CKCK 5.0-Nov. 17-24, First Thanksgiving at the Fort!

[CKCK 45]

One day those pictures of Felix and your daughter will be so sweet to you. When she's a teenager, you'll long for those younger days! :)

I'm sure that will come WAAAYYY too fast!

Felix has game! Neither of my boys would have been that smooth.

Better to think about punching the man's lights out then actually being escorted out of the park. Good call.

Super secret exit? We've not stayed to watch Wishes inside because of the push to get out. Share if you can?

DD4 does look like Jessie in that photo. Way too cute.

Not to throw him under the bus, but the pictures make Felix much more smooth than he actually was. In fact, he was pretty successful in getting in trouble a good amount during the trip!

Check out DaveInTn's TR. There was some discussion about it. The exit is just behind the Ice Cream Parlor. They generally have CM's directing the way behind Mainstreet. It comes out by Tony's.

Girls are ADORABLE! Must get that from their Mom.

Absolutely!!!

Great update.

Flag shirt guy and Felix need to go, though.

TCD

Glad you understand!!!

Good choice.......and more impressive bc it was likely a tough choice.

Flag shirt? He was desecrating the flag by acting like and idiot while wearing it.

I am pretty sure flags are not to be worn as shirts too.

Nice move standing next to him too!

I wish I could have gotten a pic of him!

I too at times have found myself in your position due to inconsiderate people. I usually just get away from them, and try to minimize their impact on my family time. If I wanted that aggrivation, I'd just go to work.

As far as Felix... let him be... You have two adorable redheads... You'll need all you have and then some when they're teenagers..

Agreed. I'm a high school teacher, so I definitely enjoy getting away from aggravation!

Definitely not looking forward to when they're teenagers!

Those little faces are too cute for words. Felix better be prepared to get in line in a few years.

Loudmouth line guy is a d-bag. That is when I would have employed what my husband and I call the "hey kids, look a deer!" tactic, said or gestured something that I didn't want my boys to see or hear, hoping in the process to call the moron out. (think Chevy Chase in "Christmas Vacation". That's where that line comes from)

I should take more ideas from Chevy Chase!

[CKCK 45]

Day 3: Monday

I don’t have many pictures from this day, so we’ll knock this entire day out in one post.

I have to admit something.

I didn’t take as many pictures on this trip as I should have.

I was lazy.

I just started five sentences in a row with “I.”

That’s tacky.

Mr. Flag shirt should come yell at me for being tacky I guess.

Since our friends only got two day park tickets, we had to make today count.

That meant hitting three parks in one day.

This is highly unusual for us.

We are not team TCD.

We are team CKCK.

Team CKCK likes to rest on vacations.

Regardless, off we went to 7:00am rope drop at AK. Too early.

Obligatory tree shots:

Obligatory Everest in the Mist pic:

I have to admit, we are not AK people. In fact, this was only the third time we have been there in about 6 trips. We find the girls just aren’t in to enough things there, and we can’t justify taking the time to get over there when we’re only spending a couple hours there.

We got some food somewhere, don’t remember because I didn’t take pics.

I do know we had coffee, because we took it on the Safari.

I’m not sure if food and drinks are allowed on the Safari or not. I kind of assume not, but we walked right past about 3 CM’s who didn’t say a word, so whatever.

We didn’t throw our coffee at the animals, so I guess we were okay.

Speaking of the Safari...I like it A LOT better now that they have stopped the stupid poacher story. I always hated that.

I didn’t take any more pics here (lazy), but we hit a few more rides. I did take DD4 on Dinosaur for the first time. She did pretty well, though I did cheat and covered her eyes when the T-rex tried to eat us.

After AK, we were off to Epcot. I wasn’t sure how long we would have to wait on a bus. I was fearful it would be awhile. Luckily for us it was only a few minutes and we were off.

We totally failed at Epcot.

We are good when we go there first thing in the morning.

However, we were getting there around 10:00 or so, and totally screwed up the timing for pretty much everything. And since we weren’t planning on staying here all day long, none of the FP return times would work for us. We knew better, just screwed it up.

So, we waited in a line for a few things, including Nemo. I’ve never seen the line zig zag OUTSIDE of the building, but it sure did.

While waiting, Felix started getting after his game some more.

What the Fort?

Now he’s moved on to DD2?

After totally failing at Epcot and missing the rides we really wanted to take our friends on (Soarin’, Mission Space), we headed back to the Fort for a late lunch and rest before the evening at DHS.

While there it was time to take the dogs for a walk.

You may have forgotten we had them here.

There have been no pics of them yet.

I didn’t take many, but there will be some soon.

We headed down the dog walk on the canal to the gate.

You know what that means:

I know everyone has seen pics of the abomination many times.

Let me just say, that pictures do not do it justice.

It’s way worse in person.

Huge.

Looming.

Will no doubt be bright.

It was around this time that Devores stopped by to introduce himself. We had a nice talk with Dave and wish we could have met up again later!

After resting we headed over to DHS.

Our plan was to go straight to the line for Fantasmic, then stay later (EMH) and hit Star Tours, RnR, & ToT. We knew better than to even bother with TSM.

So that’s what we did.

We had never seen Fantasmic.

Not only that, we had never seen the LINE for Fantasmic.

We were towards the front of the line, and it was still ridiculous.

Ri

dic

ulous.

RIDICULOUS

However, once the line started moving it got...

MORE RIDICULOUS.

Holy geez, my nerves were not going to make it.

But they did, and we were rewarded with seats right in the middle.

DD4 was apparently not feeling the photo op.

DD2 was feeling it.

I don’t have any pics from Fantasmic, but it was good. We’re glad we finally saw it.

After that, we hit a few rides, including RnR. At this point it was late. We were pushing midnight, and most of the kids were out in their strollers.

Alabaster and Coconut were going to ride RnR. DW was going to sit with the kiddos outside the ride and read (party animal). I tried to get them to go through the single rider line with me, but they decided to wait in the 30 minute line.

That was fine. I was just going to prove myself right one more time (I do that quite often).

While in line I saw this pic:

Anyone familiar with Grace Potter? Ironically, while on this trip my friend had been talking about her. He had seen her live just a few weeks earlier, and is really into her. I had never heard of her, but then there’s a poster!

For the record, she’s not bad.

Remember how I was going to prove myself right?

Well, the single rider line was way backed up. I finally was let through into the “studio” room.

Guess who was in the room with me?

Right.

Guess who got on two trains in front of me?

Right.

Single rider line FAIL.

After that I sat with DW and the sleeping kiddos while Alabaster and Coconut went on ToT, then we headed out.

And that was Day 3.

Up at 6:00am, bed after 1:00am. Three parks.

I know, this was no leap day, but we were still...

Exhausted.

Luckily day 4 was a Fort Day. Woo hoo!!!

And soon you’ll meet Belle and Roxy.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

3 parks with little ones? You are brave!

My almost 4DS is in love with Ariel and girls who yell GO DAWGS! For your sake, we should probably make sure he never meets your daughters, even though he tends to hit on the 18-25 year olds.

I don't think I realized you were also a teacher until this report.

[alexwyattmommy 181]

I don't think I could do three parks with my own kids now let alone when they were little. Great job. Sorry about the ride fails though.

Thanks for the super secret exit. Sounds way better than getting felt up by people I can't see.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

3 parks in one day? Wow. I'm in awe.

And not taking pics backstage was smart. You didn't get yelled at. And you got out of the park quickly. Taking pics back there is just...tacky.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

I have to say your girls cute and awesome to make three parks in a day!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I've never heard of Grace Potter, and I don't remember that poster in RNR either. They sure have an odd assortment of posters on display- in the main queue, it's all Disney Channel "stars" and then they have a random poster from Queen or something like that. Very odd.

TCD

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Grace potter sings the song at the end of tangled. She also sings the song from that TV show about the renegade sub.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

She also sing with Kenny Chesney on You and Tequila

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

She also sings with Kenny Chesney on You and Tequila...

Is there an echo in here?

[CKCK 45]

3 parks with little ones? You are brave!

I don't think I could do three parks with my own kids now let alone when they were little.

3 parks in one day? Wow. I'm in awe.

I have to say your girls cute and awesome to make three parks in a day!

I think what you're all trying to say is that we're dumb.

I can read between the lines.

I've never heard of Grace Potter, and I don't remember that poster in RNR either. They sure have an odd assortment of posters on display- in the main queue, it's all Disney Channel "stars" and then they have a random poster from Queen or something like that. Very odd.

TCD

I had never heard of her either before my friend was lusting over her. Wonder how long they leave posters up for artists like that?

Grace potter sings the song at the end of tangled. She also sings the song from that TV show about the renegade sub.

Renegade sub? Must have missed that one.

[CKCK 45]

Day 4: Tuesday

Okay, maybe now that Stef and TCD have finished, you all will have time to read my TR.

Or not.

I don’t really care.

Either way I’m still writing it.

So if you are anti-CKCK, stick it in your ear.

For those of you who are pro-CKCK, sorry for the absence. I had to go to a conference in Savannah.

Sometimes it’s a rough life.

Day 4 was a Fort day.

I have a whopping FOUR pictures from this day.

I’m not sure what that’s all about. I guess we were just too busy relaxing with our friends. This was their last day and we wanted them to get the Fort experience.

So we did Fort things.

Like saw the stables.

And playgrounds.

And drank beer.

We did venture out and down the path to the WL.

I especially enjoyed the part when Plum needed her diaper changed, so Alabaster had to take his shirt off to lay it on the ground while Coconut changed her.

Not sure why I didn’t take a picture of that.

Fail.

Anyway, here are a couple of pics from the WL:

Before we left I ran downstairs to grab a couple of surprises for the Fam:

That’s the s’mores cupcake and magic cookie bar.

We had never had either.

The cupcake was okay. Didn’t blow us away.

The cookie bar though...that’s another story.

I had read about them here before (I think in a DaveInTn TR).

It rocked. Totally going back to the WL on every trip to get one of those.

After a relaxing day that also included a GAG (sorry, no pic), we headed to the campfire for some s’mores and singing.

We are big campfire fans. And I have strong opinions on the cowboys who frequent there. That will be discussed in depth a little later.

Day 5: Wednesday

Our friends were leaving today.

We got up and they were slowly packing up their tent and DW was trying to figure out a way to get breakfast over at the WL.

I was not for this plan.

I suggested Trails End.

We had actually never eaten inside. Only gotten take out.

The problem was we weren’t sure if we would need ADRs or not.

We needed to ask someone who would know the answer to this.

Who could that be?

Just then, we had a visitor stop by.

Someone who definitely would have the answers we were looking for.

TCD.

After two years of traveling to the Fort and many TR’s read, we finally met up with him. We had a nice chat, and of course asked him about ADRs.

We decided to give it a shot, and head up to the Settlement. On our way we took a detour through the 1500 loop to see what was cracking.

As we were going through we encountered two little girls on their scooters flying through the loop. They were maybe 7 years old.

We weren’t going very fast, but I slowed down as they came towards us.

One girl saw us and stopped.

The other girl was not watching where she was going.

She was going fast.

We stopped.

She didn’t.

I yelled at her to watch out.

I yelled again.

I finally yelled a third time.

She turned her head to look, and jumped off the scooter.

She was probably about 2 feet from coming through my windshield.

Scared the crap out of me.

There was a guy in the site just next to us who saw the whole thing also.

He was also scared.

He wasn’t their parent.

I never did see their parents.

There has been a lot of discussion on here about unsupervised kids on bikes, scooters, skateboards, etc.

Something has to be done.

If this girl hadn’t stopped, the outcome would have been bad.

We finally got to breakfast.

Has anyone here every done the segue tour? It’s intriguing, but I don’t know if I would ever do it.

TCD’s information was correct, and there ended up being a really light crowd up there for breakfast today.

It was good.

I was especially happy to see they had a version of the Big Kahuna from the Kona Cafe that I had back in June. It was awesome.

After a great breakfast we headed back to camp and helped our friends pack everything up to get ready to leave.

It was then we had more visitors.

This time it was Rita, her mom, and son.

It was a lot of fun meeting them.

Before our friends left, Felix and DD4 posed:

After they left, we decided to chill for most of the day and maybe head to the MK after dinner.

I decided to take Belle looping and to the dog park.

We had it to ourselves.

Belle didn’t last long at the dog park.

She used to go for hours non-stop. After all, she’s a border collie.

In her younger days she was my frisbee dog. She never competed, but loved it:

That was when she was about 1.5 years old.

She just turned 13 this month.

So we left the dog park and looped. The dogs had never been to the Fort with us before, so I wasn’t sure how they would like the golf cart.

They both loved looping.

Belle and I went through probably every loop in the Fort, and she sat back and enjoyed the sights, smells, and wind in her hair.

Here are some other sights from the Fort:

I guess those people stay in that site every year. They were in the same site last Thanksgiving.

With the same loud car.

Really loud.

Cool, but loud.

Our site:

This is the view from our site:

Honestly, the basketball bouncing got old.

But I loved not staring at the back of another camper:

This was the worst thing about our site:

I HATE sand.

HATE.

That’s a harsh word.

But I use it for sand.

And glitter.

HATE it.

This guy was rocking out his scooter thing:

I hope this doesn’t fall into the new category of scooters they allow in the parks.

I would not want to deal with these in the parks. It was fast.

Can you imagine a bunch of people riding these things around the MK?

People can hardly control the regular scooters as it is.

There will be old people flying all over the place if they’re on these.

After dinner we headed over to the MK:

When I was about 8 we went to WDW for the first time.

My grandpa took me to buy a souvenir. I chose the invisible dog.

While I was buying it, my parents were outside making fun of other people with the invisible dogs.

Then I walked up with one.

doh.

DD4 did not buy this, but we had to take the pic for my parents.

DD2 was not cooperating with the picture. You’ll find later on that she made that a habit when we were trying to get family pics.

That brings us to the end of day 5.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

Lot’s of pics to come.

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

Looks like an AWESOME Fort day!!!!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Great update. Looks like a nice, relaxing couple of days. Your girls are so cute, even when no cooperating for photo ops.

And I appreciate the red and black at your site.

[Beckers 1,136]

Great report, even if you are tacky :)

Seriously, what a tool. I'm glad you stood next to him, make him worry.

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

Awesome report so far !

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Love me some magic cookie bar. Those things rank up there with the carrot cake cookie for me.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

The kids and Belle ... the cuteness is almost more than I can take... almost.

[CKCK 45]

Looks like an AWESOME Fort day!!!!

Isn't every Fort day awesome?

Great update. Looks like a nice, relaxing couple of days. Your girls are so cute, even when no cooperating for photo ops.

And I appreciate the red and black at your site.

Thanks, and we're always looking to add more Red and Black!

Great report, even if you are tacky :)

Seriously, what a tool. I'm glad you stood next to him, make him worry.

I really wish I would have gotten a pic of him.

Awesome report so far !

Thanks for reading!

Love me some magic cookie bar. Those things rank up there with the carrot cake cookie for me.

I haven't tried the carrot cake cookies yet. Though it is on our list to hit Starring Rolls. We always mean to go there, but for some reason we never do. Weird.

The kids and Belle ... the cuteness is almost more than I can take... almost.

Yeah, I'm pretty lucky, aren't I? And I didn't even include a pic of Roxy. Of course, the only pic I have of her is not flattering. You'll see it soon.

[stefa70 205]

For the record, I am pro-CKCK! No apologies necessary though as I've been gone and still trying to catch up on reports.

Belle is adorable! Mason doesn't last long in the dog park either (he's only 5) I think it's due to sensory overload. He sniffs, he lifts his leg a time or two and sniffs some more. When he's foaming at the mouth, it's time to go.

I second the carrot cake cookie! Good stuff.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Good to know that you weren't steered wrong about ADR's at Trail's End.

I love that photo of Belle jumping. That's amazing!

I think that scooter you photographed is one of the new ones allowed on the buses and in the parks. Crazy!

Your family photos are great!

Bring on the rest!

TCD

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

Love the invisible dog story.

Good job getting the all important GAG.

Cool you got to see a few fiends too.

You are a lucky man CK. Great family. Great dog. What else could a man need?

[CKCK 45]

For the record, I am pro-CKCK! No apologies necessary though as I've been gone and still trying to catch up on reports.

Belle is adorable! Mason doesn't last long in the dog park either (he's only 5) I think it's due to sensory overload. He sniffs, he lifts his leg a time or two and sniffs some more. When he's foaming at the mouth, it's time to go.

I knew I could count on you.

Belle is my girl. It drives me crazy to see how she has slowed down. Though, she hasn't lost any of her spunk or meanness to her "sister" Roxy. She definitely takes out her hearding instincts on her.

Good to know that you weren't steered wrong about ADR's at Trail's End.

I love that photo of Belle jumping. That's amazing!

Your family photos are great!

TCD

That's my favorite pic of Belle ever. I have it hanging in my office.

Thanks!

Love the invisible dog story.

Good job getting the all important GAG.

You are a lucky man CK. Great family. Great dog. What else could a man need?

I can't go a trip without a GAG. Won't happen.

And no, I could not ask for anything else!

[CKCK 45]

Day 6: THANKSGIVING

This is the day we were here for.

Thanksgiving.

Turkey Day.

Day of Turkeys.

We wanted to hit the MK Thanksgiving morning.

Why?

Because how cool is that?

So off to ropedrop we went.

We had this great plan worked out.

We would hit the Mainstreet Bakery (one more time before they closed it for awhile), and grab a cinnamon roll.

Then we would go back to Gaston’s and get a chocolate croissant thingy and a frozen fruity foamy drink, then sit in the tavern and have breakfast.

We had to hurry, because we wanted to beat the crowds back there.

Great plan, right?

For some reason I decided to buy the chocolate croissant thingy in the bakery. I guess I thought it made sense at the time, even though we could have waited to get it at Gaston’s.

Well, it turns out that it is not easy to push a stroller and carry a giant cinnamon roll and chocolate croissant thingy.

So we improvised:

Now we just had to make sure that DD4 had good hands. DD2 was in charge of the chocolate croissant thingy.

So off we went, flying through people, strollers, scooters, traffic cones, crossing guards, and elephants. There were a couple of times we almost lost the cinnamon roll.

It was a difficult trip, but we finally made it back there.

We had a really good sense of accomplishment. We are WDW pros, and we had accomplished a great feat of breakfastness.

Until I looked at Gaston’s menu:

See that second item?

F A I L .

Regardless, we had our breakfast, and we enjoyed it.

Anyone know what that key is all about?

Okay, so if you have been following CKCK’s TR’s (all 6 of you), then you know that DD2 does not do characters.

This has been a great frustration of my DW.

Regardless, my wife wanted to get in line for Merida since we had not met her yet.

So we did.

They have a really cool queue where kids can shoot arrows at a target. There’s a lady with an accent helping them.

Here’s DD4:

And to our surprise, DD2 went for it:

That was her congratulatory high five afterwards.

It was soon our turn to meet Merida.

I have to say, I kind of dig Merida.

She’s spunky.

Not your grandmother’s princess.

She came bopping over to us before our girls even had a chance to move.

She went straight up to DD2, and we expected the normal reaction.

Well, here’s what happened:

I think it all happened so fast that she didn’t have a chance to run to Mommy.

And that is how DD2 overcame her fear of characters.

Or maybe she just relates to Merida.

I can’t imagine how.

That’s a whole bunch of red.

After my wife wiped away the tears, we headed to Buzz:

And that was our Thanksgiving morning in the MK.

We were totally rocking our Turkey Day so far.

And it would only get better.

Next up, we have another Fiend encounter, we play with some really hot oil, and take cover in the Fort.

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

Awesome pics of your DDs with Merida!