Long Live TCD's 2010-2011 NEW YEARS EVE TRIP REPORT (Maybe the last of the best)
- Thread starter LONE-STAR
- Start date
- Status
bigblock396
I love Disney
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2010
I was wondering the same thing. 'bout time for the report TCD.
big kahuna1
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2006
He is just reserving space as he has to wait for 2011 New Years Eve before he can post any more.
Tri-circle-D
<font color=peach>Throwing some love to TCD<br><fo
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
Wow, thanks Michael/LONE-STAR.
I have been meaning to get my latest trip report started, and now you have taken care of that part for me. The first step of any journey is always the hardest.
I am organizing my photos and thoughts at this very moment, and the report should begin soon. Since you already started this thread, I reckon that I'll just add to it.
Be forewarned that this report will be a tad shorter than some, for reasons which will be explained. It will also be short on solved mysteries. In fact, I'm not sure that there will be any. I can promise at least one unsolved mystery.
And, there will be plenty of photos. And some levity. And the story of a pretty amazing animal encounter.
Oh, and lots of cute puppy pictures.
Everybody likes cute puppies, right?
So please stand by.
TCD
I have been meaning to get my latest trip report started, and now you have taken care of that part for me. The first step of any journey is always the hardest.
I am organizing my photos and thoughts at this very moment, and the report should begin soon. Since you already started this thread, I reckon that I'll just add to it.
Be forewarned that this report will be a tad shorter than some, for reasons which will be explained. It will also be short on solved mysteries. In fact, I'm not sure that there will be any. I can promise at least one unsolved mystery.
And, there will be plenty of photos. And some levity. And the story of a pretty amazing animal encounter.
Oh, and lots of cute puppy pictures.
Everybody likes cute puppies, right?
So please stand by.
TCD
kampfirekim
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2010
I'm not going to stand idly by. Maybe I can get a little laundry done while I wait. 
Tri-circle-D
<font color=peach>Throwing some love to TCD<br><fo
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
Standing by..........
Yay! It's S70! Just a little bit longer.
Waiting....
Maybe 30 more minutes.
If that.
I'm not going to stand idly by. Maybe I can get a little laundry done while I wait.
Good job.
The laundry should be done by now.
Now make Mr. KFK a sandwich, and we will be ready to go.
Yeah, I decided to make some lunch while waiting.
Smart move.
You will have the first installment before you are hungry again.
I promise.
Did Mrs. TCD come along this time and you were busy... you know...
shopping?
No.
No Mrs. TCD.
Again.
All will be explained soon.
TCD
Tri-circle-D
<font color=peach>Throwing some love to TCD<br><fo
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
This is the first time I've ever joined in on a trip report before it starts, but I'm in!
Well hello there, Leslie.
Happy New Year.
This is the first time I started a trip report before it started.
This might get weird.
Hey Tom!
I'm not going to call anyone out or anything, but I'm not the only one slacking on getting his trip report started, now am I?
BTW- It was good to see you at the Fort!
And, congratulations on FSU's big win.
Big!
Impressive!
Things are good in Nole country!
I'm sure you noticed the FSU decorations got to stay up all weekend.
TCD
Tri-circle-D
<font color=peach>Throwing some love to TCD<br><fo
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
Well, I guess its time to begin.
As I alluded to in my post above, this trip report will be a bit more abbreviated than some.
Without getting into too much detail, let me just say that the lead up to this trip was a bit chaotic, to say the least.
You see, the TCD gangs home was burglarized at the beginning of December. Thieves broke in during broad daylight, and ransacked our home. Almost all of the TCD girls jewelry was taken. And electronics. And cash and gift cards. Luckily, we hadnt done much Christmas shopping yet, so there were no Christmas gifts to steal.
All in all, we were lucky. Nobody got hurt. They just took stuff. And made a big mess. But, some of the stuff, like jewelry Mrs. TCD had received from her grandmother, is irreplaceable.
As you can imagine, I was hot.
Really hot.
And, I know people.
These thieves robbed the wrong house.
The detective who was assigned our case was a nice young man, but not real excited about it.
It took me about a week to figure out who robbed us.
It was two young punks who live about a mile and a half from our house.
They have both been in prison already.
Like their dad.
And their mom.
Disgusting, actually.
In fact, both of these sorry sacks were supposed to still be in prison. They had both been sentenced to 13 months in prison back in May. But, they were out in October. Overcrowding, you know. And, by early December, they were crawling through my laundry room window and robbing us blind.
I served up the information I had gathered on a silver platter to my young Sheriffs detective. I think that I had established probable cause that these miscreants were using my daughters Macbook Pros to post all kinds of vile and incriminating garbage on their Facebook pages. I gave the Sheriff leads to Craigs list postings that described our stolen stuff.
And then I waited.
And I waited.
Three weeks passed.
Nothing.
Then, on the night of December 29, when I was supposed to be packing up the camper for our trip, I got a call from another Detective. He said they had made an arrest. It was the two punks I suspected. And, they recovered some of our stuff. He asked if I could come down to the station to identify it. I said I would be right there.
And I was.
Some of our stuff was there.
Not much.
Just the stuff that they apparently couldnt sell.
None of the good electronics.
None of the jewelry.
Of course no cash or gift cards.
I asked where they found it.
They found it in the punks trailer.
Where it probably all had been three weeks prior when I first told the cops who I suspected had robbed us.
These punks had been on a bit of a crime spree, so my stuff was mixed in with other peoples. I spent my evening identifying my stuff, when I should have been packing.
When I got home, nobody was very happy. We were happy that an arrest had been made. But, we were mad that our stuff was gone. It had been sold over the course of the month. By a couple of punks who had been let out of prison early.
So, that was the prelude to our New Years Eve trip.
It made me late leaving on the 30th. And, I had an acquaintance track down some of our stuff on Craigs list, and that meeting was going on on the afternoon of the 30th.
The result was that I was in a bit of a bad mood on this trip.
We all agreed to put the burglary BS behind us and enjoy our trip.
But, we couldnt do that completely.
So, this report may not be as fun as some others.
I thought you all should know that going in.
I think thats enough prelude.
Sorry to be a downer.
We actually had a great trip. As, is to be expected.
So, lets get to the report.
We headed East from our home at about noon on Thursday, December 30th.
Traffic was surprisingly light, and we were pulling in to the Fort at just before 2 pm. Most of the check-in lanes were open. And just a couple of RVs were in each. I chose the lane all the way to the left. There were two unopened lanes to the left of that one. I have had luck with that strategy before, and I thought I might again. Sure enough, before I even came to a stop, a castmember opened one of the closed lanes, and waved me up. But, the guy in front of me saw what was happening and dogged me. I had already started pulling up, so I got in that lane anyway. Wouldnt you know the guy in front of me had some kind of issue, and we sat about 15 minutes before he finally pulled forward, and it was our turn to check in?
The castmember was friendly. Which was good. Because I knew that I had an issue to deal with. You see, I had reserved a partial hook up site. But, I decided to bring the TCD dog, Rocky, along on this trip. I had been checking all week before we arrived for a full hook up site. There were premium sites and partial sites available, but no full or preferred. I decided that if I couldnt reserve a full hook up, I would just deal with the issue at check-in. And now was the time. I had several options. I could upgrade to a premium site. Or, we could board Rocky for a night or two in the kennel, and then maybe send him home early with my oldest daughter, who was going home on Saturday afternoon. I was prepared for many possible scenarios.
But it turns out I didnt need to plan so hard.
The castmember took my information. And then she asked if I had any pets. I said yes, a dog. She looked in the truck and saw him. She said, OK, you will need to sign this agreement, and pay an extra $5.00 a night. I said OK. I waited for her to tell me I had to upgrade my site. She never did. In fact, she filled out the agreement, and wrote my site number in. We had been assigned to 1504. For whatever reason, she wrote in 1506. Heres the Agreement:
And, heres a zoom-in on some interesting language:
This says no dogs in pop-up campers. And that is what I was towing.
It says pet loops have electric, water and sewer. i.e. full hook up or higher. But, she knew we were on the 1500 loop.
And, the Agreement verbiage differs from what the Disney website says:
Despite all of this, the castmember charged me the $15 for my three night stay, and gave me a copy of my Agreement, and we were on our way to the 1500 loop. Truthfully, she didn't say anything more about it. Didn't even bat an eye.
As I mentioned, we were assigned to 1504.
It is one of my favorite sites in all of Fort Wilderness.
And it was where we would ring in 2011.
Sweet.
Some pixie dust had obviously come in from somewhere, because in the commotion of the week before we arrived, I never got around to faxing a site request. I was sure we would be banished to the 2000 loop. But we werent. We were living large on 1500!
As is our custom, I dropped the girls off at the marina, and I headed back to the site to get set up.
This time, I had a helper.
Rocky.
Truth be told, he wasnt a lot of help.
In fact, he was no help at all.
But, hes a cute little puppy.
So we are going to keep him anyway.
Before any serious set up could be done, we had to stop at the dog park first.
One of the TCD twins got a new camera from Santa.
Her old one was stolen.
Here are some of the photos she took on the TCD twins monorail adventure:
Check this photo out . . .
On New Years Eve, the Contemporary played a Toy Story triple feature!:
A few shots from inside the Contemporary Resort:
While the girls were off gallivanting, Rocky and I hit the dog park.
Where he ran with the big dogs.
Very big dogs:
Meanwhile, the girls saw this bomb sniffing dog at the MK boat dock:
While I was setting up, I got to meet a couple of Disboard folks.
First, Campingdawgs came over from there site on 1600 to say hello. These poor folks had a site with a complete view of ours.
And then anolefan came looping by with his family to say hello.
When the girls got back, Rocky went back to the dog park.
Here he is on the golf cart after his butt was good and worn out:
I have been training Rocky to bring me a beer:
The only problem is that he still carries them upside down:
Night comes early in December.
So, we got our Giddyap and Go, and enjoyed that at the campsite.
Good stuff.
Then the girls headed over to the Poly to watch the December 30th NYE Fireworks show.
I stayed back at the camper.
Rocky was no trouble at all:
Since I didnt want the girls to have trouble getting back, I headed over to the Poly with Rocky in the truck at about 12:30 to pick them up.
We did a little late night looping.
And that was it.
Not too much exciting on our first day.
But tomorrow is New Years Eve.
And we are in for a full day of fun!
TCD
As I alluded to in my post above, this trip report will be a bit more abbreviated than some.
Without getting into too much detail, let me just say that the lead up to this trip was a bit chaotic, to say the least.
You see, the TCD gangs home was burglarized at the beginning of December. Thieves broke in during broad daylight, and ransacked our home. Almost all of the TCD girls jewelry was taken. And electronics. And cash and gift cards. Luckily, we hadnt done much Christmas shopping yet, so there were no Christmas gifts to steal.
All in all, we were lucky. Nobody got hurt. They just took stuff. And made a big mess. But, some of the stuff, like jewelry Mrs. TCD had received from her grandmother, is irreplaceable.
As you can imagine, I was hot.
Really hot.
And, I know people.
These thieves robbed the wrong house.
The detective who was assigned our case was a nice young man, but not real excited about it.
It took me about a week to figure out who robbed us.
It was two young punks who live about a mile and a half from our house.
They have both been in prison already.
Like their dad.
And their mom.
Disgusting, actually.
In fact, both of these sorry sacks were supposed to still be in prison. They had both been sentenced to 13 months in prison back in May. But, they were out in October. Overcrowding, you know. And, by early December, they were crawling through my laundry room window and robbing us blind.
I served up the information I had gathered on a silver platter to my young Sheriffs detective. I think that I had established probable cause that these miscreants were using my daughters Macbook Pros to post all kinds of vile and incriminating garbage on their Facebook pages. I gave the Sheriff leads to Craigs list postings that described our stolen stuff.
And then I waited.
And I waited.
Three weeks passed.
Nothing.
Then, on the night of December 29, when I was supposed to be packing up the camper for our trip, I got a call from another Detective. He said they had made an arrest. It was the two punks I suspected. And, they recovered some of our stuff. He asked if I could come down to the station to identify it. I said I would be right there.
And I was.
Some of our stuff was there.
Not much.
Just the stuff that they apparently couldnt sell.
None of the good electronics.
None of the jewelry.
Of course no cash or gift cards.
I asked where they found it.
They found it in the punks trailer.
Where it probably all had been three weeks prior when I first told the cops who I suspected had robbed us.
These punks had been on a bit of a crime spree, so my stuff was mixed in with other peoples. I spent my evening identifying my stuff, when I should have been packing.
When I got home, nobody was very happy. We were happy that an arrest had been made. But, we were mad that our stuff was gone. It had been sold over the course of the month. By a couple of punks who had been let out of prison early.
So, that was the prelude to our New Years Eve trip.
It made me late leaving on the 30th. And, I had an acquaintance track down some of our stuff on Craigs list, and that meeting was going on on the afternoon of the 30th.
The result was that I was in a bit of a bad mood on this trip.
We all agreed to put the burglary BS behind us and enjoy our trip.
But, we couldnt do that completely.
So, this report may not be as fun as some others.
I thought you all should know that going in.
I think thats enough prelude.
Sorry to be a downer.
We actually had a great trip. As, is to be expected.
So, lets get to the report.
We headed East from our home at about noon on Thursday, December 30th.
Traffic was surprisingly light, and we were pulling in to the Fort at just before 2 pm. Most of the check-in lanes were open. And just a couple of RVs were in each. I chose the lane all the way to the left. There were two unopened lanes to the left of that one. I have had luck with that strategy before, and I thought I might again. Sure enough, before I even came to a stop, a castmember opened one of the closed lanes, and waved me up. But, the guy in front of me saw what was happening and dogged me. I had already started pulling up, so I got in that lane anyway. Wouldnt you know the guy in front of me had some kind of issue, and we sat about 15 minutes before he finally pulled forward, and it was our turn to check in?
The castmember was friendly. Which was good. Because I knew that I had an issue to deal with. You see, I had reserved a partial hook up site. But, I decided to bring the TCD dog, Rocky, along on this trip. I had been checking all week before we arrived for a full hook up site. There were premium sites and partial sites available, but no full or preferred. I decided that if I couldnt reserve a full hook up, I would just deal with the issue at check-in. And now was the time. I had several options. I could upgrade to a premium site. Or, we could board Rocky for a night or two in the kennel, and then maybe send him home early with my oldest daughter, who was going home on Saturday afternoon. I was prepared for many possible scenarios.
But it turns out I didnt need to plan so hard.
The castmember took my information. And then she asked if I had any pets. I said yes, a dog. She looked in the truck and saw him. She said, OK, you will need to sign this agreement, and pay an extra $5.00 a night. I said OK. I waited for her to tell me I had to upgrade my site. She never did. In fact, she filled out the agreement, and wrote my site number in. We had been assigned to 1504. For whatever reason, she wrote in 1506. Heres the Agreement:
And, heres a zoom-in on some interesting language:
This says no dogs in pop-up campers. And that is what I was towing.
It says pet loops have electric, water and sewer. i.e. full hook up or higher. But, she knew we were on the 1500 loop.
And, the Agreement verbiage differs from what the Disney website says:
Despite all of this, the castmember charged me the $15 for my three night stay, and gave me a copy of my Agreement, and we were on our way to the 1500 loop. Truthfully, she didn't say anything more about it. Didn't even bat an eye.
As I mentioned, we were assigned to 1504.
It is one of my favorite sites in all of Fort Wilderness.
And it was where we would ring in 2011.
Sweet.
Some pixie dust had obviously come in from somewhere, because in the commotion of the week before we arrived, I never got around to faxing a site request. I was sure we would be banished to the 2000 loop. But we werent. We were living large on 1500!
As is our custom, I dropped the girls off at the marina, and I headed back to the site to get set up.
This time, I had a helper.
Rocky.
Truth be told, he wasnt a lot of help.
In fact, he was no help at all.
But, hes a cute little puppy.
So we are going to keep him anyway.
Before any serious set up could be done, we had to stop at the dog park first.
One of the TCD twins got a new camera from Santa.
Her old one was stolen.
Here are some of the photos she took on the TCD twins monorail adventure:
Check this photo out . . .
On New Years Eve, the Contemporary played a Toy Story triple feature!:
A few shots from inside the Contemporary Resort:
While the girls were off gallivanting, Rocky and I hit the dog park.
Where he ran with the big dogs.
Very big dogs:
Meanwhile, the girls saw this bomb sniffing dog at the MK boat dock:
While I was setting up, I got to meet a couple of Disboard folks.
First, Campingdawgs came over from there site on 1600 to say hello. These poor folks had a site with a complete view of ours.
And then anolefan came looping by with his family to say hello.
When the girls got back, Rocky went back to the dog park.
Here he is on the golf cart after his butt was good and worn out:
I have been training Rocky to bring me a beer:
The only problem is that he still carries them upside down:
Night comes early in December.
So, we got our Giddyap and Go, and enjoyed that at the campsite.
Good stuff.
Then the girls headed over to the Poly to watch the December 30th NYE Fireworks show.
I stayed back at the camper.
Rocky was no trouble at all:
Since I didnt want the girls to have trouble getting back, I headed over to the Poly with Rocky in the truck at about 12:30 to pick them up.
We did a little late night looping.
And that was it.
Not too much exciting on our first day.
But tomorrow is New Years Eve.
And we are in for a full day of fun!
TCD
DaveInTN
I'm Not The Castle Guy
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2008
Wow, sorry to hear about the robbery! What a crummy way to begin a trip. And what a crummy way to spend the Christmas season. I'm glad they caught the jerks. And hopefully they keep them locked up a bit longer this time.
Now, looking forward to reading more...
Now, looking forward to reading more...
Tri-circle-D
<font color=peach>Throwing some love to TCD<br><fo
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
Thanks, Dave.
I will see to it that the punks are locked up good and long.
Like I said, I know people.
They robbed the wrong guy this time.
But enough of that.
I shouldn't even think about it.
In the scheme of things, it isn't that big of a deal.
Are you back from Russia?
I hate to ask, but how did it go?
BTW-I finally have some good Dole Whip photos to share.
They will be coming along a bit later.
So keep reading along.
TCD
stefa70
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2007
WOW, TCD I'm so sorry that happened to you and your family!!!
I am a firm believer in "what goes around, comes around." Hopefully those punks are locked up with a big, hairy, burly man named Bubba!!
More than your "stuff" it's such an invasion of privacy. I hope your trip to the Fort helped, especially the poor girls. It looks like DD got a nice new camera though!
Enjoying your TR as always! Thanks for taking the time, even after all that!
I am headed to NY tomorrow to visit my Italian family, want me to send a couple down to your street?
I am a firm believer in "what goes around, comes around." Hopefully those punks are locked up with a big, hairy, burly man named Bubba!!
More than your "stuff" it's such an invasion of privacy. I hope your trip to the Fort helped, especially the poor girls. It looks like DD got a nice new camera though!
Enjoying your TR as always! Thanks for taking the time, even after all that!
I am headed to NY tomorrow to visit my Italian family, want me to send a couple down to your street?
MomofSixinSC
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2010
1. So sorry to hear about the robbery.
2. TCD twin has her Daddy's talent with the camera. Those were great shots.
3. Where are the shots of the puppy? Rocky has gotten so big!
4. We were in 1506! If we had just refused to leave and not frozen to death in our tent, we could have been next door neighbors to the great TCD! The downside would have been missing reading some of the great threads on here in the interrim.
5. Looking forward to more!
2. TCD twin has her Daddy's talent with the camera. Those were great shots.
3. Where are the shots of the puppy? Rocky has gotten so big!
4. We were in 1506! If we had just refused to leave and not frozen to death in our tent, we could have been next door neighbors to the great TCD! The downside would have been missing reading some of the great threads on here in the interrim.
5. Looking forward to more!
Hey Tom!
I'm not going to call anyone out or anything, but I'm not the only one slacking on getting his trip report started, now am I?
BTW- It was good to see you at the Fort!
And, congratulations on FSU's big win.
Big!
Impressive!
Things are good in Nole country!
I'm sure you noticed the FSU decorations got to stay up all weekend.
TCD
Yes sir, I have had a very busy season and I am just now getting around to posting the photos online so I will have a small report shortly.
I was glad to see you as well, wish we could have visited more. Maybe next time.
I can't wait for next season, I am really impressed with Jimbo and the energy he has brought to the program. I think we have a legitimate shot to crack top ten next year, but we'll see. EJ reminds me of Cam Newton a little bit. Hopefully he will develop like him.
Lastly, so sorry for your break in. That is a terrible way to spend the holiday season, but I am glad they (errr... you) found the punks.
I can't wait for more!
kazlac4
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2010
Wow, who would have thought that you would ever need to use your detective skills outside of the Fort. It's so sad that such lowlife feel they have the right to invade and take your property, but like you said, thankfully no one was hurt. Was Rocky home at the time of the break-in? I am glad for you and your family that you were able to not let it completely ruin your holiday. Looking forward to the rest of your report!
I think this picture says everything will be ok.
Know any good lawyers?
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