Fortless- A TCD Trip Report with a twist.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Time to squeeze in another update.

After our meeting with Six Bits the councilman, we headed up to the train platform.

We were going to ride back to Frontierland and try to ride BTMRR.

I always love the view down Main Street from up on the platform:

Too bad this awesome view is ruined by that stupid scrim that juts out from the Main Street Bakery. That has been there since January. Enough, already!

And here's how that other Main Street scrim looks from on high:

There's the biggest bunch of red shirts we had seen all day up to this point.

Sure enough, as I fully expected, the train pulled up right as we walked in to the station.

We headed straight back to Frontierland.

And we found them.

This is where they were all hiding.

The red shirt folks.

Take a look! :

Do you see that crowd.

Do you see that the standby line for BTMRR is 120 minutes?

Oy!

It was around 2:30, and the Fastpass Return times were for 4:55-5:55:

We got some Fastpasses.

That meant we would need to come back in a couple of hours.

It was hot.

And crowded.

Take a look over there by the Splash Mountain bridge:

None of us liked any of this.

Do you see that Frozen Lemonade sign in that last photo.

The stand was right there.

I bought each of us one.

And we headed over to the back room of Pecos Bill's for some AC and to eat our frozen lemonade.

That was a nice break from the craziness.

As we chilled, we discussed our options.

I needed to go to guest services at some point to take care of some business.

So, I said we should do that.

And then what?

The girls said lets get out of here.

None of us felt much like being stuck in crowds on a hot afternoon.

So, we headed out toward guest services.

Look at the line for Dole Whips! :

That confirmed that we needed to go.

It's too bad we were hurrying to avoid being trapped by the parade.

Because I really would have liked to see how this turned out:

I say no way.

We cut through the Main Street gift shops, and managed to cross right in front of the parade.

Then I took care of my business. I was upgrading the girls' Floirda Resident Seasonal Passes to regular passes.

That went better than I expected, and cost me a little less than I had been quoted when I inquired about it last month.

I also beat the price increase which was coming the next day.

Pixie dust.

Then we headed out for our next destination.

We were going to catch the bus to the Art of Animation Resort.

It had just opened and we wanted to see how it was.

TCD

[CDNCruiser 14]

It's too bad we were hurrying to avoid being trapped by the parade.

Because I really would have liked to see how this turned out:

I say no way.

TCD

I'm sure not one to talk . . . but my money would be on the kid!

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

I bet it will be fun for you to see DAAR after seeing Yuri's pics on your camera a couple trips ago. I can't wait to see more from there and hopefully get a BTMR post-refurb review. I believe YensidCamper said the waterfall and falling rocks were not working a week or so ago when he went on.....fixed now? We shall see i guess. I can't believe you guys didn't grab those extra hula hoops and join them!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I'm sure not one to talk . . . but my money would be on the kid!

Yes, I have no room to talk either.

But, c'mon lady!

Really?

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I bet it will be fun for you to see DAAR after seeing Yuri's pics on your camera a couple trips ago. I can't wait to see more from there and hopefully get a BTMR post-refurb review. I believe YensidCamper said the waterfall and falling rocks were not working a week or so ago when he went on.....fixed now? We shall see i guess. I can't believe you guys didn't grab those extra hula hoops and join them!

As you will soon see, I gave away my third set of Fastpasses in one day.

We did not get to ride BTMRR.

And, I know you will find this hard to believe, but I have never been able to Hula Hoop.

The TCD twins, now, they can Hula Hoop.

They got that skill from Mrs. TCD for sure.

TCD

[shoreline99 137]

Wow, another awesome report! We would love to be close enough to make a day trip to Disney. But, alas, it is not meant to be.

Instead, I live vicariously through the magic of TCD and his supply of fastpasses, #2 animator's pencils and pixie dust. And his camera.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

I hope the additional FP giveaway brings you more good fortune. Pay them forward!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

This is the part of the trip where we went a little crazy.

But, we have all been very interested in seeing the new Art of Animation Resort, and we had enough time for a quick visit, so why not.

We headed on out of the MK.

The girls really wanted me to give our Fastpasses to three people in red shirts.

But, there were no red shirt people coming in.

They all were in Frontierland for some reason.

So, I gave them to a mom with two kids.

She looked real suspicious at first.

She even pretended that she couldn't see or hear me.

I knew she could hear me though, because when she heard that I said I had three Fastpasses we couldn't use, she heard just fine.

I wish I was there when she realized that the line was 2 hours long.

That was some pixie dust for her!

There weren't a lot of people waiting at the bus stops for any of the resorts.

I figured that this is where we would get stuck with a long wait.

But, I kid you not, we hadn't even reached our bus stop, and the only bus that was pulling up was an Art of Animation bus.

We hopped on.

We were the only passengers.

And we were off.

This resort is gorgeous.

Way, way nicer than any of the other value resorts.

Here's the big sign out front:

And some of the art work. We see three of the four themes of the resort represented here:

Check this out, their bus stops are all covered, with covered walkways and ceiling fans too:

None of the other values have that.

Here we are in the lobby. There is a whole wall of really interesting artwork:

The check-in area is really cool with this lighting:

The art work on this long wall is supposed to be concept art from the four movies that are featured at this resort:

A castmember who was standing around told us that the idea of the wall is that on this end we would see the earliest sketches of the characters for each movie, and that as we moved down the wall, the characters would look more and more like the ones that are actually on screen. Here in this photo you can see a weird looking Sebastian the crab, Nemo and Bruce the Shark:

This sketch was further down the wall, but obviously this Ariel and Flounder look different from their final versions:

This light fixture is hung beneath a skylight- it features various sketches:

Our new friend the castmember pointed out that this sketch was really signed by John Lasseter, whom he claimed had recently visited the resort:

There was another big wall with art that was backlit:

The lobby was cool.

But we really came to see the pool, which we have heard is amazing.

It is.

Here's the view from outside the lobby:

That area called the Drop Off is a bar.

They have a self-serve drink machine over there where you can fill up your refillable mugs.

None of the other value resorts have that. In fact, the only places I have seen a pool side self serve drink machine is at Kadini Village and BLT.

The pool here is completely fenced and gated:

The gates have scanners for KTTW cards.

But, they were not on. The gates weren't locked today.

I presume at some point the gates will be locked. I guess this will be to keep the Pop Century folks out of this pool.

The pool supposedly is the biggest resort pool on property. I am not so sure about that. But, it is big:

They did a great job with all the theming around the resort. Check out these long poles and seagulls used to cover the stairs on this building:

The Cars themed area is right next to the Nemo area. It has not been opened yet:

This sign says it will be open on June 18th:

The theming back here is amazing too. There are full sized cars stationed around the area. I am sure that kids are going to crawl all over these. It looks like they expect that, as they have rubberized floors around the cars:

I love how the sidewalk looks like a road:

And check out how these billboards are used to cover the exterior stairs:

We are now walking alongside the Nemo pool. There are figures incorporated in the landscaping:

These jellyfish hang over one part of the pool:

There is a great big splash area off to one side of the pool:

Mr. Ray looks over this part of the pool:

There is a regular non-splash playground just outside of the fence:

And here's another look at the splash area:

Here's a sea horse for S70:

She likes them you know.

This pool has a zero entry:

When the redid the pool at the Fort, we were supposed to get a zero entry feature.

But they don't like to give us nice things at the Fort.

I have never seen a ping pong table like this:

They had a regular ping pong table out too.

In case you're wondering, that means they have twice as many ping pong tables as they do at the Fort.

Because the Fort has zero.

We next checked out the food court.

But we were literally the only people in the huge food court, so we kind of just mosied on through there, and I didn't take photos.

We did grab a drink and chilled for a while.

We needed to agree on where we would eat dinner and when we would be heading back to Hollywood Studios.

I was in favor of heading right there from here.

The twins had other ideas.

I will let you know how it ended up in the next post.

TCD

[BuckeyeFortFan 35]

I think you guys were going HAAM on the WDW this day! Great trip!

They had a regular ping pong table out too.

In case you're wondering, that means they have twice as many ping pong tables as they do at the Fort.

Because the Fort has zero.

Actually, I think they have 200% more ping pong tables than the fort because in order to have twice as many the fort would have to have at least 1. i.e. 2 x 0 = 0.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I think you guys were going HAAM on the WDW this day! Great trip!

Actually, I think they have 200% more ping pong tables than the fort because in order to have twice as many the fort would have to have at least 1. i.e. 2 x 0 = 0.

Yes, we went HAAM.

That is how we do it.

Sorry about the math error. I think you are right.

Of course, what do I know?

TCD

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

That resort looks amazing. I think a swim may need to be had in that pool at somepoint. The kids would love getting their pics taken by those cars too!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I can't believe how much ground you covered in one day!

[BuckeyeFortFan 35]

Yes, we went HAAM.

That is how we do it.

Sorry about the math error. I think you are right.

Of course, what do I know?

TCD

You know what we all know.....when it comes to ping pong at the fort.....we get screwed....HAAM.

[stefa70 205]

Ok, it is a great looking place with an A+ for details.

I can't help but be a little bitter about it. This place gets all the things the Fort needs, but we just keep getting stuff taken away. Sad!

Thank you for the sea horse. :heart:

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

sweet pool! That resort is amazing... almost as good as the Fort but not quite.

[LWQuestie 0]

Then we got to toss some rubber logs.

They had a fancy name for this too.

But I don't remember it either.

Here we go:

Caber toss?

[anolefan 8]

Wow, miss a day of reading and it takes forever to get caught back up. I have comments but they are probably not in any kind of order so bare with me.

1 .We saw lots of red shirts at the Fort last weekend as well. We stayed in the rainbow loop (what my boys called it), as there were several rainbow flags and banners hanging from the campers. I have to admit that I am a little naive and my wife is the one who mentioned the flags. I would have never known any different, nor would I have cared either.

2. I would have never, ever noticed the metal mickey on the roof, and we have ridden the monorail many times. Pretty cool.

3. I'm not a fan of the cranes either, but "it is what it is" (just to show you I'm observant) :)

4. The Six Bits meeting was great. We have never taken in the HDDR during our visits to the Fort.

5. The hula hoop contest is priceless, well done!

6. I want to book a weekend at the Art of Animation. That place looks awesome!

Loving the report as usual!

[daddyphat808 - Eric 16]

Wow Art of Animation sure is the new crown jewel! Going to have to stay there my Son loves Lightning McQueen. And the hula hoop. That my friend is an easy way to explain the rings of Saturn!

Excellent excellent as always!

[mgsmom 9]

Art of Animation looks beautiful!!! We are doing a long weekend at Pop this summer, for budget reasons and I wanted to put DD right in the middle of some over-the-top, cheesy Disney theming. AoA looks like it is even more so! Too bad the Little Mermaid building won't be open yet - I would switch! Oh well, it is what it is.

Those were some pretty heavy crowds at MK - :bugeyes: leaving was your only defense!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Wow, another awesome report! We would love to be close enough to make a day trip to Disney. But, alas, it is not meant to be.

Instead, I live vicariously through the magic of TCD and his supply of fastpasses, #2 animator's pencils and pixie dust. And his camera.

Thanks.

I am glad you like this report.

I have mentioned before that I have in the past considered not bothering with my camera and writing trip reports. But every time we go there is something interesting that I have to share.

I hope the additional FP giveaway brings you more good fortune. Pay them forward!

I think our pixie dust reward on this trip was how every time we moved from one place to the next, our transportation was there.

It was unreal.

That resort looks amazing. I think a swim may need to be had in that pool at somepoint. The kids would love getting their pics taken by those cars too!

The resort is super nice.

Way nicer than I expected it to be.

But, that comes at a cost.

I will address that issue in one of my comments, below.

I can't believe how much ground you covered in one day!

What do you mean?

You have read some of my other trip reports.

This is just a typical TCD visit to the World.

Ok, it is a great looking place with an A+ for details.

I can't help but be a little bitter about it. This place gets all the things the Fort needs, but we just keep getting stuff taken away. Sad!

Thank you for the sea horse. :heart:

Word.

When I see everything that got poured into this resort, it shows me exactly where Fort Wilderness stands in the WDW resort food chain.

sweet pool! That resort is amazing... almost as good as the Fort but not quite.

Sorry, but this place blows the Fort away.

I can say with certainty that if this place existed 10 or so years ago when my family first began to visit WDW regularly, there is no way that we would be staying in a cabin at Fort Wilderness.

Caber toss?

Yes, that's it.

Which reminds me of a point I wanted to make.

Who is more badassed than the Scotch?

For God's sake, they eat sheep stomachs and throw giant logs!

True, the dudes wear skirts and play the bagpipe.

But, they are still badassed in my book.

Wow, miss a day of reading and it takes forever to get caught back up. I have comments but they are probably not in any kind of order so bare with me.

1 .We saw lots of red shirts at the Fort last weekend as well. We stayed in the rainbow loop (what my boys called it), as there were several rainbow flags and banners hanging from the campers. I have to admit that I am a little naive and my wife is the one who mentioned the flags. I would have never known any different, nor would I have cared either.

2. I would have never, ever noticed the metal mickey on the roof, and we have ridden the monorail many times. Pretty cool.

3. I'm not a fan of the cranes either, but "it is what it is" (just to show you I'm observant) :)

4. The Six Bits meeting was great. We have never taken in the HDDR during our visits to the Fort.

5. The hula hoop contest is priceless, well done!

6. I want to book a weekend at the Art of Animation. That place looks awesome!

Loving the report as usual!

Great comments, Tom.

Thanks.

Don't forget your wallet if you stay at AoA. That place is sweet, but it ain't cheap.

Wow Art of Animation sure is the new crown jewel! Going to have to stay there my Son loves Lightning McQueen. And the hula hoop. That my friend is an easy way to explain the rings of Saturn!

Excellent excellent as always!

LOL @ the rings of Saturn!

Art of Animation looks beautiful!!! We are doing a long weekend at Pop this summer, for budget reasons and I wanted to put DD right in the middle of some over-the-top, cheesy Disney theming. AoA looks like it is even more so! Too bad the Little Mermaid building won't be open yet - I would switch! Oh well, it is what it is.

Those were some pretty heavy crowds at MK - :bugeyes: leaving was your only defense!

You know that there's a bridge you can walk right across from Pop to AoA, right?

The problem I have with AoA is that all of the rooms in the Nemo, Cars and Lion King section are family suites. All of them. And rack rate for those rooms is something like $275 a night. They are calling this a Value resort, but clearly it is not. It will be interesting to see how they do with bookings, as this is a new breed of resort for WDW. I also wonder how this will affect FW cabin bookings. As I mentioned above, if I had to choose between a cabin at FW and a family suite at AoA, I wouldn't be staying in a cabin.

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

What do you mean?

You have read some of my other trip reports.

This is just a typical TCD visit to the World.

I'm accustomed to all your activity on an overnight trip, but isn't this just a day trip? I'd be too tired to drive home afterwards!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I left off with us leaving the AoA resort and heading out for our next destination.

We had discussed all kind of options.

The easiest thing for us to do would be to hop a bus to Hollywood Studios from here.

But we don't do easy.

After a long debate, we had agreed that we would be going to the Polynesian Resort for dinner.

That was a crazy idea.

But, it is what it is.

I don't even know how we ended up with that choice.

I wanted to go to the Fort for a GAG.

My motion did not get seconded, so it wasn't even put to a vote.

My second choice was to eat one of those hot dogs in a pretzel roll that we discovered on our last visit to HS.

Nobody else was feeling that.

So the compromise ended up being the Polynesian.

We would shoot first for the sushi bar.

If there were no seats there, then second choice would be the quick serve, Captian Cooks.

So we headed out.

As my friend, Han Solo, would say- I did not have a good feeling about this.

Getting to the Polynesian from the AoA resort wasn't a simple thing.

But the plan was to take the bus to the MK, and then either the boat or monorail to the Poly.

So we headed out.

As if to send us a sign that we were making a bad choice, a Hollywood Studios bus was sitting right there waiting for passengers as we approached the bus stop.

But, we had made our plan and we were going to stick to it.

I saw a bench under a fan and decided to go and park it for what I was sure would be a long wait for the MK bus. I walked over to it, and just as I was about to sit, the twins yelled out, "here comes our bus!"

And sure enough it was our bus. And it was brand new.

We loaded up and headed out.

Our bus driver did not go out the way we came in.

I thought she was lost.

We drove past the unfinished parts of the resort:

It turns out we weren't lost. For whatever reason, they had buses going out the back way. There is a road that connects the AoA resort with the Pop resort, and we took that road:

This seems to suggest that at some point Pop and AoA may share buses. But they don't for now.

We headed right to the MK.

At the MK, we headed toward the Poly boat dock, only to see the Poly boat pulling away. So monorail it was. Of course, a monorail pulled right up as we got to the loading platform, and we zipped right over to the Poly.

We headed in and found every seat at the sushi bar was open, so we grabbed our seats, and we were in business:

In case you're interested, my photos say I took the photos of us leaving the AoA resort at 4:26 pm, and the photo of the girls sitting at the sushi bar was taken at 5:07 pm. Amazing that we got all the way from there to here in about a half an hour.

There was a couple sitting at the stools over by the windows, and the lady had a drink that I have heard of but not seen. They serve it at the bar in Ohana. It's called a backscratcher. And it comes with a backscratcher. I assume that you get to keep it. I pointed it out to the twins, and said I was going to take a photo. Which led to Twin #1 photobombing:

See how there's a bamboo backscratcher in that drink?

I want one.

In case you're interested, here's a photo of the menu for the sushi bar:

You can also order anything from the regular Kona Cafe menu.

In case you can't read it, there's an item on the menu called a Dragon Hand Roll. It is made with barbecued eel and something called mame nori. We had seen that on a previous visit. The girls had dared me to order it. I changed the subject. Well, they dared me again today. I had it coming too. Because sometimes my girls are picky eaters. And, I tell them that they should not be afraid to try new things. So, being teenagers, they threw that back in my face and said that I should order the eel.

Eel.

But, it will never be said that TCD backs down from a dare.

I have been stupid that way my whole life.

So the waiter took our orders, and I ordered the Dragon Hand Roll.

A fun thing about sitting at the bar is that the chefs make the food right in front of you:

The chefs engage in polite banter with the guests. They love it when you ask what part of Japan they come from.

It's true.

Go ahead and ask them if you ever see them.

I'm sure they never get tired of that one.

For some reason, the people who were by the window moved over to the bar. Which allowed me to get another photo of the backscratcher minus the photobomb:

In no time flat, our food was ready.

Here's my Dragon Hand Roll:

I had never seen sushi like that. I asked the chef- "Dude, what the heck is that?" He said that's what a hand roll is- the mame nori mentioned on the menu is like a japanese tortilla, but it's made out of soy. Who knew? Not me. That piece of meat you see sticking out of there is a big old piece of barbecued eel. Do you wonder what barbecued eel tastes like? I would like to tell you that it tastes like chicken. But it doesn't. It tastes like eel. Like fishy rattlesnake. Or maybe like alligator. Will I be ordering it again? Not anytime soon. But I ate it all. Twin #1 even took a bite of the eel. Twin #2 said no way. As I have said many times, I really need to keep an eye on Twin #1.

Here's Twin #1's Volcano Roll. That piece of meat sticking out of the top is a piece of raw tuna. Yum:

And here's Twin #2's California Luau roll:

Despite what I said about the eel, we enjoyed our meal.

The only thing I did not enjoy is that this little bit of food cost me more than two GAG's would have cost me over at the Fort.

It is what it is.

After we finished up, it was time for our final journey of the day on Disney transportation.

We needed to get back to Hollywood Studios.

Would our luck hold out?

I hate to tell you this, but you're going to have to wait a couple of days to find out.

Actually, until Monday.

I am heading out of town for the weekend in just a little bit.

And, no, it isn't WDW. And, I won't have time to be on the computer.

So, go back an re-read the parts of this report you skimmed.

Sometimes I say something funny, and you need to read carefully.

Have a great weekend.

I'll see y'all again on Monday.

TCD

[stefa70 205]

I don't skim any of your report, so I'll just go ahead and respond to this update...and then we will probably hijack this report since you've left us for the weekend.

Barbecued eel is probably one of the grossest things I've ever imagined. Especially after watching the live ones being fed at Epcot. Yuck.

Both of the other plates look equally icky, and that piece of raw tuna looks like a tongue.

In case you're wondering, I obviously would have voted for a GAG. ^-^

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I don't skim any of your report, so I'll just go ahead and respond to this update...and then we will probably hijack this report since you've left us for the weekend.

Barbecued eel is probably one of the grossest things I've ever imagined. Especially after watching the live ones being fed at Epcot. Yuck.

Both of the other plates look equally icky, and that piece of raw tuna looks like a tongue.

In case you're wondering, I obviously would have voted for a GAG. ^-^

Thanks.

I haven't left yet, but I am about to.

Maybe when I get back we can talk about me adopting you. Maybe if you curled your hair, I could have the TCD triplets.

That way, I would have someone to second my motion when we vote for where to go to dinner.

Think about it.

TCD

[Duane 150]

Man! It's now 11:08 here in sunny Nawth Carolina... I have managed to waste, become engrossed with reading this trip report. Now what am I supposed to do for the remainder of the day? Work?!

Have a great weekend and a safe trip!