November 2017 pre trip and trip reports

Our fun activity late yesterday afternoon was to head over to the Art of Animation resort and take part in the free Disney character drawing session. It's offered three times a day (11a, 2p, 5p) in the little tv nook area to the left of the AoA check-in area (where kids wait while parents check in).

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The artist has a projection table where he shows you how to draw the character and you can see it on the tv. Lucky for me, we were drawing Chip & Dale this session.

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Here is my finished work. Darn it there were no erasers on the pencils he gave us to use!

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Last night I went by the Campfire Sing-a-long which was great as usual with Cowboy Anthony. There were a lot of empty sites yesterday but folks were sure coming in one after the other yesterday so a smaller crowd at the fire. That left more time for the hokey pokey, birthday song, and more jokes. Then I headed over to the Contemporary resort area to catch the 9pm fireworks. There was a full moon last night and it was fairly bright for a nighttime look.

Picture below taken from the CR-BLT Walkway looking back toward Discovery Island. You can see the small boat lights under the moon on the water headed towards Fort Wilderness.

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Up in BLT I got ready to watch the fireworks.

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The low fireworks are shot off around the castle (the blue blob in the middle) while the higher fireworks are shot off further back and toward Space Mountain (which is where you seem them in the next pix).

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In the next post I'll cover this Saturday morning.

Bama Ed

PS - I did get to chat yesterday for a few minutes with Tom (poster Boomer1's DH). Yes he is in fact celebrating a birthday on this visit. :cake:
 
I was up early this morning because early morning at the Fort is one of my most favorite times. It's quiet and the sun coming up in the east makes a beautiful silhouette.

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At the pool the lifeguards were in there pretty early doing some CPR and backboard training. Heat was rising off the water's surface.

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Next it was time this trip to visit the last piece of the Fort Wilderness Railroad track. There are still some rails on property in an out-of-the-way place.

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Look what followed me home ....

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Here's the end of the line for the FWRR. :(

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I've already had a nice visit with a DIS'ser this morning. Gonna hang around the site and the porch and catch a little college football on the telly today.

Oh and the Fort has shuffled their tv channels yet again. But at least they have ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN News, and the SEC Network. :happytv: Plus the networks.

Bama Ed
 
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That sounds like a perfect day, Bama_Ed!

Doing a lot of baking today for road trip snacks! Camper is mostly packed and we just have a few last minute things to put on (bikes, helmets, baked goods, etc...) We leave tomorrow night - yippee!

Hope you have a safe trip Kim! Bama Ed
 


Car is *completely* stuffed, and we'll be hitting the road in a few hours from Virginia. Hoping to arrive at the Fort at 6:05 AM!

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Cosmic,

I will loop through the Tent sites and the overflow lot on my way out tomorrow morning about 630-ish to look for you to say hi.

My unsolicited advice is since you are coming in on a Sunday, I would go to the check-in office and tell them you want a site in 1500 loop and you are willing to wait for it. 1511 is best/biggest against canal but all are good. There might be a site in 2000 you can get right away possibly but again, offer to wait for 1500.

Good luck on your drive and hope to see you tomorrow. Got your loaded up Honda in my mind now.

Bama Ed
 


Cosmic,

Have a great trip down. Good luck getting the loop you want. Ed's advice is spot on.

Our fun activity late yesterday afternoon was to head over to the Art of Animation resort. It's offered three times a day (11a, 2p, 5p)
I didn't know they did this. I'll have to check this out in February.

Up in BLT I got ready to watch the fireworks.
I see you checked out the spot we found. Interesting view from up there. We got some pretty good pictures too.

j
 
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The weather was looking a little dicey around our departure time tomorrow (foggy, thunderstorms and middle of the night driving=nope!). So, we said, “What the heck!” and left this afternoon! First leg of our trip completed! We’ll stop on GA tomorrow and check in at the Fort on Monday. So excited!
 
Typing this briefly as the LSU game is early in the 3rd quarter:

Visits this afternoon from several folks. Boomer1/Krista walked across the road after their mid-day break and we chatted after having done a DIS -meet this past January. I will miss her and DH by a day this coming Marathon week but they should still be here when I come to drop off DD for the College Program around MLK weekend. Ozgood/Paula's parents stopped to talk some Bama football (her dad is a fan). FLBBQMAN/Ryan came by to chat and it was nice to have some unhurried time - interesting guy. Then Sirenia88 came by after his family's TE ADR with them.

EWP is playing in my back yard for the last time on this trip. We've done some preliminary take-down already (EZ up covers, water hoses, picnic table stuff). The plan for early morning is to throw the rest in the back of the Suburban, hook up the Aliner, and point it for home.

I'll catch up with everyone probably on Monday evening.

Great trip - thanks to all. The best part was getting to meet (and re-meet) everyone.

Bama Ed

PS - and a late hello with PrincessCooper'sMom and family.
 
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Thursday was Epcot day. Managed to get ourselves up and going in time to get there during EMH. DD had to exchange her Airmiles pass to get a 7 day 1 park/day pass. We rode Soarin', The Seas with Nemo and visited the showroom at Test Track. Enjoyed Starbucks and looked at Mouseworks for the elusive Rose gold Minnie Ears. A quick tour of the Festival Centre and the Pixar Shorts before a walk around World Showcase. A rest was required so we returned to the RV for lunch and a nap. Later we returned to Epcot for Frozen Ever After, Figment, Lining with the Land and Spaceship Earth. Rewarded ourselves with frozen magaritas before ending the evening at the Fort with TV and relaxation .
 
Friday was DHS. Due to the massive amount of ride closures we will spend only one day here. We were launched with Aerosmith on RNRC and then zipped over to TSMM which was a walk on, love EMH. Enjoyed Starbucks while watching the stage set-up for the Christmas show taping. Disney Springs was our next stop for retail therapy and Ghiradelli's for sundaes. Returned to the Fort for sandwiches and laundry.
Returned to DHS later where we played on TSMM, as usual Tom won, sang along with Elsa, were dropped on ToT and joined the Resistance on Star Tours. Bused back to FW where we walked back to the campsite from the outpost ( needed to walk off that sundae). Early to bed.
 
Just added a night to our trip, will be checking in on Thursday the 9th instead of the 10th, that gives us another full day. Unlike our Halloween trip which was mostly a Fort trip, this one we have a park planned for each day. Looking forward to the Food and Wine festival most of all, I mean who wouldn't look forward to eating all afternoon, lol. Also looking forward to the new Sunset Season's Greeting at HS. We have to get all of our Disney Christmas stuff done this trip as we will be in the black out dates for our December trip.
 
Yes, Jim, I went and scouted your location and gave you full credit in the October TR thread post #758. It's a great spot.
Oh, I don't care about credit. I'm just glad you made your way up there to get the view. Now, if we can get them to pipe in the music.

Boomer,
Sounds like a great trip so far. I'm surprised they even do EMH at DHS. Seems like a waste, but lets you hit everything as a walk on.

j
 
Typing this briefly as the LSU game is early in the 3rd quarter:

Visits this afternoon from several folks. Boomer1/Krista walked across the road after their mid-day break and we chatted after having done a DIS -meet this past January. I will miss her and DH by a day this coming Marathon week but they should still be here when I come to drop off DD for the College Program around MLK weekend. Ozgood/Paula's parents stopped to talk some Bama football (her dad is a fan). FLBBQMAN/Ryan came by to chat and it was nice to have some unhurried time - interesting guy. Then Sirenia88 came by after his family's TE ADR with them.

EWP is playing in my back yard for the last time on this trip. We've done some preliminary take-down already (EZ up covers, water hoses, picnic table stuff). The plan for early morning is to throw the rest in the back of the Suburban, hook up the Aliner, and point it for home.

I'll catch up with everyone probably on Monday evening.

Great trip - thanks to all. The best part was getting to meet (and re-meet) everyone.

Bama Ed

PS - and a late hello with PrincessCooper'sMom and family.
Thanks for all the updates and pics! Have a safe trip home!
 
Well we definitely filled up our site-less morning, and without ever really leaving the MK resort area. First, we took the bus from the Outpost to the 2000 loop. We located the shortcut to see how crazy that would be to cut to the pool that way. Then, blue flag boat to the Contemporary, monorail to TTC, loop on the Epcot monorail, go to the Captain Cook's for Tonga toast and Mickey waffles (everyone was hangry), boat to MK, green flag boat to the Fort, play some tether ball, checkers, Settlement playground and sand time on the beach. After all that, our site was ready (2036). It was beautiful all morning, but the heat did eventually come in and we were pretty exhausted after setting up and going grocery shopping. We didn't get to the pool or the campsite like we were planning. That's why we're here for two weeks. We decided to get to bed at a reasonable hour and try to get close to the 8 AM Magic Kingdom opening.

Here's the finished product:
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Also, I think I might have already won a prize on my Fort Wilderness wildlife bingo card. Just today, we saw deer, turkeys, turkey vultures, cardinals, anoles, a cool butterfly, and (of course) the squirrels.
 

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