Let's Talk Turkey: TCD's 2016 Thanksgiving at the Fort Trip Report

[DramaMama .......... Janet 75]

10 hours ago, Specularius said:

And I hate how those machines are always dripping when you are trying to get ice for the tea. Makes it hard to get clean ice without the drippings from the previous person's soda.

I hate how all the soda comes through the same spout.  I have an allergy to Red 40 which would be in any red, orange, or purple drink in there.  I have to run water through the spout to clean it before I get my Diet Coke.  After waiting in line forever for people to decide what they want.  My kids included.   

[LONE-STAR 370]

It was nice to read a TCD trip report. I just realized I have been reading them for 10 years now. At least I think, I started lurking the other place in 2006 and joined in 07. So if you were writing them in 06 I was reading them. I just don't remember every detail from 10 years ago.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

On 12/16/2016 at 2:03 PM, DaveInTN said:

You are correct that I was not a fan of the giant heads.  

And since the MSEP is gone, I'd slot the Freestyle machines in there.  Or perhaps swap that space with Disney Fries.  I'd rather have good steak fries but have to deal with a Freestyle machine, than to have regular Disney fries but a normal drink dispenser.  

Sounds like the scale needs a 3.0 version. 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 0:50 PM, Helmsey......Todd said:

Another fantastic TCD report!
Thanks for taking the time to share with us. 

You are most welcome.  Thanks for reading!

On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 2:03 PM, DaveInTN said:

You are correct that I was not a fan of the giant heads.  

And since the MSEP is gone, I'd slot the Freestyle machines in there.  Or perhaps swap that space with Disney Fries.  I'd rather have good steak fries but have to deal with a Freestyle machine, than to have regular Disney fries but a normal drink dispenser.  

It's a bit scary that your logic makes perfect sense to me.

On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 3:00 PM, caveat lector said:

Wait.....there's a late entry for trip report title " that bougainvillea above the ticket windows seems to always be in bloom:".  I dare someone to misinpret that one.

I liked countdown to extinction. That was a very creative and descriptive namemail.

That is a beautiful shot if the AK Christmas tree. I don't why, but the Epcot tree is my favorite, but family photos in front of Christmas trees is always best at AK.

There was no mention of bonus material, so I will assume TCD is taking a well deserved break from trip reporting. Merry Christmas good sir, and thanks again for entertaining us throughout the years withyour travel exploits. 

Thanks,  Fred.

I actually do have a bit of bonus material that I'll try to share over the next couple of days.

On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 3:25 PM, Duane said:

Is Claire Huxtable still on the Dinosaur film?

Affirmative.  I was concerned that they would update the pre-show, but we still have Dr. Marsh and Professor Seeker.

On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 4:30 PM, Cortezcapt (Derek) said:

Always enjoy a TCD trip report. Sounds like another great trip for you and your family.

Thanks, Derek.  It was another great trip.  I hope we get a few of the same in 2017.

On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 4:46 PM, Specularius said:

Merry Christmas to you good Sir. Thanks for taking the time to entertain the rest of us Fiends.

Thanks, Jody.  All the best to you and your family.

Enjoy that Disney Cruise!

On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 5:26 PM, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said:

Merry Christmas TCD and family.

Thanks, and the same to you and your family.

On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 7:52 PM, DramaMama .......... Janet said:

I hate how all the soda comes through the same spout.  I have an allergy to Red 40 which would be in any red, orange, or purple drink in there.  I have to run water through the spout to clean it before I get my Diet Coke.  After waiting in line forever for people to decide what they want.  My kids included.   

Allergies are not something I thought about, but you're right.  There's no doubt that stuff is mixed together in the dispensing system.  I don't know how they get away with having a machine like this- aren't consumers supposed to be informed of all ingredients of food and drink? 

On ‎12‎/‎17‎/‎2016 at 0:43 AM, LONE-STAR said:

It was nice to read a TCD trip report. I just realized I have been reading them for 10 years now. At least I think, I started lurking the other place in 2006 and joined in 07. So if you were writing them in 06 I was reading them. I just don't remember every detail from 10 years ago.

10 years of TCD trip reports?  That's amazing.  Let's hope I've got at least another 10 years left in me!

20 hours ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

Sounds like the scale needs a 3.0 version. 

I think you're right.  That can be a project for 2017.

TCD

[LONE-STAR 370]

Another 10 years, bet there will be some weddings, and grand babies in those trip reports.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Trip reports take time and effort.  Good trip reports take even more.  Thank you for giving both of those in abundance!

Merry Christmas!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On ‎12‎/‎19‎/‎2016 at 11:10 PM, LONE-STAR said:

Another 10 years, bet there will be some weddings, and grand babies in those trip reports.

I hope you're right about that!

45 minutes ago, Momof6....aka Marty said:

Trip reports take time and effort.  Good trip reports take even more.  Thank you for giving both of those in abundance!

Merry Christmas!

Thanks, Marty.

Merry Christmas to you and your family as well!

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

As mentioned- I have some bonus material to share.

I haven't mentioned this on the board, but it turned out that the TCD gang camped for another weekend in November. 

I had mentioned a while back that Twin #1 and I had registered to run the Wine and Dine Half Marathon.  And we both began training.  But, I had (and still have) a problem with one of my knees, and my training did not progress as planned.  As the time for the marathon neared, Twin #1 and I were torn on what to do.  We knew that we could run/walk it, but we also knew that it wouldn't be much fun to do that. So we made the tough decision of skipping the race.

As part of the half marathon planned, I had booked us a stay at Fort Wilderness.  The plan was that we would check-in on Saturday, get our race packets, run the race on Sunday morning, go to the after hours party at Epcot that night, and then go to the first Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party on Monday night, and then head home.  There would be some school-skipping required, but that was OK.

Even though we had decided not to run the race, we stuck with the rest of the plans for the weekend.

One wrinkle that developed after the plans were made is that the oldest TCD DD got a new job in Orlando, and moved in to her new apartment there on November 1.  She had some things that needed to be assembled, and some extra furniture that needed to be picked up.  I told her I would take care of that over the weekend.  I decided to do that on Monday night, and skipped the MVMCP.  Just the twins went to that.

It ended up being a very chopped up weekend, and for the first time in a long time, I didn't take enough photos to justify a full trip report.

But, there was one interesting thing I saw that needs to be shared.

On Monday morning, November 7, I visited the Meadow Trading Post, and was headed back to our campsite.  It was just a bit after 9 am, and I was surprised to see one of the wagon ride wagons coming down the road from the Outpost headed toward the Trading Post. I've seen CM's practicing with the wagons before, and at first thought nothing of it.  But, then I noticed that the wagon was full of passengers.  That was odd. 

It was here I realized that I violated my #1 rule.  I had left both my phone and camera at the camper.

I watched as the wagon pulled up in front of the Meadow Trading Post and stopped.  I pulled up on the cart for a closer look at the passengers, and realized that one of the passengers was Nathaniel Palma, one of the Disney World Ambassadors.  He's a big deal.  He and the other ambassador, Kaitlyn, are at all the big Disney World events.  And Katilyn was on the wagon too.  They were dressed up in matching plaid cowboy shirts and were there helping those guests off of the wagon.

This was some kind of big deal.

But I didn't know what.

I headed back to the site and grabbed my camera.  Then sped back to the trading post.  The wagon was gone.  And so was the group.

Darn.

Then I remembered that there were a couple of extra CM's pacing around in the trading post earlier.  The group must have headed in there.

I parked the cart and went around to the back porch.  One of the extra CM's I had seen inside the trading post earlier was out back taking photos of Bob's dock:

Also, look across the Fishin' Hole in that photo- there are a bunch of bikes lined up outside of the Bike Barn.  That isn't normal.  Something was definitely up.

I hung around on the porch to see what would happen next, and watched as the members of the group came out and gathered on the porch:

I figured they would be heading over to the Bike Barn next, so I headed over the bridge and took a position casually sitting on the fence.  If they were going to the Bike Barn, they would walk right past me, and maybe I could see or hear something that would clue me in on what this was all about.  This is the view from my stake-out position:

From here, I looked behind the Bike Barn and saw that they had the archery activity set up, and there were a couple of CM's there waiting for the group to show up:

Sure enough, the group came over the bridge:

As they came over the bridge, I heard the leader give instructions that half of them would go to the archery activity, and the rest would go to the front of the Bike Barn.  And that's what they did:

Since half of the group was going to be shooting some archery, I figured they'd be hanging around this area for a while.  I decided I should go back to the camper and let the girls know that the ambassadors were here, and that something was up.  The twins were still asleep, but we were going to be going to Trail's End for breakfast, and they would be getting up soon anyway.

I went back and told the girls. Twin #2 said she'd rather sleep.  Twin #1 hopped out of bed and wanted to see what was up.

We drove down to the Bike Barn, and from there saw that the group was now walking toward the campfire area.

So, we zipped out of there and took a position in front of the 1400 loop comfort station.  From there, we could see that Chip and Dale were out in front of the projection building ,and the members of the group were taking photos with them:

This van was parked in front of the comfort station:

It had this parking pass on the dash.  Interesting:

We watched the group for a while, and tried to guess where they would go next.  I figured they may all get on those bikes and ride down to Trail's End for breakfast.  Or, maybe have that set up out by Bay Lake that they used for the Walt's Wilderness Tour earlier in the year.  We watched for a little longer:

We were heading to Trail's End ourselves, and went back to the camper to get ready and fetch Twin #2.

On the way there, I took a detour down the path behind the 300 loop to see if anything had been set up for this group there.

Nothing.

Well, I figured, that must mean that they'll be dining with us at Trail's End.

They never showed up there either.

We didn't see them again.

So, what was this all about?

I forgot to mention that while I was conducting my surveillance, I mentioned to Twin #1 that several of the guests were carrying paper fans that had a logo on it that said Backstage Magic.  Twin #1 said that this is a special program for CM's.  They have contests that give CM's a chance to win these activities. The twins had done a couple of cool things with this program while they were working at Disneyland last year.

Twin #1 correctly guessed that if I did a little Twitter and Instagram stalking, I would find some information about this event.

She was right.

I found this on a CM's Instagram account:

Bingo.

Here's a photo of that fan I saw:

And here's a photo that shows Nathaniel and Kaitlyn in their plaid shirts:

Here's a group shot of the participants- this also clued me in that they must have headed to the horse barn after leaving the Meadow Recreation Area:

And check this out- they all got a hand painted horse shoe commemorating the Fort's 45th birthday:

That was sure a cool tour for the CM's.

It's a shame Disney management didn't do one special thing for the loyal Fort Wilderness guests to celebrate the Fort's 45th birthday. 

But that's none of my business.

TCD

 

[Travisma 1,317]

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

As mentioned- I have some bonus material to share.

I haven't mentioned this on the board, but it turned out that the TCD gang camped for another weekend in November. 

I had mentioned a while back that Twin #1 and I had registered to run the Wine and Dine Half Marathon.  And we both began training.  But, I had (and still have) a problem with one of my knees, and my training did not progress as planned.  As the time for the marathon neared, Twin #1 and I were torn on what to do.  We knew that we could run/walk it, but we also knew that it wouldn't be much fun to do that. So we made the tough decision of skipping the race.

As part of the half marathon planned, I had booked us a stay at Fort Wilderness.  The plan was that we would check-in on Saturday, get our race packets, run the race on Sunday morning, go to the after hours party at Epcot that night, and then go to the first Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party on Monday night, and then head home.  There would be some school-skipping required, but that was OK.

Even though we had decided not to run the race, we stuck with the rest of the plans for the weekend.

One wrinkle that developed after the plans were made is that the oldest TCD DD got a new job in Orlando, and moved in to her new apartment there on November 1.  She had some things that needed to be assembled, and some extra furniture that needed to be picked up.  I told her I would take care of that over the weekend.  I decided to do that on Monday night, and skipped the MVMCP.  Just the twins went to that.

It ended up being a very chopped up weekend, and for the first time in a long time, I didn't take enough photos to justify a full trip report.

But, there was one interesting thing I saw that needs to be shared.

On Monday morning, November 7, I visited the Meadow Trading Post, and was headed back to our campsite.  It was just a bit after 9 am, and I was surprised to see one of the wagon ride wagons coming down the road from the Outpost headed toward the Trading Post. I've seen CM's practicing with the wagons before, and at first thought nothing of it.  But, then I noticed that the wagon was full of passengers.  That was odd. 

It was here I realized that I violated my #1 rule.  I had left both my phone and camera at the camper.

I watched as the wagon pulled up in front of the Meadow Trading Post and stopped.  I pulled up on the cart for a closer look at the passengers, and realized that one of the passengers was Nathaniel Palma, one of the Disney World Ambassadors.  He's a big deal.  He and the other ambassador, Kaitlyn, are at all the big Disney World events.  And Katilyn was on the wagon too.  They were dressed up in matching plaid cowboy shirts and were there helping those guests off of the wagon.

This was some kind of big deal.

But I didn't know what.

I headed back to the site and grabbed my camera.  Then sped back to the trading post.  The wagon was gone.  And so was the group.

Darn.

Then I remembered that there were a couple of extra CM's pacing around in the trading post earlier.  The group must have headed in there.

I parked the cart and went around to the back porch.  One of the extra CM's I had seen inside the trading post earlier was out back taking photos of Bob's dock:

Also, look across the Fishin' Hole in that photo- there are a bunch of bikes lined up outside of the Bike Barn.  That isn't normal.  Something was definitely up.

I hung around on the porch to see what would happen next, and watched as the members of the group came out and gathered on the porch:

I figured they would be heading over to the Bike Barn next, so I headed over the bridge and took a position casually sitting on the fence.  If they were going to the Bike Barn, they would walk right past me, and maybe I could see or hear something that would clue me in on what this was all about.  This is the view from my stake-out position:

From here, I looked behind the Bike Barn and saw that they had the archery activity set up, and there were a couple of CM's there waiting for the group to show up:

Sure enough, the group came over the bridge:

As they came over the bridge, I heard the leader give instructions that half of them would go to the archery activity, and the rest would go to the front of the Bike Barn.  And that's what they did:

Since half of the group was going to be shooting some archery, I figured they'd be hanging around this area for a while.  I decided I should go back to the camper and let the girls know that the ambassadors were here, and that something was up.  The twins were still asleep, but we were going to be going to Trail's End for breakfast, and they would be getting up soon anyway.

I went back and told the girls. Twin #2 said she'd rather sleep.  Twin #1 hopped out of bed and wanted to see what was up.

We drove down to the Bike Barn, and from there saw that the group was now walking toward the campfire area.

So, we zipped out of there and took a position in front of the 1400 loop comfort station.  From there, we could see that Chip and Dale were out in front of the projection building ,and the members of the group were taking photos with them:

This van was parked in front of the comfort station:

It had this parking pass on the dash.  Interesting:

We watched the group for a while, and tried to guess where they would go next.  I figured they may all get on those bikes and ride down to Trail's End for breakfast.  Or, maybe have that set up out by Bay Lake that they used for the Walt's Wilderness Tour earlier in the year.  We watched for a little longer:

We were heading to Trail's End ourselves, and went back to the camper to get ready and fetch Twin #2.

On the way there, I took a detour down the path behind the 300 loop to see if anything had been set up for this group there.

Nothing.

Well, I figured, that must mean that they'll be dining with us at Trail's End.

They never showed up there either.

We didn't see them again.

So, what was this all about?

I forgot to mention that while I was conducting my surveillance, I mentioned to Twin #1 that several of the guests were carrying paper fans that had a logo on it that said Backstage Magic.  Twin #1 said that this is a special program for CM's.  They have contests that give CM's a chance to win these activities. The twins had done a couple of cool things with this program while they were working at Disneyland last year.

Twin #1 correctly guessed that if I did a little Twitter and Instagram stalking, I would find some information about this event.

She was right.

I found this on a CM's Instagram account:

Bingo.

Here's a photo of that fan I saw:

And here's a photo that shows Nathaniel and Kaitlyn in their plaid shirts:

Here's a group shot of the participants- this also clued me in that they must have headed to the horse barn after leaving the Meadow Recreation Area:

And check this out- they all got a hand painted horse shoe commemorating the Fort's 45th birthday:

That was sure a cool tour for the CM's.

It's a shame Disney management didn't do one special thing for the loyal Fort Wilderness guests to celebrate the Fort's 45th birthday. 

But that's none of my business.

TCD

 

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Excellent sleuthing, as usual!  Maybe we should call you Sherlock!!

[LONE-STAR 370]

They could have made a ton of money  selling those horseshoes at the Trading Post.

[YJeepgirl32 3]

Wow that's really cool. Lucky CM's. I really like the horseshoe I would buy one. 

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Very cool. I'd buy one of those too!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[caveat lector 181]

That's cool and all, but none of them ever mentioned getting "spiked". So they didn't get the total package.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Another great trip report by the Grand Pubah of trip reports.......always great to catch up on your adventures.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Sorry I've been largely AWOL for the past several weeks.  I've been so discouraged that our next Fort trip is so far away ...

In any event, this is another wonderful TCD trip report!  Thank you for taking so much time to share your trips with us!  Each one is a wonderful consolation for those of us who are stuck at home.  Thank you, thank you!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On ‎12‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 4:24 PM, Momof6....aka Marty said:

Excellent sleuthing, as usual!  Maybe we should call you Sherlock!!

Thanks.  I dig deep when it comes to the Fort!

On ‎12‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 11:53 PM, LONE-STAR said:

They could have made a ton of money  selling those horseshoes at the Trading Post.

No kidding.  And, they could have sold a bunch of those tours too.

But, I guess it's more important to let CM's who have never been to the Fort and know nothing about it have the experience.

On ‎12‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 9:24 AM, YJeepgirl32 said:

Wow that's really cool. Lucky CM's. I really like the horseshoe I would buy one. 

Wow.  They really missed an opportunity for a cash grab here.

They're slipping.

On ‎12‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 3:25 PM, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

Very cool. I'd buy one of those too!

I need to see if I can find some horseshoes and paint.

On ‎12‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 5:03 PM, caveat lector said:

That's cool and all, but none of them ever mentioned getting "spiked". So they didn't get the total package.

Good point.  I wonder if the FWRR was even mentioned on this historical tour.

On ‎1‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 11:00 PM, AC in A2 said:

Another great trip report by the Grand Pubah of trip reports.......always great to catch up on your adventures.

Good to see a post from you here, Aaron.

My best to you and your family!

19 hours ago, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said:

Sorry I've been largely AWOL for the past several weeks.  I've been so discouraged that our next Fort trip is so far away ...

In any event, this is another wonderful TCD trip report!  Thank you for taking so much time to share your trips with us!  Each one is a wonderful consolation for those of us who are stuck at home.  Thank you, thank you!

As a matter of fact, I did notice that you've been missing around here lately.

I'm glad that you're caught up.

And since you like keeping up with things through trip reports, I have a bit more bonus content to share!

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Time flew for the TCD gang since Thanksgiving.

Christmas and New Year's Eve have come and gone, and here we are in a brand new year!

Wow.

A lot of times, we've managed to squeeze an overnight trip in over the Christmas break.  Sometimes we even make it to the Fort.

Not this year.

We were very busy doing other stuff.

My baby sister (age 44) got married in St. Pete the week before Christmas, and we hosted a big party at our house for all the out of town guests the night before.  That ended up taking a lot of time.  But it was great.  It's been a long time since we have had all of my siblings and nieces and nephews together, and it was great!

But getting ready for that party pretty much took up all of our time from Thanksgiving up until the party- there were long to do lists every weekend.  It was great when it was done, and then we had to shift gears and get ready for Christmas- we were having family over for Christmas Eve, and there were still wedding guests in town, which pushed our guest list to over 60 folks!

We had things under control by end of the week before Christmas, so with a hall pass from Mrs. TCD, the girls and I decided to head over to the MK for Christmas Eve Eve- December 23.  Just a quick day trip to see the Christmas entertainment which was now being performed with regular admission- the Christmas parade and the new castle show.  It's been a few years now since I upgraded our passes from seasonal passes to full passes, and we needed to take advantage of the fact that our passes were not blocked out for Christmas.

The weather in central Florida was crazy in December- we had almost no rain, and it was hot and muggy most days.  I never got to wear a single one of my Christmas sweaters this year. 

December 23 was no different.  It was sunny and in the upper 70's as we headed over.

The plan for today was to arrive in time to watch the 3:30 Christmas parade on Main Street, and then hang around to see some of the night-time stuff before bugging out.

It was sunny and 80 degrees as we entered the Magic Kingdom:

It was just a bit past 2 when we arrived, but all of the spots on the curb on the shady side of Main Street were already claimed.  For the 3:30 parade.  Savages!

There was plenty of space on the sunny side, and we knew the shade would be along soon enough on this short winter day, so we selected a spot across from the clock.  Here we are:

Don't miss the girl in the purple leggings.

Wow.

This was a good spot- we could look down Main Street and see the Christmas tree:

Or up the street and see the castle:

Hey- did you notice that the flagpole is peeking out from behind the Christmas tree?  They used to move the flagpole to the side of the street for the Christmas tree- but now they don't:

You might wonder if this was a busy day.  Well, look over there- they have a temporary hot dog stand set up.  That's a new one for me:

The menu and prices:

Yup- we are in Disney!

I never mind waiting for a parade on Main Street.  The people watching is always good.  And here are some people to watch.  Check out the lady in the blue hair:

We need to take a closer look at that tattoo on her ankle:

Who is that?

This guy on the scooter is with the girl with the blue hair:

Check out that guy's scooter!:

Aw, look- the girl with the blue hair is getting her Christmas card photo:

It's nice that everyone feels welcome at WDW.

A bonus to sitting on Main Street for the Christmas parade is that we get to see the Kringle Krew.  And here they are:

When they first show up, the elves look for a guest along the curb to guard their ball:

I guess we didn't look trustworthy, as none of us got to hold a ball.

The elves then invited kids to come out in the street to dance:

Craziness ensued:

After getting the kids riled up, the elves returned to formation, and marched down the street:

Check out the hair on that CM across the street:

That girl could play Rapunzel!

But, she didn't win the Best Hair award for today.

I'll have a photo of the winner in the next update.

Hey, here comes the parade:

Today, December 23, was the first day the Christmas parade was performed for regular day guests.  Up until now, the only time you could see it was at one of the hard ticket Mickey's Very Merry Christmas parties on select nights. 

This is a really good parade.

It starts with a good assortment of characters in scarves:

There they go:

Since this is the Christmas Parade, Mickey and Minnie are on the first float rather than the last:

So far, this year's parade looked the same as last year's.

But, this little musical ensemble was new.  And, they were good:

There's a whole lot of Anna and Elsa in this parade, and here they come now:

Those are Fort Wilderness horses right there, and I recognize this driver as a Fort CM.  I don't think I've ever seen the Christmas parade when she wasn't driving one of the horse-drawn floats:

I think she has a pretty cool job.

And, on the other end of the spectrum, we have the royal pooper scoopers:

Are you liking this so far?

Good.

I've got a bunch more parade photos to share in the next update.  We'll break this one off here so you don't get overloaded with Frozen.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

There's more!

We left off with the Frozen sisters.

They were followed by the guys on roller skis.  These guys seem to enjoy what they do:

It's still crazy to me that Olaf gets his own float, but he does:

Then we have ice cutters:

And then a gigantic float just for Kristoff:

Here comes Vanellope and Ralph.  There's a Wreck It Ralph sequel coming out, you know:

Chip and Dale used to have their own float in the Christmas parade.  But it was swiped and given to Kristoff, so now they have to walk like filthy animals.  They don't seem to mind though:

And then came the Disney character who has made one of the most improbable comebacks I can think of.  Clarabelle Cow:

Seriously.  Who ever heard of her before?  And now she has her own float, and a huge part in the new Christmas show which we will be seeing later.

Now we have some candy cane girls:

Goofy's candy machine was taken away from him for this year's Halloween party, but he stole it back:

Next up is Snow White and her little people friends:

I was glad to see that Cinderella's coach was in the parade.  It hasn't been in the daytime Christmas parades we've been to in the past few years, but it was here today:

Check out the prince's wig.  Seriously?:

This unit gets its own dedicated royal pooper scooper too:

And now we have some fancy dancers:

We've all seen this float a couple of times, haven't we?

It's loaded with princesses:

Here's something fun- you see that blue ornament hanging there near the top of the stairs at the front of the float?  Look directly below that to the reflections in the float, and you will see a fun-house mirror version of the TCD gang:

It seems like we had the most princesses on our side:

There's Tiana way up there:

You'd think we had our fill of elves by now, but there were more:

I noticed that the Jesus Jet was writing something- I haven't seen that in a while:

More elves:

I don't know what happened to Duffy, but he was nowhere to be seen:

He needs to look up Clarabelle's agent.

I'm not complaining, but there were even more elves:

It looks like there was plenty of room on that Toy Story float for Bo Peep, but she had to walk.  I wonder what's up with that?:

Then we had a lot of toy soldiers.  A lot!:

And, finally, the reindeer.

When they show up, you know that the end of the parade is near, as they always come right before the Big Guy.

I don't remember the reindeer dancing so much, but they do now:

The parade finished with an appearance from Santa.  I thought he'd be busy at the workshop the day before Christmas Eve, but here he was:

There was a wall of guests following the parade out.  They were being managed by the parade CM's including this lady who won the TCD Best Hair award today, snatching it from fake Rapunzel.  Look at that hairdo on her!:

That's it for the parade.  We enjoyed it a lot.

Next, we headed quickly over to Liberty Square to catch the last Muppets show for today.

We'll pick up with that in the next update.

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Wow.  That parade used to be so great.  Now it's Frozen overload.  What happened to all the gingerbread men?

[DaveInTN 3,247]

44 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

The parade finished with an appearance from Santa.  I thought he'd be busy at the workshop the day before Christmas Eve, but here he was:

 

I think I've posted this in a previous year, but I always enjoy comparing how things change over the years at WDW.  That Santa float is quite elaborate, and his sleigh is huge and very fancy looking.  

I took this picture when I was 9 years old, during my family's first (and only) stay at the Fort for Christmas 1977 (ignore the date stamp).  Look how different, and how much simpler, Santa's sleigh was back then.  I actually like the old one....Santa is perched up there in a way that OSHA probably won't allow anymore.  LOL.  But I liked it.  

[DaveInTN 3,247]

As a follow up to my last post, here is another picture of that Santa float, from Christmas 1976 per the Disney Parks Blog.  It shows the entire float, where my pic only shows the top part.  Notice that the teddy bear trailing behind Santa's sleigh disappeared somewhere between 1976 and 1977.  Perhaps it was left on the Island of Misfit Toys.  

 

There are a handful of other pictures on the blog, per this link:

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2013/11/step-in-time-magic-kingdom-parks-1976-christmas-parade/

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

16 hours ago, CCIntrigue...aka Gwen said:

Wow.  That parade used to be so great.  Now it's Frozen overload.  What happened to all the gingerbread men?

There's definitely too much Frozen, but I still think the parade is great overall.

Honestly, I'm surprised that they didn't cut it out for the day time performances since so much was cut in 2016. 

16 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

I think I've posted this in a previous year, but I always enjoy comparing how things change over the years at WDW.  That Santa float is quite elaborate, and his sleigh is huge and very fancy looking.  

I took this picture when I was 9 years old, during my family's first (and only) stay at the Fort for Christmas 1977 (ignore the date stamp).  Look how different, and how much simpler, Santa's sleigh was back then.  I actually like the old one....Santa is perched up there in a way that OSHA probably won't allow anymore.  LOL.  But I liked it.  

 I do remember you posting this photo before. Very cool that you still have it.

16 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

As a follow up to my last post, here is another picture of that Santa float, from Christmas 1976 per the Disney Parks Blog.  It shows the entire float, where my pic only shows the top part.  Notice that the teddy bear trailing behind Santa's sleigh disappeared somewhere between 1976 and 1977.  Perhaps it was left on the Island of Misfit Toys.  

 

There are a handful of other pictures on the blog, per this link:

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2013/11/step-in-time-magic-kingdom-parks-1976-christmas-parade/

I'm sure I've seen that blog post before, but I don't remember all the photos.  Thanks for posting it.  I miss the simpler times.

TCD

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

I love the Christmas parade! I think it's second only to the Halloween parade.

Gwen- There were gingerbread men. I have pictures from a few days later.

I love the toy soldiers. They're my favorite part of the parade.

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[Millermouseketeers MaryAnn 150]

I love the Christmas parade! I think it's second only to the Halloween parade.

Gwen- There were gingerbread men. I have pictures from a few days later.

I love the toy soldiers. They're my favorite part of the parade.

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The Toy Soldiers are my favorite also! Always have to see them at least once.

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