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Kaltxi!- A Not So Typical Memorial Day Weekend at the Fort with the TCD Gang


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5 minutes ago, Travisma said:

Is the standby queue the path up the mountainside?  That's the way we went on the sneak.

Both the standby and FP+ queues go up the mountainside.  But, the FP queue bypasses all but a little part of the cave and all of the lab, and goes right to the loading area.

5 minutes ago, Travisma said:

So they still had passholder merchandise after the sneaks?  I figured it would've all been snatched up before the official opening.

Yes.  And they had more- like stuff that was branded as opening day merchandise, including the first ever Passholder branded Magicbands.  I'll have a photo of one of those coming up.

TCD

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w00t....I was mentioned in a TCD report. I am famous now!

So did yall get your faces painted blue?

I have hesitated clicking on this thread because, based on the title, I thought it was a thread about anti-diarrhea medicine, or maybe a prescription for psoriasis.  "Ask your Doctor is Kaltxi is righ

3 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Both the standby and FP+ queues go up the mountainside.  But, the FP queue bypasses all but a little part of the cave and all of the lab, and goes right to the loading area.

Yes.  And they had more- like stuff that was branded as opening day merchandise, including the first ever Passholder branded Magicbands.  I'll have a photo of one of those coming up.

TCD

Both times we went up, was the switchback trail and the posts and chains and the lab.

I saw posts of the opening day merchandise, wasn't too impressed.

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How long to do you think it will be before Disney rolls out another "fleecing scheme" like:  "For the low price of $59.95 per person, you can relax in an air conditioned lounge while waiting for your pre-assigned ride time to experience the wonders of Pandora.  You will be treated to local beverages and snacks while you wait."

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WOW!!! Four rides in Pandora on opening day!!! Impressive!!! Who needs to pay for a VIP tour if you can hang out with TCD!!!!

I am super bummed to hear that Disney is going to crack down on the FP loophole. I learned about it on here from you and have become a master with the "loophole" in the last couple years.

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6 hours ago, Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM said:

WOW!!! Four rides in Pandora on opening day!!! Impressive!!! Who needs to pay for a VIP tour if you can hang out with TCD!!!!

I was thinking the same thing!!!! TCD any plans for visit over the Christmas holiday week...just sayin :rolleyes:

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Sorry for the delay.  Life got it the way.

But, I'm ready to get back to it.

First, I need to respond to some comments.

Then, I have a short update to finish up Saturday.

Here we go . . .

On ‎6‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 4:11 PM, Duane said:

How long to do you think it will be before Disney rolls out another "fleecing scheme" like:  "For the low price of $59.95 per person, you can relax in an air conditioned lounge while waiting for your pre-assigned ride time to experience the wonders of Pandora.  You will be treated to local beverages and snacks while you wait."

I think you might have been joking.

But, this isn't too far off from the new Frozen fireworks dessert party deal they just announced for Epcot.  Guests pay a fee, watch Illuminations, east some cupcakes, and then go to Norway to ride the Frozen ride.

They could cook up something like this with the Rivers of Light show and Flight of Passage.

I like your idea of the air conditioned lounge, though.

On ‎6‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 9:10 PM, Friend of a Fiend ... Pam said:

Thank you for posting a TR! We are planning to be there soon, and we have FPs! We are pumped!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good thing you have the FP's.

Those are key, and will be for a while.

On ‎6‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 11:57 PM, Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM said:

WOW!!! Four rides in Pandora on opening day!!! Impressive!!! Who needs to pay for a VIP tour if you can hang out with TCD!!!!

I am super bummed to hear that Disney is going to crack down on the FP loophole. I learned about it on here from you and have become a master with the "loophole" in the last couple years.

Good to see a post from you, Heidi!

I'm bummed about the closing of the loophole too.

But, like Walt always said, when one loophole opens, another opens.

I will figure out something and share my findings.

On ‎6‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 6:18 AM, dblr....Rennie said:

I was thinking the same thing!!!! TCD any plans for visit over the Christmas holiday week...just sayin :rolleyes:

Yes, of course.  I'm always around Disney around Christmas. 

In fact, I need to make sure to figure out when I need to book some FP+'s for then.

On ‎6‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 8:05 AM, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said:

I like the picture of your daughter and friend, super cute. 

The call ahead ordering could be a game changer. I hope they offer this service at all the parks.

They just announced that they are adding the mobile ordering to some other restaurants- this time in the MK.  I will definitely be trying it out when I get a chance.  So far, I really like it.

TCD

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OK, let's get back at it.

I left off on Saturday, May 27th.

We had just had a successful visit to Pandora on its official opening day.

Now we were on the bus back to the Fort, where we were going to have some lunch at the campsite, and wait for the cabin we had rented for the girls' birthday celebration.

If you haven't seen the MK entrance booths lately, you haven't seen the mess that they've created in the last six months.  They are building an overpass and adding new travel lanes here, and it's a torn up mess right now:

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This being Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, the overflow lot for the overflow lot was already looking crazy.  People don't seem to think when they park stuff in there, and I'll bet some folks could get blocked in:

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Early in this report, I shared that we unfortunately didn't score cabin #118 this year, like we had last year.

But, that wasn't bad.

Because, we got 120.

That's two Memorial Day Weekends where the TCD gang occupied a VIP cabin.

Here's the view from 120's porch:

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And here is the porch, with the official TCD cooler on legs up there by the door:

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What followed next was a frenzy of activity, as we got things set up in the cabin, and the girls decorated.

Mrs. TCD showed up with food and cakes, and then the guests started to show.

I was the bartender, and kept the drinks flowing until it was time to go and cook up dinner.

We had planned the party a while back, and the dinner menu was a good old-fashioned cookout with grilled corn, burgers and hot dogs.

I was hoping that the burn ban would be over, and that I could use that nice rock grill at the site.

But, the burn ban was still in place.

I considered violating it and playing dumb.  But, I didn't want some Ranger showing up when my burgers were half cooked telling me to put out the fire.

So, I played by the rules.

I loaded everything I needed on a golf cart, and headed to find an open community grill.

I thought that might be a problem on Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend, but the first grill I checked- the one on the 1500 loop, was available.

So, I pulled up and got busy:

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Check out my Hidden Mickey spatula:

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All things considered, this wasn't bad.

It was actually a bit crazy back at the cabin, and I had this nice, quiet site an nice grill to enjoy.  The sun was setting, but I still had plenty of light:

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It took some precision planning to make sure that I had everything I needed to cook up the corn, burgers and hot dogs, and with Mrs. TCD's help, it went flawlessly:

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As I hung out there grilling, an older gentlemen from a site on 1600 with a view of the grill came over to see what I was doing, and we ended up having a nice chat about our families and the Fort, and college football.  The Fort is awesome like that.

As I stood there chatting, I realized that I made one mistake- I only brought one beer with me to drink while grilling.  I thought I'd get it all done sooner than I did.

Other than that, it worked out great, and I zipped the cooked food back to the cabin, where it was enjoyed by all.

The party was a big success.

I didn't take any photos during the party, but the girls did.

I'll share a few to give you and idea of what went down.

Here are the twins with their big sister:

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The party was Joe Rohde themed, and Twin #1 made a fake moss wall backdrop for photos and earrings for the guests to wear:

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The birthday girls:

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One highlight of the evening was the girls receiving a tweet from Joe Rohde himself responding to something one of their friends posted on Twitter.  That's a big deal with this crowd.

The evening is kind of a blur.  I know that all of the guests went to the beach to watch the MK fireworks, and that we had birthday cake after that.

After that, the young folks hung out in the cabin, and Mrs. TCD and I hung out on the porch for a while. By around 10, we took off, and some of the guests who weren't spending the night started to head out too.

But, the party went on into the night. I had spoken to the guy in 118 earlier in the afternoon, and told him not to hold back if the twins or their friends bothered him, but I never heard from him, so hopefully things weren't too bad that night.

I was up early on Sunday, and have a bunch of early morning photos to share in the next update.

TCD

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What a fun way to celebrate a birthday at the Fort. I am sure your girls and their friends were no problem for their neighbors, but it was kind of you to let the guests in 118 know you wanted them to speak up if a problem arose. I remember back when common courtesy like that was the norm.

Oh and how do I go about getting on the invite list for the twins next birthday party? Two years in a row as VIPs. A tweet from Joe Rhode. It's good to be a TCD daughter.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

 

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On ‎6‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 4:11 PM, Duane said:

How long to do you think it will be before Disney rolls out another "fleecing scheme" like:  "For the low price of $59.95 per person, you can relax in an air conditioned lounge while waiting for your pre-assigned ride time to experience the wonders of Pandora.  You will be treated to local beverages and snacks while you wait."

I am slightly embarrassed to admit that when we went to Disneyland last summer we engaged in a "fleecing scheme"! They were offering priority seating to the new Frozen Broadway type of show, with a "snow cone party" beforehand. It was $50.00 per person and there were four of us, so I actually plunked down $200.00 for it!!! I still can't believe I did it, but we were there in August and pretty much every line at DL is outside in the heat. The thought of lining up like cattle for an hour while baking in the sun was not appealing!! Plus we would need a FP for the show and we also wanted FP's to the new Soarin ride and Radiator Springs. Since you can only get one FP at a time out there, I know there was no way we would be able to get all 3 FP's before they ran out. So, I sucked it up and spent the money!! Our joke of that trip was our $50.00 snow cones were terrible!!! But, hey we did each get a pin on a lanyard too!!!

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4 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

Good to see a post from you, Heidi!

I'm bummed about the closing of the loophole too.

But, like Walt always said, when one loophole opens, another opens.

I will figure out something and share my findings.

TCD

PLEASE figure something out before we come down at the end of October!!!!! I "need" a loophole!!!! Ha!

I am super envious of your luck in getting those VIP cabins!!! My oldest son and I came down in Feb. and having remembered how you had gotten one of those cabins last year, we did ask, but the answer was no. In the end it all worked out as my brothers family were all camping and they put us in a cabin that was very close to his campsite. My son and I had a blast staying in the cabin, just the two of us, so tons of room!!! But, I would have loved to have had a rocking chair like the one you had pictured on your deck!

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15 hours ago, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

What a fun way to celebrate a birthday at the Fort. I am sure your girls and their friends were no problem for their neighbors, but it was kind of you to let the guests in 118 know you wanted them to speak up if a problem arose. I remember back when common courtesy like that was the norm.

Oh and how do I go about getting on the invite list for the twins next birthday party? Two years in a row as VIPs. A tweet from Joe Rhode. It's good to be a TCD daughter.

The fact that the majority of those kids are employed by Disney and hope to move up the management ladder kept them in check. They are an impressive group of young people, and I have no doubt that some of them will have long and successful careers with Disney.

I really didn't expect to be able to top their 21st birthday party, but we did.  The twins will both be graduating college before their next birthday, and may or may not still be in the Orlando area.  So, we may not be able to go for a three-peat.

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

We all know it's good to be TCD, but I think it must be good to be a TCD daughter, too!

That is the truth.

And it's good to be Mrs. TCD and the TCD dog, Rocky, too.

13 hours ago, Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM said:

I am slightly embarrassed to admit that when we went to Disneyland last summer we engaged in a "fleecing scheme"! They were offering priority seating to the new Frozen Broadway type of show, with a "snow cone party" beforehand. It was $50.00 per person and there were four of us, so I actually plunked down $200.00 for it!!! I still can't believe I did it, but we were there in August and pretty much every line at DL is outside in the heat. The thought of lining up like cattle for an hour while baking in the sun was not appealing!! Plus we would need a FP for the show and we also wanted FP's to the new Soarin ride and Radiator Springs. Since you can only get one FP at a time out there, I know there was no way we would be able to get all 3 FP's before they ran out. So, I sucked it up and spent the money!! Our joke of that trip was our $50.00 snow cones were terrible!!! But, hey we did each get a pin on a lanyard too!!!

LOL.  Snowcone party?  I never heard of that.

The Year of a Million Schemes is real!

I think we will see more and more of it.  Can't blame Disney for trying.

13 hours ago, Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM said:

PLEASE figure something out before we come down at the end of October!!!!! I "need" a loophole!!!! Ha!

I am super envious of your luck in getting those VIP cabins!!! My oldest son and I came down in Feb. and having remembered how you had gotten one of those cabins last year, we did ask, but the answer was no. In the end it all worked out as my brothers family were all camping and they put us in a cabin that was very close to his campsite. My son and I had a blast staying in the cabin, just the two of us, so tons of room!!! But, I would have loved to have had a rocking chair like the one you had pictured on your deck!

Those rocking chairs are the best!

You can actually see Bay Lake through the trees from the porch on Cabin #120.  Mrs. TCD and I spent a lot of time over the weekend sitting in those rockers and enjoying the view.

TCD

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Update time!

It's now Sunday morning, May 28th.  It may seem like we are well in to this trip, but this was only morning two of four mornings that I would be enjoying at the Fort.  Yesterday is when we got up early to get to opening day at Pandora.  There was no time for my morning rounds.

But today was a new day.  Just Mrs. TCD and our oldest DD slept in the camper last night.  The twins and some of their friends were in the cabin.  I knew none of them would be stirring very early.  So, I slipped out for a quiet look around the Fort.

I had noticed these folks right around the loop from us, and I recognized them from last year (and from some trips before that too- they are Fort regulars in the summer) :

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They have a sign with all of their dogs' names on it:

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Take a closer look:

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Now, from the TCD Archives, here's a photo of how their sign looked last year:

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A moment of silence please, for Captain Gizmo.

And welcome to Bones Derek.

The girls didn't know who Bo Derek was/is.

But, I remember her.

I still salute the dog naming skills of Ric and Roxanne.

Just a couple of sites down from them, I found this trip's Real Man of Genius Award winner.  These folks brought their own pool to the Fort:

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Water shortage?

Conserving water?

That's for the rest of us.

The Real Man of Genius will have none of that.

These campers were also here last year- they had signs on their site promoting some website for kids.  It seems creepy to me:

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I headed out of the 800 loop, and enjoyed my view of site 617.  Check out the site to the right of that in this photo- they are tent campers with a bunch of tents set up on a premium site.  Lucky them- they are right next to the sidewalk to the campfire and across the street from the 800 loop bus stop:

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You probably already know where I'm heading.  If you guessed the 300 loop, good job:

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This was early Sunday morning of Memorial Day weekend.  I expected to see some crowded and messy sites on the 300 loop, but it actually wasn't so bad:

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Here we are out behind the loop, looking down the canal.  No one was up or about yet this morning.  Except for me:

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There had been a good rain earlier in the week, but you can see from the old water level marks on the dam walls that the water in the canal was still very low:

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I remember wondering last summer, when they hurriedly installed all of the alligator-proof fencing around the Fort, how they would cut the grass on the other side of the fences, along the canals.  Well, here we have the answer.  They don't:

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That old cabin is still there, but I wonder for how long:

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I took a few moments to enjoy my favorite spot:

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With as dry as it had been in Florida leading up to Memorial Day, I was concerned when I saw what looked like a lot of smoke rising from the Magic Kingdom:

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I've seen steam from the train rise like that, but not in the quantity that I was seeing here.  I really thought that something might be on fire over there.  Luckily, I apparently was wrong about that.  I never heard anything about a fire in the MK that weekend.

You can't see it very well, but there was steam rising off the lake, which meant that the water temperature was warmer than the air temperature this morning.  Once again, we were blessed with a cool evening, and temperatures in the low 60's this morning.  Which is unheard of:

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I moved on from here, and followed the trail out to the Settlement. It was totally deserted and quiet.  Just the way I like it:

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I was up early today, but not earlier than the Beach Raker- there he goes:

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When I was here over Easter weekend, I noticed that they had some construction supplies piled up here by the path the fishing guides use to get to their boats.  Here, we can see that whatever it is they're doing is still not done.  As far as I can tell, they were only working on the sidewalk.  I don't know why that has taken over a month and made such a mess:

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As long as I was back here and there was no one around, I figured this was a good time for me to check for anything new in the old River Country area.

Nothing new about the ticket booth, except that there is more stuff on the roof:

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The old restroom building looks the same:

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That big chunk missing from the big rock is new since the last time I was back here.  I blame vandals:

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The pool is still full of dirt:

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Things are very much a mess on the other side of the fence:

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So much stuff has grown up that I couldn't see if the blue tanks were still back there or not:

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It makes me sad to look at the part of the River Country entry area they preserved, and then think about the mess on the other side of the fence:

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Here's some big news that I have not seen reported anywhere.

They have replaced all of the old wooden picnic tables in the Backyard BBQ pavilion with aluminum tables:

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First it was the wooden benches in the campfire area.

Now all of these tables.

The Fort managers are on an aluminum kick.

Which is totally at odds with the theming of the Fort.

I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing aluminum tables at the campsites.

On that note, I'll stop to post this update.

I will have some more morning photos in the next one, but we will move on to some other things after that.

TCD

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15 hours ago, Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM said:

I am slightly embarrassed to admit that when we went to Disneyland last summer we engaged in a "fleecing scheme"! They were offering priority seating to the new Frozen Broadway type of show, with a "snow cone party" beforehand. It was $50.00 per person and there were four of us, so I actually plunked down $200.00 for it!!! I still can't believe I did it, but we were there in August and pretty much every line at DL is outside in the heat. The thought of lining up like cattle for an hour while baking in the sun was not appealing!! Plus we would need a FP for the show and we also wanted FP's to the new Soarin ride and Radiator Springs. Since you can only get one FP at a time out there, I know there was no way we would be able to get all 3 FP's before they ran out. So, I sucked it up and spent the money!! Our joke of that trip was our $50.00 snow cones were terrible!!! But, hey we did each get a pin on a lanyard too!!!

There will be no shaming or judging here!  If you feel the need to pay $50 for a snow cone, then go right ahead and let it go (your money that is!)

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If they replace all the picnic tables with the aluminum ones, they better start handing out little packets of burn ointment with the skiter dope.   I guess we all know what they have been doing with all the aluminum cans they've collecting over the years. 

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9 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

LOL.  Snowcone party?  I never heard of that.

The Year of a Million Schemes is real!

I think we will see more and more of it.  Can't blame Disney for trying.

7 hours ago, Duane said:

There will be no shaming or judging here!  If you feel the need to pay $50 for a snow cone, then go right ahead and let it go (your money that is!)

Ha, ha, ha!! I actually had to go on-line and see if this is still offered and surprise, surprise, it is not!! It actually ended about a week after we were there! It was officially called a "Frozen pre-show package"

I looked at their advertisement from last year and this is what was included for $50.00 per person.

-Event credentials lanyard with collectible pin    -Frozen shaved ice treat     -beverage station with soft drinks, beer and wine (this is true, but was a waste for us. The kids and I do not drink any soft drinks, weird I know!! My husband loves beer, but you were given a certificate and were limited to ONE!! My oldest son did not have his license with him to get a voucher for a beer. My youngest son was not 21. I don't like beer or wine, but did use my voucher to get my son a beer. So while the drinks sound like a nice little perk, it wasn't all that great for us.)  -3 photo op locations, one with a character. (While true there were 3 photo op locations, they appeared poorly thrown together and not appealing for us, with our boys being 20 and 23. There was NO character photo op!!! At the very end, Olaf basically ran through the room, but he didn't stop for any photos.)   -Crayon and coloring sheets (WooHoo!!!)  -gallery of original art design. (This was news to me, when I read that today. We saw no art!)   -magical snow moment  (this did happen right before we were escorted to the Hyperion Theater. It was the "soap snow" that we see at WDW)     -priority admission to front row seats in the theater. (that was awesome!)

So, like I said, we still laugh at what we call our $50.00 snow cones!!!  I guess, we should technically say that two of us got a beer and a snow cone for $50.00.

But yeah, Disney is good about separating us from our money and not always giving us a fair return on our money!!!!

Great update TCD! I loved all of your early morning photos!!

So did Disney fill in the old River Country pool with sand? My son and I tried to walk over and talk a peek through the fence when we were there in Feb., but two cast members appeared out of no where and told us that we weren't supposed to go past the old admission building.

 

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On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 11:46 AM, kadancer said:

Thanks for sharing the best time of day at the Fort.  I love taking my morning walk while it is quiet and peaceful.  I feel like I am on vacation just looking at the photos....

I'm glad you like the photos.  I noticed that I always seem to have more from the mornings than later in the day.  I think it's because I can take photos without people in them a lot easier in the mornings.

It is great to be out and about early in the morning at the Fort- it's like you have the whole place to yourself.

On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 0:19 PM, shoreline99 said:

Thanks for the updates, TCD - looks like you had a great trip and the TCD luck/magic still holds!

Always.

I still am amazed at the great experience we had at Animal Kingdom on opening day of Pandora.  Everything went our way that day.

On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 0:37 PM, Duane said:

There will be no shaming or judging here!  If you feel the need to pay $50 for a snow cone, then go right ahead and let it go (your money that is!)

I agree.

I like to hear from people who shelled out money for some of these apparent schemes.  Although I thing they're overpriced, they do have some value.  Depending on your circumstances, they could have a lot of value.

On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 2:14 PM, Memphis said:

If they replace all the picnic tables with the aluminum ones, they better start handing out little packets of burn ointment with the skiter dope.   I guess we all know what they have been doing with all the aluminum cans they've collecting over the years. 

Seriously. Aluminum can definitely get a lot hotter than wood.

But, there are big stadiums all over Florida where spectators sit on aluminum benches, so it's not like Disney is doing something unheard of.

The Backyard BBQ picnic tables are sheltered from the elements.  Which makes it weird that someone decided to use aluminum tables in there.

22 hours ago, Specularius said:

That big trailer was there when we left on Friday morning the 2nd, but was gone when we checked back in on the 7th. I bet it cost more than 90% of the campers in the Fort.

That trailer was obviously something special, but I didn't realize it was something so expensive.

I wanted to know what the owner of it hauled around in there.  Some kind of fancy cars, probably.

18 hours ago, Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM said:

Ha, ha, ha!! I actually had to go on-line and see if this is still offered and surprise, surprise, it is not!! It actually ended about a week after we were there! It was officially called a "Frozen pre-show package"

I looked at their advertisement from last year and this is what was included for $50.00 per person.

-Event credentials lanyard with collectible pin    -Frozen shaved ice treat     -beverage station with soft drinks, beer and wine (this is true, but was a waste for us. The kids and I do not drink any soft drinks, weird I know!! My husband loves beer, but you were given a certificate and were limited to ONE!! My oldest son did not have his license with him to get a voucher for a beer. My youngest son was not 21. I don't like beer or wine, but did use my voucher to get my son a beer. So while the drinks sound like a nice little perk, it wasn't all that great for us.)  -3 photo op locations, one with a character. (While true there were 3 photo op locations, they appeared poorly thrown together and not appealing for us, with our boys being 20 and 23. There was NO character photo op!!! At the very end, Olaf basically ran through the room, but he didn't stop for any photos.)   -Crayon and coloring sheets (WooHoo!!!)  -gallery of original art design. (This was news to me, when I read that today. We saw no art!)   -magical snow moment  (this did happen right before we were escorted to the Hyperion Theater. It was the "soap snow" that we see at WDW)     -priority admission to front row seats in the theater. (that was awesome!)

So, like I said, we still laugh at what we call our $50.00 snow cones!!!  I guess, we should technically say that two of us got a beer and a snow cone for $50.00.

But yeah, Disney is good about separating us from our money and not always giving us a fair return on our money!!!!

Great update TCD! I loved all of your early morning photos!!

I think $50 per person is way to high, but that sounds like a pretty neat package.  The front row seats are something that you would not have been able to get without standing in the hot sun for hours.  Disney beers are about $10 so, there was some value there with the pin, lanyard and beer.

18 hours ago, Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM said:

So did Disney fill in the old River Country pool with sand? My son and I tried to walk over and talk a peek through the fence when we were there in Feb., but two cast members appeared out of no where and told us that we weren't supposed to go past the old admission building.

Yes, they filled the pool in with dirt last summer during the Zika mosquito craze.

TCD

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Let's move on now.

It is still Sunday morning, May 28th, and I'm making my early morning rounds.

Not many people were out and about at this early hour, but some CM's had already been at work.

They were trying something new that I haven't seen done before- they had coned-off some of the golf cart parking at the marina:

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They were going to be having a Memorial Day Beach Party down here tonight, and they were making space for the crowds.

I was relieved to see that not only was Cabin #120 still standing, it also didn't look like the kids had left a big mess outside the night before (but you can see that Twin #1's moss wall was peeling off the wall a bit) :

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For some reason, I always find myself visiting the Meadow Trading Post when I'm on my morning rounds, and I ended up here this morning:

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None of the materials I received at check in gave any details about the Memorial Day Beach Party, but there was a schedule posted on the Meadow Trading Post bulletin board:

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We hadn't planned on participating in any of that, but some of it sounded interesting, so I planned to mention it to the kids in the cabin whenever I saw them.  We also had Pandora FP+'s again for later in the day, so another trip to AK was a possibility too.

The rocking chair situation was good on the front porch of the trading post- I am not sure whose towel that is hanging on the post in the background:

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I was surprised to see that it looked like a father and daughter were fishing on Bob's dock when I checked out the back.  I could also see that the Food Truck was still in place over by the campfire. There was a sign I had seen somewhere saying that there would be food trucks (plural) at the beach party tonight, and I assumed that the Fort Food Truck would be one of them, but here it still was:

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Despite the record drought-like conditions central Florida had all spring this year, the grass and trees behind the trading post looked to be in great shape.  I don't think Disney observes any of the water restrictions that the state and local governments impose on the rest of us:

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There really wasn't much happening at the trading post, so I headed out for some looping. I spotted this sweet golf cart on the 1000 loop- it was really long:

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Those folks over there had repurposed a lot of Christmas inflatables to use for Memorial Day weekend:

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I liked how these campers painted and displayed their wood sign, but their dogs didn't get cool names like Bones Derek:

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This guy had a Jack Skellington Lamp in addition to his Mickey lamp, plus a third one. But, I couldn't tell what the third one was supposed to be:

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After I finished my morning rounds, I headed back to the site to make some coffee and see if Mrs. TCD had stirred.  She was waking up, so I waited outside for her.

I saw Blake again that morning, and he shared that his group was going to be taking on Pandora today. I wished him luck with that.

I decided to set up the new Magic Band I had bought for myself yesterday.  I have never bought a retail Magic Band before this one, but I caved on this one since it is the first teal colored Magic Band released for sale by Disney, and it is the first Passholder exclusive Magic Band.  Plus, it commemorates the opening day of Pandora, which we were there to for.  So here it is:

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It came as no surprise to me when Twin #2 told me a couple of days ago that they still have these for sale at Animal Kingdom. I figured there wouldn't be 5000 suckers there on opening day.  I'll bet these are eventually going to be available at the CM store for a couple of bucks a pop.

But, I still like it, and don't regret buying it.

Mrs. TCD sat around for a bit enjoying the cool morning and our coffee until I got a text from Twin #2.  One of her guests needed a ride out to the overflow lot to get her car, as she had to go to work.  I forgot to mention that one of the golf carts had died the night before, and I had them both at my site overnight to charge.

So, I went over to pick up Twin #2 and her friend, and shuttled the friend out to the overflow lot.  I noticed this Real Man of Genius had his slides out, and might have enjoyed a free night of boondocking in the overflow overflow lot:

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After a bit, the twins invited us over to the cabin so we could discuss important issues like breakfast and lunch plans.

It ended up that they wanted to go to brunch at Trail's End.  They had all tried to make reservations online the night before and this morning, but were getting nothing.  It didn't seem so busy, so I walked over there.  The helpful young lady at the podium told me that she could probably get us in within 30 to 45 minutes, and that if I gave her a cell number, she could text us when the table was ready. That was awesome, because that meant we could just wait in the cabin for the text.  The text came after only 30 minutes, and we headed over to brunch.  That was an awesome deal.

Even though it had been a nice cool morning, it warmed up quickly, and it was pushing 90 after brunch. The kids vetoed the idea of going back to Pandora, and instead chose to loop and go to the pool.  Mrs. TCD and I got to hang back at the cabin, which was awesome.

They did bring the Fort Wilderness Food Truck down to the Settlement in the afternoon, and set it up next to the moonshine trailer. That ended up being the food trucks (plural) for the beach bash:

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You can't really see it in this photo, but there was a crew of CM's setting up a stage on the beach for the party.  It looked like this Beach Party might end up being something:

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As the afternoon passed, more of the twins' friends took off, until there was just one left, along with all of the TCD gang.  All of the kids had to work, and there wouldn't be a second big night of partying.  Which was fine with me.

Since there was no rain, the party decorations held up pretty well:

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We did a lot of looping that afternoon.

Here's something interesting that was saw on the 600 loop.  A sweet beer pong trophy:

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As the day passed, our enthusiasm for hitting a park lessened, and we eventually agreed that we would stay and enjoy the beach bash.

Which meant dinner would be from the Food Truck!

Which was absolutely fine by me.

I figured if we waited a bit, the lines would die down, and we might not have a long wait at the Food Truck.

So, we headed over at 7:45- way past the dinner hour:

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The Settlement area was busy, but not crazy busy considering it was a holiday weekend:

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My plan to go late to avoid a line at the Food Truck was a fail:

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I didn't know what the deal was with the Moonshine trailer.  They weren't serving drinks out of it. They had everything pre-mixed in those dispensers up there:

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They were charging $11.25 each for those pre-mixed drinks, and I didn't see them sell any.:

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The menu for tonight was the standard Food Truck menu:

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But, we all noticed that they had one special item:

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The twins had never heard of such a thing.  I told them that my dad used to tell me about something they ate in the Army called Sh*t on a Shingle, and that I think that must be what this was.  They asked me what Bresaola beef was, and I told them I hadn't a clue.  And we all wondered what the deal was with the chocolate bar?  How did that fit into things.  I tried to talk one of the twins in to ordering the SOS, because I wanted to know what it was, but I didn't want that to be my dinner.  But nobody would order it. 

So, in the name of science, I took one for the team and ordered the creamed beef.

While I awaited my fate, I enjoyed the details on the Food Truck:

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Oh, and this is good news, too.  I asked if there was a passholder discount, and there was!  Check it out:

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DIT-if you are reading along, make note that Twin #1 ordered the brisket sandwich again, even though it wasn't the greatest item last time.  She still liked it enough to have another one.  If she ever goes to Buffalo and has a real Beef on Weck, she will sure be surprised.

With the discount, this ended up being a cheap meal for six people.  At least by Disney standards.

While waiting for the food, I headed down to the beach to see how things looked.  It was almost 8:15 now, so only 45 minutes to fireworks, and people were starting to show up:

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Chip and Dale were down here, and there were more CM's with them than there were guests:

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They had an inflatable movie screen set up. I guess that there was no campfire tonight, as it was all down here at the beach:

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You may have noticed that there are a lot of beach photos.

That's because the Food Truck was SLOW tonight.

But, we got our food eventually.

And, I got to see SOS with my own eyes.

And here it is:

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So how was it?

Let me share that my stomach just turned when I saw that photo as I was typing this update.

It remembers.

If I had to choose one word to describe the SOS, I would chose salty.

Wow, it was salty.

The gravy was like 50% salt, 40% flour, and 10% salty meat.

The point I'm trying to make is that it was salty.

I always brag to my girls that I will eat anything.

It is one of the secrets to my 30 year marriage.  I've never not eaten something Mrs. TCD made.

But, it was tough to eat that SOS.

And the kicker is, there was no chocolate bar!

I didn't realize that until I was done, and one of the girls asked me about it.

Talk about false advertising.

I was going to go back to the Food Truck to complain.

But, it was time for fireworks, and I had no time for that.

Plus, for some reason, I had a stomachache.

TCD

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52 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

DIT-if you are reading along, make note that Twin #1 ordered the brisket sandwich again, even though it wasn't the greatest item last time.  She still liked it enough to have another one.  If she ever goes to Buffalo and has a real Beef on Weck, she will sure be surprised.

I am guessing the chances of her ever going to Buffalo are very low.  Unless she someday marries someone from Buffalo.  Which considering how many people there are in Florida originally from Buffalo is not outside the realm of possibilities.  

52 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

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So how was it?

Let me share that my stomach just turned when I saw that photo as I was typing this update.

It remembers.

If I had to choose one word to describe the SOS, I would chose salty.

Wow, it was salty.

 

As someone who grew up with SOS being solidly in the dinner rotation, I can tell you I vividly remember the salt.  But I also remember sort of enjoying the dish when my Mom made it.  That picture, however, is disgusting.  Who thought that was a good idea??

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2 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

As someone who grew up with SOS being solidly in the dinner rotation, I can tell you I vividly remember the salt.  But I also remember sort of enjoying the dish when my Mom made it.  That picture, however, is disgusting.  Who thought that was a good idea??

I noticed on the dance party they were going back a 100 years.  Maybe they were aiming for a nostalgic WWII era meal?  They were also saluting the military and there isn't a much more military meal than SOS unless you get MREs. 

That one looks pretty gross.  They are salty but not unbearably so if made right.

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