Down by the Riverside (and Fort): A TCD End of Summer Trip Report

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Where did the summer go?

All of the TCD girls went back to school this week.

It is a long standing tradition in the TCD gang to take an end of the summer trip to WDW.

So, we had to go this last weekend.

The only problem was that we could only go for two nights. it has been really hot and rainy, so we decided that we ought to stay in a resort, rather than camp.

Well, actually, that wasn't the only problem.

The main problem was that I could not get a room reservation to save my life. I tried for about two weeks solid to get a value or moderate room reservation. There were Florida Resident and Passholder rates offered. Forget about those. I couldn't get a value or moderate room for rack rate. I tried on-line. I called the reservation number. Several times. Which I hate. But I was desperate. They could only offer me ridiculous options like club level suites at $700 a night. Sounds nice, but that's not how we roll. We wanted to go for Friday and Saturday night. When Thursday evening rolled around, I tried one last time. Still nothing. There were all kinds of deals being offered by Disney's competitors. But we wanted to stay in a WDW resort. It looked like we were out of luck.

Then I got an idea. I called an old friend. HIlda. A lot of you know her. She's kind of famous around the Fort. Did you know she's a travel agent? Well she is. I called her to ask if it was super busy over there, and to see if she had any ideas on where we might try to stay off property. She told me that it was dead there. Dead. She said there had to be a lot of rooms available. I told her I had been trying, and that there weren't. She told me she would check and call me back. Less than an hour later, Hilda called me back. At first, she was getting all kinds of crazy results with her computer. So she called the travel agent line. It turns out that WDW was doing some kind of computer system upgrade. Hilda was able to get me a Florida Resident's rate for Port Orleans Riverside. I booked it through her. We were in!

But, what kind of way is that to run a company? If HIlda hadn't come through for me, we would have either not taken our trip, or stayed off-site. How much business did Disney loose because their system is screwed up?

But, I digress.

We were excited to stay at POR. We used to stay there with just our oldest daughter back when it was new. It was called Dixie Landings then. I think the last time we stayed there was in 1999, and that was when we had been evacuated from the Fort for a hurricane. Other than stopping by for an occasional meal, we hadn't been to the resort in a long time. We used to like it. But, what would it be like now? I won't keep you in suspense about that. We had a great stay. We will get to all of the details in due time.

But first, as with all TCD trip reports, we must start at the beginning.

We left home early. We planned to make it to Hollywood Studios for rope drop.

We made it with time to spare. We pulled in to the Hollywood Studios parking lot, and were heading to the gates by 8:30 am. The park was opening at 9. Perfect.

It was crowded. I guess a lot of people were taking their end of summer trips too.

I love Hollywood Studios rope drop. It's my favorite of all the parks. It is hard core. At the other parks, people have different opinions, and head off in different directions at rope drop. Not at Hollywood Studios. Everyone is going to Toy Story Midway Mania. And it gets brutal. It's like the running of the bulls at Pamplona. Minus the bulls. But plus strollers. And old folks. And clueless people in general. It's great.

As we arrived in the park, we took our places in the crowd. We were a bit back from the rope, but we knew we were in pretty good shape to be the first in the Toy Story building.

While we waited, we sized up our competition fellow guests.

This lady over here was knitting:

What the Fort?

Doesn't this lady know that she is about to be running for her life in a few minutes?

Over here we have two gentlemen with solar powered fans built in to their hats:

How awesome is that?

Do you see the solar panels on the top?

I wonder how much they paid for those beauties?

I'll bet their heads didn't get sweaty at all.

Isn't technology grand?

Who cares about cities of tomorrow and flying cars?

We can all wear solar powered hats!

These guys clearly weren't going to make it either.

Did I mention it was crowded?

Here's the poor folks who were behind us:

Actors come out and do a little pre-show for the crowd before rope drop:

I feel sorry for them.

All of those acting lessons, and no one pays them a bit of attention. Instead, the arrival of the actors is a signal to the runners that it is time to jostle for position and get ready to charge. The folks with strollers pick out who they are going to ram in to. The lady with the knitting needles was getting ready to stab her first victim. It gets serious I tell you.

And, then, suddenly, and seemingly without warning, the crowd surges forward. If you don't move, you will be trampled. So we move. This is the best part. For the next three or so minutes, we are in the middle of a mob charging forward to Pixar Place. If you hesitate, someone will run into you. Sometime, I would like to find a way to be ahead of the mob and video what happens. It is amazing. We have done this many times, and we will do it again. We made it to the entrance no worse for wear. One of the TCD twins had weaved her way to the front of the crowd and got us Fastpasses for later. She joined us in line just as we were entering the building. Perfect. The line moves fast this time of morning, and before we knew it we were enjoying the ride.

While in the queue inside the building, I was approached by a lady who told me she was a big fan and read all of my trip reports. She said that she was just a lurker. I introduced myself, and she did the same. She told me her name is Heidi. So guess what Heidi? You made it in to a TCD trip report! Now do us all a favor and come out of lurkdom and say hello! You know we are a friendly bunch here. It makes my day when a lurker comes out of the shadows and says hello. So, come on Heidi. Come out come out, wherever you are!

It's sometimes hard being a celebrity, but someone has to do it.

I think I saw a thread around here where people post their Toy Story scores. If any of you know where it is, give me a link, and I will post our scores there. I rode with one twin, and here are our scores:

Mine is the lower score.

We used to think that you could get higher scores with team work. But, the other TCD twin doesn't think so, she now always wants to ride alone. This is her score (she was on the other side of our car):

She almost got the high score for the hour.

Sometime we are going to get here on the first day of a month and get the high score for the month.

I have no idea how someone gets such a high score on this ride.

After our first ride, we headed out to go over to Star Tours.

As we left, the wait time was already 65 minutes! You can see that it was only 9:20 am!

It was going to be a long day for guests at Hollywood Studios.

You can see here that the line was almost stretched to the Backlot Tour entrance:

Even though Pixar Place was a madhouse, the New York Street was practically deserted:

It wasn't busy around Star Tours at all.

The sign told us that it was a 5 minute wait.

Sweet.

As we entered, we got a small bit of pixie dust.

The castmembers had us go in the Fastpass line.

We walked right past everyone inside and right on to the ride.

And, something else fun happened too.

One of the TCD twins was the rebel spy!

Darth Vader was mad about that.

He chased us all over the universe.

But we got the spy back safely.

Here she is!:

While the Disney reservation system is clearly run by idiots, the Disney marketing division is clearly run by geniuses.

Do the math.

How many rebel spies are there a day?

And, they all want a T-shirt, right?

But, I am no sucker.

I am not going to spend 25 bucks on some cheap T-shirt.

So there.

We headed across the park from here. We were already eligible to get another Fastpass, so we got a Rock-N-Roller coaster Fastpass, and headed over to Tower of Terror. We were doing great on time.

That all came to a screeching halt here.

The TOT sign said it was a 50 minute wait.

That had to be a mistake.

It was just 10 am.

Rock and Roller coaster was only a 20 minute wait.

There was no way that TOT was going to take 50 minutes.

Guess what?

It did.

When we finally got inside the boiler room we found out why.

They were only operating two of the four elevators.

Boo!

Here's our ride pic:

The good news is that we had waited so long on TOT that our Rock N Roller coaster Fastpasses were now good.

So we headed there:

The girls tried out some new wigs in the gift shop.

By the time we had gotten out of the gift shop, it was late morning. And it was getting hot. The park was crowded. We had Toy Story Fastpasses to use.

But, as we fought through the crowds, we all agreed that we would rather head over to our hotel and check in, and maybe go for a swim. We had hit the four major attractions already, so why not?

So, we left.

This trip had come together quick that I didn't have time to get proper provisions to bring.

By provisions I mean beer.

So, we stopped at the Hess Express right outside the entrance.

This is for Lonestar:

While we were here, I decided to check out something.

One of WDW's other water bridges!

It's right here:

We all thought it was pretty cool!

From here we headed over to our resort.

We got there around noon.

That should have been a good time to check in.

But it wasn't.

It was packed.

See that line over there by the concierge sign?:

All of those people are waiting to check in.

And they had three castmembers on duty to check them all it.

I had just gotten out of that line when I took the photo.

It wasn't quite as long when I waited.

We were in line for about 20 minutes.

Notice how all of the kids have balloons?

You know this was going to happen:

The lobby here is neat.

I guess it is supposed to resemble a riverboat terminal or something.

There are names of cities displayed all around the top:

I guess that these are all ports on the Mississippi River.

This resort has great theming

We will see some of that in the next post.

But, for now we are at our photo limit.

As the title implies, I made it over to the Fort on this trip.

And, I made some discoveries over there.

And, yes, there are photos documenting those discoveries.

So, be sure to check back.

TCD

[freshlybarked 4]

We were at FW for the weekend. I've never been to POR. Looks nice. I'll post trip report and pictures later. Looks like you had a fun time. We did AK because it looked like HS was a madhouse. AK was bad enough.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We were at FW for the weekend. I've never been to POR. Looks nice. I'll post trip report and pictures later. Looks like you had a fun time. We did AK because it looked like HS was a madhouse. AK was bad enough.

Hey neighbor!

I saw your post about the monorails being down on Saturday night. We were also at the MK that night. I'll tell you how we fared when I get to that part of the report. We did rope drop at AK on Saturday morning. What day were you there?

I took a look around the 1500 loop on this trip. I usually take a look at the 1700 loop too, but I didn't. Too bad, maybe we would have finally met.

I'm sure we will meet up one of these days.

TCD

[SCTigerCock 171]

Enjoying the report!

:dance:

[stefa70 205]

Hooray for another report! :jumpforjoy

I guess DHS is where female fiends jump out of nowhere and say HEY? Hasn't this happened before?

Love the pic of the twins in the wigs.

Rock On!!!

Freebird!!

[freshlybarked 4]

I find it so funny that we almost meet all the time. We did AK on Saturday also. Got caught in storm and did MK St night. Our next trip's in October. We did get APs again so we can keep trying.

[fishngjb 2]

Where did the summer go?

All of the TCD girls went back to school this week.

It is a long standing tradition in the TCD gang to take an end of the summer trip to WDW.

So, we had to go this last weekend.

The only problem was that we could only go for two nights. it has been really hot and rainy, so we decided that we ought to stay in a resort, rather than camp.

Well, actually, that wasn't the only problem.

The main problem was that I could not get a room reservation to save my life. I tried for about two weeks solid to get a value or moderate room reservation. There were Florida Resident and Passholder rates offered. Forget about those. I couldn't get a value or moderate room for rack rate. I tried on-line. I called the reservation number. Several times. Which I hate. But I was desperate. They could only offer me ridiculous options like club level suites at $700 a night. Sounds nice, but that's not how we roll. We wanted to go for Friday and Saturday night. When Thursday evening rolled around, I tried one last time. Still nothing. There were all kinds of deals being offered by Disney's competitors. But we wanted to stay in a WDW resort. It looked like we were out of luck.

Then I got an idea. I called an old friend. HIlda. A lot of you know her. She's kind of famous around the Fort. Did you know she's a travel agent? Well she is. I called her to ask if it was super busy over there, and to see if she had any ideas on where we might try to stay off property. She told me that it was dead there. Dead. She said there had to be a lot of rooms available. I told her I had been trying, and that there weren't. She told me she would check and call me back. Less than an hour later, Hilda called me back. At first, she was getting all kinds of crazy results with her computer. So she called the travel agent line. It turns out that WDW was doing some kind of computer system upgrade. Hilda was able to get me a Florida Resident's rate for Port Orleans Riverside. I booked it through her. We were in!

But, what kind of way is that to run a company? If HIlda hadn't come through for me, we would have either not taken our trip, or stayed off-site. How much business did Disney loose because their system is screwed up?

But, I digress.

We were excited to stay at POR. We used to stay there with just our oldest daughter back when it was new. It was called Dixie Landings then. I think the last time we stayed there was in 1999, and that was when we had been evacuated from the Fort for a hurricane. Other than stopping by for an occasional meal, we hadn't been to the resort in a long time. We used to like it. But, what would it be like now? I won't keep you in suspense about that. We had a great stay. We will get to all of the details in due time.

But first, as with all TCD trip reports, we must start at the beginning.

We left home early. We planned to make it to Hollywood Studios for rope drop.

We made it with time to spare. We pulled in to the Hollywood Studios parking lot, and were heading to the gates by 8:30 am. The park was opening at 9. Perfect.

It was crowded. I guess a lot of people were taking their end of summer trips too.

I love Hollywood Studios rope drop. It's my favorite of all the parks. It is hard core. At the other parks, people have different opinions, and head off in different directions at rope drop. Not at Hollywood Studios. Everyone is going to Toy Story Midway Mania. And it gets brutal. It's like the running of the bulls at Pamplona. Minus the bulls. But plus strollers. And old folks. And clueless people in general. It's great.

As we arrived in the park, we took our places in the crowd. We were a bit back from the rope, but we knew we were in pretty good shape to be the first in the Toy Story building.

While we waited, we sized up our competition fellow guests.

This lady over here was knitting:

What the Fort?

Doesn't this lady know that she is about to be running for her life in a few minutes?

Over here we have two gentlemen with solar powered fans built in to their hats:

How awesome is that?

Do you see the solar panels on the top?

I wonder how much they paid for those beauties?

I'll bet their heads didn't get sweaty at all.

Isn't technology grand?

Who cares about cities of tomorrow and flying cars?

We can all wear solar powered hats!

These guys clearly weren't going to make it either.

Did I mention it was crowded?

Here's the poor folks who were behind us:

Actors come out and do a little pre-show for the crowd before rope drop:

I feel sorry for them.

All of those acting lessons, and no one pays them a bit of attention. Instead, the arrival of the actors is a signal to the runners that it is time to jostle for position and get ready to charge. The folks with strollers pick out who they are going to ram in to. The lady with the knitting needles was getting ready to stab her first victim. It gets serious I tell you.

And, then, suddenly, and seemingly without warning, the crowd surges forward. If you don't move, you will be trampled. So we move. This is the best part. For the next three or so minutes, we are in the middle of a mob charging forward to Pixar Place. If you hesitate, someone will run into you. Sometime, I would like to find a way to be ahead of the mob and video what happens. It is amazing. We have done this many times, and we will do it again. We made it to the entrance no worse for wear. One of the TCD twins had weaved her way to the front of the crowd and got us Fastpasses for later. She joined us in line just as we were entering the building. Perfect. The line moves fast this time of morning, and before we knew it we were enjoying the ride.

While in the queue inside the building, I was approached by a lady who told me she was a big fan and read all of my trip reports. She said that she was just a lurker. I introduced myself, and she did the same. She told me her name is Heidi. So guess what Heidi? You made it in to a TCD trip report! Now do us all a favor and come out of lurkdom and say hello! You know we are a friendly bunch here. It makes my day when a lurker comes out of the shadows and says hello. So, come on Heidi. Come out come out, wherever you are!

It's sometimes hard being a celebrity, but someone has to do it.

I think I saw a thread around here where people post their Toy Story scores. If any of you know where it is, give me a link, and I will post our scores there. I rode with one twin, and here are our scores:

Mine is the lower score.

We used to think that you could get higher scores with team work. But, the other TCD twin doesn't think so, she now always wants to ride alone. This is her score (she was on the other side of our car):

She almost got the high score for the hour.

Sometime we are going to get here on the first day of a month and get the high score for the month.

I have no idea how someone gets such a high score on this ride.

After our first ride, we headed out to go over to Star Tours.

As we left, the wait time was already 65 minutes! You can see that it was only 9:20 am!

It was going to be a long day for guests at Hollywood Studios.

You can see here that the line was almost stretched to the Backlot Tour entrance:

Even though Pixar Place was a madhouse, the New York Street was practically deserted:

It wasn't busy around Star Tours at all.

The sign told us that it was a 5 minute wait.

Sweet.

As we entered, we got a small bit of pixie dust.

The castmembers had us go in the Fastpass line.

We walked right past everyone inside and right on to the ride.

And, something else fun happened too.

One of the TCD twins was the rebel spy!

Darth Vader was mad about that.

He chased us all over the universe.

But we got the spy back safely.

Here she is!:

While the Disney reservation system is clearly run by idiots, the Disney marketing division is clearly run by geniuses.

Do the math.

How many rebel spies are there a day?

And, they all want a T-shirt, right?

But, I am no sucker.

I am not going to spend 25 bucks on some cheap T-shirt.

So there.

We headed across the park from here. We were already eligible to get another Fastpass, so we got a Rock-N-Roller coaster Fastpass, and headed over to Tower of Terror. We were doing great on time.

That all came to a screeching halt here.

The TOT sign said it was a 50 minute wait.

That had to be a mistake.

It was just 10 am.

Rock and Roller coaster was only a 20 minute wait.

There was no way that TOT was going to take 50 minutes.

Guess what?

It did.

When we finally got inside the boiler room we found out why.

They were only operating two of the four elevators.

Boo!

Here's our ride pic:

The good news is that we had waited so long on TOT that our Rock N Roller coaster Fastpasses were now good.

So we headed there:

The girls tried out some new wigs in the gift shop.

By the time we had gotten out of the gift shop, it was late morning. And it was getting hot. The park was crowded. We had Toy Story Fastpasses to use.

But, as we fought through the crowds, we all agreed that we would rather head over to our hotel and check in, and maybe go for a swim. We had hit the four major attractions already, so why not?

So, we left.

This trip had come together quick that I didn't have time to get proper provisions to bring.

By provisions I mean beer.

So, we stopped at the Hess Express right outside the entrance.

This is for Lonestar:

While we were here, I decided to check out something.

One of WDW's other water bridges!

It's right here:

We all thought it was pretty cool!

From here we headed over to our resort.

We got there around noon.

That should have been a good time to check in.

But it wasn't.

It was packed.

See that line over there by the concierge sign?:

All of those people are waiting to check in.

And they had three castmembers on duty to check them all it.

I had just gotten out of that line when I took the photo.

It wasn't quite as long when I waited.

We were in line for about 20 minutes.

Notice how all of the kids have balloons?

You know this was going to happen:

The lobby here is neat.

I guess it is supposed to resemble a riverboat terminal or something.

There are names of cities displayed all around the top:

I guess that these are all ports on the Mississippi River.

This resort has great theming

We will see some of that in the next post.

But, for now we are at our photo limit.

As the title implies, I made it over to the Fort on this trip.

And, I made some discoveries over there.

And, yes, there are photos documenting those discoveries.

So, be sure to check back.

TCD

[rdancemom... Pam 113]

wow

it can't be

could i make it on board in the first page?? NO WAY!!

Gotta hit post now before it's too late...

argh... where's that running smiley at when you need him... :dance:

[fishngjb 2]

Really enjoyed your post. I wonder if Hilda could help us get 2 more days added to our Dec. trip to the Fort ? We have to check out on the 24th and I have been calling and calling to try to get a couple of more days, so not traveling on Christmas Eve and Day. Reservations say they have nothing available.:banana: :dance: We have met her at the Fort, but I do not know how to contact her. Does she have a web site or online contact ?

[rdancemom... Pam 113]

whew... I made it! too friggin awesome! I'm still working my way thru reading TCD's whopper of a july 4 TR out loud to DH while he's recovering and can't go outside... guess I can go back & read him another 2 or 3 pages of that now... :popcorn:

But now I can read new TCD stuff all by myself while I'm trapped here. I'm in! :parrot:

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

:popcorn: POR was OldeKoot's favorite - until we stayed at The Fort!

Meanwhile, are you sure your not FFF?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Enjoying the report!

:dance:

Good job.

You made it in on the first page!

Only a few spaces are left!

Hey Heidi- if you are reading, you had better jump in now!

Hooray for another report! :jumpforjoy

I guess DHS is where female fiends jump out of nowhere and say HEY? Hasn't this happened before?

Love the pic of the twins in the wigs.

Rock On!!!

Freebird!!

You are right!

I did meet a couple of my favorite fiends for the first time at Hollywood Studios.

It seems like just yesterday.

I find it so funny that we almost meet all the time. We did AK on Saturday also. Got caught in storm and did MK St night. Our next trip's in October. We did get APs again so we can keep trying.

Sounds like we had some near misses on this trip! You will have to read on and compare notes.

Since you got AP's, I am sure we will meet up one of these days at the Fort.

If not, we will just have to set up a place to meet here.

Really enjoyed your post. I wonder if Hilda could help us get 2 more days added to our Dec. trip to the Fort ? We have to check out on the 24th and I have been calling and calling to try to get a couple of more days, so not traveling on Christmas Eve and Day. Reservations say they have nothing available.:banana: :dance: We have met her at the Fort, but I do not know how to contact her. Does she have a web site or online contact ?

Holidays are tricky. Disney blocks them out for a while, and then opens them up. I don't get it. Maybe Hilda could help. I will PM you her number. I don't have it here with me, so I will try to remember to do that tomorrow. If I forget, please feel free to remind me.

whew... I made it! too friggin awesome! I'm still working my way thru reading TCD's whopper of a july 4 TR out loud to DH while he's recovering and can't go outside... guess I can go back & read him another 2 or 3 pages of that now... :popcorn:

But now I can read new TCD stuff all by myself while I'm trapped here. I'm in! :parrot:

Not to worry, there is plenty more to come. If I were you, I'd get that 4th of July report done. This one is probably going to get a little long too.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

:popcorn: POR was OldeKoot's favorite - until we stayed at The Fort!

Meanwhile, are you sure your not FFF?

I really liked POR, and will have some photos showing why in just a bit.

I am most definitely not FFF.

I am anti-fairy. I see what happened to you and S70. I am staying away from that!

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I made it to the first page too! Our only stay at POR was miserable ... missing the fort. It was for our son's wedding. Quick trip down and back so we didn't tow the TT. We found POR to be dark and poorly decorated with really small rooms. The pool was so small ... we were miserable ... did I say that again? Hope your stay was better!

[LORNADUCK 261]

Really enjoyed your post. I wonder if Hilda could help us get 2 more days added to our Dec. trip to the Fort ? We have to check out on the 24th and I have been calling and calling to try to get a couple of more days, so not traveling on Christmas Eve and Day. Reservations say they have nothing available.:banana: :dance: We have met her at the Fort, but I do not know how to contact her. Does she have a web site or online contact ?

We have 2 great travel agents that most of deal with, one is Rhonda she is super and a lot of the fiends use her. She supports us!!!

The other is Judy, a lot of fiends use here and she can usually get what you want!!!!

BTW both of these TA's support OUR SITE :banana:

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

I still haven't been able to connect Dec 29 to Jan 1. Those three days just aren't available - at least that's what reservations says ...

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

I go and treat myself to a spa day and come home to a TCD report. How awesome is that :banana: This should keep me busy until I head to the Fort next week :popcorn:

[scooterminnie...paula 20]

Being sick today, I have enjoyed reading both of your trip reports. Thank you!! :popcorn:

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

I'm in too! I have always liked POR, Mama likes Alligator Bayou and the boat to DTD. Of course, it ain' the Fort!

[kampfirekim 260]

Yippee!! I'm in too!!! And on the first page to boot! I just finished one TCD report and low and behold here's another. It's like it's raining TR's from heaven!

Congrats to the TCD twin for being the rebel spy. May be force be with her.

[Lil Lisa 53]

Yay! Another TCD trip report. This should get me through until Friday when we leave! I wish you were going to be at the fort over labor day weekend (Lou told me that you weren't going to be around). I was really hoping to meet you this time.

[LONE-STAR 370]

Thanks for the beer I enjoyed it. Hope you got one for your self.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Hey, made it on page 2. All in all not too bad.

I know how it feels being bested by your daughters on TSMM. They are fast learners!

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

Yeah another TCD trip report.:banana: Being that we are a family of 5 Riverside is one of the optional resorts available to us. We have never stayed there so, I am looking forward to reading all you have to say about it.

[BouncingTiggers 98]

Alright another TR from TCD. I can't wait for more.