Down by the Riverside (and Fort): A TCD End of Summer Trip Report

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

My guess , and this is only my opinion, the French Quarter is small by design. I think they wanted to give you feeling of being in a city as opposed to the sprawling feel you get with POR. ( I still call it Dixie Landings), Old dog new tricks, you know what I mean :rofl2:

[stefa70 205]

They really do go all out in the landscaping area, Being in that business, I understand how much time & money goes into it. I wonder how different things will look come January. It made for some great pictures, even though I stand by my "too foo-fooey" for my taste. The surrey bikes look like they would be fun though, and much safer for me than a 2 wheeled bike!

Epcot or Downtown?!?! Who was the winning twin?!?! :suspense:

[Sensei 18]

Good to see pictures of the old FW boardwalk even though is in extreme disrepair. I used to fish off that many years ago. Successfully, I might add. Also somewhere in the swamp behind the boardwalk is or was one of the largest bald cypress trees in Florida. Hope it's still there. At one time, you could get very close to it.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Lovin it! Keep it coming!! I need entertainment for three days.

Yes ma'am.

I will do my best.

Have a safe trip!

Good guess. A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all ...

I guess that is what they are going for here, although I didn't see any gravel paths.

It's weird that they would name a whole section of a resort after what appears to be a pretty obscure type of garden.

My guess , and this is only my opinion, the French Quarter is small by design. I think they wanted to give you feeling of being in a city as opposed to the sprawling feel you get with POR. ( I still call it Dixie Landings), Old dog new tricks, you know what I mean :rofl2:

You are probably right about them wanting to keep French Quarter small. But, it still seems odd that they would put what was once two separate resorts next to each other and have one so much bigger than the other.

They really do go all out in the landscaping area, Being in that business, I understand how much time & money goes into it. I wonder how different things will look come January. It made for some great pictures, even though I stand by my "too foo-fooey" for my taste. The surrey bikes look like they would be fun though, and much safer for me than a 2 wheeled bike!

Epcot or Downtown?!?! Who was the winning twin?!?! :suspense:

You are right about the landscaping. I'll bet things do get rather brown and sparse in January and February. But, I am making a point of getting back there when azalea blooming time comes around. Also, there are a lot of magnolias here. I'll bet it's pretty when they are in bloom.

Good to see pictures of the old FW boardwalk even though is in extreme disrepair. I used to fish off that many years ago. Successfully, I might add. Also somewhere in the swamp behind the boardwalk is or was one of the largest bald cypress trees in Florida. Hope it's still there. At one time, you could get very close to it.

I don't know if the one you remember is still back there, but there are some very towering bald cypress trees back there still. Aside from pulling out the boardwalk, that swamp area has been untouched for years.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Epcot or Downtown?!?! Who was the winning twin?!?! :suspense:

I am working on that post now.

Please stand by.

And, I didn't forget that I promised you a pole reference.

Wait for it.

TCD

[BuckeyeFortFan 35]

I never realized how beautiful POR is and how much detail it has. Many people on "another forum" I used to frequent strongly recommended POR and now I know why! We may have to try it on a non-camping WDW trip! Thanks TCD!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

When I got back to the room, it was time to make our plan for the afternoon and evening.

Because we had been shut out of the Tiki room last night, and because the MK was open until 11, we all agreed that we would go back there tonight. We have also been wanting to see the Let The Memories Begin show which they project on the castle, and the times guide told us that it would be shown twice tonight. So, that was decided.

That left us with needing to decide what we would do for the afternoon. We also had to eat our dinner someplace.

We discussed three options.

The first was going back to Animal Kingdom. We had Fastpasses for EE and KRR that we could use, and we all like the Flametree BBQ. But, there were a lot of clouds forming, and it looked like we might have a thunderstorm. That would shut down both EE and KRR, and there was also the hassle of getting there and back.

The next option was Epcot. We all love Epcot. One of the twins suggested that we go, ride a couple of rides, and eat at the new counter service place in Mexico. We all like that. But, it was really hot, and there was the rain thing, and also the transportation thing.

The other twin recommended the a third option: taking the boat from POR to Downtown Disney. We really didn't have any business to attend to in Downtown Disney, but we all like looking around the shops on occasion. Plus, none of us had ever taken the boat ride from POR to DD before.

We all agreed to scratch Animal Kingdom as a choice.

The girls were strongly divided on the 2nd and 3rd option.

I had to break the tie.

I chose the boat to Downtown Disney.

That was the easiest for me.

One twin was happy.

The other was not.

What can I do?

With that decision made, we also discussed our dinner plans.

We could plan to eat in the MK. Or Downtown Disney. Or at the POR Food Court. We went with the third choice. We had lunch there on Friday, and there were some good choices for us at dinner. There was no disagreement about that.

So, with the decision made, we headed down to the marina.

One twin was still a bit grumpy.

Of course, the boat was just pulling away as we arrived.

That gave the grumpy twin a chance to give us a good I told you so.

I would have done the same thing if I was her.

Since the boat had just left, we obviously had a bit of time to kill.

I looked around the marina.

Here's a shot of the sign showing all of the rental options. I haven't checked, but these seem to be in line with what they charge at the Fort:

Here is the view from the waiting area for the boat:

The Ol' Man Island pool is right across the river from here:

I have mentioned before that I inherit cameras from my daughters when they get new ones. The one I have been using lately is an old purple point and shoot Kodak model. It was a pretty nice camera when it was new. It has a bunch of settings and features that I never use. I noticed that it has a setting for panoramic photos. Since we had some time to kill, I gave it a try here at the marina. This is what I got:

I think that came out cool, but it is clearly messed up. The part on the other side of the bridge from the mill does not match up correctly. I will need to try this again, as I would love to take some panoramic photos at Bay Lake the next time I'm at the Fort.

There is a map hanging here that shows the boat route:

Unless I missed it, this was as specific as it got as to how the boat worked. From this map, I figured we would be stopping at the French Quarter, and Old Key West, and Saratoga Springs. This could be a long boat ride. The grumpy twin got a bit grumpier as we looked at this map.

I thought we would have to wait for 20 minutes or longer for the next boat, but the next one came after we had been waiting about 12 minutes.

Not bad.

We loaded up, and we were on our way.

Here is the Oak mansion, as seen from the river:

Here we are about to pass under one of the bridges:

The boat moves pretty quickly.

In just a couple of minutes we were already cruising by French Quarter:

We made a stop there. This big dragon head you see in the background is the top of the slide for the French Quarter's pool:

We picked up a couple of folks here, and then we were on our way.

We next drove by the Treehouses:

i really don't know much about these treehouses. I know that they had treehouses at WDW long ago, before Port Orleans was built. I also know that the Treehouse section was closed for a long time, and that there were plans at one point to remove them. What happened after this I don't know. They are open now. I don't know if they were completely rebuilt, or just rehabbed.

There is a boat dock for the Treehouses, but we did not stop there:

Another boat did:

So, there is apparently another boat route.

We continued on our way, and saw some more Treehouses:

So, what is the deal with these Treehouses? They don't look so new, do they? And what do people do there? I don't think they have a pool or any other amenities.

We did not stop at the Old Key West resort. From what I could tell, it was down a canal that we passed, and must share the Treehouse boat.

We then approached the Saratoga Springs Resort.

We passed by their golf course:

There were a lot of birdhouses on long poles here along the water:

Here we are approaching Downtown Disney. You can see the House of Blues, Disney Quest and the Cirque building there:

Here's the Characters in Flight balloon:

I wasn't sure where we would dock at Downtown Disney. I know there is a boat dock over by the House of Blues, but went right past that .

We headed toward the Marketplace area. Note that a storm was approaching:

As we were pulling up to the dock, we could see that there was quite a crowd there hoping to get a ride back. The captain told us that the boats would be suspended if the storm got any closer. We briefly thought about staying on the boat and trying to beat the storm back to the resort. But, the folks waiting to get on wouldn't have liked that. So we got off there at the marketplace.

These clouds did not look good:

The storm was blowing in fast.

We decided to head for the biggest store- the World of Disney:

Just as we entered the store, the bottom fell out.

It rained like crazy!

Lots of thunder and lightning too.

The grumpy twin gave us another I told you so. Then I reminded her that it would not have been any better at Epcot. Maybe it would be worse.

I thought the World of Disney store was connected to other stores, and that you could walk from store to store without walking outside.

Some of the stores at Downtown Disney are connected like that.

But not the World of Disney.

We shopped for a while.

We looked at all the stuff.

I bought the girls some antenna toppers.

We looked for a good T-shirt for the twin who was owed one.

And then we ran out of things to do.

It was still raining hard.

But we wanted to leave.

So what did we do?

I'm sure that I have mentioned before that I'm and Eagle Scout.

And I live by the Scout motto.

Do you know it?

It's "Be Prepared."

Guess what I had in my backpack?

Ponchos!

As a 100% pro-poncho person, I keep them with me at WDW for times like this.

There was a huge crowd of people standing at every exit of the store looking at the rain.

We walked right past them, put on our ponchos, and we were on our way.

We had to take a bus back to POR.

Lou knows what is coming next.

But we didn't.

We walked up to the POR bus stop.

And a bus pulled up on cue.

It had just a couple of people on it.

I wonder where they came from?

They had bathing suits on.

But they were dry.

Weird.

We loaded up, and headed out.

Sweet!

We would be back to POR in no time.

Not so fast.

First we had to make another stop at the other Downtown Disney bus stop.

Ugg.

But, not too bad.

Now we would be on our way!

Not.

We had to stop by Typhoon Lagoon.

That is what those people in the swim suits were doing there.

The Downtown Disney bus to POR also stops at Typhoon Lagoon.

Have you ever seen what happens at Typhoon Lagoon after a storm rolls in?

If not you're lucky.

If so, then you know what we saw when we pulled in to the Typhoon Lagoon parking lot.

Bedlam!

It was practically gridlock.

Everybody was trying to leave at the same time.

And the cars were blocking the buses.

And every bus stop was crammed full of people desperately trying to get out of there.

I'll spare you the details.

I'll just say that we spent a good 45 minutes in that parking lot.

The only good thing that came of it is that I got a chance to take a photo of the old FWRR car that they are letting rot in the Typhoon Lagoon parking lot:

And, look, the door is open!:

I was going to ask the bus driver if he could let me out to go and look in the train car, and then get back on the bus, since we weren't moving anyway. But, he didn't look like he was in such a good mood for some reason, so I didn't.

When we finally got out of the Typhoon Lagoon parking lot, we were all glad that we were now home free!

But, the bus driver had one more surprise for us. Our bus stop was the last stop. And, not only that- we stopped at French Quarter too.

All of this actually made the grumpy twin happy.

She didn't even need to say I told you so any more.

Clearly, this ended up being not such a good choice for us.

But, in the end, we were all glad that we took the boat ride. Who knows when, if ever, we will be back this way again.

We expect to see plenty of Epcot this fall during the Food and Wine festival.

So, it was all good.

It just took a lot longer than we expected.

In fact, it was almost 6 pm before we got back.

Time to eat, and get going to the MK.

And, that is exactly what we did.

Would we make it on time to see the stupid Tiki Birds?

You will find out in our next installment.

TCD

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

The Tree Houses are part of the Saratoga Springs DVC now - go figure. They rehabbed them, and they look really nice ... but.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Whew.. let me just say the pictures look better on the computer than my phone... dagnabbed laundry!!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I never realized how beautiful POR is and how much detail it has. Many people on "another forum" I used to frequent strongly recommended POR and now I know why! We may have to try it on a non-camping WDW trip! Thanks TCD!

I used to be a big believer in the value resorts, but I have to say that POR is worth the extra money.

The Fort is still my favorite, but there are a lot of nice things about POR.

The Tree Houses are part of the Saratoga Springs DVC now - go figure. They rehabbed them, and they look really nice ... but.

but what?

Expensive?

Inconvenient?

They look nice, but they're not really?

Haunted?

What?

Whew.. let me just say the pictures look better on the computer than my phone... dagnabbed laundry!!

Maybe you already explained this and I missed it, but what is it with you and laundry?

TCD

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

but what?

Expensive?

Inconvenient?

They look nice, but they're not really?

Haunted?

What?

TCD

Expensive; hard to get reservations; Inconvenient; a lot of 'small' stuff added together to make them too much of a headache to fool with.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Maybe you already explained this and I missed it, but what is it with you and laundry?

TCD

Well I don't have a house anymore. so I can't do laundry at my leisure anymore. I have to go to the Laundry matt. The RV park we are staying at (wish it was FW.. but it's not) requires you to sign up for washing machine use. You can't be late by even a few minutes or you don't get to use them. So just when all your updates went up... I was at the Laundry Mat with only my phone to look at pictures with... it's a small LG screen. I could barely read the words much less see the pictures.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Expensive; hard to get reservations; Inconvenient; a lot of 'small' stuff added together to make them too much of a headache to fool with.

Got it.

I was reading somewhere that they charge $700 a night for these things.

That's nuts!

But, people were definitely staying in them.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Well I don't have a house anymore. so I can't do laundry at my leisure anymore. I have to go to the Laundry matt. The RV park we are staying at (wish it was FW.. but it's not) requires you to sign up for washing machine use. You can't be late by even a few minutes or you don't get to use them. So just when all your updates went up... I was at the Laundry Mat with only my phone to look at pictures with... it's a small LG screen. I could barely read the words much less see the pictures.

Wow!

The things we take for granted.

I am glad that I don't have to go to the laundromat.

That RV park sounds like quite a place. I would like to be the guy in charge of the washing machines. You have to sign up to do laundry? That's pretty intense.

TCD

[stefa70 205]

TCD

This is my favorite picture, for obvious reasons. ( What? I like birdhouses!)

Which twin is technically older? I think she should be called twin #1, the other twin #2. Could you please specify? The taller one or the shorter one?

Whichever one pulled the "I told you so" is my kind of girl! I would have used every inconvenience to show you why we should have went with my plan.

45 minutes at the bus stop and you would have put me in a padded room! Remember what I told you about my patience level?

I'm surprised that you didn't take your chances with the bus driver and ask if you could get off for a minute. TCD can't possibly be afraid of a grumpy bus driver.

Looking forward to the tiki bird story. I honestly haven't been in there in 20 years.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

This is my favorite picture, for obvious reasons. ( What? I like birdhouses!)

Which twin is technically older? I think she should be called twin #1, the other twin #2. Could you please specify? The taller one or the shorter one?

Whichever one pulled the "I told you so" is my kind of girl! I would have used every inconvenience to show you why we should have went with my plan.

45 minutes at the bus stop and you would have put me in a padded room! Remember what I told you about my patience level?

I'm surprised that you didn't take your chances with the bus driver and ask if you could get off for a minute. TCD can't possibly be afraid of a grumpy bus driver.

Looking forward to the tiki bird story. I honestly haven't been in there in 20 years.

Good job on the birdhouses! I put that one in there just for you.

The taller twin is 8 minutes older than the other. I have said this before, but if we had to do it over again, I would tell them that they were born at the exact same time. Twin #1 always holds the fact that she is older over twin #2's head. It was twin #2 who wanted to go to Epcot, and who then got to say I told you so.

Don't get too excited about the Tiki birds. It may be 20 years before we go back.

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Wow!

The things we take for granted.

I am glad that I don't have to go to the laundromat.

That RV park sounds like quite a place. I would like to be the guy in charge of the washing machines. You have to sign up to do laundry? That's pretty intense.

TCD

yep. Actually the laundromat is quiet time for me. It's the only time I get away from both hubby, kids, and dogs. Trust me after 3 months on the road I'll take the laundromat for alone time.

The Rv park has 177 lots but 95% of those are owned by people who live here anywhere from 3 months to 12 of the year in their Park Models or their RVs. 8 washing machines and 8 dryers for 177 people plus significant others.... I am sure it was bedlam before they started the sign up. But the weirdest part(to me) is that some have washers/dryers/showers in their motorhomes and don't use them.....

[stefa70 205]

Good job on the birdhouses! I put that one in there just for you.

The taller twin is 8 minutes older than the other. I have said this before, but if we had to do it over again, I would tell them that they were born at the exact same time. Twin #1 always holds the fact that she is older over twin #2's head. It was twin #2 who wanted to go to Epcot, and who then got to say I told you so.

Don't get too excited about the Tiki birds. It may be 20 years before we go back.

TCD

Thanks for the clarification. I hate calling them "the twins" They deserve some kind of identity, without invading their privacy.

In about 25 years, twin #2 will be rubbing it in to twin #1, that she is younger.

LOL, guess I haven't missed much when it comes to the tiki birds?!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Thank you for the pics of POR and especially Boatwright's. Our son was married 7 years ago yesterday at Sunset Pointe. We had the rehearsal dinner at Boatwright's. Your post brought back a lot of memories!

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

OK, the history of the treehouses. Originally they were part of the Villas at Lake Buena Vista, which then became the Villas of the Disney Institute, you know the ones they tore down to build Saratoga springs. They didn't tear down the original treehouses and they were empty for awhile, then they used them to house CMs from the International Exchange program.

The problem was, they were too dated for guest use and there was some exterior damage to them from the Hurricanes. There were also ADA issues. They didn't want to tear them down cause there was a wetland issue. They wouldn't be able to build in that area if they razed the area. They had to figure out a way to update them without changing the footprint and also to meet ADA regulations.

They finally figured out a way to solve all of those problems. The foundations are the same and the center support is the same (if not smaller). They pulled the tops of the previous treehouses down and placed these new treehouses there as modular units. No impact to the wetland with just the modular units brought in. The footprint is lessened and the new ones now meet ADA regulations. They are DVC units as part of Saratoga Springs and there is a pool back there.

You can walk to Saratoga Springs or Downtown Disney, or take the bus, or take the boat. I think you can also walk to Old Key West.

[Ok Grumpy AKA Cindy~~ 9]

Great information! As Always! I'm really enjoying the TR.

Thanks TCD

[Starbuc71 162]

As stated earlier, it's nice to see so many things to do at POR. I keep asking myself why the fort does not rent surrey bikes. Do they think it's going to infringe on their golf cart rentals. I don't know the price of a surrey rental, it may not be worth it compared to a golf cart, but I would think people would enjoy renting one at least to do some looping at the fort. I remeber looking at a Disney add for the tree houses way back in the day. I know my parents said back then that they were expensive. I agree I wish with money the mouse makes, they could keep things nicer at other places including the fort

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

I've been busy the past couple of weeks with school starting back up and getting the house organized. You'd think I'd have a lot of time to read the board since both kids are at school but I've spent my days cleaning out closets and rooms. I've missed out on so much around here. But I just spent the past hour catching up on this report. :) I'll have to catch up on the others later because my eyes are tired.

I've enjoyed this report. We didn't get a chance to visit the other resorts (besides the Contemporary when we got on the monorail) so it's nice to see at least one of the resorts in pictures. :)

[Sunset Lady 6]

The "Hidden or Deliberate Mickey Judge", I bet you didn't know there was one, has ruled that the hidden Mickey in the photo is actually a Deliberate Mickey.

As always, you can file an appeal.

I didn't know there was a Deliberate Mickey Judge, but I will accept the ruling, and I will add another picture to the case file.

Would we call this an Undeliberate Hidden Mickey?::rofl2:

PS : I did not make this Mickey, just happened to see it when I sat down at the Dole Whip place.

[Sunset Lady 6]

Oy!

I don't understand the distinction between a DM and a HM.

Aren't all HM's DM's?

TCD

I agree, is there a difference?