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

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

That reminds me of a question. I remember some years ago there was talk that Disney was doing away with the whistles on the launches. Please tell me that is not really the case!

 

 

I can only attest to as recently as February, but they were still there then.

 

And they'd better not get rid of them or how will I know when to get up in the morning??

 

 

I heard them when I was there last month.

 

Shannon-

 

The boats still have their whistles. 

 

But, they did substitute less impressive whistles for the really loud ones a few years back.

 

I could definitely hear them from the 100 loop, but they are nowhere near as startling as they used to be.

 

But, that Electric Water Pageant music is as loud as ever! 

 

 

Forgot to mention that we stayed on the site in between the one you're on here and the cabin.  I didn't like having all that traffic on the path behind our site.  It was back when we also had a pop-up and during a month when we weren't running the a/c constantly so you could hear everything.  Also took away from the privacy.  Now the boys on the other hand, LOVED being there.  Between Judy and her fall decorations, plus the site across the path from her, and the store, playground and beach being right there, it was a lot of fun for them.  

 

On the plus side, we didn't have a cart then and that is a good loop to be in if you're cart-less.

 

Our last few stays have been in the FHU which I wasn't much of a fan of previously.  But, they're growing on me.

 

Where do you have access to a fax machine these days?  I want to try that.

 

You are right about the location- it is awesome.  When we headed to the MK, we left the cart at the site and walked most of the time- it was easier.  Especially at night when the idiot rangers are out trying to direct traffic.

 

I still have a fax machine at my office-  there is still stuff that I need to fax sometimes, although I hardly ever use it.  That's funny, too, because when fax machines first came out, that thing used to be in overdrive every day.

 

hey,  Maybe the next chapter in the TCD life story will be Mrs. TCD bumpping her head and telling you she misses camping at the fort and wants to plan as many trips as you both can.  She continues to buy only Disney fashions and request a GAG every other weekend.  She gives you the ok to buy a new RV that is cozy for two and hence we see more trip reports each month...just a thought...lol

 

Yeah, that would be a great chapter.  Have you ever seen the Goldie Hawn movie, Overboard?  Mrs. TCD often jokes that this is what must have happened to her.  She likes hotels and the finer things, yet all the rest of us want to do is go to the Fort and eat fried chicken and beans.

 

Mrs. TCD did notice a nifty Class B the other day, and said it would be a neat thing to have for us to use to visit the girls at their respective colleges.  So I may have a crack.

 

Andrew, forgive me if you siad this already and I missed it, but what schools dd the twins decide to attend?  Will you home still be a house divided?  Did at least one of them decide on UCF so they are close to the fort?

 

Nope, I lobbied really hard for UCF, but nobody is going to be a Knight.

 

My oldest daughter graduated from FSU on May 3, and we packed her up and moved her to Auburn, Alabama the very next day.  She has already begun her Master's program at Auburn, and is having a great time.  I actually bought her a ticket to fly down and join us over the weekend, and she asked my to cancel it because she was invited to go to one of her new classmate's lake house on Lake Martin for the weekend.  She is in the program to receive her Masters in Higher Education Administration.  She intends to go on for her doctorate after this, and ultimately plans on running the Admissions office of a University someplace in the southern US.

 

Twin #2 will be attending Florida State in Tallahassee.  She moves in to her dorm on June 19th.  She is going to major in Hospitality.  The thing that tipped the scale in FSU's favor is that her degree will be earned through the FSU Business School.  It is a harder program than UCF's, but her degree will be much more versatile down the road.  She really, really wants to participate in the Disney College Program, and is aware that the current President of WDW, Meg Crofton, has a bachelor's and MBA degree from FSU.  She wants Meg's job.

 

Twin #1 will be attending the University of Florida in Gainesville.  She doesn't begin until August.  She is saying that she will major in Journalism, but nobody really knows what journalism is anymore.  She was one of the head editors for her High School yearbook this year, and she has really become adept at desktop publishing and using an Adobe product called InDesign.  She personally won several statewide awards in photography and design.  I am not sure where the journalism path will take her, but Mrs. TCD and I expect her to be running things at UF by this time next year.

 

Yep can't miss show. First time for me and Sil

 

Really?

 

I didn't know that you had never been.

 

That is awesome that you will share the moment with other Fiends.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Just half the grands -- they will be 2, 3, 5, and 7.  And they are staying offsite but of course I added them to our reservations so they can enjoy the fort with us!  And then we're staying another week after they leave to recuperate.

 

One of these days we'll see Grandpa TCD toting the grands around ... time flies when you're having fun!

 

Oh, just half.  You are really going to need that extra week!

 

I hope that I have at least that many to tote around some day.

 

I can attest to hearing them just 5 mins ago. They aren't as loud as they used to be, but you can still hear them from the loops near the marina. You can also still hear the Water Parade music. These are the sounds that put me to sleep everynight.

 

LOL!  You posted as I was catching up with the comments.

 

As I've said before you are living the dream.  My dream.

 

Except no way would I be going to bed at 9:45 every night.

 

TCD

[devores 382]

Oh, just half.  You are really going to need that extra week!

 

I hope that I have at least that many to tote around some day.

 

 

LOL!  You posted as I was catching up with the comments.

 

As I've said before you are living the dream.  My dream.

 

Except no way would I be going to bed at 9:45 every night.

 

TCD

 

Depends on my schedule. If I open the MK the next morning, Im in bed earlier than that. 5am comes quick and you don't want to be tired standing in 90 dg weather dealing with some of these guests. Other nights I am not even home and have to listen to Lou's favorite parade from inside the MK.

 

Funny story though, we hear these sounds all day everyday. We don't really think too much about it now as its a part of our life. We can tell the time by whats going on around us. But when we were in DL, we could have sworn we still heard the sounds of the boats and water parade. It was weird. they are so engrained into our life we still hear them even when we aren't at FW.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Depends on my schedule. If I open the MK the next morning, Im in bed earlier than that. 5am comes quick and you don't want to be tired standing in 90 dg weather dealing with some of these guests. Other nights I am not even home and have to listen to Lou's favorite parade from inside the MK.

 

Funny story though, we hear these sounds all day everyday. We don't really think too much about it now as its a part of our life. We can tell the time by whats going on around us. But when we were in DL, we could have sworn we still heard the sounds of the boats and water parade. It was weird. they are so engrained into our life we still hear them even when we aren't at FW.

 

I know.  I was just giving you a hard time.  One thing about your job is that you don't get in a rut.

 

That's funny how you heard Fort sounds at Disneyland.  You will probably feel like you are going through withdrawal if you ever move on and can't hear that EWP music.

 

TCD

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

TCD, this report is bittersweet. I know it's time to let the girls go. You and I share a lot of the same things even though I only have one. It's even hard watching MrsGus' kids grow up because when I met them they were snaggle tooth little kids, now they're driving me around Charleston this past weekend lol. Ok, the new chapter begins we can't stop time but I sure would like to.

 

 

Having four kids, two each, I didn't think them going off to college was that bad. It's when they get married. Those are by far the toughest days to get through.

With the girls, you're not the most important man in their lives any longer and with the boys, they have someone else that needs their attention.

But we have Buddy.

 

 

Wow Captain Lou, that was a great big 2 x 4 dose of reality to the side of the cranium that I could've done without.

Much like TCD and others, my son finished his last day of highschool today. As I watched him walk out to his truck and head to school, I kept flashing back to his first day of kindergarten. Standing excitingly out at the bus stop, with his little name tag and whatever Disney themed book bag was popular at the time. I remember that the book bag stretched from his neck to just above his knees. Now he's almost as tall as I am.

TCD, I like you, hope I've created enough great Fort memories to draw him back for future visits.

Ok, you guys are seriously making me cry! Somebody quick, say something stupid to make me laugh!

[devores 382]

Something stupid

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Something stupid

 

LOL! That did it! Thanks!! 

[anolefan 8]

Wow, I knew what this report was going to be about by reading the title. You have such a special bond with your girls that all you are doing now is entering into a new journey. Remember that the foundation you have set, with the emphasis on family time, will all come back to you many times over once they have their own families down the road. Then the Fort trips will be especially cool :)

We just took our oldest boy to his junior high open house last week and I was already getting sappy just walking him around the school. I'm amazed at how our children have grown in the short time from our very first trip to the Fort in 2009 until now. It scares me a little.

I'm in for this report, even if it is through the lurker glasses I've been wearing lately.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Wow, that was a lot of comments!

 

I had every intention of posting an update this morning, and perhaps another this afternoon, but that may not happen.

 

But, who's in a rush?

 

Let's get try to get to that morning update.

 

It is Friday afternoon/early evening.  May 24.

 

The girls have made it back from their foray to the MK.

 

It's time to go out looping!

 

Did I mention how nice the weather was?

 

It was great!

 

Maybe a little on the hot side, but not real humid.

 

We had watched a weather report before we headed out, and the local Orlando guy said there would be no rain, and the temperature would drop down a bit in the evening.

 

Sounded great to us.

 

We looped around.

 

I wanted to check out the partial hookup loops.   Since I couldn't get a reservation for a partial site, I wanted to see what was going on there.

 

Well, here's one problem:  This Class A is parked on a site in the 2000 loop.  The Disney website, which doesn't provide much information to potential campers, clearly says that motorhomes and travel trailers cannot be accommodated in the partial sites.  Well, nobody told this guy:

 

 

How does that happen?

 

I assume the CM at check in noticed this guy was driving a motorhome, right?

 

Oh well.

 

Another unenforced "rule" at the Fort. 

 

What else is new?

 

We headed over to the group camping area and saw that there were a lot of tents set up.  Notice how so many of them are the same.  I wonder if these are new rental tents from Disney? :

 

 

 

But, you can see some of the regular rental tents set up in a row in this photo:

 

 

If those are new rental tents, then they look smaller than the old ones.

 

Also notice the sky in that last photo.  The weatherman said no rain tonight.

 

He lied.

 

The sky kept getting darker.

 

So we headed back toward the 100 loop.

 

On the way there, I stopped at the Meadow Trading Post and picked up a TV converter box.  I had brought our little old TV that I use for camping, and it isn't digital.  I was able to pick up only 4 or 5 channels with it.  The boxes became necessary for non-digital TV's last November.  Back then, I had to pick one up at the Front Desk.  It is much easier to get one from the Meadow Trading Post.  They just keep a simple notebook with a one page form that you fill out.  I just had to show my KTTW card and sign, and I was good to go.  The form says they will charge you $125 if the box isn't returned.  But there was no charge immediately placed on my room folio or credit card.  And the box worked fine.  I took a photo of the channel line up and I'll post that later.

 

I had one more stop to make on the way back to 100.  I needed to see what was up on the 1500 loop.

 

This site told me what I needed to know.  There was a site set up with a bunch of picnic tables:

 

 

 

So that's why I couldn't get a partial site.

 

They had a big group on the 1500 loop.

 

They used to put groups like this on 2000.

 

But more and more, I've seen it on 1500.

 

I hate it.

 

This loop is too small for that.

 

It overloads the comfort station and the loop itself.

 

I wish they wouldn't allow this.

 

But money talks, right?

 

Those clouds were looking darker.

 

We headed on.

 

At about the 300 loop, some raindrops hit our windshield.

 

And I heard thunder.

 

I hit the gas.

 

We pulled into our site just as the bottom let out.

 

But, it rained for like 30 seconds.

 

And then it stopped.

 

That was it.

 

The only rain we had all weekend.

 

Sweet.

 

It's good to be TCD.

 

We hung out at the site for a while, and planned out our evening.

 

Somewhere in this time frame, we had a nice visit from some old friends who were staying on the 1700 loop.  I got caught up on some things I didn't know about them, and we made some tentative plans to get together again later on in the weekend.

 

It was our first night at the Fort, so that meant we had to have a chicken dinner from Trail's End.

 

So that was decided.

 

Then we would head over to the MK.

 

The girls had already been over there on a scouting mission.

 

They reported that it was much busier than the last 24 hour day.  But we knew that CM's passes were blocked, so we expected that the crowds would not build late in the night as they had last time.

 

So the plan was to wait until after the Fireworks at 10, and then head over.  Hopefully, the crowd would die down after the fireworks.

 

We decided we should eat dinner around 8.

 

So, at 7:45 I walked out the back of our site, and was here at Pioneer Hall a minute later:

 

 

I ordered the chicken, and headed out to the porch with my beeper.  I intended to grab a rocker and spend 15 quality minutes there waiting.  But every rocker was occupied.  Fail.

 

Oh well, plan B- I would walk over to the horse barn and take a look around.

 

I headed that way:

 

 

At first glance, I couldn't see the old windmill, and that had me worried that it was gone.

 

But as I got closer,  I could see it was still there:

 

 

And I noticed something new about it.  Those old vines were covered with little white flowers.

 

Do you know what that is?

 

Confederate Jasmine.

 

Have you ever smelled Confederate Jasmine?  I never had before moving to Florida.  I don't think it grows up north.  Here in Florida, it blooms around March or so, and hangs around for a couple of months.  Somehow, I had missed the fact that the vines on the old windmill were jasmine.  I'm pretty sure this is what heaven smells like.

 

I had to go and see if that is what I thought it was:

 

 

In case you don't know, I'm kind of fond of this sign:

 

 

Check it out:

 

 

Sure enough, the vines on that windmill were covered with jasmine flowers.  I wish there was some way for my to capture and share the fragrance.  It was truly heavenly.

 

Check out how thick these vine are.  I wonder how old these plants are? :

 

 

I could have stayed there forever, but my chicken was going to be ready in 15 minutes, so I had to keep moving.

 

Right past the jasmine vines, there are these giant gardenia bushes.  Again, I've walked past these a million times and never realized they were gardenias.  These also smell wonderful:

 

 

My camera says this photo was taken at 7:49 pm.  I love the long days as summer approaches.  It's nearly 8 and the sun is just thinking about setting:

 

 

I decided to check out the barn:

 

 

In the space that was first occupied by the calliope, and then the blue wagon, I found some red stagecoach:

 

 

I don't remember anyone reporting about this stagecoach being here.

 

Well, it is.

 

The gate to the forbidden half of the barn was open:

 

 

There is an excellent trip report underway here on ff.net from BuckeyFortMama in which she reports how she and her family were escorted on a tour of this forbidden half of the barn by a CM.  Well, guess what?  I didn't see anyone around, so I was going to give myself a tour.  So there.

 

But this sign and a flimsy rope held me back:

 

 

Ordinarily, I wouldn't let a sign and flimsy rope stop me from going somewhere that I wanted to, but I didn't want to be detained when my beeper went off to pick up my chicken.  So I stayed out of the forbidden area.

 

Who needs it anyway?

 

I had plenty of horses to see right here:

 

 

If you've never visited the barn, you should- and if you do, be sure to check out this little display area:

 

 

There are a lot of cool, old photos in there.

 

This big, beautiful, horse had the outside area all to himself:

 

 

I wonder if that is Merida's horse, Angus?

 

Hey, look what is heading right at me:

 

 

 

As I walked around, it had continued to thunder.  I figured this CM was getting the horse out of harm's way.

 

But, the clouds were almost completely cleared out:

 

 

The field behind Pioneer Hall:

 

 

My beeper went off here.  It hadn't even been 15 minutes yet.

 

And sure enough, my meal was ready.

 

Awesome.

 

I walked it back to the site.

 

The girls told me a visitor had stopped by while I was gone.

 

Lou.

 

Is my timing impeccable or what?

 

Lou told the girls he couldn't stay, but he would catch up with me later.

 

Great, I thought.  Lou.  Why did it have to be Lou?  (I'm kidding, of course, I love Lou- and don't worry about me possibly hurting his feelings by joking around- he doesn't read trip reports).

 

We dug in:

 

 

How do you like that tablecloth?

 

I've had it a long time.

 

It's my Fort Wilderness tablecloth.

 

It stays in the camper.

 

Mrs. TCD gave it to me years ago.

 

Somebody gave it to her, and for some reason she didn't want to use it in the house.

 

So I inherited it.

 

Do you want to know how long I've had it?

 

Here's one of my favorite photos from the TCD archives.

 

This is from one of our very first trips to the Fort.

 

I hadn't even bought our camper yet.

 

We rented a Class A to see how we liked it.

 

Here's a photo of all the TCD girls, even Mrs. TCD along with a spare family friend, enjoying an evening at the Fort:

 

 

If I had to guess,  I would say that was February 1999.

 

Same tablecloth.

 

Here's a couple of bonus TCD twin photos from that same trip:

 

 

 

 

How could the girls have grown up so much?

 

That tablecloth gets to stay, and they have to go?

 

I think that's 30 photos, so I must stop here.

 

Next up, we plan for and go to our all-nighter.

 

TCD

[BuckeyeFortFan 35]

The stagecoach is the same one in BFM's TR that we saw up in the carriage barn at the outpost livery.  I wonder where the show wagon has gone...perhaps a parade somewhere.

 

BTW...that is a Percheron, not a black Clydesdale.  Angus is a black Clydesdale.  With the white hair on its legs like the Budweiser horses.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Never heard of Confederate Jasmine before!  We have Carolina Jasmine here and it looks the same, only ours has bright yellow flowers.  The scent is wonderful!

 

Glad you liked the 100 loop.  Before the moho we always tried to stay there.  Now it's too tight.  It's so great just to walk a few steps to the settlement. 

 

Looking forward to your all-nighter report!

[Specularius 102]

We have Confederate Jasmine growing or attempting to grow up the columns on our porch. 

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

That's a good table cloth if it has lasted all those years! 

 

And the pictures of your girls are priceless. I want to pinch their little cheeks. I won't now though, cause I think they could probably take me.  :laugh:

[magnoliafig 51]

We have Confederate Jasmine growing or attempting to grow up the columns on our porch.

Well if you got up there on a ladder and anchored the vine, it would be doing much better.

TCD: the girls were adorable in '99. So cute.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

I can attest to hearing them just 5 mins ago. They aren't as loud as they used to be, but you can still hear them from the loops near the marina. You can also still hear the Water Parade music. These are the sounds that put me to sleep everynight.

 

Where's the I.AM.SO.JEALOUS smiley?!

 

Love the photos of the wee TCD girls.

 

I've never smelled Confederate Jasmine but I do love the smell of gardenias.

 

I wish we'd have had time for a trip to the Fort in the midst of our crazy mission.  I've never seen it fully in bloom in person before.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Well if you got up there on a ladder and anchored the vine, it would be doing much better.

 

Fuego... that's Spec told!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Ok, you guys are seriously making me cry! Somebody quick, say something stupid to make me laugh!

 

 

Something stupid

 

Good job, Dave.

 

Good to know the we can count on you to say something stupid.

 

Wow, I knew what this report was going to be about by reading the title. You have such a special bond with your girls that all you are doing now is entering into a new journey. Remember that the foundation you have set, with the emphasis on family time, will all come back to you many times over once they have their own families down the road. Then the Fort trips will be especially cool :)

We just took our oldest boy to his junior high open house last week and I was already getting sappy just walking him around the school. I'm amazed at how our children have grown in the short time from our very first trip to the Fort in 2009 until now. It scares me a little.

I'm in for this report, even if it is through the lurker glasses I've been wearing lately.

 

Tom-

 

It's good to see a post from you.

 

Middle School already?

 

See?

 

I wasn't kidding about time flying.

 

In case you didn't read about it- I have another daughter starting at FSU.

 

So that means at least another four years of me being a semi-fan.

 

Except on the Saturday after Thanksgiving that is.

 

 

 

The stagecoach is the same one in BFM's TR that we saw up in the carriage barn at the outpost livery.  I wonder where the show wagon has gone...perhaps a parade somewhere.

 

BTW...that is a Percheron, not a black Clydesdale.  Angus is a black Clydesdale.  With the white hair on its legs like the Budweiser horses.

 

I thought that wagon looked familiar.  It seems like we are downgrading with each swap.  Soon it's going to be that little pony wagon that used to be in the blacksmith shop.

 

I didn't know Angus was a Clydesdale.  I don't recall seeing a Clydesdale at the barn ever.

 

I think your wife mentioned that Angus was kept in the barn up at the Outpost.

 

 

Never heard of Confederate Jasmine before!  We have Carolina Jasmine here and it looks the same, only ours has bright yellow flowers.  The scent is wonderful!

 

Glad you liked the 100 loop.  Before the moho we always tried to stay there.  Now it's too tight.  It's so great just to walk a few steps to the settlement. 

 

Looking forward to your all-nighter report!

 

I had never heard of it either before moving to Florida.  We have some growing on our mailbox at home. it does pretty well here.

 

We have Confederate Jasmine growing or attempting to grow up the columns on our porch. 

 

Cool.  But you got yelled at again just a few posts after this.

 

That's a good table cloth if it has lasted all those years! 

 

And the pictures of your girls are priceless. I want to pinch their little cheeks. I won't now though, cause I think they could probably take me.  :laugh:

 

Yeah, whoever made that tablecloth knew what he was doing.  That thing has been with us on every trip to the Fort.

 

Well if you got up there on a ladder and anchored the vine, it would be doing much better.

TCD: the girls were adorable in '99. So cute.

 

Poor Specularius.  There's no escaping the Mrs.

 

TCD

[Lou... 3,118]

Shardi has been on fire lately.

[caveat lector 181]

Beware. If cousin Yuri finds out you have an open seat on your next trip, you may get some unwanted company.

[magnoliafig 51]

Shardi has been on fire lately.

FUEGO!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Shardi has been on fire lately.

:rofl3:

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Shardi has been on fire lately.

Fuego!

[fortpartyof4 108]

Seriously, as you already know, watching your daughter grow up is awesome.  Each day will be better than the next.  The hard part is when the end of the line comes and they aren't under your roof any more.

 

Enjoy every moment.  I know you already do.

 

 

Yup.  Can't top that.

 

 

Good answer.

 

For future reference, we made a solemn vow that no matter where we are or what we may be doing, if the TCD gang will be at every 24 hour WDW day.  We are two for two so far.

 

 

 

I know exactly how you feel.  It doesn't seem possible that 18 years flew by that fast, does it?

 

 

Yes, hug your kids.  But no, don't forbid them to grow up.  The thing is that you will be growing up with them.  And that's a good thing.

 

 

Crap.  I need to make Christmas reservations too.  Keep trying.  This is the time of year that I usually make mine.  I'm sure something will come up.

 

TinkerBill's crash mattress?  Gross!  Funny, but gross!

 

BTW, I heard some interesting news from our mutual friend MetalDad.  If what I heard is true, that is an awesome story that should be shared.

 

 

 

You are planning a big trip with all the grands for this fall, right?  That will be awesome. 

 

 

 

Yeah, the girls have grown up at the Fort.

 

One of these days, I need to dig out the pre-digital photos and scan them, and write a retrospective. 

 

 

That's awesome.

 

I hope something like that happens for us.

 

BTW- I saw a BigTom sign at the Fort next to a pop up on the 1500 loop.  That was you, right?  Never saw anyone at the site when we were out and about.

 

Sorry we didn't get to meet up.

 

 

You don't need my notebook, I know you have your own.  My only advice is savor every moment.  That senior year flies by like you wouldn't believe.

 

TCD

 

Wow!  Word travels fast over there in Dunedin.

 

There is indeed some news, however I don't want to steal MD's thunder.  It is a much happier announcement for him than for me, so I will let him tell the story.  Besides I don't have time!

 

Love the tablecloth tale.  And the photos of the wee twins and their sister.  Time really does fly.  My oldest's voice cracks a little some times and there are hints of a 'stache above his lip.  Don't like it one bit, but of course he is loving all of it.

 

The mattress I was referring to is the one that someone once suspected might be what softens Tink's landing after flying on that wire…...

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Beware. If cousin Yuri finds out you have an open seat on your next trip, you may get some unwanted company.

 

I didn't think of that.  Me and Yuri could be bros.

 

On second thought, I don't like that idea one bit.

 

Wow!  Word travels fast over there in Dunedin.

 

There is indeed some news, however I don't want to steal MD's thunder.  It is a much happier announcement for him than for me, so I will let him tell the story.  Besides I don't have time!

 

Love the tablecloth tale.  And the photos of the wee twins and their sister.  Time really does fly.  My oldest's voice cracks a little some times and there are hints of a 'stache above his lip.  Don't like it one bit, but of course he is loving all of it.

 

The mattress I was referring to is the one that someone once suspected might be what softens Tink's landing after flying on that wire…...

 

OK, I'll let MD make the big reveal.  I would like to hear the whole story, so I'll wait for him to tell it.

 

I know exactly what mattress you were talking about.  Can you imagine how nasty that thing is after having that sweaty little man slam into in every night?

 

I don't even want to think about it.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

It looks like you get two updates today!

 

This one will get us half way through the Monstrous Summer event at the Magic Kingdom.

 

The sun continued to set as we sat and enjoyed our dinner.

 

By 8:15 the lights along the path behind our site were on, but it still wasn't quite dark:

 

 

We did some night looping.

 

And we tried to take a quick nap.

 

I think the girls may have actually fallen asleep, but I didn't.

 

I broke out the guide map that they picked up in the MK on their scouting mission:

 

 

 

 

 

Looks like fun, doesn't it?

 

But, aside from just a few small things, there really wasn't anything going on that couldn't be done on a regular park day.  And it looks like most of the shows were done for the day.

 

We had done the previous 24 hour day.  Our mission on that trip was to ride every ride in the MK that day.  And we did that, almost.

 

So, on this trip, we mainly just wanted to take in the special things and the atmosphere.  No long lines.  No stress.  Just go and have some fun.

 

Sounded like a good plan to me.

 

I cut off the bottom of one of the pages of the guide map.  That told us that Mike and Sulley from Monsters University would have a special meet and greet in Tomorrowland.  I also knew, from touching base with fellow Fiend Devores, that he was scheduled to be the Photopass photographer for Mike and Sulley all night. 

 

So the plan went something like this- after Wishes at 10, we would head down to the dock and hop the MK boat.  We would head straight back to Tommorowland and get in the Mike and Sulley line.  We were allowing an hour for that.  Then we would head to the hub to watch the midnight Celebrate the Magic show, and then watch the 1 am Main Street Electric Parade.  If there was time, we would meet Mickey and Minnie in their pajamas either before or after the parade.  After that, we would get some ice cream, and plan out the rest of the evening.  Twin #2 said she wanted to eat a cinnamon roll at Gaston's Tavern at 5 am.  So, we just had to plan a few hours in between.

 

We could kind of see Wishes from our site.  After it finished, we headed down to the dock.  We wouldn't be back until some time the next morning.

 

I wasn't expecting the dock to be busy.

 

Wrong.

 

Sorry for the blurry photo, but I think it gets the point across:

 

 

The good news is that there was a boat pulling up as we walked up.  The bad news was that I doubted that we would make it on that boat.  That's how far back on the dock we were.

 

There was also a resort boat sitting there, with a bunch of empty seats.  The boat captain for the resort boat announced that he was heading to the Contemporary and that guests could take the monorail from there to the MK.  That is a terrible idea, but a bunch of folks hopped out of line and took him up on his offer.  Sweet.

 

Now it looked like we would make the MK boat.

 

I tried to take a selfie.  I am very bad at selfies.  Notoriously bad.  As in the girls usually won't let me take selfies. But I share this one, because I like the fur hat on the guy there behind us.  He was coming to get his party to tell them about the great deal of taking the boat to the Contemporary:

 

 

We did make it on that boat.

 

We had to stand.

 

But that's a good thing when the boat is crowded.

 

We were the first ones off at the MK.

 

See you later suckers!

 

We zipped through bag check and the new RFID readers, and were in the park in no time flat.

 

So far, so good.

 

It wasn't too terribly busy as we headed up Main Street.

 

We planned to hang a right at the Ice Cream Parlor and head on to Tommorrowland.

 

At 10:46 pm, however, we hit this wall of people just outside of the Ice Cream shop:

 

 

That wall of people did not move.

 

There was not a CM in sight directing people to keep moving, like there usually is.

 

People were just standing.

 

A few people all the way at the far right were inching ahead.

 

I guess everyone else was parked to see the 11 pm showing of Celebrate the Magic.

 

We were kind of trapped.

 

It got bad as people came up behind us and tried to get through.

 

We ultimately were able to inch up to the corner and make the turn.

 

But then there was another gridlock.

 

I could see a few CM's ahead.

 

There was a mob of people coming from Tomorrowland, and they were letting them out of the auxiliary exit that they use on busy nights.

 

But, they had traffic going our way stopped completely.

 

It got really bad.

 

For a few minutes, I was afraid that there might be some pushing or stampeding.

 

Finally, they let us move.

 

That was bad.

 

Really bad.

 

And dangerous.

 

Bad show there Disney.

 

What should have taken us just a few minutes ended up taking much longer.

 

But we made it back to Tommorowland just before 11.

 

Mike and Sulley were at Buzz Lightyear's meet and greet.  But, they had added some Monsters University props:

 

 

There were several photopass photographers, but Devores was not one of them.

 

Then the big guys came out- my camera says this was at 11:08:

 

 

Do you see any happy people in this photo?:

 

 

So the Monsters started 8 minutes late.

 

After about 10 minutes, they stopped and took a break.

 

That was not helping to move this long line:

 

 

All those people you see were ahead of us.

 

Around now, I got a text from Devores telling me that they had moved him at the last minute to Winnie the Pooh, and that's where he will be all night.

 

I stepped out of line to use the restroom.  When I came back, the girls had barely moved.

 

After another 10 minutes, they took another break.

 

Really.

 

Here are Mike and Sulley coming back from their second break.  They had just  started at 11:08, and it was now 11:29 and they had taken two breaks:

 

 

 

We had been in line for half an hour already.  Based on the number of breaks and the number of people in front of us, it would be way more than an hour before we got to meet Mike and Sulley.  We couldn't invest that amount of time for that.

 

So we bailed.

 

Our evening was not quite going as planned.

 

We headed over to the hub to find a spot for the midnight showing of Celebrate the Magic.  Based on the crowd we had to fight our way through on the way in, I was worried about what we would find there.

 

Actually, it wasn't bad.  Busy, but not like what we had seen earlier.  We found a nice spot, which we figured would double as our parade viewing spot, and we parked it.  I walked down Main Street to see how long the wait for Mickey and Minnie was.  It was 60 minutes.  So we held our spot and waited.

 

I think this was the first night they played the summer edition of the Celebrate the Magic show, so we got to see that:

 

 

I think that show was over by 12:15.  We liked our spot for the parade at 1.  So, I said, let's just wait.  I broke out some water bottles I brought, and we chilled.  I even laid back for a bit and shut my eyes.  It was a really pleasant evening.  Not humid, and the temperatures were in the low 80's, maybe even the high 70's.  The people watching from our spot was excellent.

 

The parade started a few minutes late, but we had great seats right on the curb.  Here we go:

 

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I still can't figure out what movie this float is from:

 

 

Pete's dragon came by.  With no Pete! :

 

 

 

I love the last float in the parade, and it was especially nice to see it on this Memorial Day weekend:

 

 

 

After the parade, we headed down to Town Square Theater.  We had already decided that we would meet Mickey and Minnie no matter what.  Plus the queue is inside in the AC, and we have seen folks stretched out on the nice carpet waiting, and that sounded good to us.

 

Here we are chilling in line at 1:34 am:

 

 

The people watching could not be beat:

 

 

Nobody looks very happy, do they?:

 

 

The posted wait time outside was 50 minutes.  Ordinarily, there is no way we would wait that long to meet a character, but the girls really wanted to meet Mickey and Minnie in their pajamas, so we waited.

 

Finally, we made it back to the room where you meet the characters.

 

A CM we chatted with there said the line was taking forever because each group of guests was having multiple photos taken.

 

We saw this first hand.

 

The group right in front of us was a group of three Asian young ladies.  They were dressed in their pajamas, and had a bag full of props.  Each one posed with Mickey and Minnie with their props.  This one had a Duffy:

 

 

And then another one pulled out a book of Bedtime Stories, and they all jumped in that photo:

 

 

The one of them wanted a photo with just Minnie. 

 

And so on.

 

It was actually very funny to watch.

 

But, jeez, what about all the poor people in line?

 

Finally, it was our turn:

 

 

When we were here for the Leap Day all-nighter, there were a lot of young ladies who showed up in their pajamas. The twins wished they had thought of that.  They were too chicken to wear pajamas to the park, but they did have me bring some new Tinkerbell slippers in my backpack.  Those were a big hit:

 

 

We stole this idea from those Asian girls:

 

 

That last photo was taken at 2:40 am.  This little activity took us over an hour.  Probably not too smart, but the girls really wanted that photo.

 

It was now time for some ice cream and to plan the rest of the evening.

 

We only had just over three hours left.

 

But, we were going to make them count.

 

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

 

TCD