The TCD gang Pops over to WDW

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

Was it Jackee from 227?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

TCD

I don't want to mess with your foreshadowing, but these might help you see what's going on back there and may help tell your story:

I don't think I posted these before.

WBI

Edit: I wasn't fast enough!

Nick!

Nice job, Grasshopper!!!

Those are awesome!

So, Carol (and Monique) were right- it's going to be some big old restrooms.

I can't tell for sure from the plans, but it looks like there will be room for gift shops and an interactive queue.

Was it Jackee from 227?

That is a very good guess.

It very well could have been!

TCD

[shoreline99 137]

I'm going to take a moment to hijack this post, just to say that the poster to the right of the lovely Twin #1 is for the new Disney Junior show Doc McStuffins. I bring this up because this show was created by one of my high school friends and has really taken off.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I'm going to take a moment to hijack this post, just to say that the poster to the right of the lovely Twin #1 is for the new Disney Junior show Doc McStuffins. I bring this up because this show was created by one of my high school friends and has really taken off.

There's another Disney show I have never seen.

There is a big sign advertising this show over the Playhouse Disney building in Hollywood Studios.

I remember asking the twins about it on our last visit- neither one of them knew anything about this show either.

But, it apparently is a big deal among the pre-school scene.

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Is twin #1 in training to take over your TR duties?

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Ok, so I'm not good at reading construction drawings. (Damn it Jim, I'm a CPA, not an engineer) So is the drainage just going to be underground work, or will there be some nice water features and/or fountains across from those bathrooms? That would make a nice place to sit and people watch while my ladies are all in the can.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Ok, so I'm not good at reading construction drawings. (Damn it Jim, I'm a CPA, not an engineer) So is the drainage just going to be underground work, or will there be some nice water features and/or fountains across from those bathrooms? That would make a nice place to sit and people watch while my ladies are all in the can.

With that many girls youust have to wait a fair amount of time.

[rdancemom... Pam 113]

So is the drainage just going to be underground work, or will there be some nice water features and/or fountains across from those bathrooms?

I've waited in more than my share of MK ladies rooom lines. Take it from me, on a busy day there's likely to be plenty of water features to watch... :wetpants:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Is twin #1 in training to take over your TR duties?

Yes. Twin #1 already says she could do a better job than me. And she probably could.

She already is a bettter photographer than I could ever hope to be.

And all my girls are great writers.

Ok, so I'm not good at reading construction drawings. (Damn it Jim, I'm a CPA, not an engineer) So is the drainage just going to be underground work, or will there be some nice water features and/or fountains across from those bathrooms? That would make a nice place to sit and people watch while my ladies are all in the can.

I'm not a plan reader either. But, it kind of looks like there are going some rocks and ponds around the area that is dug out in the photo I posted. I am thinking that these would have to be fountains with walls around them. And that is where you will be sitting while your ladies attend to their business.

I've waited in more than my share of MK ladies rooom lines. Take it from me, on a busy day there's likely to be plenty of water features to watch... :wetpants:

I'm not sure if I am understanding exactly what you are sayng here, but if you are saying what I think you're saying, that is some funny stuff, LOL!

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

This is one of those days where you get an extra TCD update.

You will have to savor this one, because I have a busy weekend coming up, and there probably won't be another update after this one until Monday.

So, we were leaving the MK to go to Hollywood Studios.

How would you do that?

Take the monorail or boat to the TTC and take the bus?

Not us.

We took the boat to Wilderness Lodge.

And we would get the bus from there.

Why?

We decided we would detour for an ice cream break.

So, here we go.

You can see it is cloudy and a little windy, but nothing to justify those crazy warnings we got yesterday afternoon and evening:

I tried to see what was going on across the Seven Seas Lagoon at the Grand Floridian:

They have been doing a lot of work over there for the past few months, but I don't see anything going vertical yet:

They have a long way to go over there.

There was a rumor lately about an expansion of the MK bus area adjacent to the MK. This is the area in question. There certainly is plenty of room over there:

As we approached and passed the island that sits between Wilderness Lodge and the Contemporary Resort, I took several photos. They have done a lot of clearing on this island, and someone reported to me on my last trip that he thought he had seen them running electric lines on the island. I looked to see if there were signs of anything new on the island. I don't think there was:

I don't know- that all looks kind of old to me.

There is something here to the right of center in this photo. What, I don't know:

I keep expecting to find a crew clearing Discovery Island on one of my visits, but it looked like it has not been touched:

The self-serve ice cream machines that they have installed at the deluxe resorts are one of the best deals on the property. You can get a lot of ice cream into one of those bowls. They wouldn't dare putting one of these in the values or the campground, because the low lifes that stay in those places would take advantage. What they didn't think about is that the low lifes can visit the deluxe resorts when they want to take advantage. And here we are:

The three of us shared that ice cream.

That was a perfect treat for us.

Then it was time for us to move along to Hollywood Studios.

But first, we stopped to admire a display in the lobby.

This sign tells you what you will be looking at in the next group of photos:

There was quite a bit of variety here.

This is a buoy bird house:

And, then there was this one that was so big it had to sit on the floor. To get an idea of the size of this thing, look at the rocking chair there in the back of the photo:

Whoever was responsible for that thing felt the need to explain, so it was accompanied with this very long explanation:

As my girls often say:

Whatever.

That might make a good insane asylum for birds.

Because I think only a crazy bird would go anywhere near that giant piece of junk.

Really, people!

Here are some more entries:

Some people went to a lot of trouble for this. But, we liked this one the best:

A birdhouse monorail made out of garbage.

Maybe even Lou would have voted for that one.

Here's a couple more:

Over on the other side of the table, there was another big entry:

The creators of this one also felt the need to explain:

Whatever.

Again.

So, we voted a few times for the monorail birdhouse.

And, then headed to the bus stop.

As luck would have it, there were a couple of interesting things to see there too.

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

TCD

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

Ok, so I'm not good at reading construction drawings. (Damn it Jim, I'm a CPA, not an engineer) So is the drainage just going to be underground work, or will there be some nice water features and/or fountains across from those bathrooms? That would make a nice place to sit and people watch while my ladies are all in the can.

That quote made me lol for real.

It looks like their is going to be a little water feature, the new walkway will even have a little bridge of some sort, only a foot tall but it will have water going under it. There are also some planters, I'm hoping they will have some shade trees in them because right now Fantasy Land is real bare.

It looks like there's going to be some stairs and ramps giving some nice little elevations changes. The drawings are a little misleading because most of what it shows is underground. Do you see those tanks, those are underground storage for rain water detention. You have to do that when you don't have enough open space to create a detention area.

WBI

[stefa70 205]

Wow, I take an afternoon off and a lot has been happening in this report!

I had a few comments, but Nick posted those plans and my eyes glossed over and my thoughts drifted away.

So I'll just say I'm still reading and enjoying, and I also am extremely pro-beard. ^-^

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

Can we look forward to a late birdhouse entry from Lou to rival the monorail made from garbage?

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

My sons all loved seeing the Avengers monorail. However, my 5yog thought there would be Avengers on the monorail, or at least people dressed in costumes to look like them. She was disappointed to learn the monorail is just the same on the inside as when she rode it 11/2010.

Oh, and I am very pro-beard.

[CKCK 45]

Booooo

[Lou... 3,118]

Can we look forward to a late birdhouse entry from Lou to rival the monorail made from garbage?

Vote for it, heck, I made it.

Seems fitting for a garbage form of transportation.

And while we're on Disney things made from garbage, the photo is of a Christmas gift that Disney gave all lucky CMs a few years ago. It's made from recycled materials.

What is it, no one knows, but whatever it is, you hang it up because it has a hook on one end and the thing on the bottom is a bell made from recycled crap.

I'm not making it up. I saved it because it's so bad. It's hanging up in my office at home and I'm sure it'll be worth a ton of money on Ebay some day.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Wow, Lou that is bad! I feel sorry for your office. :rofl2:

[Lou... 3,118]

I have a close friend that is also a CM and every once in while we'll just bring it up in a conversation just so we can crack up laughing.

We don't know what it is, so we call it "that thing" that Disney gave us.

I wish someone had taken a picture of my face when I first opened it.

Gee, thanks Disney, what is it?

[dvccamper 32]

That is....interesting. None of it seems to go together. It reminds me of a wedding gift we got. It was a small bouquet of artificial flowers but the bottom of it had prongs sticking out. We were like "what the heck is it?" We finally decided it was a cake topper. Weird.

And TCD, I go to work today and come home to so many updates, I can't keep up! I am not complaining but I am wondering how you have time to write all this...do you post from your work? I also have to tell you that I chuckle so much while reading your posts that my daughter had to see for herself and now she is addicted to TCD trip reports. She is in awe of the things you are able to sneak pictures of.

I have seen PUSH the trash can in action. I witnessed him challenge a guy in a wheelchair to a race, which they did, but the guy in the wheelchair almost hit a bench. I think maybe PUSH should be stopped before he kills somebody. But I think the idea of him with Walt's head is inspired.

[GOBA Mom Lynn 18]

I just wanted to say that I've been reading this trip report and it just amazes me how much you (and the girls) can do and see in such little time.

[beccaewert 10]

love trip report,....always nice to live vicariously thru you all!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I have fallen behind on the comments again.

Let me get these caught up, and then we will move forward with this little report:

Wow, I take an afternoon off and a lot has been happening in this report!

I had a few comments, but Nick posted those plans and my eyes glossed over and my thoughts drifted away.

So I'll just say I'm still reading and enjoying, and I also am extremely pro-beard. ^-^

Yes, we covred a lot of topics there on Friday.

Glad that you had a chance to catch up.

I have thought about it, and I guess I would have to say that I'm neutral on the beard issue. I am not against them, but I really wouldn't say that I'm for them either.

Can we look forward to a late birdhouse entry from Lou to rival the monorail made from garbage?

Way to jump right in, there AC from A2!

That was funny!

My sons all loved seeing the Avengers monorail. However, my 5yog thought there would be Avengers on the monorail, or at least people dressed in costumes to look like them. She was disappointed to learn the monorail is just the same on the inside as when she rode it 11/2010.

Oh, and I am very pro-beard.

I figured you must be pro-beard.

And your 5 year-old is right, the Avenger rail is kind of lame.

Booooo

Now, what is that for?

Vote for it, heck, I made it.

Seems fitting for a garbage form of transportation.

And while we're on Disney things made from garbage, the photo is of a Christmas gift that Disney gave all lucky CMs a few years ago. It's made from recycled materials.

What is it, no one knows, but whatever it is, you hang it up because it has a hook on one end and the thing on the bottom is a bell made from recycled crap.

I'm not making it up. I saved it because it's so bad. It's hanging up in my office at home and I'm sure it'll be worth a ton of money on Ebay some day.

Wow!

I have no idea what that thing is.

But, I will point out that those red, yellow and green beads are the exact same color combination that I have seen on a lot of hippie/reggae paraphernalia.

Why did they choose those colors?

I have seen PUSH the trash can in action. I witnessed him challenge a guy in a wheelchair to a race, which they did, but the guy in the wheelchair almost hit a bench. I think maybe PUSH should be stopped before he kills somebody. But I think the idea of him with Walt's head is inspired.

I think you are right about PUSH needing to be stopped. After all, what happens in every robot movie? That's right: eventually, they will turn on their human creators. They always do. Maybe that guy in the Tennessee hat had traveled from the future to stop PUSH? Oh man, maybe I just stopped someone from saving mankind from a future of being slaves to robots!

My bad.

I just wanted to say that I've been reading this trip report and it just amazes me how much you (and the girls) can do and see in such little time.

It might seem that way, but we pretty much just go with the flow. The thing is that in every park, there is always something that can be done with little or no wait. I don't know of any other theme parks where you can say that. When we visit a park, we generally try to have a couple of major objectives, and then we just fill in our time around those.

love trip report,....always nice to live vicariously thru you all!

Thanks for posting.

I hope that all is well with your family.

It's about time for y'all to get back to the Fort, isn't it?

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Now, let's move this report along and see if we can get it wrapped up.

In case you're thinking that there isn't going to be anything else interesting, please remember that this is a TCD trip report.

We have seen some interesting things, but let me tell you that one of the most interesting things I saw was right as we were about to head back home at the end of the trip. We are getting close to that part, so I would suggest that you see this thing through to the end. You won't be sorry.

We left off admiring the bird house creations of the Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness castmembers.

Now, we are going to head to Hollywood Studios.

When we got to the bus stop, the Fort Wilderness bus was pulling in. I suggested to the girls that we hop on it, and take a ride through the Fort up to the Outpost, and then catch the Hollywood Studios bus from there. They let me know that they thought that was a stupid idea. Which it was. But, it would have allowed me to visit the Fort, and see a few things. Thus far, this had been a Fort-less trip. Anyway, I got outvoted again, so we waited for the Hollywood Studios bus.

While we waited, I snapped this photo of some bikes parked by the Wilderness Lodge bus stop. Someone asked a question a while back about whether there were bike racks at the Lodge. There are some by the pool, but none by the bus stop. But trees work fine:

I secretly hoped that we would have a long wait for the Hollywood Studios bus so I could tell the girls "I told you so," but the darned thing came right along. We hopped aboard.

The bus was not crowded, and a couple with a child and stroller tried to come on the bus without folding their stroller. The bus driver would have none of that. He told them that they had to fold the stroller.

So they tried.

And they tried.

And they couldn't get the thing folded.

After a couple of minutes, I had to break out the camera.

You may notice that the man in these photos is wearing a Wounded Warrior Project t-shirt, and I realize that he may have been a Wounded Warrior. But, the man did not know how to fold his stroller, and it was getting kind of comical, so I had to take just a few photos. Here we have the man and his wife both trying to get that stupid stroller folded:

With both of them working on that thing, I figured they would get in folded in no time.

But they didn't:

The bus driver didn't leave. But he also didn't offer any compromise. In fact, right about here, he came on the speakers and asked if anyone on board could help the people fold their stroller. I had no idea, so I just sat and watched. But, this nice lady tried to help:

I had high hopes that the lady would get that thing folded.

But she didn't.

They tried some more:

Finally, the bus driver had enough.

He opened the back doors of the bus, and asked the folks to bring the stroller in unfolded:

He strapped the stroller down like it was a scooter or wheelchair:

And then we finally got on our way.

That was entertaining.

As you may know, the Fort and the Lodge share the Hollywood Studios bus.

So, before we headed to Hollywood Studios, we stopped by the Fort.

I snapped a few photos. I thought this might be the only time I visited the Fort on this trip.

This is the area where the new horse barn is supposed to be going. As you can see, nothing is happening here:

This is where the new blacksmith shop will be going. Nothing happening here either:

The golf cart parking area was pretty full:

There's one of the Fort's six seat golf carts:

See how they had to park it?

The six seat carts can almost completely block the flow through the parking area if they are parked in one of the regular diagonal spaces.

As we headed out of the Fort, I snapped a photo of this pretty neat bus conversion in the parking lot:

As we headed out, I noticed a big male turkey was strutting around on the right of way by the yellow sign in this photo:

You can see him (kind of) in this zoom:

This kind of behavior usually means that there are some momma turkeys sitting on nests in the area.

We turned left out of the Fort parking lot, and headed to Hollywood Studios.

We will pick up from there in the next post.

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I can't believe they didn't know how to fold their stroller? I assume they either traveled to WDW in their car, or by plane. And it would have to be folded to fit in either of those modes of transport.

Maybe they'd been drinking? That would be my excuse. In fact, it often is.

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

I can't believe they didn't know how to fold their stroller? I assume they either traveled to WDW in their car, or by plane. And it would have to be folded to fit in either of those modes of transport.

Maybe they'd been drinking? That would be my excuse. In fact, it often is.

Actually, that looks like a rental stroller from an offsite company that is being seen more and more around WDW.