Winter Warmth COMPLETED 2/3

[Paulaparm]

Winter Warmth Day 7: Sunday February 6, 2022

I was up around 6:45 to get Genie+ for the group. We met inside the MK shortly after opening. (We didn’t rope drop any park this trip. In exchange for a 2-week trip, I happily agreed to starting at a “normal” time each day ). While we waited for The Elders, Gary and I found a PPP

and said hello to some friends.

They soon arrived and we headed to our first ride of the day, Buzz Lightyear SpaceRanger Spin.

We then visited one of my favorites, Carousel of Progress. Thought I was being clever with this shot.

Another attraction in which I always sing along

Next up, another one that we always do, sometimes grudgingly…but I DON’T sing along!

We took a slow stroll over to Frontierland. On the way, we ran into a cavalcade.

Continued in next post.

 

[Paulaparm]

Day 7 Continued...
I talked the group into a trip to see the Country Bear Jamboree. It was a nice rest, and we enjoyed the show.

Next on the list was Haunted Mansion. (I know we rode this earlier in the week and waited a LONG time. This time we had Genie+ and the line moved quickly.)

We made our way over towards Fantasyland to Mickey’s Philharmagic. Pretty sure I picked this up on Genie+ and it was available right away. It seems we walked right in and had to wait about 5 minutes for the magic doors to open. I love the posters in this queue.

Now it was time to head out of the park for a bit. On the way, we saw yet another cavalcade. Tink this time.

Boarded the resort monorail and headed to ‘Ohana for supper.

Our ADR was for 5:45, but I can’t find any receipts for today, so not sure if we got in on time or not. I do know that we ordered drinks and the food started coming out a short time later. I got the Lapu Lapu…that thing was yummy, but strong! We were all happy with our dinner. The food was great as well as the service.

Back to the Magic Kingdom. I know we did HM again and some shopping. We finished the night with Pirates and Jungle Cruise. Then we parted ways and headed out of the park. The Elders were leaving the next morning to head back to PA.

 

[Paulaparm]

Winter Warmth Day 8: Monday February 7, 2022

No parks today! The Elders are on their way back to PA, so it’s just Gary and I for the next week! I love my family, but I was looking forward to the fact that it would just be the two of us for the remainder of the Disney portion of our trip.

I actually cooked us breakfast this morning. We ate outside in the warm sunshine! We took a golf cart ride around the Fort and did some shopping at the Trading Post. Around 1:00, we took the bus to Disney Springs. We shopped around and made a few purchases.

I had made us an ADR for Homecomin’ for 4:00. We were really looking forward to giving this place a try. The only receipt I can find for today is from the Trading Post. (It might be better that I can’t look over the receipts to see what we spent today ) I know we both got the refillable bottles with moonshine drinks in them. They were fantastic. I also know that I had the chicken and donut offering and loved it. For some reason, I have in my mind that Gary had a chicken-fried steak, but I cannot be sure. I have never known him to order this before, so I could be wrong. Whatever he had, I know he gave it a big thumbs up.
The only other picture I have from today is of this wall. I love this wall and now I am wondering why we didn't take pictures with us at the wall...View attachment 693852

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Your setup at the Fort looks so cozy! How sweet of your travel agent to leave those cute decorations

 

[MinnieFan4ever]

What a fun trip. I love the picture of the girls all playing cards together. It looked nice a nice relaxing evening.

 

[Paulaparm]

Your setup at the Fort looks so cozy! How sweet of your travel agent to leave those cute decorations

Thanks! It was cozy! It was very sweet of her. It definitely took her a chunk of time to come to the Fort and then go to POFQ to leave the decorations.

What a fun trip. I love the picture of the girls all playing cards together. It looked nice a nice relaxing evening.

Sooooo relaxing

 

[Paulaparm]

Sorry for all the posts, but I'm trying to get done before we leave for Myrtle Beach
Winter Warmth Day 9: Tuesday February8, 2022
Another trip to Hollywood today!

We got there shortly after rope drop and headed to Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railway. We both really enjoyed this attraction earlier in the week and although the standby line was around and hour, we decided to wait. (We did not pay for Genie+ today) We both agreed that we really like this one!

Next we headed over to One Man’s Dream and took our time looking around.

Of course, I love this display and enjoy looking at all the memorabilia, etc. I was surprised that Gary took his time and seemed to enjoy himself just as much. We even stayed for the movie. (Treasure Island is one of my favorite movies )

Then we made our way into Toy Story Land. We battled it out on TSM. As usual, I had high score

We walked around and through Galaxy’s Edge. Very impressive. Due to the fact that Gary isn’t a Star Wars fan, but mostly because I am claustrophobic and not sure how I would do on some of the rides here, we passed on them.

We decided to go visit Olaf since our grandson is a fan

(And he does love looking at this picture.) As I look at this picture, I see Gary has his raincoat on and remember that it rained most of the day. Not heavy, but just enough that you had to keep your raincoat on. I also wore a poncho most of the day. On a whim, I suggested the Frozen Sing Along. Gary was game and we were able to walk right in and grab a seat. It was great! We were both pleasantly surprised.

We thought we would check out Baseline Tap House for some refreshment, thanks to reading the trip reports of @Riverside

Just some drinks, as we have an ADR for Sci-Fi soon. When we were finished with those, we headed around the corner and checked in for dinner. We got the front seat of the car and were by ourselves for the better part of our dinner. Shortly before we finished and ordered dessert, some hitchhikers joined us. Yes, it’s not cheap and food is nothing special, but we enjoy eating here and will continue to. Kim was our server, and she was excellent.

I think we took a slow stroll down Hollywood Boulevard and did some shopping on our way out.
I know we rode both Alien Swirling Saucers and Slinky Dog Dash, but I can’t figure out when…

Attachments​

 

[Paulaparm]

Winter Warmth Day 10: Wednesday February 9. 2022
I was up and purchased Genie+ for us today. First up was HS and a ride on Slinky Dog Dash. We specifically came here today to ride this.

We really enjoy this ride! I love all the theming! So clever...but I guess I can say that about almost any queue.
A short time later, we came across a cavalcade.

Whispering Canyon Café was calling our name, so we boarded a bus for the Wilderness Lodge. Our ADR was 11:45. We must have been seated a bit early as this picture was taken at 11:47 and Gary already has his refill

We had the breakfast platters. YUM! Not too much in the way of shenanigans going on, but our server, James, was very friendly and liked to joke around. We enjoyed the service and the food and will definitely be back! On the way out, we stopped by the Mercantile and Gary picked up a bottle of the H20 shampoo he likes. We hopped on the boat to get back to the Fort to drop off a few packages.

Continued...

 

[Paulaparm]

...Continued from previous post.
Dropped off our packages and headed for the Magic Kingdom. Here are a few pictures of the WL and Contemporary on our way over.

I have to say how much I love taking the boats for transportation!
On a side note...I have heard the story of how the Wilderness Lodge "looks like a bear face" many times, but never got it...today I did! Can you see it?

Our first stop was Peter Pan followed by Winnie The Pooh.

Pretty sure we headed over to Tomorrowland next and took a ride with Buzz. The it was on to the People Mover.

When we were riding, we could see how the crowds had picked up ☹

Then it was time to cross the park and enjoy a ride on the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness! We love BTMRR! (Especially with Genie+ on a crowded day). We had a great ride as usual and then we strolled around for a bit. We did ride HM again at some point while waiting for our Genie+ time for Pirates.

We wants the redhead!

We were headed back to the Fort on the boat around 7:00. This was our view as we left.

 

[Paulaparm]

Winter Warmth Day 11: Thursday, February 10, 2022

Another Genie+ day. We were happy to get as many days as we did without feeling like we wanted to give in and purchase it. But the crowds had definitely increased, and we decided that we were ok with paying to get more rides.

I believe we arrived at the tail end of opening and headed to ride Peter Pan. Then we headed towards Liberty Square and took a ride on the Riverboat.

While we were on the boat, we started chatting with a nice couple next to us. He noticed my jacket and the local (home) University logo. Long story short, they are from our area and he used to do radio broadcasts of our high school football games. After our cruise, we headed over towards the hub.

We continued on through as we had an ADR for The Plaza. We were seated around 11:10 and ordered a Monte Cristo and a club sandwich. We both enjoyed our lunch and were out of there by 11:50! Then it was on to another favorite, Seven Dwarves Mine Train. I know it’s short, but we really like this one!

We headed out of the park then. I’ve got about a three-hour gap in pictures/receipts here, so I’m not sure exactly what we did. Since our pictures tell me we were on a boat, and the next pictures show Epcot, I assume we took the boat back to the Fort and then went to Epcot later.

I tried and tried to get this picture with the monorail in it, to no avail...

We were in Epcot by 4:00. Not sure if we did anything in Future World (yes, that’s what I’ll probably always call it) but we were cruising Mexico saying hello to the 3 Cabellero's by 4:30.

We then meandered through some countries and stopped for a few beers in Germany. I really wanted to try Regal Eagle Smokehouse. It wasn’t too crowded, so we mobile ordered and found a table. It didn’t take long before our meals were ready. We thought it was pretty good.

After dinner it was time for another ride with our favorite Rat.

We both really enjoyed this ride too! Then we headed over the bridge and headed towards the front of the park, stopping here and there for a drink or to do some shopping. Then it was to the bus stop to catch the bus back to the Fort.

 

[Paulaparm]

deleted

 

[Paulaparm]

Winter Warmth Day 12: Friday, February 11, 2022

I know we originally planned on starting the day at Epcot and had an ADR for Garden Grille at 12:55. At some point (not sure when or why) we changed the ADR to 3:30-3:45ish and headed to Magic Kingdom. We were on the boat around 8:40.

Nice view of the Grand Floridian from the water.

We were on Mine Train a few minutes before 10. Yes, it’s short, but we really like it. This is the only spot I ever take a picture on this ride and it’s never good…but I still do it.

I cannot believe that we came over just to ride SDMT, but I’m not sure what else we did. Splash Mountain was supposed to open today after a rehab, I’m kind of thinking we came over to see if we could get a ride in. The prior days when we were here, there was still scaffolding up and it didn’t look like it was ready to open. My memory is really failing me here, but I’m going to say that it did not open today as scheduled. I do have a vague memory of looking on Genie+ to get a time and it wasn’t showing as open.

Receipts show that we shopped at the Emporium and Main St Cinema and we were heading out of the park by noon.

I finally got a picture with the monorail, train station and castle!

Since I’ve got pictures from the ferry again, we must have headed back to the Fort for a bit.

We were at Epcot saying hi to Pluto around 3:00.

We headed to the Land and took a ride on Living with the Land before checking in for our ADR at Garden Grille. While I think this meal is a bit pricey, it was very good and we did enjoy the interactions we had with the characters.

We left there a little over an hour later and strolled over to take a spin through Spaceship Earth.

Then we headed over to World Showcase. Again, my memory is sketchy here and I only have a few pictures to “remind” me of what we may have done. I know we were in France a little before 6 but I don’t think we rode Remy. Then we were on the Skyliner around 7:00 Why? I don’t know. I’m thinking we decided to ride to HS and then get a bus to the Fort. A nice alternative to walking to the front of Epcot and then all the way to the bus stop.

This is the view of Spaceship Earth from the Skyliner.

Tomorrow is our last park day. I hadn’t planned anything for this day, as it was our last day at the campground, and we needed to return the golfcart. However, we did have another day of park tickets to use, and we had already got some things packed up, so it wasn’t like we would need the whole day to get ready to leave on Sunday morning. We decided that we would return the cart and then finish packing up and then decide where we would go for the evening.

 

[tundra1]

I am enjoying your TR! We will be at WDW February 8-15, so it is nice to see what kind of clothes to bring as well as the crowd levels. There are 9 of us, so I am not sure if Genie+ will be worthwhile. To get reservations for 9 people might be tough.

Thanks for doing this!

 

[Paulaparm]

We will be at WDW February 8-15, so it is nice to see what kind of clothes to bring as well as the crowd levels.

Glad I can help! Some of the mornings in the golf cart on the way to the dock or bus, it was CHILLY!!! Most days I wore jeans or capris, t-shirt, and windbreaker type of jacket. Many afternoons, shirt sleeves were all I needed. To me, it was perfect weather. Although they did have a cold snap the week before we were there.
Since we had our camper and lots of space for clothing, I packed so that I was prepared for below freezing all the way to hot as he**

 

[Paulaparm]

Heading out to Myrtle Beach until the middle of next week, so I won't get my last day up until then.
But, more exciting news...we just decided we'll be back next year, right about this time!! We'll decide for sure and make our plans after we get back next week, but I think we are doing 3 weeks at the Fort with only 10 days of park tickets. We really wished we had more time to spend at the Fort last year. We are also going to do the Daytona 500 again.

 

[vamassey1]

Have a great trip. I haven't seen Myrtle Beach since we left South Carolina in 1992.

I've really enjoyed all the updates you have posted. So many great meals and rides.

 

[Paulaparm]

Winter Warmth Day 13: Saturday, February 12, 2022

Our last day ☹

As I mentioned earlier, we had to return the golf cart this morning. I think we had to meet them around 11:00. If I remember correctly, it took us just about 2 hours. In that time, we drove to the meeting spot, hooked their trailer up to our truck, returned to the Fort and loaded up the golf cart (it was actually a different cart than we had used. The night prior, we heard from the rental people that other renters at the Fort were having an issue with their cart, so he brought his to our site that morning, we swapped them and took the one that wasn’t running well back), drove it to the meeting spot, unloaded the trailer, then we drove back to the Fort sans golf cart . It wouldn’t have taken that long had we not decided we were smarter than the GPS and had a bit of an issue finding our way . All in all, we agreed the savings was worth it and we would definitely rent from them again!

We got ready and headed over to Magic Kingdom. I had purchased Genie+ today and we had a date with Splash! (And I just found a picture with us riding yesterday…so they did reopen yesterday! And we did ride it yesterday, so just pretend I didn’t try to prove in yesterday’s installment that it didn’t open when they said it was going to .

So, I took this at 1:55

And this one at 2:09.

Not sure what we did in between Splash and Tiki at 4:00

Had some Mickey Bars for a snack after listening to the birdies sing.

We sat and people watched a bit while we waited to head to Pirates.

Then it was over to Big Thunder Mountain.

After that, I think we mobile ordered from Pinocchio’s. We each got a flatbread and were pleasantly surprised at how good they were! A short break and we headed over for another ride on SDMT.

I love this shot I got of Beast’s (?) castle!

Got a different view of the fireworks from behind the Castle and headed over to Peter Pan for our last ride of the trip.

After that, we took our time and headed out of the park. We took the ferry back to the Fort. While we were waiting to leave the dock, we took note of the crowds!

It didn’t seem that crowded when we were in the park.

When we got back to the Fort, we visited Crockett’s Tavern and had a few drinks and got a strawberry shortcake to take back to the camper. It was SO good!

Sunday morning, we got up, finish packing up the camper, unhooked and headed out! We were headed over to Daytona. The Daytona 500 was the next Sunday, and we would be there for 12 days.

I will be back later with some final thoughts and some more pictures that I just found and should have included along the way.

 

[vamassey1]

You hit some of my favorite rides on your last day.

I was wondering if you felt it was worth your time to rent a golf cart outside of Disney. If we do ever stay in a cabin, I don't know that I would have a vehicle with a hitch. My car doesn't have one, but Dennis' truck does.

Don't you just hate leaving Disney? At least you had another adventure before heading home .

 

[Bama Mom]

Enjoyed reading so far. My husband and I were there February 1st-6th, 2022 for a short trip but we were never in the same park on the same day as y'all.

 

[Bama Mom]

I am enjoying your TR! We will be at WDW February 8-15, so it is nice to see what kind of clothes to bring as well as the crowd levels. There are 9 of us, so I am not sure if Genie+ will be worthwhile. To get reservations for 9 people might be tough.

Thanks for doing this!

My husband and I were there February 1st-6th, 2022 and I wore my long leggings and tee shirts and had either a pull over jacket or sweat shirt with me (that I tied around my waist if I started getting warm) and my husband wore shorts and tee shirts all week. I am cold natured and he is hot natured LOL. The only exception was on our last park night (the 5th) it even got too chilly for my hubby while we waited for the fireworks at MK so we bought him a blanket and me a heavier coat since we didn't have time to go back to POFQ and let him change into long pants and me grab my warmer coat.