Twenty One!: The TCD Twins' 21st Birthday Jamboree at the Fort

[mmfancipher 31]

First Page again!!! Unbelievable!

 

[mmfancipher 31]

Darn! missed it by one!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

22 hours ago, shoreline99 said:

In! Happy Birthday to the twins!

 

Love the Territory Lounge. Pork Nachos and curly fries there are awesome too.

Congrats on #1 bragging rights.

Thanks for the tip on the pork nachos and curly fries.

21 hours ago, mouseketab.....Carol said:

Wow, what a nice start to what looks to be an EPIC weekend!

EPIC is right!  Just you wait and see!

21 hours ago, dblr....Rennie said:

I'm in also and give a big Happy 21st Birthday to the twins, my youngest just turned 21 in April, boy that was fast.

Happy birthday to your youngest.  The twins are my youngest too.

20 hours ago, parrothead7368 aka Norm said:

So did you get one of the special cabins in the 100 Loop??

Happy Birthday to the Twins and yes I unfortunately remember my 21st birthday even after 10 tequila double shots.

Yes, we did!  Good eye!

Your 21st sounds like my 18th.  Only my poison of choice was peppermint schnapps.  I still gag when I smell it today. Gosh I was dumb.

20 hours ago, wendinator said:

This might be my only chance to get in on the first page. Looking forward to the rest of the report and insanely jealous of a 21st birthday celebration weekend at the Fort.

You made it in on page one!  Congrats!

19 hours ago, FEARtheEERS said:

Love it!  We are going to stay in a cabin this summer too....Happy Birthday to your daughters!

I hope you get a refurbished cabin and enjoy it as much as we did.

19 hours ago, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said:

I'm in too!  Happy birthday to the twins!

Back in my day, 21 was a big deal.  It was the legal age for drinking and voting.

I guess I was lucky- I got to vote and drink at 18.  Had to register for Selective Service too, but I never heard anything back from them.

18 hours ago, Beckers said:

Happy birthday twins!! And why am I not surprised about the lily job. Hello discount, good bye paycheck!

You are so right about that!

Twin #2 gets a 75% discount at Lilly.  That's not a typo. But, so far the job has been a drain on her finances.

14 hours ago, campingdawgs said:

Happy Birthday to the TCD twins! ?  I hope they had a good time! My oldest will be 21 in December ?

Happy (early)  birthday to your oldest!  I hope you all get to celebrate at the Fort!

13 hours ago, lightbikes said:

Happy Birthday to your girls - I think they should now be known officially as the Disney Twins!!!!

LOL.  That is true.

13 hours ago, blm2003 said:

I'm in, and on page one even!!! This never happens.

Happy Birthday to the Twins! 
I have to say, I really like the look of the refurbished cabins. I'd still rather be in the camper, but those are nice looking. 

I liked the refurbished cabin more in person than I did from the photos.  I thought the upgrades were too slick and detracted from the rustic look.  But, somehow, the changes worked and look fine.  I do have to say that the functionality of the kitchen has been greatly reduced, but I doubt that's a big deal to most guests.

11 hours ago, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said:

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS and yay for page 1. I really like your cooler. I would have thought it part of the decor had you not said something. Lilly's ohhhh that will hurt the budget. Can't wait to step in there and shop around a bit. 

I really like that cooler too.  It's not convenient to bring on trips, and usually is parked on my back porch, but it was nice to have for this trip.  It ended up back at my campsite after we had to vacate the cabin, and I liked having it there.  It may make it back to the Fort again.

47 minutes ago, mmfancipher said:

Darn! missed it by one!

D'oh.

But you get top of page 2 bragging rights!

TCD

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

 

Page two ok by me as long as I have a TCD TR to read

Happy Birthday to your twins.  #2 has learned that work is necessary but the fun can be done too!

75% discount   Holy Cow, how much does their stuff cost?!

[shoreline99 137]

There are a couple of Lilly jeeps that I've seen around our town.

 

[Beckers 1,136]

13 minutes ago, shoreline99 said:

There are a couple of Lilly jeeps that I've seen around our town.

 

Personalized jeeps must be "in".

there is one by us that is Tiffany blue and the tire cover has the white bow on it. I think I have a pic.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Update time.

We left off with Twin #1 and I aboard a Disney Springs bus on the evening of Thursday, May 26th.

But, I have to backtrack for a moment.

There was a photo from my phone that I forgot to post.

Prior to our afternoon looping session, Twin #1 and I had popped in to the Settlement Trading Post to get a bag of those Mickey-shaped pretzels.  It's a TCD gang tradition to get a bag of those on the first day of every Fort trip for looping snacks.

While in the Trading Post, I decided to give one of the ridiculously expensive Fort Wilderness folding chairs a test drive.  I could use a couple more folding chairs, and I think I'm going to pull the trigger and purchase two if Twin #2 is still a CM come holiday discount time.  And, the Good Lord willing, she will be.  As I was enjoying my test drive, Twin #1 added a couple of props and took my portrait, which I guess I ought to share for the sake of completeness.  So, here you go:

Now here's a neat story to go with that photo.  When we went to check out, that CM you see to the left of that photo with her back to the camera waited on us.  She is really friendly and said that she recognized us from prior visits.  I told her that I recognized her too, and we chatted a bit.  She has been with WDW for over 30 years!  What an awesome person.  And that story reminds me that I forgot to mention that the CM at the guard shack recognized me and greeted me by name when I arrived that morning- before I even showed her my ID..  She has worked for Disney for 38 years, and for many years at the Fort guard shack.  I've gone to a lot of Trail's End breakfasts since the Twins first became CM's two years ago, and she's been at the shack a lot of the times I've come for breakfast.  I am not sure that you will find such longevity in the CM's at the other WDW resorts.

Now, back to our story . . .

When I had last been at WDW in late April, I had caught the WL bus to Disney Springs, and we took a long, circuitous route first to Typhoon Lagoon and then back around by Old Key West and down Vacation Club Drive to arrive at the Marketplace bus stops way on one side of Disney Springs.  Well, that isn't what happened today.  As soon as we turned left from Bonnet Creek Parkway, our bus driver swerved to the left, and we entered the brand new-just opened-Bus Only lanes, and proceeded to zip right up the middle of Buena Vista Drive.  I had heard about these new bus lanes, but didn't know where they were or how they worked.  Well, I'm here to tell you that they're right in the middle of the road, and they worked great.  Here, you can see right past Twin #1 that another Disney bus is barreling right by us in the other lane.  The buses can fly down these bus only lanes:

It was awesome to be in the middle of the road and zooming past all of the traffic in the regular lanes:

Although the buses are able to move faster in the bus lanes, the bus lanes are also of benefit to those driving in the regular lanes, as the buses are now all out of the way and in the middle of the road, which makes it easier to see where you're going if you're driving.  So those lanes are a win/win for everyone.

I have to give a rare good job Disney compliment here.

And that's not the last nice thing I'm going to say about Disney in this post.

And, just like that, we arrived at the new bus stops at Disney Springs.  If you need to orient yourself, you can see the old Planet Hollywood blue round dome there on the left in this photo:

We pulled in and right up to a drop-off area.  I got my first good look at the new water tower, and smiled at myself when I saw that they have planted jasmine plants at the base:

It will be fun to keep an eye on those vines growing as the years go by.

I really like the water tower and all the new landscaping:

Here's another nice thing I'm going to say about this new bus area- the buses drop all the passengers off at a nice drop-off area before proceeding to the individual resort bus stops:

What a simple and brilliant idea.

This is great to be dropped off close to the shopping area.  And the buses then arrive at the pick-up location ready to load guests.  No waiting for guests aboard to slowly waddle off and unfold their strollers right in the way of guests waiting to board.  And if there are EVC's aboard, they can be unloaded here and not in front of guests waiting to get on the bus.  Everybody surely will be happier this way. 

Good job again, Disney.

As mentioned, I really like the water tower, but it's odd that it can't be seen when you're in the shopping area-just here from the bus and parking areas, and, of course, while driving by on Buena Vista Drive:

It's weird that the area we were now walking in was where we had stopped to use a restroom just a couple of weeks prior.  Back then, this was all blocked off, and I didn't realize that this was the major entrance for use by guests arriving via bus:

Here's a look back at the drop-off area:

That is the Lime parking garage over there to the left of where I'm standing facing the bus drop off area- it just opened, and is a nice place to park:

it's amazing how many people were streaming in to Disney Springs on this Thursday night:

We hung out here in this area for a few minutes as one of the twins' guests for the weekend was going to meet us here for a visit to Disney Springs.  This is a young man they know from back home, and who attends UF with Twin #1.  He is a huge Disney fan, and a brilliant young man who is getting his degree in Industrial Engineering.  He is back in Orlando this summer for his third Professional Internship with Disney.  He was out at Disneyland last fall for a PI when the girls were there as well.  This fellow wants to be an Imagineer, and if that is what he ultimately chooses to do, I have no doubt that is where he will end up.  The only thing I question is whether he's too smart and talented for Disney.  For now, though, he's an interesting young man to know.

Twin #1's friend arrived right on time, and we headed out to hunt down Twin #2- she was supposed to be working in Lilly- which had just opened a couple of days earlier:

We had a hard time finding Twin #2 as every girl working in that store was wearing a pastel dress and looked like Twin #2.  Plus, it was surprisingly crowded in there.  Twin #1 finally asked one of the clones working in there where Twin #2 was and we found out that she was on break.  Twin #1 said she bet that Twin #2 went to the pretzel place for her break, so we headed that way to see if we could find her.

Here's a look at the area where the Lilly store is located- this is one of my favorite parts of the new stuff they added- I really like how it looks.  Plus, there's AC piped into here and it's covered from the elements:

We headed out the other side, toward Planet Hollywood, and got a good look at the still under construction World of Coke building.  Man, it's big!:

I'm not sure when it's supposed to open, but it looks like they're close to finished with it.

I am wondering if there will be free drink samples in there?

I don't know what happened with Planet Hollywood.  It's going to be converted into something called the Observatory, which looks cool in the concept art, but I don't understand why they aren't further along with that project- it looks like they have a very long way to go with this, and it looks pretty sad:

I don't know where the pretzel place is that Twin #1 was taking us to, but right there in front of Planet Hollywood, we ran right in to Twin #2 on her way back from break.  Here she is wearing her paycheck:

Twin #2 asked us to give her a couple of minutes before we came to visit her at the store.  So we did.  Then we popped in.

I really liked this hammock they had on display in the front window.  It turns out that you can get one for free!:

Yup, all of the things you see there in that display, including the hammock, are promotional gifts that are awarded with different levels of purchase.  You need to spend $3000 to get the hammock.  That's not a typo.  I thought that was outrageous and impossible, but then I saw some of the prices.  So, I think you get a free hammock if you buy like 3 dresses.  J/K, it's not quite that bad.  But, still, it looks like I'll be sticking with the old TCD hammock for a while longer.

After we were done harassing Twin #2, it was off to the next place Twin #1 told us we had to visit.  I was really not looking forward to this.  It was Sprinkles- the outrageously overpriced cupcake place.  But, Twin #1 registered for a free birthday cupcake, and she also showed me and her friend how we could register to get a free cupcake too.  So, we all did that, and headed over for a free cupcake. That made me feel better about that.

We arrived at Sprinkles to find a longish line outside.  Twin #1 said it wasn't that bad, and would move fast.  She and her friend got in line, and I asked if it would be OK to go and snap a few photos of the adjacent water feature, which I had not seen on my prior visit last month.

Here we have the Springs from which Disney Springs takes its name:

I have visited quite a few of the natural springs that are around central Florida, and looking down into this fake one, I have to say they did a pretty good job replicating the look on the limestone that is typically seen in natural Florida springs:

I think that building across the way on the left is the new D-Luxe Burger place. The early reports from there are that it's good, but that the prices are too high, even for Disney.  Twin #1's friend told us that he had eaten there that week and spent $20 just for a burger, fries and a drink:

Close to where I was standing- this building is not finished yet. I think it's going to be a pizza place:

They are missing some landscaping there on the bank of the spring, but It looks very natural:

Here's another look at the D-Luxe burger place.  If one meal is really $20 there, this may be as close as I get to it for a while:

I haven't been to Disney Springs at night yet, but I hear these lights on the water are really pretty after it gets dark:

Morimoto Asia is right over there.  I don't know what the deal is with the big Springs Bottling Co. sign.  I think it's just a prop:

It's weird to see Raglan Road sitting over there.  I know it hasn't moved, but nothing around it is familiar to me anymore, and it seems like it also is new:

I wonder how all of the new restaurants here are going to affect Raglan Road's business? They sure had a good thing going here for a long time when there were very few other choices of places to eat.

After my brief look around, I rejoined the kids in the Sprinkles line.  This is the outside seating area:

This is the walkway that I was just standing on to look at the springs:

Twin #1 was right about the line moving fast, and soon we were inside looking at hundreds of dollars worth of cupcakes:

We each placed our orders- and all of us scored a free cupcake.  From what I could tell from looking around, it seemed like a majority of the guests here were also getting free cupcakes.  I wonder if anyone is actually paying for any, and if this place is making any money yet.

After you order, you have to wait for your number to be called so you can go an pick-up your cupcake. I am not sure why that is, as they had plenty of cupcakes on display.  I guess it would make too much sense for the employee who takes your order to go and grab your cupcake and hand it to you?

The area where you wait for your cupcake has a window where you can watch the Cupcake Engineers Artists Technicians Decorators ice the cupcakes.  They're pretty good at it:

It didn't take long for us to get our free cupcakes, and we headed outside to eat them.  This cool Imagineering touch was outside:

I guess this prop is something that was used by the fictitious ice company:

Here's my cupcake, and Twin #1's birthday bag:

I surprised everyone, including myself, by ordering a coconut cupcake.  But, it looked good, and it was.  So that was a good choice.  And there isn't much that tastes better than a free cupcake!

After cupcake time, we noticed that the crowds were building.  We decided to head out.  On the way out, we stopped in to the Trophy Room which is a sneaker store owned by Michael Jordan's son.  Wow:

When I first heard of this place I thought it was a stupid idea for a business, but there sure were a lot of guests in there buying $200+ pairs of sneakers.

We also stopped in the Under Armor store, and I liked the Marvel line of wifebeaters:

From here, we headed out to the Lime garage, which is where Twin #1's friend parked.  He gave us a ride back to the Fort, and we hung out there until Twin #2 got back from work.  The friend left for now, and then the girls and I headed out to Wal-Mart for some provisions.  I had wanted to go to Publix, but it was past 10 pm, and it was closed.  Wal-Mart is open 24 hours.  The girls took me to the one that I have marked here on this map, which is the one they visited back when they were doing their CP's and living in CP housing, which is nearby.  Is this the one that the rest of you go to?:

The other one I circled seems closer.

I was shocked by how busy that Wal-Mart was, as it was near midnight when we were there.

The twins said it's always like that- a combination of local theme park employees and off-site guests stocking up for their condos and timeshares.

We made our way back to the Fort, and that was the end of our first day.

Since I would be up first, I scored the new sleeper sofa, and the girls took the beds in the back.

I'll let you know how that went in the next update.

TCD

 

[Dalspot ... Karen 21]

Ahhh, coconut, my favorite!  I'm drooling...

 

17 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Here's my cupcake, and Twin #1's birthday bag:

I surprised everyone, including myself, by ordering a coconut cupcake.  But, it looked good, and it was.  So that was a good choice.  And there isn't much that tastes better than a free cupcake!

 

 

 

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I'm amazed at the changes to Disney Springs over the years.  Especially since the focus has been taken off Disney there.  The first time we visited the shopping complex, it was Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village.

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

I usually go to the one near I-4 on Turkey Lake RD.  Haven't measured distance of them from fort.  But the Turkey Lake one has less tourist traffic to deal with IMO.  But if you need to shop at Campers World or the outlet malls, then the one on RT 192 is handy.  The best time to shop at any Walmart I've found, is early in the morning.  Also like to use the garden exit to check out, less line there.                           i

[lightbikes 73]

4 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

The girls took me to the one that I have marked here on this map, which is the one they visited back when they were doing their CP's and living in CP housing, which is nearby.  Is this the one that the rest of you go to?:

The other one I circled seems closer.

I was shocked by how busy that Wal-Mart was, as it was near midnight when we were there.

The twins said it's always like that- a combination of local theme park employees and off-site guests stocking up for their condos and timeshares.

We made our way back to the Fort, and that was the end of our first day.

Since I would be up first, I scored the new sleeper sofa, and the girls took the beds in the back.

I'll let you know how that went in the next update.

TCD

 

 

The one you circled is closer but our experience has been that the one up north sometimes has a better selection and the staff is a LOT more helpful.

 

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Free cupcakes are good! I hope Raglan Road continues to do well. I haven't seen anything else that I feel compelled to recommend in its place.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sherryberry 35]

Happy birthday, twins! I'm glad you're showing so much of Disney Springs. We're heading down towards the end of this month and plan on spending a good bit of time exploring there. We don't have park tickets and we're going to try to convince Kenneth's mother to go with us - we thought we'd show her some of the stuff we like to do when we don't go to the parks. Hopefully we can make it over to the Fort to show her our favorite Disney resort!

[PrincessNana 15]

18 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Update time.

We left off with Twin #1 and I aboard a Disney Springs bus on the evening of Thursday, May 26th.

But, I have to backtrack for a moment.

There was a photo from my phone that I forgot to post.

Prior to our afternoon looping session, Twin #1 and I had popped in to the Settlement Trading Post to get a bag of those Mickey-shaped pretzels.  It's a TCD gang tradition to get a bag of those on the first day of every Fort trip for looping snacks.

While in the Trading Post, I decided to give one of the ridiculously expensive Fort Wilderness folding chairs a test drive.  I could use a couple more folding chairs, and I think I'm going to pull the trigger and purchase two if Twin #2 is still a CM come holiday discount time.  And, the Good Lord willing, she will be.  As I was enjoying my test drive, Twin #1 added a couple of props and took my portrait, which I guess I ought to share for the sake of completeness.  So, here you go:

Now here's a neat story to go with that photo.  When we went to check out, that CM you see to the left of that photo with her back to the camera waited on us.  She is really friendly and said that she recognized us from prior visits.  I told her that I recognized her too, and we chatted a bit.  She has been with WDW for over 30 years!  What an awesome person.  And that story reminds me that I forgot to mention that the CM at the guard shack recognized me and greeted me by name when I arrived that morning- before I even showed her my ID..  She has worked for Disney for 38 years, and for many years at the Fort guard shack.  I've gone to a lot of Trail's End breakfasts since the Twins first became CM's two years ago, and she's been at the shack a lot of the times I've come for breakfast.  I am not sure that you will find such longevity in the CM's at the other WDW resorts.

Now, back to our story . . .

When I had last been at WDW in late April, I had caught the WL bus to Disney Springs, and we took a long, circuitous route first to Typhoon Lagoon and then back around by Old Key West and down Vacation Club Drive to arrive at the Marketplace bus stops way on one side of Disney Springs.  Well, that isn't what happened today.  As soon as we turned left from Bonnet Creek Parkway, our bus driver swerved to the left, and we entered the brand new-just opened-Bus Only lanes, and proceeded to zip right up the middle of Buena Vista Drive.  I had heard about these new bus lanes, but didn't know where they were or how they worked.  Well, I'm here to tell you that they're right in the middle of the road, and they worked great.  Here, you can see right past Twin #1 that another Disney bus is barreling right by us in the other lane.  The buses can fly down these bus only lanes:

It was awesome to be in the middle of the road and zooming past all of the traffic in the regular lanes:

Although the buses are able to move faster in the bus lanes, the bus lanes are also of benefit to those driving in the regular lanes, as the buses are now all out of the way and in the middle of the road, which makes it easier to see where you're going if you're driving.  So those lanes are a win/win for everyone.

I have to give a rare good job Disney compliment here.

And that's not the last nice thing I'm going to say about Disney in this post.

And, just like that, we arrived at the new bus stops at Disney Springs.  If you need to orient yourself, you can see the old Planet Hollywood blue round dome there on the left in this photo:

We pulled in and right up to a drop-off area.  I got my first good look at the new water tower, and smiled at myself when I saw that they have planted jasmine plants at the base:

It will be fun to keep an eye on those vines growing as the years go by.

I really like the water tower and all the new landscaping:

Here's another nice thing I'm going to say about this new bus area- the buses drop all the passengers off at a nice drop-off area before proceeding to the individual resort bus stops:

What a simple and brilliant idea.

This is great to be dropped off close to the shopping area.  And the buses then arrive at the pick-up location ready to load guests.  No waiting for guests aboard to slowly waddle off and unfold their strollers right in the way of guests waiting to board.  And if there are EVC's aboard, they can be unloaded here and not in front of guests waiting to get on the bus.  Everybody surely will be happier this way. 

Good job again, Disney.

As mentioned, I really like the water tower, but it's odd that it can't be seen when you're in the shopping area-just here from the bus and parking areas, and, of course, while driving by on Buena Vista Drive:

It's weird that the area we were now walking in was where we had stopped to use a restroom just a couple of weeks prior.  Back then, this was all blocked off, and I didn't realize that this was the major entrance for use by guests arriving via bus:

Here's a look back at the drop-off area:

That is the Lime parking garage over there to the left of where I'm standing facing the bus drop off area- it just opened, and is a nice place to park:

it's amazing how many people were streaming in to Disney Springs on this Thursday night:

We hung out here in this area for a few minutes as one of the twins' guests for the weekend was going to meet us here for a visit to Disney Springs.  This is a young man they know from back home, and who attends UF with Twin #1.  He is a huge Disney fan, and a brilliant young man who is getting his degree in Industrial Engineering.  He is back in Orlando this summer for his third Professional Internship with Disney.  He was out at Disneyland last fall for a PI when the girls were there as well.  This fellow wants to be an Imagineer, and if that is what he ultimately chooses to do, I have no doubt that is where he will end up.  The only thing I question is whether he's too smart and talented for Disney.  For now, though, he's an interesting young man to know.

Twin #1's friend arrived right on time, and we headed out to hunt down Twin #2- she was supposed to be working in Lilly- which had just opened a couple of days earlier:

We had a hard time finding Twin #2 as every girl working in that store was wearing a pastel dress and looked like Twin #2.  Plus, it was surprisingly crowded in there.  Twin #1 finally asked one of the clones working in there where Twin #2 was and we found out that she was on break.  Twin #1 said she bet that Twin #2 went to the pretzel place for her break, so we headed that way to see if we could find her.

Here's a look at the area where the Lilly store is located- this is one of my favorite parts of the new stuff they added- I really like how it looks.  Plus, there's AC piped into here and it's covered from the elements:

We headed out the other side, toward Planet Hollywood, and got a good look at the still under construction World of Coke building.  Man, it's big!:

I'm not sure when it's supposed to open, but it looks like they're close to finished with it.

I am wondering if there will be free drink samples in there?

I don't know what happened with Planet Hollywood.  It's going to be converted into something called the Observatory, which looks cool in the concept art, but I don't understand why they aren't further along with that project- it looks like they have a very long way to go with this, and it looks pretty sad:

I don't know where the pretzel place is that Twin #1 was taking us to, but right there in front of Planet Hollywood, we ran right in to Twin #2 on her way back from break.  Here she is wearing her paycheck:

Twin #2 asked us to give her a couple of minutes before we came to visit her at the store.  So we did.  Then we popped in.

I really liked this hammock they had on display in the front window.  It turns out that you can get one for free!:

Yup, all of the things you see there in that display, including the hammock, are promotional gifts that are awarded with different levels of purchase.  You need to spend $3000 to get the hammock.  That's not a typo.  I thought that was outrageous and impossible, but then I saw some of the prices.  So, I think you get a free hammock if you buy like 3 dresses.  J/K, it's not quite that bad.  But, still, it looks like I'll be sticking with the old TCD hammock for a while longer.

After we were done harassing Twin #2, it was off to the next place Twin #1 told us we had to visit.  I was really not looking forward to this.  It was Sprinkles- the outrageously overpriced cupcake place.  But, Twin #1 registered for a free birthday cupcake, and she also showed me and her friend how we could register to get a free cupcake too.  So, we all did that, and headed over for a free cupcake. That made me feel better about that.

We arrived at Sprinkles to find a longish line outside.  Twin #1 said it wasn't that bad, and would move fast.  She and her friend got in line, and I asked if it would be OK to go and snap a few photos of the adjacent water feature, which I had not seen on my prior visit last month.

Here we have the Springs from which Disney Springs takes its name:

I have visited quite a few of the natural springs that are around central Florida, and looking down into this fake one, I have to say they did a pretty good job replicating the look on the limestone that is typically seen in natural Florida springs:

I think that building across the way on the left is the new D-Luxe Burger place. The early reports from there are that it's good, but that the prices are too high, even for Disney.  Twin #1's friend told us that he had eaten there that week and spent $20 just for a burger, fries and a drink:

Close to where I was standing- this building is not finished yet. I think it's going to be a pizza place:

They are missing some landscaping there on the bank of the spring, but It looks very natural:

Here's another look at the D-Luxe burger place.  If one meal is really $20 there, this may be as close as I get to it for a while:

I haven't been to Disney Springs at night yet, but I hear these lights on the water are really pretty after it gets dark:

Morimoto Asia is right over there.  I don't know what the deal is with the big Springs Bottling Co. sign.  I think it's just a prop:

It's weird to see Raglan Road sitting over there.  I know it hasn't moved, but nothing around it is familiar to me anymore, and it seems like it also is new:

I wonder how all of the new restaurants here are going to affect Raglan Road's business? They sure had a good thing going here for a long time when there were very few other choices of places to eat.

After my brief look around, I rejoined the kids in the Sprinkles line.  This is the outside seating area:

This is the walkway that I was just standing on to look at the springs:

Twin #1 was right about the line moving fast, and soon we were inside looking at hundreds of dollars worth of cupcakes:

We each placed our orders- and all of us scored a free cupcake.  From what I could tell from looking around, it seemed like a majority of the guests here were also getting free cupcakes.  I wonder if anyone is actually paying for any, and if this place is making any money yet.

After you order, you have to wait for your number to be called so you can go an pick-up your cupcake. I am not sure why that is, as they had plenty of cupcakes on display.  I guess it would make too much sense for the employee who takes your order to go and grab your cupcake and hand it to you?

The area where you wait for your cupcake has a window where you can watch the Cupcake Engineers Artists Technicians Decorators ice the cupcakes.  They're pretty good at it:

It didn't take long for us to get our free cupcakes, and we headed outside to eat them.  This cool Imagineering touch was outside:

I guess this prop is something that was used by the fictitious ice company:

Here's my cupcake, and Twin #1's birthday bag:

I surprised everyone, including myself, by ordering a coconut cupcake.  But, it looked good, and it was.  So that was a good choice.  And there isn't much that tastes better than a free cupcake!

After cupcake time, we noticed that the crowds were building.  We decided to head out.  On the way out, we stopped in to the Trophy Room which is a sneaker store owned by Michael Jordan's son.  Wow:

When I first heard of this place I thought it was a stupid idea for a business, but there sure were a lot of guests in there buying $200+ pairs of sneakers.

We also stopped in the Under Armor store, and I liked the Marvel line of wifebeaters:

From here, we headed out to the Lime garage, which is where Twin #1's friend parked.  He gave us a ride back to the Fort, and we hung out there until Twin #2 got back from work.  The friend left for now, and then the girls and I headed out to Wal-Mart for some provisions.  I had wanted to go to Publix, but it was past 10 pm, and it was closed.  Wal-Mart is open 24 hours.  The girls took me to the one that I have marked here on this map, which is the one they visited back when they were doing their CP's and living in CP housing, which is nearby.  Is this the one that the rest of you go to?:

The other one I circled seems closer.

I was shocked by how busy that Wal-Mart was, as it was near midnight when we were there.

The twins said it's always like that- a combination of local theme park employees and off-site guests stocking up for their condos and timeshares.

We made our way back to the Fort, and that was the end of our first day.

Since I would be up first, I scored the new sleeper sofa, and the girls took the beds in the back.

I'll let you know how that went in the next update.

TCD

 

We go to the Walmart the twins use, mainly because we were able to find our way over there and back without getting lost!

Happy Birthday to the twins, great choice for a birthday celebration location and the coconut cupcake looks yummy!

[BigTom 76]

I like those chairs also and if could get a discount would have the rocking one, just can not justify the price when I can get the non rocking one for about $20 from HF. They just don't say Fort Wilderness on them.

[lklasing 16]

Page 2!  That's pretty good for me.

Good to see you still doing TRs, TCD!  I've been off the boards much more than I've been on lately, and am glad to see you still here.

Happy birthday to the twins!  I'm really looking forward to hearing about this trip - we've got a similar one coming up with a campsite for my dad's trailer, 2 cabins and a villa at VWL.  19 of us in total, including an infant.    I'm scared but excited.

Finally, I totally agree with what you said about things looking so different in DS.  We love Morimoto and I just can't place how that body of water is now where it is.  I'm really excited to get to escape the family for a while get to check all the new stores out one day on our trip.

Let me know if you will be around the Fort any between July 21-27.  Would love to get to see you again!

[Beckers 1,136]

9 hours ago, BigTom said:

. They just don't say Fort Wilderness on them.

I have a sharpie that could change that

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Happy Birthday, Twins! I have a friend who also is a CM and also turned 21 that weekend and also celebrated with family coming to visit. She celebrated by drinking around the world showcase - 11 drinks. Yikes!

In the picture showing the workers at Sprinkles, there was a large Mickey Head on the wall behind them. I have read that Disney asked them to take it down and it is now just blank wall behind them.

Loving the trip report!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BigTom 76]

8 hours ago, Beckers said:

I have a sharpie that could change that

I saw a craft booth where a person was buying the HF chairs and removing the back piece- it is blank- and using a sewing machine would put anything you want on it. I believe she was getting $50 for the chairs.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

What is HF?

[Travisma 1,317]

18 minutes ago, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said:

What is HF?

Harbor Freight, they just had them on sale for Memorial Day for $22.  

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

Harbor Freight, they just had them on sale for Memorial Day for $22.  

Thanks.  I just discovered there's a HF here.  Will have to check it out.

[BigTom 76]

They are fairly stout chairs, I weight a little over 300 and have been using one for a couple of years and it is still looks like new.

[Travisma 1,317]

56 minutes ago, BigTom said:

They are fairly stout chairs, I weight a little over 300 and have been using one for a couple of years and it is still looks like new.

I saw a post somewhere and the HF chairs were rated a 97 out of 100.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On ‎6‎/‎3‎/‎2016 at 11:31 AM, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

 

Page two ok by me as long as I have a TCD TR to read

Happy Birthday to your twins.  #2 has learned that work is necessary but the fun can be done too!

75% discount   Holy Cow, how much does their stuff cost?!

I think most of those Lilly dresses go for near $200, and blouses are over $100.  So, even with the discount, Twin #2 will be spending most of her paychecks on her work wardrobe for a while.

It's interesting to hear about her coworkers.  A lot of them are already WDW CM's who are working part time because they like the product. 

On ‎6‎/‎3‎/‎2016 at 0:18 PM, shoreline99 said:

There are a couple of Lilly jeeps that I've seen around our town.

 

So, is that privately owned?

I know that there is an official Lilly jeep that travels around to the stores and doing promotions, but do people decorate their private vehicles like that?

On ‎6‎/‎3‎/‎2016 at 0:33 PM, Beckers said:

Personalized jeeps must be "in".

there is one by us that is Tiffany blue and the tire cover has the white bow on it. I think I have a pic.

I haven't seen any around my neck of the woods. Is it a northeast thing?

On ‎6‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 7:43 AM, PrincessNana said:

We go to the Walmart the twins use, mainly because we were able to find our way over there and back without getting lost!

Happy Birthday to the twins, great choice for a birthday celebration location and the coconut cupcake looks yummy!

Yes, that Wal-Mart is easy to find- and isn't hard to get to.  But, I wonder if the one to the north is nicer?

On ‎6‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 0:10 PM, BigTom said:

I like those chairs also and if could get a discount would have the rocking one, just can not justify the price when I can get the non rocking one for about $20 from HF. They just don't say Fort Wilderness on them.

I didn't know they sold these at Harbor Freight.  I need to check that out.  If they retail for $20 at HF, then the Fort has quite a mark-up on these just for the embroidered chair back.

On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 9:44 PM, lklasing said:

Page 2!  That's pretty good for me.

Good to see you still doing TRs, TCD!  I've been off the boards much more than I've been on lately, and am glad to see you still here.

Happy birthday to the twins!  I'm really looking forward to hearing about this trip - we've got a similar one coming up with a campsite for my dad's trailer, 2 cabins and a villa at VWL.  19 of us in total, including an infant.    I'm scared but excited.

Finally, I totally agree with what you said about things looking so different in DS.  We love Morimoto and I just can't place how that body of water is now where it is.  I'm really excited to get to escape the family for a while get to check all the new stores out one day on our trip.

Let me know if you will be around the Fort any between July 21-27.  Would love to get to see you again!

Hey Leslie!

Wow!  What a trip that's going to be.

I suppose you know that the cabins have all been pulled off of the 2100 loop, right?  That's going to make it interesting as far as y'all trying to get a campsite close to the cabins.

I'm still planning the rest of June and early July, so I can't say for sure if I'll be around the Fort toward the end of July, but chances are good I'll be at WDW at some point that week.

On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 9:55 PM, Beckers said:

I have a sharpie that could change that

LOL.

On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 9:58 PM, Momof6....aka Marty said:

Happy Birthday, Twins! I have a friend who also is a CM and also turned 21 that weekend and also celebrated with family coming to visit. She celebrated by drinking around the world showcase - 11 drinks. Yikes!

In the picture showing the workers at Sprinkles, there was a large Mickey Head on the wall behind them. I have read that Disney asked them to take it down and it is now just blank wall behind them.

Loving the trip report!

11 drinks on a hot May day?  No thank you.  That poor girl must have been hurting.  There was some talk of the girls doing that, but we went with dinner at the Hoop Dee Doo instead.  Having that set up for the evening was a good way to convince the girls that they needed to take it easy during the day.

I'm surprised that the Sprinkles folks had to take down that "hidden" Mickey cupcake design.  You would think an issue like that would have been addressed before they opened.  I'm going to have to go back there and check it out.

On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 6:37 AM, BigTom said:

I saw a craft booth where a person was buying the HF chairs and removing the back piece- it is blank- and using a sewing machine would put anything you want on it. I believe she was getting $50 for the chairs.

There used to be an embroidery place around here that would do that with canvas director's chairs.  It was pretty inexpensive.  I may need to look at seeing if there's a place like that still around that could embroider a Harbor Freight chair.

19 hours ago, BigTom said:

They are fairly stout chairs, I weight a little over 300 and have been using one for a couple of years and it is still looks like new.

Good to know.  Does HF have the rocking chairs?  I had a Coleman folding rocking chair that only made it through a couple of camping trips before it broke, so I'm leery of those.

18 hours ago, Travisma said:

I saw a post somewhere and the HF chairs were rated a 97 out of 100.

That's impressive. 

We have one chair that has a similar design to the folding ones they sell at the Fort- it was a gift to our oldest DD when she graduated from high school back in 2009.  She used it for tailgating for the four years she was at FSU, and we have brought it on a lot of camping trips, and it is still in great shape.  I can't say the same about some of the new Logo brand folding chairs I have.

TCD