How people take little sips and then stick the same cup with their saliva and worse all over it right up to the nozzle to get the next flavor.  On the Disney Cruises, they make a big deal about each guest using a new cup for each drink dispensed at their beverage stations.  But that isn't what happens here.  And here, it's worse because everyone is just sipping and refilling the same cup over and over.
 
We had to stand off to the side and one of the girls would try to break in through the masses to get a drink.  A CM was standing there off to the side too.  He was supposed to be restocking cups, but it was too packed at the moment.  We didn't know it, but this was a big BTG that had come in all at the same time.  That's why it was so crowded.  And why there were no common courtesies or manners being observed.   The CM struck up a conversation with us.  He asked how we liked the new flavors.  I told him I missed Mezzo Mix.  Which really isn't that true, but I was trying to make conversation.  That launched this guy into a pretty impressive rant about how much he hates all the new fruity flavors and how much he misses the Mezzo Mix.  He also insulted the Vegetable drink (from Japan, I think), and especially slammed Beverly.  He said we wouldn't believe the huge shipment they had in the back.  Etc., etc.  The guy cracked me up.  He needs to move to a new position.  The funny thing is that as we were walking out, my oldest DD asked if the CM had used the "S" word when he was talking to me.  She thought he said something else when he said shipment.  LOL.
 
When we got outside, we headed toward the World Showcase.  This big BTG was assembling for a group photo.  I wanted to jump in with them.  That would make a funny photo, right?  But the girls forbade me:
 

 

 
Have you ever heard these BTG's chant?
 
Good Lord.
 
The group that we shared the soda machines inside Ice Station Cool was lined up over there on the left waiting for their turn to take a group photo.  They started some loud chant while waiting .  Charming.  The group that had just posed for their photo added a chant of their own:
 

 
I was hoping that the big group posing for the photo was taking a photo on the way out of Epcot.  Wrong.  They all started moving toward us.  Nice.  It was kind of like that stampede scene in the Lion King.
 
As the Brazilians filed by, we took in the sights.  We weren't in a particular hurry to get to Norway.  This flower bed, which is covered with a cranberry bog for the Food and Wine Festival, will undoubtedly have some new topiaries in it the next time we see it:
 

 
That clearing sky meant that we were in for a pretty sunset tonight.  I kind of liked how this bare tree looked against the pretty sky:
 

 
The sun was setting there behind the Imagination Pavilion:
 

 
I can't remember when the last time was that we visited there.  What reason is there to?  The Figment ride is OK, but not something we are interested in doing every trip.  And Captain EO?  We saw it once.  It was shocking how bad it was.  I want to go back and see it at least once more.  But the TCD girls refuse.  I wish they felt that strongly about the MK Starbucks.
 
There were people in that last shot, so I tried one more:
 

 
That's a pretty good photo if I do say so myself.
 
The trees here on the walkway have all lost their leaves.  Winter in Florida:
 

 
On the way to Mexico, I just had to stop for another sunset photo:
 

 
All of the Illuminations stuff was in place out in the lagoon:
 

 
We walked a little more, and I had to stop again.  The sky was so pretty tonight:
 

 

 
There was no more stopping until we arrived in Norway.
 
None of us had been inside the Stave Church there since they added the display from the Frozen movie.  We have been in there a few times to see the Viking stuff they used to have on display.  I always liked going in there.  Mainly because nobody else ever did.  It was always a quiet, calm place to escape the madness of the World Showcase.  I was worried with the popularity of Frozen that it would now be packed and crazy all the time.  Well, let's see if my concerns were valid:
 

 
There was just a couple of people in there when we entered.  The inside is just one small room, so there isn't room for a lot of people in here anyway.  It looks like the Frozen stuff has not drawn any crowds inside.  Here's one of the displays:
 

 
There are two mannequins in here.  A girl:
 

 
And a boy:
 

 
And some informational signs:
 

 

 
There is also a model of a stave church:
 

 
And this sign, explaining what a stave church is:
 

 
That's it.
 
Not very interesting at all.
 
Someday, I would like to know more about these churches.  So far, all I know is that they were built some time around the Middle Ages.  Supposedly, they were Christian churches, but to me they have a pagan temple feeling to them.  I'd like to know more.  But, there is no more to be told inside of that display. 
 
We walked around to take a look at the line to meet Anna and Elsa.  Long. 
 
I didn't know they changed the name of the Puffin's Roost.
 
The Puffin is still there, though:
 

 
The stand-by wait time for Maelstrom was 20 minutes.  The line wasn't out the door, but there were a lot of people heading in there.  It was just past 6:30 now.  I didn't want to risk being late for our ADR, so we skipped it.
 
Next stop Germany.
 
We would be early, but better early than late.
 
Right?
 
TCD

Back on topic. They had their own parade.<br />And my observations so far, a very well behaved group. They are also in 1600 and have some tents along the canal.