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.
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