Another magical week at Disney! My first TR!

[*Michele*]

Day 6 Aug . 19 ~ We get up early and leave the camper by 7:10 thinking that we would have plenty of time to get to MK. We of course immediately drive right past the Ticket and Transportation Center turn and have to go all the way around the park. We pass Space Mountain I'm fairly sure we end up in areas we are not supposed to be in. I'm laughing and am no help to DH at all, lol! Finally make it to a parking space and walk over to the monorails just to see the huge line of people and we end up on the third train that comes by. We go through the gates of MK at 8:10. OK, rope-drop next time for sure!

DS and I have never ridden Space Mountain (I have no idea why I’ve never done so!) so we head to the ride. It’s only a ten minute wait so we get in line. Fun ride but I thought it was a bit “jerky”. From there, we head to Thunder Mountain, grab a FP and get in line. Another short wait! Take the train to Toontown and ride Barnstormer, the speedway and Buzz Lightyear. (Maybe we're just used to the crowds in June, but we were loving the lines in August!)

On the way back to TM we watch the Hall of Presidents show and visit the Haunted Mansion.

One last ride on Thunder Mountain to say goodbye to MK.

We hop in our truck to head back to our camper and our battery is dead! (Two of us in the truck knew it was going and had mentioned it would need to be replaced soon. The other person in the truck may have ignored the other two because it wasn't "dead dead", whatever that means. Men…) Thankfully, the Security Patrol was right there and we literally were on our way in under 10 minutes. We drive to the AAA center, but they don’t have our battery in stock. Off to Walmart we go! This actually turns out to be a good thing as we’re able to pick up a few affordable souvenirs there.

Finally get back to the camper, have lunch, chat with the neighbors and chill.

 

[*Michele*]

In the late afternoon we decide to go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios . We go right to Star Tours

(I love this AT-AT. I will never get tired of seeing it!) and there is no one in there. Our simulator wasn’t even close to being filled. I told DH and DS they could ride it again, but I can only take that ride once due to a slight motion sickness problem. (Meaning I can only ride those kinds of rides with my head down and my eyes closed, LOL!)

We just kind of meander around, we don’t really have a “must do” this year, and then I see the Animation Courtyard. We’ve never been in there so we go to check it out. We just miss the start of the tour but a CM waves us over and says Rafiki from Lion King is all alone and would DS keep him company.

DS has a blast with Rafiki and they play until the elevator near him opens and a bunch of people exit. We’re not interested in the character lines until I see Lotso (Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear)! I love Lotso! (I know he’s mean, but I can’t help it! He’s pink and smells like strawberries!) I force DH and DS to stand in line with me so I can hug and smell him. (Even the character smelled like strawberries!)

Animation Courtyard seems like a really neat place and I definitely want to make the effort to explore more of it on our next trip.

We watch the Muppet film and, as we have the munchies, split a pizza meal at Pizza Planet.

The boys play a few games and we walk over to the American Idol Experience. We’ve never done this either and it was actually better than I thought it would be. A nice place to cool off and be entertained.

DH wants to ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and on the way there I debate on going to Fantasmic. I hear the CM say there is standing room only at 7:50pm for the 9:00pm show, so we decide against it, lol. DS had no desire to ride RnRC so DH hops in the single rider line and DS and I find a great seat on a bench in front of Sweet Spells where we have a good time people watching and playing ‘I Spy’. (And, after watching Tower or Terror, deciding that we probably will never, never ride it!)

One more day and our trip comes to an end.

 

[kampfirekim]

More great stuff. Really enjoying following along!!!!

 

[*Michele*]

Day 7 Aug . 20 ~ Our last full day at Disney. We had asked DS if there was anything he wanted to do that we had missed. He mentioned ‘Soarin’ so Epcot it is! We arrive there shortly after opening and follow the mass of people to the ride. Even with what looked like tons of people in line we decide to risk waiting as the time posted said 20 minutes. It was a good risk because we were on the ride within 15.

Head to The Land that has no wait at all, we have a “private” boat. I love The Land, I find it so interesting. On a future trip I definitely want to do the Behind the Seeds Tour. Leaving the pavilion, we go to the Nemo ride (love the silly seagulls, they will always make me laugh)

and then on our way to the exit, ride Spaceship Earth.

Just as we’re about to leave we see a huge line for a character (I think it was Daisy Duck, I can’t seem to remember right now, lol) and no line for Stitch. We walk right up to him for hugs, photos and an autograph. A lovely way to say goodbye to Epcot and the parks!

At the camper we start cleaning and packing up a bit. We are not towing our camper back to Savannah as we are allowing friends of ours to use it the next week when they are at Disney. (Our friends were going to tow their RV from Minnesota, so we offered ours up to them to make their trip easier.)

After lunch we visit Downtown Disney so I can pick up some ‘Disney Family’ decals for our camper. Check out a few shops (This is the Harley store)

and then let DS play at the Lego store for a while. Every year love seeing what sort of new Lego creations the store has displayed! This year we see Woody!

It’s super hot today and for some reason DTD is quite crowded, so we go back to the Fort to relax, play with our dog and do a little laundry. We end our day with one last visit to the campfire.

 

[jsmla]

I love this picture!

Jennifer

 

[*Michele*]

Day 8 Aug. 21 ~ We are loaded up and ready to go. (Thankfully, we don’t have to move the camper to another site.) Our friends arrive around 9am and after visiting with them for about an hour, we are on our way back to Savannah.

We had such an excellent trip! I just wish we could have stayed a few more days (I suspect most people wish this, lol) but we are on the Coast Guard’s schedule so I’m thankful we got a week! Next trip we’re definitely going to try for 10 days though.

I love that we discovered new (to us) attractions, experiences and places in the World and that we have the anticipation of discovering even more new sites and facets of Disney on our next trip.

Thanks for sharing my Trip Report with me!

 

[*Michele*]

As a little footnote, we loved the Fort so much that we can't image staying anywhere else for quite some time. Well, we can't borrow our neighbor's golf cart every trip can we?

Yay for craigslist!

 

[2goofycampers]

Great TR, great buggy aka golf cart.

 

[OK GRUMPY]

Some people just don't understand why I like t go to Disney and stay at the Fort! I think it's because there is so many different things to do! Glad you had a good trip and I really enjoyed your TR!
Thanks for Sharing!

 

[4mickey2]

GREAT TR! Makes me wish i was there.. ok, i always wish i was there. lol you guys had so many wonderful and memorable experiences on this trip.

can't wait for your next tr.

 

[DebbieT11]

Thanks for such a great trip report.... makes me feel like my next trip is a little closer!!

 

[SunnyP4Disney]

Michele, girl I LOVE your TR! I felt like I was there with you, and you know I wish I was. We definitely have to coordinate our CG schedules to meet up again. I got all caught up in the excitement of your TR, I'm now desperate to go back to Disney! We have Cape Canaveral as our number ones for next year's PCS, so if we get it, you know the "P" family has a place to crash if you need a break from all the fabulousness of the fort.

And I love how Dale looks totally blissful in all the pictures. Nothing like WDW to bring out the child in us all...

 

[Lil' Lisa]

Great report! Thanks for sharing your trip with us! I really enjoyed following along.

 

[storyteller]

It's really one of those 'Once in a lifetime/ I can't believe this is happening moments' that you want to share with everyone! Hoping you get lots of pixie dust!

Day 5 Aug. 18 ~ Today is a water park day so not many photos. We decide to go to Blizzard Beach as we’d never been there before.

DS comes to conclusion that ‘he’s not quite ready’ to ride Summit Plummet, which is fine as Mom is not quite ready to ride it either. We spend a fun few hours there and head back to the camper at noon.

After lunch DS and DH go off to do a little fishing in the canal by our loop. I watch for a little bit (I left my pole at home.) but it’s really hot and I am distracted by the ducks that seem to think I am going to feed them as they waddle up to me. I go back to our cool camper and the boys return in a little while having only caught one fish. DS is pretty happy with that result though and he says he is ready to go to the Fort’s pool. Great pool and slide but the water is hot. We play for about 15 minutes and decide to go to Typhoon Lagoon.

Love TL, it’s our favorite water park. We ride everything and can play in the surf pool for ages.

Back at the Fort we decide to check out the other loops. I love the 800 loop. Shaded and there was only one camper in there so we really got to check out the sites. I think we’re going to try and get a site there next trip. We also see this:

My son loves this RV! (I’m hoping it’s okay that we took its photo Miss Disneylitch.) We go to bed early as we are going to attempt the MK rope-drop once again in the morning.

I love this pic. that is so cool.

 

[storyteller]

We hop in our truck to head back to our camper and our battery is dead! (Two of us in the truck knew it was going and had mentioned it would need to be replaced soon. The other person in the truck may have ignored the other two because it wasn't "dead dead", whatever that means. Men…) Thankfully, the Security Patrol was right there and we literally were on our way in under 10 minutes. We drive to the AAA center, but they don’t have our battery in stock. Off to Walmart we go! This actually turns out to be a good thing as we’re able to pick up a few affordable souvenirs there.

Too bad you did not take a pic of the dead dead battery, it might have only just been dead... Nothing like a trip to walmart.

 

[LONE-STAR]

Great report

 

[flamingogal]

Thanks for the great trip report. We'll be at the Fort for Halloween and I'm counting the days now. You guys look like you had a great time and your son is adorable!

Jeanne

 

[kampfirekim]

GREAT TR Michelle!!! I really enjoyed following along!

 

[*Michele*]

I had a great time writing our trip out! I'm thinking of buying one of the Winkflash books and then printing my TR out to keep with it. I think it would make a great keepsake. Again, thanks so much for the lovely comments!

Michele, girl I LOVE your TR! I felt like I was there with you, and you know I wish I was. We definitely have to coordinate our CG schedules to meet up again. I got all caught up in the excitement of your TR, I'm now desperate to go back to Disney! We have Cape Canaveral as our number ones for next year's PCS, so if we get it, you know the "P" family has a place to crash if you need a break from all the fabulousness of the fort.

And I love how Dale looks totally blissful in all the pictures. Nothing like WDW to bring out the child in us all...

Dale always has the most fun out of all of us at Disney, lol! I can't wait to meet up at Disney with you! Someday the Coast Guard will get you back to Florida!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Oh wow...what a great thing to experience at the Magic Kingdom! Lucky girl, lucky family! That's awesome.

I wish we had a camper just for camping at WDW. I love Ft/Wilderness. We stayed there one Christmas in the cabins and loved it, but to do it in a camper with your own golf cart would be a lot more fun! That yellow and white camper with the Mickey designs all over is awesome. I like that.