Cast of Characters; FortWildernessLoopy 38, EpcotPete 32
Location: Fort Wilderness, Loop 2000
Tickets: 1 Annual Pass, 1 Seasonal Pass
Here is my pre-trip report: APs?...check...Tent?...check..patience?...Uh-Oh. Before I begin, I am begging you, if you are not a WDW or camping veteran, YOU MUST JUST TAKE THIS FOR WHAT IT IS...one couple's experiences. Katman2540, please don't let your wife read this!. Also, I will show you how to do Disney with less than $20. it can be done and if you include the resort stay, it can be done on less than $150 (not including tickets).
I had to work from 8 -4:30 while my DH packed up the car. We live in Cape Canaveral, but we are staying with my grandmother (who lives down the coast about 45 minutes) for the week which is where we are leaving from. I had made rice crispy treats the night before as well as popping up a bunch of popcorn, so we were snack ready. I was lucky and got off an hour early, so it was going to be a bit hotter putting up the tent, but an extra hour at MK, so we were thrilled. We kissed our little baby kitty good-bye and headed out.
I didn't get a pic of the WDW sign when we drove in because I was driving...and also the camera I packed was in the trunk. I had checked in online and I figured I need to go into the lobby to check in since I didn't have a camper. We parked and headed in to the lobby only to find out our paperwork was outside. They quickly retrieved our KTTW cards and paperwork then we were off. Here's where strategy doesn't always pay off. I knew we would be checking in around 5pm and I really wanted the 1500 loop. I also wanted to be near the comfort station and bus stop, but after years of working in hotels, I know that the more requests you make, the harder it is for the front desk to prioritize your requests. How do they know what you want more? So my only request was the 1500 loop...which they weren't able to accommodate. Ah well, a request is just that, a request, so I was fine with it. Of course we were also midway in the 2000 loop and I had to get my walker over a mulch path to get to the bus stop and walk a bit to get to the comfort station...but it was still at Fort Wilderness, so I was happy.
We set up the tent...OK, DH set up the tent, but I supervised and even lifted a pole:
I made each of us a PB & banana sandwich, packed 4 rice crispy treats , our water bottles with individual kool-aid packets and a baggie of popcorn and we were ready to go!
I mentioned I use a walker. Underneath the "seat" portion of the rollator is a canvas basket. It's about the size of a re-useable grocery bag and half as tall. I packed one of the reuseable bags with the following:
2 PB& banana sandwiches
4 rice crispy treats
1 baggie popcorn
2 water bottles
1 baggie individual koolaid/tea packets
1 camera
4 batteries
2 SD cards
small wristlet with debit card, id's, insurance card, and certificates for APs
snack baggie with clean pennies and quarters (for pressed pennies)
2 tiny handheld fans
asthma inhaler
1 small bottle exedrin
and 2 glow necklaces.
It sounds like a lot, but it fit just fine and I wanted to put everything in a bag so I could pull it out for security or anytime I needed to fold up my walker. We left the site and caught the bus right away down to the settlement. From there, we walked down to the dock to catch the next boat to MK. At this time, a smaller resort boat docked and told the people waiting for it that due to lightning in the area, they are shutting down the smaller boats (the larger, enclosed MK boat would still be running). We headed over to the MK, disembarked and headed over to will-call to exchange our certificates for annual passes. It was just about 8pm at this time. Did a quick happy dance, and took a few quick pics:
As you can probably tell, it started to rain....this will be the general theme of the weekend. We decided since we were all sweaty from setting up camp, we'd forget about the pochos and just get wet. I have been DYING to go on Space Mountain for 6 months so we headed right over to Tommorowland. Contrary to WDW line app, there were no FPs available and the wait was 60 minutes so we said forget it, we'll do it during EMH. Instead we went to the Peoplemover. I had to leave my walker at the bottom, but since it's just one big walking sidewalk, it wasn't too big of a deal. After that, we hit the CoP just as the sky opened up and started to really rain. By the time we left CoP, the rain had pretty much stopped. There was nothing more in Tommorowland that we wanted to see so it was off to Frontierland.
About the time we got to the bridge to the castle from Cosmic Rays, the Electrical parade started. We doubled back and went through Fantasyland. Another on going theme is my need to give a small public address...ready?!? Here goes: "IF YOU SEE A PERSON USING A WALKER, USE YOUR COMMON SENSE TO TELL YOU THEY ARE NOT GOING TO WALK FAST". There. everyone got that? Because there apparently are entire roaming hoards of idiots who choose to get right behind me thinking I am there to plow the way or something...even getting irritated with me for walking slowly. Most paths are more than 2 people wide, so go around me...sheesh.
We went through Fantasyland glancing at some of the wait times. I wanted to hit Small World, but DH isn't a fan and didn't want it stuck in his head all night. As luck would have it, when we got to Liberty Square there was only a 15 minute line for Haunted Mansion. We got straight through to the stretching room! After we left the stretching room, a CM took us to the WC accessible area (really just the exit). We waited there for about 5 minutes until we were led onto the ride by another CM who placed my walker near where we exit the doombuggy. All I can say about HM is WOW. The enhancements look wonderful!!
When we left, the intention was to go over to Splash Mountain, but the parade was just going through so as we moved toward Frontierland, I got boxed in trying to get to the WC ramp. I'm a bit claustrophobic so I was trying not to have a panic attack. I finally got turned around and we waited for the crowds to start moving again before we figured there was NO WAY we were getting onto Splash Mountain in under an hour and a half, so we crossed over to Adventureland. I love me some POTC, so off we went. There was almost no line at all! I think it mentioned maybe 5 minutes. We got all the way down to the loading area without stopping, and we were poised for the next boat, when they announced the ride was experiencing technical difficulties and it would be a short wait...which turned into about 15 minutes before they stated it was down and to leave by the way we arrived. No big deal, but we could hear Wishes had already started. As we were leaving they gave us universal FPs that can be used for any ride in MK up to 8/31 (we didn't use them yet, but we'll be back next week).
When we left, we were going to go to Splash mountain to see if we could get on quickly, but we stopped off next to...not sure of the name of it but it was where they used to have the McDonalds French Fries cart. We had a little feast of PB & banana sandwiches and sweet tea. The line for Splash was about 45 mintes and we decided it was worth it, so into the line we went. Just before the stairs, the CM directed me to the WC access which is a decent hike away from the stairs and come out by the exit. We waited several minutes for another person needing assistance, and then we headed to the exit. We waited a few more boats and then were loaded on. I wanted the back if possible and thankfully, the other riders wanted the front. It was AWESOME! After we got off, I stopped off at the press a penny and got the one with Brer Rabbit on it. We walked out, looked over at the line and realized there was no one in it! I asked one of the CMs if the ride was still open and she let us know just to show our KTTW cards and we could hop back on! We did and back on we went! It took me a bit longer because i had to use the WC entrance, but it was totally worth it!! This time of course, My DH got his way and we rode in the front...or rather "the wettest seats on the planet". It was fun, but I still hadn't completely dried from the earlier rain.
We then traveled back over to Tomorrowland to see what the wait was like on Space Mountain. The wait was still 60 minutes, but I figured since I was exhausted, we could use the time in line for me to sit on my walker and relax...plus I had heard about the line enhancements which looked like fun! I went to get in line and a CM pulled me aside and said I couldn't use the stand-by line since there are stairs. He sent me over to the FP line. The CM at the FP was kind of being difficult. He asked if we had FPs which I told him we did not since 1. we arrived at 8pm and they were no longer being offered and 2. I didn't have a choice and I'd be more than happy to wait the 60 minutes but not willing to attempt a long walk and stairs without my walker. He looked at me as if I were making it up. He signed a pass and sent me up the line. For whoever did the enhancements without making it W/c accessible, me thinks this wasn't the best way of handling it, I still had to try to power walk the entire line since it's not very wide and there were people with legit FP's behind me, raring to go. I would have let them all pass me, but I couldn't get the walker over far enough. By the time we got through the queue, I was ready to cry from the pain. I sat on my walker and waited for a CM to fetch me. Needless to say, the CM's in the front were much kinder to me than the guy at the entrance. Here's where it gets funny. I rode in the front seat and I was SCARED OUT OF MY MIND!. That's right, in the years since 'i have ridden it, I have forgotton I was scared of it and didn't like it that much.. It's when I was confessing this little tidbit to my DH, that he admitted to me he didn't really enjoy SM either and was only going on it for me.
From here we walked (very, very slowly) to Peter Pan's flight. I think my DH was doing just great and I didn't want to spoil the fun by telling him how badly I was really hurting. There was a short line, 10 minutes and again when I went to get in line, a CM pulled me aside and mentioned to go over to the WC accessible entrance. I waited there for a few minutes and a CM brought myself and another family in and we waited while the FP holders were loaded. When we entered, I knew I was in trouble since I could hardly move. I love this ride and while I had a blast, all I could think about was that I'd have to get off in a minute. My DH was wonderful (as always) and helped me get up and off. He had a little difficulty finding a break in the crowd to grab my walker, and once he did we exited and I went about 3 feet and sat down.
I couldn't do it anymore. I was beat. I was exhausted from the walking and my body was hurting. all I could think was I never should have tried this, I should have gotten the wheelchair. I wanted to go lay down.
My DH is the world's greatest husband and i don't tell him nearly enough. Upon my telling him I couldn't take another step, he took the brakes off my walker, and used it as a wheelchair to push me all the way to the boats. We loaded up, and a few minutes later arrived back at FW. Of course, we now had to get from the marina to the bus back to the campsite. No worries, we figured we'd let everyone else go running for the bus and we'd go at a very slow pace and just be the first in line for the next bus. Well, we had just made it by the Trading Post when another boat was starting to arrive. My DH sat me down again and basically trotted all the way to the bus stop. The bus was still there (much to my chagrin as the driver had probably been watching us for awhile) and the driver was standing waiting for us.
Let me place a quick aside here to tell you that I find most teenagers to be lacking in good manners and generally snide. It isn't just this generation, more teenagers in general. I was therefore amazed when we got on the bus which was standing room only and I was perfectly happy to stand for the short trip to camp, when two teenage girls stood and offered their seats to my DH and I. No parents around at all, no beseeching looks from me or prodding from anyone. They happily stood up and volunteered their seats. BTW, I was not going to ask to sit, but 'i noticed other, adult, passengers averting their eyes as if to avoid my glance, lol. To those girls' parents, I want to say thank you for raising two wonderful young ladies that are kind to strangers for no reason at all. I need to put my prejudice away. I sat in one seat but my DH refused and asked one of the girls to sit back down ....something about a gentleman not sitting while a lady is forced to stand.
We got off the bus at our loop and had a short trek back to our site. We entered the ode side only to find the air mattress was soaked as well as the pillows. We couldn't see where the rain had come in. It was right about 1am and I was in no mood or position to try to figure it out. My DH was starting to get upset and I was getting snippy...we were like two kids who needed a nap because we were over tired. My DH went to cool off (literally) in a cold shower and I tried to organized and get things ready for the morning. We had no way of drying the bed/pillows so I just laid a dry sheet on the wet bed and figured we could put our feet on the wettest side. Did i mention that when I laid down I discovered a leak in the mattress? We had a patch kit but only one small lamp and no way of finding the hole at that time. I didn't care. i just wanted to get a little sleep. We'd been up since 6am and we were exhausted. DH returned and we set in for a restless evening.
Saturday, 8/20/2011
By about 7am we had probably gotten a few hours sleep and there was no use in trying any longer. I rolled on to the ground, grabbed my toiletries and a change of clothes, and headed to the showers myself. When I returned, the hubby was up and we both gave our apologies for the previous night's temper issues. Our original intention was to go to DHS first thing for Star Tours, then spend the rest of the day at epcot. We scratched the morning at DHS and instead tried to reorganize the tent. Only the one side had gotten wet, so we put everything into tubs, folded up the mattress, and put some items in the car. In the tent, I left the folded up mattress and pillows (still damp) on the "dry" side of the tent and the tote with our clothes on the wet side. The cooler we put in the dead center with the crockpot on top. We also just had one powerstrip for a lamp, the fan and the crockpot.
Neither one of us was all that hungry so we skipped breakfast. I made/packed two more PB&banana sandwiches, rice crispy treats, and popcorn for our day at Epcot. Into the crockpot went a pound of raw ground beef, crumbled and a can of mannwich sauce. I put it on low and knew dinner was done. I figured by the time we returned, we'd be ready for dinner and too tired to make anything.
This time, we were driving over instead of taking Disney transportation. While I'm all about the boats, ferry and monorail, I am not a big fan of the buses. This way, I could park in the Accessible area and leave whenever we wanted to without having to wait for a bus then transfer to yet another bus. We packed up the car and away we went.
We're there! We parked up in the accessible area and started our walk to the front. When we got to the sidewalk, i had to sit for a minute....this isn't boding well. Maybe after I walk for a bit, I'll warm up the muscles and I won't be hurting anymore. We stop at the entrance for our obligatory shots of Spaceship Earth:
Which we walked over to ride because the line was a walk-on. As another growing theme, A CM came and told me where to find the magical WC accessible line. Trying to hide a sigh, I headed off to find it.
*Let me interject that the reason I did not get a GAC is because when I enquired at the ticket booth where the guest services was located (the day before at MK) for a GAC, I was told when you have a visible disability with a mobility aid, a GAC wouldn't be necessary since the CM's could assist and most ride queues are WC accessible. I got the mobilty map at MK and promptly forgot to refer to it whereas at Epcot, I couldn't find one. No biggie. Spaceship Earth was a great way to start off our day.
We wanted to hit the land for our Soarin' FPs and to ride my favorite ride at Epcot, Living with the Land. It took me a bit to get over there, but DH was very patient and let me set the pace. we also watched the Jamitors' performance en route. The land Pavilion is gorgeous but there is a heck of a hill going in and a bit of a ramp inside. The elevator queue is usually fairly short, but it seems a little short-sighted to put only one standard elevator in the entire pavilion. We went down and got our FPs to return at 1:09 and off we went to the "Living with the Land" ride. I am 100% positive that when I have had to use a WC that I used the standard queue which is why I didn't look at the map and was astonished to be redirected by a CM at the entrance to the line to a different queue. *sigh*, the thing is, the regular queue is just fine. Even if last time it was just a fluke that I got through the stand-by line, it still shows it's an accessible line. Whatever, we went through the other line and waited our turn. The CM's were all lovely and the sigh was internal, it's not their fault. As always this ride is one of the highlights of our trip.
After the ride, we had some time to kill, so we headed up and out to the Journey into the Imagination ride. It was a very fast queue, less than 5 minutes and I was able to use the standard queue. i love this ride , too and it was a lot of fun.
From here we set out to hit the Cool Spot and then the Universe of Energy. I was pretty thirsty so I took about 6 shots of the China soda . We made it over to the UoE just before the pre-show started. I know it's not everyone's favorite, but I really like it and it's a nice little ride to boot. When we left, I don't think either of us was super hungry, but we needed something to keep us going. We stopped off at the electric Umbrella and sat at a table outside. Before anyone gets upset, there were at least 20 empty tables (no one wants to sit outside in this weather). We had our sammies, rice crispy treats and some koolaid/tea.
So after we filled up on our yummy lunch, we decided we had time for another ride before our time for Soarin' FP. We went over to the Living Seas Pavilion and did the ride. This was another quick line that was tough for me because everyone was going very fast and I just can't. We boarded our clam and I spent much of the next hour with "the song that i shall not name unless it gets stuck again" stuck in my head.
Afterwards, we realized we were right on time for Soarin', so over we headed. Even with the FP there was a short wait of about 10 minutes which I was able to sit on my walker and relax. I have a slight confession to make here. The very first time we did Soarin', I fell in love with it! Couldn't wait to do it again! The last time we went was pre-surgery, and I had to use a WC to get around and it took me a bit to get loaded on, etc. I have no idea what happened last time or why I chose that time to look down, but I suddenly realized how high up I was. Now, I am not that tall, I'm 5'10" but I am all leg. What that translates to is my having only my butt on the seat in Soarin' and no leg. It lends itself to feeling a bit unstable and precarious. Theoretically, I know I'm safe, but I just couldn't shake being frightened, even after closing my eyes and reminding myself that small children do this safely a hundred times a day.'s favorite ride at Epcot so I wouldn't tell him I was scared. I did OK this time, not great, but much better than last time!
After Soarin', we were going to start with the itinerary set for the day... World Showcase! My DH has done Epcot quite a bit (even worked there for a bit) but he's never "done" WS. He's never wandered through the pavilions or done any of the Circle Visions. Today was the day. But first, my wonderful hubby saw how hot I was and volunteered to go grab me a frozen coke from Club Cool. I didn't even know they had anything like that! This was only our second purchase of the trip (the first was the pressed penny) for $3.93 including tax. OMG, talk about perfect timing and YUMMY! *sigh*, hit the spot. OK, so now we're ready for the World!
First stop, Canada. We wandered through the garden and back to the show area to wait. We were able to find a bench with no problem and I just sat on my walker. We were 15 minutes early for the show, but sitting in the A/C felt lovely and we took turns aiming the handheld fans at each other. This is the first time I have seen the show in 20 years and my DH has never seen it. It was really cute and worth the little wait. We exited out by the Kidcot area where DH got his first passport stamp. It was a Duffy the Disney Bear with Canada underneath...hhmmmm...not sure how I feel about that, lol. By this time, the skies had turned a bit ominous. Here's a few pics I took in the garden:
Two minutes after the last photo was taken, the sky opened up. I believe I mentioned I CAN'T WALK VERY FAST. My DH could, of course, have run and gotten under cover, but he wouldn't leave me ((snuggle)). I was alternately pushing my walker and pulling my shirt down over my butt since I was wearing white shorts and absolutely NO ONE on this planet needs to see my big bubble butt in clear shorts. If you remember from my PTR, we planned on snacking a bit around the world and the UK was going to be a scotch egg from the pub. Yeah, right. Because the sky opened up just moments from our arrival, we had to stand out on the street and couldn't get near the door. we walked over to the tea shop so I could pause and get our ponchos out. if I tried to do it there on the path, everything underneath the seat would have gotten soaked. Despite the rain, we weren't actually soaked all the way through yet. I had a dry washcloth we used to dry our faces off, put on our ponchos, rearranged the bag and started to head out. we changed up the game plan and decided since there was nothing to do at the moment in the UK (everything was packed full of people), we'd walk on relatively empty streets all the way to America, and work our way back to the UK. We were hoping by then, the rain would have stopped and we could grab a scotch egg.
Now I'm a Floridian and I have no problem with rain. I see no reason to run in the rain since you're just going to get more wet and may slip and fall to boot. This was a special kind of rain. This rain was coming down in buckets. I was blind becuase I didn't think to Rain-X my glasses and I think we were near France when my husband darted under a tree and said he needed to pee. As far as I was concerned, he could've just peed his shorts for all the difference it would have made dampness-wise, but Mr. Picky wanted a bathroom. He pulled out the map and saw a RR just over in Morrocco, about 3 seconds before the map dissintegrated from being wet. He managed to get into the restroom but I couldn't get through the people using the vestibule as a shelter, so I found a low wall and sat there in the rain feeling sorry for myself. I figured everyone needs an Eyore moment and nothing had been going right, so that was my minor meltdown moment. DH came out and joined me, we continued our soggy march to America.
Upon arrival, There were probably 20 people standing in the front Portico area. Hhmmm...not good. Maybe they're closed? I tried to squeegee off my glasses enough to find a CM and cast a glance to my side to make sure I hadn't grabbed someone else's husband in all the confusion. The CM's at America were terrific! Some of the nicest and most helpful I've encountered! the CM at the door told us the museum was open and the Voices of Liberty would be going on in (I think) 15 minutes. The CM right inside the door offered to wipe of my seat for me. I was a bit scared until I remembered my walker has a bench seat. She even gave me the towel to use for the rest of the day at the other attractions! We removed our drenched ponchos, found a seat for my DH and we tried to re-group while we waited for the VoL to come out. A CM asked if we were there just for the VoL or if we were going to stay for the show. We really love the show so she directed us to an elevator to await the show and watch the VoL from upstairs. As always, the VoL were AMAZING!
My DH stated that during the theater show he glanced over at me, and I looked miserable and beat. Maybe he was right. I was feeling a bit exhausted and very disappointed with myself for not being able to keep up and do more. I told my DH that we either needed to leave the theater first, or last because I didn't feel like being pushed or shoved through the crowd. DH decided first. After the point in the song where I start crying, we exited out and went down the ramp.
The rain had slowed down to a sprinkle and I figured maybe we could head back to the site, change into our suits, and take a swim. Before we headed out, I wanted to hit the Karamel Kuche for something caramel-y. The line was out the door. All right, forget it. We're leaving before I start to cry. We went over to the boat and grabbed the next boat to Mexico. On the way out, we took one more ride on Spaceship Earth and promised Epcot we would see her tomorrow to pick back up where we left off.
We got back to the site at 4:30-ish. I unloaded my bag and my DH unloaded the walker and we went to make sure everything stayed dry this time. You could smell the Mannwich from the car...YUMMY!! Hubby went in first......and didn't say anything. Honey? Everthing Ok in there? Then I heard the spalshing. I looked in the tent and saw my DH up to his ankles in water, along with a power strip, a lamp, a fan, and a crockpot all plugged into it. He reached into the water and plucked the power strip up on top of the cooler. I guess he figured if the first foot in the water didn't kill him, he was fine. I didn't say a word. I, joined him in the tent and tried to assess the damage...triage if you will. The crockpot and Mannwich was fine, check. We had already put the coffee maker and griddle into the car, check. All our clothes and computer were in a tote and dry, check. I pulled the rest of the cords out of the water, unplugged everything else and started handing it to my DH to put on the picnic table to "dry". Of course the picnic table was wet too, but not as bad as the tent. I asked my DH to sit in a chair and I would make us sandwiches and we could talk about what to do in a minute. I am very pleased to report the sandwiches hit the spot! It was wonderful coming back to a nice hot lunch without having to prepare it!
After our dinner, my DH went out and tried to adjust the poles and see where the rain was coming in from. It is important to note that we passed several sites where people had lost their awnings and some possesions were strewn about. I'm guessing there much have been some good winds to go with the rains. We then removed everything from the tent and tried to sweep out all the water. We got most of it, but our only towel we brought was super saturated and we had no way of getting the rest of the water out.
DH suggested we change into our suits and take a swim to relax since we needed to have some fun and step back for a minute. We changed out of our VERY wet clothes into our swim suits (don't think we didn't catch the irony) and walked to the bus stop to go to the Swimmin' Hole instead of the Meadow Pool...we figured it would be less crowded since there's no slide, etc. Well, that was like taking a bath together. Didn't really cool us off too much and my DH was prune-y when he got in the pool and turned into a raisin while we were in it. At this point,we had pretty much been wet every single moment since 8pm the night before. As I previously mentioned, we only had the one towel, so we drip dried on the way back to camp (we stood on the bus so no one would have to sit in a wet seat after us).
I was out of ideas and so was my DH for how to salvage the night. Everything we thought of doing for fun was overshadowed by what we were going to have to endure that night. We had a soggy air mattress that would not stay inflated, a wet tent and the power strip had blown so we only had one plug to either use the fan, the lamp or the pump to inflate the mattress. The alarm clock also did not survive the flood. DH had put almost everything in the car when we removed them from the tent so they'd stay dry.
Trying his hardest to make me smile, my DH suggested we get into some dry clothes and go over to Roarin' Forks for a S'more cupcake and a coke. That made me smile and I said sure. I think we both knew that walking wasn't going to do me much good and as much as I love the campfire sing-a-long and movie, I wasn't in my happy place at the moment and didn't want to have negative thoughts somewhere that is so magical and means so much to me. This would be our third and final purchase of the trip, 2 S'mores cupcakes, a coke and a powerade came to $14.13.
For those of you keeping track, that means our incidental charges came to a whopping $18.57. Including the campsite for two nights, the total was less than $125.00 out of pocket for the weekend. I don't think everyone should do it this way, but if you have Disney tickets and not a lot of spare change, it can solve a lot of your expenditure issues and still stay on property.
We headed back to the lobby to sit around the fireplace. Neither of us wanted to be the first to throw in the towel and I think we actually both said "Let's go home" at the the same time. If we didn't have the AP's it may have been different, but we knew we can go back next weekend and do what we weren't able to do this weekend.either of us could figure out what to do with the wet tent issue and only $20 in our bank account. We don't have CC's and I don't get paid until Friday so purchasing another tent wasn't an option.
So, awesome things to come out of this trip:
The crockpot is a brilliant idea!
We got to play at WDW for a whole weekend!
We got Soarin Fast Passes!
My marriage can survive armaggedon!
We're hoping to jumpstart our camper build!
We can do WDW on the cheap without feeling cheated!
We can go back for a do-over whenever we want!
I was reminded what a truly wonderful, patient, loving husband I have and I love him more every single day!
. Also, I will show you how to do Disney with less than $20. it can be done and if you include the resort stay, it can be done on less than $150 (not including tickets).
. I was lucky and got off an hour early, so it was going to be a bit hotter putting up the tent, but an extra hour at MK, so we were thrilled. We kissed our little baby kitty good-bye and headed out.
. I had checked in online and I figured I need to go into the lobby to check in since I didn't have a camper. We parked and headed in to the lobby only to find out our paperwork was outside. They quickly retrieved our KTTW cards and paperwork then we were off. Here's where strategy doesn't always pay off. I knew we would be checking in around 5pm and I really wanted the 1500 loop. I also wanted to be near the comfort station and bus stop, but after years of working in hotels, I know that the more requests you make, the harder it is for the front desk to prioritize your requests. How do they know what you want more? So my only request was the 1500 loop...which they weren't able to accommodate. Ah well, a request is just that, a request, so I was fine with it. Of course we were also midway in the 2000 loop and I had to get my walker over a mulch path to get to the bus stop and walk a bit to get to the comfort station...but it was still at Fort Wilderness, so I was happy.
. It was AWESOME! After we got off, I stopped off at the press a penny and got the one with Brer Rabbit on it. We walked out, looked over at the line and realized there was no one in it! I asked one of the CMs if the ride was still open and she let us know just to show our KTTW cards and we could hop back on! We did and back on we went! It took me a bit longer because i had to use the WC entrance, but it was totally worth it!! This time of course, My DH got his way and we rode in the front...or rather "the wettest seats on the planet". It was fun, but I still hadn't completely dried from the earlier rain.
. That's right, in the years since 'i have ridden it, I have forgotton I was scared of it and didn't like it that much.
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. It was right about 1am and I was in no mood or position to try to figure it out. My DH was starting to get upset and I was getting snippy...we were like two kids who needed a nap because we were over tired. My DH went to cool off (literally) in a cold shower and I tried to organized and get things ready for the morning. We had no way of drying the bed/pillows so I just laid a dry sheet on the wet bed
. We made it over to the UoE just before the pre-show started. I know it's not everyone's favorite, but I really like it and it's a nice little ride to boot. When we left, I don't think either of us was super hungry, but we needed something to keep us going. We stopped off at the electric Umbrella and sat at a table outside. Before anyone gets upset, there were at least 20 empty tables (no one wants to sit outside in this weather). We had our sammies, rice crispy treats and some koolaid/tea.
. This is the first time I have seen the show in 20 years and my DH has never seen it. It was really cute and worth the little wait. We exited out by the Kidcot area where DH got his first passport stamp. It was a Duffy the Disney Bear with Canada underneath...hhmmmm...not sure how I feel about that, lol. By this time, the skies had turned a bit ominous. Here's a few pics I took in the garden:
