Wednesday January 31st 2024

Today was still a multiple layer of clothing type day. It started out cool in the fifties and climbed to the low seventies. The high temperature was a little higher than Tuesday, but there was a stronger north wind. Once the sun dropped below the horizon the temperature dropped quickly.

I spent the first part of the day catching up on some sleep and doing chores around the RV. Late in the day, I headed across Bay Lake on the launch to the Magic Kingdom. My plan was to watch the Happily Ever After Fireworks from Main Street. Until that time I wandered around the crowded park and rode a couple of rides and took a few pictures.

The crowd on Main Street for the fireworks wasn’t the worst I’ve seen, but I rapidly remembered why I don’t like it as a viewing area. It has the best view, but people are shoulder to shoulder. There is now such thing as personal space. Tonight I had an elementary school age kid beside me that just couldn’t stand still. Most of the time he was running around his mother as fast as he could. She didn’t seem to care. My feet got stepped on more than once.

The show was great. There was still enough wind to clear the smoke quickly, but it wasn’t strong enough to stop Tinker Bell. As long as conditions are OK, Tinker Bell flies from the castle during the show. Watching her flight is one of the advantages of watching the show from the front of the castle and on Main Street.

Tuesday January 30th 2024

Today was a three layer day. This morning the temperature gradually climbed into the sixties. Two layers were necessary to make be comfortable. In the middle of the afternoon the bright sun made the mid sixties seem warm. To be comfortable you had to strip back to one layer. Once the sun went down so did the temperature. The second layer went back on followed shortly by a third layer.

This was an EPCOT day. I set out for the theme park shortly after lunch with the intent to stay until the evening fireworks show finished. I carried a back pack with my extra layers. My journey to EPCOT was a little round about. I took a boat to the Magic Kingdom followed by two different Monorails. The alternative Disney transportation was an internal bus in the campground followed by the bus to EPCOT. The reverse of that is how I came home at the end of the day.

The International Festival of the Arts is in full swing at EPCOT. I really enjoy walking around looking at the demonstration art and the art for sale. Today I took a few pictures of some of the art in addition to natures art in the form of blossoms and birds.

In addition to looking at the art, I rode a few rides and saw a few shows. The big rides had long waits that I didn’t choose to stand for, but the second tier rides had short to reasonable waits. On the Grand Fiesta Tour boat ride in the Mexico Pavilion, I had a twenty seat boat all to myself. It was very good timing. The boat in front and the boat behind were close to full.

The shows I watched today were the Voices of Liberty at the American Pavilion and one of the sets of the Disney on Broadway concert series. The Broadway performers at tonight’s show were Josh Strickland from Tarzan and Kissy Simmons from The Lion King. I don’t know these performers, but the show was good. They sang songs from several different Disney Broadway shows.

My afternoon and evening at EPCOT finished with the Luminous fireworks, fountain and laser show. It really is so much more than just a fireworks show. The fountains in the middle of the lagoon along with lasers from around the World Showcase provide added detail to the music that supports the show. The fireworks are just the cherry on top, but I like fireworks.

Monday January 29th 2024

It was a sunny cold Florida day. The temperature barely reached sixty with a strong breeze out of the north. It was better than the rain and snow in the northeast of the country, but for Florida it was a cold day. Tomorrow is forecast to start colder then warm up to a temperature a little warmer than today.

I really didn’t have a good plan for today. All I knew was I had a reservation at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Ideally that means I should have made an early start to the day in an attempt to get ahead of the crowds. There were heavy crowds at Hollywood Studios when I arrived around noon. The Magic Kingdom closes early at 4:30 for a cast appreciation event, so people may have chosen other parks like Hollywood Studios for the their day at Disney. Most of the wait times for rides were in the triple digits.

With the crowds, I chose to walk around the park and watch some of the shows. Even that didn’t work well. I arrived at the Beauty and the Beast show twenty minutes before showtime and it was already almost full. Rather than waiting and taking a chance, I continued on by and went to the Lightening McQueen Racing Academy. This is a show based on the Cars Movie franchise that I haven’t seen before. It will not be on my priority list for a return visit. The show is probably intended for kids that like the Cars movies.

After I walking around the entire park and watching a few shows, I decided to return to my RV home. I didn’t wear a hat today and I didn’t bring sun glasses. The glare from the sunny was adding to my frustration with the crowds. With the bus transportation thrown in the calculation, I was away from my RV home for a little over four hours.

After cooking some food and getting some nourishment, I entertained the thought of returning to Hollywood Studios for the night time shows. They had two shows of Fantasmic scheduled as well as the projection show on the Chinese Theater. Checking the My Disney Experience App showed that wait times were still long. I decided to stay at the campground and watch the Electric Water Pageant at 9:45. I got to the beach a little early and was able to catch the fireworks display from the Magic Kingdom associated with the cast appreciation event. I’m not sure what fireworks show they set off, but it is impressive that an entire fireworks show was part of the event for employees. The Electric Water Pageant was great as usual. It hasn’t changed much in the more than fifty years it has been running.

Sunday January 28th 2024

The temperature was in the low sixties with drizzle and a little rain this morning. Not exactly the perfect weather for packing up and moving. I only got a little damp as I waited out the worst of the weather. As the morning progressed it got drier and a little warmer. The sun came out in the afternoon pushing the temperature to seventy. Once darkness fell so did the temperature. It was in the fifties by 8PM.

I pulled out of my site at the Orlando Southwest KOA just before the 11AM checkout time. My first stop was right in the campground. It was time to fill the propane tank. I don’t use a lot of propane. It has been about a year and a half since I last filled the tank. The KOA has a good, easy to access propane filling station. The last time I had the tank filled was also at the KOA.

My travel day was all of eighteen miles over a little more than half an hour. I moved to Disney’s Fort Wilderness for the next 8 nights. It was another filler reservation to make up the gap in my Florida State Park stays. I have to view this as a vacation from normal RV living. It is just too expensive to consider it a regular stay. This is probably the most I’ve ever paid per night for a campsite. Still I know I’ll in enjoy it as I usually do.

I checked in online a couple of days ago. This morning before I even checked out of the KOA I had my site number and was cleared direct to the site. Shortly after noon I was backing into my site at Fort Wilderness. I had disconnected my car from the motorhome in the parking lot at the Outpost more than a mile away from my site. After I got setup I walked back and got my car. I could have waited for a bus, but it was easier to get some exercise and enjoy the nice afternoon weather.

This evening I walked to the beach on Bay Lake to watch the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. The music for the show is piped in and all of the aerial shells are visible. It is a good show even with the limited view. The only down side was standing on the beach catching the full force of the wind off the lake in fifty degree temperatures.

Saturday January 27th 2024

According to the weather forecast this is the last great weather day for this stretch. It was a mostly sunny day with the high in the mid eighties. Tomorrow is forecast to be rainy with high in the sixties.

Today was a grocery shopping day. I’ve given up worrying about what day of the week I go shopping for food. It seems like it is going to be bad whenever I go. The Walmart was very busy today, but they also had most of the registers open including the assisted checkout lanes.

I manged to find most of the things I needed. One thing I didn’t buy was paper towels. I’m on my last roll and need to restock. The only problem is this store only had packages of 4, 6, and 8 rolls. I barely have enough space to store a two pack. This Walmart location seemed to be big on the giant size versions of things.

The remainder of my day was spent on chores around my RV home. Tomorrow is moving day. I got a reasonable head start on some of the packing tasks, between TV watching sessions. On my walk around the park I observed a lot of progress on the apartment buildings under construction on the lot next door. Two weeks ago when I arrived they were building out the top floor. There is now a roof on most of the nearest building. The other building that was just getting started now has two floors framed in. I’m not sure when my next visit to this park will be, but I’m sure there will be several tall apartment buildings looking down on the campground.

Friday January 26th 2024

The great Florida winter weather continued today. It was mostly sunny with the high temperature once again in the low to mid eighties.

I took advantage of the nice weather and took a trip to Sea World this afternoon. I set out from the campground at 11:30AM. It took about an hour to travel the 18 miles up Interstate 4. I endured the normal stop and go I-4 traffic near the campground, but when the highway message boards started reporting another backup ahead do to an accident I bailed onto surface streets. The parking experience wasn’t as bad as a few previous times. I parked much closer than usual, but the park was still very busy. There were three big groups judging by all the similar tee shirts. The biggest group were very young school kids in light blue tee shirts. The groups in green and red tee shirts weren’t as young, but moved around a lot more. I ran into one or more of these groups at every show and experience.

The park was filled with construction and refurbishment activities. The Journey to Atlantis log flume style ride was down for refurbishment and the stadium for the Orca show was getting work done as well. I probably wouldn’t have ridden the Journey to Atlantis, but I missed being able to watch the killer whale show. They replaced the show with something called an Orca “presentation” in the area behind the stadium. The line was very long, so I gave it a pass.

The area around the Penguin Encounter is under construction. They are building a new roller coaster that will connect to or feature the Penguin Encounter. I hope you will still be able to see the penguins without riding the coaster. Right now you can only see the penguins by entering the building through an emergency exit door in the back stage area. Once you get through a narrow walkway with two way traffic, you can see a few penguins through a big glass window. In the original encounter you got a lot closer to a lot more penguins.

I did watch the other two big shows. The Dolphin show was good as usual and the Sea Lion and Otter show still needs an update. The comedy show they have to show off the Sea Lions and Otters gets old after you see it once. I much prefer seeing the sea lions and seals at the Pacific Point Preserve area behind the Sea Lion stadium. You can buy fish to feed the animals. They become quite animated trying to get the attention of people with the fish. A few of Florida’s native water birds also get in on the fish begging act.

After about four hours in the park I had seen most of the things I wanted. I made my way back to my car and began the journey home. It made my journey to the park look like smooth sailing. I knew better than to try the interstate through the resort corridor area at rush hour. My route home was down International Drive through Kissimmee into Davenport from the east side. It was solid traffic most of the way. I don’t know how long the highway crawl would have taken, but I spent close to an hour and a half to get home using my “better way”.

Thursday January 25th 2024

Today was another great weather day similar to Wednesday. There was filtered sunshine coming through a layer of clouds. By mid afternoon the temperature had climbed from the mid sixties at sunrise to a high in the mid eighties.

After two days of theme park visits, today was a day for chores around the RV. There wasn’t much fodder for a blog entry today. I got some cleaning and decluttering accomplished inside the RV. The most important accomplishment was completing the long delayed laundry. It had almost doubled in volume since I gathered it for my last attempt while I was still at Hillsborough River State Park. Today I managed to get two loads accomplished. It was even about fifty cents cheaper per load.

More RVs than usual departed the campground this morning and many didn’t get replaced during the day. That’s surprising since the weekend is approaching and right now the campground has more vacancies than I’ve seen since I arrived a week and a half ago. The park has several activities planned for the weekend, so I expect it will fill up more tomorrow.

Wednesday January 24th 2024

The weather yoyo continues. I had to switch to warm weather clothes today. A few days ago the temperature was hardly able to climb toward sixty. Today the temperature peaked in the eighties. It was necessary to wear a short sleeve shirt and shorts instead of long sleeves, long pants and a sweatshirt.

My goal for today was to watch the Country Bears Jamboree one last time at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. The last performance of the current show is Friday evening. It will close for an extended refurbishment. The new show will have the bears singing Disney songs in the style of a Nashville Review. The current pun and stereotype filled show will be gone forever.

I got to the Magic Kingdom at 4PM with a plan to stay until after the fireworks. The Flag Retreat ceremony at Town Square started at 5PM so I hung around and waited for the classic Disney experience. It was patriotic as usual. The Disney band played and the Dapper Dans sang as the flag was lowered.

From Town Square I took the railroad to Frontier Land and the Country Bear Jamboree. In the past each show was only about half full even on a busy day like today. As time is running out for the show every performance seemed to be full. Most of the audience was there to see the show one last time. They really got into it. Just about everybody was clapping to the music and some were even singing along. I’m glad I got to watch the current show one last time and I’m looking forward to seeing what the new show is like.

With my primary reason for visiting the Magic Kingdom accomplished I wandered around the park taking in the atmosphere and riding a few rides. I chose to watch the fireworks from the back of the park along the Rivers of America. The crowds at the park today were heavy, so Main Street was packed. The other advantage of watching from the back is the clear access to rides at the end of the fireworks. I was able to basically walk on to the Haunted Mansion as the fireworks were ending.

I left the Magic Kingdom an hour after the fireworks were over. I thought that would be enough time to clear out some of the post fireworks crowds trying to get back to the parking lot. It was probably a little better than right after the fireworks, but it was still a long process getting from the Magic Kingdom back to the Transport and Ticket Center and then to my car at a distant section of the parking lot. It was more than an hour from the Magic Kingdom to my RV home, but it was a good late afternoon and evening at the theme park.

Tuesday January 23rd 2024

My plan for the day was a visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park today. The hiccup in the plan was getting up late. You either have to get to the park early to beat the crowds or wait until the wait times stabilize. I started to monitor the wait times on the My Disney Experience App. When the Safari ride got under fifty minutes around 1PM, I headed for the park.

I entered the park around 2:30PM. The parking lot had more cars in it than I usually see and the crowds inside the park were extensive. I walked the trails around the Tree of Life checking out the animals. Some of the more tropical animals were not in their enclosures. This is not uncommon during the cold periods in the winter. Other animals were taking advantage of today’s warm sunshine. The kangaroos, for example, were all lying in the sun.

When I got back to the Africa area of the park, the wait for the Safari ride was only listed at thirty five minutes. It turned out to be even less. I had a pretty good safari. My front row seat gave me a good view of the animals on both sides and out the windshield. The driver was better than some at stopping long enough to get a picture of the animals. Most of the different species were out and about.

After the safari, I visited the gorillas on the Gorilla Falls Trail. The young gorilla’s were very active while the adults slept or sat stoically. The smallest gorilla was chasing a rabbit around the compound. I think it is a common occurrence. The rabbit didn’t seem particularly frightened. It would run away from the gorilla then come back a minute or so later. The little gorilla would engage in a staring contest with the rabbit through a bush until the rabbit would run around the bush toward and by the gorilla. It looked like a fun game.

Most of the animal viewing opportunities were done by 5PM even though the park was open until 7PM. Basically, there were four rides and one show still open after 5PM. The rides all had long wait times and I’ve seen “It’s Tough to be a Bug” enough.

Monday January 22nd 2024

It was close to ten degrees warmer today, but the sun was missing from the sky. The inside of my RV home was slow to warm up without the sun adding to the warmth and the day generally looked gloomy. It never rained and the temperature topped out just short of seventy.

The cloudy day made it tough to get started today. By early afternoon I got motivated and left the campground. My destination turned out to be Disney Springs. The entertainment and shopping district was not very busy this afternoon. All floors of the parking garage I parked in had plenty of empty space. I suspect the other two garages were similar.

The last time I was at Disney Springs in December it was decorated for Christmas. All of the lights and other decorations made the area very bright and lively. Today it was much more subdued. There were no sparkling lights and the sun was blocked by clouds. Most of the flower beds were filled with darker colored flowers. There were lots of dark red salvia and red geraniums. I finally found some pink geraniums that were a little more lively.

I was surprised to find the Disney store had been reorganized. Major sections seem to have been moved and new types of merchandise added in other areas. Right now there seems to be a focus on merchandise featuring the Stitch character. I noticed this in EPCOT as well. In the Marketplace Co-Op store a three foot Stitch figurine has replaced the Orange Bird figurine that has been near the entrance for more than a year. I found Orange Bird near the back of the store.

After wandering around Disney Springs and stopping into several stores my limited “shopping” tolerance expired. I returned to my car and started the journey home. Unfortunately, the rush hour had begun. I haven’t found a way to avoid traffic to get from Disney to the current location of my RV home. Today it wasn’t bad most of the way home, but the last mile through the intersection of US 27 and Interstate 4 took almost an hour. Traffic during the winter in this part of Florida is “interesting”.