Sunday February 4th 2024

The TV weather talkers oversold today’s rain. All of last week they were talking about heavy rain on Sunday. Accumulations of one to three inches were discussed. It started to rain about when they forecast, but it was very light. By noon the sun was trying to break through. The afternoon was warm and dry. This evening a few light showers have passed through the area. Unfortunately, more rain is forecast for tomorrow and it is my moving day.

During the dry part of the day I wandered around Fort Wilderness again. I repeated my visit to the Tri-Circle-D ranch barn. It wasn’t quite as busy today, but the horses were still in their stalls watching all of their visitors walk by. Most of my walk today was along the beach and back into the woods along one of the canals. There were a couple of pair of ducks and other water birds along my path. It is nice to find less visited areas of the campground that are also less developed.

There was a lot of turnover in the park today. Several sites near me were empty by the 11AM checkout time. I walked through the 300 loop on my wandering. It had even more empty sites. Tomorrow my site will be one of the open one. I will be moving on, but will still be in the greater Orlando area for the next couple of weeks. A return visit to the theme parks is not out of the realm of possibility.

As usual I enjoyed my stay at Fort Wilderness. It is a very nice camping resort even without the theme parks. I probably would have enjoyed my stay even more if I had not decided to maximize my visits to the theme parks, by going every weekday. Dealing with the lines and crowds can be exhausting.

Saturday February 3rd 2024

Today was the last day in the current weather pattern. The cool mornings and evenings bracketing a warm afternoon will give way to rain tomorrow morning with warmer temperature later in the day. I took advantage of the nice weather this afternoon to explore Fort Wilderness.

My first stop was the barn at the Tri Circle D ranch. The horses in the public area were on their best behavior. Most of them had their heads over the stable doors watching the world around them and posing for pictures. I obliged and took a few horse portraits. A visit to the barn is always an adventure. This area houses the animals that pull carriages and wagons all around Disney World. They also offer pony rides for kids. An area at the entrance to Fort Wilderness houses horses for trail rides that are conducted from that location.

After my visit with the horses I walked around some of the camping loops. I even found one that was closed for maintenance. Something is always getting worked on around the campground. There are flags and painted lines all over the grass, roads and concrete providing markers for future excavation. I have no idea what they are doing, but it will be interesting to try and figure it out on a future visit.

The last time I walked around the campground loops was at Christmas time. At that time most of the sites had Christmas decorations. This time all of the Christmas stuff was gone, but there were a few sites with Valentines decorations. I think some campers will use any excuse to decorate their sites.

This evening I returned to the beach area on Bay Lake to watch the Happily Ever After Fireworks from the magic kingdom. I chose the wrong side of the boathouse this time. There were more people in this area and the music is not piped into this area anymore. If it doesn’t rain tomorrow night I’ll return to the other side of the boathouse to watch the fireworks.

Friday February 2nd 2024

Happy Ground Hog Day

Weather wise, today was a repeat of the pattern for everyday this week. The cold morning and cold nights bracket a nice afternoon. Today’s high was similar to Wednesday in the low seventies without a lot of wind.

My energy after four straight days of theme park visits was down today. I got up early to take advantage of the early entry for resort guests at the Magic Kingdom. It is only a half an hour from 8:30 to 9:00, but in theory it gives you a head start. This morning it didn’t help. Most of the popular rides that everyone heads for were not working at park opening. The result was longer lines at the rides that were open. Everything I wanted to ride had well over an hour wait.

After the official park opening at 9AM, I got lucky. I managed to get on the Haunted Mansion ride with a minimum wait. By the time I got off the ride, all of the other open rides I thought about riding were over an hour wait. The worst part is the crowds were growing by the minute. A steady stream of people were entering the park. I decided to push upstream against the flow and head back to my RV home. I was home by 11:30. It was a very unproductive trip across Bay Lake to the theme park.

I had a similar experience in the evening. My plan was to go to Hollywood Studios and watch Fantasmic, the nighttime show. Spending the evening at Hollywood Studios seemed to be a popular idea. There were a lot of people arriving when I did. The only problem is all of the daytime show attractions stop performances around 5PM. That means everybody gets in line for the few remaining rides. Most of the rides had more than an hour wait.

The week of theme park hopping was catching up with me as I wandered around Hollywood Studios. Trying to kill the three hours until the nighttime show, I was running out of energy fast. I sat on a bench for a few minutes and almost fell asleep. Trying to kill time is one of the downsides of solo visits. With no one to keep you going or even to talk to, you get board fast. What all this leads to is a trip back to my RV home. I gave up on waiting for the nighttime show.

Thursday February 1st 2024

Today’s weather was a few degrees cooler and a lot less windy than Wednesday. Basically, it was a clone of Tuesday. It was a great sunny day that peaked in the mid sixties. During the peak in the afternoon it was a very comfortable day.

I read on the internet that a new baby Okapi was now accepting visitors at the Animal Kingdom. He was born in October and had been back stage bonding with mom for the last few months. This week Elijah and his mom were onstage on the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail. Today I went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom with the hope of seeing the new addition. He and his mom were being shy. They were way at the back of the enclosure partially hidden by a bush. Maybe they will pose for pictures in a week or two.

I didn’t spend a lot of time at the Animal Kingdom today. I am tired after three straight days of park visiting. The Animal Kingdom is also a park that it is just as easy, maybe even easier, to visit when staying off site. There are ways to get to and from the park that avoid a lot of the traffic jam areas and the park doesn’t have a massive night time show that everyone hangs around to see. I will be in this area for another two weeks after I leave Fort Wilderness, so I am likely to make a return visit to see the animals.

By four in the afternoon I was back at my RV home. I got to cook my own evening meal today. After having theme park food the last two nights, I am happy to cook something that I could take my time eating. Tomorrow will be my last day at the theme parks for this visit. My low tier Disney annual pass is blacked out on the weekends. There is plenty to do around the campground.

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”.