The TCD Gang Springs Forward at the Fort- A Spring Break 2014 TR

[Ok Grumpy AKA Cindy~~ 9]

I'm so gullible I believed it!  really enjoyed it!

Thank You!  

[Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5]

Just for the record, the River Country panther was a great one, BUT I think you outdid yourself with the bat letter! That was awesome!!

 

Its funny, because yesterday you posted about the packet you received in the mail and the Dumbo magnet and we received our packet, actually two packets in the mail today! Our magnets have the date to secure Fast passes and the date to do the on-line check in as well as the date that starts the vacation. We received two packets, because we have two reservations. One week at the All Star Music and one week at the Yacht Club. So, we scored TWO magnets!!! Woohoo!!!

 

I too, love those barrel phones. Its hard to believe that all of the pay phones are gone. Doesn't seem all that long ago, that pay phones were so important.

[LONE-STAR 370]

I have to say I really liked your April fools this year. I was actually looking foward to it to see what you came up with. Loved the letter. Enjoying the report as always.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

But I have the memory of an elephant!

 

We shall see.

 

I like a challenge.

 

I totally fell for the letter! I was cussing Disney so bad, freaking out about having bats in my tent in May. You are the master of April Fool's Day!

 

Thanks for admitting that you were fooled.

 

I hope that you have no bat troubles in May.

 

See now I like the letter about the bats. Of course for a complete mischievous and evil plan. Everyone is saying how hard it is to get a site now days especially around the holidays. I say we get the letter out there and scare off potential campers. Then voilà the sites open up for the Fiends.

 

You may be on to something here.

 

Perhaps there could be an entire fake thread next year that we all conspire together to create to fool newbies and lurkers.

 

I'm so gullible I believed it!  really enjoyed it!

Thank You!  

 

Awesome.

 

Glad to know a few folks fell for it.

 

Like Troll said earlier, its so dumb, it's not hard to imagine that it could have been real.

 

Just for the record, the River Country panther was a great one, BUT I think you outdid yourself with the bat letter! That was awesome!!

 

Its funny, because yesterday you posted about the packet you received in the mail and the Dumbo magnet and we received our packet, actually two packets in the mail today! Our magnets have the date to secure Fast passes and the date to do the on-line check in as well as the date that starts the vacation. We received two packets, because we have two reservations. One week at the All Star Music and one week at the Yacht Club. So, we scored TWO magnets!!! Woohoo!!!

 

I too, love those barrel phones. Its hard to believe that all of the pay phones are gone. Doesn't seem all that long ago, that pay phones were so important.

 

Two weeks at Disney?

 

One of them the Yacht Club?

 

It is good to be Heidi!

 

Have a great time!

 

I have to say I really liked your April fools this year. I was actually looking foward to it to see what you came up with. Loved the letter. Enjoying the report as always.

 

Thanks.

 

Next year is a long way away, and I've set the bar high.  I hope I can come up with something.

 

Glad you're enjoying the report.

 

But I have bad news.

 

It shouldn't come as a surprise, because I said how I was already packed up in the last update.  But this next update will end with me leaving the Fort and heading home.

 

The trip is about to end.

 

And so will this trip report.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Well, this is going to be it for this trip report.

 

This is the last of the photos.

 

And there haven't been any bonus day trips, and there are none on the horizon.

 

So, let's wrap it up.

 

We left off looking at the beautiful sky from near the 1500 loop entrance.  And we begin this last update from that same spot, overlooking the Meadow Recreation Area:

 

 

The footbridge across from the 1500 loop.  I am sorry to say that I did not walk across this bridge even once on this trip:

 

 

Here's one of the little bat houses.  I wonder if these will be removed to encourage the bats to use the BABH?:

 

 

The road to the group camping area.  Note how the cypress trees in the back still have no leaves.  This was on March 10.  I'll bet winter is over now:

 

 

I went around the 600 loop on this final lap around the Fort, and here's a photo of the front part of my favorite site, 617:

 

 

The bushes they planted have helped a bit.  But still.

 

Now it's time to say goodbye.  All packed.  You can see the Cruise Canada Class C in the site across the loop.  It looks just like a Cruise America rental RV, but it said Cruise Canada on the side.  Those folks were the third group to occupy that site in the four nights we had been here.  There's a lot of coming and going on this loop:

 

 

Speaking of going, that's just what I did:

 

 

 

I decided not to join the girls at the MK.  My camper was nice and dry, which was not the case for our last two visits. There was a possibility of some rain today, and I wanted to get home and get the camper put away while it was dry.  So, I headed home.

 

The girls stayed for the parade, and then made it home by dinner time. 

 

They did watch the Festival of Fantasy parade for a second time, this time from right in front of the Main Street Starbucks.

 

Here are some of their photos- it looks like they had the same sky at the MK as I had at the Fort:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the time, the girls could say that they had seen every performance of the FOF parade.

 

They can't say that now.

 

We got to enjoy one meal together as a family, but then Twin #1 had to head back to Gainesville.  The other TCD DD's headed back to school a few days later.

 

That's all I have to say about how we Sprung Forward at the Fort for Spring Break 2014.

 

What's next?

 

I wish I could tell you.  The way things look now, I can't say.  I would really like to go to this year's 24 hour event on Memorial Day weekend.  But, Twin #1 has other plans.  Which I don't think are going to change.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

TCD

[Memphis 105]

Great report as always.  Always learn something new in a TCDTR.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

What a nice ending to your trip!  With all the girls away at college, maybe it's time for you and Mrs. TCD to plan a trip together!

[dblr....Rennie 224]

As always a great trip report and it sounds like you had fun with your April Fools jokes, even Mrs. dblr was fooled with the TSM one and even a little jealous wanting one.

[Helmsey......Todd 134]

 

 

That River Country Panther is hard to beat.

 

TCD

For those of us newer type people, is this still up on the board to read?

And for the record, the bat thing had me going. I actually said to myself, "that sounds crazy even for Disney" but I figured they were trying to astound people with their craziness again.

 

 

 

I saw this "house divided" golf cart parked there.  Tennessee and Florida.  

A partially smart cart... The TN part being the smart one :) Go Vols.

 

 

Fabulous TR as always, thanks for taking the time to document and share with everyone.

[BigTom 76]

Great report, enjoyed reading it.  Thanks, BigTom

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

 

 

Now it's time to say goodbye.  

....to all our company.

 

M I C

 

See 'ya real soon!

 

K E Y

 

Why?  Because we like you!

 

M O U S E

 

Sorry.  I could have resisted.  But I didn't want to.

 

Great TR, as always, TCD!

 

Hope you get to return to the Mouse soon, so I can continue to live vicariously through you.

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

Once again, Thanks for Sharing!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

For those of us newer type people, is this still up on the board to read?

 

Since I liked that prank so much, here it is:

 

 

 

Time to pick this back up.

It is still Sunday morning. The sun has slowly begun to rise, and I have been exploring the Fort.

When I got back from my mission to the Four Seasons construction site, the girls were still asleep, so I decided to head down to Trail's End for a cup of coffee and some quality time on a rocking chair.

It had been a bit cloudy early in the morning, but the sun was burning off the clouds and steadily rising. I love this time of day, as it is interesting to see how the light hits things and illuminates them.

For example, you can see that the sun is hitting the very top of Pioneer Hall here:

I got my coffee and sat for a while.

But then I thought I ought to go back and check on River Country.

I check on it every trip.

But nothing has been going on back there for a long time.

The rumors tell us that something big is going to happen back here.

But there are no signs of it.

Still, I decided to check any way.

You can see the sun is hitting the Fort Wilderness Pavilion in this shot, and that the sprinklers are on:

I headed back into the former entrance area of River Country.

I peeked through all the normal cracks in the fence.

I stopped over by the big pool so I could stick my hand through the gate and take a photo of the crumbling slides.

But when I began to stick my hand through the opening, I noticed something.

One of the locks was hanging on the fence:

And the other lock was open! See? :

Somebody had left the gate unlocked!

I wonder who?

Probably those castmembers over there by the pavilion:

They were far enough away that they wouldn't see me if I opened the gate and took a photo.

And, there were no menacing signs like I had just seen on the Four Seasons fence.

So, I pushed the gate open.

I looked back.

Nobody was looking.

I figured I would just step in a bit for a couple of photos.

Here's those crumbling slides:

And some crumbling rocks:

As you can see, all of this stuff was still in the shadows. I wanted to see something being hit by the sun. I could see that the sun was hitting some of the rocks over to the right of the slides:

So, I walked in just a bit more.

Those mysterious blue tanks are still over there on the old beach:

But, we have seen those a million times.

I decided to walk across the pool deck and see if there was anything interesting in the old Kiddie Cove area.

The Kiddie Cove area was the shallow area on the other side of the barrel bridge where they had small slides and lots of fake rocks for the kids to climb on. The water all drained out of this area long ago, and it is covered with long grass.

I saw that the sun was really illuminating a couple of the large rocks in the Kiddie Cover area, so I made my way through the grass over to those to snap a couple of photos. There was something on top of one of the rocks. I thought it was a castmember's coat or something, so I decided to take a look.

As I got closer I was shocked at what I saw. It was such an odd experience, and it happened in an instant.

When I got a good look at what was on the rock, I saw that it was not a coat at all, but a large, sleeping animal. In the instant it took my mind to process what I was looking at, I felt an insant twinge of fear, and then the biggest shot of adrenaline I have ever felt. I instinctively snapped a photo, and no sooner had I done that that the animal jumped up and ran off without making a sound. I stood there for an instant not believing what I had seen. But the photo captured it. It was a Florida panther! :

Bragging rights to TCD for posting a photo of the rarest resident of the Fort.

And, for the record, I am never going through that gate again.

TCD

 

If you want to read the whole thing, here's the link to that post.  Make sure you read the comments immediately after.  Some folks were fooled, even though I told them an April Fool's joke was coming:

 

http://www.fortfiends.net/forum/topic/5940-error-message-tcds-spring-break-2012-trip-report/page-5#entry144296

 

And, as long as we are reliving great TCD April Fools pranks, let's go back all the way to 2009, when I had the help of fellow Fiend Shannon (Shanta).  Since we're talking 2009, this all happened on another internet board that many of us here used to be members of. (which I think has since gone out of business from lack of posting, accurate information, fun, members and interest).   It just so happened that I was going to be camping at the Fort on April Fools day that year.  This was when the Meadow Swimming Pool was undergoing its big renovation, and they had added the old River Country Water Tower and slide.  There was (and still is) confusion as to why those in charge decided to paint a FWRR logo on the water tower, but they had already done that at that point. The pool wasn't done yet, and there were lots of folks wanting to see photos of the construction progress.  So, the timing ended up being perfect for me to post photos that Shannon had photoshopped to make look like they had put the old Musket Mickey logo on the tower:

 

 

 

The prank got even better because DIT and his family were at the Fort at the same time, and Dave corroborated the fake photo.

 

The other prank played that year was this:

 

 

Shannon created that photo too.  I posted it and said that the Fort had decided to operate like a state park and not allow any alcohol to be brought in or consumed in the campsites, and that they were searching coolers and confiscating alcohol.  Not many folks fell for that.  Maybe if Shannon had spelled alcoholic right, it would have helped.

 

It's hard to believe that was 5 years ago now.

 

TCD

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

Great report as always!

[dvccamper 32]

Epic trip report, that bat letter is still making me laugh. And thank you posting the other pranks. I remember the panther but didn't know about the others. Funny.

And please don't say there are no bonus days on the horizon. We are counting on you for the opening of the mine train and Mark Hamill at SWW. Start planning!

[pixeldust 0]

Great report as always. You outdid yourself with that April Fool's prank. Can't wait to read what happens next, whenever that may be. 

[HappyRedhead......Betsy 16]

Great trip report...helped me relive our trip a bit!  Thanks for sharing your adventures..

 

It was great meeting you and thanks for the spike!

[Laura 17]

Thanks for the great trip report!  I completely bought the bat letter too. Wow! All the effort! Do you want a job? And I never saw the Florida Panther post, but after reading it I most likely would have bought that as well. Your a master lol  I could see the photo shopping on the forever fastpass, maybe another color other than white next time wold do the trick?

Anyhoo..THANKS!  Always nice to virtually re-visit the fort.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Detailed trip reports take a lot of time and effort.  So much so that I nearly quit midstream on my last one.  

 

TCD, I thank you and applaud you for all the reports and information you have provided us!  You are the king.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

What a nice ending to your trip!  With all the girls away at college, maybe it's time for you and Mrs. TCD to plan a trip together!

 

That is a topic which has been discussed.  Maybe it will happen over the summer.

 

As always a great trip report and it sounds like you had fun with your April Fools jokes, even Mrs. dblr was fooled with the TSM one and even a little jealous wanting one.

 

Thanks.  Good thing you didn't get fooled, right?

 

 

 

A partially smart cart... The TN part being the smart one :) Go Vols.

 

 

Fabulous TR as always, thanks for taking the time to document and share with everyone.

 

Go Vols?  Really?

 

Even the Gators beat the Vols last year.  And, they didn't beat too many teams.

 

Maybe this will be your lucky year, though.  You'll get one more shot at Muschamp.

 

Great report, enjoyed reading it.  Thanks, BigTom

 

Thanks for reading.  And the kind words.

 

....to all our company.

 

M I C

 

See 'ya real soon!

 

K E Y

 

Why?  Because we like you!

 

M O U S E

 

Sorry.  I could have resisted.  But I didn't want to.

 

Great TR, as always, TCD!

 

Hope you get to return to the Mouse soon, so I can continue to live vicariously through you.

 

Very appropriate.

 

Thanks.

 

I hope that I'll get back soon.  I am sure I will.  I just don't know when at the moment.

 

Once again, Thanks for Sharing!

 

And thanks for reading!

 

Great report as always!

 

Thanks.

 

Epic trip report, that bat letter is still making me laugh. And thank you posting the other pranks. I remember the panther but didn't know about the others. Funny.

And please don't say there are no bonus days on the horizon. We are counting on you for the opening of the mine train and Mark Hamill at SWW. Start planning!

 

Good point.  I do need to be one of the first on the Mine Train.  One or both of the twins would definitely be down for that.

 

And I can't miss the return of Luke.  No way.  I have to be there. 

 

Great report as always. You outdid yourself with that April Fool's prank. Can't wait to read what happens next, whenever that may be. 

 

Thanks.  The big problem is everyone is going to be ready next year.

 

I'll think of something.

 

Great trip report...helped me relive our trip a bit!  Thanks for sharing your adventures..

 

It was great meeting you and thanks for the spike!

 

It was great to meet you and your family too.

 

You could always write a little trip report.

 

The timing would be good.

 

Not a lot of reports to compete with right now.

 

I could start a "We want the redhead!" chant if that would help.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Thanks for the great trip report!  I completely bought the bat letter too. Wow! All the effort! Do you want a job? And I never saw the Florida Panther post, but after reading it I most likely would have bought that as well. Your a master lol  I could see the photo shopping on the forever fastpass, maybe another color other than white next time wold do the trick?

Anyhoo..THANKS!  Always nice to virtually re-visit the fort.

 

You're right. The lifetime Fastpass looked too fake.  Next time, I'll need to get Twin #1 to make me something.  She rules at photoshop.

 

Glad you enjoyed the report.

 

Detailed trip reports take a lot of time and effort.  So much so that I nearly quit midstream on my last one.  

 

TCD, I thank you and applaud you for all the reports and information you have provided us!  You are the king.

 

Well, I'm glad you didn't quit on your last one, and I am looking forward to your next one.

 

I know I'm great, but I don't want to be the king.  There are a lot of other great trip reports.  I hope that everyone will check them out, and let the writers of those know you're reading along.  The comments make it fun.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

The comments are the only thing that kept me going.  I always comment on others' TRs because I know how much I appreciate it!

[jlf 7]

Regarding the Fantasmic show we have only done it with a dinner package. The last time we did it was in Nob 2013. They had just redone the seating. And to be honest I do not care for the new seating. I am a amputee so I do use my wheelchair. The old way of seating was all the way to the right. With wheelchair seating top row. There would be a two seater next to the wheel chair. So hubby would sit next to me and anyone traveling with us would sit in front of us. Well now, hubby sits in front and my guest would be in the row in front of him. But eventually I had to use my cell phone to talk to them. So unless it has changed, anyone in wheelchairs be prepared to not sit with your entire party

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

Thanks for sharing TCD !

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Thanks for taking the time to write and post your pix.

I know how much time it takes and I appreciate all of your hard work.

And I've reconsidered taking up the 114 site in my retirement to display my Christmas decorations.

All those early morning deliveries would make me batty.