The DisFort's Chit Chat Cafe

[jbrostek]

Ok so some trip updates. The biggest thing to note was that there where golf carts and sites availible all over FW our entire stay. Not that FW wasn't busy, but when you see at least 7 sites open in the 1400 loop, less then 50% of the 400 and 500 loop and our own 600 loop where open. Parks where less crowded, but none of this ghost town stuff you keep hearing about. I woudl say it was more then 2021 attendance levels with all the restrictions, yet clearly off from 2019 levels. A friend was at universal the same time, and I asked how crowds where there. He stated it was also very low crowds with rides he expected to have long wait times being less then an hour.

That said it just made our trip a little more enjoyable.. While Melissa and Lauren ended up arriving close to midnight on Saturday evening, we rested up for Hollywood Studios the next morning. It was a little bit of a hot mess at first since our Framily and us had discussed a time, though my bestie and his son failed to communicate their plan to rope drop HS. Once their side sorted that all out, we all rolled out around 9am.



HS was moderately busy and it felt like RRC was down most of the day. Even Slinky went down at one point due to a system sync issue but we still managed to ride. We managed without any LL to do all but RRC. We had dinner reservations at 5 for SciFi Theater which non of the girls have ever eaten at. Lauren proclaimed she had the best milk shake ever!



After dinner we walked around a bit. By 7:30 we thought about going to Fanstimic, however, chose to do some shopping and head back. We made it back to FW just before 9. We got one last photo in on our way out!

 

[jbrostek]

@FtW Mike Oh Daytona was 11am on a Friday and not only was it crazy busy, the parking lot SUCKED for getting in and out of with a big trailer. We stopped and Florance and its remotely doable if you stay l to left of the store. Yet not worth it for us when we can go to a truck stop and not have to deal with any of that parking lot craziness with islands all over the place for no rhyme or reason.

 

[4077]

Just an after the storm shot. Campsite flooded about 4 inches, made a mess , but this was worth it. I was ready for the storm, just not the flooding. Again no good cell coverageView attachment 780363, hope it loads.

Is that a very wet tent across the way? What campground?

 

[4077]

@FtW Mike Oh Daytona was 11am on a Friday and not only was it crazy busy, the parking lot SUCKED for getting in and out of with a big trailer. We stopped and Florance and its remotely doable if you stay l to left of the store. Yet not worth it for us when we can go to a truck stop and not have to deal with any of that parking lot craziness with islands all over the place for no rhyme or reason.

I thought I had heard that they don’t really want RV’s in their either (along with the trucks that they don’t want).. I dunno, but it’s daunting enough with just a car…

 

[Sjm9911]

Is that a very wet tent across the way? What campground?

Lots of wet tents, and broken ones too. Ez ups all over the place. Its delaware seashore state park. Always windy, tie down everything.

 

[jbrostek]

I thought I had heard that they don’t really want RV’s in their either (along with the trucks that they don’t want).. I dunno, but it’s daunting enough with just a car…

Yet they advertise to RVers, all over social media. Pictures of RVs at the pumps, etc. So far none of the facilities I have seen where built to be RV friendly. Having more options on TSD helps with Loves discounts being better. Plus addin Speedway and I finally have some PA options when I need it.

 

[FtW Mike]

Lots of wet tents, and broken ones too. Ez ups all over the place. Its delaware seashore state park. Always windy, tie down everything.

Syd You need to check your calendar. Fair week in De. is an iron clad guarantee of extreme heat and thunderstorms.
Oh and BTW thank you for not being here on the Delmarva peninsula next week when we are going to The Cheeseburger in Paradise weekend at Sun Chesapeake Bay Resort. Come to think of it . It rains at least once every trip there for us.

 

[Sjm9911]

Ok so we got home, it was hot. Cold front came in and took out power. So , just got the power back on. It gave me time to wage my never ending battle with the lawn moths. Sod webworms. For the last 4 years they have devistated my lawn, I cant kill them. I have tried many things. And fired 2 lawn companies. If I dont put a dent in them this year Ill give up and cancle the lawn pestiside/weed people. If my lawn is dead, why bother. If anyone has any ideas of how to battle these things please post it. Last week I sprayed with permetheam, and this week followed up with a granualar insecticide. I have to ware a mask cutting the lawn there are so many moths. In 2 to 4 weeks 1/4 of my lawn will die again. And then I have to reseed and soil the bare spots. Only to repeat this every year. Lawn is not overly big but its like 3/4 of an acre of grass. So this is getting expensive, and tireing. Thinking of getting a flamthrower and just starting from scratch!

 

[jbrostek]

Hopefully your treatment works. Seems most people swear by what you did through a quick google. I would say if you still got moths flying lay down another treatment of Pyrethrin which should knock down the adults. The granular will work on the worms and eggs.

This past weekend was random work around the house and ignoring following up on my trip posts. Yet around the house got Oscar the Highlander all fixed up for Lauren. The AC needed a splash of R134a and her AC was not draining properly, so had to find a way to clear out the drip line. In the end the AC is colder then before, and it started to drain properly so thats a plus.

I did my service on the mower with oil and filters changed plus a blade sharpening. Then moved back to my utility trailer project. I pulled apart one of the hubs to measure the seal so I could order the correct one. Plus replaced the stupid "tuner" lugs the previous owner put on the trailer and moved back to standard 1/2-20 lug nuts. Next up is finish wiring up the trailer, repack bearings, and repace the seals. Then I can roll it out of the garage and work on the redecking and finally call the job done.

 

[jbrostek]

So much work, so little time to post. Plus I had this really weird issue lately with Chrome where my typing is so severely delayed that writing these posts became painful! I have tried reloading, everything and decided to switch back to Firefox as it seems to be working without issue.

A quicker recap on the last of our trip. Monday was off to EPCOT, we dined at Space 220 and the food was phenomenal!! even the kids really enjoyed what they ordered.



Even without rushing in there we still managed to ride everything we where after and still enjoy most of world showcase. I did have to skip out on some candy shopping in Japan, yet, my scale will appreciate it I am sure. We wanted to catch the fireworks so we decided to find a place to plant. While they are in another interim show, it was better then the last and I kind of enjoyed it.

Who can’t capture one of these pictures each time.



Tuesday was a planned down day. So we slept in some, puttered around. Just about the time we where heading to the pool a storm rolled through and closed it down. So we decided to go looping and eventually made it by the Bike Barn where we found out about a scavanger hunt left over from July 4th. It was a fun way to burn up some time till the pool reopened. We spent the afternoon at the pool and went back to the camper around 4. Dinner was burgers and fries on the blackstone. The rest of the evening was spent with adults hanging out and playing cards while the teens went down to Disney Springs for some independent time, shopping and some ice cream.

We really enjoyed the lower attendance, you would never have known that was the case on Wednesday of our trip. MK was FULL, not capacity but well more then on the previous Saturday. Plus it got HOT. Though crazy enough we still where able to make morning of Dinner reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern, a place I have never eaten at because reservations where so hard to get. We enjoyed the day and got to watch Happily Ever After again....just happened to be the final song of our wedding reception.

Trip shirts are now a requirement according to DW…

 

[Teamubr]

Great update, James.

I love the trip shirts. Did you make those? DW got a Cricut for Christmas and is slowly learning it. Your shirts looked a little beyond our skillset.

j

 

[jbrostek]

@Teamubr The trips shirts Melissa found on Etsy and ordered them.

Thursday was our planned visit to a water park! We used our DVC discount for our tickets saving us a bunch o money. I actually enjoyed Typhoon Lagoon. The wave pool had two times, one with big waves, and one with just bobber waves. I loved that the lazy river circled the whole park....that's the way to get around!!! I think we could do that again on another summer trip, it was worth it to us.



Thursday evening was finally seeing HDDR again. I have not seen it since 2018 and the kids had never seen it before. Everyone really enjoyed the show and the food. I would definitely go again!!



Friday was our last park day at Animal Kingdom. We picked it since it wasn't going to be a late night and allowed us to be back in time to do some night before pack-up and leave the next day. On the way to the bus I dropped off the rental cart, there was no reason to keep it and pay another day when we leave in the AM. This day was also the first time I actually paid for a LL this whole trip. We did not want to wait for FOP and I decided to pay so we could have a scheduled time to go. So once we got to AK, we pretty much B-lined it to Safari to see them early in the day and active.



After wards it was time for our LL and we wandered down to Pandora to ride. Afterwards was some lunch and off to Festival of the Lion King.....Jessica's favorite now that the tumbling monkeys are back! While that show was packed, I was pleasantly surprised with only have an 18 minute wait for Everest. Everest was interesting, for the first time EVER we actually where stopped on the ride for a long pause! We had just finished going backwards, the yetti animation completed and then nothing! We must have sat there for a good 45-60 seconds wondering what is going on!! I was thankful as there was an ice cold AC vent blowing on us!!! Finally we heard some sort of announcement and shortly later released for the last drop and we got a pretty good photo in the process.



Once done we hit Tough to be a Bug and decided we had done enough. It was off to FW for our oldest to head back to the RV, and we went off to Disney Springs to look for a few items we had not managed to find in the parks. We found some of the things we where after, though had to comprimise on a dated ornament since there where none unless it was personlized. So we got one that was pre-personalized that matched the style of the other ones.

of course had to get ears!!




Our final dinner was at Whispering Canyon. This has been a tradition when the two families go and we had a great time. The ketchup and antics are back, though still toned down from years past. We had a great time and went back to the RV and finished up some pre-packing before calling it a night.


Saturday morning was our departure which happened on time......and as posted before the 3 hour delay getting past Jacksonville.

 

[garneska]

Nice trip @jbrostek . we made it back from Ohio, last weekend. Work is insane right now and we have a two week vacation planned starting Aug 21. I am so glad only 10 more work days. Whisky is still afraid of going outside but sometimes she is better and does want to go to the dog park.

in other news, i went out for my 90 minute run and 3 minutes in I fell. i believe I tripped on nothing but I ate pavement. Road rash on the knee, a small amount of road rash on my shoulder (my shir protected me) my wrist might be a little messed up. It’s not broken, but it definitely took some stress. It’s hard to get the coffee cup to my mouth, I need two hands. at least I can get my run in tomorrow.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

17 years ago today we stepped out of a church into the big world. Quite a ride. Excited for many more.

 

[garneska]

Happy anniversary @Part-Time Paradise

 

[2goofycampers]

Happy Anniversary!

 

[Teamubr]

Nice trip @jbrostek Whisky is still afraid of going outside but sometimes she is better and does want to go to the dog park.

In other news, i went out for my 90 minute run and 3 minutes in I fell. It’s hard to get the coffee cup to my mouth, I need two hands.

Ouch! You have to watch out for those non-existent sidewalk cracks. And if it is impacting your coffee, I think that requires a trip to the ER. I think they can give you an IV so you don't have to hold the coffee cup. It does look a little strange to see coffee going through the tubing though.

And poor Whisky. Hopefully enough dog park time will get her better.

17 years ago today we stepped out of a church into the big world. Quite a ride. Excited for many more.

Happy Anniversary!

j

 

[team bradfield]

leaving for Niagara Falls and Bar Harbor Maine on Friday but our October ADR came up
so we booked our usual spots

San Angel
Brown Derby
Skipper Canteen
Raglan Road
Wolfgang Puck
Steak 71 (breakfast)
Tiffins
Coral Reef
Brown Derby, again
City Works
Tiffins, again
House of Blues

the ladies have dietary issues and these all have their options, me, I can eat about anything

 

[friendofeeyore]

Happy Anniversary!! Beautiful wedding pictures!

 

[4077]

Quick Springs visit and Saratoga stay before Saturday cruise on Fantasy. 6 AM flight got us driving to Springs lot for 10 AM opening. Had Joffrey’s lattes and donuts all ready. Made our second stop at World of Disney and found @bama_ed t-shirt…