Strange Things

[mommy rainbo.....Bo 41]

I ma here, late but here.  I am trying to be a better Fiend but I 'm not very good at it lately, trying to do better, honest...lol  Glad I got here to read the strangeness.

[superloopers 2]

Good but strange trip report so far.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Happy Easter!

 

Looking forward to the morning Fort pics as usual.

 

It was a very Happy Easter for the TCD gang.  4/5 of us made it to Easter at the in-laws.

 

And, I have another day's worth of strange things photos to add on to this TR.

 

One of the old time Fiends posted a pic of Miss Sundee on Facebook recently....might have been BigDisneyDaddy.  Anyways, I think I only saw her in person once.  Yet another thing from Fort days of old that is gone.  

 

Miss Sundee left an indelible impression on the TCD gang.  She was the queen of the campfire for the first few years after I bought the TCD pop-up and we became Fort regulars.  She was a performer you'd remember.

 

Happy Easter to you too!

 

Thanks,  I hope you had a great Easter.

 

That was nice of the manager to give you FPs for your issue. I think you're right though, it's the answer for everything now.

I'm hoping your Saturday morning plans might involve a trip to the Fort!

 

It was a nice gesture- but that's all it was. Had the manager been doing her job when we arrived, she wouldn't have needed to give us extra FP+'s.  As it turned out, we didn't even get to use those extra FP+'s, as we were already plotting our escape from Epcot when I found out about them.

 

We did not make it to the Fort this past Saturday.  We did drive by it though.

 

This means we have an extra day that we can use to hijack the thread.  Enjoy your weekend.  :cheers:

 

Hijacking threads is a lost art around here.

 

Have a Happy Easter.

 

Where does one buy pickle and cotton ball trees?

 

LOL.  Pickle and cotton ball trees.  That is exactly what that thing was.

 

The riverboat in Fantasmic is currently being refurbished from what I have read in other places.

 

Somehow that announcement escaped me.  I think there were some other parts of the show that were different too.  It seemed like there was less stuff going on in the water.

 

Wow, when you titled this Strange Things, you weren't kidding.

 

Strawberry macaron feeding = very strange indeed!

 

I need to remember to ride the monorail through Epcot next month.  That's a great view of F&G and it'll be my very first time seeing it.  Seeing your photos is making me think much of my park time this trip may end up being at Epcot.  :)

 

Wow- I didn't realize you've never been to a Flower and Garden Festival. Then you absolutely must arrive by monorail at least once.

 

And do make time to travel all over the park- there are gardens and topiaries everywhere, and they always do a good job with them.

 

The outlets in our room at Port Orleans Riverside were the same way this past trip. Very aggravating, but fortunately we got charges each night.

 

I don't recall that being an issue at POR for us in the past.  It's annoying, and I know it's been that way at some of the All Stars for a long time.  You'd think Disney would fix it, but it must not be a cheap fix.

 

Does anyone else find it creepy that a cast member can "take a look at our mde account" and stalk us?!?!

Nice. But creepy.

 

That's a good point.  I wonder who has access to that information?

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I ma here, late but here.  I am trying to be a better Fiend but I 'm not very good at it lately, trying to do better, honest...lol  Glad I got here to read the strangeness.

 

I'm glad that you joined in!  Post when you can, and don't feel bad about it.

 

Good but strange trip report so far.

 

Glad you like it.

 

The strangeness isn't done.  There's more in the next update, which will be up this afternoon.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Let's move this strange trip report along.

 

We have arrived at the morning of Sunday, March 22, 2015.  We had been out late the night before, and would be checking out and heading home today.  The twins needed their beauty sleep.  There's no amount of sleep that will help me in that regard, so I set an early alarm, and headed to the Fort for some much needed Fort time.

 

If your days in the real world are anything like mine, they are filled with chaos, speed and noise.  I crave peace and quiet, but it's hard to find that out there, and it's in especially short supply at WDW.  But, I know where to find it.

 

I pulled in to the Fort just a bit past 7, and hopped a Settlement Orange Bus.  I exited at the 900/1000 loop bus stop, where I snapped this photo at 7:17 am.  It had been near 90 degrees yesterday, but it was a cool 70 degrees this morning as I began my walk.  As you can see, it was starting to get light out, but the sun had not yet risen:

 

 

I headed toward the Meadow Trading Post.  Any Fiend worth his salt knows it doesn't open until 8, but I like to be around there when it's calm and quiet.  There was a sign posted out front:

 

 

That sign was advertising the beach activities they were hosting this weekend.  I forgot to mention that we saw this stuff going on when we were on the Trail's End porch the night before.  It didn't look very well attended.  Maybe 10-15 participants tops while we were there.

 

Here's a closer look at the sign, in case you're curious:

 

 

There was only one rocking chair on the front porch.  The special wilderness music wasn't playing, and I had places to go and things to see, so I passed on the opportunity:

 

 

In case you want to keep track of the rocking chair inventory, there were just two rocking chairs on the back porch:

 

 

Bear Rock was swimming, and the fishing hole was relatively scum free this morning:

 

 

Hey, did you notice that strange bird there on the right on Bob's dock in that last photo?

 

This strange bird:

 

 

What's strange about him is that he's missing a foot.

 

And I've seen him hanging out at this dock more than I've seen Bob.

 

I'm going to name the bird one-foot Bob.

 

It's as much his dock now as it is two-foot Bob's.

 

Did you notice that there's a white truck parked across the fishing hole behind the canoes in that last photo?

 

We need to go and see what that's all about.

 

But first, enjoy this view of the back porch of the Meadow Trading Post. It's one of my favorite places at the Fort:

 

 

Today was the second official day of spring. These gum trees that steal bobbers are just starting to sprout leaves:

 

 

The big sycamore tree behind the Trading Post was well ahead of the gum trees this year, which is evidence of the very mild winter we enjoyed in Florida this year:

 

 

 

Here's a look at the canal from the bridge behind the Trading Post.  It's pretty scummy.  That's the pool on the left and the 1300 loop on the right:

 

 

This is a shot from the other side of the bridge, looking toward Bob's dock.  The trees have really filled in here, and you can't see the fishing hole or Bob's dock from here anymore:

 

 

I crossed the bridge, and headed to the pool.  I wanted to see that new self-serve drink machine that it took three months to install.  It's right behind this wall big wooden door I suppose:

 

 

Here's how the pool looks at sunrise.  Note the Pool Closed sign.  It wasn't long ago that the pool was open 24 hours a day.  But, those were the good old days:

 

 

All campers were obediently complying with the pool closed rule.  Chickens:

 

 

Here's a look across the fishing hole to the Meadow Trading Post and Bob's dock:

 

 

At the Bike Barn, they had a small flyer hanging up advertising the Beach Party activities that 15 people showed up for:

 

 

Now, here's something strange, someone put a piece of paper over the word Kayak on the sign:

 

 

I wonder why?

 

Hey, look, another Beach Party sign:

 

 

Now, this is strange- there was only one kayak on the beach.  Just this one:

 

 

The canoes were all there:

 

 

So what happened to the kayaks?

 

Apparently, they had at least temporarily stopped renting them.

 

But I don't know anything more about that.

 

It is strange though.

 

Remember that white truck we saw earlier?

 

There were a bunch of guys working on the golf cart parking area.  And it wasn't even 7:30 am yet.  Strange:

 

 

Squirrel!:

 

 

The campfire area was nice and peaceful.  I'm sure it wasn't this peaceful the night before:

 

 

I call this photo Sunrise over the Swamp behind the Chuckwagon:

 

 

Too bad I was on foot this morning.  I could have had free golf cart access to and from the 1400 loop while those guys were shoveling sand in the golf cart parking area:

 

 

These cypress trees on the 1400 loop were about to sprout their leaves after our short and mild winter:

 

 

This photo is called Sunrise over the Swamp across from the 1400 loop:

 

 

Here's a look at the 1400 loop bus stop.  Empty and quiet.  For now, anyway:

 

 

In case you haven't guessed, we are heading toward the 300 loop, where I will be heading in the front and out the back for a visit to the BABH and my favorite spot.

 

We will take a look at those photos in the next update.

 

TCD

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

Ahhhh quiet, peaceful and relaxing that was nice. Time for me to head to work. It's raining here which means no playground time for my PreK and K students. So the peacefulness you provided is very welcome.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Ahhhh quiet, peaceful and relaxing that was nice. Time for me to head to work. It's raining here which means no playground time for my PreK and K students. So the peacefulness you provided is very welcome.

 

Oh boy.  Sounds bad.

 

I'd better post some more peaceful photos.

 

Please stand by.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

It looks like I can give you a double dose of peacefulness today, so here goes.

 

We left off heading away from the 1400 loop and toward the 300 loop. This is the canal as seen from the bridge- the 1400 loop is on the left, and the 500 on the right.  It's rare that this canal would be clearer than the canal behind the 1300 loop, but today, for some strange reason, it was:

 

 

There's the 300 loop playground:

 

 

Note that the big sycamore tree here is still leafless, which to me qualifies as a strange thing:

 

 

If you look carefully, you can see that a hawk is perched on the fence post near the middle of this photo:

 

 

The time stamp on this photo tells me that it was taken at 7:33 am on this Sunday morning. So, what the Fort was that guy doing sitting on one of the picnic tables in the dog park, with no dog?:

 

 

Now, we're heading in to the 300 loop:

 

 

Had I wanted to, I could have hopped a bus to the Settlement here, but why would I want to do that?:

 

 

I don't remember why I took this photo, but here's the path that leads to the 300 loop comfort station:

 

 

As I walked through the first part of the loop, I was surprised to see several campers up and about, and I was passed by two golf carts.  One of which was blasting loud music.  Normally, I would see very few, if any, folks about this early in the morning.  Today, I had already seen a bunch.  Strange.

 

Here we are out back of the 300 loop, and there's the BABH there:

 

 

If you are a connoisseur of TCD TR's, you probably expected that first photo out back of the 300 loop to be looking the other way down the canal toward the Abomination.  But, today, I had to go the other way, up toward the bridge:

 

 

The reason I had to go this way is that D-Bag who was blasting the music on his golf cart at just past 7:30 am had just beaten me out here to the canal, and was fixing to do a little fishin' with his old lady and bratty kid.  He drove his cart right past the "No Carts Beyond The Point" sign, right up to the canal:

 

 

I figured if I walked down that way to take a photo of the Abomination, I might have to talk to the D-Bag and his nice little family.  And hear his poor choice of country music.  And, I wasn't feeling any of that this morning.  That isn't what I came here for.  So I walked as quickly as I could away from that mess.

 

Here we are on the bridge behind the 300 loop, gazing at the canal that travels behind the 100 and 200 loops.  It is also noticeably less scummy than usual.  Another strange thing:

 

 

Uh-oh.  It's one of those leprosy carriers there sneaking into the brush:

 

 

There's the Big A** Bat House (BABH).  It's hard to believe it's been here for over a year now:

 

 

You can't see it very well in this photo, but the water level on the Bay Lake side of the dam was higher than the water level on the canal side. The dam was leaking, and water was trickling back into the canal.  So much for all that work they did here last year:

 

 

The canal was looking pretty this morning:

 

 

There was a strange situation going on with the locks on the gate blocking access to the old cabin and Wilderness Swamp Trail:

 

 

Look- the Disney Pest Control Lock has been cut:

 

 

The other lock hadn't been cut, though, so this was as close as I could get to the BABH.  I couldn't see or smell any evidence of any bats actually occupying the BABH:

 

 

Oh well, no BABH news.

 

But, there's my favorite spot in all of WDW right over there:

 

 

It was a little muddy back here today:

 

 

It wasn't as clear as I would have liked it to be this morning, but it was still a very pretty day, so I'll take it:

 

 

 

There were a couple of more fishermen back here:

 

 

It's getting to the point that you have to look for the old cabin in order to see it.  With the fence situation on the bridge, I wonder if it's even used for anything now:

 

 

Now we're heading toward the Settlement Trading Post on the pedestrian path.  That tent you see over there is on a site on the 300 loop:

 

 

Here's another one of my favorite places at the Fort, and I'm here at my favorite time of day.  I almost always will see several deer along this path first thing in the morning:

 

 

I didn't see any deer today, and it was pretty evident that I was not the first to pass this way today.  The view was still nice:

 

 

Geez.  Look at this.  A dad and a kid out riding bikes.  At 7:50 am.  Strange:

 

 

I continued on to the area where they were planning to build the new dining pavilion.  As always, there are no signs of anything happening around here:

 

 

And this is where we must stop this update, as we have arrived at the photo limit.

 

Next up, we'll take a peek at the rotting wagon behind the Settlement Trading Post, and set a spell on the Trail's End porch.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

There's nothing else like early morning peacefulness at the fort!

[keith_h 420]

The time stamp on this photo tells me that it was taken at 7:33 am on this Sunday morning. So, what the Fort was that guy doing sitting on one of the picnic tables in the dog park, with no dog?:

 

Maybe he wanted to see it before it went to the dogs (sorry couldn't help myself).

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

There's nothing else like early morning peacefulness at the fort!

 

Amen to that.

 

Maybe he wanted to see it before it went to the dogs (sorry couldn't help myself).

 

That was so corny you earned an up arrow for it.  That was almost a HDDR quality pun.  Almost.

 

TCD

[ependydad...Doug 176]

This is pretty neat stuff- I'd love to explore more of the fort. :)

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

This is pretty neat stuff- I'd love to explore more of the fort. :)

 

Well, I hope that you do the next time you're there.  Nobody's going to stop you.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Let's wrap up our early morning walkabout at the Fort.

 

We left off here at the clearing behind the Settlement Trading Post.  Nothing to see here:

 

 

If they ever do go forward with building a new dining pavilion here, I am afraid some of these beautiful towering trees will be leveled.  And that would be a shame.  I believe that Walt and Roy once gazed upon this very same trees:

 

 

Hey, looky here- someone left the gate open behind the trading post.  I suspect it was the Doritos guy:

 

 

I know that some of you might be wondering if anything is going on with the covered wagon that has been rotting behind the trading post for going on two years now.  The answer is nope- still just sitting there rotting:

 

 

I can't think of anywhere else in all of WDW where there is such inept management of resources:

 

 

I mean, come on.  That wagon needs a new canvas roof.  There are canvas places all up and down each coast of Florida, and

 

Squirrel!:

 

 

 

Where were we?

 

Oh yeah, idiot managers.

 

But, I may be too harsh in my assessment.  After all, someone came up with the genius idea of telling the landscapers to allow the bushes around where the wagon used to be to grow higher.  Maybe that way no one will see the space where the wagon is supposed to be and wonder about it:

 

 

But, you can still see the spot where the wagon belongs, and they still light up the spotlights to highlight the empty space every evening:

 

 

Ah, there's Pioneer Hall.  One of the most beautiful buildings in all of WDW:

 

 

Our little walk took a while.  It's 7:55 now, and there are actual customers here now:

 

 

I popped in the take-out window to see if there was anything new on the takeout menu and to get a cup of coffee.  There were lots of guests walking from the bus stop to the marina.  This is also not normal for a Sunday:

 

 

There were plenty of rocking chairs available, though:

 

 

We had just been here last night, and had to eat our GAG on one of those crappy high top tables down there, as both of the remaining picnic tables were occupied by people waiting for the HDDR:

 

 

There were more rocking chairs around the corner, but the front row seats were occupied:

 

 

I grabbed a rocking chair, and rocked for a bit.  I was thinking about what else I ought to take a photo of while I was here at the Fort, when I remembered something that I meant to take a photo of the day before.  I also meant to mention this at the appropriate time in the report, but since I took the photo out of sequence, I forgot.  So, I will mention it now. 

 

The day before, when we were heading down Main Street, we ran right in to the Mayor.  We said hello, and he struck up a conversation with us. We chatted for a while, and then said our goodbyes.  As we were leaving, the Mayor told me to hold on, as he had something to give me.  He reached in to his pocket, and handed me a card.  He told me that he wanted me to know that this was a special card, and that I could present it at any attraction where it would allow us to get on the end of any line.  LOL.  He delivered this line perfectly, and we all stood there for a moment processing what he had just said.  Well, at least I have this card to show:

 

 

As I rocked, I enjoyed the view of the space where the River Country wagon is supposed to be.  That's been gone a long time now, but they still maintain the space.  It would really be something if it ever shows back up.  Also, if you look, you can see that there was a family actually playing on the playground at 8 am.  Which is quite strange:

 

 

The crepe myrtle trees in the fenced in area in the middle of the Settlement had not sprouted leaves yet as of a couple of weeks ago.  I'll bet they have by now:

 

 

I headed out via the porch exit by the arcade.  Which gave me this view of the road to River Country.  I didn't feel like walking down there today, so I didn't:

 

 

I've mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again- I love the fact that no matter what time of year it is, you can find flowers blooming somewhere in the Fort.  For example, there's a camellia bush right over there with a lot of blooms:

 

 

When I took this photo, some of you reading this could look out your window and see snow on the ground.  But, here at the Fort, something is always in bloom:

 

 

There seemed to be a pretty good-sized group of guests waiting for the boat to the MK.  This may have been the first boat to show up.  It was 8:17 when I took this photo- you can see the boat heading toward the dock through the trees:

 

 

This was fun, but it was time for me to head on out.  I needed to get back to All Star Movies to get the girls going.

 

I headed down my favorite path to get to the bus stop:

 

 

Wow, one of my favorite spots on the 100 loop was open, and the loop attendant was already cleaning it for the next guests.  I wish it was me who would be arriving there:

 

 

From here, I hopped a bus to the Outpost, and headed back to All Star Movies.  I got the girls up, and we had a nice breakfast at the food court there. It cost half as much as the meal we ate at Be Our Guest the day before, and the food was better.

 

The girls then headed north to Gainesville, and I headed west to home.

 

It was a strange, but fun little visit.

 

And that would be the end of this strange trip report too.

 

But, we paid a quick visit to the MK the day before Easter this past weekend.   Which is a pretty bad time to visit.

 

But it wasn't bad at all.

 

And I have something nice to say about FP+ as a result (and me saying something nice about FP+ may be the strangest thing in this entire strange trip report).

 

I'll be posting some photos from that trip next.

 

TCD

[lklasing 16]

Good updates.  Definitely looking forward to hearing what you have to say about FP+!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I'm betting you're the only Fiend to ever receive a card from the Mayor.

 

I also love that something is always blooming at the Fort.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

It always makes me sad to see that wagon rotting back there....and for two weeks over Christmas break I could see it directly from the back of my site.  

 

I wonder where the old RC wagon is now?  INC witnessed it being removed from it's spot on March 18, 2010....so that old girl has been gone for 5 years now.  

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Good updates.  Definitely looking forward to hearing what you have to say about FP+!

 

I'll say one nice thing in the next update.

 

I'm betting you're the only Fiend to ever receive a card from the Mayor.

 

I also love that something is always blooming at the Fort.

 

Maybe you're right.  In which case, I claim FFTRACFTMOMSBR (First Fiend to Receive a Card from the Mayor of Main Street Bragging Rights.

 

 

It always makes me sad to see that wagon rotting back there....and for two weeks over Christmas break I could see it directly from the back of my site.  

 

I wonder where the old RC wagon is now?  INC witnessed it being removed from it's spot on March 18, 2010....so that old girl has been gone for 5 years now.  

 

Has it been five years?  I've lost track.

 

I came to the conclusion awhile ago that they swiped that wagon to use as a prop in the new DVC that they were all hot and heavy to build back then.

 

I still think the DVC is going to happen some day, but I'm not sure if it will have a River Country theme, or if we will ever see that wagon again.

 

Idiots.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

OK, here we go- these photos are almost catching up with us.  This batch is from Saturday, April 4- just three days ago.  That's pretty fresh!

 

It was Easter this past weekend.  Last Easter, we rented a place up at Seaside in the panhandle, and the girls came to us-even our Auburn daughter, as Seaside is much closer to Auburn than our home is. 

 

This year, we didn't do that.  The oldest DD had to work on Good Friday, and had to be back early Monday morning for something, and I found a good last minute deal on a rental last year, and had no such luck this year.

 

So, we decided to stay home for Easter.

 

The twins do not have classes on Friday, so they drove home Friday.  There was some talk about hitting a beach on Saturday, but, like it often does, our conversation drifted to WDW and a couple of things we wanted to see there- namely the Easter pre-parade, and Trader Sam's Grog Grotto.  So, the plans shifted in that direction.

 

It just so happened that I had hopped on My Disney Experience on Thursday to see about this 4th FP+ experiment they were doing at the MK (and maybe other parks) these past few days.  Sure enough, after I picked three FP+'s, they randomly gave me a 4th, which I was allowed to change to something else.  This made for an interesting math problem as there would be three of us going, but I could still schedule FP+'s for my oldest DD, even though she couldn't make this trip.  4 x 4 is 16.  Which meant that I now had enough FP+ choices to make 5 groups of 3, with one left over.  And, that's what I did.  That meant the 3 of us ended up with 5 FP+ reservations for one of the busiest days of the year.  All before leaving home.  That's good.  And, with a bit of effort and moving things around, I was able to get us Mine Train and Wishes FP+'s.  Since this would just be a day trip, and we knew it would be busy, we didn't plan to park hop, and we planned to just be in the MK for the parade and then to use our FP+ reservations before bugging out.

 

That meant we could take our time leaving.  We headed east around 11:30, with hopes of being at the MK by 2 pm to find a prime shady spot on Main Street for the 3 pm parade.

 

If you've been to WDW on a busy day, you know that traffic can back up at the MK parking lot booths for miles.  I didn't want to chance that, so we decided to have lunch at Port Orleans French Quarter.   Surprisingly, it was not very busy there at all.  There were lots and lots of empty spaces in the parking lot.  Which made me feel better about the fact that we left the car there instead of driving to the MK.

 

The buses from Port Orleans take you past the Four Seasons and then the Fort.

 

Here's the sign for the Fort's closest neighbor- the Tranquilo Golf Course:

 

 

I took this photo to document the fact that the signs saying "Authorized Service Vehicles Only" are still posted on the driveway that some Fiends drive down to use the back gate for access to the Fort.  In so doing, they are breaking the rules, which I can never bring myself to do:

 

 

The overflow lot didn't look too bad at all-there are actually open spaces in there:

 

 

Over at check-in was another story.  All of these trailers are lined up at the check-in lanes:

 

 

No worries though, there was a group of CM's goofing off at the ready to speed up the check-in process:

 

 

It looked pretty bad from where I was:

 

 

There was a good long line at the guard shack too:

 

 

Something was going down at the Fort entrance, but I was on a speeding bus on my way to the MK, and had no way to find out what:

 

 

The last time we were by this way, we saw that they had the partially built new towers that are going to be installed near the castle stored back here.  Today, what we saw last time was gone, but it looked like there was something cylindrical hiding back here:

 

 

Look:

 

 

When we got to the MK, I made a quick stop in guest services to drop off one of the twin's phones to be charged, and they went looking for Twin #2's DCP roommate, who had the morning off and was going to watch FOF with us.

 

I started heading down Main Street at 2:07, and was about to claim some spots here across from the jewelry store (notice that the scrim is finally down), but then saw the girls had already found a good shady spot further down the street:

 

 

Twin #2's former roommate was enjoying a Starbucks iced tea of some variety, and I volunteered to fetch a couple for the twins.  I hate to give money to that Evil Cartel, but the inside of that store is air conditioned, and I wanted to stand in there for as long as possible rather than sitting out on the curb waiting for the parade.

 

So, here I am inside the Main Street Starbucks at 2:15 pm:

 

 

I don't know how many of you frequent these establishments, but they provide a prime example of the utter decay of our society and the lack of manners and common sense that permeate our modern lives.  It's a pretty simple process- you order and pay at the cash registers, where the employee asks your name and writes it on an empty cup which will eventually hold your drinks, and then there's a pick up area where an employee will call out your name when your drink is ready to be picked up.  Simple, right?

 

But, that doesn't stop people who just ordered from standing in front of the pick up counter blocking anyone else, particularly those who ordered before them and whose drinks will be ready before theirs, from getting to the counter.  Like these nimrods:

 

 

Seriously, how can people be that dumb?

 

Anyway, I enjoyed the nice wait for my drinks to be prepared, and then headed out of the AC and into the early April heat.  It was easily in the mid 80's, but we did have a spot in the shade, which helped tremendously.

 

I took this shot from where I sat, looking across the street- I wanted to get photos of the windows before the parade came so I could take a photo later if any of the windows magically slid open:

 

 

I took this shot of the windows behind me- they were all closed at the time.  Remember that:

 

 

There was a guy just down the street from us with a t-shirt that said "Mobile Azalea Trail":

 

 

A closer look in case you can't read that:

 

 

What's a mobile azalea trail?  I thought I had heard something about an azalea trail before, but how could it be mobile?

 

And why does that shirt have a mouse head on it?

 

That puzzled me for a while.

 

Then I received and answer.

 

Which I will share with you at the appropriate time.

 

We had a bit more to wait, but I don't mind as long as I'm in the shade.  To me, it's worth it to find a good spot early and wait for the parade.  Especially on Main Street, as there is plenty of people watching available.

 

For example, here comes a real housewife with a VIP Tour Guide pushing her precious snowflake in her giant stroller.  This lady must be someone, but I don't know who.  Maybe Brittany Spears?:

 

 

And then there was this snazzy dresser.  He's a Castmember- and the Castmembers with those trash-picker-upper things are managers.  And this guy also had a blue legacy name tag, which means he's a big deal.  But he must get dressed in the dark:

 

 

The windows across from us never opened, but at 2:57 pm, I heard some parade music and turned around to see this:

 

 

That window behind us wasn't open earlier.  Who opened it?

 

At 2:58, the Easter pre-parade reached us here at Main Street:

 

 

Cool- hippopotami and ostriches.  You don't see that very often at the MK:

 

 

These hippos had bad manners, though- they were littering their whole way down Main Street:

 

 

Just look at the mess they're making:

 

 

These ostrich costumes are quite strange:

 

 

The hippos got up close and personal:

 

 

Then came Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny:

 

 

 

I thought it was nice of them to include the missus.  You don't hear much about her.

 

Then came strange butterflies and flowers:

 

 

 

Those butterfly costumes are quite something.

 

We will some more of those in the next update.

 

And then a bunch more Easter pre-parade photos.

 

TCD

[red...Susan 37]

The Easter parade pictures are neat. Tokyo disney does a long Easter celebration. Several weeks long. I was surprised that they did Easter there at all.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Easter pre-parade photos?  Does that mean the parade is Easter-related?

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Please post a picture of your Starbucks receipt to prove that you purchased 2 drinks, not 3.  

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

Excellent updates.

The Fort pics were great as usual.

I am enjoying the pre-parade pics as well.

I havent been to WDW at Easter since I was a wee lad. I do believe their were hippos of some kind in the old parade pics I posted not long ago though.

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

Hippos then and now:

 

Just look at the mess they're making:

 

 

TCD

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

 

And I have something nice to say about FP+ as a result (and me saying something nice about FP+ may be the strangest thing in this entire strange trip report).

 

This is officially the strangest TR. EVAH.

 

For example, here comes a real housewife with a VIP Tour Guide pushing her precious snowflake in her giant stroller.  This lady must be someone, but I don't know who.  Maybe Brittany Spears?:

 

 

So... do you have to sign a special waiver to absolve the CM of any responsibility should he "accidentally" get the stroller stuck in one of the rail tracks in Main Street and dump your snowflake on the pavement?  Seriously... when did "pushing your stroller" become part of VIP services?