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PTParaD Summer 2020 errr 2021 vacation.

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

Thanks.

Haven't even had to consider it. We've been blissfully ignorant for looking at anything to say if we can or can't hop. Hit the MBs on the mouse head and walk on in to the parks. The crowds are pretty manageable, actually. Only time I wanted to throw Bill Laimbeer elbows was at the fireworks last night and I can accept that.
 


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
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Shadow of a little buddy by the lightpole

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The marina at twilight

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Over by the 2000 loop

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

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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.

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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.
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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.
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I’m loving reading these trip reports!
 
Day 6 - Magic Kingdom

The weather just wasn't cooperating at all. Instead of fighting into rope drop, we hunkered down in the camper. We ate lunch at the rig before heading to the bus stop around 1230. As soon as we walked in, it was right back to Frontierland and Thunder Mountain. We rode it 3 or 4 times and then we finally dragged the kids away to catch some more of the park.
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The kids can't get enough of Thunder Mountain.
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As compared to their faces in line for Dumbo...

Rides other than Thunder Mountain we went on were Dumbo, Barnstormer, Space Ranger Spin, People Mover, and the Astro Orbiter. It was raining off and on and just getting miserable. Some of the indoor rides provided some nice retreat, but when it opened up as we were stuffing my 6'5" frame along with DS into the Astro Orbiter, the wet butt settled it. We headed back to FW to dry out and eat dinner.

With Hurricane Elsa's forecast getting better accuracy DW and I were talking about it each day. I wasn't particularly worried about winds or safety, but we were both not really keen to pay $120+ for a campsite and watch it rain sideways for days on end.

On the boat from MK we made the decision to cut Disney (and our follow on to Jetty Park). Which led to the plan of get to the rig, dry out for a few minutes, drive to the Outpost to change our reservations (I cancelled our theme park reservation and was able to snag another MK day on what was a planned FW day, so we will get to use up our entire tickets), and grab P&J's for dinner.

There were a few tears shed and some sad faces for awhile. The Rib and Chicken Dinner from P&J's helped a bit to ease the sadness as well as scoring 3 nights at Gulf State Park, so we'd still get some beach time in.
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P&J's was unbelievably delicious and cheap by Disney standards. We had leftovers for an entire lunch the next day. Basically 2 meals for less than $50.

After dinner we loaded back up to catch the boat back to MK for fireworks. Our timing was a little poor. We got through security about 905pm before the 915 show. Main Street and the Hub were at full dumpster fire occupancy already. After attempting to find a few spots, we settled on a spot about halfway down Main Street. Not the best view, but plenty good enough.
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I don't know that I'm totally sold on all the lighting all over the castle and the new show is going to project stuff on Main Street too. I found myself watching the video on the castle more than the fireworks, which I didn't really plan to do. I also feel like the bean counters said "lights and music are cheaper than fireworks, so let's do WAY more lights and less fireworks." Rant over, get off my lawn. Back to TR.

When the fireworks were over, we weaseled along Main Street into Tomorrowland heading for 7D. Half of the people that stayed in the park after the fireworks were on the same plan. We got to 7D and the line was still pouring out of the stand by entrance. The kids and I waited (too much coaster for DW and probably DS...shhh he doesn't need to know that) for about 15 minutes. No trains came by the whole time. The app never said the ride closed, but we weren't going to wait 55 min for a maybe, so we regrouped and headed over to Peter Pan.

Once out of Peter Pan, both kids begged to go back to Thunder Mountain. So to Thunder Mountain we went. I think we rode it another 6 times. I think we've found our ride? We finished our last ride just after park closing at 11 pm. So we walked leisurely out of the park to the boat and back to the site a little after midnight.
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The patriotic castle was a nice touch on the way out (my lights during the show comment still stands though!).

I'm a day behind now, but the next day was Epcot and HS again. I need to stop typing and start tossing beds to get to MK before the rain sets in today.
 
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I am so enjoying your trip. So sorry Elsa is not being very nice. Be safe & continue the report if you have the time. Our favorite was Soar'n. I could ride that all day.
Thanks. Makes it worth the effort to record.

The kids enjoy Soarin' too. Did that twice this trip, but the line doesn't help on that one.
 
We're huddling in the rig hiding from, guess what??? Rain. So I have some time to catch up on yesterday.

Day 7 - Epcot and HS

Epcot is opening at 1100 am right now, so it was a nice reprieve to sleep in from closing MK the night before. Of course some rain blew through so we ate lunch before we left the rig for the day.
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Matching shirt day! For a while I felt like a goob, but it was nice to be able to track each other down. We got a few compliments, several of which started with, "Oh, are you guys staying at that campground?...that's cool. :confused3"

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The Seas was our main destination. The kids really enjoyed the aquarium. Being Sunday (or COVID?), we didn't see many of the demonstrations that I remember in previous visits. There were several CMs wandering around ready to answer a direct or eavesdropped question, so that was nice. The kids had several questions that were answered and it was nice to see them interact with adults so well (maybe DW and I are doing something half right).

From the Seas we found our way over to Figment and then the Land. We did Soarin' again as well as Living with the Land again. The plants on the second part of the tour really interested DW and DS as they are the gardeners in the family. If it's still going on next time we come, we're definitely going to do Behind the Seeds.

At this point it was about 330 pm. Not quite dinner time and we were Epcot'd out. So we decided to hop on the Skyliner and go over to HS and get at SDD and MMRR again.
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I like the Skyliner. It would make staying at CBR a little more worth it, though I'm amazed how far away the station is from anything relevant at CBR. Almost looks like taking the bus would be more efficient.

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At HS we jumped in line at MMRR. The line moved pretty quick, but it's a ride that truly demonstrates that the guy/girl that aims the fans down on the the queue lines, clearly NEVER stands in the queue lines (I think this is true of almost every line, not just MMRR). Instead of pointing them as close to parallel to a switchback, they are almost completely perpendicular. So you only benefit from the fan if you happen to stop right in line. It happened again, whoops. Rant over, get off my lawn.

MMRR is real cute and the kids really get a kick out of it. From MMRR we headed back to Toy Story land. The line for TSM was pretty short, so we jumped in there to soak up some more AC. DW ruined my perfect reign as top TSM scorer. I was certainly tired, but I call shenanigans on my gun. I don't think it was firing every pull. Oh the humanity.

After MMRR we grabbed dinner at Woody's Lunchbox. I had eyed this spot when I was planning the trip, but talked the family out of it on our first day at HS. It was convenient to where we were, so we gave it a try. DD and DS had the BBQ Brisket Melt, DW had the grilled Cheese, and I had the Totchos. I also grabbed one of the pop tarts to split.

Well, I was a bozo. The food was quite good all around. We all enjoyed the pop tart so much, we ordered a second one to split as yet ANOTHER rain cell blew in. We enjoyed our second dessert under the umbrellas and waited until the rain passed.

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The flavor of the day was raspberry. Dang, it was good.

We emerged from our sugar rush and strolled over to SDD. As we entered the queue, the CMs were on the phone and we looked to the horizon and saw some really ugly clouds. Curses...lightning passing about 5 miles south of the park.

We were committed. We stuck it out. Each time the CM announced that the lightning was still out there more left. When the ride started back up finally we had a 10 minute wait. Probably waited about 60 minutes total. That shut down HS for us and we walked out.

We arrived back at the rig just in time to grab the bikes and head to the beach to watch the fireworks. There was a "beach bash" going on. It was a poor idea probably. So many "happy" revelers stumbling :drinking1 around and a huge golf cart, bike, pedestrian traffic mess. We stayed and as soon as they were over, we darted out on the bikes, dodging the platoons of 12 year olds flying around on dad's cart (holy crap...almost hit several times), and back to the site for showers and bed.
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Thanks for reading along. We did MK today and I'll try to tidy that up tomorrow evening from Gulf Shores.
 
Loved your adventures! So sorry that Elsa will not leave. Can't wait to see all the fun y'all will have @ GS! Safe travels!
Oh!! PS: love your shirts.

Thanks for both. The weather is a bit of a bummer, but we're making the best of our plan. As Eisenhower said, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
 
Day 8 - Magic Kingdom Thunder Mountain

This day was the first day that felt normal in the parks. We had some FL weather...some brief showers that blew through in less than an hour, crowds were normal sized, heat wasn't overbearing, etc. It was nice.

With our plan changes that I've mentioned in the last few posts, I was able to secure a MK park reservation on Day 7 of the trip. This was supposed to be a lazy day at FW and lunch at Homecomin' (sad face), but we made the best of it.

We got to MK just after opening at 9 am and went straight to Thunder Mountain. From there we split up and DS and I did Splash Mountain and DD and DW did Thunder Mountain again. We caught Small World, Haunted Mansion, and Swiss Family Treehouse.
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The enthusiasm for Small World WASN'T quite there, haha.

Lunch was Pecos Bills followed by Dole Whip floats from Sunshine Tree Terrace. I really like the plain old pineapple Dole Whip, but the orange ones at Sunshine Tree are pretty darn good.
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DS went for strawberry Fanta and vanilla, DD orange/vanilla swirl, DW diet coke and vanilla, I had orange Fanta and orange cream. All pretty dang good.

While we were eating our ice cream we decided to beat the heat by going back to FW and get the kids to the pool and I would pack up camp before rain came in and get us out early in the morning. Then we would eat dinner in the trailer to come back and close down MK.

We ran into this cavalcade on the way out. It was complete with dancers at the front and back of the characters. I felt like post July 1, the characters and stuff like this really ramped up. It would be nice to get back to normal.
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The kids got about 45 minutes in the pool before a storm blew through. I had enough time to get everything packed away, tied down, covered up, etc except for the stinky slinky and the water hose (which is what I wanted). While it was raining we ate dinner. Just as it was slowing, we jumped back on the boat to MK. We got there around 730 pm and jumped back into the MK fray. The crowd was pretty thin already and people were heading more and more to the Hub throughout the evening. We did Thunder Mountain a few more times, then the Regal Carousel, and Pooh.
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After those two rides, the kids requested a Sunshine Tree encore for dessert (don't twist my arm too hard). We ate our ice cream just as the fireworks started.
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After the ice cream was done, guess where we went? Yeah, Thunder Mountain. The kids couldn't get enough. It took longer to walk from the exit to the line than our wait. On most of the the rides, we didn't stop walking until we got to the cattle chute to line you up for the train. I think we rode a total of 15 times this day, probably flirting with 25-30 for the total trip. I'm glad they enjoyed it.

Around 10 pm I told the kids that we can do whatever they want until 1040 and then we were heading for the boat. There were some frumpy, sad faces as this was our last day at WDW because of the hurricane, but they persevered and after that last Thunder Mountain ride we did Pirates and Aladdin and few times.

We got back to the rig around 11pm and hit showers and bed to get on the road early in the morning.
 
Great trip report. Really enjoyed it. Having the kids really makes a difference. Those memories will be with us forever as they will for you.
Sorry you had to make the call to cut the trip short, but I get it. Enjoy the remainder of your vacation!
 
Great trip report! I dont think i have been on big thunder that many times in my lifetime! Lol. At least it was that one and not its a small world. Dont get me wrong, i like small world, but........
Have a safe home.
 
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Day 9 - Checking Out and Final Thoughts

Wake up was 630am. Everyone got moving relatively easy. DW and DD took care of tying down inside while Bub and I worked on dumping and final prep outside. A few final walks around the rig and we were off to Gulf Shores.

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Thanks site 1806. You were a gem for the first time. We had a some good shade and probably 30-45 yards to the next site on our curb side. Nothing behind us but the canal.

As @bama_ed asked, how did I like my first FW trip vs staying in a resort. I really enjoyed our time at FW. We will certainly stay there 99/100 next time we come back, unless the overhead of dragging the rig there and back outweighs the cost.

Follow along back at my usual thread for the rest of my trip, here.
 

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