Another Auld Lang Syne: The TCD Gang Rings in 2014 @ The Fort!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

It's true.

 

The TCD gang made it back to the Fort for a final 2013 trip.

 

This trip was not planned until the very last minute.

 

Members of the TCD gang were supposed to be in Pasadena, CA at this very moment, preparing to watch the final BCS National Championship Football Game between Florida State University and Auburn University.

 

But, things sometimes do not go as planned.

 

It wasn't until right before Christmas that I pulled the plug on the California trip.  It got to be too complicated, and too expensive.

 

I had some sad TCD DD's.

 

But, I know how to cheer them up.

 

The Fort.

 

It always works.

 

But there's a slight problem.

 

We didn't have a reservation.

 

The last two weeks of the year are probably the busiest of the year at the Fort.

 

But, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

 

I contacted my travel agent.

 

I said I know it's a long shot, but see what you can do.

 

I heard back from her in a couple of hours.

 

She had found a partial hook up site for December 30-January 3rd.

 

I took it.

 

But dropped the last night.

 

The girls had to head back to college on the 4th.  We would need to get home by the 3rd.

 

That's some pretty major pixie dust right there.

 

I knew there was no way I was going to find a golf cart on such short notice, so I resigned myself to bringing bikes.  Oh well, the Fort without a cart is better than a cart without the Fort.

 

The 30th came quick.

 

We loaded up and headed East around 10.

 

It was a Monday, and 10 is a good time to drive through Tampa, which stands between us and the Fort.

 

Sure enough, we had mostly smooth sailing, all the way up to near those magical Magic Kingdom gates.

 

Then the magic stopped.

 

They had portable signs up telling arriving guests that the Magic Kingdom was closed, and that they should turn off at Epcot.

 

People don't read those signs though, so we got close enough to see the MK gates when traffic came to a grinding halt.  And here we sat at 12:02 pm.  So close.  Yet so far away:

 

 

Nobody was moving.  Except for this hammerhead who opened up a new lane on the grass:

 

 

Oh, and notice the sky.  Gray.  Like cement.  I've often told my kids that is how I remember the sky looking back in New Jersey from around late November until March.  What's the deal?  Isn't this the Sunshine State?

 

We had a rough day of weather the day before- lots of rain.  That was some kind of front, and today was supposed to be nice and sunny.

 

But it wasn't.

 

Looking ahead, I could see that all the lanes had green lights.  And you know what I didn't see?   Disney buses.  They were all bypassing this mess.  Had I known it was here, I would have too:

 

 

By 12:10 pm, we had only made this much progress.  And that was mostly because everyone in front of us was shifting lanes:

 

 

Two minutes later, it's 12:12, and here we are:

 

 

This was not the Happiest Place on Earth today.

 

But, at least I was in front of all the people building up behind me:

 

 

Finally, things started to move a bit.  By 12:15, I thought we were in the clear:

 

 

But, of course, the car in front of us was trying to go to the MK, and had a thousand or so questions for the CM:

 

 

It was 12:20 before we made it through.

 

Almost a 20 minute delay.

 

But, when we got to the Fort, there was only one car ahead of us at the guard shack.

 

And, best of all, we were directed to an open lane at the check in, where a CM was waiting to help us.

 

That's what I'm talking about!

 

The check-in took a little longer than normal.

 

We had to get new MagicBands, you know.

 

They didn't care that we already had them.

 

There was no time for us to customize this set, so we got the gray ones.

 

The CM told us that they wouldn't open the Comfort Stations or returning guest gate, so she gave us KTTW cards too.

 

As far as I could tell, our old MagicBands were still active, and I was able to make FP+ reservations with them.  We would find out soon if they still worked.

 

When the CM left to get our MB's I snapped a couple of photos:

 

 

 

You see that chart sitting there on the counter in that last photo?  That thing has lots of good information about the Fort on it.  I got a good look at one once.  I'd love to have a copy of it.

 

The CM came back with our MB's.

 

We were all set.

 

"Here's your map," she said.  "You're in site 2054."

 

"What?" I said.

 

I had requested the 1500 loop using every method known to man.  And some that aren't.

 

The only way I should be on the 2000 loop is if every site on 1500 was full.

 

I asked the CM to see if she could get me a site on 1500.

 

Without checking anything, she told me 1500 was full.

 

The Fort was sold out today, she told me.

 

She said sites are assigned on a first come first served basis.

 

I told her I've heard that before.

 

So, did that mean if there's an empty site on 1500, I could have it?

 

She said yes.

 

I told her I was going to check.

 

And I did.

 

There were three empty sites on 1500.  Clean and ready for the next guest.

 

I guess it's possible that somebody had checked in to those but not moved on to the site yet.

 

I decided I may as well take a look at 2054.  Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

 

It was.

 

The site across from it had four cars crammed in, and more tents than I could count.

 

The site next to it had two or three cars, and whatever space was not full of cars was full of golf carts and bikes.  And there were three or four tents.  The two sites appeared to be part of a group.  There were kids everywhere.   And a big smoky fire.  And big gallon sized liquor bottles sitting out on the picnic table.

 

I was not feeling it.

 

Look, I like to have fun and a drink as much as the next guy.

 

But, I don't want to be camping next to a wild group overflowing from their campsites.

 

Not cool.

 

I wasn't going to take this.

 

I drove back to the front.

 

I figured I needed to speak to somebody inside.

 

That lady in the check-in lane was nice, but she wasn't going to help me.

 

It was a zoo in the Reception Outpost.

 

Ugh.

 

But I waited.

 

I then had my turn.

 

The CM asked me what she could do for me.  I explained the situation as best I could, and said that if it's first come first served, I wanted one of the three open spots on 1500.  She tapped some stuff on her computer.  And frowned.  And picked up the phone and called whoever it is that they call in these situations.  She told me that 2054 was the only partial site available in all of the Fort.  I told her that there were a bunch of open sites on the 2000 loop and three on the 1500 loop, and there was no way I was going to camp next to that unruly group.  I asked her to get the manager out here.  I would take him to 2054 myself to show him.  More tapping.  Another phone call.  Then she said since there were no other partial sites to give me, they would upgrade me to a premium site.  No extra charge.

 

That's what I'm talking about!

 

She said I could have 1001.

 

I know that site.

 

If you've been to the Fort, you know it too.

 

It's right across from the Meadow Trading Post.  And right next to the bus stop, and just behind the 900/1000 Comfort Station.  Right in the middle of the action.  I knew it might be noisy, but I'll take bus noise over drunk A-hole noise anyday.

 

All of that took an hour.

 

But it was worth it.

 

What that meant, though, is that I had no time for set up.  I had to go to the MK with the girls because I was going to break down and buy my oldest DD an Annual Pass.  She hasn't had one for a while, since she's been away at school, but it looks like she might have time during Spring Break, the Summer and next Fall to visit, so it made sense to get her one.

 

Oh, I left something out.

 

The night before I left, I found someone I could borrow a cart from.  So, I didn't have to load the bikes!  That was great!

 

So, to review, we were on a premium site (but paying for a partial), had a cart, and it was now about 1:30.  Not bad.

 

But the weather.

 

No worries there, either.  As if by magic, the instant I backed the camper into our site, the clouds disappeared, and out came the sun and blue skies.

 

Here we are at the boat dock at 1:36 pm:

 

 

Beautiful:

 

 

We made note of the fact that something special would be going on tonight causing the boats to be shut down between 11:30 and 12:30:

 

 

We knew what that was all about.

 

They would be shooting of special fireworks at midnight tonight- the same show that they would be doing on New Year's Eve.  We planned to be in the MK to see that.

 

So, remember how the MK was closed?

 

That's for regular schmucks.

 

Not resort guests.

 

Or passholders.

 

We're both.

 

So, it's open for us.

 

And it wasn't even that busy.

 

Here's the entrance scanners as seen from the ticket window:

 

 

We got waited on almost right away.

 

And, just like that, we were in.

 

The only thing was I needed to link my oldest daughter's new pass with her MagicBand, and then see if we could add her to our FP+ reservations.  The lady who sold us the pass said she couldn't do that for us.  I needed to use the App or one of the kiosks in the park to do that.  Fine.  I would.

 

The twins had gone in ahead of us.  The plan was for them to go to Casey's and get us some lunch to go, which we would then eat on the Main St. curb, simultaneously saving seats for the 3:30 Christmas parade.

 

The thing is, I thought it would take us a lot longer to buy the pass, so they hadn't gotten out of Casey's yet.

 

And, it was crowded in the park:

 

 

 

I've seen worse.

 

I'm sure most of you have too.

 

The Christmas decorations were all still up:

 

 

And things felt festive:

 

 

The parade wasn't until 3:30, but folks were staking out places.  So did we:

 

 

Remember this is December 30th.  Other parts of the country were getting snow and ice.  This was just one week ago.  We chose to sit in the shade, because we were hot.  The folks across from us were in the sun, and they were roasting- and look- none of them have jackets:

 

 

There were three marching bands that came by before the parade started.

 

Three.

 

That must have been a blast for those kids.  They were all from out of state.  I remember one was from Wisconsin.  Another from Pennsylvania.  I don't remember where the third one was from.  The first band was really small:

 

 

The second band was much bigger, and they had sweet feather-dusters on their hats:

 

 

The lady right across from me sitting next to the trash can fell asleep:

 

 

She missed the last band, which also sported impressive feather-dusters:

 

 

 

The real parade would be here soon.

 

We ate our hot dogs and waited.

 

it was a little boring.

 

Hey, look- a bird eating popcorn:

 

 

But, it wasn't boring for long.

 

A great CM was entertaining the crowd with her hula hoop:

 

 

 

And the hula hooping wasn't the best part.

 

Nope.

 

The lady had some sweet dance moves.

 

So sweet that I videoed some.  Check her out:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOMUzSYrMBQ

 

So?

 

I have moves like that.

 

And the girls make fun of me.

 

Oh well.

 

I like how the lady dances too.

 

And she helped to pass the time.

 

In fact, it seemed like in no time at all the parade was upon us.

 

I'll have to share my photos of it in the next update, as we are at the dreaded photo limit.

 

First Page Bragging Rights are up for grabs.

 

Only one per customer please (I'm talking to you DIT and to you too DIT clones).

 

TCD

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

I am in. I was checking your pics to see if you caught us heading over to the Fort. I don't see us in them though. It was nice to finally meet you. 

[Beckers 1,136]

Second poster bragging rights!

[Mtnmanky...aka Leon 72]

did I make page 1?

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Page 1 hopefully.

[BigTom 76]

Did I get page 1?

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

Wow another report!

Thanks TCD I'm looking forward to reading it, I don't know when we'll be getting back so I'll live vicariously through your reports.

WBI

[Beckers 1,136]

Wow another report!

Thanks TCD I'm looking forward to reading it, I don't when we'll be getting back so I'll live vicariously through your reports.

WBI

Has the wannabe baby arrived yet?!?

[dvccamper 32]

Did I make page one?? I'm so excited, mark this date!!!

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Page one even though i have been outside half the day.....

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Well i guess its only been up an hour so.......

I'll go read it now.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Or maybe I'll just continue to post so Dave cant be on page one...

[fortpartyof4 108]

Happy New Year!

 

Did you notice in one of your subsequent traffic photos, the "hammerhead" (hilarious, btw) had only jumped a couple of spots ahead of you by breaking the law?  I think I saw him a few days later on 95…..or several of his relatives, the morons.

 

You were very wise not to take 2054.  Even my kids noticed how many tents, vehicles, golf carts, and people were crammed onto 2056.  And they were loud.

[dblr....Rennie 224]

Oh right page one!!!!!!!!!

[Memphis 105]

I'm in

[Mecha Geek 1]

Here

[sherryberry 35]

Yay! Another one!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Hi

[devores 382]

The CM with Hullahoop is Barbara. She is a legend among anyone who has worked MS. She is Walt reincarnated as a woman. She is a blast to work with and always has a smile on her face and dances around.

 

You can find her driving the MS vehicles, working the crowd prior to parades, and even dancing down the street before and after the parades.

 

Oh, and, Page 1?

[Grumpy and Grandma 739]

Here too!

[devores 382]

For more about Barbara,

 

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/04/magic-kingdom-park-cast-member-moves-shakes-and-celebrates-main-street-u-s-a-hostess-makes-guests-smile-and-loses-60-pounds-in-the-process/

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

I'm not reading this TR. I was there and I know what happens.

Just call me Lou Jr.

No please don't call me that.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

For more about Barbara,

 

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/04/magic-kingdom-park-cast-member-moves-shakes-and-celebrates-main-street-u-s-a-hostess-makes-guests-smile-and-loses-60-pounds-in-the-process/

 

I was trying to find that video. Good job. They show it as part of the new Magic Express video features.

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

Has the wannabe baby arrived yet?!?

 

He has, thanks for asking!  I just posted some pictures!

 

http://www.fortfiends.net/forum/topic/11840-meet-prince-william-wbi-is-a-proud-father/?p=326731

 

Congratulations to you too!  You had a new baby girl didn't you?  Congrats!!

 

WBI

[Beckers 1,136]

He has, thanks for asking! I just posted some pictures!

http://www.fortfiends.net/forum/topic/11840-meet-prince-william-wbi-is-a-proud-father/?p=326731

Congratulations to you too! You had a new baby girl didn't you? Congrats!!

WBI

I did! Some pics in here! http://www.fortfiends.net/forum/topic/11601-the-newest-fiend-is-here/

I was going to say maybe our kids could be pals until I saw your Go Saints! Eagles fan here lol