excited just booked

[tlwfun89]

Just booked 11 nights at ft wilderness June to July over 4th of July with of 5th wheel camper. We have never done disney in a way to cook or at slower pace. Going to give it a whirl with first time no dining plan after several trips on Deluxe Dining plan. We are dining planned out... I think. Tired of being over scheduled . Is this an error in our thinking that we can do this in a less structured/appointment style vacation?

 

[2goofycampers]

We did the same thing earlier this month. We went with intentions of dining out and had some reservations. After the first night of eating out, we canceled our other reservations. We went to Publix bought produce, meat, fish and Wal-Mart for the rest. It was our most relaxing vacation ever.

 

[jbrostek]

We do that every year for two weeks. We do dine out, but we also eat in a lot as well. I recommend preparing a few plans for crock pot meals which you can start when you leave for the parks and have ready with some minor finishing on the side. We experiment through they year on new dishes and decide on which ones to make when we get there.

 

[jcs428]

Please let us know how it goes. We are in exactly the same situation. Always the deluxe dining plan & every minute of the trip scheduled (usually around character meals). We are thinking of FW & a more relaxed pace for our next trip as well. That is what brought me to this board, doing a little research for a March '15 trip.

Hope it goes well & you enjoy your trip! I would love to hear the pros & cons or any tips when you return!!

 

[TwinkleKS]

We are a little opposite. We stayed in the cabins and loved it, but we kept our deluxe dining plan. However we used it for character meals and signature meals mainly. Then because we whereat the cabins were able to keep a few other items to tide people over or for breakfast.

 

[articfox676]

A vote here for eating in. If we are at the Fort for a week we have one nice (expensive) dinner out. We would rather have one nice dinner rather then counter service every day. Of course breakfast is in the trailer.

 

[sbnewhampshire1]

I agree it is so much more relaxing to eat at your own place. Start dinner in your crockpot in the morning and its ready when you get back ! The kids love running around the site on return from the parks and doing something so they get rid of all their saved up energy before dinner! Also think of the $$ you will be saving for something else! As a Gramma, the kids eat better and enjoy it as this is the food they really like. Also ,as my hubby always says, this is so much better that a restaurant!! Don't get me wrong as a WORKING woman I do enjoy going out to eat but as a Gramma this is what my kids like!!(except getting ice cream, soda. chips etc. which also costs a fortune) Wouldn't you rather save the $$ for next years trip to our favorite place!! Just saying

 

[bama_ed]

I'm a very laid back person and in the past I didn't even schedule "what day in what park" until I got to the Fort and mashed together the Crowd Calendars, the weather forecast, and our general feel. 24-48 hours is the extent of my advance planning.

The introduction of Magic Bands gives me hives. They haven't arrived yet but the idea of choosing "what park what day" 60 days in advance is unnerving to me. I've never bought the Dining Plan because in the same vein, scheduling meals in certain parks in certain days in anything but the least amount of advance planning makes me uncomfortable.

We approach our Disney vacation as "we have X total days at the Fort", we are spending Y days in the parks" (we usually spend one day in the Park and one day NOT). So if you are looking for a relaxing vacation that wasn't so GO-GO-GO then the Fort is the place for you. I can't imagine spending all that money to be in the Parks when you have the amenities of the Fort, Downtown Disney, and other activities to entertain you and fill your days.

So relax, have fun at the Fort, and you'll never vacation at Disney any other way again.

Bama Ed

 

[tlwfun89]

Thanks for all the responses. WE are doing a trip in March for Spring break deluxe dining for 5 nights but going back in June-July we are thinking theres got to be a way to not be racing around like chickens with our heads cut off. WE have annual passes so it will be nice to not have to buy tickets again. Just finished the march schedule and its like military schedule between dining and fast passes scheduled. I am typically a planner but as we get older its not the way we want to be for 11 days straight. WE were just pondering if we go to the store the camper refrigerator only holds so much and 11 days is a lot of food. How do others do it? With a cooler you end up with a melted mess of water soaking everything

 

[loislane]

First trip - the regular old dining plan, so we had TS dinner scheduled every night. Ended up hating that part of the trip - not the food, but the need to be somewhere at a certain time. 7 day trip - stayed at POP.

Second trip - quick service dining plan. Loved that it gave more freedom, but did get a bit tired of the offerings since they are the same at a lot of places. 6-day trip, stayed at POP.

Third trip this past August - NO dining plan. Brought the camper and stayed at the Fort. Pre-made and froze several meals that could be thawed and reheated on low in the crock pot (casserole, tacos, pulled pork) and made a few other meals in the crock like lasagna. Decided that morning what we wanted for dinner and started it in the crock before heading out for the day. LOVED IT!

This trip was sooooo relaxed compared to the others. The only time anyone was in a rush was the day DH took DS9 to HS early to sign him up for Jedi Academy.

We had a reservation for dinner one night at Boma's. That was it.

We were there for 11 nights - made two trips to Walmart for food and bottled water/soda. Once when we got there and once about halfway through the trip. Not a big deal to make that 2nd trip - the Walmart is pretty close by. We also bought a few little things we ran out of at the Fort store.

We have a popup with the taller size of the dorm-style refrigerators - we kept our milk and food in that. We borrowed my parent's Coleman electric cooler (plugs in, doesn't use ice) and set that up outside for sodas and waters. That system worked out very well for us. The Coleman was great because it plugs into a regular socket but also into a car socket, so we were able to use that in the car to keep drinks and snacks cold while driving down.

 

[double r]

We will be there around the same time frame you are and are also AP holders so we really plan to sit back and just go with the flow. I don't know what size fridge you have but ours is a 10 cubic foot and we can pack it really well. We start by figuring out what we might want the 1st couple of days with that in the fridge, the farthest day out put that in the fridge frozen the day you leave, it will defrost by the time you need it.
Ground beef pack in freezer bags as flat as you can get it, saves space, can use that for plenty of different type of meals. If you use a cooler we used to freeze water from home in gallon jugs that way when it does thaw you do not really soak the rest of the cooler contents plus you can use it for drinking water if you want. That's just a few things that have worked for us, good luck and enjoy maybe we will bump into you there.

 

[tlwfun89]

ohhh I like the gallon jug idea and all the other ideas thanks. Never did this before so this will be interesting indeed

 

[marybrat]

Just booked 11 nights at ft wilderness June to July over 4th of July with of 5th wheel camper. We have never done disney in a way to cook or at slower pace. Going to give it a whirl with first time no dining plan after several trips on Deluxe Dining plan. We are dining planned out... I think. Tired of being over scheduled . Is this an error in our thinking that we can do this in a less structured/appointment style vacation?

We used to do lots of sit down meals so we could see all of the characters. After several trips like that, I felt like we were visiting the parks in between our dining. It was just too much. Now that we do more counter service meals, it's wonderful. No more rushing to restaurants. The kids love it too! Enjoy your 11 nights!

 

[grumpyaggie]

Bama_Ed is correct The Majic Bands are a pain. My wife and I spent the better part of two weeks deciding where we want to be. And the dining reservations are impossible. Thank goodness it just the the two of us. I am to old to do that much planning.

 

[tlwfun89]

I am just tired of doing all this planning and thinking boy would that snack be so good too bad we are too full from eating on the deluxe meal plan that we could not eat all of at dinner time. The magic bands have pushed us over the top when picking our FP+ for march and the thing took over 75 minuted to get correct and 5 phone calls and still is not right.

 

[jbrostek]

I will say that the fastpas+ system has a lot to be desired, but being there two weeks the only reservation we made well ahead of time was Ohana because its next to impossible to get a table for 5 short notice.

But with the pass system we where planning 24-48 hours for the next park and not having a lot of issues getting the fast passes we wanted. If one day a park seemed to be busy, we looked at others and switched out. Seriously was not a huge issue for us.

 

[khovius]

We have booked our next trip to the Fort with an occasional visit to WDW. This will be our third 11 night stay. What we do is deep freeze as much of our food as possible. Start the refrigerator in the RV 2 days before to ensure that it is good and cold. We also use 3 heavy Styrofoam coolers from Omaha steaks stored on the bed in the back. We use the water bottle trick, but primarily use the 16.9 oz bottles. We pack the coolers in such a way as to use the freezer first, than cooler 1, cooler 2 and finally cooler 3 near the end of the trip. at about day 5, I check cooler 2 and 3 and replace the water bottles with ones refrozen in the freezer.

We usually make a run to the supermarket on day 4 and 8 for milk, bananas and anything else we may have forgotten.


Looking forward to August.

 

[retired and happy]

In about 15 years of visits we have never used a dining plan. When we are hungry, we eat. If we're in one park, we don't have to worry about getting to another at a certain time. We are AP holders and have never made rope drop or EMH, but we come and go when we want to, where we want to. We're on vacation and refuse to over schedule. We may not even decide which park to visit until we start out for the bus. Relax and enjoy.

 

[articfox676]

X2 could not have said it better.

 

[WECAMP2]

Our bands just came in the mail, bummer they are all gray, hope this is not a sign of things to come.