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Three weekends and three camping trips


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1 minute ago, slices said:

I've seen those, my only concern is I'm not sure if this would make backing in the camper more difficult. I'm not very good at it anyway and wasn't sure if having the bike rack on the hitch would reduce clearance.

Luckily our old Coleman is small and only weighs around 900 pounds.  

I'm terrible at backing, so we pull up to the site, drop the PUP and hand roll it into the site.

I should practice, but never have the time to take it out to a parking lot and attempt to back it into parking spaces.

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Don't feel bad.  I consider myself pretty good at backing trailers into practically any space.  My Dad had me backing farm trailers at 7 years old and I could zip them in and out of barns and park the

Don't feel bad.  I consider myself pretty good at backing trailers into practically any space.  My Dad had me backing farm trailers at 7 years old and I could zip them in and out of barns and park them next to other vehicles without ever leaving a scratch.  But short wheelbase trailers like popups or small Uhauls are a pain in the neck.  The slightest movement of the steering wheel is amplified in the trailer, easily sending it astray.  I rented a little Uhaul several years ago and that darn thing gave me fits.  Y'all are probably better at backing up than you think, but those small PUPs are messing with you.   

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Leading on nicely to my next update. Got to the Fort about 4pm, backing up didn't go well. Had one go at backing it, then gave up and pushed it in. Unfortunately, there were about 3 golf carts behind me at this point. Got it into the site, 2052 it did make me feel slightly better later when I checked the app and saw it was list as difficult.

 

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Who needs power jacks.

When we first booked this we hadn't planned much for arrival day, but then changed our minds when we found out about the special meet and greets at MK. We had hoped to meet Phineas and Ferb, but my wife checked the app before we arrived and my guess about the schedule was wrong.  If this had been the case my wife and daughter probably would have rushed over there while I set up.

Anyway, made fairly good time getting everything up, but we had booked Tony's for  6:15 pm which meant that we had to get a move on and get over there. Not leaving us a lot of time to get everything away and relax.  It was tempting to try and get everything up first. Also by this point, I could have quite easily had just stayed at the Fort and got some chicken. I was almost surprised that my son wanted to go, he's normally very set on hanging out at the resort, but this time he was keen on going there for dinner. Was all excited at the thought of trying the calamari. 

However, we managed to get most stuff stowed away and got the bus to the settlement. Where we lucked out and there was a boat.

 

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Despite my misgivings, by the time I got on the boat, I felt a lot more relaxed.

 

 

 

 

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We got to MK in good time. Did see the someone on our boat try to take a Radio Flyer pull wagon in! 

Headed to guest services to activate our new shiny Annual Passes.

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I got gold so we could get photos, but the rest of the family got silver. The first time we've done APs, normally we just spread out a FL resident 4 day ticket.  This time we had a lot we wanted to do and figured since we were trying to do so much, long days would be unlikely making limited day tickets frustrating.  Plus I liked the option to pay monthly.

 Straight to Tony's and were only a few minutes late for our reservation. Checked out the shop while we waited and the kids watched Lady and the Tramp, which I don't think they've seen before.  At least they had some idea what the theming was, I'd been meaning to put it on for them at home but had forgotten.

 

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My son really wanted to try the calamari, so I got an order to split with him. He liked it as did my daughter.

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My wife got the fried mozzarella to share with my daughter although I think my daughter had more of mine.

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My wife got the trio, chicken parm, fettuccine alfredo, and metaball with spaghetti.

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I went with the fish of the day, salmon.

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I'm not a huge dessert fand and rarely do three course meals, but I do like tiramisu.

 

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Glad we did this, quite fun, a nice meal and right off main street. Overall we probably cooked about half of our meals this tripped, I wouldn't have cooked much the first night anyway.

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Plus getting Lady and Tramp's autograph is kind of cool.

Just as well we have passes now,  my son was tired after this and wanted to go, so my wife took him back to the site.

We had a fast pass for Mickey and Minnie right after dinner but he didn't even want to do that. Hadn't done any of the new birthday events so quite enjoyed this.

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Next fast pass was splash mountain so we headed over there, not done this before.

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Alright, I don't really like thrill rides, I do them mostly because my daughter asks me to. Although I would like to do all three MK mountains at least once. Did Big Thunder last year, so the plan was to do splash mountain and space mountain now.

After this, my daughter really wanted to do Haunted Mansion so we headed over to the stand by line.

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Saw some fireworks from the line, she wasn't bothered about getting a good spot to see them.

This was before they started the ride photos for Haunted Mansion.

We were getting tired but still had our fast pass for space mountain, when we got there it was closed, so anytime fastpass good for the following day. A quick stop at Joffery's for a coffee for me and a cake for my daughter.  Then headed back to main street, catching some of the projections on the castle on the way out. My daughter wanted to stop at the Emporium to buy a hoodie, however, she had forgotten her gift card and spent the rest of the trip paying me back for it.

 

 

 

 

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What a good looking dinner. How did the boy like the calamari?  It looks good.  Only ate calamari once and was not favorably impressed.

" My daughter wanted to stop at the Emporium to buy a hoodie, however, she had forgotten her gift card and spent the rest of the trip paying me back for it. "

What a nice Daddy getting the hoodie and letting her pay you back.  It was probably cool that night.

 

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Dinner looked delicious!

daddy/daughter day at the park!

how fun!

I love when DD and I spend alone time at the park. 

Our last trip, Christmas 2018, we did our version of the 4 park challenge- In one day we went to each park, and did sometime we love.  

MK-rode one the old card up Main Street and then road the Haunted Mansion 

 

AK-took a bunch of pictures at the tree of life and ate lunch at the Nomad Lounge  

 

HS-rode TSM and had a Mickey ice bar  

 

Epcot-rode Soar’n, and watched reflections.

 

 And she navigated us through the parks.  

 

Ok ok I must admit it wasn’t much of a challenge but we had a great time. 😂 

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

Sounds like an excellent first day!  Going to a park, the day you arrive at the Fort, is always a challenge... I'm impressed on how much y'all did!

Pretty sure this is the first time we've done a park on arrival day, normally we are lucky if we manage Disney Springs. 

4 hours ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

What a good looking dinner. How did the boy like the calamari?  It looks good.  Only ate calamari once and was not favorably impressed.

 

 

 

He liked it, I think we all did other than my wife who doesn't do seafood.

 

We pushed our selfs a bit this trip,  the evening with my daughter was fun and it was a little easier with just the two of us.

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Think it was about 11pm by the time we got back to the site, which by this point was mostly set up.  

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We had an early start the following morning, as we wanted to get over to Hollywood Studios for Extra Magic hours.  We'd bought a large box of instant oatmeal cups and those made for a quick breakfast to get us going. Although it turns out the water from my coffee machine wasn't really hot enough for these. Will bring the kettle next time.

This was the first time we've used morning extra magic hours, ended up taking a Minnie Van as we were a bit tired.

Headed straight to Toy Story Land to get a DAS time for Slinky Dog, return time was 10:30am.  Decided to try Woody's Lunch box for breakfast. They have mobile ordering so grabbed a table placed the order and collected it, a really like this. 

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I went with the breakfast bowl and a coffee

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The kids just had an order of potatoes barrels each.

My wife got the S'more french toast sandwich, way too sweet for my tastes.

This took us to just after 9am, and due to Space Mountain being closed the night before we had an anytime Fast Pass that we could use for Toy Story Mania.  Fortunately, I'd made the original fast pass for the four of us, just in case.

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After this, my son wanted an Alien popcorn bucket.  I'd been intending on buying a bucket this trip anyway and the Alien one did look quite nice. Couldn't actually see any for sale  in Toy Story land so backtracked a bit.

 

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Still had some time to kill, so he bought himself a slinky dog with his gift card.

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Headed over to the Incredibles next.

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It wasn't quite 10:30 yet and my son had, had enough and wanted to go back to the site.  I took him back on the bus while my wife and daughter carried on.

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When we got back to the camper he had a bit of a rest while I got more setup done. I was about to make us lunch when he started feeling better and wanted to go to the pool.  He asked if we could go to the meadows pool so we could eat there.  Not exactly my favorite quick service but I had wanted to get a couple of the new refillable cups this trip. Grabbed lunch and the cups at the meadows snack bar and did some swimming. 

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Finished setting up when we got back.

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My son wanted the road trip by the charcoal grill, next time  I'm putting it closer to the camper. k1XfS6Vflk0aLqw3kO19LC2N8An8ALQ4G_odJZtD

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After we had changed and got everything up, we relized we hadn't packed some of the bbq tools. The problem with leaving some tools in the camper from last time but not easily be able to get to things.  My son was quite happy for a trip to Meadow's trading post.

Past this on the way there, was this the one a few people had commented seeing over the last couple of months?

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Got a few things at the store, including a magic band keeper for my son who has sensory issues his at times. Also got a set of these.

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Meanwhile, at Hollywood Studios, they watched the Beauty and the Beast stage show and Indiana Jones, before going to Sci-fi for lunch.

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It goes without saying they had a nicer lunch than me. They both had burgers and milk shakes, keeping with the theme.  This was my daughter's request, but they both enjoyed it and my wife was quite pleasantly surprised that the seat was a lot more comfortable than she feared.

They did star tours after this but came back to the site afterward as the motion of the ride didn't agree with my wife.

I took both kids down to the cabin pool for a bit while had a rest, taking some snacks with us. I refuse to use the vending machine there.

Got back to the camper and started dinner.

One thing I didn't forget this time was the tin foil, burgers, and bacon, cheese potatoes in foil packets, nice and easy on the grill. No photos as I was too busy, cooking and eating.

My son wanted to go to the campfire after this.

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Someone in the 900 loop had decorated along the path from the group camping area, which made the walk easier. Was surprised at the level of Easter decorations in general.

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Really surprised at this,  he isn't normally overly keen on photos with characters but after his s' more he asked for a photo. Did some dancing as well.

Didn't stay for the movie though.

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Impressed with this golf cart we passed on the way back.

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I was up early the following morning, as my daughter was up early. Ended up making her a sausage sandwich, really need to get a better light near the grill next time.  She had breakfast and then went back to bed. I stayed up and made more breakfast.  This was a little unplanned I wanted to get over to AK for extra magic hours so I'd planned on a light breakfast, as it was by the time everyone else got up and dressed we got to AK about 10am.

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Visitor as I was eating breakfast.

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I took a walk while people were getting ready.

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This intrigued me, that's a lot of golf carts for a small tent.

Took my bike out for a bit after this, before getting the bus to Annimal Kingdom.

 

 

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18 hours ago, slices said:

I was up early the following morning, as my daughter was up early. Ended up making her a sausage sandwich, really need to get a better light near the grill next time.  She had breakfast and then went back to bed. I stayed up and made more breakfast.  This was a little unplanned I wanted to get over to AK for extra magic hours so I'd planned on a light breakfast, as it was by the time everyone else got up and dressed we got to AK about 10am.

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Visitor as I was eating breakfast.

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I took a walk while people were getting ready.

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This intrigued me, that's a lot of golf carts for a small tent.

Took my bike out for a bit after this, before getting the bus to Annimal Kingdom.

 

 

Did you know you can get a griddle plate for your roadtrip?

Makes it a breeze cooking eggs, grilled sandwiches, etc.

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1 hour ago, Travisma said:

Did you know you can get a griddle plate for your roadtrip?

Makes it a breeze cooking eggs, grilled sandwiches, etc.

Yes, I have one, this was just some breakfast sausages so didn't use it. Photo's of it coming up though.

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1 hour ago, slices said:

I bought both, got a lot of use out of the griddle, the pot ring I think I've only used once.

We got ours used from Craigslist.  The guy had some sort of advertising agency and he had 5 or 6 of them they used for events.

We got the last one.  It came with the grates, plate, ring, and the adapter hose to connect it to a big tank, along with the stand that has two wings.

First time I used it, I didn't know you were supposed to fill the drip plate with water.

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