Anniversary trip - All finished - LOTS of pics

[olbear]

Well, they're gone!! Time to get back to relaxing. But it is raining, and it's gonna get wetter! Oh well, have Pooh poncho's will go! We drop our pup off at the EPCOT kennel. It is doing a misty rain, not so bad, but enough to get the poncho's on. We get through security, it's pretty fast, but they are very thourough. I'm glad.

We're mainly going to EPCOT today because every trip I have managed to miss the candy artist in Japan. We are about an hour before World showcase opens. So we slowly walk and make our way to the UK, and there we find lots of empty tables with very big umbrella's. We park under one of these and relax and watch the world go by.

Here is Fred just chillin!

We were kept sompany while we waited with a bunch of sparrows. They parked them selves under chairs and umbrellas trying to stay dry. They looked so pitiful with their wet feathers. One looked like he had a mohawk.
Here's a picture of some under a table

The rain seems relentless. It gets misty then it down right pours. Then it slacks off again. This would be repeated for most of the afternoon. 11AM finally comes and we make our way to Japan. We get there..ok where is she. I ask a CM. Oh she's on vacation for 2 weeks. Guess where? JAPAN!! Oh well, we'll try again next time. See what I meant about there's always a reason to come back! Well, there ya go.

So we mosy on over to Norway for coffe and something sweet. YUM!! We sit and relax and watch people starting to fill world showcase. It doesn't take long. Although it is still a sparse crowd with the rain and all.

We finish our way around WS and decide to go back to fort. The rain has let up quite a bit, so now it's all nice and MUGGY!! Ahhhh give me AC!! We stop and pick up the pup and head back to fort and our AC pop-up. Love it!
Hubby decides to drop a hook and catches a few small brim. And he doesn't mind putting them back cause they're so small.

We have ressies for dinner at Trails End and hubby is ready for some fried chicken! We are seated right away. Our waitress I believe was Serena. Really nice. I ask her about campfire to make sure we're there on time. And I also ask her about Miss. Sundee. A few minutes later she comes out with Miss Sundee!!! Miss Sundee tells us hello and chats a bit. Then she gets the entire restaurants attention, and announces our anniversary. And she gets a big ol YEEHAW for us!!! It was so cool. We loved it and she made us feel very special

Then we see our neighbor Griff come in all alone. His wife and son are still at AK having fun. So we invite him to sit with us. Lo and behold he tells us it's his birthday. So we let our waitress know. She brings us out a strawberry shortcake for our anniversary, and the brings him out one for his birthday. Then Griff gets a big...YEEHAW!!!!It was great.
here is our yummy anniversary dessert

We tell Griff we're going to campfire, and invite him to come along. He has a golf cart, so that is handy dandy!! His says he'll stay with us until his wife calls to come and get them. So just as luck would have it, she calls right before things start. Oh well.

Then our firend shows up to do her thing, none other than.....
Miss. Sundee...and here she is!

She is such a fun entertainer let me tell you. She knows how to have fun with an audience. She has all those celebrating a birthday come up, and we all sing Happy Birthday. THEN>>>> she calls for Fred and Winnie to come on up. She tells them we're celebrating 23 years.
Here we are sorry we these pics are really fuzzy. I'm not the best at posting pics

Then she says we need to show evertyone what a kiss looks like after 23 years of marriage. So we're more than happy to oblige.
Here ya go!

Then she does the sweetest thing. She has us dance while she sings an Anne Murray song that Fred loves, "Can I have This Dance For the Rest Of My Life"
It was so wonderful and we sang to each other with her. It was so sweet. She knows how to spread the magic and pixie dust!
Here's a picture

It was a wonderful evening to be sure. Thank you Miss Sundee for making it so very special, you are a gem!! She also presented us with a "Magical Memories" Certificate, signed by her and Chip & Dale to commemorate our anniversary. We will return the Magic later. Keep watching to read all about it.

Oh and before I forget. It was thought they would not be able to make the campfire because of the rain. They can't get their fur wet. But they managed to make an appearance...none other than CHIP AND DALE!!!
Here's Dale with us:

A wonderful day filled with magical memories!!
Blessings,
Winnie

 

[CottontailCurl]

Then she does the sweetest thing. She has us dance while she sings an Anne Murray song that Fred loves, "Can I have This Dance For the Rest Of My Life"

Winnie, I'm loving your trip report! This part was the sweetest thing I've heard in a month of Sundays! - or is that Sundees? . It sounds like you guys had a really great Anniversary week!! (My kids love your Paco, lots of 'awwwws' when they see him!) Thanks for taking the time out to write it!

(ps, I think Ken might be reaching FW rock star status! My kids also loved his big ole smile!
< ---- My daughter says this is Ken's smile)

 

[olbear]

Just a little nudge

Blessings,
Winnie

 

[terri01p]

I loved every minute of this trip report. Paco has stolen my heart, I love him !
That cake looks wonderful, I want some so bad, do you remember about what that cost...hehehe ?
That man ( Ken ) was so over the top nice, we never had him as a waiter but one day we ate chicken and my dd wasn't feeling so hot so she took hers with her, well we no sooner got out the door and there went the whole blumming thing on the ground, we picked it up and tossed it in the trash, three minutes later he was chasing us down with a fresh box of chicken, how many people would have ever done that, now that's disney !
Thanks so much for the trip report, more people should do one.

 

[olbear]

I loved every minute of this trip report. Paco has stolen my heart, I love him !
That cake looks wonderful, I want some so bad, do you remember about what that cost...hehehe ?
That man ( Ken ) was so over the top nice, we never had him as a waiter but one day we ate chicken and my dd wasn't feeling so hot so she took hers with her, well we no sooner got out the door and there went the whole blumming thing on the ground, we picked it up and tossed it in the trash, three minutes later he was chasing us down with a fresh box of chicken, how many people would have ever done that, now that's disney !
Thanks so much for the trip report, more people should do one.

I'm so glad you've enjoyed my trip report. And hey! I'm not done I still have 3 days to post. I just have to get more pics developed. I have no idea how to download from camera. And besides, I lost the silly cord...

As for our cake,, it was $12 minus 20% off with our DDE card, since it was a TS meal at Cape May. And Ken, he is just so nice and super friendly. I love his cheesy grin too!!

And by the way, I love you fur babies picture. So sorry for your loss. We had a boy and girl Beagle. We lost both of them. But they gave us 3 beautiful litters of baby fur babies. So fun to watch them grow, but so sad to see them go.

I'll be posting our next day, I think it is six in the next couple days.

Blessings,
Winnie

 

[olbear]

Hello again!

We moving on to day six of our wonderful trip. We kinda slept in this morning. Feeling lazy. It was so wonderful!!

We finally got up and moving a little past 8:30AM. Got showered and dressed. Then we decided we'd go visit Ken again for breakfast. We asked for him too. It was so nice to see him again. He is always so cheerful.

We had a good hearty breakfast. You just cannot beat Trails End. Then we go back to our site pick up the pup and head over to EPCOT agin. Did I tell you this is our favorite park? If not you've probably figured it out since this is our second day in a row. LOL!

Here's our picture in front of what was left of the "Arm" and the EPCOT ball of course:

We took our fur baby to the kennel, and get into the gate at oh about 10:30AM. We head straight for Soarin. This is our absolute favorite ride. The wait time says almost an hour. We got on the ride in about 30 minutes or so. Not so bad. I was kinda missing the pictures and questions and answers they used to show while waiting in line. They have changed it. Now they have games you play in front of the big screens. Really cool. They have it set up somehow where it reads your body temp and you actually interact with the game on the screen. So cool!

As usual we so loved our ride. While waiting in line we got to chatting with a very nice family. This was their first time. They said they had heard that certain rows were better than others to be on. We said yes. The first row was the best, then second row and then third. We don't like being on the third row as you don't feel the virtual reality of it near as well.

So by the time we get off the ride and back outside It's past 11:30AM. We decide to walk over to one of the boats and take it to Germany where we are scheduled to have lunch. This is where our single's church group had dinner the day we met on that trip in 1983. So we always make a point to enjoy a meal while there for our anniversary week. It never dissappoints either.

Here is a picture of Fred in Germany:

After Germany we get back on the boat and head back to world showcase where we hang out for a bit. Then we make our way out of EPCOT and go retrieve our fur baby.

We head back to the Fort to relax for a bit before having dinner with our friends Pam and Skip from our church. She is an Alice in Wonderland fan.
So then around 5PM, we get moving again and head for DTD westside, to meet pam & Skip. We are having dinner at Wolfgang Pucks Cafe.

Here we are:

I gotta tell ya, I've ate better and had even better service at WP Express at DTD. This evening was a major dissappointment. The server was truely bad - bad - bad. We asked for water w/lemon to start with. He did not bring lemon and we had to ask 3 more times. This is pretty much how the entire meal went. So sad. And to be honest, the food was just okay. Not at all what I expected. And nothing was said or done about our anniversary. Every other meal while there some little something was said or done. We were so dissppointed we skipped dessert and just left.

I've called and spoken with the general manager who is to get back with me after checking it out with her staff. So we'll see.

So then we headed to DTD, where our friends treated us to dessert at Ghiredelli. Hubbyand I shared a dark chocolate, raspberry sundae. YUMMO!!
Then our friends said goodbye, and we went to pin traders. Hubby went and got my trader pins and we stayed for about an hour and did some pin trading. It was a fun time and I met some wonderful people. That is the best part of pin trading, the interaction between guests and CM's. We've been doing it since April of 2001.

So that is pretty is pretty much the end of day 6. We went back to Fort and chilled then took an 8 hour nap! LOL!

Day 7 coming soon! And another picture of Miss Sundee as she is given a wee bit o magic.

Blessings,
Winnie

 

[dizneydiva2005]

Loving the trip report- except for the kid part - I love the picture of Ken. Hope to see him in 2 weeks!

 

[olbear]

Hi thought I'd post here some animal pictures we took. I could have taken a bunch of bunny pics and ducks. But you know...

This is a cute picture I took of a bunny up by the Meadows:

These next 2 I absolutely love. It is a deer we saw Saturday evening on our way to dinner. We had just turned right off the main road FW is on. Fred Saw her and quickly turned into a parking lot on the right so I could get a pitcure. She just stood right there and didn't move. It was perfect!

Here ya go:

More later!

 

[olbear]

I wanted to make a separate post for this because it was so special.

Fred and I got into pin trading as I said in April 2001. Shortly after getting into the "addiction" we were awarded CTT's. Meaning "Continuing The Tradition". These are award pins given to guests by usually managers, who witness or know of you being a kind sincere pin trader and the like.

Well, I thought that was so cool and a nice way for them to make magic happen for us. I thought why doesn't someone make a pin to do the same for CM's when they do something extra nice for us. So I decided to design a pin just for that reason. I designed and had it made in 2002, and it is a limited edition of 100.

Here it is:

On Friday night before going to dinner, we went by the Meadows to find Miss Sundee. We were told where we could find her. SO we headed over to the snack wagon at the camp fire and there she was. She was surprised to see us. I told her what I have shared with you on this post. Then I happily gave her one of my pins. She promptly put in on her pocket lapel, and we got our picture with her. It was a very special moment for Fred & I. It's such a nice way to share the magic as a guest. So often we are sure to point out when something goes wrong with CM's. It's nice to recognize when a CM goes out of there way to make magic happen. And this is something we have found out from these boards and persoanl experience that Miss Sundee does all the time!!

Here we are with her after our "Magic Moment":

As you can see, she is all GRINS

We love you Miss Sundee!
Fred & Winnie

 

[handman64]

I just wanted to say that this is probably one of the best trip reports I've ever read. My wife and I have been hooked on this thread. It's like a new TV show and you don't want to miss an episode.
Keep up the great updates.......!!!!!

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Winnie-

Great job so far. Keep the report going!

I was camping over on the 1000 loop during part of your great visit. Sorry if the noise kept you up at night.

We came right after the rain stopped.

A couple comments:

1. Fred is one lucky dude! Mrs. TCD and I just celebrated the big Two-O, and I can tell you that she would not have gone for a stay in the old pop-up for the anniversary.

2. I love you truthful comments, especially about your friend and her kids. We have never invited people to stay with us in the camper, and now I know that I never will.

3. Good job on snagging a great site! Those outside sites on 300 backing up to the water are great. I never thought of taking the bus in to scope out a site.

And a question: what type of camper do you have?

It looks like a Coleman, which is what I have, but your awning sets up different.

TCD

 

[olbear]

I so didn't want it to be over. But here we were looking at our last full day.
I tried not to think about it and just enjoy the day, but it was always there haunting me! Oh the torture!

So this is our laziest morning ever. We just chilled out with our fur baby.
The night before, we finally went and got the internet kit for me to use my laptop. It worked fine, but boy the wires in the pop-up were crazy. Poor Paco was surrounded by them.

It was a mess of wires:

I played with my laptop for a good bit of the morning. Fred went out to the canal and did some catch and release. No gators today. Guess the Seminoles kept em away...hehehe! Yes, I'm a "Noles" fan!! My baby had fun just relaxin and enjoying the fresh air and HEAT... did I say heat? Yes, it was hot. Why do you think I stayed inside and played on laptop? Hello??

Here's some pics of Fred baby relaxin by the canal waiting for a bite!:

he's so fine and he's all mine:

he got the big one!:

Then Fred and I started getting hungry since we had skipped breakfast... sorry Ken..LOL! So we went to DTD and had lunch at Earl of sandwich. We ate kinda light 'cause we were having our last nice meal at Kona's that night.
So we shared some soup and a cobb salad. And we shared an oatmeal cookie. For me the best on property.

Dinner was great as usual at Kona's. We like it better than Ohana's. It's more consistant with quality. And you don't feel rushed. And you don't over eat!
My only dissappointment was our server here didn't recognize our anniversary. Bummer. They did something so cool last year. You know it's easy to get spoiled, and I admit, I was enjoying my weeklong celebration.

After dinner, we went back and changed cloths and went back to DTD for some more pin trading. It was a slow night with trading. So we didn't stay long. And we knew we'd have a busy morning getting packed up. WAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

When we got back from DTD we got with our neighbors, Griff Lieghann and their son Conrad, and went down to the beach to watch Wishes.
Here are some pictures:
Fred baby and me

Our wonderful neighbors:

the water parade and fireworks. They were wonderful!!

This one Fred calls, blown up candy canes. That's what it loooks like in this pic:

Next up, more pictures and day 8, time to go home. No I don't wanna talk about it... yeah, what are you smilin at?!!

Later,
Winnie

 

[olbear]

Winnie-

Great job so far. Keep the report going!

I was camping over on the 1000 loop during part of your great visit. Sorry if the noise kept you up at night.

A>Was that you?? I knew it!!

We came right after the rain stopped.

A couple comments:

1. Fred is one lucky dude! Mrs. TCD and I just celebrated the big Two-O, and I can tell you that she would not have gone for a stay in the old pop-up for the anniversary.

A>Yes he is! Actually we are fortunate that we enjoy the same stuff. Now on our 25th silver anniversary, he has already said he wants to go on a Disney 7 day cruise. I was so upset, I said, "YEAH BABY!!"

2. I love you truthful comments, especially about your friend and her kids. We have never invited people to stay with us in the camper, and now I know that I never will.

A>Good decision!! Stick to it. I know we are. Fred has already said, never again!!

3. Good job on snagging a great site! Those outside sites on 300 backing up to the water are great. I never thought of taking the bus in to scope out a site.

A>I know when we go again, I'm gonna try to snag 317 again or one really close. I loved being on the canal. It was handy for the fur baby as well as for Fred getting a line wet.
And a question: what type of camper do you have?

It looks like a Coleman, which is what I have, but your awning sets up different.

A>Ours is a 1998 Coleman/Fleetwood Bayside. It did not come with the awning. I bought the one we have off of e-bay for $125.00. It is an 11 foot one. Installed really easy. We were so glad we invested in it.
TCD

Thanks for your compliments. Keep reading. More to come.

Blessings,
Winnie

 

[olbear]

I just wanted to say that this is probably one of the best trip reports I've ever read. My wife and I have been hooked on this thread. It's like a new TV show and you don't want to miss an episode.
Keep up the great updates.......!!!!!

Awwwww.thank you! I haven't had alot of written responses like I thought I might. I know it's getting alot of lookers. So I hope everyone is enjoying it. I'm having fun reliving it as I write. I'm getting sad winding down to the end...

But as they say all good things must come to an end.
Enjoy!!
Winnie

 

[olbear]

So here it is the day we were not looking forward to. Not only going back to reality, but packing everything up. Wowzers!! This was only our second time with our pop-up, so we haven't got it down to a "science" yet. A few more trips to the Fort and no problem.

Donna stops by to see us while we're packing and introduces her fur baby Molly to our fur baby Paco.

Here they are, so cute!!

Molly is just beautiful, and oh so soft. She'd be a pleasure to sleep with. Lil ol Paco's tail was staright up. He thought she was a babe!!

So as we're getting ready and packing, our neighbors are trying to get out of their site with their class A. The neighbors on the other side of them had their truck parked in such a way, that made it quite a challenge. I thought poor Leighann was gonna faint a few times. But they managed. We said goodbye hoping we see them again in the future.

We finished and got up front right before 11AM. It was close. I had to go in and have some adjustments made to our bill. There were 3 "oops" on it.
So we were off and headed for home. I fell asleep and woke up going into our drive way.

I've so enjoyed doing this trip report and I sincerely hope you've enjoyed our trip with us. Thanks for reading and one last photo. This was taken on a prior trip, but seems a good way to end.

Thanks again everyone and..
Blessings,
Winnie

 

[lrab1126]

I have really enjoyed your entire report and pics. Great trip !!!

 

[clkelley]

Looks like you had a blast!!! I can't wait to get my new baby down to the Fort!!! Come on October!!

We are coming down in September at Pop Century for free dining, so I will be buying a few more Mickey Mouse stuff to add to the camper during that trip.

 

[happy_redhead]

Thanks for the great trip report and all the pics!

Dfamily and I are heading to The Fort in September and taking our Coleman Niagara....basically the twin to your Bayside! So all your pics are getting me excited for our 10 day trip coming up!

I must admit....I'll miss your daily updates and the pictures of that tiny tiny Paco!

Thanks again for letting us have a peek at your anniversary trip....Congrats!

 

[doughcwjt]

What a great report! It has been so much fun reading your report and looking at the great pictures. We leave in 2 weeks for a week at Ft. Wilderness Cabins - this will be our first time staying at Ft. Wilderness and we are very excited.

Thanks for sharing your trip!!

 

[marybrat]

I'm sad to see your trip end too. Looks like you had a blast! Thanks for sharing it with us!