We Biked, Got Spiked, Celebrated and Swam Around the World!

[Brent... Just Brent 83]

Ironically, I always asked that my room be in the same building as my group, but right next to them since I sometimes like to sneak away for a drink or come back a lot later than them. I ALWAYS ended up right in the middle of the group. Every. Single. Time. All of our rooms were blocked together in the same building in POR. So, clearly the managers aren't the same caliber everywhere, but they're all IM's....

[stacktester 78]

Back in 2009 I was in charge of booking the 4th of July GG. I was assigned a great CM who I think Carol also dealt with on another GG and she was great. She gave me the gg number and we made the list who was coming and those people booked their deposits and we were set. I never once was unsatisfied with her. They put us in 1600 loop in the beginning sites and the rest is history.

FP4 what part of Jax are you in? I live near Hodges and Butler.

[fortpartyof4 108]

Back in 2009 I was in charge of booking the 4th of July GG. I was assigned a great CM who I think Carol also dealt with on another GG and she was great. She gave me the gg number and we made the list who was coming and those people booked their deposits and we were set. I never once was unsatisfied with her. They put us in 1600 loop in the beginning sites and the rest is history.

FP4 what part of Jax are you in? I live near Hodges and Butler.

This thing has really become a sticky mess, much of the problem lies with the people here, too. Can't make up their minds!

I live in Fruit Cove. Our first house was near you, in Kensington near Kernan and Atlantic.

FP4

[fortpartyof4 108]

Let me see if I can get this back on track now. Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend.

I left off at the mid-point of our trip, Wednesday afternoon. This is where the "Celebrate" piece comes in, as we took a little field trip from the Fort over to Celebration. I had never been and wanted to check it out.

The rest of my party wasn't quite so thrilled about it:

Heaven forbid we do something that doesn't involve playing, or toys, or water! They got over it later, you'll see why.

This is a really pretty little town. It wasn't very lively when we were there, but it was very, very hot and the middle of the week. Just from the number of restaurants I noticed, I imagine this place is hopping on the weekends. Here are a few shots of some of the streets and other neat things I noticed:

There is a large lake that you see pictured above, with lovely seating areas surrounding it, as well as a walking/running trail. The trail is marked which I thought was cool, cannot remember if it was each mile or half mile but still, helpful to people who are training I suppose. There is a playground, but you had to be a resident to use it.

This water play area was open to the public:

This is a cool movie theater made to look retro. Although, I don't think it shows movies any more. All of the marquee boards were empty. Too bad.

The boys perked up when we spotted this place adjacent to the theater:

Kilwins! As it was sweltering, I conceded to some milkshakes.

My youngest chose chocolate:

And my oldest, some sort of tutti-frutti mishmash - I have no idea what it was called. He had powered half of it down before I got a chance to snap a picture:

I will learn to act faster. Sorry for the half-eaten food shot!

I loved the I Love Lucy reference by their homemade chocolates:

We sat for a bit then headed back to the car. Ducked into a couple of shops to soak in some a/c. There are some very cute little businesses there.

As we headed out, we stopped at the fountain in the town square to toss some coins in and make a wish:

On the way back to the Fort, I handed the camera over to the boys and asked them to get some shots driving in, since I didn't get to when we first arrived at WDW (I had driven in alone). They got some, but also did a little of their own photography. This is what you get when you let the kids take the photos:

They didn't do too bad! Did anyone recognize the little green guy?

They made a movie a few years ago using still shots of their Lego Star Wars guys. It is one of the funniest things I've seen! We still watch it occasionally.

Next, we hop back on the bikes!

FP4

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Loved the tour of Celebration!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Wow- this area sure looks different from the last time I was there.

The last time I was in Celebration was to take the TCD girls to a free Radio Disney concert featuring some unknown kid named Justin Beaver or something like that. There was a stage set up here, and wall to wall teenie boppers screaming their fool heads off.

I wonder what ever happened to him?

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Wow- this area sure looks different from the last time I was there.

The last time I was in Celebration was to take the TCD girls to a free Radio Disney concert featuring some unknown kid named Justin Beaver or something like that. There was a stage set up here, and wall to wall teenie boppers screaming their fool heads off.

I wonder what ever happened to him?

TCD

Justin who? (I don't have teenagers)

[stefa70 205]

It was cool to see your pictures of Celebration during the day. I met a very handsome bus driver and his wife for dinner one night there, in December.

The town was neat all decked out for the holidays. They even have a fake ice skating rink!

[fortpartyof4 108]

Wow- this area sure looks different from the last time I was there.

The last time I was in Celebration was to take the TCD girls to a free Radio Disney concert featuring some unknown kid named Justin Beaver or something like that. There was a stage set up here, and wall to wall teenie boppers screaming their fool heads off.

I wonder what ever happened to him?

TCD

He played there? Why not in a park or on property, if it was Radio Disney?

Like what you did with the name….he he…..

Justin who? (I don't have teenagers)

That is what my boys say! They cannot stand that guy!

It was cool to see your pictures of Celebration during the day. I met a very handsome bus driver and his wife for dinner one night there, in December.

The town was neat all decked out for the holidays. They even have a fake ice skating rink!

I commented while we were there how pretty it must be at Christmas. I want to go back at night sometime!

It reminded me a little of The Villages, but with more generations around.

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

On the way back to the Fort, I handed the camera over to the boys and asked them to get some shots driving in, since I didn't get to when we first arrived at WDW (I had driven in alone). They got some, but also did a little of their own photography. This is what you get when you let the kids take

They didn't do too bad! Did anyone recognize the little green guy?

They made a movie a few years ago using still shots of their Lego Star Wars guys. It is one of the funniest things I've seen! We still watch it occasionally.

Next, we hop back on the bikes!

FP4

The pics by the boys are great. Any chance we could see their Star Wars video?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

He played there? Why not in a park or on property, if it was Radio Disney?

Like what you did with the name….he he…..

Well, he wasn't a big star yet when he played there.

This goes back to when the twins were in Middle School, so I am not sure if it still happens, but Radio Disney used to host a free concert every December in Celebration which they billed as Jingle Jam. They would usually have one of the Disney Channel "stars" as the headliner. One year, it was a guy named Drew Seeley. He was the guy who actually sang for Zach Efron in High School Musical. Another year it was Mitchell Musso (the guy sidekick from Hannah Montana), and then one year it was that Justus Beaver (or something like that) guy. I also think that the Jonas Brothers performed there one year, but we missed that one.

This event was obviously something that the marketing department of Celebration embraced, as there were all kinds of activities, including a fake snowfall, coordinated with the free concert.

TCD

[fortpartyof4 108]

When we got back to the Fort, we jumped on our bikes and rode over to the tennis courts. One of the boys had been wanting to play since we got there. It was cloudy and getting ready to rain so the temps had dropped and it was a good time to do it. We had our own stuff so no need to rent and the courts were empty.

I got the fun job of ball retriever. They kept me very busy.

It was a frustrating job, though, thanks to the landscaping that the geniuses who designed the area decided to put around the courts. Try finding a ball in this thick, scratchy shrubbery:

I know that doesn't come as a surprise to many of you. I just couldn't understand why they'd do that next to a tennis court. Even a bright green ball was hard to find in that stuff. And, you had to crouch way down to look, making it even harder.

While we were there, it had begun to thunder and there was some lightning off in the distance. The pool closed while we were there, which happened almost every day of our stay. Nothing worse than driving down there only to find this:

And, just like every other day, there were the people who would linger and wait it out in the pavilions, or in this case, under the trees. I didn't get the best shot, but you can see there are a number of people hanging around off in the distance here:

I noticed this a lot while we were there. Why would they just sit out in the bad weather and not return to their site? My guess is, they don't have one. But, they could also be in a tent and who wants to be in a tent in the rain. Either way, this has been discussed over and over in various places here and it's definitely an issue. Maybe if the "safety" guys made rounds during a storm and advised people to go back to their sites during a storm, it would get some of the visitors to depart the premises. The guards don't allow anyone on the pool deck when there is lightning, and I saw this party go over to them more than once to ask if they were going to re-open the pool.

We retreated to our site for a while to wait out the weather then did some looping. When we were in Celebration, I had noticed this sign outside one of the restaurants that made me realize I hadn't yet made a trip to Crockett's on this trip:

So that is where we headed. We parked and the boys headed over to the playground.

While I sat on the porch and enjoyed this:

The wind kicked up like it was going to storm again and it started to sprinkle, so the boys joined me on the porch and played checkers for a while.

Then we headed back to our site and passed through a couple of loops on the way.

Half of the 600 loop was vacant. From TCD's favorite on down to the exit, there were no campers:

As we were passing through 600, one of the boys spotted C&D over at the theater. The sing-a-long wasn't to start for another hour or so, and there were very few people there. I asked them if they would mind if we ran over to get a quick picture - I love C&D! They are past the character greet phase, but didn't mind indulging me. My sweet guys. They even smiled willingly:

There were only a couple of families there, and C&D were just standing off to the side with their handler, almost looking bored! I've never had such an easy time getting a picture with a character, or one at the fire without 10 other children in it!

Then we went back to the camper for dinner. I made tacos, but outside so I didn't stink up the trailer.

Here is my new coozie (that I just love!) keeping my "cheerleader beer" nice and cold:

The kids prefer crunchy tacos, I like soft better.

They were yummy. I just find it easier to make these than burgers. Sometimes I make the meat ahead at home and bring it in a ziploc bag. The only problem was, of course I was wearing a brand new white MM shirt, and it got spattered bad while I was cooking the meat:

Phooey! I do this at home, too. Seems like every time I make chili, or anything with red sauce, I am wearing a white shirt!

After dinner, we headed over to the movie to watch Race to Witch Mountain. The boys had seen it but I never had. But, I forgot to bring the bug spray and we were getting eaten alive. We even moved closer to the fire, thinking the smoke would be keeping them away, but that didn't help at all. So we left, covered in bites. Went back to the camper, got the swimsuits and back to the Meadow pool for an evening swim.

The only photo I have from that night is one I took of this interesting chair lift that is either new, or I never noticed them before:

I have since noticed that some of the FL state parks that have springs to swim in also have them, so I wonder if it is some kind of new code or something.

After the boys swam for a while, we went for one last ride and called it a day.

FP4

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Great update!

You mentioned not needing to rent tennis equipment. In case you didn't know, they lend this out for free from the Bike Barn. But, it is still better to bring your own, as you can use it even when the Bike Barn is closed.

That chair at the pool is new. They also installed one at the hot tub. I don't think one is at the cabin pool yet.

Cheerleader beer? I haven't heard that term before. But, it's funny and I will probably use it.

So you saw C & D at the campfire an hour before the sing-a-long was about to start? I wonder what that was all about? That is not how it is normally done. Usually, C & D are introduced at the beginning of the sing-a-long, and make their rounds during the sing-a-long. I noticed new late afternoon activities on the guide, and maybe you stumbled upon one of them. If this is a regular thing, then most people must not know about it-thus the lack of a crowd.

TCD

[fortpartyof4 108]

Great update!

You mentioned not needing to rent tennis equipment. In case you didn't know, they lend this out for free from the Bike Barn. But, it is still better to bring your own, as you can use it even when the Bike Barn is closed.

That chair at the pool is new. They also installed one at the hot tub. I don't think one is at the cabin pool yet.

Cheerleader beer? I haven't heard that term before. But, it's funny and I will probably use it.

So you saw C & D at the campfire an hour before the sing-a-long was about to start? I wonder what that was all about? That is not how it is normally done. Usually, C & D are introduced at the beginning of the sing-a-long, and make their rounds during the sing-a-long. I noticed new late afternoon activities on the guide, and maybe you stumbled upon one of them. If this is a regular thing, then most people must not know about it-thus the lack of a crowd.

TCD

I didn't know you could get the tennis stuff for free - wrongly assumed they charged for that as well, since everything else seems to cost so much there. Good to know! We do prefer our own rackets, but could have used more than 3 tennis balls, that's for sure.

Yes, I think I heard that from a kid at Publix who rang me up one time and asked me if I liked that stuff. Said his friends called it cheerleader beer. Needless to say I didn't ask him how it is he would know that, since he was only 17 or 18 years old. It's formal term is "malt beverage", but essentially, it's just colorless beer with fruity flavorings added. I used to work for Bacardi, and we bottled the malt-based beverages in my plant. We bought the malt base from an A-B plant down the street from us. So really it was just another form of Budweiser. In any case, I like 'em a lot!

Yes, C&D were out early. Maybe it was inside an hour of fire lighting, but there was no one really there yet, the cowboy wasn't out, and the little stage wasn't set up yet. I didn't care - but made a mental note that rainy Wednesday evenings are a good night to get a photo with them! Could be they were in "training", and the pros came out for the actual show?

[fortpartyof4 108]

I just noticed that one of them has a bean-bag sort of thing in their hand (paw? claw?) whatever chipmunks have.

I wonder if they were playing corn-hole or something? I didn't pay too much attention when we were there, just took my golden photo op and got right out.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Yes, you can borrow the tennis stuff for free from the Bike Barn. You need to show a valid KTTW card, which they will hold until you return the equipment. They also lend out shuffleboard equipment and basketballs and volleyballs. They do charge for fishing equipment, bikes and the canoes and kayaks.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I just noticed that one of them has a bean-bag sort of thing in their hand (paw? claw?) whatever chipmunks have.

I wonder if they were playing corn-hole or something? I didn't pay too much attention when we were there, just took my golden photo op and got right out.

The August activity guide says Corn Toss at 7 pm on Wednesdays. That must be what was going on. I didn't know Chip and Dale came out for this:

[fortpartyof4 108]

That must be it then. Great detective work as always! I also noticed I have mixed up our evening activities - RTWM was shown the night before. So this evening must have been just looping and pool. We only did the movie twice on this trip.

FP4

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

It took me awhile but I am now caught up....

[jjbescher 17]

Here is the reason that the new chair lifts are out at the pool.

http://www.aquaticaccess.com/adaadvisor.htm

[fortpartyof4 108]

Moving right along…..

We're now on our 5th day. We didn't do a lot today.

After we had some breakfast, we went out looping. Rode back over by the group camping area in search of that elusive alligator, who of course was once again nowhere in sight.

I got all excited when I saw these trees stacked up across from the 2000 bus stop. I remember when we used to stay in 2000 and would have to wait for a bus on that side, it was often very, very hot and we'd go and try to get shade from the few trees on that "island" of grass. So when I saw these, I thought wow, that's long overdue!

As we saw later on in the week, they didn't in fact get planted there, but over in the 2000 loop itself. I guess that was just a staging area. I believe there are photos of them getting planted in TCD's report of this same time.

Next, we headed over to the Settlement for some tetherball. On the way I took this rare photo of the empty site 114:

Which will soon be occupied by Ms. Judy, the blow-up NO Saint dude, and many Halloween decorations!

Back to our routine. They play, I sit on the deck and drink coffee:

It was first thing in the morning, the beach was freshly raked and the chairs all nice and neat. I appreciate all those little attention to details that you only get at WDW. But if you look up close, these chairs could certainly use a bath:

Ewww. come on guys. I'm pretty sure there are some pressure washers out there at the Fort and that our fees cover the cost to have one of the CM's do the job.

Unfortunately, on our way back to the camper, the cart slowed waaayyy down again. I had charged it all night! Since Kenny had replaced the battery and I had switched to another outlet, I figured it had to be another problem. Turns out, it was my fault. I wasn't pushing the end of the plug that goes into the cart in far enough. You really had to wiggle it and use some muscle to get it to fit right. After that, our cart woes were over! I was very relieved, and felt a little dumb too. But, maybe one of you reading will remember this little tip and it will prevent someone else from having to (borrowing TCD's term) "Fred Flintstone" your cart back to your site.

While we waited for the cart to juice up properly, we jumped on the bikes and headed back over to the tennis courts. This time, I played too, so no pictures. We played for a while, took the rackets back to the camper then went on a little bike ride. Had lunch, and hung out at the camper for a while.

Once the cart had a chance to charge for a few hours, we hopped on it and went to the cabin pool for a swim. Then did some looping.

One of these sites has already been seen on TCD's report. The other was a couple sites down, and I have to hand it to the guy, there is some real ingenuity in his design!

Here is the Git-R-Done wind chime lady:

She likes flamingos, too!

And the engineer's:

That could not have been an easy project.

We also made a stop in the Meadow Trading Post. I had been wanting one of these since I saw them posted on FF last spring:

And i also got myself one of these keychains instead of a shirt. I like the Ladies' Fort shirt style and color, but am not much of a Minnie fan. I'd rather sport the man himself. And the brown men's T's just aren't for me. So, hopefully they will come up with another design for women that has just the Fort logo, or even Chip and Dale.

It has 2 sides:

Later on, we went back to the camper and had dinner. No, we don't eat out much! In fact hardly at all! I am too cheap, and we're picky too. So, it's just easier to eat what we like, the way we like it, and save a bunch. We don't do the mugs, we drink water. I think I already made a comment about the coffee, and even my husband remarked how good the coffee our camper's coffee pot makes. I am not sure why - I have a fancy Cuisinart at home, but the 30-dollar one I bought for our camper makes better coffee! Or maybe it tastes better because we have time to actually enjoy it and taste it and not be rushing out the door to work or school.

I made the boys some popcorn chicken,tater tots and fruit. I used some of the chicken and made this yummy salad:

That was some good stuff right there. Accompanied by a fine vintage of Coca-de-Cola, 2012.

After dinner we went up to the Outpost to catch a bus to DTD. It started to rain pretty hard while we were waiting, but had just about let up once we got there. It was very windy next to that lake though! I love DTD at night. We browsed some shops, got our free chocolate (almond and sea salt - yum!), and of course spent the bulk of our time there in the Lego store. Which was a ZOO. It was so hot in there I thought I was going to pass out.

We were there and back within an hour and a half. Just right!

Caught some Olympics on TV then hit the sack.

FP4

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

How did I miss the engineer's trailer? Very impressive!

Good job getting your kid a Ray's shirt!

TCD

[fortpartyof4 108]

How did I miss the engineer's trailer? Very impressive!

Good job getting your kid a Ray's shirt!

TCD

I think he left the next day, you may not have circled that loop before that.

He likes the Angels better because he has played on the Angels in his league for 6 years, but is OK with the Rays. I am torn this week, as I am a Yankee fan from my NY roots, but a Rays fan as a Floridian.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I think he left the next day, you may not have circled that loop before that.

He likes the Angels better because he has played on the Angels in his league for 6 years, but is OK with the Rays. I am torn this week, as I am a Yankee fan from my NY roots, but a Rays fan as a Floridian.

Well the Rays are kickin' some Yankee butt this week!

When they win tonight, that will make another sweep.

TCD

[fortpartyof4 108]

Yes, I have feeds from both teams on my Facebook account so it has been interesting this week. Here is what the Rays posted this morning:

Looks like they are indeed planning a sweep!