Arrival Day

[lbmiller77]

I'm interested in hearing what everyone does on their arrival day? Do you set up your site and race over to the theme parks? Hop over to the pool? Take a ride on the monorail and resort hop? Arrive at the fort early in the morning or late in the evening?

This is my plan for our arrival day:
Our last leg of our trip will be a 5 hour drive from Perry, GA. I am hoping to make it to the fort around 9:30 a.m. The first thing we are probably going to do is explore the loops and sights around the fort via bike, spend sometime at the pool, and then catch the monorail for a little resort hopping.

Thanks for sharing, Laurie

 

[tltay2005]

Laurie, official check in time is 1pm. You may want to call to make sure your site is ready if you plan to arrive at 9:30am. If you are lucky to get that early of a check it, that is great, it will give you time to do the exploring you have planned. We usually don't get there until 11:30-12:30, set up camp, do a little "looping" and then just hang out till dinner. Then head over to Trails End to eat. I hate cooking & cleaning the first night .

 

[parrothead64]

You can arrive anytime that morning, if your site isn't rady they will have you park in the overflow lot and text you the site number when its ready.

 

[Teamubr]

We also stay overnight somewhere in south Georgia (coming from outside St Louis) Gives us an easy 3-4 hour tow to the Fort. We try to arrive late morning (11-12ish). Our site has always been available by then (although may not be your case).
Our "normal" arrival day routine is to get to the site and setup. That doesn't typically take too long. Since I'm staying for a week (and not just a weekend), I do put up the lights, signs, carpets, chairs, BBQ grill and make it "home". This usually takes us up to early afternoon. We'll walk around the Settlement and go to the Trading Post (we request Loop 100 so it's a short walk). By late afternoon we take the boat to MK, grab some dinner as we walk around the park, then find a good spot to watch Wishes.

Since our first trip with our DS, we make it a tradition of watching Wishes our first and last night there. Usually with my arms around my DW and DS with a tear in my eye. They both make fun of me, but my DS is 17 now and he is as big a Disney fan as I am.

j

 

[serenitygr]

oh- I LOVE talking about our first day there because it makes it seem that much closer!
Our flight arrives from Minnesota about noon- we'll probably get to the fort about 1:30 is all goes well. We are renting from Florida Camper rental, so hopefully we'll get all settled in with our new camper, and our brother and sister in laws family as well! Then a trip to Walmart for supplies for the week. Arranging to meet up with Kenny for our golf carts. And our last definite plan is dinner at Whispering Canyon that night for our "welcome home" dinner at 6:30. It will be a busy, but fun and exciting, day!

 

[themojosupreme]

On arrival day, we set everything up for our stay. No cooking that day as we've been looking forward to supper at Trails End. We'll take the golf cart looping and then over to the beach for the Electric Water Pageant. After the long drive in the car to the Fort, the fresh air at the fort makes us sleepy yet happy campers. Off to bed early !

 

[lbmiller77]

Laurie, official check in time is 1pm. You may want to call to make sure your site is ready if you plan to arrive at 9:30am. If you are lucky to get that early of a check it, that is great, it will give you time to do the exploring you have planned. We usually don't get there until 11:30-12:30, set up camp, do a little "looping" and then just hang out till dinner. Then head over to Trails End to eat. I hate cooking & cleaning the first night .

Thanks tltay2005, I am aware of 1pm official check in time, but also know that often times they have sites available earlier than that and if they don't, we can still park in the overflow lot and get our vacation started by using the resort amenities Lol, couldn't agree with you more about not cooking the first night!

oh- I LOVE talking about our first day there because it makes it seem that much closer!
Our flight arrives from Minnesota about noon- we'll probably get to the fort about 1:30 is all goes well. We are renting from Florida Camper rental, so hopefully we'll get all settled in with our new camper, and our brother and sister in laws family as well! Then a trip to Walmart for supplies for the week. Arranging to meet up with Kenny for our golf carts. And our last definite plan is dinner at Whispering Canyon that night for our "welcome home" dinner at 6:30. It will be a busy, but fun and exciting, day!

lol, Im at work right now but I cannot stop thinking about the fort! Only two months away

 

[jbrostek]

The way our trip breaks up we are usually pulling in between 1:30-3:30 depending on what time we hit the road, stops, traffic. At that point check in, parking in the site and dog walking are the priorities.

But once checked in and setup at the site, my list is usually very short. Usually just sitting down in a chair that is not the seat of my truck sounds great. Dinner is usually simple like trails end take out, or something simple in the camper. I have done some looping to kill the time in the past but usually I just want to unwind rather then try to rush off to a site. Though on year we did make it there about 1:30, we where checked in and at our site in no time. So that evening we decided to venture to DTD for dinner and walking about.

 

[bama_ed]

lbmiller77,

Our arrival day at the Fort usually starts before lunch. We try to arrive early in the day when possible.

First day is ALWAYS a Fort day. By the time we get all set up and such, we want to head to the Trading Posts to look for any new merchandise, hit the pool, and check out our loop and the rigs around us. Supper is usually a GAG (Giddy Up And Go) which is a 10-piece fried chicken dinner with 2 sides as take-out from Trails End for around $25. We go to the Campfire Singalong and stay for the movie if it's worth it.

We go to the Fort almost once a year so in a 4-5 full day trip (plus arrival and departure days which are partial days) we do 1-2 park days (always MK) and chill the others. We end up at DTD at some point each trip and one of the Water Parks sometimes or putt putt but we hang at the Fort riding bikes, visiting the train tracks, fishing, swimming, and taking part in the daily activities.

Bama Ed

 

[MikeTaylor]

We plan on arriving at 2PM-3PM, set up, take the boat to the Contemporary and ride the monorail resort loop, enter MK, and watch Wishes.

 

[tiggerdad]

My drive down is usually between 11-12 hours. I have typically always worked night/evening shifts, so staying up all night for me is not new. Usually we drive through the night and the wife and kids sleep. Normally arrive between 0830 and 0930. The first trip our site was ready and we went straight to it, the second trip it was not, but I was offered my choice of some other sites that were available and I took one of those.

I like to set the site up first thing and the girls usually like to explore around. I'll nap til about noon then get up and begin my exploring. Both of the first trips we did HDR on arrival night, but this year we are eating at Trail's End instead.

 

[CooperPrincesses]

We are so excited to be camping at the Ft. for the first time this trip. We stayed in the cabins the last time we were at the Ft. and my girls loved it, even shot down the idea of a Deluxe resort stay in favor of camping at the Fort (their smart girls).

Our plan for our first day is a short trip from Ocala where we are stopping over with my parents for the night and hopefully an arrival at the Ft between 11 and 12. Set up the site and head over to DTD for a surprise late lunch reservation at T-Rex for the girls (they love their Dinos) and a little shopping. Back to the camper to change into our costumes and over to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (thought I would start the trip off with a bang).

My two youngest daughters have never been to WDW so there are lots of princess surprises in store. Can not wait, our Mickey countdown chain gets smaller every day.