It's The End of the World as We Know It-The TCD Gang's Last Fort Trip (BC)

Tri-Circle-D · June 20, 2013

I have been intending to post an update today, as this TR is taking a much longer time than normal to finish.

I'm already reporting about stuff that I said was going to be happening earlier in the report.

To re-set things for you, we are finishing up with the bonus material which comes from our second visit to WDW for the last Star Wars Weekend of 2013. We had been to DHS for rope drop, then hopped to the MK for lunch at BOG, and now we are on our way to cash in those FP's we got on the way to lunch.

And, so, here we are in the Little Mermaid FP queue:

There are those who would argue that getting a FP for the Mermaid is a waste of a Fastpass.

And, I would be one of them.

But, the FP dispenser was on our way to lunch, and I really didn't feel like walking all the way across the park in the blazing sun.

The FP's were nice to have today, because for whatever reason the stand-by line was long. You can see that guests are waiting in the paths outside of the caverns. We saw lines like this back when it first opened, but I haven't seen it this crowded since:

The Jungle Cruise is not the only place you can see the backside of water:

Here's a nice mermaid- not like that evil Starbucks logo Lou worships:

You want to know something I learned on this trip?

The Little Mermaid ride has kick-butt AC!

I don't recall riding it on a hot day.

But, as soon as our clamshells turned backward, and we entered the sea, the cold air was pouring down on us.

If the stand-by line wasn't so long, I would have voted to go again.

But the line was long.

And it was hot.

So we had a pow-wow.

We hadn't really decided what to do after the mermaid.

The twins said they wanted to go somewhere where we could sit in some AC and chill.

I said let's go to a resort.

I suggested the Wilderness Lodge.

They agreed.

There are lots of little nooks and crannies around there with seating.

We could go there and just chill for a bit.

We had been up early to get here for rope drop, so a siesta sounded good.

I was happy to see that the gate for the path that leads to Storybook Circus was open.

Because I was hoping we could catch the train to the front instead of walking in the blazing sun:

I guess the MK was more crowded than I expected it would be:

We have seen a clown perform here near the entrance to Storybook Circus, but we had never seen this group of clowns before:

There was a small group of people assembled to watch. But, the performers may have outnumbered the spectators. I don't get this. Disney won't pay for one guy to be Flynn Rider in the Rapunzel meet and greet, but they will pay a bunch of people with marginal talent to clown around?

We arrived at the train station just as a train was leaving. That is good actually, it meant we would get on the next train, and that we would be able to wait in the shade right by the tracks. I love the new theming they've done back here:

As a result of the exploring I've done of the old FWRR tracks, I kind of am interested in how the MKRR tracks are different. Everything is larger here. And, of course, much better maintained:

I was surprised to hear the train coming just a few minutes after we got in place. I thought that we would be waiting much longer:

There's the train pilot. That is a cool job. Almost as cool as a monorail pilot or one of the boat captains:

I think they did a great job on the new train station:

I'm not sure if you can see it, but this is a photo of the long line for the Goofy rollercoaster. It seems like there are a lot more guests riding it since they brought the other Storybook Circus attractions to this area:

There is one of the service dog rest areas. One of these days, I will see a real service dog using it:

There's the race cars. I have a hard time thinking of any other attraction in all of the Disney Parks which is such a waste of space:

I like this shot of the Contemporary Resort and the monorail- two cool things about WDW:

We made it to the Main Street train station no problem. Before we left, though, I wanted to get some SOTM cards, so I headed over to the Fire Station.

I must have timed it just right, as we got to see both Marie and Marie Poppins heading to their meet and greets:

While I was in the firehouse, the twins waited outside. When I came out, they pointed out this group of CM's in green shirts. They had walked by the girls, and the girls noticed that they are being trained to be CM's in charge of Brazilian Tour Groups:

Did you know that WDW hires CM's for the specific purposed of catering to Brazilian Tour Groups?

Well, they do.

What do you think that means happens when guests go in and complain about how rude and obnoxious Brazilian Tour Groups are?

There was one of those slow boats at the Wilderness Lodge spot on the MK dock.

We knew that meant we needed to head to the bus stop.

So we did.

On the way, the Monster-Rail came by:

That reminds me.

Monsters University comes out tomorrow.

For a long time, Twin #2 has mentioned how cool it was that the movie would come out right after she moved in to college. She wanted to go and see it with her new roommate.

Oh well, maybe it will be the last Pixar movie that the twins get to see with their dad.

The Wilderness Lodge bus wasn't there.

So, we had to entertain ourselves with people watching.

I pointed this guy out to the girls:

I said that is an R2D2 yarmulke.

They said no it wasn't.

Well, it was Star Wars Weekend.

And if that isn't an R2D2 yarmulke, then what is it?

And as long as we're looking at this guy, check out his socks:

I guess he dressed that way to make God happy.

Somehow, I'm not sure God approves.

Right here, our bus pulled up.

Unfortunately, we had to wait for a lady who didn't know how to drive her scooter to get off.

And when I said she didn't know, I mean she did not know at all.

It was bad.

I guess bus drivers aren't allowed to help? Because our guy didn't. He just let her drive the darn thing back and forth trying to get it to line up with the lift.

But we eventually got on.

And headed to the Lodge.

We will pick it up from there in the next update.

TCD

kampfirekim · June 20, 2013

Great update! I love all the MKRR photos, however, trains do not have pilots. They have conductors. :))

I am not sure how I feel about the clowns either, but I do know that I really miss the live band that used to come out from the doors on the front of the Castle Stage. We always recognized the musicians who had been there for several years.

Lou... · June 20, 2013

Did you know that WDW hires CM's for the specific purposed of catering to Brazilian Tour Groups? Well, they do.

As part of the International CM Program, 100 CMs from Brazil are serving as "Super Greeters" until Aug 10.

They must be fluent in English and Brazilian Portuguese. Some also speak Spanish.

Tri-Circle-D · June 20, 2013

Great update! I love all the MKRR photos, however, trains do not have pilots. They have conductors.

I am not sure how I feel about the clowns either, but I do know that I really miss the live band that used to come out from the doors on the front of the Castle Stage. We always recognized the musicians who had been there for several years.

I know that train drivers are called conductors. I call them pilots to bug a certain bus pilot.

So, they no longer have the band you liked who performed at the castle? I guess clowns must be a lot cheaper.

As part of the International CM Program, 100 CMs from Brazil are serving as "Super Greeters" until Aug 10.
They must be fluent in English and Brazilian Portuguese. Some also speak Spanish.

As my friend with the R2D2 yarmulke would say- oy vey!

TCD

magnoliafig · June 20, 2013

I'm googling novelty yarmulkes now...

Maybe he just snipped the ears off a Mickey hat...

CKCK · June 20, 2013

A lot has happened since I last checked in.

So I have no comments.

Beckers · June 20, 2013

I know that train drivers are called conductors. I call them pilots to bug a certain bus pilot.

I can't remember the exact times but because it is insanely hot being a "train pilot" they work so long on and then so long off during their whole shift. I'll have to see if my parents remembered the times on and off they took the behind the steam train tour and told me.

BigTom · June 20, 2013

I thought engineers drove trains.

kampfirekim · June 21, 2013

I know that train drivers are called conductors. I call them pilots to bug a certain bus pilot.

So, they no longer have the band you liked who performed at the castle? I guess clowns must be a lot cheaper.

It all makes sense now. I knew that you had to much knowledge to not know that. TCD bugging a certain bus pilot.... all is right in the universe.

No live band at the castle. No Kids of the Kingdom. It smb.

GaDawgFan.....Kelly · June 21, 2013

Here's a link in case that is too hard for you or if those arrows don't display on your Commodore:
http://www.fortfiends.net/forum/topic/9192-tcds-february-2013-limited-time-magic-tr/page-12#entry252327
TCD

:bravo:

Tri-Circle-D · June 21, 2013

I'm googling novelty yarmulkes now...
Maybe he just snipped the ears off a Mickey hat...

Novelty yarmulkes? I never. But you made me look.

This image shoots down the snipping the ears off a Mickey hat idea:

And it also shoots down my R2D2 theory.

But, my search was not a total fail, because I found this:

A Darth Vader yarmulke!

If I ever convert, I am totally getting myself one of those to wear to Star Wars Weekends.

And, it will match my black socks.

A lot has happened since I last checked in.

So I have no comments.

I know how you feel.

I can't remember the exact times but because it is insanely hot being a "train pilot" they work so long on and then so long off during their whole shift. I'll have to see if my parents remembered the times on and off they took the behind the steam train tour and told me.

Yeah, I can believe that being a train pilot is a hot job. Those bus pilots have it easy in the AC.

I thought engineers drove trains.

Yeah, me too. It's either an engineer or conductor who drives the train. I don't think anyone cares which is which, other than the engineer and conductor.

It all makes sense now. I knew that you had to much knowledge to not know that. TCD bugging a certain bus pilot.... all is right in the universe.

No live band at the castle. No Kids of the Kingdom. It smb.

Thanks, glad all is good with KFK.

I wouldn't want you to be upset and send your ghost to haunt me.

:bravo:

What's that for?

I was not making a joke or taking a dig at Lou.

He really does have a Commodore 64. He's said so himself.

He also uses a jitterbug phone.

TCD

Lou... · June 21, 2013

I was not making a joke or taking a dig at Lou.
He really does have a Commodore 64. He's said so himself.
He also uses a jitterbug phone.

Because I'm always ahead of the curve, I prefer the Commodore SX-64, which is the first full-color portable computer on the market.

And my one and only cell phone which I hardly ever use or carry, is often referred to as a Jitter Phone, or flip phone.

Tri-Circle-D · June 21, 2013

Because I'm always ahead of the curve, I prefer the Commodore SX-64, which is the first full-color portable computer on the market.
And my one and only cell phone which I hardly ever use or carry, is often referred to as a Jitter Phone, or flip phone.

Sorry, I forgot it was the SX-64.

LOL!

TCD

Tri-Circle-D · June 21, 2013

Alright, let's move this report along. It has taken much longer than it should have.

We left off with us leaving the MK in search of a nice cool place to take a break from the sweltering heat.

We had decided on the Wilderness Lodge, but it could have been a bunch of other resorts. What we were looking for was a cool, quiet place where we could put our feet up and escape the heat for a while.

I remember that there are members of this board who have admitted that they have never been to the Wilderness Lodge.

That boggles my mind.

We always visit there every time we are at the Fort.

To me, it is an amenity of the Fort, and that is how we treat it.

There are all kinds of nooks and crannies with seating scattered around both the main building and the DVC addition. Our plan was to claim some chairs and take a rest in the nice air conditioning.

The bus took us right there. It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday, and it wasn't very busy around there.

We looked around the lobby, and there were all kinds of places available to sit, including a bunch of rocking chairs by the fire place, and another group over by the spring which bubbles up in the lobby floor.

But, I had something else in mind.

There are various seating arrangements on the floor levels above the lobby. The Troll mentioned these in his most recent TR, but I've been here before myself.

We walked up a couple flights of stairs, and found a nice little area that had a loveseat and two upholstered recliners. This was perfect. I took a recliner, twin #1 claimed the loveseat, and twin #2 the other recliner. It was cool and quiet there.

And this was our view:

That is the main lobby floor. You can see that the sun is blazing outside, and that there aren't many folks hanging around the lobby. You can see that there is a guy down there lying flat-out on one of the couches. I guess that is OK, but I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. Unless, of course, I was paying the big bucks to stay there.

Our little alcove also provided a view of the Whispering Canyon Café. Those imagineers are a bunch of comedians calling that place whispering. Have you ever been there when it's full of guests? No one whispers in there!:

We got all settled in. The girls broke out their phones and reconnected with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, or whatever it is kids do with those things these days.

I leaned back in my comfy recliner and rested my eyes.

A little while later, I opened an eyelid to take a peek around.

Twin #1 was asleep on the love seat. Completely asleep. Twin #2 was still looking at her phone. I asked her if she was ready to get going, but she said no. She was enjoying the rest.

I took a look around, and noticed that, of all things, there was a wedding going on outside on a balcony right across from us:

They were all outside on the balcony that overlooks the pool and Bay Lake, but they came in shortly after I noticed them:

I wondered if it had started to rain, but I didn't care enough to bother getting up to take a look.

After a while, I decided to get up and take a look around.

It still wasn't very busy around there. You can see a bunch of empty rocking chairs over there overlooking the lobby, and a few guests checking in below:

Have you ever noticed the lamps hanging above the lobby? They are huge:

Here, take a closer look:

The wedding apparently was still going on, but had moved inside:

It turns out that it was raining pretty hard outside, but it also looked like it might be clearing:

I call this photo Afternoon Rain Over Discovery Island:

As I said, it was raining pretty good, but it looked like the sky was clear behind the big clouds hanging over the Lodge- you can see the rain coming down in this photo if you look:

This photo is taken from the far side of the lobby, looking back to where we were sitting. We were in that little area right above the entrance doors, between the stone columns:

Have you ever noticed the Wilderness Lodge fireplace? It's a very prominent feature in the lobby, and it has a stone chimney that rises up all the way through the roof. The rock used to build the chimney is layered in a way to replicate how rocks might be found in a geologic dig. There are signs on each floor explaining what you are looking at on each level:

Where else would you find such a detail in a hotel?

This photo is taken from down at ground level. You can see that the rain is overflowing the gutters of the roof:

There was also lightning and thunder, so the pool was shut down, and there were a few more guests on the main lobby floor:

They broke out some games like they have on the porch of Crockett's Tavern:

But, not many guests ventured up to the floor where we were. Looking across the lobby to the other side, none of the little seating areas over there were occupied:

We ended up having a nice long rest.

This ended up being a genius move. We had avoided the stifling heat and a big storm.

We waited a bit longer that I ordinarily would have wanted to, but we wanted to wait and see if the rain would let up.

Of course, I had our ponchos with us, so we were ready to face the rain if we had to. But, we were in no hurry to do that.

After a while, though, we needed to go.

I still had those Toy Story Fastpasses which would be good starting at 5, and maybe this rain would chase folks away from the area in front of the Hyperspace Hoopla stage, and we would get a good spot for the show tonight.

We stopped in Roaring Forks for a drink. They still have Nescafe there, in case you're wondering:

And then we headed out to the bus stop.

The walkway out there was flooded with a giant puddle. I've never seen that happen before:

There was also a small river flowing right through the covered area of the bus stop:

And, it was still raining:

It wasn't real crowded there at the bus stop, but the people who were there were grumbling and complaining about how long they had been waiting.

Uh oh.

But, the fact that they had been waiting a long time was actually a positive for us, because that meant the bus would have to be coming soon.

Right?

A couple of buses came pulling in at the same time. They both said "Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness" on the marque. They never switched to say where they were going, and they hadn't come from the Fort. Both pulled up at the MK bus stop. The angry crowd mobbed them. it turned out that these buses were going back and forth between the Fort, the Lodge, and the MK. That meant the boats were down:

The angriest group there apparently wanted to go to Downtown Disney,

They were not happy when the next bus showed up and had Hollywood Studio on its display.

But we were.

Of course, we had to wait for a couple of the angriest buttholes from the angry mob to yell at the Hollywood Studios bus driver. Like that is going to do any good?

Here we are on our way to Hollywood Studios at 4:35 pm. Note the geniuses on the bus who hung all of their dripping rain gear over the seats that other guests might need to sit in:

As you may know, the DHS bus is shared by WL and FW. That meant we would be swinging by the Fort before heading to DHS. No big deal, it is on the way, and only takes a few minutes to get there.

Well, after about ten minutes we were still trying to exit the Lodge parking lot.

Something was up.

I looked to see what it was.

For a while, I couldn't see.

Then, we pulled up a bit, and I saw one of the old, decrepit, Disney Security guards at his station blocking all traffic from going down the road to the Contemporary Resort and the MK bus stops:

There's a traffic light there, and all the traffic approaching the intersection was required to turn left.

Of course, like idiot drivers do everywhere, guests were entering the intersection when the light was green or turning yellow, and blocking it for the traffic trying to travel the other way when it was their turn.

The clueless old man Security guard stood there and watched without making any effort to direct the traffic:

So we sat through several light cycles.

You can see that traffic was all backed up over to our left:

Eventually, our driver grew a pair, and pulled out and got us out of there.

And, here we are at the Fort:

There were a bunch of unhappy folks there too.

All of the buses coming and going from the Fort would eventually be passing through that mess that we had just found our way out of.

So all of the buses were late.

I later found out that the problem was that the road under the water bridge had flooded.

I guess there was more rain than I thought.

We pulled on out of the Fort at 5:01 pm. So far, it had taken us 25 minutes to travel this far.

Oh well, we weren't in a hurry.

And, it was still raining.

The overflow lot at the Fort wasn't very busy compared to the last time I saw it.:

From here, we headed to DHS, and arrived to find that it was raining harder.

We put on our ponchos and headed out.

I was hoping the rain would mean short lines and less crowds than what we had seen when we left earlier today.

We will pick it up from here in the next update.

TCD

DaveInTN · June 21, 2013

Yelling at bus drivers may not get you anywhere faster, but it sure is fun.

Ok, just kidding. I never yell at bus drivers. Or anyone else for that matter. But I do give dirty looks.

CKCK · June 21, 2013

AGU!

I don't think I've ever used that acronym.

Bam!

We have been to the Lodge several times, but never just chilled in there. Definitely looks like a great place to get out of the sun/rain.

Oh, and...

woo hoo!

Nicki aka Rebelstand · June 21, 2013

rain = empty parks... right?

Starbuc71 · June 21, 2013

_{We found another great area to cool off real well and to catch a few winks at the MK. I have never been to the hall of Presidents before our last trip. I was happy it was cool, dark and comfortable. I think the kids and I had to be woken up by the wife when the show was over}

devores · June 21, 2013

rain = empty parks... right?

No.

It just means all of the indoor attractions will be extremely crowded. You can walk around all you want, but the inside locations (stores, meet and greets, restaurants) will be packed.

During the slow season, when its all locals in the parks, the rain = empty parks is true because the AP holders can come and go when they want and don't want to stay in the rain. During busy times when this is the once in a lifetime trip or a once every couple of years trip, people don't want to waste a park ticket by leaving when it rains half the day. So they stick it out and wait until it stops raining or the park closes.

Nicki aka Rebelstand · June 21, 2013

Note to self avoid busy times

The Troll · June 21, 2013

Wow! Already 16,000+ views, Andrew. This is shaping up into an epic trip report!

Tri-Circle-D · June 21, 2013

Yelling at bus drivers may not get you anywhere faster, but it sure is fun.

Ok, just kidding. I never yell at bus drivers. Or anyone else for that matter. But I do give dirty looks.

Dang it!

I meant to say that the angry mob yelled at the bus pilots!

Fail.

I don't yell at the bus pilots or give them dirty looks. I have pity on them because they are not monorail or train pilots. Or even boat captains.

AGU!

I don't think I've ever used that acronym.

Bam!

We have been to the Lodge several times, but never just chilled in there. Definitely looks like a great place to get out of the sun/rain.

Oh, and...

woo hoo!

Thanks.

We had never gone to the Lodge just to chill, but it was a good place for that.

rain = empty parks... right?

See Devore's response and my reply, below.

_{We found another great area to cool off real well and to catch a few winks at the MK. I have never been to the hall of Presidents before our last trip. I was happy it was cool, dark and comfortable. I think the kids and I had to be woken up by the wife when the show was over}

Yes, the last time I was in HOP, it was nice and cool too.

But, I only go after they put a new robot in there. I was hoping to make a visit this year. But you know how that went.

The good news is that there will be a new robot in there about four years from now.

No.

It just means all of the indoor attractions will be extremely crowded. You can walk around all you want, but the inside locations (stores, meet and greets, restaurants) will be packed.

During the slow season, when its all locals in the parks, the rain = empty parks is true because the AP holders can come and go when they want and don't want to stay in the rain. During busy times when this is the once in a lifetime trip or a once every couple of years trip, people don't want to waste a park ticket by leaving when it rains half the day. So they stick it out and wait until it stops raining or the park closes.

Agreed. It seems like there was once a time when folks left when it rained. Not so much anymore.

Note to self avoid busy times

That is just about all year.

Wow! Already 16,000+ views, Andrew. This is shaping up into an epic trip report!

Yeah, not too shabby.

But, the end is near!

TCD

alexwyattmommy · June 21, 2013

Yup, no empty parks for us due to rain.

Tri-Circle-D · June 21, 2013

I think there's time for one more update today!

We left off on the bus in the rain on the way to Hollywood Studios.

There was a trip we took not too long ago where it was pouring down rain at the Fort, and when we arrived at DHS it hadn't even rained.

Funny stuff like that happens in Florida.

Well, that isn't what happened this time.

It was raining plenty good when we got to DHS.

But, at least we had our Toy Story Fastpasses to use, and that is where we planned to go first.

We stopped at the tip board to check on things when we arrived. Here is how things stood at 5:24 pm:

A two hour wait for Toy Story.

We had already ridden it twice this morning, and were about to ride it a third time. And we could have done better than that, had we wanted to.

The rest of the wait times weren't too bad, and there were still FP's being given out for some of the big attractions. So, even though it was a busy day, a person doing a one day visit would have had plenty to do and not too bad of waits anywhere if he arrived at rope drop and used Fastpass wisely.

We decided that we wouldn't bother with obtaining any new Fastpasses, and went right on back to Toy Story.

Remember what Devores said just a little bit above about people packing in to the covered attractions when it rains?

Well, this is the Fastpass queue for Toy Story:

And this is the regular queue:

The whole room was full. And the stand by line wasn't moving because they had to get us Fastpass guests in first. Those poor suckers very well may have waited two hours to ride this ride that we will have ridden three times with no wait today.

Twin #1 got best in the car, and almost best for the hour again. But, look at the high score for today:

I really would like to know how anyone can get that high of a score. We know a lot of the tricks, and we shoot non-stop, but have never come close to one of those high scores. Clearly, there are tricks we don't know about.

We came out of Toy Story to find that it was still raining just as hard. By the way, this was not forecast. This was more than just an afternoon thunderstorm.

We would need to decide on what to do about dinner soon, and whether or not we would try for a place at Hyperspace Hoopla. But, it was not quite 6 pm, so it was too early for that yet. I wanted to see if the rain was going to stop, so to buy some time, I suggested that we go to the animation class. The girls said that it would probably be packed. I said let's go and see- if it's packed, we will come up with another plan. So we went. It was busy, and we had to wait in the standby line for the 6 pm class. There were more people milling around in the building than normal for this time of day- the rainy day effect:

We made it in to the class fine. Our instructor was Brian. He was our first instructor, and maybe our favorite.

The only thing is that he has a thing for Donald Duck.

He told us that Donald's birthday was tomorrow. Which would have been June 9. I didn't know that.

So, Brian told us that in honor of Donald's birthday and Star Wars Weekends, we would draw Darth Donald.

Cool!

Here we go. This is Brian's drawing so far:

And here was mine. As you can see, I was having major problems, and I knew they would just keep compounding:

Brian just zipped through his drawing:

Here he is adding some horns:

And here is Brian's finished drawing:

This is Twin #2's:

And Twin #1s:

For some reason, there is no photo of my finished drawing.

Just imagine the worst Darth Donald drawing you can imagine. And then make it worse. That would get you pretty close to how mine looked.

When we emerged from the animation building, it was 6:33 pm and it was still raining:

Sitting outside and enjoying a hot dog in a pretzel roll and a beer didn't look like it would be happening.

Fail.

So what to do?

I said let's go and see what the crowd for Hyperspace Hoopla looks like. We waited for it in the rain once, and it worked out good for us. But on that day, it was just a thunderstorm, and the rain stopped before the show. They announced that the show would go on only after they could see if they could sufficiently dry the stage, and they came out with mops and squeegees and dried the stage. Tonight was different- it had been raining for hours, and there was no sign that it would be letting up anytime soon. Still, you never know.

There were very few guests in the area of the stage when we walked by:

We could have grabbed a spot up at the rail and hoped for the best:

But, the girls said no way were they going to stand in the rain for an hour and a half for a show that may not even go on.

The way things looked to me, there wasn't going to be a show.

So we voted to leave.

I suggested that we go to Art of Animation and get the build your own pasta, and then call it a day.

The twins agreed. We had to go there to get our car anyway.

When we have been to the AoA food court in the past, it has never been busy. Of course, we started to visit back when the resort first opened, and initially not all the rooms were even done or occupied.

Things are different now.

This is the line just to order the pasta:

It could take an hour for us to get through that line.

Fail.

We all decided to leave and stop somewhere on the way home for something to eat.

Twin #2 wanted to use the restroom before we left, so Twin #1 and I hung out in the lobby.

This light fixture, which is the focal point of the entrance are is pretty cool:

There was an article recently on the Disney Parks Blog about how Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel from the Little Mermaid movie had recently visited the Art of Animation resort and had signed a drawing on display in that light fixture. I wondered if we would be able to find it.

It wasn't hard to find:

When we visited here back when it opened last year, a CM had pointed out another drawing in this light fixture to us and told us that it had been signed by John Lasseter, the CEO of Pixar. I thought maybe the CM was just spreading rumors, but I guess he wasn't. This is the John Lasseter signed drawing:

I am not sure I could take working the desk here in the reception area. Those lights might give me a headache after a while:

While we waited for Twin #2, Twin #1 did a bit of goofing around, which she is quite good at. We ended up with one of my favorite photos from this trip report:

The other thing significant about that photo is that it is the last one for the bonus features and for this report.

My photobucket is empty.

That's all I have for you.

From here, we loaded up and headed west.

We swung through Casa de Ronald on the way home and that was our dinner.

It rained the whole way home.

The whole way.

That was a big storm.

And we made the right call.

I heard later that Hyperspace Hoopla ended up being cancelled for Saturday night.

So we definitely made the right call.

We made it home by a little after 9.

And that was the end of the extra trip.

So, this is the end of this trip report.

It's been real.

Twin #2 definitely heads to school this weekend, as her classes start on Monday.

There have been discussions about a trip for right after she finishes with this 6 week session in early August.

And, Twin #1 has reminded me that she is up for a trip with just the two of us whenever.

So, when will the next trip be?

For the Fort, it will be a while.

For a day trip, probably not.

And, there may be some other kind of Disney trip I have up my sleeve for August.

But you will have to wait and see about that.

So, for now,

That's all I have.

TCD

The Troll · June 21, 2013

Bravo. Outstanding report, as always. This one was extra good.

It's The End of the World as We Know It-The TCD Gang's Last Fort Trip (BC)

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