BEL13VE in Magic: The TCD Gang Rings in 2013 at The Fort

[BuckeyeFortFan 35]

What if you were towing your trailer on your way to the Fort?

And you had to wait in that?

That would suck...but not as much as thinking you are going to the MK for a wonderful day of magic, wait for an hour, and then get told "Sorry, the Magic Kingdon is full..turn around."

We had to walk slow behind this gang of slow walking hat wearers:

Sorry, but I have to make a little Troll Rant^tm here. Why do groups of people who walk slow think it's OK to block sidewalks in theme parks like this? How ignorant can you be? If you want to walk slow, fine, it's a free country. But, why don't you have the courtesy to make sure other people who have places to go and things to do can walk by? Thank you. Oh, and your hats look stupid.

Totally with you here. Just an idea, but if one of the twins would ride in a stroller, you could run it into the back of the slow-movers legs. It is very satisfying and will often move them out of your way. It is best if they don't speak English.

Thanks for my daily helping of lunch-break monkey-butt action.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

I don't dislike Ak nor Epcot. I just like MK and DHS a smidge better...I am more if a ride oriented person so TOT and BTMRR are sirens calling my name. EE and the safari are fun too...just have my Favs.

I like that Disney does conservation but for the most part seeing animals, even in an awesome setting, in zoos makes me feel bad for them. It's an empathy thing.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

One of the biggest wishes/dreams I have is to bring my oldest boy to Animal Kingdom. Thank you for all the pictures of animals I could share with him. :thank-you-smiley3:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

One of the greatest disappointments of this trip was the elimination of the Wilderness Waffles from the RF breakfast menu. Idiots.

What were the Wilderness Waffles? Nuts and whipped cream? I think the ingredients are in this photo:

I don't understand why they would get rid of them. They have all the other ingredients there- so they just need a bowl of nuts- why not keep that around?

And while we are looking at that photo, what's with the rocks? Did they have Flintstones waffles here?

Hey, I like Animal Kingdom - a lot actually!

Then again, I can stare at tigers and monkeys gorillas for a really long time and find them fascinating, all while DH gets antsy and starts drifting towards the bar...

That traffic is I-N-S-A-N-E! I was keeping tabs on crowd reports over the Christmas-New Years week, and had read how backed up it was and that they'd moved parking around once MK got full, but seeing it is something else.

NOTE TO SELF: if I ever lose my mind and go to the Fort this week, be sure to get there BEFORE the masses arrive!

What did genius dad do when they got to AK?

Oh and I'm pretty sure Okapi tastes like chicken. Doesn't everything?

Good stuff, Mo!

I also like AK, and I was only kidding about how nobody else does. It sure seems busy enough every time we go.

Yes, that traffic was insane. The thing is, I remember one year that we arrived at the Fort to check in on NYE, but it was nothing like this. I think the nice weather brought out more locals than normal.

Good question about the genius dad. I lost track of them. He probably went in to the gift shop there and bought all his family stupid hats and then walked slowly to Epcot.

That would suck...but not as much as thinking you are going to the MK for a wonderful day of magic, wait for an hour, and then get told "Sorry, the Magic Kingdon is full..turn around."

Totally with you here. Just an idea, but if one of the twins would ride in a stroller, you could run it into the back of the slow-movers legs. It is very satisfying and will often move them out of your way. It is best if they don't speak English.

Thanks for my daily helping of lunch-break monkey-butt action.

Yes, you are right. Wait all that time and then have to turn around. That would be bad.

Don't get me started on the non-english speakers. There were sure plenty of them around this time of year. I have a special story to share about a group of them we met up with later this very day.

So you need a daily dose of monkey butt action?

Really?

Daily?

That ain't right.

I don't dislike Ak nor Epcot. I just like MK and DHS a smidge better...I am more if a ride oriented person so TOT and BTMRR are sirens calling my name. EE and the safari are fun too...just have my Favs.

I like that Disney does conservation but for the most part seeing animals, even in an awesome setting, in zoos makes me feel bad for them. It's an empathy thing.

I don't feel sorry for the animals at AK. I think they have it pretty good. If I was an Okapi, I would chose to stay here rather than have to hide from lions all day back home.

One of the biggest wishes/dreams I have is to bring my oldest boy to Animal Kingdom. Thank you for all the pictures of animals I could share with him. :thank-you-smiley3:

Marty- I hope that dream comes true! Bel13ve in magic! And you are in luck with the animal photos. We are about to go on the safari. I'll bet there will be some more animal photos.

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

What were the Wilderness Waffles? Nuts and whipped cream? I think the ingredients are in this photo:

I found the old menu here in this post from Mo back in August:

http://www.fortfiend...lderness-lodge/

They were Mickey waffles with Maple Butter and Candied Pecans.

Not nuts and whipped cream. Maple Butter. And Candied Pecans.

And I'm here to tell you...they were Da Bomb!

And now they are gone.

Idiots.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

I don't feel sorry for the animals at AK. I think they have it pretty good. If I was an Okapi, I would chose to stay here rather than have to hide from lions all

TCD

I will concede that point

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Maple Butter. And Candied Pecans.

And I'm here to tell you...they were Da Bomb!

Thanks Dave, now I'm going to have to make some Maple Butter and Candied Pecans this weekend.

...and probably waffles.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I found the old menu here in this post from Mo back in August:

http://www.fortfiend...lderness-lodge/

They were Mickey waffles with Maple Butter and Candied Pecans.

Not nuts and whipped cream. Maple Butter. And Candied Pecans.

And I'm here to tell you...they were Da Bomb!

And now they are gone.

Idiots.

Yes, that is exactly how you described them. Too bad. And, that link also shows that they raised the prices seventy cents since August. Also, we only got two slices of bacon each. Two very thin sllices. The photos from that link show way more bacon on the plate than what we got.

So, basically, this stinks.

But, I have to say, even with the higher price and less bacon, I will return for the bananas foster waffles.

TCD

[Specularius 102]

Well on December the 27th at 10:00 am the line was backed up to the entrance to EPCOT and I was in it with the fiver being pulled by "Pete". It was not a fun time, but it only took about 20 minutes to get through the booth and hang right to the entrance to the Fort.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Well on December the 27th at 10:00 am the line was backed up to the entrance to EPCOT and I was in it with the fiver being pulled by "Pete". It was not a fun time, but it only took about 20 minutes to get through the booth and hang right to the entrance to the Fort.

Nice to know it only took 20 minutes.

I doubt the MK parking lot was closed at 10 am, so maybe the traffic was moving quicker for you.

I'm glad we didn't encounter this when we arrived on the 30th.

TCD

[magnoliafig 51]

Well on December the 27th at 10:00 am the line was backed up to the entrance to EPCOT and I was in it with the fiver being pulled by "Pete". It was not a fun time, but it only took about 20 minutes to get through the booth and hang right to the entrance to the Fort.

I see you neglected to mention our happy jaunt to the Epcot gates because you wanted to avoid the MK traffic.

:hah:

:hugsmiley:

[magnoliafig 51]

I should mention: It was just as bad over there too!

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

A few things:

When people my age or older say things like "da bomb dot com" it embarrasses the younglings and padawans. That is why you could not catch up to the twins on the bikes.

The wilderness waffles sound too good to be true so WDW decided to make that so?

I may have to cart...i mean walk over there to check it out anyway based on your food review.

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

And i dont see any problem with you asking how the o-crappy tastes.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Let's do one more update today.

We left off looking at Jafar rock. From there, we saw Simba and co. at the Festival of the Lion King. We wanted to make sure we saw it before the tent gets torn down so they can build Avatarland and probably a Starbucks too.

That is a great show.

We always enjoy it.

Then it was back for the safari.

The standby line still said 20 minutes, but it was all the way out the entrance.

No way that would only take 20 minutes.

We walked through the queue and right on to our vehicle.

This was our first ride since they changed the ending of the ride.

I didn't like it at all.

Our driver thougth he was a Jungle Cruise skipper, and kept rattling off corny jokes.

That isn't what this attraction is supposed to be.

That's the Jungle Cruise.

The problem is that without the poaching ending, the ride can be ultra boring if there aren't constant animals.

This guy wasn't half bad.

But this wasn't the time or place for wise cracks.

Some animal photos:

Go Gators:

The tilting bridge effect was working again. It's been a long time since we've experienced that.

The grass in the savannah seemed much higher than I remember:

Giraffe:

What's Gnu? :

Cattle with big horns:

Here's a colorful monkey butt shot for BFF:

Elephants:

Flamingoes:

Rhino:

Speaking of Rhinos, has anyone heard from lklasing lately? Remember how her gang used to make rhino faces?

Lion:

Daddy Lion:

The old poachers' camp has now been replaced by a zebra habitat:

They didn't do too good here.

I acknowledge that the poacher ending was corny, but at least there was stuff to look at and a story.

Now, we just have a herd of zebra.

It doesn't work for me.

The day was passing by.

We decided to head back to the Fort for lunch and a little rest before our big evening.

As of now, we didn't have solid plans for the night.

The original plan was to go back to MK, but after seeing the crowds, we began to re-think this.

Several people had told us how good the fireworks are at Epcot on NYE.

That started to sound more and more like what we should do.

We would make our decision later.

For now, we headed on out.

The AK Christmas tree:

We went to Blizzard Beach. No one was at any of the bus stops, but I guess we still had to go by there. I took a couple of shots of the charter buses lined up there:

We exited the bus at the Lodge and biked it back to the Fort.

When we got back, we ran right into Metal Dad and his crew and Brandy (FOB) and her crew. They had been exploring the old FWRR tracks. Awesome.

Then we made it back to the site, and I spent some quality time in the official TCD hammock.

It was a beautiful afternoon.

I took a couple of short bike rides.

On one, I was headed around the 1600 loop, and planning to hit the 1800 loop to say hello to Fiend Caveat Lector when I saw a man walking a cute little dog.

It was Lou.

And Buddy.

I stopped.

We chatted.

We compared spiking notes.

And realized we had some spiking to do.

We headed over to Lorna's site, and Lou borrowed a golf cart.

And Lou, Buddy, and I went lou-ping.

We stopped by Caveat Lector's site. But nobody was home. We then hit the 600 loop, 700 loop and 1400 loop, looking for Fiends and leaving spikes, but nobody was home.

Too bad everyone was out having fun.

They missed a chance to meet Buddy.

After that, Lou had to go.

And I headed back to my site.

I did make one more visit to the 1800 loop, and was able to catch Caveat Lector and his family at their site.

The afternoon passed very fast.

We planned to check out some of the official NYE activities at the Fort.

This was this year's offerings:

Oh no.

The New Year's Resolution Photo Booth was back.

We had to go.

So we did.

The photo booth wasn't really a photo booth.

The wanted you to write your resolution on a little sign and sit in this canoe and hold it up for a photo:

The twins said they weren't going to do that.

And, I didn't argue.

They did have two open fires on the beach. I guess the Rangers didn't know about them:

I'm not sure if you can make it out in these photos, but they had moved all the tables and chairs off of the little porch here by the dock and put them in the sand. It looked like the porch was going to be a big dance floor.

They also had this big screen set up. Last year, they projected photos from the photo booth on a screen. I'm not sure what they were going to do with it this year:

We didn't hang out here for long.

We headed back to the site for dinner. I made my modified version of Pirate Jeff's Macaroni and Cheese.

I also stopped by Lorna's for a while and saw some old Fiends and met a few new ones.

But, I couldn't stay long.

We needed to make our decison about where we were going for the evening, and then head there.

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

TCD

[campingdawgs 4]

We love AK! And that is where we went on New Years Eve, too. Sorry for contributing to the crowds! When we got there EE was down and we couldn't get fast passes right away since the return time was the same time as our Tusker House reservation. This was the first trip we've had where return times were enforced. I don't like it.

I also didn't care for the new safari ending. I do like the bridge bit, though. It brought back traumatizing memories for my son (14) which I enjoyed. I'm mean that way. In that I like torturing teenagers. That's why I spent my day at the high school today sitting in the cafeteria. Selling flowers for Valentine's Day for the swim team fundraiser. How embarrassing, right? Nothing like prying into the love lives of all their friends!

[BuckeyeFortFan 35]

Excuse me. I was using sarcasm when I mentioned the monkey butt. You, on the other hand, took 2 pictures (at least that you have posted. I suspect there may be more in your camera) of monkey butt on the same day. Who has monkey butt issues here?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We love AK! And that is where we went on New Years Eve, too. Sorry for contributing to the crowds! When we got there EE was down and we couldn't get fast passes right away since the return time was the same time as our Tusker House reservation. This was the first trip we've had where return times were enforced. I don't like it.

I also didn't care for the new safari ending. I do like the bridge bit, though. It brought back traumatizing memories for my son (14) which I enjoyed. I'm mean that way. In that I like torturing teenagers. That's why I spent my day at the high school today sitting in the cafeteria. Selling flowers for Valentine's Day for the swim team fundraiser. How embarrassing, right? Nothing like prying into the love lives of all their friends!

Now that you mention it, I think EE was down when we stopped at the tip board. The AK tip board doesn't say when the FP return times are (neither does the MK's), so I expected with it being down that everyone would be grabbing Fastpasses, and the return time would be past the time we planned to stay.

That is pretty awful of you going to the school and selling the flowers. Good job.

Excuse me. I was using sarcasm when I mentioned the monkey butt. You, on the other hand, took 2 pictures (at least that you have posted. I suspect there may be more in your camera) of monkey butt on the same day. Who has monkey butt issues here?

Oh, so now it's my fault?

Don't even go there.

I'll tell you whose fault it it- the monkeys.

They're the ones turning their backs to me.

And, for the record, Twin #1 took almost all of the animal photos.

So I'm innocent.

TCD

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Now, we just have a heard of zebra.

So...what do they say?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

So...what do they say?

Whoops!

They said this is one of those funny spell-check stories.

TCD

[Family of Bears 98]

I found the old menu here in this post from Mo back in August:

http://www.fortfiend...lderness-lodge/

They were Mickey waffles with Maple Butter and Candied Pecans.

Not nuts and whipped cream. Maple Butter. And Candied Pecans.

And I'm here to tell you...they were Da Bomb!

And now they are gone.

Idiots.

Not to beat the recommendation for The Wave to death, but that is the butter they use on the sweet potato pancakes! We just eat the pancakes like cookies b/c they are so good plain and then we just eat the butter with a fork.

[Family of Bears 98]

Well on December the 27th at 10:00 am the line was backed up to the entrance to EPCOT and I was in it with the fiver being pulled by "Pete". It was not a fun time, but it only took about 20 minutes to get through the booth and hang right to the entrance to the Fort.

We got there the same day at 11:00 and the whole place was stopped like a parking lot. Then police on motorcycles started yelling at people and making it worse and they completely closed the right lane. Then we realized why. The Nebraska football team was coming through in a big group full of buses. So that's why we all had to sit there and get screamed at. MK was closed. Who wants to bet the football team still got in?

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Not to beat the recommendation for The Wave to death, but that is the butter they use on the sweet potato pancakes! We just eat the pancakes like cookies b/c they are so good plain and then we just eat the butter with a fork.

And you failed to mention these pancakes to me in person why? The recommendation does me no good now.

[Family of Bears 98]

I know, I know. I'm ashamed.

[LONE-STAR 370]

We went to the lodge twice this past trip for the waffles. But here is my tip for you get one chocolate waffle and 2 banana fosters waffles. Some how the chocolate makes the bananas foster taste sweeter.