TCD's Thanksgiving 2010 Trip Report

[Lil' Lisa]

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[mdoc]

TCD, not to derail the TR train, but I had a question about your MK evening EMH experience. How crowded was it? The 11 year old has decided that she needs to do a midnight to 3 am EMH at MK during Christmas week. While I don't love her (or anyone else) enough to accompany her at that hour, the 17 year old is willing, and dh might reluctantly consent to go along. Will it be super crowded? Will they be able to get much accomplished in that time? At what time do the crowds thin out, if ever? thanks!

 

[ILOVECAMPING]

Also- about the golf cart ride- I am going to send you a private message about this. I think you will need to have ten posts to get it. Be sure to check on that.

TCD

ok thanks!
I think this will be my 10th post

Gumbo is really good... but it depends who make it.

I love your trip report and pictures
Awesome!!!

 

[mom of 3 (or 4) boys]

I am much more a lurker than a poster, but I have to share that my family right now is laughing and re-enacting the double rainbow video from you tube all while its snowing here in Chicago.
I can only imagine your family re-enactment in the Fort parking lot...that is great stuff and the things memories are made of.

I just found this camping thread last week on the boards....I can't believe I had not seen it before.

Looking forward to lurking some more!

 

[storyteller]

 

[BradyBz12]

TCD, not to derail the TR train, but I had a question about your MK evening EMH experience. How crowded was it? The 11 year old has decided that she needs to do a midnight to 3 am EMH at MK during Christmas week.

Keep in mind that Christmas week is going to be a whole other animal.

People I've spoken to who've been there say there really isn't a time the park isn't busy - no matter how late it is.

That said, we did a 2am EMH our first Sunday there (14th?) and I was surprised at how many people were in the parks til the end - kids included.

It was far from busy though - but then that's typically a pretty quiet week.

 

[nelle]

TCD, not to derail the TR train, but I had a question about your MK evening EMH experience. How crowded was it? The 11 year old has decided that she needs to do a midnight to 3 am EMH at MK during Christmas week. While I don't love her (or anyone else) enough to accompany her at that hour, the 17 year old is willing, and dh might reluctantly consent to go along. Will it be super crowded? Will they be able to get much accomplished in that time? At what time do the crowds thin out, if ever? thanks!

We did this over last christmas and it wasn't too bad at all. We would all take naps/rest and get up at 9pm and then head to the parks. We went into MK on Dec 25 at 10pm saw the fireworks and then fought our way to tomorrowland where we were pleasantly surprised to find low crowds. Space mountain had a posted 45min wait but it was more like 30min(which sounds like a long time but it was the shortest wait we'd seen all week). We did a lot of late nights and really enjoyed it. Our youngest was 5 and he did fine staying up that late as long as we took naps. Now next year will be something different altogether since we will have 1 year old twins with us not sure how we will do the late nights.
Sorry TCD for the hijack

 

[Tri-circle-D]

loving the trip report TCD. So much so that I lost track of time and burnt a whole pan of cookies!

Wow. Sorry about that! I hope you made more.

Loving it... Need more. Very funny stuff.
Love storys, go figure. I'm shadowing, I'm leading up to more praises on furture TR's from T C D..

I'm glad you like.

There is still a lot to come.

We still haven't finished Monday yet.

But I will be finishing Monday in my next post.

And, then it's on to Tuesday.

There is still plenty of pixie dust to come!

It makes me think of Figment... Now there is some bad marketing for you!

Agreed.

Poor Figment.

To tell you the truth, I never liked him that much. Especially when he went around with that creepy guy with the big moustache. Creepy.

TCD, not to derail the TR train, but I had a question about your MK evening EMH experience. How crowded was it? The 11 year old has decided that she needs to do a midnight to 3 am EMH at MK during Christmas week. While I don't love her (or anyone else) enough to accompany her at that hour, the 17 year old is willing, and dh might reluctantly consent to go along. Will it be super crowded? Will they be able to get much accomplished in that time? At what time do the crowds thin out, if ever? thanks!

Our 3 AM EMH experiences have typically been in November, at the beginning of Thanksgiving week, and in February, the Sunday before President's Day. If it is a cold night, or rainy, the park will empty out fast. If it is mild, folks tend to stick around. Even on a crowded night, by 2 am, you will begin to feel like you have the park to yourself. We usually save one of the mountains for last. Our preference is BTMRR. If things go right, you will be able to stay on your train, and ride again and again and again, right up until the park closes. I think my DD's went 15 times in a row one time. I could have stayed on, too, but my back started to hurt after about the 5th consecutive ride. To us, it's pretty awesome whenever you can stay on a ride and take another spin. That doesn't happen too often, but it happens all the time at the end of a late EMH.

ok thanks!
I think this will be my 10th post

Gumbo is really good... but it depends who make it.

I love your trip report and pictures
Awesome!!!

Well thanks. I hope you have a magical trip.

I am much more a lurker than a poster, but I have to share that my family right now is laughing and re-enacting the double rainbow video from you tube all while its snowing here in Chicago.
I can only imagine your family re-enactment in the Fort parking lot...that is great stuff and the things memories are made of.

I just found this camping thread last week on the boards....I can't believe I had not seen it before.

Looking forward to lurking some more!

I always appreciate it when a lurker pops up to say hello.

I know that there are a lot of lurkers on the camping boards, because the threads get read a lot, but usually only a few folks post on the threads.

I hadn't watched the double rainbow video in a while, so after posting about it here, I went and looked it up. I had no idea that there were so many parodies of it now. There sure are some funny people out there!

Please feel free to continue reading along, and post comments whenever you like.

Keep in mind that Christmas week is going to be a whole other animal.

People I've spoken to who've been there say there really isn't a time the park isn't busy - no matter how late it is.

That said, we did a 2am EMH our first Sunday there (14th?) and I was surprised at how many people were in the parks til the end - kids included.

It was far from busy though - but then that's typically a pretty quiet week.

I agree that Christmas week could be a whole different thing altogether. But, even so, most folks are not going to make it to 3 am. So, even if it is a busy time, you will not find the park emptier than you will toward the end of a late EMH.

We did this over last christmas and it wasn't too bad at all. We would all take naps/rest and get up at 9pm and then head to the parks. We went into MK on Dec 25 at 10pm saw the fireworks and then fought our way to tomorrowland where we were pleasantly surprised to find low crowds. Space mountain had a posted 45min wait but it was more like 30min(which sounds like a long time but it was the shortest wait we'd seen all week). We did a lot of late nights and really enjoyed it. Our youngest was 5 and he did fine staying up that late as long as we took naps. Now next year will be something different altogether since we will have 1 year old twins with us not sure how we will do the late nights.
Sorry TCD for the hijack

I've said it before, and I'll say it again- there is no such thing as a thread hijack on a TCD trip report. Feel free to go off on any tangent you wish, and we will make it back to the story!

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Continuing on with our story . . .

When we made it back to 1711, things were a bit damp.

Not bad.

But damp.

It almost always rains when we camp.

Even if no rain is forecast.

But, I am usually ready for it, so no problem.

Some photos of our wet campsite:

We spent the afternoon around the Fort.

Things dried out, and we were able to do some looping.

When heading back to 1700 after a soda run, we saw something moving in the swampy area between the 1500 loop and the 300 loop:

Do you see anything besides a bunch of plants in any of those photos?

Here's a zoom of the 3rd photo above that will give you a hint as to what we saw:

There are always workers around doing something at the Fort.

On this trip, the herbicide sprayers were out everyday.

That must be a pretty good job.

They give you a tank full of herbicide and tell you to spray everything that is trying to grow between the campsites.

But the "Man" has no way of knowing if you walked all around and dutifully sprayed everything, or if you dumped your tank in the canal, and spent the afternoon playing tetherball. Who would know?

TCD would:

These fellows were enjoying a tetherball game on the 1500 loop. Notice that they are using their feet instead of their hands. A bunch of rule breakers.

I don't have a photo of the fellow who spent quite a bit of time sitting on the picnic table behind the site next to mine and texting on his phone instead of spraying his herbicide. But, I'll bet his tank was dumped in the canal, too.

Stick it to the man!

This isn't a bad thing.

Maybe some plants will grow between the sites now.

And maybe that herbicide will help with the green slime situation.

So it's a win/win for everyone.

Moving right along . . .

I prepared a special meal at the campsite on Monday night.

Pirate Jeff's Macaroni and Cheese!

I got the recipe right here on the Disboards.

Good Lord, there's a lot of cheese in that Macaroni and Cheese.

But it was good.

After dinner, we headed to Hollywood Studios.

We knew it would be busy.

Our main objective was to enjoy the Osborne Lights.

And maybe catch a ride or two toward park closing.

Here are the lights:

We also got to enjoy Tower of Terror. And Rock 'n Roller Coaster. Twice.

We had to (gasp) wait in the regular lines. But, they moved fast. After finishing our ride on the Rock 'n Roller Coaster, we had just enough time to get on line again. The sign said the wait time was 100 minutes. But, having just been through a slightly longer line in less than 20 minutes, we knew that was a lie. I have seen this happen enough to realize that castmembers intentionally inflate wait times on signs at the end of the night to discourage people from getting on line. Our experience has been that if you get in line just before closing, these lines move extremely fast. Every time. The castmembers want to get out of there, so they really focus on getting the rides loaded and the lines moving efficiently. So, that's a free tip for any newbies reading along- if there's a ride you really want to do on a busy day, save it for last, and hop on line at the very last minute- you will get your ride in, and you will not have to wait long.

We finished up our night at DHS, and headed back to camp.

We planned to head back to DHS for rope drop on Tuesday morning.

Check back to see how that went.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

I was up early on Tuesday morning.

As usual.

But, when I tried to get the girls up, they protested.

They decided that they didn't want to get up for ropedrop.

That has never happened before.

We usually stick to the plan.

But, today the plans would be altered.

It wasn't worth a fight, so I let them sleep.

And, I headed out to see what I could see.

I began my patrol out behind the 300 loop.

There is a lot of open space here.

And lots of cool trees.

Like this cypress tree:

Here's a tranquil view of a resort launch rounding Discovery Island on the way to the Contemporary. You can see the castle and Space Mountain there in the distance:

On my way down the path to the Settlement Trading Post, I noticed something new.

This white pipe:

That wasn't there at the beginning of November.

Whoever put it there was kind enough to put a date on it, so we wouldn't have to wonder when it was put there:

So, according to the notations on the pipe, this thing was installed on 11/17/10. This photo was taken on 11/23/10, so we just missed them installing this.

But what is it?

The orange cap says it's a Test Well:

Because I am the curious type, I decided to unscrew the orange cap.

What could go wrong?

Well, as soon as I untwisted the cap, a geyser of muddy water shot right out of that pipe, 50 feet in the air!!!

Not really.

Just kidding.

Gottcha!

Actually, nothing happened.

I looked down the pipe.

I couldn't see anything.

But, here's a photo of the cap resting on top of the pipe:

Looking toward Bay Lake from here, it looks like a path has been cleared through the woods:

This photo is taken from the spot of the white pipe, looking toward the 100 loop and the Settlement Trading Post:

And here we are standing back just a bit from the pipe, looking toward Bay Lake. There are some big trees here, and you can see that a path has been cleared:

Even though it is Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, and the parks and the Fort are packed, I have the Trail's End porch all to myself:

Notice that there is not a single Christmas decoration to be seen.

Nothing.

The parks and other resorts are fully decorated.

But the Fort has nothing.

Well, that's not quite true.

Remember how we saw a Castmember digging in the oval fenced area just across from the porch yesterday morning?

Well, there is something new here today!

Poinsettias!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Well, maybe not a lot.

But at least a little:

So far, though, this is all that we have.

What's going on here?

Why aren't the Fort's decorations up?

You can see that there is still no Christmas tree, and no decorations on the Settlement Trading Post:

Here are a few photos from around the corner of Pioneer Hall.

First, here's one looking toward the TCD Barn- you can see the old windmill tower standing in the center of the photo:

And, this photo is taken from the same spot, but now looking toward the Settlement Bus stop:

Rumor has it that there will be changes coming in 2011 to this area of the Fort.

We will have to check back on this next year.

Here's the Horse Drawn Excursion sign:

And here's a photo of Pioneer Hall at sunrise:

A shot from the porch looking toward the Settlement Trading Post:

A shot from the porch looking toward the playground:

And, here we are on the porch, looking down the pathway to Clementine's Beach and River Country:

If you look carefully at the photo above, you can see the Clementine's Beach sign and a hawk sitting on a post.

You can't?

How about now?:

You can see the edge of the sign if you look to the left of the base of the big pine tree toward the center of the photo. The hawk is perched on top of the post right across from the tree.

As I was sitting there taking this all in, it dawned on me that I was making a big mistake by not getting the girls up to head to Hollywood Studios. I knew that if we tried to go later, it was likely that there would be no fastpasses to be had, and we would be stuck in a crowded park with limited options. I decided to head back to camp to ask them to reconsider.

On the way back, I saw this set-up in the 500 loop, and stopped for some quick photos. I had seen this guy drive by our site on Monday. Notice that the truck is painted like Herbie, the Love Bug:

These folks had a Herbie golf cart which was still up on the truck:

Make sure that you notice the graphics on the trailer.

Pretty cool:

Hollywood Studios wasn't going to open until 9.

I headed back to the site just a little past 8 to see if the girls would get up.

Check back to see if we made it to Hollywood Studios on Tuesday morning.

TCD

 

[stefa70]

LOL! I wonder if those spray techs ever get anything done! One afternoon they parked in front of our site, dropped their packs and watched about 1/2 hour of our very competitive cornhole game........I know, I know, you hate the name of that game.

 

[DaveInTN]

When we were at the Fort last Thanksgiving the Christmas decorations all went up overnight the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. On Wed morning it was as if elves had descended upon the Fort overnight.

 

[storyteller]

Is it Tuesday morning yet...
What happen, what happen??????

 

[NLPRacing]

TCD

Is it just me, or is a big rig a bit excessive as a tow vehicle? The F450 wasn't big enough for this guy?

 

[Tri-circle-D]

LOL! I wonder if those spray techs ever get anything done! One afternoon they parked in front of our site, dropped their packs and watched about 1/2 hour of our very competitive cornhole game........I know, I know, you hate the name of that game.

Well that seals the deal. If I ever work at Disney, I am going to be a spray technician. I will get paid to play tetherball and text all day. But, I will draw the line at watching a competitive cornhole game.

When we were at the Fort last Thanksgiving the Christmas decorations all went up overnight the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. On Wed morning it was as if elves had descended upon the Fort overnight.

Dave, you will remember that I was at the Fort last Thanksgiving too. So, I am sorry, but IMHO IRRC, the decorations went up on Wednesday evening. Not Tuesday.

But you are right that it is magical.

One day there is nothing, the next, decorations are everywhere!

It used to be like that at the theme parks, but these days they start the decorating early.

The Fort seems to be the last place on the elves' list.

Is it Tuesday morning yet...
What happen, what happen??????

More from Tuesday morning will be coming soon.

Is it just me, or is a big rig a bit excessive as a tow vehicle? The F450 wasn't big enough for this guy?

Definitely overkill.

But, I like it!

And, for whatever reason, I have seen this more recently than I used to in the past.

For those reading along, another installment will be coming right up.

Make sure not to miss it.

I will be revealing the winner of the TCD Real Man of Genius Award for this trip.

And, the recipient is most worthy!

TCD

 

[caveat lector]

...
Because I am the curious type, I decided to unscrew the orange cap.

What could go wrong?

TCD

"....up through the ground came a bubblin' crude.....black gold.....Texas Tea."

Next thing you know, TCD moved to Beverly, Hills that is. Complete with a cement pond.

Sorry for the old TV show reference. Just seemed appropriate......

 

[Tri-circle-D]

I had better luck with my second attempt to wake the girls.

I told them that if we didn’t get a move-on, we would probably end up with a wasted day.

They got moving.

We took the bus to Hollywood Studios, as it was now just a bit past 9, and we had probably missed our opportunity for a good parking space.

The bus dropped us off where the tour buses park- not at the Fort bus stop.

I think that made our walk a little longer.

We were greeted with this scene at the bag check line:

This is the view looking just over to the side:

This was at about 9:30 am.

The park had not even been open for an hour.

But it was packed!

That’s the last time we miss rope drop!

After we finally got through the lines to just get in the park, our strategy was to divide and conquer.

The girls would go ride Tower of Terror, and I would go get Fastpasses for Toy Story.

I headed over to Toy Story.

It was crowded back there!

I got the Fastpasses.

It was a little after 10.

The return time was for 6:30 pm!

Yikes!

It didn’t take me long to get the Fastpasses.

I knew that the girls would not yet be done with their ride.

So, I ducked into the One Man’s Dream Attraction.

We used to go in there all the time during the Year of a Million Dreams.

We heard it was a good place to be awarded a dream.

We never got one.

At least not in there.

But, I always enjoyed it.

It had been a while since I visited this attraction, and I heard there were some new things on display.

And, there were.

This display was not new:

But, I had never looked at it that closely.

I did today.

It’s a prop from an old television broadcast.

Where Walt himself shared his vision of what would become Walt Disney World.

The big map is really interesting.

Up at the top, you can see Bay Lake:

And Discovery Island is right there!

I have heard it told that one of the things that attracted Walt to the land that was ultimately purchased for Disney World was Bay Lake and Discovery Island. As the story goes, Walt was flying over what was then a lot of undeveloped land in central Florida, when he spotted Bay Lake and Discovery Island, and this became where he was interested in building his new project.

If you look closely, you can see the words "New Island" and "Original Shoreline" printed in Bay Lake. Also note that the Seven Seas Lagoon is not shown, nor is the Magic Kingdom located where it is today. Instead, the map shows a South Seas Resort where the Magic Kingdom ultimately ended up:

Epcot is depicted on the map close to where the Epcot theme park sits today. But, Epcot is depicted as a city of tomorrow:

In this same display, there are copies of scripts used in television broadcasts about Disney World:

One new thing that I noticed in another display is this model of the Nautilus Submarine from the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie:

I heard from the girls by text, and we agreed to meet over in the animation building so they could meet Lotso, a new character from the Toy Story 3 movie.

Here he is:

For the record, I object to Duffy, but Lotso is fine.

Team Lotso!

After we met Lotso, we took in an American Idle show, and then I was able to get Fastpasses for Rock ‘n Roller Coaster. The return time for them was between 7:20 and 8:00. So we now had Fastpasses for that night, but it wasn’t even noon yet, and the park was packed!

We decided to bail.

We would come back later to use the Fastpasses.

We headed back to the Fort.

We had zero wait for our bus.

Sweet!

Back at the Fort, it was time to loop.

We decided to look for candidates for the TCD Real Man of Genius award.

Someone gets one on every trip.

I was going to nominate these campers on the 2000 loop.

Because they had six tents on one site:

I mean that's a lot of tents.

And you have to admire the arrangement.

But, then we rounded the loop and camp upon this:

Take a moment to take this all in.

These folks have a full sized refrigerator/freezer.

Awesome.

But, I have seen that done before.

Now, please make sure to take a closer look.

Here is something that I have never seen:

Yes, that’s a dishwasher.

And a sink.

In a cabinet.

And, if you look closely inside and to the right in the cabinet, you will see a small water heater tank.

And these folks were on a partial hook up site.

I ended the nominations right then and there.

We had our Real Man of Genius.

No question about it.

But how the heck would they use that dishwasher with no sewer connection.

They couldn’t, right?

Wrong!

We will come back later to take a look once they have this all set up.

You really won’t believe it.

I don’t believe it either.

And I saw it with my own eyes.

After the excitement of finding the TCDRMOG award winner so early in our trip, we decided to loop some more and enjoy some of the great decorations at the Fort.

We visited the 700 loop. The last two sites on the 700 loop to be exact. The campers on these two sites have been there for the Christmas season for as long as I can remember. The lady who camps on the last outside site is Jeannie.

On Jeannie’s site, we found Minnie enjoying a nice bubble bath:

I love Jeannie's attention to detail.

If by any chance you read the TCD Halloween 2010 trip report, do you remember the display with the bride and the severed doll heads?

How could you forget?

Well, that was Jeannie.

Jeannie also had a snow man family:

I meant to count how many Santa in an Airstream inflatables I saw at the Fort on this trip, but there were too many. However, Jeannie is the only one who had Mickey and Minnie pulling the Airstream:

Hilda is the lady who camps on the last inside site on the 700 loop. She is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. You can see her decorations in the background of this photo:

We will take a closer look at some of Hilda’s decorations in the next post, and I will share a story about a controversy between Hilda and another long-term and well known Fort resident.

But, we will finish this post up with a couple of more photos of Jeannie’s decorations:

And, with that, we have reached the photo limit for this post.

It is still Tuesday. We will be spending some more time at the Fort before heading back to Hollywood Studios.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

"....up through the ground came a bubblin' crude.....black gold.....Texas Tea."

Next thing you know, TCD moved to Beverly, Hills that is. Complete with a cement pond.

Sorry for the old TV show reference. Just seemed appropriate......

No apologies necessary.

I love me some Clampetts!

All of them:

Jed.

Granny.

Ellie Mae.

And especially Jethro!

What a great show!

TCD

 

[Judy in Texas]

Topic for a future thread: Rank the TCDRMOG awards you have bestowed. Would this one be at or near the top?

I'm thinking the wife said "I'm not camping without my frig, dishwasher, hot water... and the husband took it as a challenge. He won. I wonder if there is a bathtub in the tent?

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Topic for a future thread: Rank the TCDRMOG awards you have bestowed. Would this one be at or near the top?

I'm thinking the wife said "I'm not camping without my frig, dishwasher, hot water... and the husband took it as a challenge. He won. I wonder if there is a bathtub in the tent?

Ranking the RMOG award winners?

That is a great idea!

But, honestly, I have a hard time remembering anyone who can top the RMOG who brought a dishwasher to the Fort.

I mean, I was impressed with the guy who had the custom made rack attached to the back of his bike which could hold six refillable mugs, and which was designed so that the mugs would be shaded by his ample rear. And, I guess if it was cold out, he could lower his seat and keep the coffee warm. Like a mother bird on her nest. But that looks like kid stuff now.

I will still take a look at this and get back to you.

Thank you for your suggestion.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any others.

TCD