twiceblessed....nacole 433 Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 Tell David he needs to sit outside with you!!! I had almost forgot how pretty the Christmas decorations were... love those pics. The barn, my happy place. I'm one of those few people, who'll walk into a horse barn and actually inhale. Yes... I love the smell. Love everything about those animals. Great pics! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
momof3kids-Yvonne 594 Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 Love the picture of you and David meeting Mickey...the smiles on your faces: awesome!!Oh, and the chicken recipe. ..thanks again for that, it was really good! !Those are my favorite pictures from this trip report. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
momof3kids-Yvonne 594 Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 The one thing I notice on these longer trips you are taking is that as the time goes on David seems to relax more. Steve is like that. I think initially it is so hard for them to go from work to vacation mode. But once they get there it is great to see the weight lifted off their shoulders. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 Wow I really like the close up of Walt with a blurred castle in the background. I have never taken time to focus on his expression. The horse picture made me laugh out loud, great job. Glad I made you laugh! Tell David he needs to sit outside with you!!! I had almost forgot how pretty the Christmas decorations were... love those pics. The barn, my happy place. I'm one of those few people, who'll walk into a horse barn and actually inhale. Yes... I love the smell. Love everything about those animals. Great pics! David would rather sit inside watching the news. But he did really enjoy the horse barn. The one thing I notice on these longer trips you are taking is that as the time goes on David seems to relax more. Steve is like that. I think initially it is so hard for them to go from work to vacation mode. But once they get there it is great to see the weight lifted off their shoulders. You're right! I hadn't thought about that. But since he only works part-time, I don't think it's because of leaving work mode. He's usually exhausted by the time we finally get there, and it takes him awhile to recuperate. The last couple of trips have been especially hard on him since my arthritis has gotten so bad. I pack stuff in the house, but he has to do all the carrying up and down the stairs. And this trip he spent the first few weeks fuming over the fact that he couldn't get Fox News or the Golf Channel on TV. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Thursday, November 19 -- Time to Celebrate! This was my birthday, so I wore my ears and button. This is my idea of a selfie: We had big plans for later in the day, and David again wanted to get out. So we left the fort. And where did we end up for breakfast? Of all places! But I agreed because I was looking forward to a delicious lunch at a place we'd never been. We drove awhile and checked out Lake Magic before going to DHS and getting entertained by the locals. And, since it was my birthday, he agreed to see Beauty and the Beast with me. After it was over, David said that's the best production show at WDW. I was shocked! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Our next stop was Star Tours. I think our host must have worked as a Jungle Cruise skipper at one time. He dished out a bunch of corny jokes. We had a different ending this time. It turns out they have 11 different films. I had no idea. Finally it was time for our late lunch/early dinner. Where did I pick? We were seated in about ten minutes at 2:05. I ordered a Derby Margarita, and it and our bread came out in just a few minutes. Then about 2:30 the waiter took our order. At 3:00 our cobb salad finally arrived. The salad was really good, although not quite what I expected. Around 3:30 our entrees finally arrived. David had the Grilled Wagyu Beef Burger with Gruyere Cheese, Pastrami, Heirloom Tomato, Avacoda, Fried Egg, on Toasted Brioche with Cognac Mustard Aioli and Steak Fries ($22). He said it was really good, but it was so big that he couldn't begin to eat all of it. Meanwhile I had the Lamb Two Ways --- Grilled Lamb Chop, Slow-Roasted Shredded Lamb Shank, Apple-Balsamic Sauce, and Butternut Squash Risotto ($42). It was a dish worth of the Food Network before the waiter quickly poured the au jus over it. Oh my, it was delicious! I ate every bite. After we finished our meal (and another long wait), our waiter brought me a dish of chef-made sugar free raspberry sorbet to celebrate my birthday. It was so much better than what I get on Main Street! The entire meal took 2.5 hours. We weren't happy with that. We were really disappointed in the kitchen service. Our table was tiny for two people and was crammed too close against other tables -- maybe 18" in between tables. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the best), we rated HBD as this: Atmosphere 3 Service (from kitchen) 2 Waiter 7 Food 9 Overall value 6 We are very happy that we finally ate here. But we probably won't go back. Maybe to the outdoor lounge. Turned in the rental car and got a ride back to the Fort. By then it was raining. We took Kassie for a buggy ride and took pics up in the Settlement area. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie 119 Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Mercy David is surprising the socks off you..and the rest of us, go figure. I like your birthday ears as well. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Happy belated birthday. That slow service at the Brown Derby would have driven me nuts. If Disney is going to charge premium prices the food and the service needs to be premium too. I'm glad at least the food was good. TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 Mercy David is surprising the socks off you..and the rest of us, go figure. I like your birthday ears as well. Yes, he does surprise me every once in awhile! I've had those birthday ears since 2009, and I wear them every birthday. Even if I'm just sitting at home. Happy belated birthday. That slow service at the Brown Derby would have driven me nuts. If Disney is going to charge premium prices the food and the service needs to be premium too. I'm glad at least the food was good. TCD It drove us nuts too. And the restaurant wasn't even full. I can't imagine how bad it would have been had they been slammed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 Friday, November 20 I woke up thinking about in only three days we would have to leave the Fort. The month flew by all too quickly! After a trip to the laundry and cooking breakfast, we went to MK. First up was Peter Pan's Flight. And now I'm gonna show you some picture fails. No matter what settings or equipment I use, I just can't get decent pics in here. And next was another trip on 7DMT. Then another trip through the Haunted Mansion. We headed back down Main Street and back to Dolly to start packing up. By that point our big awning was dry, so we retracted it. Moved our soggy rugs around to try and dry them out ... anything else we could do to keep our "packup" things dry. We went to TE for dinner again and were disappointed in our meal. The fried chicken was dry and stringy. There was no pulled pork or watermelon salad. I ate way too many carbs. After dinner we took Kassie looping for awhile. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 Saturday, November 21 Rain was predicted to arrive later in the day, so we had breakfast bars and started packing away more things that couldn't get wet. Eventually we went over to EPCOT, hoping to see their Christmas decorations that weren't up on our last visit. We took the boat to the MK. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2016 I tried to post an update, but something wacky is happening with my pictures. Sorry. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 This is a test. And it didn't work again. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Trying another way ... It worked! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2016 Saturday, November 21 Rain was predicted to arrive later in the day, so we had breakfast bars and started packing away more things that couldn't get wet. Eventually we went over to EPCOT, hoping to see their Christmas decorations that weren't up on our last visit. We took the boat to the MK. Then we rode the monorail over to EPCOT. Total travel time? 40 minutes. Twice that of driving but half that of our last bus trip. We rode Spaceship Earth one last time and then went part of the way around the World Showcase. Our first stop was Mexico. The performers sang "Happy Birthday" to me and three others. Other than the American Adventure, which is always awesome, my favorite decorations were in Norway. I got a great deal on a jacket there: Then it was time for our ADR, so we made our way back to Canada. We split a romaine salad, which was really good. We also split the cheese soup, which didn't taste at all like cheese. It was just okay. Then we split the filet mignon, which was great as usual. David had the risotto, and I had a side of green beans. Both were severely undercooked. The risotto was hard, and the green beans were so leathery I could barely chew them. After we finished our meal, the server brought me maple creme brulee. And then we went around the rest of WS. We took a bus back to the Fort (30 minutes). I hadn't anticipated being out so late and didn't bring the light for my scooter. It was really hard to see the sidewalk. After we fed Kassie, we all took a buggy ride. Rain started about 8:30. It was nice going to sleep hearing it hit the roof. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 Sunday, November 22 -- Part 1 Only one more day to enjoy WDW. Actually just part of the day since we had so much to do getting ready to leave the next morning. I thought about all things we hadn't had time to do. It just didn't seem possible that four weeks had flown by. In some ways it felt like we had been there forever, but in other ways it seemed like we had just arrived. We had a last breakfast at Trail's End. The front porch was bare, as it had been during the entire trip. The buffet had been condensed, I guess in anticipation of the arriving holiday crowd. There was a divider in the center: The food was basically the same on each side, so they significantly cut down the number of different items they were serving. After breakfast we took Kassie on a buggy ride. We ran across this unique RV. I'd heard about them but never actually seen one. Our tradition is to always spend our last day in the MagicKingdom, so we hopped on a boat. The shoe tree had a lot more shoes on it than the day we arrived. Whoa! Did you catch anything odd in those RC pictures? I didn't see them either the first few times I saw the pics. Let's look at them again! What's going on? Why are all those telescopic booms in River Country? The Magic Kingdom was busy. Thankfully we had FP+s for some of our favorites. First up was POTC. Next was BTMRR. We walked up to Peter Pan's Flight to give David one last time on his favorite ride. And walked back to Main Street to have one last PP photo taken. We walked through New Fantasyland and over to Tomorrowland. To be continued ... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
momof3kids-Yvonne 594 Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 Has David always been a WDW fan? What else besides the Peter Pan ride does he like there (parks or non parks)? Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 It's pretty cool that you were at the Fort for four weeks and still felt like you hadn't done all that you wanted to. Where else could you say that? That stinks that that the cut down on the offerings at the buffet. I'm sure they didn't cut down on the price. Nice job with the River Country photos. I wonder what they were doing in there? Your Big Thunder Mountain photos are awesome. TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 3 minutes ago, momof3kids-Yvonne said: Has David always been a WDW fan? What else besides the Peter Pan ride does he like there (parks or non parks)? Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Yes, David has always been a huge WDW fan! Sometimes I think he's an even bigger fan than I am, if that's possible. He likes everything except the thrill rides. 3 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said: It's pretty cool that you were at the Fort for four weeks and still felt like you hadn't done all that you wanted to. Where else could you say that? That stinks that that the cut down on the offerings at the buffet. I'm sure they didn't cut down on the price. Nice job with the River Country photos. I wonder what they were doing in there? Your Big Thunder Mountain photos are awesome. TCD Part of the reason that we didn't get to do everything we wanted was that we spent so much time with family and taking care of Kassie. I'll be anxious to see if you can see more of what's going on at RC during your next trip! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 Sunday, November 22 -- Part 2 I ran across this banana flower. Not sure if I've ever seen one before. We decided to ride the train around the park. We were trying to get back to the Fort before the rain hit. Our awnings should have been dry enough to put away. But we got to the boat dock just as the bottom fell out. So everything got soaked again. We took Kassie for a short buggy ride after the rain stopped and then put DeeDee's traveling "hairnet" on her. Had leftovers for dinner and then went back to MK to say goodbye. Have you ever seen a ferry crossing over the water bridge? And especially with a monorail over it? We got to MK just as the castle lighting ceremony was ending. We were sitting under the ice cream parlor awning stuffing our faces when the MSEP started, so we got to see the top half of the floats over tons of people in front of us. I was so disappointed! Where was the Pete's Dragon float? MK was unbelievably crowded, so we waited awhile for the crowd to dissipate before we headed out. Fireworks started just as our boat pulled away from the dock. The boat was running ahead of schedule, so the captain let us stop and watch the fireworks between the Contemporary and BLT. Maybe it's just us, but we both thought the fireworks and MSEP were lacking over a few years ago. We spent awhile packing things away for the next morning and then called it a night. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cortezcapt (Derek) 156 Posted January 28, 2016 Report Share Posted January 28, 2016 Wow that's an amazing picture of the castle with the reflection on the water very beautiful! I like to think I can take pictures like yours but they never seem to turn out the way I see or think they should ? Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fladogfan aka Gretchen 259 Posted January 29, 2016 Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 Gwen, thank you for writing this trip report. I'm all the way up to page three but wanted to say thanks. Your TPs are so full of photos that they are lots of fun to read. I feel bad I never got to the fort while so many fiends were there, but problems and life get in the way sometimes. OK, back to pg3. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted January 29, 2016 Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 Nice banana flower photo. I can't believe you've never seen one before. I have a bunch of banana trees in my back yard. Did you see this one in the MK? I would imagine that was somewhere in Adventureland, but I don't recall seeing any banana trees around there. TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ependydad...Doug 176 Posted January 29, 2016 Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 I love reading your trip reports. You guys have so much fun and the pictures are always amazing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2016 20 hours ago, Cortezcapt (Derek) said: Wow that's an amazing picture of the castle with the reflection on the water very beautiful! I like to think I can take pictures like yours but they never seem to turn out the way I see or think they should ? Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk Thank you, Derek! 3 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said: Gwen, thank you for writing this trip report. I'm all the way up to page three but wanted to say thanks. Your TPs are so full of photos that they are lots of fun to read. I feel bad I never got to the fort while so many fiends were there, but problems and life get in the way sometimes. OK, back to pg3. Gretchen, thanks for reading along. I was disappointed we couldn't get together over Halloween, but I understand. 3 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said: Nice banana flower photo. I can't believe you've never seen one before. I have a bunch of banana trees in my back yard. Did you see this one in the MK? I would imagine that was somewhere in Adventureland, but I don't recall seeing any banana trees around there. TCD Thanks. The climate here in NC isn't exactly conducive to growing banana trees. That one was in the smoking area near the bridge to enter Adventureland. 3 minutes ago, ependydad...Doug said: I love reading your trip reports. You guys have so much fun and the pictures are always amazing. Thank you, Doug! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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