February at the Fort

[MissDisney21]

I had sent MissDisney21 over here from the resort forum. If any of you happen by the Meadows and see the price on the charcoal, or if any of you recall it.

If not MissDisney21, I'll be there 2ND week of March and I'll check on it then if needed.

Thank you for the help! : )

 

[Teamubr]

Can someone check on the cost of charcoal and matches at the Meadows for me? Staying in a cabin first week in may and would like to use the grill. Thank you!!

I just stopped in. 3 lb bag of charcoal $6.95.

I don't see matches, but I'm sure they have them.

j

 

[tiggerdad]

Thanks Jim! Classy as ever.

 

[Teamubr]

Wow! What a first full day. It started a little aggravating, but ended great.

First, I’ll try to keep this about the Fort and WDW, but I will say there are some things about ASSp that I like. The food court is great. I wish all the parks had something like it. Regular Disney prices, but the portions are huge. The grounds are very nice. I like the “larger than life” decor. Except for the rooms. They are smaller than life. I’m pretty sure my 5er has more room, and a kitchen.

Some may know this was a runDisney weekend with the Princess half marathon going on this morning. That’s all nice for people that feel the need. Unfortunately, I needed to return the rental car at the Car Care Center by MK’s parking lot. This is on the exit road from the MK parking lots. The same road the runners are on. I was supposed to return it at 8. The signs closing the road said it was closed from 0500-0830. I drive down World Dr. towards MK about 805 and see THOUSANDS of runners (mostly walkers actually), hundreds of cops and more orange cones than I thought existed in the state of Florida. I pull through the MK lots and head back to the resort until 9. At 9, I try again. Nope. Hundreds of walker/runners still. The cop says it is “over” now and give them 30 minutes. I drive to the MK drop off and wait until 935 or and try again. Nope! I then circle over to Vista Blvd and head towards the Fort. I loop back down past the kennel and as I come back up World Drive, I can see cars on the outbound road, finally. I get to the CCC about 10 and drop the car. I had a FP for Space Mt from 10-11. The rental car shuttle takes us to the TTC so I can head to MK. I think the express monorail would be quickest and it probably would have been except they were just bringing another monorail out from the shed and had to switch the beams over. 15 minutes later, we are on the monorail and heading to MK. We get in the park about 1105 and figure I'll try to push the FP window for Space. DW checks MDE and it says SM is down. Figures. I never got a chance to ride SM in September because it was down or I didn't have a FP (and I won't wait 150 minutes)

After that, things started falling into place. Weather is great. 80's and we walked around MK most of the day. By mid afternoon, our FPs were gone and we headed over to the Fort to meet bschil and her family. She picked us up in her very Wisconsin decorated Fort GC. It wasn't hard to miss. She said, look for the cart with the cows on the roof. Sure enough, there was a herd up there.

We spent a couple of hours sitting at Barb's camp site talking about camping and the DIS. Barb and her DH are very nice. Thank you for the hospitality and the cheese and beer. Hopefully we can meet up later this summer at a campground somewhere near us. I had made an ADR for TE. Barb took us down to the Settlement and dropped us off door side (almost).

Thanks again.

After dinner we took the big boat back to MK soe we could catch a bus to ASSp. We pulled into the MK dock right at 0755, just as HEA was starting. Lines were minimal, so we ran into the park to catch the show again. Great ending to a pretty decent day.

Tomorrow is HS to start. Not sure after that. We may head to DS for some shopping and try of Edison's for dinner.

We did stop at the Settlement Trading Post while heading to the boat and saw this pic I wanted in September. I'm going to take the racing pics down in my office and need something "classy" to put on the walls. This should fit the bill.



j

 

[ChiefM]

That picture is so cool, I will have to get one when I convince my wife to make another trip to Disney.

 

[bjschil]

We have been having such a fun time, that I kind of forgot to Post. We arrived Saturday, 1423, set-up, and had a relaxing and scrumptious supper at Trails End. Went looping, and joined the fireworks and EWP at the beach. The weather was perfect. We think we did not bring enough “warm-weather” apparel. Sunday was a gorgeous day, and we swam, and sat at the pool for quite a while. Came back to wait for Suzy B and her two wonderful young ladies, who we bought Girl Scout cookies from. Visited, back to the pool, to join our DD, SNL, and two grandkids. Later, Jim, (teambur), his wife and son came for a visit. It was fun to meet someone you have chatted with for years. Loved the conversations, both with Jim and his wife, and Ian. We hope to meet sometime in a great inbetween spot for a camping weekend. Early evening our niece husband and two kids joined us for the week in a rented TT. They are between us and our daughter. First time camping, and at Disney. Another beautiful beach night. Monday we went to the Magic Kingdom, with the rest of the world! Wow, it was busy and or. We were, however, able to ride five attractions before lunch, and one in the afternoon, before we snagged a curb for the parade. Tuesday found us at a a very empty Epcot. You could walk on Frozen and have a 15 minute wait. Did the rides that we had selected, and saw and toured about 1/3 the countries, and today takes up back for a longer day of visiting more countries. Will watch Illuminations tonight. A much needed pool early evening, supper at the campsite, and a fun evening of playing cards.

 

[Teamubr]

I'm with Bschil,

We've been out having so much fun there hasn't been time to post. We have now hit all all 4 parks for full days. Today was EPCOT with the 1st day of F&G. I was expecting high crowds because of F&G, but it was really nice until this evening. You could tell when the locals got off work. Or at least the high school girls that got out of school who started coming in around 6, all dressed in their best party dresses. Looked like homecoming night in our home town.

Overall, once we got past Sunday, the crowds haven't been bad. Much better than last September after the hurricane. And the weather has been amazing. 80s, low humidity. Once the sun goes down, it is comfortably in the 70s. We came back to the room before Illuminations tonight so I can get papers graded and the 17,000 steps we are doing each day is taking its toll. Soaking feet in the pool while on the laptop sounds like a good plan.

Tomorrow we will start at MK. I grabbed another FP for SM. I'm not going to go another trip and not ride it. I may head to AK or EPCOT tomorrow evening to see the night time shows. Illuminations is rumored to be going away soon and I want to see if they have added anything to RoL.

j

 

[tigger92662]

We hope to meet sometime in a great inbetween spot for a camping weekend.

Teamubr & bjschil, count me in if we can plan a "midwest dis meet". I think I'm about half way between the 2 of you.

 

[Teamubr]

Teamubr & bjschil, count me in if we can plan a "midwest dis meet". I think I'm about half way between the 2 of you.

Joe,

You are probably closer to Barb, but talking about finding someplace over by Galena. I like state parks or COE places over private cgs. If we get something together, we'll send you the details.

j

 

[bjschil]

Thomson Illinois is a great COE campground, along the Mississippi, with great biking through the area. And the best yet, no trains. They are about 3/4 mike away in Thomson. They use Reserve America for bookings.

 

[tinkerjo]

I am sorry I didn’t get to join the meet and greet. I somehow missed the post on the lot number. We did have a great week. We were in lot 2037 and it was a nice large lot but not close to any of the activities so we did rent a golf cart on our fort day and had a blast. We surprised the kids with it and they were really excited. We found 2 painted rocks and Re hid them to make someone else’s trip more magical. The pool was awesome but not open nearly late enough as I wanted to sit in a nice hot tub after a day at the park. We were able to do the sing along one night, the hoop de do, and fireworks on the beach. DH and DS fished ( he was pretty disappointed that you had to fish off the deck at the trading post and the 300 loop was a far walk so he only did it once). There were only a couple small issues. The ice machines were not working alot. I know these are not owned by Disney but when tent camping, ice is a must. One night we were locked out of the comfort station and had to use the “facility” located in the trees. We all got Chigger bites ( we thought the mosquito wipes were for mosquitoes, which we saw none) and the wildlife scavengers are relentless!!! they chewed though a plastic tote to get to food and they were not scared to come up even if you are sitting right there!!! All and all we had a great trip but I hope to have a class C for my next trip. I personally am not a lover of tent camping, there is just too much work involved in packing, setting up and tearing down. Our trip was very busy and fun but it was nice to sit around camp at night and fall asleep to the sound of he electrical water pageant