CKCK 3.0-June 5-10 Trip Report-"Best of Both Worlds"

[scooterminnie...paula 20]

I like the cake idea. Really enjoy reading this tr.:popcorn:

[DaveInTN 3,247]

As usual, I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I'm here now and enjoying the report. Loved the HTT photos...you really looked into it. :rofl3: And the cake looks quite delish. I love cake. Big surprise, I know.

Also, yes I am very glad to see that Scary Whore Ride finally is closed. Took long enough. Although I'm not too excited to see a princess meet and greet go in there...would rather see a new ride. I guess the Fantasyland expansion will give us rides. But still.

Anyways, onward and upward. You made us sit through crumpet and scone pics, so bring on the GAG and beers.

[Lou... 3,118]

yes I am very glad to see that Scary Whore Ride finally is closed.

I'm flabbergasted at that comment.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

I'm here too. Loving this report!

[CKCK 45]

Cake soup, sounds like a great concept!!

Wasn't as planned, but it still worked!

BTW that Florida Gators slam was not necessary. I admit it was funny, but not necessary.

But, it's your trip report, so you go right ahead.

And, I would like to point out that the very fact that those tea drinkers would even think of having a squirrel cage proves that those essential oils cause brain damage. I hope you didn't drink too much.

TCD

Go Dawgs.

Fortunately for my brain I did not drink all of my tea. My wife finished hers then started in on mine.

I need to keep an eye on her.

I think they call that a menage a trois.

This update wasn't boring at all!!

First, if they were trapping squirrels in 1890, you know it was so they could toss them in a pan with some gravy.

You did mention earlier that you weren't sure what was in those overpriced, no crust having, sandwiches......

I do believe only a band geek director would notice that speaker/mic.

I hope I didn't eat squirrel. That would ruin the HTT for me...

I'm going to pretend I didn't read the rest of that comment.

I say you can keep your man card after going to HTT, b/c the wife enoyed it. :golfclap:

HOWEVER, you taking THIS long to get to alcohol?! :banghead:

Don't worry, there was wine the first night.

We would have cookies with our tea and if we were late, no tea or cookies. Tea was at 4pm.

See, if you mess up the HTT police get you! I'm glad I wasn't late to my reservations!

Can't wait for alcohol updates!

You people are alcoholics. I'm going to start an AA thread.

I'm thinking the giraffes and monkey already had their alcohol update.

Funny!

Fortunately, it was just the angle the picture was taken!!! If you look at today's Disney Park Blog, it is quite normal!!

http://disneyparks.d...bo-is-unveiled/

Good to know WDW hasn't lost it.

I'm a little late getting started, but I am loving this TR! Love the cake, love the HTT and love the MK with no strollers! I am looking forward to hearing about the Bistro! BTW, I love you TR writing style! Looking forward to seeing those adorable little redheads of yours!

Welcome, and I wish you a speedy recovery!

I like the cake idea. Really enjoy reading this tr. :popcorn:

Thanks!

[CKCK 45]

As usual, I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I'm here now and enjoying the report. Loved the HTT photos...you really looked into it. :rofl3: And the cake looks quite delish. I love cake. Big surprise, I know.

Also, yes I am very glad to see that Scary Whore Ride finally is closed. Took long enough. Although I'm not too excited to see a princess meet and greet go in there...would rather see a new ride. I guess the Fantasyland expansion will give us rides. But still.

Anyways, onward and upward. You made us sit through crumpet and scone pics, so bring on the GAG and beers.

Better late than never!

Glad you enjoyed the HTT pics. I took one for the team for all dudes.

I knew you of all people could appreciate the Scary Whore Ride closing. I never liked it.

GAG and beer will make an appearance, but we have lots of other food to get through first!

I'm here too. Loving this report!

Glad you're here!

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

The AA thread just might work......because at first you have to admit you have a problem.

Me....I have a wait problem. Can't wait to drink! :rofl2:

[CKCK 45]

Sorry for the delay. Yesterday was our actual 10 year anniversary, so I was a little busy!

With what?

1. Teaching a trumpet lesson

2. Mowing the yard

3. Getting surprise reservations at 5 & 10, Hugh Acheson’s restaurant in Athens.

Bam.

If you have ever watched Top Chef you might know Hugh. He competed on Top Chef Masters and was a judge on the most recent season of Top Chef.

He has a unibrow.

Oh, now you know who I’m talking about.

So, I would like to highjack my TR (I can do that…it’s mine) with a few quick pictures from last night’s dinner. The lighting was really low so my pictures aren’t great, but the food was!

Corn Soup with Lobster

Medjool dates with celery and parmesan

The dates were really good, though when I put them in my mouth my immediate reaction was NO NO NO, SPIT OUT NOW. But once my mind told my mouth to stop being stupid, they were really good.

Pasta ribbons with slow roasted tomatoes, red onions, jalapenos, mozzarella

Fried chicken confit with squash casserole, rattlesnake beans, and pickled green tomatoes with hot pepper vinaigrette

Challerhocker, Switzerland-Cheese with seasonal local fruit, raspberry & peach jam, toasted pecans, and house-made baguette

So there you go. We will definitely go back some time. Great place. Not snooty or pretentious, just good food and good service.

Now back to your regularly scheduled TR…

[DaveInTN 3,247]

That dinner looks amazing.

[CKCK 45]

That dinner looks amazing.

Yes, it was. The great thing about it was it wasn't stuffy. There is no dress code, the wait staff are relaxed and super helpful and efficient, and you can be yourself. Plus, you get awesome food.

[CKCK 45]

BAGLESS WEDNESDAY!!!

What is bagless Wednesday you ask?

It’s a Wednesday

That you go to the parks

Without bags.

We have never done this before. Usually we have diapers, water, wipes, snacks, sunscreen, cameras, etc.

Today was the day that we were not going to carry anything in other than phones. No bag check. Nothing hanging off us.

Just phones. Actually just my phone. So the pictures in the parks will not be as good as normal, but you will get the idea.

We hit DHS at EMH rope drop. Last Thanksgiving I was there for rope drop with my brother in-law and they actually had ropes to each section of the park.

I’m glad they aren’t doing that any more. It’s much nicer to NOT get trampled by crazy people who think that 2 minutes is going to make a difference.

Really, think about it. For EMH you have several hundred people trying to get in all at once, so you THINK that there are a zillion people who are going to be in the park. But once you get in, everybody spreads out, goes to different rides, and you’re fine.

Compared to how many people will eventually be in the park, it’s basically empty!

So STOP RUNNING!

My DW had never been on R&R.

So that’s where we went.

I grabbed some fastpasses for later and we went through the line. We were probably on about the third or fourth train of the day.

Here’s the pic:

I’m the one on the right having fun. DW is on the left being a fuddy duddy.

From here we headed over to ToT. My wife had not been on this ride since college, and she is not necessarily a fan of dropping.

I am.

Here’s the pic:

I’m the one on the right in the STL hat (go Cards) having fun.

My wife is the one with her head buried on my shoulder not having fun.

What the Fort?

And why is it that I seem to be the only person on that ride having fun at all?

Fuddy duddies.

From here we headed over to see how bad the mania was.

It was bad. So we went into Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream.

I had never been in here before and I’m a fan of Walt and the history of WDW.

Totally digging it.

I could have spent hours in here looking and reading everything in detail. Plus, I really liked the movie also. I can’t say that I learned anything that I didn’t already know, but it was still pretty cool.

Did you know in here they have the model of new Fantasyland? I did not. I actually had seen video of this model on youtube, but didn’t know it was in here.

I thought this was pretty cool. It was amazing to see the amount of detail they put into a model. Even down to little people riding on rides. Super cool.

After this we went down to the Backlot tour but it was closed because it was starting to sprinkle.

Booo.

So we wandered around, saw the Singin’ in the Rain umbrella (didn’t take pics), and headed over to Star Tours.

I have no pics from this, but I can tell you that back in February I took DD4 on this ride (she was DD3 at that time). She was barely 40” so she just made it on. I wasn’t too sure how she would handle it with all of the bumping around and so forth.

She loved it. Thought it was really cool.

DW had never been on it, so she needed to.

She closed her eyes for the entire second half of the ride so she didn’t get sick.

DD4: 1

Mommy: 0

After this we had basically done everything that we wanted to do except for the stupid stunt show.

It’s stupid because I have wanted to go to it every trip to DHS since I’ve been going there and I have never timed it so that I could see it. Today it wasn’t showing until afternoon, and we were not going to hang around for that long.

So we handed off our FPs to R&R to a newlywed couple and headed out.

When we got to the bus stop there were only two other people waiting. I had flashbacks to Thanksgiving when I waited for 45 for a Fort bus to show up.

Luckily for us a bus pulled up at the Poly bus stop to pick up two people, yelled at us to see where we were going, and took us all!

We got on and he said he was going to the Poly, Contemporary, WL, and Fort.

He was freestyle driving. I like it.

When he listed the resorts he was going to he said Fort last. Fail.

Or not. Believe it or not he went to the Fort first!

Sweet!

So we got back and headed to the TT for some lunch and naps before our big evening at Epcot.

The next update will feature some Fort pics, our first trip to visit the stables at the TCD Ranch, and finally getting to Epcot!

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Going bagless is fun. I did that on my last day with just the phone and a camera. Walking though without being searched was pretty nice.

[scooterminnie...paula 20]

Pretty good that you hijack your own report.

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

It is definitely a different experience without children! Looking forward to hearing about the Epcot part of the day!

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

Great update! Waiting patiently for more bagless Wednesday!

[Lou... 3,118]

We got on and he said he was going to the Poly, Contemporary, WL, and Fort.

He was freestyle driving. I like it.

When he listed the resorts he was going to he said Fort last. Fail.

Or not. Believe it or not he went to the Fort first!

If it was still morning the driver was actually doing a planned run, freestyling is not allowed. They know where buses are and where they're supposed to be.

If a driver is either not there or heading there, they get a call asking what's your 20?

The bus stops are being watched in the morning for outbound guests either by a camera or a CM so when people are seen at a bus stop, the dispatcher will send the next bus in the dispatch sequence to pick up those guests and take them wherever they're going. The order of the stops is whatever works out best for the driver.

My guess is that he had people to drop off at the Fort and WL, but would continue to pick up at the CR and Poly before returning to DHS which is a standard run.

[CKCK 45]

Going bagless is fun. I did that on my last day with just the phone and a camera. Walking though without being searched was pretty nice.

It was great, but I would never trade it for having the girls with us!

Pretty good that you hijack your own report.

How I roll.

It is definitely a different experience without children! Looking forward to hearing about the Epcot part of the day!

Coming up.

Great update! Waiting patiently for more bagless Wednesday!

Thanks!

If it was still morning the driver was actually doing a planned run, freestyling is not allowed. They know where buses are and where they're supposed to be.

If a driver is either not there or heading there, they get a call asking what's your 20?

The bus stops are being watched in the morning for outbound guests either by a camera or a CM so when people are seen at a bus stop, the dispatcher will send the next bus in the dispatch sequence to pick up those guests and take them wherever they're going. The order of the stops is whatever works out best for the driver.

My guess is that he had people to drop off at the Fort and WL, but would continue to pick up at the CR and Poly before returning to DHS which is a standard run.

Here comes Lou raining on the fun with all of his knowledge. Darn you and your knowledge.

I kind of figured it was something like that. As we got on I heard him get on the radio and tell dispatch that he cleared out 11 and 12, referring to the bus stops.

[CKCK 45]

Who’s ready for more bagless Wednesday?

. . .

Well you’re getting it anyway.

We looped a little and saw the deserted 1900 loop.

There were literally two campers on this loop.

Now, my first ever trip to the Fort was in the 1900 loop, so I understand why it sucks.

But why only two campers? Weird.

We went through pretty much every loop. We saw the toxic glowing canal in the 1400 loop.

Pretty gross.

We went through the 100 loop and saw this site getting a new apron.

It wasn’t until now that I realized that my camera was on a super high ISO setting and making my pictures look dumb.

Doh.

We decided to go see the stables.

I had never been here.

I didn’t even really know what was over here.

Fail.

I need to warn you now, I took a billion horse pictures.

Billion.

I won’t post them all here, but I will post a good bit. Here we go.

This is Drummer.

He’s a Clydesdale. A while back TCD discovered that there is in fact one Clydesdale here. That’s him.

Cinderella’s ponies.

Did you notice that in that bottom picture the carriage drivers are wearing Mainstreet Philharmonic uniforms?

I did.

Because I’m a dork.

Holy geez! How cool is that?!?!?

I’m totally digging the calliope.

What I’m not digging is the recorded music it plays (though I hope it’s at least recorded live).

I’m also not digging the fact that this thing is wedged into this room with no visible signs of escape.

A few days later on our 3^rd trip to the stables (we became a little obsessed) I talked to one of the cowgirls about it. She said they put it in there about 3 years ago. She also said it was a big ordeal getting it in there and that they broke the wall while doing it and had to repair it afterward.

So it technically IS possible for them to get it out, but they have no plans of doing so.

That’s sad. I would love to see that thing rolling down mainstreet sometime.

I think the horses were conspiring against me to not take any good pictures. The only horse that finally came over to pose was actually only there because Drummer came walking by.

From here we headed over to the basically empty 800 loop.

It wasn’t until later that I read on FF that they are doing electrical work in here…as evidenced by:

Of course, every time we went in there I only saw the workers sitting around smoking. So I guess they weren’t in any hurry. Or they’re getting paid by the hour.

I caught this guy coming by as we exited that loop. They must have just been driving around, because I never heard any sirens or anything.

We stopped by the Meadows Trading Post to take some pics and shop a little.

I think that’s bear rock, but don’t ask me why. I’ve seen the likeness in other pics before, but for the life of me I couldn’t see it in person.

This is the tree behind the Trading Post.

What’s up with the holes? Woodpeckers? I find it hard to believe that woodpeckers could do that much to a tree and in those fairly straight lines. Is that something that an arborist does for some reason?

We saw this Zinger in the 1200 loop.

We have a Zinger, and you don’t often see them. This one was almost identical to ours. Only slight differences in the inside layout I think.

Check this out:

This is a converted car hauler of some sort. The interesting thing about it was that it had ZERO windows. Just one door on the side (and I guess a ramp on the back).

How could you camp in something like that with no windows?

I would go crazy.

Here’s our site:

Before the great flood of ’12. We’ll see that later.

Allow me now to make a PSA.

This squirrel would not go away. I tried and tried to make it go away. It would nearly come right up to me.

THIS IS A PROBLEM.

He has gotten so many handouts from campers that now he isn’t scared of them. You know what that means? It means that he crawls all over my chairs, digs through my trash, and poops all over my golf cart (yes he did).

STOP FEEDING THE SQUIRRELS.

I would later have this same conversation with my mother after she fed the same stinkin’ squirrel a few days later.

Fail.

We’ll take a break for now. I very may well do another update today.

Why? Because it’s Father’s Day and I don’t want to do anything today except sit around, eat, and watch the US Open. So I’ll probably get bored and update again later!

And in THAT update, we will go to Epcot!

In fact, the very first picture will be a drink. Fabulous prizes go to whoever can guess what it will be.

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

Great update!! OK, I'll guess, Grand Marnier Slushie??!! (That would be my choice)

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

I have stayed in the 1900 loop exactly once. I think it's empty cause they can't even pay people to stay there.

Hmmmmm, a beer at the German pavilion?

[alexwyattmommy 181]

It was great, but I would never trade it for having the girls with us!

My boys are 10 and 14, we don't need to take all the stuff I thought we had to. Don't think I could leave them behind to go without bags either.

[alexwyattmommy 181]

We wondered why the 1900 loop was empty too. There were the two you saw that first week and then the last day of looping we saw a total of 5.

Dang squirrels. We had one and it came right up to my foot and touched it. shrug Not sure what it thought it was going find.

[LONE-STAR 370]

Enjoying yor report.

[SCTigerCock 171]

Guiness

[scooterminnie...paula 20]

:popcorn: