From Grand Villas to Fort Wilderness! (Feb trip) *complete*

[dr&momto2boys]

Disney is our passion. We've been big fans for years now and when we're not planning a trip or two or three, we're reading Disney/Orlando magazines or the DISboards. We own a significant number of DVC (Disney Vacation Club) points at three resorts (Boardwalk, Bay Lake at the Contemporary, and Animal Kingdom.) Last year we had Disneyland APs and this year we have WDW APs.

This is a trip report from our latest WDW trip...February 10th to 17th.

Now, we are usually living it up pretty well at Disney. We've had occasion to stay in the Grand Villas (3 bedroom amazingly luxerious suites) at both the Boardwalk Resort and Bay Lake Tower at the Contempory Resort. This November we'll get to stay in the Grand Villa at Animal Kingdom too. We often do the dining plan and have occasionally done the deluxe dining plan...we enjoy Disney restaurants.

I'm mentioning all this because this was quite a different trip than we are used to! This time we drove our motorhome from Chicago to Atlanta and finally Orlando. We camped at Fort Wilderness. The only way this could get further from what we are used to is if we camped in a tent...or God forbid...stayed OFF PROPERTY!!!

My husband kept a blog while we were away, and I added to it and added pictures when we got back. So the whole TR is DONE! I will add links to each day below...

A little more about us-- We are a family of six with four kids 8 years old and under. We're expecting number five in June. So this trip was a bit less commando style because I'm tired! And we're going to Disney World two more times this year!

Kids:
Jacob (8)-- Finally tall enough for any ride he wants to go on and he wants to go on them all!
Max (6)-- We have to bribe him to go on rides. It drives me nuts when he refuses to go on rides the one year can go on.
Ella (4)-- Braver than her height and age. Patient and easy going for the most part. All princess!
Zoe (21 months)-- Likes her theme parks. Doesn't like being left out of anything.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Sunday Feb 10th:
$3 Pizza!
No, not at Disney of course!

Monday Feb. 11th:
Fort Wilderness/ Epcot
And the pictures begin!

Tuesday Feb 12th:
Late to the Magic Kingdom!
Our first look at the new Fantasyland

Wednesday Feb 13th:
Magic Kingdom Do-Over
Fixed our mistakes!

Thursday Feb 14th:
Valentine's Day at Disney's Hollywood Studios
Our rainy, rainy Valentine's Day

Friday Feb 15th:
A Day without Me at Magic Kingdom
No pictures 'cause I wasnt there!

Saturday Feb 16th:
Animal Kingdom
Should be called "Day at AK with bronchitis", but that doesnt sound like fun

There are more days on our blog than just these. If you want to read about our trip down from Chicago or our time in Atlanta feel free to click on those days in our blog. We also wrote a little about our miserable return trip.

Pretty much just the Disney days have pictures.

Hope you enjoy it! I welcome your comments.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Okay, I think I've got it all up and running. Let me know if something isn't working right!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Helloooooo! Is anyone there?

 

[laurenvic1312959]

I'm reading along, it's nice to read about how such a big family manages disney x

 

[ufgator]

Enjoying your report. We have 4 kids - 4, 2 and 3 month old twins. We took our 1st trip to the Fort in our new travel trailer last week. It was the twins' 1st trip. I am also used to going to WDW and staying in the monorail or Epcot resorts.

It looks like you have a Class A. I am new to this and this was our 1st time camping. DH used to camp a lot growing up. We wanted to start with a trailer to see if we liked it. We have one with a bunk room that slides out (which is good for us when the 2 and 4 yr old go to bed or take a nap). It is good for our family now. Can I ask how the setup is in your RV? Do you like it? If we like RVing, we would think about getting one that you can drive. When the kids get a little older, I would like to go out west.

Laughing about your title of A Day without Me at MK - I am never in any pictures b/c I'm always taking them.

Question about the Dumbo tent - is the play area for waiting for the ride like on Pooh? We walked around the new area but didn't go inside there. We only used a fastpass for the Mermaid ride; it was just too busy that day.

How did you get the sleeping kids off the bus? Our 2 older boys fell asleep at dinner one night and that was hard carrying them out.

Congrats on being pregnant with #5! I'm still getting used to having 4 kids.

 

[daisymomof4]

I just read it! Other than the bronchitis, it looked like a pretty good trip.

How was walking around FW for everyone? I have only ever glanced over the cabin info here but the impression I have is that everything is a billion miles away and the bus service is hot or cold. I keep thinking it really can't be that bad, can it?

I had a good giggle thinking about your wonderful husband taking all 4 kids to the showers by himself! I'm sure he was missing you that morning!

Thanks for sharing your trip with us

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I'm reading along, it's nice to read about how such a big family manages disney x

Thank you!
We usually do MUCH more, but since I'm pregnant I was just too tired!
It's pretty amazing how well our large group (in-laws included) have managed to navigate Disney with little trouble and a lot of planning!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Enjoying your report. We have 4 kids - 4, 2 and 3 month old twins. We took our 1st trip to the Fort in our new travel trailer last week. It was the twins' 1st trip. I am also used to going to WDW and staying in the monorail or Epcot resorts.
Sounds like we have a lot in common. People think I'm crazy for going to WDW later this year when our new baby is 3mos old, but you did it with two 3 month olds!

It looks like you have a Class A. I am new to this and this was our 1st time camping. DH used to camp a lot growing up. We wanted to start with a trailer to see if we liked it. We have one with a bunk room that slides out (which is good for us when the 2 and 4 yr old go to bed or take a nap). It is good for our family now. Can I ask how the setup is in your RV? Do you like it? If we like RVing, we would think about getting one that you can drive. When the kids get a little older, I would like to go out west.
This is our first RV. We've had it for about 8 months. So far it's great. It is a Thor ACE. It's relatively inexpensive for a motorhome. We paid $70K even with the full body paint. Inside there is a "queen" bed in the rear. (Seems a little small and short though.) There is a couch that unfold to flat in a really easy way, a dinette that converts to a bed, and an electric drop down bunk over the cab kinda like a class C that sleeps 2. So it can sleep 6 (or more when they're small.) It is a little shy of 30 feet long which appealed to us because it is easier to manuever. We don't tow a vehicle because nothing besides a van would fit us all. We circled Lake Erie with it last summer and had a good time. That's in our blog too if you're interested. I'm sure there are more pictures of the RV in there too. Not sure if there are inside pictures or not. Our dream is to take it to Alaska in a couple years. But first we'll go out West too.

Laughing about your title of A Day without Me at MK - I am never in any pictures b/c I'm always taking them.
Yes, no pictures if I'm not there. And rarely is there a picture of me!

Question about the Dumbo tent - is the play area for waiting for the ride like on Pooh? We walked around the new area but didn't go inside there. We only used a fastpass for the Mermaid ride; it was just too busy that day.
The play area is after you enter the line, you get to a certain point where they give you a pager (like when you're waiting to be seated at a restaurant) and you can enter the big play area and stay until your pager vibrates. No one was there when we were there so the kids just played for a bit and then we moved on because we wanted to move on to other rides before the park got super busy.

How did you get the sleeping kids off the bus? Our 2 older boys fell asleep at dinner one night and that was hard carrying them out.
We just had to wake up our older boys and make them walk off the bus. Fortunately they woke pretty well. Sometimes it's really difficult! Our 4 yr old ended up waking up too, so it wasn't bad that time. Just carried the 21 month old off.

Congrats on being pregnant with #5! I'm still getting used to having 4 kids.

I did it the "easy" way... one at a time. Having 4 four and under is something! Congratulations to you!

.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I just read it! Other than the bronchitis, it looked like a pretty good trip.

How was walking around FW for everyone? I have only ever glanced over the cabin info here but the impression I have is that everything is a billion miles away and the bus service is hot or cold. I keep thinking it really can't be that bad, can it?

I had a good giggle thinking about your wonderful husband taking all 4 kids to the showers by himself! I'm sure he was missing you that morning!

Thanks for sharing your trip with us

We had a good location, I think. We were in the 1600 loop pretty close to a "comfort station" (bathrooms and laundry). If we cut through the comfort station, we came out at the 1500 loop right near the bus stop. It wasn't much further to just walk to the 1600 loop stop either though.

The 1500 loop bus stop is also right across from the Meadows (the pool and a store.) So it was an easy walk for us.

The buses ran pretty well. There was only one morning that I waited a long time. Of course it was the morning that I needed to catch a cab to my seminar. I arranged fr the cab to pick me up at a certain time at the Outpost. I nearly missed that time even though I left PLENTY early. Other than that it really was pretty good. It is kind of a pain having to wait for a bus when you get off of whatever bus just brought you back from the parks. But we probably did less walking at the Fort, then any hotel we stayed at since we were pretty close to the bus stops. The other option is to rent a golf cart to get around within the Fort. We wouldn't all fit in one anyway, but it wouldn't be a bad option for some.

My husband IS amazing! He's pretty used to having his hands full! He's a stay-at-home homeschooling dad to this bunch.

 

[daisymomof4]

We had a good location, I think. We were in the 1600 loop pretty close to a "comfort station" (bathrooms and laundry). If we cut through the comfort station, we came out at the 1500 loop right near the bus stop. It wasn't much further to just walk to the 1600 loop stop either though.

The 1500 loop bus stop is also right across from the Meadows (the pool and a store.) So it was an easy walk for us.

The buses ran pretty well. There was only one morning that I waited a long time. Of course it was the morning that I needed to catch a cab to my seminar. I arranged fr the cab to pick me up at a certain time at the Outpost. I nearly missed that time even though I left PLENTY early. Other than that it really was pretty good. It is kind of a pain having to wait for a bus when you get off of whatever bus just brought you back from the parks. But we probably did less walking at the Fort, then any hotel we stayed at since we were pretty close to the bus stops. The other option is to rent a golf cart to get around within the Fort. We wouldn't all fit in one anyway, but it wouldn't be a bad option for some.

My husband IS amazing! He's pretty used to having his hands full! He's a stay-at-home homeschooling dad to this bunch.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[wiigirl]

Great TR!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Great TR!

Thank you!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Bumping this up, as this page moves fast!

 

[sarahk0204]

Great trip report! I remember you from your Aulani adventures.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Great trip report! I remember you from your Aulani adventures.

Thank you! Cool! I've been dreaming about Aulani again! We plan to go to the big island next February, maybe we'll be fortunate to go to Aulani again too. At the time, I said I love Maui so much that I don't see us going back to Aulani, but the kids LOVE the Aulani resort. We'll certainly be considering it again. I need more DVC points!!!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I just started a link to our next trip report too. (The last link in my signature.) This one will include a new family member and a Disney cruise!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

bump