Tri-circle-D
<font color=peach>Throwing some love to TCD<br><fo
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
As many of you already know, the TCD gang was at the Fort for our annual spring break extravaganza last week.
We checked in on Tuesday, March 31, and checked out on Saturday April 4.
In the four days that we were at the Fort, we witnessed the first campers arriving on the expanded 600 loop, and the renovated 700 loop.
We met some more Dis-Board members like DaveInTN, and TigandTaz, and got reaquainted with our old pal Stacktester.
We played a pretty good April Fools joke on the Disboards (with thanks to Shan-man).
We got to see the pool and hot tub filled with water, and landscaped, and getting almost ready to open.
We saw the new menu for the Meadow Snack Bar for the first time.
And, we had an overall great time!
And, I took a lot of photos.
A lot!
So, let's get this trip report started already!
We checked in via the traditional method on Tuesday afternoon at about 12:45 pm.
We were directed to lane #2, and pulled right up to the hostess. So far so good.
Except she couldn't find our reservation in her computer. She suggested that we pull up and go inside to check in.
I said no, please check again, I had the computer confirmation right there. She looked again, and found our reservation. So far, so good.
But, then her computer froze. She said she would need to call a manager. She suggested that we pull up and go inside to check in. I said I didn't mind waiting for her to call the manager. I would rather not have to park my tow vehicle and trailer and go inside. So she called the manager, and got her computer unfrozen. So far, so good.
Then we had to go through the whole process of finding my reservation again. But she found it. And, then she began handing me my standard check in documents, one at a time. You know, the ones that are usually in a folder. Not this time. First I got the map. Then a couple of minutes later, the park schedule. Then a couple of minutes later, a copy of my receipt, etc., etc.
In the meantime, four rigs in the lane next to me had arrived, and checked in.
But, my hostess was diligently working on getting us checked in.
The poor folks behind me eventually walked up to the window and asked if there was a problem. No, the lady said, just a complicated reservation. Huh? We were just checking in to our site for four nights. No tickets, no dining plan, just a standard check-in.
Anyway, after we got the site squared away, I dropped another bomb on my hostess. We had a golf cart reservation. I thought that perhaps she was going to have a stroke or heart attack. She suggested that I park and go inside for the golf cart. But, since I already had so much invested in this transaction, I (unwisely) declined, and asked her to go ahead and process my golf cart rental agreement, as I knew that it could be done, having done so myself in the past.
She then tried to retrieve my golf cart reservation. She could not find it. I offered my confirmation number. She declined. Said the number would do no good since she couldn't find the confirmation. What she could do was call the Bike Barn and order me a cart. Which is what she did. So, she finally got that taken care of.
And, with that, we were checked in, and had our cart.
Here is a photo of our hostess. She was as nice as can be. But incompetent doesn't begin to describe her. Should she be your hostess, and should she suggest that it might be better to park and go into the lobby, go with the parking option. Trust me on this.
Fortunately, I was able to not lose it, as I had my DD's there to entertain me with their face making skills:
By the way, this experience prompted me to stop by the front desk later in our trip and ask about express check in. The castmember there told me that it was available in the check-in lanes outside. They keep the pre-made folders in the center lane, and the your host or hostess will go and retrieve your folder when you arrive to check-in. I may give this a try on my next visit.
I had a reservation for a full hook-up site. I used clkelley's magic fax request form to request a site in the 900 loop. Worked like a charm! We were assigned to site 914. This site is on the outside of the loop, almost half-way around. It backs up to a little canal between the 800 and 900 loops. This was a great site! So, it was all good for the TCD gang.
As is our custom, I handed some cash to the DD's, and sent them off for a leisurely lunch, while I got camp set up. Luckily, I was completely set up when we had a little down pour. It didn't rain long, so as soon as the girls got back, we set out for some looping.
First stop, the new part of the 600 loop.
The new campsites were all empty when we arrived, but began to fill as the afternoon progressed.
Here is the new entry sign. Nice work with the router, eh?:
Here are some shots of the new sites:
This is one of the sites that backs up to the Meadow Trading Post:
There is some weird looking stuff on the water connections on these new sites:
You only get two standard electric outlets on these new sites. My old full hook-up site on 900 had four. How's that for progress?
But, the stainless steel basins around the sewer connections are bigger, and have a modern shape (that is worth the extra $$$-right?):
Some more loop photos:
This new cross walk is for the path that leads to and from the bridge that goes across to the campfire area:
What was formerly known as site 602 is fenced off. It looks like it will be used as a site on this loop, and will be re-numbered as 616. They need to pour some concrete here to connect it to the new roadway. I don't know why they didn't get this finished before they opened up the new part, but they didn't:
These are the new sites on the inside of the loop that back up to the main road near the 800 loop bus stop. There is almost no space from the edge of the concrete pad to the adjacent side walk:
This is the site marker for the site shown immediately above- 614 That is a pretty nice site. 617 is the site that has the grill right next to the sidewalk-not so nice.
There are a lot more photos to come!
TCD
We checked in on Tuesday, March 31, and checked out on Saturday April 4.
In the four days that we were at the Fort, we witnessed the first campers arriving on the expanded 600 loop, and the renovated 700 loop.
We met some more Dis-Board members like DaveInTN, and TigandTaz, and got reaquainted with our old pal Stacktester.
We played a pretty good April Fools joke on the Disboards (with thanks to Shan-man).
We got to see the pool and hot tub filled with water, and landscaped, and getting almost ready to open.
We saw the new menu for the Meadow Snack Bar for the first time.
And, we had an overall great time!
And, I took a lot of photos.
A lot!
So, let's get this trip report started already!
We checked in via the traditional method on Tuesday afternoon at about 12:45 pm.
We were directed to lane #2, and pulled right up to the hostess. So far so good.
Except she couldn't find our reservation in her computer. She suggested that we pull up and go inside to check in.
I said no, please check again, I had the computer confirmation right there. She looked again, and found our reservation. So far, so good.
But, then her computer froze. She said she would need to call a manager. She suggested that we pull up and go inside to check in. I said I didn't mind waiting for her to call the manager. I would rather not have to park my tow vehicle and trailer and go inside. So she called the manager, and got her computer unfrozen. So far, so good.
Then we had to go through the whole process of finding my reservation again. But she found it. And, then she began handing me my standard check in documents, one at a time. You know, the ones that are usually in a folder. Not this time. First I got the map. Then a couple of minutes later, the park schedule. Then a couple of minutes later, a copy of my receipt, etc., etc.
In the meantime, four rigs in the lane next to me had arrived, and checked in.
But, my hostess was diligently working on getting us checked in.
The poor folks behind me eventually walked up to the window and asked if there was a problem. No, the lady said, just a complicated reservation. Huh? We were just checking in to our site for four nights. No tickets, no dining plan, just a standard check-in.
Anyway, after we got the site squared away, I dropped another bomb on my hostess. We had a golf cart reservation. I thought that perhaps she was going to have a stroke or heart attack. She suggested that I park and go inside for the golf cart. But, since I already had so much invested in this transaction, I (unwisely) declined, and asked her to go ahead and process my golf cart rental agreement, as I knew that it could be done, having done so myself in the past.
She then tried to retrieve my golf cart reservation. She could not find it. I offered my confirmation number. She declined. Said the number would do no good since she couldn't find the confirmation. What she could do was call the Bike Barn and order me a cart. Which is what she did. So, she finally got that taken care of.
And, with that, we were checked in, and had our cart.
Here is a photo of our hostess. She was as nice as can be. But incompetent doesn't begin to describe her. Should she be your hostess, and should she suggest that it might be better to park and go into the lobby, go with the parking option. Trust me on this.
Fortunately, I was able to not lose it, as I had my DD's there to entertain me with their face making skills:
By the way, this experience prompted me to stop by the front desk later in our trip and ask about express check in. The castmember there told me that it was available in the check-in lanes outside. They keep the pre-made folders in the center lane, and the your host or hostess will go and retrieve your folder when you arrive to check-in. I may give this a try on my next visit.
I had a reservation for a full hook-up site. I used clkelley's magic fax request form to request a site in the 900 loop. Worked like a charm! We were assigned to site 914. This site is on the outside of the loop, almost half-way around. It backs up to a little canal between the 800 and 900 loops. This was a great site! So, it was all good for the TCD gang.
As is our custom, I handed some cash to the DD's, and sent them off for a leisurely lunch, while I got camp set up. Luckily, I was completely set up when we had a little down pour. It didn't rain long, so as soon as the girls got back, we set out for some looping.
First stop, the new part of the 600 loop.
The new campsites were all empty when we arrived, but began to fill as the afternoon progressed.
Here is the new entry sign. Nice work with the router, eh?:
Here are some shots of the new sites:
This is one of the sites that backs up to the Meadow Trading Post:
There is some weird looking stuff on the water connections on these new sites:
You only get two standard electric outlets on these new sites. My old full hook-up site on 900 had four. How's that for progress?
But, the stainless steel basins around the sewer connections are bigger, and have a modern shape (that is worth the extra $$$-right?):
Some more loop photos:
This new cross walk is for the path that leads to and from the bridge that goes across to the campfire area:
What was formerly known as site 602 is fenced off. It looks like it will be used as a site on this loop, and will be re-numbered as 616. They need to pour some concrete here to connect it to the new roadway. I don't know why they didn't get this finished before they opened up the new part, but they didn't:
These are the new sites on the inside of the loop that back up to the main road near the 800 loop bus stop. There is almost no space from the edge of the concrete pad to the adjacent side walk:
This is the site marker for the site shown immediately above- 614 That is a pretty nice site. 617 is the site that has the grill right next to the sidewalk-not so nice.
There are a lot more photos to come!
TCD
If the pool was open, it would have been perfect!
