TCD's Pre-Halloween 2012 Trip Report

[Gots2pitt.. Jeff 64]

But, the main reason we came to look at the model was to take a look at what is planned around the Little Mermaid area. One thing that surprised us is that the Mermaid has no gift shop. Belle has a gift shop, why not Ariel? Well, take a look here. This is a shot looking in to the new area with the 7 Dwarfs Mine Car on the left, and Ariel on the right. The model shows a building that looks like a tower across from the Little Mermaid ride- I'll bet that will be a mermaid gift shop.

There better be a gift shop for the Little Mermaid area or someone is going to lose their job. Even I (not employed by Disney) know that every ride is supposed to have a gift shop, preferrably at the exit so people are forced to walk through it.

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Hey, don't feel bad about not taking on Marian. That is one tough cookie!

[stefa70 205]

So much good stuff while I've been gone!

Extremely happy that GG got out of the camper for your visit.

I could definitely pull off an Ewok costume.

Never had tonga toast. Not a breakfast kind of girl, but looks yummy.

Good job on being in the IJ show. Fail, for not flipping the script.

To rant a bit:

One of the special things about WDW has always been their attention to detail. I agree with you.

Whether it's a movie board, the generic benches or the faded, dreary movie screen, WTFort is going on? Even if Fort newbies don't mind it, I don't like it. :-

Hope you guys had a good time on Saturday. Wish our events weren't scheduled for the same time, I would have loved to see ya'll.

Funny story:

We were on the road when my phone went off.

I may, or may not have, squealed like a school girl. When Trev asked who it was, I replied:

My very special boyfriend.

He laughed and said "Oh, it's gotta be Andrew" ^-^

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

There better be a gift shop for the Little Mermaid area or someone is going to lose their job. Even I (not employed by Disney) know that every ride is supposed to have a gift shop, preferrably at the exit so people are forced to walk through it.

Exactly.

There have been a few recent exceptions to the exit through gift shop strategy- like Toy Story at DHS. But not having an Ariel gift shop ready to go for the throngs who will be flocking to the new ride surprises me. I'll bet they bring in some merchandise carts until the new gift shop can be built. Also, I took a look on this trip, and I am guessing that they could build and open the tower we looked at on the model independent of the mine train opening- so I say look for that.

Hey, don't feel bad about not taking on Marian. That is one tough cookie!

Indeed.

She beats the heck out of that guy every time I see that show.

So much good stuff while I've been gone!

Extremely happy that GG got out of the camper for your visit.

I could definitely pull off an Ewok costume.

Never had tonga toast. Not a breakfast kind of girl, but looks yummy.

Good job on being in the IJ show. Fail, for not flipping the script.

To rant a bit:

One of the special things about WDW has always been their attention to detail. I agree with you.

Whether it's a movie board, the generic benches or the faded, dreary movie screen, WTFort is going on? Even if Fort newbies don't mind it, I don't like it. :-

Hope you guys had a good time on Saturday. Wish our events weren't scheduled for the same time, I would have loved to see ya'll.

Funny story:

We were on the road when my phone went off.

I may, or may not have, squealed like a school girl. When Trev asked who it was, I replied:

My very special boyfriend.

He laughed and said "Oh, it's gotta be Andrew" ^-^

Welcome back.

I like how Trevor thinks I'm your special boyfriend.

He's one cool dude.

I hope you had a great weekend.

We had too ambitious of plans for Saturday. Everything took longer than we expected, but we got to do a lot of cool stuff.

There is going to be another one-day trip report coming as soon as we get done with this one.

Which is getting close.

TCD

[fortpartyof4 108]

Eye of the Tiger?!?!? Did Rocky Balboa run out onto the stage?

Those are some serious crowds. How on earth did you navigate through all of those people?

You have often talked about how you "don't do" lines……did you wait in those food lines?

I hope all of you fun-loving folks with grown children had fun on your carefree weekend. I spent mine doing the mom taxi thing and helping with a 7th grade science experiment! Good times. I hope to see summaries of your adventures, along with all of the lucky ducks who got to go to the Fort last week!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Eye of the Tiger?!?!? Did Rocky Balboa run out onto the stage?

Unfortunately not.

But, that song pumped me up so much, I felt like running up some steps and dancing around!

And finding a big Russian guy to punch in the nose.

Luckily for us all, there were no stairs or big Russian guys around.

Those are some serious crowds. How on earth did you navigate through all of those people?

You have often talked about how you "don't do" lines……did you wait in those food lines?

All the normal TCD rules go out the window for the Food and Wine Festival.

I love the crowds. You just have to kind of be part of the crowd and walk along at the crowd's pace.

And we do wait on the food lines. For the most part, they are very efficient. They have one line and usually four cash registers- so the lines move quick.

Except for the France line, but as we know, they are a special case.

One thing that is odd about France, is that there are actually French people working in the booth. That isn't the case in Canada and Germany, for example- those boths have regular castmembers- I don't know why France does it that way.

I hope all of you fun-loving folks with grown children had fun on your carefree weekend. I spent mine doing the mom taxi thing and helping with a 7th grade science experiment! Good times. I hope to see summaries of your adventures, along with all of the lucky ducks who got to go to the Fort last week!

I hope the experiment came out good.

I am about to be one of those people with no more kids at home.

I would glady go back to the 7th grade science experiment days if I could.

So stop complaining.

You know you had more fun than the people who got to spend a week at the Fort.

No?

OK, I don't believe that either.

TCD

[fortpartyof4 108]

Yes, I know. Funny when my pre-teen sometimes starts to be a smart mouth, I long for the simplicity of the toddler days. Which seemed so hard back then!

Actually the experiment has been on-going for over a month, and it did turn out well. We did all of the finishing touches to his reports and research folder and put the display together for the fair next week.

And, my son earned his black belt on Saturday. So it was a pretty big weekend for us!

Plus the Gators won!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Yes, I know. Funny when my pre-teen sometimes starts to be a smart mouth, I long for the simplicity of the toddler days. Which seemed so hard back then!

Actually the experiment has been on-going for over a month, and it did turn out well. We did all of the finishing touches to his reports and research folder and put the display together for the fair next week.

And, my son earned his black belt on Saturday. So it was a pretty big weekend for us!

Plus the Gators won!

Well, that is all good stuff!

Except for the smart mouth.

But that, too, will pass.

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Caught up..... whew....

[Southern Blessings 4]

Survivor, very cool! Shows I'm getting old, lol!

[PlaneCrazy 0]

That's too crowded for me. We usually "eat around the world" at lunch, and there aren't nearly that many people.

I do like how you and your daughters seem to go to a park to hit specific attractions, or plan to eat a particular type of food. I think we might try that next time.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Caught up..... whew....

Good. I was worried that you had become a slacker.

Stay with me now, because we are about to wrap this one up and launch another one.

Survivor, very cool! Shows I'm getting old, lol!

You are right.

Back in the day, it used to be Heman's Hermits or some other band I had heard of, but laughed about because they were so old.

Now it's bands that were popular when I was in High School or college.

I don't laugh anymore.

That's too crowded for me. We usually "eat around the world" at lunch, and there aren't nearly that many people.

I do like how you and your daughters seem to go to a park to hit specific attractions, or plan to eat a particular type of food. I think we might try that next time.

It's too crowded for me too, but it's also somehow irresistible. There is a very fun vibe in that crowd.

You have picked up on the TCD touring plan. When we visit a park, we target an attraction or two, and then fill in a few things that are easy to do. If it's crowded, we will still have time to do a few things- if it's not crowded, we can do a few more things. It makes it fun and stress free. That's the beauty of being passholders.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I have a little surprise for you.

Actually, I guess it is two surprises.

First, this is the last of the photos from this trip.

In case you weren't paying attention, this was a three night trip, and we were well into our third night in the last update.

I am going to finish up with Saturday night and Sunday morning in this post.

The Second surprise is that another TCD trip report is going to launch right after this one gets finished.

Well, almost.

I am going to start the second one up tomorrow, but I'll give you a good preview of what is to come at the end of this post.

So, let's get 'er done!

After we saw Survivor, we made our way around the rest of the World Showcase. We stopped in Germany, where I tried the Schinken Nudel in place of the bratwurst on pretzel roll. The last pretzel roll I had was stale, and I wasn't feeling it. Twin #2 had it though, and the roll was better. But still too small. The Shcinken Nudel is macaroni and cheese with ham. Not bad, but not really anything special.

Then we stopped in China for some dumplings, and that was it.

We decided to get out of there before Illuminations, so we headed to the monorail, and took off.

We went back to the MK. We knew that the CM previews for the New Fantasyland had started today, but since the MK was open until 11, we thought maybe they would open it up to all guests later in the night. We arrived at MK in time to watch Wishes. And then checked back at the new Fantasyland rope. No go. They weren't going to open it to the public tonight.

The MK was really packed. We went ahead and rode a few of our favorite attractions, and then stopped at the ice cream parlor for some ice cream. It was past 11 when we finally headed back to the Fort boat.

We had no problem with the Fort boat, and were back at the Fort in no time.

The cart was at the Outpost again.

So, I headed to the Settlement bus stop, and the girls headed to the site.

They cut through the 100 loop.

And met up with a couple or real characters.

Fiesty and Donnie.

Poor kids.

I took the bus up to get the cart, and when I got back, the girls told me that Fiesty and Donnie were out and about at Judy's site.

So, I headed over there.

But nobody was there.

So, three nights at the Fort, and I haven't met up with either Fiesty or Donnie.

How often does that happen?

That was our Saturday.

Sunday is going home day.

Which means a lot of packing up and not a lot of photos.

But, I still had time to take an early morning look around.

Here I am leaving the 400 loop, heading toward the 300 loop.

I took these photos, because I could clearly see the crane from the Four Seasons resort right above the treeline. But I can't see it in these photos:

I headed out back of the 300 loop, and you can see the cranes over there above the trees in the back of this photo:

I don't have anymore dam fence photos for you.

But, I do have a couple from my favorite spot:

Do you see those three dots up there in the sky?

Those are hot air balloons:

I could see them better than these photos suggest. I have seen hot air balloons around the Fort before, so it isn't that big a deal. What was interesting about these balloons, though, is that they all seemed to have the same design. The design looked like an old fashioned circus tent. I wonder if these might have something to do with the New Storybook Circus area at the Magic Kingdom? Probably not, but when I have seen hot air balloons around WDW before, they all had different designs. The other possible theory that crossed my mind is that maybe these had something to do with the new Oz movie that Disney is working on. I don't know.

Since I was here at my favorite spot, I took a photo of the opposite shore of Bay Lake- I love the fact that there is nothing over there but trees:

Hey look, no cranes:

Well, I guess there's one crane over there still, but at least it's off to the right.

The balloons were moving away pretty quickly:

So, it wasn't even 8:00 yet and we had an unsolved mystery- the story behind those balloons.

And, right after that, I ran right in to another unsolved mystery.

The mystery of the corn.

There was corn scattered all over the path back here.

And by all over, I mean all over.

Look:

What The Fort?

Why is there corn all over the road?

If DaveInTn and his family had been visiting the Fort, this would have been easy to explain.

This would have just been the corn falling out of all the places it got stuck at the Corn Festival.

But, they weren't at the Fort.

So what is this corn doing here?

I don't know.

That's two unsolved mysteries before 8 am.

I followed the corn.

It stopped around where the new BBQ pavilion is going to go.

I saw that the balloons were still up in the sky, so I got another photo:

It is barely light, and those kids are down here playing tetherball.

Way to go, kids!

Here's the closest shot I could get of the balloons from down here at the marina:

I thnk the balloons have writing on them.

But, I can't read it.

Fail.

I took a photo looking toward where the new BBQ pavilion is supposed to be going:

And here's one turned just to the right-looking at the Settlement Trading Post:

And here is my last shot of good old Pioneer Hall from this trip. The next time I see it, it is going to have Christmas decorations on it:

I had noticed this odd thing on a post across from Pioneer Hall earlier on this trip:

I am guessing that it has something to do with the wireless internet around here, but I really don't know.

So, that's a third unsolved mystery.

I was not doing very good with the mystery solving today at all.

I got a cup of coffee, and headed out for one last loop before I had to go back and pack up.

This pirate ship was on the 800 loop:

This is the other side of that same site:

Well done.

This is one of my favorite sites every Halloween. This is Jeannie's site on the 700 loop:

This is a photo showing all the new plants in the 1000 loop. You used to be able to see right into the loop from the main road, not anymore:

And this last photo is taken from the main road heading toward the Meadow Trading Post. I took it to show that there are now too many lightposts in this area- but it doesn't look like that in the photo- so maybe there aren't too many after all:

And with that, I headed back to the site and got busy.

The girls woke up after a while and headed over to the MK for the rest of the morning, and then came back after I was all done packing.

It is good to be a TCD twin.

I had time for one last loop before we left.

And, guess who I saw?

Finally.

Fiesty!

I was heading out, but at least I got to say hello.

I never did see Donnie.

Which is strange.

I always see Donnie.

I stopped by to say bye to Grumpy and Grandma (Dave and Linda).

And then we loaded up and headed for home.

The end.

So, when is the next TCD TR?

Check back tomorrow.

I am still working on the title.

I think it's going to be:

"Ultimate Bragging Rights! TCD's Fantasyland Passholder Preview TR."

That's right.

I said ultimate bragging rights.

Because I got to do something at WDW that nobody has ever done before in the history of WDW.

You will want to read that one.

TCD

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Great report! Can't wait for the details in the next one!!

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

Thanks for sharing your trip!!!! Enjoyed the pics!!

[SCTigerCock 171]

Wow, miss a few days in a TCD report and you are behind...Way behind!

Thanks for sharing, Can't wait for the next TCD adventure.

[stefa70 205]

Bravo, well done, loved it!

Being in your favorite spot with balloons in the sky. How cool is that!?

3 unsolved mysteries? What's happening to you?

Can't wait to hear about your Saturday night. I bet it was more family-friendly than mine.

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

Thank you for the adventure !!

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

Another awesome report!

Looking forward to your next one!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Bravo, well done, loved it!

Being in your favorite spot with balloons in the sky. How cool is that!?

3 unsolved mysteries? What's happening to you?

Can't wait to hear about your Saturday night. I bet it was more family-friendly than mine.

That reminds me-

I could use some help on that corn mystery.

That was a lot of corn.

I don't know of any reason a guest would do that.

So, I am guessing that the management did it.

Why?

Are they trying to attract deer over to this area?

Why?

What about the stupid little plaques they put on every single picnic table in the Fort telling us not to feed the wildlife?

Isn't that corn there to feed the wildlife?

Why?

Somebody help me out here!

TCD

[mommy rainbo.....Bo 41]

Great trip report. I can not wait for TCD's ultimate trip report.

[fortpartyof4 108]

Loved your report!

Boy your girls really have it made! I make my kids "help", even though they always end up fighting!

I am happy to be a twin fill-in after they have gone off to college!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Loved your report!

Boy your girls really have it made! I make my kids "help", even though they always end up fighting!

I am happy to be a twin fill-in after they have gone off to college!

The girls do have to pack up their own stuff, but after that, it's easier if they are out of the way. You know what I'm talking about.

OK, I will put you on the TCD adoption list. I already adopted Stef, but I haven't been a very good adoptive parent to her. I'll have more time when the girls head off to school.

TCD

[Southern Blessings 4]

Well, if I saw all that corn up here, it would mean someone was using it to attract deer to hunt them, but I guess not down there. Glad you have another TR in the making!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Well, if I saw all that corn up here, it would mean someone was using it to attract deer to hunt them, but I guess not down there. Glad you have another TR in the making!

That's what I'm thinking too.

There were deer everywhere on this trip.

At some point, there are going to be too many deer.

You know what they have to do when they have too many deer?

TCD