Thursday December 18th 2025

Today was the last day I could visit Disney World this year. My annual pass goes into a blackout period until January fifth. That isn’t a problem. The crowds during the blackout period are so bad I don’t want to be there. They were bad enough this week that I didn’t get to do everything I wanted.

This afternoon I set out to checkout the Christmas decorations at Fort Wilderness. It was a challenge. I arrived at the Magic Kingdom when all the guests for the after hours Christmas Party event. The line for security was long and the next line for the monorail was even longer. I chose to turn left and take the ferry across the Seven Seas Lagoon. The ferry departed when I was still 100 feet away. I caught the next one ten minutes later.

Once I arrived at the Magic Kingdom entrance, I boarded the launch to Fort Wilderness after a ten minute wait. The ride to the campground was uneventful on a full boat. The regular Magic Kingdom day guests were returning to their RVs. It looked like the worst of my journey to the fort was over, but I got one more surprise. It was raining lightly when I got off the boat.

The Christmas decorations were as over the top as usual. I think I am a little early since the holiday falls near the end of the week. Many people may be arriving with their decorations this weekend. There didn’t seem to be as many decorated sites. I wandered around a few loops before I gave in to the drizzle and made my way back to the parking lot.

Sunday December 14th 2025

On Friday afternoon I made my Christmas visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Most of the decorations are more subtle and very natural, but the Christmas tree at the entrance is very impressive.

My favorite Christmas element at Animal Kingdom is the Merry Menagerie Puppet show that runs pretty much continuously during the daytime hours in the area in front of the Tree of Life. The life size puppets of winter animals interact with each other and the guests. They are particularly good with little kids in strollers. Musicians with steel drums and violins keep the spirit of the season alive with seasonal music. I saw polar bears, penguins, reindeer, a fox and arctic turns. The little kids really liked the baby penguins.

I spent over an hour wandering around the Merry Menagerie show area. The toured the animal areas around the tree of life. I never made it out to the Safari. It had a long wait time so it will wait until my next visit. It is a rare visit that I don’t ride the Safari.

Thursday December 11th 2025

On Tuesday I made my first visit to Disney’s EPCOT since the Christmas decorations went up this year. Lines were long at the attractions so I mostly walked around looking at the decorations. I need to return to see the decorated gardens in the Living with the Land ride to be fully satisfied with my EPCOT Christmas experience. There is no way I’d wait 50 plus minutes for a ride that is usually a walk on when it isn’t decorated.

Here are some pictures from my visit.

Sunday December 7th 2025

The winter cold and wet weather that most of the country is experienced has arrived in Florida. Over the last few days very little blue appeared in the sky. Rain started as an occasional event and progressed to heavy prolonged rain. This evening lightening with immediate ground shacking thunder claps became the focus. Additional rain with lower temperatures are in the forecast for the next few days. It is just enough to discourage outdoor activity.

I committed to a couple of poinsettia plants for my inside Christmas decoration. They are pretty and will not take up storage space after the season. I looked for a bigger plant for outside at Lowes today, but didn’t find anything I was happy with. Over the next couple of days I’ll check out other stores. A couple of blowup Santa Clauses have shown up elsewhere in the park.

Today was also grocery shopping day. I’ve been putting off the chore all of last week, but finally ran out of a couple of vital items. Oatmeal without milk to help it go down isn’t the same. Sunday afternoon at Walmart isn’t a place you should really consider, but I was in need. Today the inside of the store wasn’t that out of control. They had plenty of staff working and weren’t trying to refill shelves at the same time as shoppers were unstocking them. The real issue today was in the parking lot. With the rain everyone wanted to park near the building. If it looked like a car was about to depart the next three car all stopped and waited. The resulting log jams lasted more than a few minutes. The backups allowed me to get a good parking place even though I was heading for a distant spot at the time.

Thursday December 4th 2025

It has been a slow week activity wise, but a quick week time wise. I found myself back in reading and YouTube binge watching mode. It causes a level of inertia that is hard to overcome. I haven’t visited the holiday events at the theme parks yet.

Some holiday decorating has been accomplished here at the resort. Wreaths have been added to the entry gates by the association. Many of the units have added garland, lights or ribbon to their lamp posts. There are only a few blowup figures. There just isn’t a lot of room. Instead there are a few lots that have been well decorated by poinsettias and other seasonal flowers.

I haven’t done any decorating yet. Lowes still has plenty of poinsettias, but is running out of traditional decorations. Anything I buy needs to be disposable. I just don’t have room to store anything bigger than a bread box. That’s what makes the poinsettia idea attractive. My only concern is tripping over it if I put it on my small porch or steps. I need to do something quickly if at all. There are only three weeks left.

Sunday November 30th 2025

With Thanksgiving over and Christmas looming, we are in that weird time between the holidays. I don’t have all the shopping and holiday preparations to do that some people have, but I want to cram in all the enjoyment of the season before the off switch gets pulled around the new year.

My pass to Disney World has been in blackout for the last week. As of Monday I have eighteen days to get my fill of Disney’s holiday experience before the next blackout period begins. I don’t mind the blackouts. The parks are way too busy during those periods. My pass to Sea World doesn’t get blacked out over the holidays. I may visit more than once with the second visit after my Disney blackout begins.

In addition to the theme parks I want to checkout the campsite decorations at Disney’s Fort Wilderness. The blackout only impacts where I park so I might wait until nearer Christmas to go. In the same general area of Central Florida is the community of Celebration. Many of he homes are well decorated. In past years they have had representation in national competitions. The only challenge surrounding viewing the lights in Celebration is getting lost in the maze of narrow side streets.

Based on last years experience the residents of the park I live in do not go overboard with decorations. There were a few outside lights and a tree or two visible in the living rooms. I also didn’t find any well decorated homes in the nearby areas, but I’ll look again this year.

Thursday November 27th 2025

It has been a different kind of week. I had the roof of my base camp pressure washed on Tuesday and the rest of the building pressure washed on Wednesday. The roof really needed it, but the sides probably would have survived with a simple garden hose wash down. Either way it looks nice, but the washing may have brought the classic response. It rained today.

I shopped for my Thanksgiving “feast” last week. The main course was a Turkey breast. It comes with a packet of gravy concentrate, which it needs to moisten it up after cooking. I’ve cooked it before with success and this time was just as good when combined with mashed potatoes, stove top turkey stuffing and a can of corn.

My real meal prep undertaking was an apple pie. Before I set out on the Rambling Road Trip living in a motorhome with a limited kitchen, I occasionally baked an Apple Pie. I wanted to bake one last year, but didn’t get around to it. On my grocery shopping trip I bought a Pillsbury 2 crust pie prepared dough. I don’t have a rolling pin or anything similar, so it would have to do. The real shopping challenge was buying the apples. I found more brands that I’ve never heard of before or knew were not suitable for pies. With the help of the internet, I found a brand I knew that I thought would be OK for a pie, Gala.

The pie baking saga continued when I got started Wednesday afternoon. The pie crust wasn’t warm enough to be pliable and broke as I attempted to unroll it into the pie plate. It was still workable except for one big thing. My pie plate was too big. The dough didn’t make it to the top of the pie plate. This sent me back to the grocery store for another Pillsbury 2 crust prepared dough. About an hour later and thirty five dollars poorer (of course I couldn’t buy just one thing) I made it through the lines of last minute shoppers.

Back at my base camp between the two packages of dough and a little flour and water I managed to paste together a top and bottom crust. The bigger pie plate also meant I didn’t have as many apples as I needed to really fill the pie, but it was enough. The rest of my issues were purely because I was out of practice. It was almost over cooked and could have used a little more sugar. The apple choice wasn’t the best. They didn’t taste very Applee. I need to get the right size pie plate from my motorhome and find better apples before my next try.

Sunday November 23rd 2025

The mission I gave myself for the weekend was to visit Disney Springs. The shopping and entertainment complex is always decorated well for the holidays. The last few years I waited too long. The crowds grow as tourists and locals doing Christmas shopping flood in as the holiday approaches.

My first attempt to visit the Springs was late Saturday afternoon. My goal was to see the decorations before and after dark. Too many other people had similar ideas. As soon as I got off the highway I found a solid line of traffic. There was about a mile to the parking structures, so I tried a detour to the north side of the shopping district. I found a similar traffic situation on that side as well. It seemed easier to try again on another day.

Today I drove to Disney Springs with a lot less drama shortly after the noon hour. The backup started at the entrance to the nearest parking garage. The first four floors were full and all the traffic was getting directed to the top floor. I didn’t have any issues finding a place to park,but I would guess it was only a few minutes before the entire garage would be declared full.

Clearing security was quick and easy. Once I exited the parking structure into Disney Spring the density of the crowd was obvious. Navigation among the paths and shops was a challenge. Individuals and groups of individuals seemed to be wandering aimlessly or posing for pictures in front of the various Christmas trees.

The Christmas trees are the primary decorations at the park. Disney themes each tree to one of its intellectual properties. For example, there are trees for Star Wars, Marvel, Disney+ and many other things. They make a game out of finding all of the trees by providing a map with stickers. I didn’t play the game, but wandered around taking pictures of the trees. For some reason I didn’t find the trees as entertaining as previous years. Perhaps, because it was bright daylight they didn’t pop as well as at night.

I gave up my wandering after a couple of hours. It was still a long time until dusk and the start of the entertainment. All I was seeing were crowds that were unpredictable. I retreated to the relative safety of my car on the busy roads.

Thursday November 20th 2025

This has been a lazy week. Other than a few short drives to a store or two, I stayed home at my base camp all week. I blame the rediscovery of my ebook supply for this behavior. Unlike TV shows which are short and usually contain commercials, reading a book becomes very immersive for me. Once I start reading, I keep reading. Meal times get changed, sleep time change and motivation to do other things is lost. All this for books I’ve read before. This week has been old Tom Clancy and W.E.B Griffin books.

Today I had to take my nose out of a book long enough to restock the kitchen. Earlier in the week I ran out of supplies for simple lunches, but I went without rather than going shopping. This morning I ran out of breakfast foods and was getting dangerously close to running out of coffee. It was clearly time to visit the grocery section of Walmart. Hopefully for the last time until after Thanksgiving.

Mid afternoon today the store was very busy. I assume that some of the shopping was for the holiday, but there seemed to be a lot of regular weekly shopping going on too. There were several kids having very loud meltdowns along with parents that had reached their limits. As usual for this Walmart the aisles were filled with shopping carts, blue Walmart online shopping pickers carts and far too many pallets of new stock waiting to be moved to the shelves. It is very congested.

I was in the store for more than an hour. I’m usually in and out in about a half an hour. In addition to the crowds, I took enough time to stock up with enough stuff that I don’t have to return before the end of the month. By then the Thanksgiving food shopper and the Black Friday crowds should be gone.

Sunday November 16th 2025

It has been a very routine weekend. I did a few chores around the base camp and made a few store visits looking for obscure things. A small pair of needle nose pliers that I used to use routinely are among the missing. They are probably somewhere in the motorhome, but so far they haven’t made an appearance. Unfortunately, a suitable replacement hasn’t been found either.

Traffic on the road in the area has been increasing steadily since the middle of October. I tend to watch license plates for entertainment and a clue about how familiar with the roads the driver might be. Most of the cars still seem to be Florida registered. I think most of the northerners that can be in Florida for more than six months a year have declared Florida as their domicile for tax reasons. A few more northern plates are starting to appear, but the majority will arrive later in the winter. They only stay for a few months.

In this park I’ve been part of a couple of conversations about people that haven’t returned yet. It is kind of funny since I don’t know who any of the people are. I just get dragged into random conversations while dumping my trash in the dumpsters. People are wondering about possible illness keeping people away and/or if Canadians are staying away. I guess people are just concerned and will ask anyone or maybe I look like I am all knowing…