OFFICIAL OCTOBER 2017 pretrip and trip report!

[ruthies12]

@serenitygr Happy Birthday!!!! Come by my camper I have cake........

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Awesome report and photos everyone. Best part of my morning is sipping coffee and reading up on what ya"all have been up to.

Hope everyone is having some magical days!!!!!

 

[tripleb]

LOL my mind was fried last night when I was typing that. @tripleb what site are youbin?

We are in 1901 until tomorrow morning. Going to DS this afternoon for shopping and dinner. Leaving about 1pm, not certain what time we will be back. If you do come by, please stop and knock.

 

[tripleb]

Today was my birthday and it was a beautiful day!

Happy Birthday serenitygr ... sweet sixteen and never been ............

 

[tripleb]

I got all of our stuff put away for an early departure tomorrow ... our site looks barren now and not very homie. Hopefully, Nate will be well north of the coast by the time we get over that way. The bride is concerned about the patio furniture we didn't put up prior to leaving a week ago and is also concerned about our fur baby we left behind in the kennel. Our little Maggie ( Min-Pin ) is terribly afraid of thunder and hard rain. I keep reassuring Laura that Maggie will be just fine.

 

[FrozenOne16]

We made it to Florida! We arrived at my dad's house just before 1 this afternoon, only to find that their A/C went out! They had a tech come out, and turns out they can't fix it until Monday. So, he left us with 2 portable air conditioners. They have a big house, and they are not touching this heat! But, we are making the best of it! Heading to Top Golf tomorrow with my nieces and then lunch. Checking in on Monday! Can't wait!

 

[serenitygr]

Today was Gatorland! What a fascinating, yet also horrifying place! Amazing to see so MANY gators all in one place, and somewhat creepy at the same time. It was definitely a fun experience- we all learned something, and had a lot of fun too! Ended our day with supper at another Golden Corral, and now we're settled in watching a movie tonight. ( does it EVER quit raining here?)

 

[tripleb]

Yes serenitygr, there are times when it doesn't rain for hours LOL ! Being a 65 year old native of Florida, I always wondered why they named it the Sunshine State. Should have been the Humidity/afternoon showers state but that wont fit on the license plate Glad you had a GREAT time at Gatorland, its been years since I have been there.

We did about 8 hours at Disney Springs finishing the day off with dinner at the Boathouse. And of course got soaking wet walking back to the DS bus stop :-(

 

[ruthies12]

Sorry I didn't come by anyone's site today. We started at hs for rope drop, got to see olaf and doc mcstuffins with no wait. Rode tsm and tot and star tours with fp but never got to do rnr it was down the whole time we were there which sucked.

We made it over to ds at 2 pm, my dd's did the coke around the world tasting tray at the rooftop bar and they really enjoyed that. So badly wanted to do the hot air balloon and it was not flying all day cause of wind. It was a major bummer. I did get their phone number to call and find out if they are flying in case we get time to go back later in the week.

We did a little shopping and dinner at dluxe burger then my dds were totally done so my wonderful dh took them back to the camper and let me stay at ds. By myself. With the credit card. He's a wonderful man but obviously not very smart.

So anyway my mom and sister ended up coming out to ds and met up with me and the drinks from the margarita stand were real strong pours and I just now got back to the camper. So that's my long explanation of why I didn't visit Anybody.

Now I need to pour myself into bed cause we are rope dropping epcot tomorrow

 

[ruthies12]

Jim shore small world dolls, I bought the French one.


Coke tasting at the rooftop bar

 

[ruthies12]

Forgot to mention the new baseline tap house was quite nice. The cheese plate and pretzel with cheese fondue were really good. Beers were good.wish they had more indoor seating.

 

[snowmedic]

the margarita stand were real strong pours

I love Dockside Margarita's. Thanks for that pic, and all the wonderful updates.

Glad everyone made it safe.

@tripleb have a safe trip back to Destin.

 

[serenitygr]

Today was pandora/avatar land for us. We had a fastpass for FOP at 2:00- we did that and then checked the standby time for Navi but it was over 2 hours. Since we had dinner reservations at Cape May at 5:30 we decided not to wait. The kids both bought a banshee and then we caught the bus to Beach Club for dinner.
While we were at dinner we realized Sammi's banshee didn't turn his head very well, so after dinner the kids and I headed back to animal kingdom to exchange him for a healthier banshee, while the rest of our family tried out the "Minnie Van" service and took that back to the Fort.
Here's our opinions on things....
Minnie Van: awesome service- very simple to use and arrived within minutes. Their driver wasn't very friendly, but that's the only negative.
Cape May seafood buffet: very good food and very expensive. I would do it again, in spite of the price, simply because it was good food and two of our kids love crab legs.
Pandora: I'm the only one in our family who was somewhat bothered by motion sickness on FOP. The first minute wasn't bad but then I closed my eyes a lot after that. So for me I'd rather do soarin than FOP. The kids really loved it and so did my mom!
A bonus of exchanging the banshee-we got to see pandora after dark! It really was pretty, but not a very big area. The river ride said a 50 minute wait at 9:15 so we decided to do it. And even tho they announced it was broke down a couple times while we were in line, our total wait time was barely 30 minutes! So glad we decided to wait! And we really enjoyed the ride- it was a nice, relaxing end to our day, and very beautiful to see.
Tomorrow my mom, brother, and his wife are all heading back to Minnesota, so it will just be the 6 of us our last week here. We're staying until Tuesday ( I added a couple nights) and it's getting here way too quickly! Tomorrow we're heading to Legoland, and Tuesday night is the Halloween party... my daughter and I might do the barn tour Tuesday at 12:30- it sounds interesting!

 

[ruthies12]

Can somebody please call Florida and explain it's time for Fall? It's not the heat so much, but the humidity that is just killing us. My saint is especially unhappy and wants to know why we can't vacation in colorado....


Epcot was packed yesterday which I expected of course. Hit a few FW booths and it was good. Rode some of the rides. Dd4 did fine waiting in line for soarin but then freaked out when it was time to get in the seat. They walked me and her out and gave me a riderswap ticket which I plan to use when we go back wed and dd8 will ride with me. I think dd4 would have liked it but I'm not going to force her, frustrating though you know? When you know they'd like something but they won't try it...

Ended up leaving at 530 cause we were all just wiped out. As we were walking to the bus stop the skies opened. Course then it felt much better outside!


Today dd8 and I are going to universal with my sister and teenage niece. We have unlimited express passes which I'm very excited about. Dd4 is having a much needed day of rest at the campground. She loves horses so dh is going to take her on a pony ride this afternoon and a walk through the barn.

 

[serenitygr]

Can somebody please call Florida and explain it's time for Fall? It's not the heat so much, but the humidity that is just killing us. My saint is especially unhappy and wants to know why we can't vacation in colorado....
View attachment 275622

Epcot was packed yesterday which I expected of course. Hit a few FW booths and it was good. Rode some of the rides. Dd4 did fine waiting in line for soarin but then freaked out when it was time to get in the seat. They walked me and her out and gave me a riderswap ticket which I plan to use when we go back wed and dd8 will ride with me. I think dd4 would have liked it but I'm not going to force her, frustrating though you know? When you know they'd like something but they won't try it...

Ended up leaving at 530 cause we were all just wiped out. As we were walking to the bus stop the skies opened. Course then it felt much better outside!
View attachment 275623

Today dd8 and I are going to universal with my sister and teenage niece. We have unlimited express passes which I'm very excited about. Dd4 is having a much needed day of rest at the campground. She loves horses so dh is going to take her on a pony ride this afternoon and a walk through the barn.

Ruthies12- they do a free barn tour at 12:30 if you think your little one would like that!

 

[FrozenOne16]

We are headed to the fort! Well, outlets this morning and then the fort! We may get lunch at the outlets first, just depends on how long we shop. I will update when we know our tent site number!

 

[tripleb]

Yesterday was our travel day back home :-( Made the trip just fine although we ran into a serious Nate rain band between Lake City and Tallahassee. Traffic slowed to about 50 mph for awhile. Some wind with it but no real effect on the FW. Stopped by Camping World of Tallahassee to drop off the FW and then another 145 miles West without FW. My truck thanked me for that with 14.4 mpg without the FW.

We were somewhat concerned of any possible damage from Nate as we had not prepared our home for hurricane issues prior to our trip to the Fort. Well, my concerns were confirmed ... and I will spend most of the day putting "things" back together:

 

[tltay2005]

View attachment 275374
Jim shore small world dolls, I bought the French one. View attachment 275376

View attachment 275375
Coke tasting at the rooftop bar

We love to do the float sampler at Coke, so good!

 

[Jimsig]

Cape May seafood buffet: very good food and very expensive. I would do it again, in spite of the price, simply because it was good food and two of our kids love crab legs.

It's one the if not my DW's favorite restaurant and she has a shellfish allergy!!!! She loves everything else there

 

[JETS70]

Made it in from Lake Louisa around 9 am. About 95% set up. Going to Disney Springs for dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express. Teresa had the oven baked salmon and I had the bacon wrapped meatloaf sandwich. This was a quick service meal.