OFFICIAL OCTOBER 2017 pretrip and trip report!

[FtW Mike]

We saw the deer across the canal every morning and evening while we walked the Girls Funny story WookieBear was being a selfish girl one morning and wouldn't go for more Daddy time. We went to far end and while were there the Turkeys came over. When we finally headed for the coach we made the opening and there were 3 still behind the bush in front of your site. We passed the bush and they took off Scaring more urine out of her than I had ever seen her pass

 

[Teamubr]

Great looking cart Ed. Not Top Tier, but honorable... Much better than I would have come up with.

Nice job tracking down FLBBQMAN.

Looks like a great DIS Meet/trip.

j

 

[FtW Mike]

Ed, I thought you said you bought a costume...

I thought for sure he was going to be Carl or at least be Carol

 

[bama_ed]

Ed, I thought you said you bought a costume...

What were you expecting? Captain Jack Sparrow? I know how to say, "what happened to all the rum?" if need be.

I'll list the pet, site, pumpkin, and GC winners in the morning. Wrote them all down at the Beach Bash.

Bama Ed

MORNING EDIT - Dad tells me I missed the joke. Yes, that is my normal parenting look that goes with the phrase: "you did WHAT to the car?".

 

[bama_ed]

Good morning. Dad went on a walk-a-bout so I am holding off on cooking breakfast to provide the results from last night's big competitions:

Best Golf Carts (refer to prior page post #771 for pix):

• Best Disney themed: Wall-E
• Best Fort Wilderness themed: Food Truck
• Best Overall themed: Steamboat Willie (who, again, was immediately behind my cart in the parade-heard Willie whistling the whole way)

Pet Parade Awards (I have no pix of specific dogs just the earlier "atmosphere photos"

• Best Halloween Costume: Skeleton Dave #81
• Best Funny Costume: Gumball Machine #84
• Best Disney Costume: Little Mermaid #64

Pumpkin Decorations

• 3rd place: #44 (no picture, was a late arrival)
• 2nd place: #17 apple

• 1st place: Pulling face open (guy in loop 200 submitted this. talked to him as we were walking back. got idea off internet).

Best Site Decorations:

• Fort Wilderness themed: #358 Haunted Fort Wilderness (will try to get around to it today)
• Disney themed: #1459 Beauty and the Beast (they had the music playing from B&B)

• Overall themed: #1435 Pirates (I have a picture in an earlier page with skeleton at the ship's wheel). Might get a daylight photo today.

Next a couple more pictures from yesterday after the golf cart parade.

Pumpkins that spell out "Fort Wilderness" in front of the Settlement TP:



The Halloween tie dye activity down at the marina before the Beach Bash (no idea on cost):



Sun setting through the Spanish moss:



Beach Bash about 945 pm (my back to lake. it was set up with a dj who had loud thumping jumping music and a stage next to the boat rental bldg)



Parking for the drive in golf cart movie behind TE. It was hoppin'.



Time for some breakfast. Dad is back.

Bama Ed

 

[JETS70]

on the pics Ed.

 

[tiggerdad]

That pumpkin carved like an apple was a pretty darn good idea. Haven't seen that one before. I've seen the carvings with the "pulling" open before, but his does have a little more detail than the ones I've seen.

Good work Ed

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Loving the report Ed. Thank you is just not enough for all you have posted. I haven't read up on the October report for a couple days and had 80 updates to read on. Love seeing all the pictures and details on the Halloween festivities.

Happy Halloween!

 

[bama_ed]

This morning is very relaxing. After getting checked in on Sunday, setting up, then on Monday decorating and the parade plus, today is a down day until later this evening.

After breakfast I ran some Fort errands and did the following.

First I went to loop 300 to see the site decoration winner in the Fort Wilderness category. Left side, right side, then center close up.







Next I went to 1400 to take a daytime photo of the Pirates site decoration winner.



However, just before it (Big Bear Circle, on the inside, about 2/3 way around) is a good display in the FW theme. It's a haunted FW campfire singalong.







That will probably be me in the crowd in another 50 years...

The Bike Barn and Meadow TP area was buzzing with families working on crafts and the Fort Scavenger Hunt (got a copy):



The DIS-Fort Wilderness Scavenger Hunt tie breaker is to find these:



It started out cool but is warming up nicely. Temps should be in the 70s today and mid 50s tonight. But at 1030 there were 4 lifeguards working the pool for zero swimmers.



Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

 

[JETS70]

View attachment 280767

Again........

Are you and your dad going to visit a park or is this a Fort trip only? I have been trying to get my parents to the Fort for a long time. I know they would love just spending time at the Fort. And eating at Trails End and sitting on the porch and looping and meeting other Fort campers and the Campfire Sing a Long and seeing the horses and taking a boat ride across Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon and watching fireworks from the beach and...................

 

[Teamubr]

there were 4 lifeguards working the pool for zero swimmers.

View attachment 280765

I think the stocking cap says it all.

Thanks for all the pics. It looks like a great day at the Fort and lots and lots going on. Fun time to be there.

j

 

[tiggerdad]

Those blasted initials! I refuse to let anybody tell me where they are. Every time I'm there I spend some time looking for them.

 

[bama_ed]

Absolutely beautiful Halloween Day at Fort Wilderness. It's 74F, blue sky, warm, and I haven't seen a bug or skeeter since we got here.

Before lunch today Dad and I went for a little joyride via boat and monorail with the plan to ride to EPCOT and back (which we did). Sure was relaxing.



By the way, while I am type this I am listening to a bluegrass album that has four songs that play on the background loop at the Fort - Bela Fleck's The Bluegrass Sessions - Tales from the Acoustic Planet Volume 2.

When you get off the big boat at the MK dock from the Fort, there are two security gates. It moved very quickly.



The MK has a Mickey's Not So Scary tonight and tomorrow night so it is all decked out in orange.



As I said, we were just joyriding so we didn't go in MK. But we did head over to the monorail station to ride to the TTC and transfer to the EPCOT line.

When we were riding back, I got two pix of the construction work around the MK Toll Booths. Here you can see the flyovers being built to take hotel resort guests to their destination directly without going through the toll booths. At the bottom you can see the ramp that's pulling off for Fort Wilderness. Note it already has a bar over it to prevent Randy from loading his golf cart on top of his toy hauler.



In the next picture you can see the new ramp just to the right of the retention pond and to the right of that is the old straight line ramp that ran to the STOL runway. It will be nice not having to go through the booths and try to GET RIGHT RIGHT NOW for the turn onto Vista Blvd.



It was warm and sunny enough to sit up front in the boat leaving MK to go back to the Fort.



Like serenitygr says, coming into the Fort dock feels like returning home.



There were swimmers in the pool this afternoon. The lifeguards had put away their stocking caps and jackets for Ray Bans and Coppertone.



The limbo contest was just getting started on the pool deck. Maybe we should incorporate this activity into the Gulf Shores DISmeet? It would definitely be entertaining!



A Bama Ed Fort trip wouldn't be complete without a Meadow Trading Post domestic 6-pack beer price update. $16 now.



Things are calm here. It's the calm before the storm.

Bama Ed

 

[bama_ed]

 

[bama_ed]

Those blasted initials! I refuse to let anybody tell me where they are. Every time I'm there I spend some time looking for them.

 

[bama_ed]

Again........

Are you and your dad going to visit a park or is this a Fort trip only? I have been trying to get my parents to the Fort for a long time. I know they would love just spending time at the Fort. And eating at Trails End and sitting on the porch and looping and meeting other Fort campers and the Campfire Sing a Long and seeing the horses and taking a boat ride across Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon and watching fireworks from the beach and...................

Steve, Thursday is our only park day at MK. It has the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween special ticket events tonight (10/31) and tomorrow night too (11/1). When that party is done, the Halloween decorations come down and the MK Christmas decorations go up the same night because the Disney Christmas special ticket event party starts in a week. So we will be in the MK the first day they have the Christmas decorations up. No rush to do parks and a vacation to me should be relaxing. We have things to do tomorrow but no time clock to punch.

We bought 1-day MK tix today for Thursday and I just made us FP+ for the afternoon two days out. We have ADR's for lunch and dinner (splurge) but I purposely waited till now to do tix and FP+. It feels more like an old fashioned WDW vacation that way - not as hyper-scheduled so far in advance. ADR's were my only concession to that.

I have a purpose to my MK visit that I will share later and I have been given orders by DD to come home with some rose-and-gold Mickey ears so it won't be completely free wheeling but mostly so.

Bama Ed

 

[tltay2005]

We enjoyed our last night at the Fort. We had a great time in the parade, lots of very well done carts. Our was a Halloween theme.


After the parade we went back to camp and made a quick dinner, then it was off to the beach for the party. Voted on the pumpkins then had a moonshine berry drink, very good, but way to much ice and not enough liquid, lol.



After we walke the nature trail behind the trading post and watched the last sunset of this trip.



We took one last trip to look at the decorated sites, then headed back to our site.

 

[tltay2005]

Double post

 

[tltay2005]

Worst morning of the trip.....packing to go home. My little friend was sad to see us go too.


Well that's all for this trip, see you back at the Fort in a couple weeks, we will be back Nov 10th for my birthday weekend.