CCIntrigue...aka Gwen

Power on the loop has been out for about an hour.  Not sure how extensive it is.  Only see darkness outside.

Thursday, 9/22:

Today was an MK day.  We got there a little before noon.  I took 250 pictures, so it's gonna take me awhile to wade through and edit them.

1 hour ago, Millermouseketeers MaryAnn said:

Sheetz & other stations in HP have gas again.

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Great news!

We talked to our son in W-S yesterday.  He said most of the stations around him were out of gas.  He has enough to go to work through Tuesday.  Hopefully things will be back to normal by then.

Just now, twiceblessed....nacole said:

How do I get one of these??

They are available to Passholders.  Once you've visited EPCOT three times, you can go to Innoventions (the one on the right on your way out) and pick it up.

Photobucket is impossible tonight, so only one picture.  And that's because I posted it on FB

NaCole arrived this morning, and she is right across the street from us!  Ya'ay!  David helped her out with a few things.  He had designated today as his driving day.  So he got in the car and ended up driving to Melbourne.  Then when he got there he turned around and came back.  Didn't even get out of the car until he got back and went to Walmart.

Meanwhile I had a great time at Disney Springs.  It's been a few years since we've been there, and I was blown away by the changes.  I took lots of pictures, but since TCD has posted such great pictures I won't bore you with mine.

This afternoon we dogsat Simon for awhile.  He's a sweetheart.

Then we went looping with NaCole, Simon, and the kids.  When we got back, Mikeypro came over to visit.  It was great to meet him.

We have no FP+s for the next several days and will be winging it.

2 hours ago, geoffdaddy said:

So is the final product done now? I have to know what to expect when we arrive in a couple weeks. :)

Yes, it is.

5 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Love the way the sun is shining on them.

 

Me too.  That's why I took it.

3 hours ago, Travisma said:

Are they beer sized, or more a couple of shots on the rocks size?

I don't have anything to measure them with, but I'm guessing they are about 5" tall and 3 or 3.5" wide.  Very thick, heavy bottom. 

3 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Your indoor photos are amazing!  Seriously, that is some wonderful photography considering you were in a moving boat in very low light.

I'm jealous that you already have your passholder glass, and I haven't even made it to one Food and Wine visit yet!

 

Thank you, TCD!  But I did have to do some exposure compensation in Lightroom.

And I'm jealous that you live so close and can visit so often!

Tuesday, 9/20:

When we arrived at Frozen to use our FP+, it was down.  So we went on around WS and tasted at F&WF.  Our first stop was Poland for the Gobalki:

I thought it was a little bland.  David thought it needed salt and pepper.  It was just okay.

Next up was the Beef Bourgignon at France.

It was good, as always.

Our last selection was the Artist Palette at the Wine & Dine Studio:

It was great.  We both enjoyed it.

Finally on the fifth try Frozen was back up.

We drove back to the Fort and went looping again.  After the rain of the past two days, many loops are flooded.  This is in the 700 loop:

This was our third trip to F&WF, so we collected our Passholder glasses.

And the bottom of the glass:

 

Have photos for my post ready, but Photobucket is totally uncooperative.  Will have to post them later.

Today we went to EPCOT for the sole purpose of using our FP+ for Frozen.  It was down most of the afternoon.  The fifth time I checked, it was open again.  David was so tired that he sat in the car while I rode it.  The standby line was 120 minutes.  There's no way I'd stand in that line.  Yes, it was cute.  Yes, I'm glad I saw it.  Will I do it again?  Probably not.

Will post an update when PB decides to cooperate.

12 hours ago, djsamuel said:

That storm last night was a big one.  When I was leaving work yesterday, rather than driving down 417 to Fort Wilderness, I altered my course to take 408 to 429 and down in order to avoid the storms on 417.  They were VERY heavy and a lot of lightning.  Beat the rain back to the camp site. My wife and I checked in last Wednesday and we'll be staying until next Tuesday the 27th (site 113).  However, I'm driving to work during that time so it isn't a full vacation. We had a nephew come down from NJ to play in the softball world series at ESPN, so we watched him until the team was eliminated on Saturday.  They did well though, in the top 40 of 175 teams.  Our nephew and my sister in law flew back Sunday, and the sister in law is flying back down tomorrow with her daughter, son in law, and three grand kids.  They be staying at All Star, and my wife will be meeting up with them and I'll be working or visiting.  So we figured it was nicer to just bring the camper rather than driving from Clermont every day. 

In any case, I'm hoping the rain begins to slow down.

 

12 hours ago, Mikeypro said:

Storm last night was a big one, but my trusty old Coleman Bayside Pop-up handled it with style...I just love the sound of rain on the canvas!

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I've been coming by both of your sites but haven't been able to catch either of you at home.  Maybe one day soon!

4 hours ago, mouseketab.....Carol said:

 

Weren't those insane prices like 70 cents a gallon? I also remember waiting in a few gas lines in the car with my mom.

I think the prices were  $1.50 to $2.00 a gallon in our area.  A lot of money for those days.  

David talked to Matthew in Raleigh last night.  He said lots of stations are out there too.  If stations are out in GSO and HP, I'm sure they are in W-S; also.  Anyone else remember the long lines and insane prices of the '70s?

9:15 pm and it's still storming,  Goodnight, all!

1 minute ago, Travisma said:

States mostly affected are the 2 Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee , Virginia, and Alabama.  Pipeline is supposed to be repaired by the end of the week.

Three out of the four states we have to travel through.

David just said, "wow, you get a thunderstorm down here and it lasts three hours."

Just talked to our son in Raleigh, NC.  Many of the stations around him are out of gas.  He and his wife are rationing their driving.  

Colonial Pipeline serves a huge gas farm in Greensboro, NC (about 30 miles from our home).  I always assumed the gas farm held many days of fuel.  Apparently not so -- this farm serves much of the southeast.  

We will definitely refuel before we start home.

4 hours ago, ependydad...Doug said:

We checked into the Contemporary last week on Wednesday and the room had a bottle of bug spray in the one closet. The housekeeping carts had extra cans.

The parks still have the stands up as of yesterday.

The stands were still up in the MK today.

Thankfully we filled our tanks in St. Augustine on the way down.  We have enough diesel fuel to get home next month in case there are still problems.

Even though it's only 16 days until our departure, I still like saying "next month."

Okay, time for an update.

Monday, 9/19 -- a Major Transportation Day:

Our alarm clock went off at 5:30 this morning.  But since I'd only had about 5 hours sleep, I ignored it for awhile.  We had to be at the Settlement depot at 6:45 to catch the first bus to Wilderness Lodge.  Then we had to take a bus from WL to the Magic Kingdom.  This was all frustrating.  We had 8:00 ADRs at Crystal Palace.  The MK boat from the Fort started running at 8:30.  The little boat to the Contemporary started running in time, but they wouldn't take me because of my ECV.  The concierge called Dispatch last week, and they told us to take the buses.  We weren't happy.

So anyway, we left in the dark.

We got to the depot in the dark too.

By the time we got to WL, the sun was a little higher.

We got to the MK, and finally the sun was coming up.

We were allowed into the park at 7:45, so I had very little time to take photos.

My first round of food:

The bowl on the right held eggs with onions, peppers, cheese, and strips of steak.  I don't even like eggs, but they were so delicious that I would eat them every day.

Eeyore was the first character to visit.  He is my favorite Pooh character.

Next was Tigger.  He was funny!

My next plate of food and a better picture of those eggs:

Finally Pooh visited.

And Piglet was last.

What did I think of the food?  I'm gonna compare it to Trail's End.

Better at TE -- Breakfast pizza, bacon, fruit, juice.

Better at CP -- scrambled eggs, sausage gravy.

TE wins!

I loved all the bromeliads in the lobby of CP:

After breakfast we rode PPF and then we to Small World to use our FP+.  It was down.  Within 2 hours of reopening after the refurbishment.

So we walked over and rode the teacups (it's been at least 25 years).

Next up was the Tiki Room.  Only because I wanted to take pictures.

At that point IASM was working again.

Next was the Jungle Cruise.

A

At that point we were hot and tired, and the park was so crowded.  So we did something David likes to do every trip.  We rode the monorail to EPCOT and back.  I was just praying the thing wouldn't break down in that heat.  We got back to the TTC to find out that the Resort monorail was offline.  So we had to ride the ferry over to MK.

And then we rode the boat back to the Fort.

In less than seven hours we had ridden two buses, two monorails, and two boats.

Once we got back to the Fort we had to check back in for the remainder of our stay.  

Gone were those $68 per weekday night Premium sites.  This next charge hurt!

We went to fill up our refillable mugs and had them recharged.  We'll have to do it again before we leave.  It's a shame they will only put 14 days on them at a time.  But we are really getting our money's worth.  We fill our mugs usually three times per day.  Out of pocket that would be $20 per day.  Times 30 days is $600.  If we didn't have the mugs, we'd be drinking a lot of water.

So 16 nights to go before we have to start home.  That is depressing.  Tomorrow will be our overall halfway point in the trip.  We both have bucket lists of what we want to do on this trip just in case it's awhile before we can get back down here, and we've already crossed most of the things off both our lists.  So now we can pretty much just sit back and relax and enjoy the remainder of our trip.

When we went to the Settlement to fill up our mugs awhile ago, David came back to the golf cart and started to drive away.  I told him no, just sit here for a minute.  Take it all in.  The sights, the smells (particularly of fried chicken), everything.  Remember how we'd love to be here this winter when we're sitting in snow and ice.  Make memories to carry with you.

And now this thunderstorm has been going on for a good while.  If we were in a tent, I'd be heading home or, at least, to a hotel.

 

14 minutes ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Nicole, we seldom have totally rainy, grey skies days here.  Only if a hurricane or tropical storm is in the area, like last Tuesday.  Don't let the reports worry you.  Come on down and enjoy.  BTW remember the 80s I hoped for earlier today?  Well started out like that, but this afternoon was, as Gwen puts it, hot hot hot

Yes, this afternoon was hot, hot, hot.  But guess what?  Now we're having another thunderstorm!

10 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Oops  but it was fun visiting with you both.

It WAS fun!  Hope you can talk Bill into visiting too.  We are enjoying the tomatoes!

10 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

That storm was a doozy!  Seemed like all of a sudden it was pouring buckets of water and so loud too. 

Maybe we can enjoy a brief cooler temp change, you know like in the high 80s 

Can you imagine being in a tent or a pop-up during that storm?  We have a pond in 700 today.  Don't think that's ever happened while we were here.

9 hours ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Just checked the weather...WTF, rain, rain and more rain for the next 10 days?!  Mercy, that is NOT magical.  Praying that it's only brief periods during the day; we don't want to get rained out during our trip 

NaCole, we've had several 60% chance of rain days since we've been here and didn't get any rain.  

4 hours ago, Helmsey......Todd said:

Had a lot to catch up on but wanted to say your pictures are fantastic as always!

Thank you!

3 hours ago, djsamuel said:

I'm going to work from the Fort this week (have to get up early), and that rain kept me for a while.  I noticed they delayed the Halloween Fireworks quite a while since shortly after the thunder stopped, the fireworks started. 

What site are you on?

Thanks.

I spoke too soon about the clear day.  We're having another bad thunderstorm here right now.

Time for a short update.  It was another hot day!

Sunday, 9/18

Went to EPCOT for a few hours.  I wanted to see Universe of Energy one last time because I've heard rumors that it is going away.

Next up was Mission: Space -- the green side.  We rode the orange side in 2004 and said never again.  But the green side was really calm in comparison.

Finally we visited Spaceship Earth.  I won't bore you with a lot of photos there since I've posted so many before.

We drove back to the Fort and noticed these decorations have been recently put up.

After Gretchen left, we went looping for awhile.

Goodnight, all.  We have a very early morning tomorrow.

The same thing happened to us a few days ago.  Only it turned out to be Disney employees who were trying to get wi-fi on our loop working again.  But I was still unhappy about it because they could at least have let us know who they were and why they were walking all over our site.

If you come by and the car and golf cart are here, someone is home.  If my ECV and the car are gone, we're out.  If the golf cart is missing, we're out looping.  Hope to see you soon!