PTParaD Summer 2020 errr 2021 vacation.

[Part-Time Paradise]

This is a continuation of a vacation I started documenting in my thread. Start on post 198 if you want to follow our approach to WDW.

We were supposed to be on this vacation last year. Something happened globally, I think, that cancelled our trip and we had to push it all the way a year later. We have been to WDW before. We are seasoned campers. However, this is our first time staying at FW. It is nice to finally get here.

We started our day bright an early at Fair Harbor RV Park in Perry, GA.

This was the view out the windshield as we pulled out of Fair Harbor, almost beat the sun.

We made the drive to WDW and arrived just after noon. The text for our site showed up right as we rolled on to 429. Perfect timing all around. We opted for a Full site. The description of the "state park" feel as well as the price tag helped us decide as well. Our site is a little tight for our 41' 5er, but she slid in easy. It just took a few back and forths to get it where we wanted it and so the truck would fit in front of the site.


After getting settled in the site, the kids couldn't wait to get in the pool. A quick bike ride to the Meadows pool and the kids were off. They made a pal right away and before long all the kids their age were throwing a ball around the pool. They had a blast in the 2 hours we stayed.

Everyone freshened up at the rig and we headed off to Disney Springs for our 530 reservations at Raglan Road. DS was BUSY. While I was in line to check in at the hostess stand, 4 parties walked off because the wait was over 2 hours. I don't know how you got food if you didn't have a reservation this evening. Because the restaurant was slammed and we were starving, we weren't picky about our seating. We got a table up against the wall kind of behind the stage. It wasn't great, but good enough to see the little stage in the middle.

I got the braised beef and the Tri Wish Red Ale (verrrry happy with my choice), DW got fish and chips, and the kids both got the OMG burger. All of the food was good. Only DS needed a doggy bag. Everyone else cleaned their plates.

The braised beef was amazing

She absolutely loved the burger. I don't know that I've seen her eat something that big, that fast before.

After dinner we headed to the Lego store. There was a line that looked like it was for Space Mountain (I'M OUT!). We walked through World of Disney, but nothing really jumped out at us. On the way out, we hit Everglazed for some dessert/tomorrow breakfast.


The fun part of the night was the kids navigating on the map. They each grabbed a map and collaborated together to get us to all the spots. They had fun and only got twisted up once.


Magic Kingdom in the morning. Game on!

 

[4077]

This is a continuation of a vacation I started documenting in my thread. Start on post 198 if you want to follow our approach to WDW.

We were supposed to be on this vacation last year. Something happened globally, I think, that cancelled our trip and we had to push it all the way a year later. We have been to WDW before. We are seasoned campers. However, this is our first time staying at FW. It is nice to finally get here.

We started our day bright an early at Fair Harbor RV Park in Perry, GA.
View attachment 585341
This was the view out the windshield as we pulled out of Fair Harbor, almost beat the sun.

We made the drive to WDW and arrived just after noon. The text for our site showed up right as we rolled on to 429. Perfect timing all around. We opted for a Full site. The description of the "state park" feel as well as the price tag helped us decide as well. Our site is a little tight for our 41' 5er, but she slid in easy. It just took a few back and forths to get it where we wanted it and so the truck would fit in front of the site.
View attachment 585345

After getting settled in the site, the kids couldn't wait to get in the pool. A quick bike ride to the Meadows pool and the kids were off. They made a pal right away and before long all the kids their age were throwing a ball around the pool. They had a blast in the 2 hours we stayed.

Everyone freshened up at the rig and we headed off to Disney Springs for our 530 reservations at Raglan Road. DS was BUSY. While I was in line to check in at the hostess stand, 4 parties walked off because the wait was over 2 hours. I don't know how you got food if you didn't have a reservation this evening. Because the restaurant was slammed and we were starving, we weren't picky about our seating. We got a table up against the wall kind of behind the stage. It wasn't great, but good enough to see the little stage in the middle.

I got the braised beef and the Tri Wish Red Ale (verrrry happy with my choice), DW got fish and chips, and the kids both got the OMG burger. All of the food was good. Only DS needed a doggy bag. Everyone else cleaned their plates.
View attachment 585346
The braised beef was amazing
View attachment 585348
She absolutely loved the burger. I don't know that I've seen her eat something that big, that fast before.

After dinner we headed to the Lego store. There was a line that looked like it was for Space Mountain (I'M OUT!). We walked through World of Disney, but nothing really jumped out at us. On the way out, we hit Everglazed for some dessert/tomorrow breakfast.
View attachment 585350

The fun part of the night was the kids navigating on the map. They each grabbed a map and collaborated together to get us to all the spots. They had fun and only got twisted up once.
View attachment 585357

Magic Kingdom in the morning. Game on!

You had me at Everglazed (the donut portion of my trips — generally Joffrey’s — is one of the most important parts). Looks like a great start.. have a blast and I’ll be watching and reading along

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Went out for a morning ride.

Got some really great twilight pics of FW this morning. Have to paw through them tonight.

Oh, and I almost got hit by a car that ran the stop for 2700-2800 loops. I guess the obnoxiously bright blinking flashlight on my handlebars said, "All clear".

What better way to prepare for a day of magical thrills and near death experiences, than actual thrills and near death experiences?

 

[Teamubr]

Great TR, Jack!

Being a former long distance cyclist, I had to laugh at the 10ft of elevation change. I didn't realize the Fort had even that much. As for cars, I always assumed they don't see me or don't care.

Have a great time and report (with pics!) as you can. We'll see you in a couple of weeks at Walt's house.

j

 

[garneska]

When i run i get about 10 feet of gain. My friend joked it was probably me getting in and out of the RV.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Being a former long distance cyclist, I had to laugh at the 10ft of elevation change. I didn't realize the Fort had even that much.

Could've been from me hopping up and down on the pedals when I was at the guy's door. He was surprised to be passed by an angry cyclist and slowed to about 5

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Day 2 in the books.

As I alluded to this morning, I took a little predawn bike ride around FW. I started around 530 and finished around 6

Shadow of a little buddy by the lightpole


The marina at twilight


Over by the 2000 loop


Sorry for the blurry picture, but I could've booped this doe in the nose. She didn't care about me at all.


Canal behind 1800 loop

I got back to the rig and cleaned up. We started moving later than we wanted, but some pixie dust helped us out. We waited for the internal bus for about 5 minutes and then when we got out at the Settlement a MK bus pulled up behind us. We jumped on and ended up making it to the ropes at Adventureland around 742am.



We hit Thunder Mountain hard (4 times). Then wandered through Frontierland and Adventureland. We had lunch at Pecos Bills and then headed towards Tomorrowland and the skies opened up. All the rides closed for awhile and we stood under some People Mover track until the lightning cleared out.

Thunder Mountain reopened (per MDE) first so we hit it up again and Splash Mountain also finally opened up (it was closed all morning). It was a bit of a long wait, but a good ride. We did Tomorrowland Speedway and the tea cups a few times and that was it. We were cooked.


Back to the rig for dinner. We just finished up as another storm system is blowing in. We're going to hit the showers and get ready for the morning for Animal Kingdom.

 

[bama_ed]

So your family must REALLY like Thunder Mountain to ride it 5 times.

Glad to hear the transportation to MK (internal, external bus) went smoothly. And being in the park ready for RD at 742am is an impressive accomplishment. However, the Main Street photo you posted looks busy. (maybe they were all headed for 7DMT instead?)

Did you bus back to the Fort before the storm arrived or take the boat?

Great post.

Bama Ed

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

So your family must REALLY like Thunder Mountain to ride it 5 times.

Glad to hear the transportation to MK (internal, external bus) went smoothly. And being in the park ready for RD at 742am is an impressive accomplishment. However, the Main Street photo you posted looks busy. (maybe they were all headed for 7DMT instead?)

Did you bus back to the Fort before the storm arrived or take the boat?

The line was just really short all day for TM. The longest we waited was maybe 20 minutes.

The Main Street photo was before RD. They let everyone through the Hub to each land entrance and dropped it around 8. A lot of folks must've ran straight to 7D because the wait was over an hour by 815.

We stuck out the first storm and went back to it. DW and I were completely smoked for the day. We lucked out again and hit the docks just as a FW boat was unloading and cruised back and only waited for an internal bus for less than 10 min. The second storm arrived minutes after we got to the rig and it's still raining now. Quite hard actually. I have a sinking suspicion that this storm isn't going to take all the humidity with it when it leaves.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Morning Gang.

Day 3 at FW

The night before DD got a wild hair and wanted some Mickey and Minnie nails. Not too bad for her doing it by herself.


We started out heading to AK. We missed rope drop by about 20 minutes, but it wasn't too bad crowd wise when we got to the park. We headed first to one of our favorites in all of WDW, the Kilimanjaro Safaris. The animals were out in force. We got to see a lot and some of them were quite close including the giraffes.



A good ride.

From the Safari, we headed over to the train to go to Rafiki's Planet Watch.


When we arrived the Disney Animator's class was just about to start, so we hopped in. The program was fun. We drew Copper from Fox and the Hound.


Then from there we explored the exhibits and had an interesting chat with one of the techs that makes all the food for the animals at AK. She said that her and 5 others make about 12 tons of food everyday for the animals. That's a lot of food.


Upon returning to Harambe, we walked through Gorilla Falls trail and got to watch a CM feeding the birds. He put out a bunch of fruit and then shook a maraca and the birds descended from everywhere. It was pretty wild (pun intended?).

Then we worked our way towards lunch at Flame Tree BBQ. Bub had the rib and chicken meal (WAY too much food, but it's vacation), DD and DW had the BBQ mac and cheese, and I had the BBQ chicken salad (I knew I was going to bat a lot of clean up). All pretty tasty for WDW QS. The corn bread croutons in my salad were a unique touch.






From there DW wanted to go to Expedition Everest. With her new found love of Thunder Mountain, she was ready to tackle another coaster despite it looking more intimidating. She did OK, but I don't think she's going to ride it again ANYtime soon.


The wait was 60 mins long, but I think we made in more like 40. While we were in the Everest line and ride, the rain that was threatening all day long finally showed up to ruin the party. It really opened up. We had a few more things that we wanted to do in AK, but it was just not fun and not worth riding out so we headed for the bus stop.

Back at Maddie Montana (our camper) we pulled out the washer and did a few loads of laundry and dried out from the rain. It was a nice break in the day. We had some smalls snacks because we wanted to grab some snacks in the World Showcase instead of a big dinner.

Out of picture allocation. On to next post.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Day 3 continued...

So off to Epcot we went around 4pm. The Flower and Garden festival is still trucking. Some nice topiaries out there still.




We also ran into Pooh catching some butterflies


The front of the park was pretty dead except Test Track. So we worked our way through Spaceship Earth, Soarin' and Living with the Land pretty quick. We decided to go to Test Track and we were in line about 15 minutes and a large cell moved through south of the park and lightning closed the ride. Fortunately it didn't rain, but no ride. We went off to find something to eat.

While wandering the WS, I saw this view. I know Disney has a vision for these barge things straight out of a bad sci-fi movie, but boy they aren't pleasant to all the work their predecessors did on the theme and beauty of the whole place.


Nothing really jumped out at us at some of the pavilions. Mexico piqued our interest, but the absolute crushing lines to all of the kiosks had us moving on. The kids settled on a Mickey pretzel (womp womp) from Block and Hans and dad had a beer (a Kentucky Bourbon Ale...it hit the spot). Then we saw the shaved ice on the Kabuki Cafe menu, so DW and the kids grabbed some shaved ice and also grabbed a spicy roll and a Sapporo for me.

After our snacks we bit the bullet to jump in line for Frozen Ever After. The line said 60 minutes and I think we used up every second of that. The ride was cute and has some interesting tech, but the ROI seems a little skewed. It was our first time, so it was worth it. I don't think we'll return on this trip though.

When we got out of Frozen it was already past closing, so we walked towards the exit.


We shut it down and got settled into bed.

Today is mostly a FW day. We're going to meet some friends at Splitsville for bowling and lunch and the rest of the day is hanging around camp or the pool.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Day 4 - Hiding from Rain and Splitsville

Today has been a nice slow day, minus the rain. Everyone slept past 7 am and had a nice slow morning. We headed over to Disney Springs around 1030 and met some friends from Tampa for bowling and lunch. It was a nice visit. The food didn't really blow my wig off, but it wasn't wildly overpriced for Disney.

After our session we strolled around DS some and our company had to get back on the road. We came back to the trailer and enjoyed some more quiet time and watched several patches of rain come and go nearby, but none hit us. We finally saw our window and jumped on our bikes for the pool. After about an hour, the sky darkened and the wind picked up. We grabbed all our stuff and jumped on our bikes. Just as I was putting the bungie cord on the tarp over the bikes, the skies opened up. It hasn't stopped raining since, about 3 hours now.

We're hoping the rain buzzes off eventually so we can get down to the lake tonight to watch the first night of fireworks and the Water Pageant. Come on pixie dust.

Also, need buckets of pixie dust to move Elsa away from FL. The theme of this trip is rain!

Hollywood Studios tomorrow.

 

[serenitygr]

Hi Part-Time! Do you know if there’s a movie playing every night now or just certain nights?

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Every night we were here in June. Need to grab a new calendar for July, but I believe it's every night.

 

[serenitygr]

Every night we were here in June. Need to grab a new calendar for July, but I believe it's every night.

Thanks!!

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Long day today. Hit rope drop at HS and park hopped to Epcot. Lots of pics to sort through. Here's the nicest shot of the day though:

Fireworks at Epcot!

On the bus right now with 100 of my closest friends (busses back to full capacity with masks now). I'll try to catch up in the morning or tomorrow. With the storm looming, we're going hard into the paint to see everything before we have to make a decision.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

OK, catching up as Central FL is getting soaked yet again so we're hunkered down waiting for it to dry out before we head out for the day.

Day 5 - HS and Epcot

I woke up plenty early to get a RotR virtual queue spot. At 7:00:06, all the spots were gone. I am the only Star Wars buff in the family and I wasn't that disappointed. It's more mind boggling that in less than 6 seconds I couldn't get a spot.

We got to HS right at 9 am and planned to go to SDD, but it was already stacking up so we went for MMRR instead. What a nice little ride. The whole family really enjoyed it and the line was pretty quick in the morning.

From there we headed to Toy Story Land. We went to TSM and dad got the high score.

Then we braved the rain and got into the SDD line. It moved pretty quick. Another crowd pleaser for the gang.


We dodged rain all day. My feet were a squishy mess by this point. To avoid the rain we walked through the Walt Disney Presents gallery.

Then it was lunch time. 50s Prime Time is always a favorite for us. The shtick and the food is our pace. At several points in the meal "mom" walked by and the kids perked up or change behavior so as to not get in trouble. It was quite amusing. I had meatloaf, DW had pot roast, DS had fried chicken, and DD had the sampler. I didn't get good pics before we started tearing it apart. The food was quite tasty.



DW and I made the Clean Plate Club and got rewarded. I received extra credit for eating a piece of chicken off of each of the kids' plates.




After lunch we hit Muppets 3D, Alien Swirling Saucers, TSM again, and Lightning McQueen. The rain was rolling in again and we were just soggy messes. We packed it up back to the camper to grab dinner and fresh socks.

About 2 hours later we headed back to Epcot. DS desperately needed to get to Test Track and was heartbroken when we were there the other day when lightning shut it down. So that was the first thing we knocked out. Then we hit Three Caballeros and strolled and snacked the World Showcase until the fireworks started at 10. DS and DW went for shaved ice in Japan again, DD wanted a Dole Whip, and I got some poutine from Canada.

The fireworks start at 10. We were just absolutely beat and walking 30+ miles in 4 days was taking a toll on the 4 of us. However, watching the kids smile and just reflecting about the grand scope and scale of Epcot, let alone all of Disney World, really makes the magic bubble up to the top. I know it's not the same as we remember always, but it's still a pretty great place.

 

[bama_ed]

That is a nice Epcot fireworks picture, PTP. ED

PS - I see in your signature that you've stayed at CBR in your past visits. Do you miss it?

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

PS - I see in your signature that you've stayed at CBR in your past visits. Do you miss it?

I wasn't a RVer at all last stays, so I was a total babe in the woods on the idea of FW. Now that I'm a camper and stay in hotels routinely for work, I'm to the point of abhorrence of hotel rooms. I like to be in my bed. So FW or not, campground always wins.

From a purely WDW/resort perspective, I appreciate the spread out nature of FW, but the transportation doesn't make it seem far away. We don't wait 7 hours for the park busses to hit every single stop coming or going to the parks like at CBR. The internal/external choices make it seem faster.

Also, I really enjoy the lower population. We hustled out of Epcot last night, but not sprinting and we made the first bus with ease. At CBR, we'd probably still be in the line waiting for the 18th bus this morning.

I think COVID and Reflections closures are warping my sense some, because FW is missing something without Mickey's BYBBQ, HDDR, Chip n Dale, etc. Regardless, if we're ever on property again, its FW.

Now if this Hurricane could take a hike...

 

[Teamubr]

Loving the pics!

You seem to be hopping to a 2nd park easily. Have you had any problems getting the 2nd park you wanted?

j