TCD is Thankful for Thanksgiving @ The Fort 2012

[caveat lector 181]

Well, it's not site 617, but it looks like you may not have a lot of separation from the general public. While I'm sure Rocky will be rockin' the tether all, I'm really curious to hear your review.

Thanks for sharing another TR, really looking forward to interesting "takes" on everything. Now on with the show.....

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

I'm in. 2nd page are the first losers I suppose. LOL

[shoreline99 137]

I'm in. 2nd page are the first losers I suppose. LOL

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Good job, to all of you!

Even the second pagers!

Hey, someone has to be there.

First, I'll respond to the comments, then one more update for today.

Yeah. Here we go

Yep. It looks like it's going to be a long one, too.

A TCD trip report is the perfect way to start a new week!! There must have been a number of Fiends around the Fort last week as it was pretty quiet on the forum.

Looking forward to reading all about it!

Yes, Fiends everywhere you looked.

I even ran into Fiends who aren't members here.

Yet.

Where's the dog?

He will be along shortly.

He came over on Monday. We just need to finish up Sunday.

Yay, first page, this is a first for me!! Looking forward to the latest adventure!

Your first time on page 1?

Way to go!

Bragging rights to you!

I'm in. Now to go read.

Way to go.

You made sure you got your place.

First page for me too!

Nice job, Gwen.

Did I make it to page 1? It looks like it.

Great start to another TCD trip report.

I think that's odd that they would tell you a site was available, give you the number, but someone is still occupying it. Maybe blame it on the new CM?

Yes, you made it.

It was clear to me that the Castmember did not know what she was doing. I may have mentioned before that I have a not so high opinion of the Fort management. They complete lack of training they give to the new castmembers is one of the reasons for my low opinion. What made this particularly sad is that there was an experienced castmember in the booth with her. Three parties checked in and moved on in the next lane over while this young lady struggled to get some basic information. The experienced castmember never once offered to help. Pitiful. But not surprising to me at all. I expect this type of thing. When I don't get it, I am pleasantly surprised.

Yay, first time on the first page!

We were there too, sorry we didn't run into you guys. We had the same ordeal at checkin, there were 3 open sites in 1500 but they were under contract for a big group. We have been told that sites cannot be held, only empty sites that have been officially checked into in person can be held. But the story has changed. Sad part for us, we looped through the first three days of our trip and one of those open sites sat empty.

We were offered an upgrade to 800, which was nice, but I was so scatterbrained by this point that I just said nevermind. Bell's very allergic to dogs and I wasn't sure if this would be a problem in a non-partial site.

Looking forward to reading more!

Man, you should have taken the free upgrade!

So, where did you end up?

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year at the Fort.

Actually, any time I am there is my favorite time of year at the Fort. So this year, Christmas will be my favorite time of year.

I know that you love Thanksgiving at the Fort. I have seen you there a few times.

I missed seeing you and the girls this year.

And your Russian beer.

I'll have to make a point to get over there at Christmas time. What are your dates again?

What the heck. Im either page one or top of page two.......Ill give it a shot.

You made it on page one.

You also got a shout out in the first post as one of the first Fiends I saw at the Fort this trip.

Well done!

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

More comments:

I'm in!

Glad to have you along, Doodle!

You showed up the day we left - was it something I said?! I was seriously disappointed that I didn't get to meet you! Looking forward to your report.

Yes, I heard.

I gave Monique and Brian something to give to you.

Make sure you get it from them.

Hey, you made Page 1, too. Nice work.

I'm in!

Great.

Make some room for ajcjmom- I met her on one of my recent trips.

First page baby!!!!!

Was looking forward to a Thanksgiving report....

Yes, first page!

I'm glad you were looking forward to the report. I'll try to get it cranked up.

Hmmmmm, I wonder too?!

Rocky will be here in just a little bit. Hang on.

Made it!

Bragging rights for me, but even more for you as the Gators ran it right down our throats Saturday.

Looking forward to another great report!

Yeah, sorry about that, Tom.

As you will find out, the TCD gand ended the week in Tallahassee. Some of us were happy about the outcome, and some of us not so happy.

It was a great game, though.

Plus we got to tailgate with a pretty interesting guy whom I'm sure most of you Florida folks have heard of. I will have some pics of that much later.

I made it to the first page!!!!!! Now to go back to read!!!

Wow, great job, Heidi.

Page 1!

Sometimes you don't make it until we're just about over.

Glad you got in early on this one.

I'm here but you already know that.

Yes, I do.

I hope you're still enjoying your trip.

I was there that week tooin site 1410. Sorry I didn't get to meet you. BigTom

Ah, bummer.

There were some other Fiends lying low over there on the 1400 loop, did you meet them?

TCD,

Great start!

We havent been to the Fort for Thanksgiving for the past two years, but had been there for the previous eight. It is my favorite time to be there.

I noticed the lanyard to the right of the Thanksgiving Mickey and Minnie.Of course,having been big into the pin trading for many years,I recogonized the two pins in the photo as being "hidden Mickey cast member pins"

Love the fort Christmas Tree.I have quite a few photos of it too.

Ready for more!

Heidi

Good eye on the pins!

That's Twin #1's collection. I have some more pin trading photos coming up, too.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

:jumpforjoy Happy to see another TCD report!

Rocky AND the Mrs? NO WAY?!?! Can't wait to see Rocky tearing up a game of tetherball.

I went through the same thing at the outpost on my last visit. One phone call after another to see where they could put me. After about 15 minutes, I took the original site (In 400's, ironically enough) they had given me.

Sometimes it seems as though no one knows what the heck is going on between the workers.

You are good.

Yes, there will be Rocky playing tetherball photos.

That's the first thing Rocky did when he got to our site.

I've had the site assignment commotion on each of my last two trips. It's ridiculous in this day and age that a castmember has to call someone when there are computers right there in the check in stations.

I still want to know who these people are that have the protected sites that are sitting empty. How do they get that kind of treatment?

TCD Thanksgiving trip report?!! Awesome! Maybe not page one, but I'm in.

Yep, not page one.

But, page two isn't too shabby.

I am thinking the second page is better than nothing at all, right? :clint: Looking forward to reading more.

Yes, of course.

Page 2 (or 3 or later) is fine.

We are just getting started.

Glad to see you start your report!!! Hopefully, you'll get a few updates in before I start for my trip tomorrow evening, otherwise, I'll have a LOT of catching up to do!!!

I will do what I can, but you are still going to have a lot of catching up to do.

You timed your trip just right. The Thanksgiving crowds will be gone, and the Christmas ones not yet there.

Well, it's not site 617, but it looks like you may not have a lot of separation from the general public. While I'm sure Rocky will be rockin' the tether all, I'm really curious to hear your review.

Thanks for sharing another TR, really looking forward to interesting "takes" on everything. Now on with the show.....

That site actually had a lot of privacy. It is one of the few sites left at the Fort with good screening on either side, and the back was far enough from the road that traffic really wasn't a problem. I ended up liking the site a lot.

I'm in. 2nd page are the first losers I suppose. LOL

First losers. I like that!

Thanks for reading along.

I didn't hear you?

What did you say?

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Sorry, but I was wrong when I said that I had posted all the photos from Sunday.

There were two issues that caused me to make that mistatement. First, I have a new computer that sorts all my photos into files by date. I like that, but it puts photos taken after midnight in the next day's file. To me, those after midnight photos on Sunday evening should be in the Sunday file, but try telling the computer that. The second issue is that Twin #1 took a bunch of photos on Sunday that also ended up in another file, so I missed those too. My apologies. So, let's get through the Sunday photos.

The reason the twins took of for Downtown Disney for lunch is that they wanted the holiday sandwich from Earl of Sandwich. It has turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce all in one sandwich. I was busy setting up camp, so I didn't get one of those. This is what they look like:

The twins also did a bit of shopping. Twin #1 needed a new antenna topper, so she got this:

The girls also stopped by the big pin board to do a little pin trading. They haven't been here since they started collecting pins. They loved the variety they had to choose from:

They have found a lot of pins from old Disney shows that they used to watch. Like JoJo's Circus:

And Hannah Montana:

Twin #2 got a Tinkerbell pin:

Twin #1 got the Hannah Montana and Nemo pins:

The girls designed a shirt in the shop they have for that purpose in Downtown Disney. They needed me to go and pay for it, but unfortunately, I was not available to do so:

The girls went to Animal Kingdom Lodge from Downtown Disney.

We love to go there to see the Christmas decorations:

Twin #2:

A few animal shots:

We were lucky enough to stay at AKL the month it first opened in September, 2001. The twins were much younger then, and the bridge that goes across the lobby for some reason made a big impression on them. Whenever we go there, they want to go up on that bridge and look down. Here they are on the bridge:

I already shared my one photo from the new castle show at the MK. Here are a few of Twin #1's:

This showed a scene from Wreck It Ralph:

There were some Christmas themed parts of the show:

This reminds me of the pink castle they had back in 1996:

This projection makes the castle look like a gingebread house:

After the show, we headed over to Tortuga Tavern to look for nerds to trade SOTMK cards with.

There were no nerds there except for us.

So we went on Pirates.

I finally got to see the new mermaid part of the show.

I wasn't impressed.

Twin #1 scored the double whammy of getting good photos of the redhead and dog with keys:

I'll stop here so I can wrap up Sunday in the next post.

TCD

[devores 382]

#1- Those holiday sandwiches are amazing. That was our Thanksgiving meal together (since we both worked on Thanksgiving). We make it a point to get one when they first come out for the season.

#2- That antenna topper is cool. Perry is one of my favorite characters (my ring tone is him growling). I may have to pick up one of those.

#3- The new show is good, I see it almost every night. But I do not like the wreck it Ralph part. It just does not fit in with the rest of the show. Its like they threw it in at random just to promote the movie. I much preferred the old castle show with the guest photos.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

#1- Those holiday sandwiches are amazing. That was our Thanksgiving meal together (since we both worked on Thanksgiving). We make it a point to get one when they first come out for the season.

#2- That antenna topper is cool. Perry is one of my favorite characters (my ring tone is him growling). I may have to pick up one of those.

#3- The new show is good, I see it almost every night. But I do not like the wreck it Ralph part. It just does not fit in with the rest of the show. Its like they threw it in at random just to promote the movie. I much preferred the old castle show with the guest photos.

#1- I am going to need to get one of those holiday sandwiches- I didn't get one on this trip.

#2- You like Perry? Who knew? (your Avatar doesn't give you away or anything)

#3- I agree with you. The projection quality for this show is amazing, but there was something magical about the old show. I like the Wreck it Ralph movie, but I was surprised that it got a bigger role in this show then some of the classic Disney films. Of course, they have a lot of WIR merch in the stores they need to sell, not to mention the upcoming DVD release, so I see what they are doing here. I don't like it either.

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I made my own holiday sandwich on Friday with my leftovers. I did mine open faced...turkey, stuffing, cranberry on white bread, smothered with gravy. My favorite sandwich of the year. But I also love the one at Earl's.

Also, am I to understand you don't give your girls unlimited charging privileges on their KTTW cards? Are you a mean Dad?

[beccaewert 10]

cant wait to see the rest---always wondered what Thanksgiving would be like down there!!!

The sandwich looks interesting.....I think I would like it all without the cranberry part....I like them...just not all together! lol

[ImDownWithDisney 342]

In like Flynn...w00t

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I made my own holiday sandwich on Friday with my leftovers. I did mine open faced...turkey, stuffing, cranberry on white bread, smothered with gravy. My favorite sandwich of the year. But I also love the one at Earl's.

Also, am I to understand you don't give your girls unlimited charging privileges on their KTTW cards? Are you a mean Dad?

Your sandwich sounds awesome. I have had one of the EOS ones, but it's been a while. I need to get back there.

Yes, I am a mean dad. I don't even let the girls have the KTTW cards when we camp. As you know on the cruise, they have to have them, but they know better than to charge anything without asking. It hasn't been a problem. Yet.

cant wait to see the rest---always wondered what Thanksgiving would be like down there!!!

The sandwich looks interesting.....I think I would like it all without the cranberry part....I like them...just not all together! lol

Thanksgiving is awesome at the Fort! You'll see!

If you like all the ingredients, then you ought to love the sandwich. My oldest daughter is like that- she doesn't like stuff mixed together. I don't know where that came from. Certainly not from me.

In like Flynn...w00t

Great!

Now you can see what you missed.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

OK- Here is one more short update just so we can finish up with Sunday and get on with Monday.

And, don't be dissappointed that this post is short, because it has an exclusive photo in it that I don't think too many people got to see.

Do you remember that I said we checked in on November 18th?

Do you know that is an important date at WDW?

Do you know why?

It is somebody's birthday!

Do you know who?

I'll give you a clue.

It's someone really important to Disney.

Any guesses?

OK, one more clue.

It isn't a human.

Who said Mickey Mouse?

If it was you, you are right.

November 18th is Mickey's Birthday.

They used to have a whole section of the MK devoted to Mickey's Birthday.

So, they must do something really special on Mickey's birthday, right?

Well, they do.

And we got to see it.

I even have a photo of it.

Which I will post in just a bit.

But, we need to keep things in order.

After we visited the Pirates, we decided to go see the Fantasyland Expansion.

We have been lucky enought to visit it a few times now, but November 19th was the date they announced that it would be open to everyone, so we thought we would check it out one last time before the crowds arrive.

We visited our favorite tavern:

Twin #1 has a cinnamon roll there in her hands.

Here's a closer look:

For some reason that no one has attempted to explain, they serve cinnamon rolls all day in Gaston's Tavern.

I have nothing against cinnamon rolls, but why here?

The cinnamon roll was good, but it obvioulsy had been baked some time ago and kept lukewarm in some contraption they have under the counter at Gaston's.

After our stop at the tavern, we decided to take another ride on Ariel's ride. The place was practically deserted, so why not?

The girls had pointed out how amazing this Ursala is. I hadn't paid much attention to it, but I did this time. It is a pretty cool robot:

In addition to robots, they also use projections in the story telling here:

But, mainly, there are a lot of robots:

These are some pretty elaborate robots. I wish Disney would knock off all the robot building. If they keep this up, the next thing you know, they are going to take over the world.

It could happen.

Outside of the Ariel ride, we could see new buildings taking shape on the side of the Mine Train ride:

I am predicting that these will be Mermaid gift shops. You heard it here first.

Since there was no line, we took a ride on Space Mountain. That hidden camera caught us in a candid pose again:

It was getting near 1 am at this point.

The place was really emptying out.

If we had stayed, we would have been able to ride all the rides with no wait.

But, we had a big day planned for tomorrow. With visitors. So, we headed on out.

One last look at the Dreamlights:

And here is that tribute to Mickey Mouse's birthday:

What's that? You ask.

That's a picture of Mickey "painted" on the pavement with water by a fake custodial Castmember.

That is how they recognized Mickey's birthday.

I think I just heard Walt's voice during the castle show saying "I hope we never lose sight of one thing- it all started with a Mouse."

At least the fake janitor remembered.

Nobody else did.

I am not kidding, when they unfreeze Walt, people are going to get fired for this kind of thing.

As well they should be.

Happy Birthday, Mickey!

As far as I know, this really is the last photo I have from Sunday night, taken on our way out of the MK:

I love the Christmas decorations they string across Main Street.

Next up, we will begin our first morning at the Fort.

And I'll try to avoid any more back tracking.

TCD

[devores 382]

There is a rumor that there is a special hidden mickey somewhere in the MK that is only visible on Mickeys birthday. And only during one hour (between 1300 and 1400). Of course, we all just missed it this year so will have to wait one year. But the imagineers designed some architecture so that when the sun is positioned just right (mickeys b-day between 1300 and 1400) there is a perfect mickey head shape on the ground. The other times of the year create an obscure mickey.

I do agree that more should have been done for Mickeys birthday, but there was allot backstage. All of the CMs remembered and we had cake and banners and some even wore birthday buttons that read Mickey 84.

[ftwildernessguy 778]

Mickey told me he isn't into celebrating birthdays anymore.

[stefa70 205]

I don't like my food to touch each other and I also don't like cranberry or stuffing. I guess that sandwich will not be on my LOF.

But I like turkey! ^-^

Sorry you were the only nerds in Tortuga Tavern. There's always next time.

Nice job rocking the Gator sweatshirt!! I wore mine too, Christmas shopping with my good friend (who wears garnet & gold)

Happy Belated Birthday Mickey! :heart:

[kampfirekim 260]

Are there any bragging rights for making it in on page 3! If not there should be as a TCD TR moves along very fast!

Love all of the photos. Except the homage to the Birthday Cake castle, but you had to report so good job.

[Beckers 1,136]

Are there any bragging rights for making it in on page 3! If not there should be as a TCD TR moves along very fast!

Love all of the photos. Except the homage to the Birthday Cake castle, but you had to report so good job.

I agree to all of the above! The cake castle makes me vomit. Ugh.

So exited for another TCD trip report!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

I am late but in. I had to ship, buy, and chauffeur for Christmas gifts

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

First page! Awesome!

Anyways....the sandwich looked good.

The dreamlights and projections look cool. Never seen any of that in person.

Looking forward to the Fort exploring as always.

Go Irish! (had to sneak that in)

The bridge and tree at AKL seems like it would be worth a side excursion.

[Ok Grumpy AKA Cindy~~ 9]

I like that sandwich from Earls. I've tried to do that with my leftovers but your right it's not the same! Enjoying your TR!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

That sandwich looks awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

So... where is the camera at Space? I'd love to know. Please?

[Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5]

TCD,

Was that huge pin trading board at the pin store at Downtown Disney? That must be new in the past year. My boys would have LOVED that!

We also love the holiday sandwich.......and pretty much every sandwich at Earl of Sandwich!

The new light show on the castle looks great.

Heidi

[mommy rainbo.....Bo 41]

well I think I made page three. Im here.