TCD's Halloween 2011 Trip Report

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Thanks, guys!

I figured that these were for sale somewhere.

I try to stay out of Target and Walmart.

TCD

So did we before we hit the road. Sadly, sometimes Walmart is your only option for groceries. They are certainly the only ones that stock our favorite RV TP....

Not to mention the ease of getting your prescriptions filled....

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

I saw the hand right away. The opening is a tombstone, and the hand is rising from the grave ...

[Pirate Jeff 9]

Yes TCD We are heading down to Clearwater TG morning to spend it with hubby's sister. Then to Holiday to spend Friday and Sat. with my new Twin Granddaughters and the other Grandbabies. my son is moving his family to Pittsburg on that Sunday. :( So I won't have any time for shopping just lovin on them babies!

Pittsburg as in PA ? Does he know that it's cold there,real cold-- burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[gramme 2]

Yes Jeff he does! I don't agree with his decision at all. He's already got a better paying job, a house rented etc. He didn't tell me untill after I got home from the fort because he didn't want me crying at my Happy Place!

[LORNADUCK 261]

Yes Jeff he does! I don't agree with his decision at all. He's already got a better paying job, a house rented etc. He didn't tell me untill after I got home from the fort because he didn't want me crying at my Happy Place!

Joanne I forgot to congratulate you on the grandbabies, but it is hard to have them move away, I am glad he didn't tell u until you got home so it didn't spoil your time with us. Hugs to you it is going to be hard.

[gramme 2]

Joanne I forgot to congratulate you on the grandbabies, but it is hard to have them move away, I am glad he didn't tell u until you got home so it didn't spoil your time with us. Hugs to you it is going to be hard.

Thank you Lorna! I just sent you a pm

[CKCK 45]

There should be some kind of a TCD TR alarm that goes off to announce a new TR. I just showed up and it's already on page 10! Ridiculous.

Ok, my bad for not having checked FF in awhile.

[lklasing 16]

Good couple of updates, TCD! A few thoughts:

- Yes, 4 year olds at Disney are a blast.

- Waffle sandwiches? And you skipped out on them? Shame...

- All the teenage girls in my house love Nutella too.

- Love the vomiting pumpkin! Not as unusual as some of the others, but I love it anyway.

Lots of other good stuff in your updates, but those are my highlights. Can't wait for more! :pc:

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

There should be some kind of a TCD TR alarm that goes off to announce a new TR. I just showed up and it's already on page 10! Ridiculous.

Ok, my bad for not having checked FF in awhile.

It's called email notifications :-)

[kampfirekim 260]

I knew it was a creepy hand right away. :raspberry2:

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I knew it was a creepy hand right away. :raspberry2:

You just love sticking your tongue out, don't you?

[kampfirekim 260]

You just love sticking your tongue out, don't you?

What's wrong with that? :raspberry2: :rofl2:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Yes TCD We are heading down to Clearwater TG morning to spend it with hubby's sister. Then to Holiday to spend Friday and Sat. with my new Twin Granddaughters and the other Grandbabies. my son is moving his family to Pittsburg on that Sunday. :( So I won't have any time for shopping just lovin on them babies!

Wow- talk about bittersweet! Enjoy those twins! I'm sorry that your son is moving, but at least with the technology we have these days it is easier than ever to stay in touch from long distances.

I saw the hand right away. The opening is a tombstone, and the hand is rising from the grave ...

Seriously? I'll bet you were "That Guy" who used to stand in the Magic Eye (I think that's what those things were called) store in the mall back in the early 90's looking at those whacky hippie paintings and seeing the whales, peace signs, marijuana plants, or whatever other subliminal propaganda those hippies allegedly hid in their "art."

I do not see a tombstone. And, what is the design there at the bottom right? It looks like a foot with pointy toes. This looks way more like a chicken head to me.

There should be some kind of a TCD TR alarm that goes off to announce a new TR. I just showed up and it's already on page 10! Ridiculous. Ok, my bad for not having checked FF in awhile.

Spoiler alert- there's a good chance that there will be a TCD TR in progress from now until the end of the year.

Good couple of updates, TCD! A few thoughts: - Yes, 4 year olds at Disney are a blast. - Waffle sandwiches? And you skipped out on them? Shame... - All the teenage girls in my house love Nutella too. - Love the vomiting pumpkin! Not as unusual as some of the others, but I love it anyway. Lots of other good stuff in your updates, but those are my highlights. Can't wait for more! :pc:

Thanks, Leslie. I am sorry that I skipped out on the waffle sandwiches too, but I was already set on either a Taco or the Lobster Roll. The waffle sandwich didn't sound good at the time, but the idea has grown on me. Don't worry, I will be eating one of those sandwiches soon.

I knew it was a creepy hand right away. :raspberry2:

You just love sticking your tongue out, don't you?

What's wrong with that? :raspberry2: :rofl2:

I have to agree, Kim does appear to like to stick out her tongue. And, there is nothing wrong with that.

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Is it time yet... is it time yet.... waiting for that next update. (doesn't seem right to get the music out yet.. since I know you are in a hurry to wrap up this TR)

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

OK- here we go!

We will be finishing up Sunday night, October 30th in this post.

And then it will be on to Halloween.

We left off in the late afternoon with us checking out the pumpkin contest entries.

We had considered going to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party that night, but we weren't feeling it.

So, with the MK closing at 7, and since we had already visited Epcot on this trip, and AK always closes early, the process of elimination dictated that we needed to go visit Hollywood Studios. It was also going to be closing early- I think it was 8 pm. Which is kind of a bad deal. It was a holiday weekend- and there was no park open past 9 (Epcot). They should have had EMH's at Hollywood Studios on Sunday night, but nobody ever asks me for my opinion.

We ate dinner at the campsite- a modified version of Pirate Jeff's macaroni and cheese, and then we headed out to Hollywood Studios.

We would usually use the bus system for this type of thing, but since we were very tight on time, we drove.

As we headed out the back gate, I noticed that a security guard was keeping an eye on things:

I have never seen this done before. It appeared that the Fort management finally was going to make a real effort to keep outsiders from freeloading in the Fort for Halloween.

This would also be the appropriate time for me to show you this sign, which was on display at the guard shack when we checked in. You will remember the hottie that was working there, and I am sure that you will appreciate that you get to gaze upon her beauty from all angles in this photo:

Ahem.

Meow.

OK- sorry for the distraction. I just wanted you to see the sign.

When I checked in, I thought they were just going through the motions, but I think they really made an effort this year.

Anyway, off we went to Hollywood Studios.

It is really strange that we now head to Star Tours first. We had only experienced this attraction once in all the years we visited WDW, and that was because I forced everyone to go on it before it closed for its recent rehab. Now, it has become a must do. The girls have also finally watched a couple of the Star Wars movies. We are looking forward to Star Wars Weekends next year.

Since twin 2 has been the rebel spy on our last two visits, we expected her to be the rebel spy again on this visit. But she wasn't. Boo!

The girls really enjoy the gift shop that the ride exits in to.

Twin #1 liked this Wookie hat:

I told her that it was a good look for her, and offered to buy it. But she said she wouldn't be able to wear it very many places, and especially not to school. So she passed. But, I am thinking this might be something that Santa ends up bringing her. We will see.

From Star Tours, we crossed the park to Tower of Terror. We got stuck on this ride the last time we visited, so the apprehension of that possibly happening again made this visit fun. We didn't get stuck:

Next, we hit Rock N Rollercoaster.

And, then we were done.

Three rides and we were out.

That's how we roll lately.

That's the beauty of being passholders.

On the way back to the parking lot, I spotted this random sign by a tree, and snapped a photo:

There are a few of these signs in the old River Country area of the Fort. I find them interesting, plus we have a lot of live oaks around our home. Now we all know a little more about them.

When we got back to the Fort, it was time for a soda run, so we headed down to Trail's End.

As soon as we parked and walked up to the restaurant, we heard a big commotion.

A golf cart decked out like a pirate ship was driving around the circle adjacent to the Settlement playground:

The pirate ship stopped, and a bunch of folks in costumes jumped off. Take a minute and look at the detail on this creation:

I really appreciate all of the work that went in to this- make sure that you notice the anchor, the canons, the canon balls, the sails, swords, crow's nest, and ever the steering wheel. They sure did an excellent job on this!

The pirate was quite a showman. He spoke in a booming voice, and he and Peter Pan acted out a little skit involving a sword fight:

You can see that they attracted quite a few spectators. I would be willing to bet that if Disney management knew about this, they would not have been too happy, as the dialog between the pirate and Peter veered off into a discussion about Captain Morgan and other things. It was hilarious, but a bit inappropriate for a family atmosphere.

I approved of Tinkerbell's costume, but Peter's tights bothered me:

After they goofed around for a while, the crew hopped back on the ship, and they took off:

Since I hadn't seen this golf cart around the Fort all weekend, we followed it as it headed out of the Settlement to see where these folks were staying. They turned in to the 600 loop. Since I didn't want to look like an obvious stalker, we drove on by with the thought that we would check out the 600 loop later. Well, we did check it out later, and I never saw this cart anywhere on the loop. They were in the golf cart parade the next day, so they must have been staying somewhere in the Fort, but I don't know where.

One of the fun things to do before a big golf cart parade is to loop around and check out folks decorating their carts. We didn't see very many on Sunday evening. But, we did see this one in the 1600 loop:

You probably have already seen photos of this one from other Fiend's golf cart parade photos, but check out the detail. You can see the golf cart's seats to the right of the blue chair. Another thing that you can't really see is that there is a seat up in that big tea cup in the back. I think that the plan was to have somebody sit in it, and maybe even pop up and down during the golf cart parade, but when we saw them in the parade, nobody was sitting in the tea cup. I think maybe it ended up being too unsteady. I applaud these folks, too.

One of the things we had yet to do on this trip was stalk the Headless Horseman behind Fiesty's site. So, we went down there and did that. We saw the Headless Horseman come and go a couple of times, and then we walked over to the front of Fiesty's site to see if she was around.

Here's another photo of Fiesty's Headless Horseman. I guess you can tell that I really liked it:

As luck would have it, Fiesty was there! But she had a lot of guests visiting (like always) so our conversation was brief. It was great to see her- she is such a hoot. When we first met up with her, she was out in the front of her site eating something. Later, we all asked each other what it was. It looked like a big piece of meat. I thought it was a small alligator skull, but the girls thought maybe it was just a piece of chicken. As we were standing there, somebody stopped by on a golf cart and offered Fiesty a drink. It was called a turtle something or other. She took a sip, and then handed it to me to taste. Then she made some off colored remark about the drink making my turtle stay in his shell or something to that effect, and I decided it might be a good idea to get my impressionable daughters out of there. I'm just kidding about that- we all like Fiesty. But, she needed to get back to her guests, and we needed to be on our way.

Fiesty walked us back to our cart, which we had parked behind her site. Along the way, she pointed out her new decorations for this year, and we admired them. As we walked down the sidewalk, the judges for the site decorating contest were there looking at Fiesty's decorations. It was Jenna, whom we have already seen a couple of times in this report, and Forest, whom we have also seen, and another young lady (it wasn't Amanda). Of course, Fiesty had to chat them up. They chatted back. Then Fiesty asked if she could bribe them. And Forest asked what she had to offer, and then she put her arm around him and said something like, "Little boy, would you like some candy." Forest looked genuinely scared! Everybody laughed, and we took off. We met up with the judges again later, and I'll tell you about that in another post.

On our way out of the Settlement, we stopped by for one last drink. That gave me a chance to take a photo of the dinner take-out menu, which has changed yet again:

The pulled pork sandwich is new. It used to be a pulled pork flatbread. Now, it's a regular sandwich on a bun- much better!

We then went back to camp and hung out for a while. Twin #1 pointed out that we had not yet had a 'smore on this trip. It was getting late, and I expected that the movie would be over soon, but I said we could go and see if the fires are still going. So we did. When we got there, the movie had just ended, and the lights had been turned up, but the fires were still going. Perfect!

We roasted a couple of marshmallows, and got our 'smore fix:

The pumpkin contest winners had been announced that evening, and we asked the castmember who was picking up all of the trash left around if she knew who had won. Most people had taken their pumpkins back with them after the campfire, but a couple were still there:

The scarecrow that we saw the lady working on earlier was still there, and I have to say she did a very good job:

I forgot to mention something about the campfire- when my sister went on Saturday night, she told us that the Headless Horseman had visited the campfire. She wanted to know if they did this every night. I told her no. I know he visited last Halloween, on Halloween night itself, and that was announced ahead of time. The Saturday night visit was not announced. We asked the castmember if the Headless Horseman would be back on Halloween night. She said no, just the one visit was planned this year. I wish they had announced that!

After our 'smores, it was back to camp. It had been a fun day with a lot of activities, and you might think that we turned in at this point. If you thought that, then you don't know the TCD gang very well.

I have a plan to one night visit the Polynesian Resort after midnight for a Dole Whip. I asked the girls if they wanted to do that tonight. They had just been there the day before with Nicholas, so they didn't want to go again so soon. They were, however, interested in getting some soft serve ice cream from Wilderness Lodge. They like the strawberry soft serve there. The WL quick serve is open until midnight, so we hopped a bus and headed there.

I thought that I would surely be the first to post some photos of something interesting we saw there, but I'll be darned if We3Peas didn't beat me to the punch! Amazing.

But in case you didn't see her photos, let me share with you how they do things over at the Wilderness Lodge. They don't decorate pumpkins. Or golf carts. Or dress their pets in costumes. In fact, they can't even have pets there. Mummy wrap? Are you kidding? I feel sorry for those poor people who stay there. It's not that they don't try to have fun. They just don't know how. For example, look at the type of thing they do over there . . .

They apparently had a contest to see who could make the best hat out of trash. This was on display in the quick serve restaurant's eating area:

I am at a loss for words about this.

All I can say is "Wow."

Just Wow.

And, I'm glad that I'm a camper.

From here, we hopped a bus back to the Fort.

I think we stopped by and checked on the Fiends in the 500 loop, but things were pretty quiet by then. I know one night we visited with Stef and Trevor and Trevor gave me a nice cold Corona. I think it was Sunday night, but maybe night.

That pretty much covers our Sunday night.

Next up, it's Halloween!

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

1. I think Santa should bring the hat.

2. Peter Pan should get some tights that fit right so we won't all be scarred for life.

3. love both pirate ship and the hatter's table carts

4. Fiestly sounds interesting

5. I must be one of the few people on earth that don't like smores. Strange since I like all the components... just not together.

6. Some very "interesting hats"

7. I too am glad I am a camper.

8. The scarecrow was frankly... awesome.

9. .............

[stefa70 205]

You can only imagine how excited I was to come home to an update!

I dig the wookie hat, but it looks extra amazing with the pouty face. Please tell Twin #1 that she should definitely rock the wookie hat!

I agree the pirate in that cart was great! He put on quite the show even when TOTing through our loop. I think Peter Pan needed a bigger size in his tights, or should have made a bathroom break earlier, as he sure had some droopy "crotchal region" going on.

Judy made an off color comment? :holysheep: That's hard to imagine. God broke the mold after he made Judy. I've never met anyone like her. :heart:

That's all my comments for now. I do have one question though. Did you use orange marshmallows for the smores?

[TheLug 10]

I found the attached picture describing the nautical yacht flag interesting.

I want beer and mix drinks now and i am at work.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

1. I think Santa should bring the hat.

2. Peter Pan should get some tights that fit right so we won't all be scarred for life.

3. love both pirate ship and the hatter's table carts

4. Fiestly sounds interesting

5. I must be one of the few people on earth that don't like smores. Strange since I like all the components... just not together.

6. Some very "interesting hats"

7. I too am glad I am a camper.

8. The scarecrow was frankly... awesome.

9. .............

Very astute observations.

I agree with them all.

Even the 'smore one.

Truth be told, I am not a huge fan of 'smores. I wouldn't put myself down as anti-smore, but I would be fine if I never had another. But all of the female members of the TCD gang, including Mrs. TCD are very much pro-smore.

So we eat 'smores.

There are plenty of worse things that I might have to eat, so I don't complain. I just go along.

You can only imagine how excited I was to come home to an update!

I dig the wookie hat, but it looks extra amazing with the pouty face. Please tell Twin #1 that she should definitely rock the wookie hat!

I agree the pirate in that cart was great! He put on quite the show even when TOTing through our loop. I think Peter Pan needed a bigger size in his tights, or should have made a bathroom break earlier, as he sure had some droopy "crotchal region" going on.

Judy made an off color comment? :holysheep: That's hard to imagine. God broke the mold after he made Judy. I've never met anyone like her. :heart:

That's all my comments for now. I do have one question though. Did you use orange marshmallows for the smores?

Yep, you diagnosed Peter's problem exactly- there is definitely something wrong in the crotchal region.

I agree with you about Judy/Fiesty. She is truly one of a kind. I laugh just thinking about her. I am always glad to see her at the Fort.

Yes, as a matter of fact those are orange marshmallows. Pumpkin shaped. My sister brought a giant bag with her, along with graham crackers and chocolate bars. She left them for us to use when she headed home. I am more of a traditionalist myself.

I found the attached picture describing the nautical yacht flag interesting.

I want beer and mix drinks now and i am at work.

That is interesting about the flags.

We had a discussion about the boat flags on a previous thread here. It was AuburnChris who told us that a boat captain told him that they used flags with 48 stars so they could fly them at night and in bad weather. Some folks thought that the captain must have been full of it. It is interesting to see that they have apparantly replaced all of the flags on the boats with these ones with the anchors. I wonder what brought this about?

TCD

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Pittsburg as in PA ? Does he know that it's cold there,real cold-- burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I'm in Pittsburgh! Actually, it's not too cold here right now. Of course, the weather changes here every other minute... :rofl3:

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Very astute observations.

I agree with them all.

Even the 'smore one.

Truth be told, I am not a huge fan of 'smores. I wouldn't put myself down as anti-smore, but I would be fine if I never had another. But all of the female members of the TCD gang, including Mrs. TCD are very much pro-smore.

So we eat 'smores.

There are plenty of worse things that I might have to eat, so I don't complain. I just go along.

TCD

You have a point. I just prefer my marshmallows slightly crispy, gooey and by themselves. For the record, I am also the only member of my family who doesn't love smores.

[MandMandMandMandM 31]

You are correct about the extra seat on Alice's cart. This picture was taken 10/30 as they came past my site. It shows the daughter (as Alice) sitting above. Just after they went past my site the Disney police came thru and stopped them. They actually held up traffic in the loop (& all of us bystanders gathered) to fully INSPECT the cart. They got under the table to look at brakes and lights, etc. They made Alice come off her perch and said they were concerned that she'd fall so they couldn't use the seat. This was even after the Mad Hatter showed them how the seat was attached & wasn't going to come off. It was a 'height thing'

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

You are correct about the extra seat on Alice's cart. This picture was taken 10/30 as they came past my site. It shows the daughter (as Alice) sitting above. Just after they went past my site the Disney police came thru and stopped them. They actually held up traffic in the loop (& all of us bystanders gathered) to fully INSPECT the cart. They got under the table to look at brakes and lights, etc. They made Alice come off her perch and said they were concerned that she'd fall so they couldn't use the seat. This was even after the Mad Hatter showed them how the seat was attached & wasn't going to come off. It was a 'height thing'

Thanks, Melissa!

That's an awesome photo. It's too bad that they wouldn't let Alice ride in the cup. It looked like it was very well planned out and constructed. Dang the man!

Speaking of the man, the pirate ship folks apparently got fussed at for not having headlights on their cart. As they were leaving the Settlement, they announced that they were going to hook up their headlights. I'm not sure they could, and I never saw them again that night.

In this case, I guess it's good that the management laid down some safety rules. It would be bad if someone got hurt in the parade.

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Oh no... I think it's time to start the music. Over two hours and no update yet.... :faceplant2:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Oh no... I think it's time to start the music. Over two hours and no update yet.... :faceplant2:

Gee whiz, you are impatient today!

It takes a while to get 30 photos organized, uploaded, and then write a bit of witty text to go along with them.

I'll see what I can do.

TCD