fanofmickey
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2000
- Messages
- 352
We just returned from one week (9/17 thru 9/24) at FW, and I thought I would post a campground review here.
We arrived on Saturday around 5:00 pm - there was only one check-in window open with 2 trailers in front of us and it took us close to 1/2 an hour to get to the window (the campers in front of us were "walk-ins"). We were assigned site 514. Backing in was relatively easy considering this was our first time out with the camper!
This was a great site - just across the street from the comfort station. The comfort station was very clean. We had a recycling bin right in front of our site - very convenient. We lost $2.00 in the ice machine the first day, as it was out of ice. This was pretty inconvenient, because we were leaving before the stores opened at 9:00 and returning after they closed at 10:00.
Our week's schedule called for a day at the campground on Tuesday (no setting the alarm!). I was dreaming about a noisy campground, and then woke up and realized that I was not dreaming. It was 8:44am, and there was a forklift running back and forth in front of us (BEEP, BEEP, BEEP) carrying sod and pine straw, and about 1/2 dozen people laying it in the sites right next to us and across the street. So much for sleeping in! We went to the pool around lunch, and we were the only family there for quite a while. We got to see the lifeguard do a "practice run" on a rescue while we were there - it was quite interesting.
We used Disney transportation almost exclusively the entire week and had absolutely no complaints. I was expecting to have some waits based on reviews that I had read - we never waited even 5 minutes for any bus. Our worst transportation issue happened on our last trip to FW from MK on Friday, 9/23. We were on the last ferry from MK, and we got caught behind the Electric Pageant - we could not board until the show finished in front of GF, and then we had to S-L-O-W-L-Y follow it to Wilderness Lodge, where we saw it again on front of that beach before we docked, and then we had to S-L-O-W-L-Y follow it to FW, where we saw it again before we could dock. We left MK around 8:50, and docked at FW around 9:55.
The bright side to that last trip, however, was that on our walk back to 500 loop from the Marina, we saw a bunny rabbit that let us stand within 2-3 feet of it while it looked at us, and then we saw 2 armadillos (sp?) that actually kept walking towards us when we stopped to look at it. We must have been within one foot of those things! They are cute!
All in all, a great time at a great campground. As I said, this was our "maiden voyage" in our camper, and it was great. I look foward to going back when we can spend more down time in the campground. If we were to do that, we would definitely bring bikes for transport and explore a little more. We never even made it to the campfire or movie.
We arrived on Saturday around 5:00 pm - there was only one check-in window open with 2 trailers in front of us and it took us close to 1/2 an hour to get to the window (the campers in front of us were "walk-ins"). We were assigned site 514. Backing in was relatively easy considering this was our first time out with the camper!
This was a great site - just across the street from the comfort station. The comfort station was very clean. We had a recycling bin right in front of our site - very convenient. We lost $2.00 in the ice machine the first day, as it was out of ice. This was pretty inconvenient, because we were leaving before the stores opened at 9:00 and returning after they closed at 10:00.
Our week's schedule called for a day at the campground on Tuesday (no setting the alarm!). I was dreaming about a noisy campground, and then woke up and realized that I was not dreaming. It was 8:44am, and there was a forklift running back and forth in front of us (BEEP, BEEP, BEEP) carrying sod and pine straw, and about 1/2 dozen people laying it in the sites right next to us and across the street. So much for sleeping in! We went to the pool around lunch, and we were the only family there for quite a while. We got to see the lifeguard do a "practice run" on a rescue while we were there - it was quite interesting.
We used Disney transportation almost exclusively the entire week and had absolutely no complaints. I was expecting to have some waits based on reviews that I had read - we never waited even 5 minutes for any bus. Our worst transportation issue happened on our last trip to FW from MK on Friday, 9/23. We were on the last ferry from MK, and we got caught behind the Electric Pageant - we could not board until the show finished in front of GF, and then we had to S-L-O-W-L-Y follow it to Wilderness Lodge, where we saw it again on front of that beach before we docked, and then we had to S-L-O-W-L-Y follow it to FW, where we saw it again before we could dock. We left MK around 8:50, and docked at FW around 9:55.
The bright side to that last trip, however, was that on our walk back to 500 loop from the Marina, we saw a bunny rabbit that let us stand within 2-3 feet of it while it looked at us, and then we saw 2 armadillos (sp?) that actually kept walking towards us when we stopped to look at it. We must have been within one foot of those things! They are cute!
All in all, a great time at a great campground. As I said, this was our "maiden voyage" in our camper, and it was great. I look foward to going back when we can spend more down time in the campground. If we were to do that, we would definitely bring bikes for transport and explore a little more. We never even made it to the campfire or movie.
