A Month of Magic

On January 11th, we arrived at Sherwood Forest RV Resort (not sure we would call it a “resort”) where we would stay for 31 days. We had plans to catch up with many friends as well as explore various Disney parks while in the area.

However, our first adventure was to drive over to Tampa for the huge RV Show being held the weekend after we arrived. When we say huge, we mean really, really big! We had no plans to look at RV’s which was good because the place had tons of them. All we wanted to do was explore the vendors and accessories to see what we might need for Lola and our camping experiences. We spent nearly 4 hours!!! walking thru just the vendor sections!!!! No pics from our time at the show, we were too busy exploring and just trying to fight thru the crowds (and this was on the first day of the show, a Wednesday!). We picked up some new camping/rocking chairs and a few other minor things.

Next experience was to catch back up with friends from our cruising time. Charlie and Kim Brumback stopped by to get a tour of Lola and then we spent time visiting and also had a great lunch nearby. We hadn’t seen the Brumbacks since we cruised with them on SeaDream in the Med many years ago. It was great to catch up with friends and also hear about their past and future travel plans! And, at one point, we thought we might have them convinced to try out the RV life too!

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As official Florida “residents”, one great benefit is to receive Florida resident discounts on Orlando area attractions. This includes big discounts on Disney tickets so we signed up for 4 days (spread out over our time in the area) so we could hit all four parks.

First up was a day at the Magic Kingdom. Dan first visited back in 1972 and still enjoys going back for new memories there. One of his favorite stories revolves around this first visit, when no other parks existed. After a long day at the park, they completed the Country Bear Jamboree and exited into the Mile Long Bar (since closed). His father, Sid, was happy to finally have a place where he could get a cold one. He stepped up to the bar and ordered a cold beer. Unfortunately, he was informed that “alcohol is not sold inside the Magic Kingdom”. That was it for Sid, who informed the family he was taking the monorail back to the Contemporary Hotel to a “real” bar. Fast forward 48 years later and they now serve alcohol at the other three parks and just started serving alcohol inside the Magic Kingdom at a few outlets, including the Crystal Palace. Dan was sure to have a cold one for Dad!

We were also lucky enough to spend the day at the Magic Kingdom with Jill’s BFF, Donna Moss along with her daughter Shelley, her husband Kiley and their two girls. It was fun seeing Disney thru the eyes of kids and Lolli was taking notes regarding what rides would be best and when for our own little grand girls in the coming years.

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A few days later, we spent a good portion of a day at Hollywood Studios. Dan got to get his geek on while visiting the new area focused on Star Wars, Galaxy’s Edge.

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But have no fear, we did explore other areas of the park. We enjoyed several shows including a live shortened showing of Beauty & The Beast, another show with Lightning McQueen, and lunch at the Brown Derby.

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Not all of our time was focused on Disney. Just a few miles from our campground and the crazy tourist shops of Hwy 192 is the town of Celebration. This is a large development which appears semi self-contained, even having it’s own “town square.” One Sunday we drove over to check out the town, the shops and a Farmers’ Market that is held every Sunday. It was a beautiful way to spend part of a day, lots of interesting vendors, gorgeous fresh vegetables, cute shops and even a few restaurants so we wouldn’t go hungry (or thirsty) with all the exploring.

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During the month, we’ve experienced pretty big weather swings (but no snow!). We’ve had lows in the 30’s and highs have gone up to the upper 80’s. We’ve been pretty lucky in that we’ve not had a lot of rain but have had one storm come thru that brought high winds (gust up to 40 mph) and tornado watches. There are 24 hour periods where we have the heat on at night and will be running the AC the next afternoon. Guess things could be way worse given we are in the middle of winter!

We’ve not gotten involved with campground activities while here, just been too busy with friends, activities and relaxing. We have had a few interesting observations while at this stop. Shuffleboard is very big here. They have an ongoing tournament that seems to have games being played every day. You can tell when the games are on because cars are packed all around the clubhouse – you’d think they were giving something away!

There are a LOT of folks here who stay at least half the year or longer. And many of them are Disney fans. One of the biggest decorations we see all over the campground are Mickey Light Posts. Some are white, some are colored and some are animated! And if this was not enough of a reminder of where we are, every evening just after 8 PM, we can hear the fireworks show coming from one of the parks.

The most interesting thing we have seen took us a couple of days to figure out. As with most campgrounds, you will see just about every type of camping set up here. There are big Class A rigs such as ours, large 5th wheel trailers, smaller trailers, RV vans, and even pop up campers (many of the campgrounds we are in do not allow tents though). Most rigs have bathrooms of some sort and and hook up their systems to the campground sewer system. Those that don’t have bathrooms will usually use the bathhouses that are also common in almost all parks. But, the other day we saw a small pop up trailer and outside was a very small tent. Well, it was small but tall. At first, we thought it must be some type of tent used for changing, figuring maybe it’s easier to change in the tent where you can stand completely upright versus in the pop up trailer. But, after seeing one person come out of the tent pulling up their pants, we realize we had found a toilet tent! And no, we don’t know how they empty the toilet when they leave.

Back to the attractions outside the campground. Next up was a safari trip to Animal Kingdom. Here you get to take a ride thru various environments and see real animals (versus the animatronic versions Disney is famous for). We were pretty lucky to get on the ride quickly and see a lot of wildlife up close.

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Although not anything close to a real African Safari, it was still enjoyable and a great way to start the day. Maybe we’ll get the real safari for an upcoming anniversary?

After spending time in the real world of animals, we crossed over to the land of Pandora to explore the world of Avatar. If you haven’t seen the James Cameron movie, much of this won’t make any sense. The land that Disney has created, much like Galaxy’s Edge, is very realistic and makes you feel like you have stepped into the movie set.

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We experienced one of our longest waits in line for the Flight of Passage ride but it was worth it. Totally immersive experience felt like you were really flying, dropping, feeling spray from waterfalls, smelling the plants and flowers as you zipped past. Disney also gave everyone in line an extra fast pass due to the long delay which helped us get right on the next ride, Na’vi River Journey with no wait at all!

A few days later, we made our last visit to Disney, this time to Epcot. They were having an art festival in the park but we have to say we were not impressed. There were a few artists working in the park (mostly sidewalk art) but mostly this just meant there were some extra tents and booths set up selling arts and crafts, most related to Disney in some way. It was nice to look at but much of it was pricey and we really had no interest. In addition, much of Future World is under construction, building new rides and attractions that will open in the new few years. Thus, much less to see in the front area. We did ride The Sea exhibit and enjoyed some time in what Disney has created in the way of a small aquarium.

We enjoyed walking around the World Showcase with no real itinerary planned other than a delightful dinner at Chefs de France. Disney did not miss a step in operating this restaurant, even bringing in employees from France in all roles that are guest facing. We had a lovely talk with several of the “cast members” about their experiences in the US and their plans after their contracts were up. Our meal was wonderful and both of us had fantastic desserts to cap the evening off.

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With just a few more days left in the Orlando area, we said goodbye to Disney with our first evening in the park. We’ll be back again, it was really a fun visit!

We had one more catch up with an old friend of Jill’s from back when she worked for Bayer Pharmaceuticals (Dan always told people her job was “selling drugs” but she really worked in the Diabetes Care area). Karen Bolderman used to live in Baltimore but her and her husband Tom moved to the Orlando area several years ago and we met them for lunch one day so Jill and Karen could catch up on about 15 year of news. Their only regret was that their former boss, Willard Hale, couldn’t be there to join in! So we took a picture of them where they made room for Willard to photo-shop himself in the middle.

On February 11th, we packed up Lola and set out for Okeechobee, FL via Tampa (a long story and a long day, more on this in the next post) where we’ll spend 29 days. This will also be Lola’s southern most point of travel. After that, we’ll turn and head north in mid March. Stay tuned for more updates from Florida!

And just remember…