yorkshiregirl
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2002
- Messages
- 147
First impressions of Fort Wilderness
We drove down to London Gatwick and stayed at the Hilton Hotel overnight which broke the journey down from Yorkshire.
Virgin flight over was very good apart from suitcase wheel being knocked off and having suitcase searched in customs. U.S. customs officer was very intrigued by my little pots of marmalade! As mentioned before we stayed overnight and used the twilight check in which was very quiet at around 3pm when we arrived at the airport. Due to this my 14 year old had some items of mine in his bag one of which was something black and lacy and he got stopped 3 times in total before we finally got through to the arrivals hall. He will not have it that it was his large amount of electrical goodies that he couldn't live without.
When we arrived in arrivals hall there was Ken from Happy Limo with our name held up. Ken was really laid back and patient as we had to wait ages for the luggage to arrive and then report the damage to Virgin.
We drove to Albertsons to pick up shopping order which had been previously faxed through. Unfortunately, this had only just been done so we had to wait for them to rush around and do it. Ken was fine about the wait and if I hadn't been a bit tired I could have done a full shop with time to spare! (only kidding) Finally we were on our way and soon the signs began to mention all the places that I had been reading about.
Eventually we went through the Fort Wilderness gates and pulled up alongside these monster r.v.'s which even had jeeps towed on the back. We were beginning to realise that things are done on a big scale in this campground and our expectations were high.
We got the choice of a cabin loop just across from the pool which was important then and also from the laundry which came to be very important as the days went by. It was called Cedar Trail or loop 2500. The ranger dropped us round to our cabin and it was so quiet, rustic but with every appliance that we could want or need that we all felt straight at home. The children had the bedroom with one in the double bed and one on the top bunk and we had the murphy bed which pulled down from the wall. The air conditioning was very efficient which we were grateful for as the heat hit you like a blast from a furnace when you went outdoors. We managed to fit all the clothes in the cupboards which are not over plentiful but as I had heeded the advice not to overpack all fitted in.
The rest of that evening we explored the campsite, ate a light snack in the cabin and went to bed around ten.
Everyone was very impressed with the cabin and what we had seen so far and so I went to sleep happy because if they are happy it makes all the planning worthwhile.
Went straight to sleep but woke up twice hearing fireworks which we realised were from the Magic Kingdom or Epcot or both I think.
Highlights of day will centre around smells quite often as you may come to realise. Fort Wilderness has a lovely pine smell overlaid with a brackish, boggy smell. The insects, small birds and rodents make rustling, snuffling, and buzzing noises which you can hear from the deck of the cabin and it seems a world apart as we came to realize once we had dipped our toes in WDW proper in the days to come.
We drove down to London Gatwick and stayed at the Hilton Hotel overnight which broke the journey down from Yorkshire.
Virgin flight over was very good apart from suitcase wheel being knocked off and having suitcase searched in customs. U.S. customs officer was very intrigued by my little pots of marmalade! As mentioned before we stayed overnight and used the twilight check in which was very quiet at around 3pm when we arrived at the airport. Due to this my 14 year old had some items of mine in his bag one of which was something black and lacy and he got stopped 3 times in total before we finally got through to the arrivals hall. He will not have it that it was his large amount of electrical goodies that he couldn't live without.
When we arrived in arrivals hall there was Ken from Happy Limo with our name held up. Ken was really laid back and patient as we had to wait ages for the luggage to arrive and then report the damage to Virgin.
We drove to Albertsons to pick up shopping order which had been previously faxed through. Unfortunately, this had only just been done so we had to wait for them to rush around and do it. Ken was fine about the wait and if I hadn't been a bit tired I could have done a full shop with time to spare! (only kidding) Finally we were on our way and soon the signs began to mention all the places that I had been reading about.
Eventually we went through the Fort Wilderness gates and pulled up alongside these monster r.v.'s which even had jeeps towed on the back. We were beginning to realise that things are done on a big scale in this campground and our expectations were high.
We got the choice of a cabin loop just across from the pool which was important then and also from the laundry which came to be very important as the days went by. It was called Cedar Trail or loop 2500. The ranger dropped us round to our cabin and it was so quiet, rustic but with every appliance that we could want or need that we all felt straight at home. The children had the bedroom with one in the double bed and one on the top bunk and we had the murphy bed which pulled down from the wall. The air conditioning was very efficient which we were grateful for as the heat hit you like a blast from a furnace when you went outdoors. We managed to fit all the clothes in the cupboards which are not over plentiful but as I had heeded the advice not to overpack all fitted in.
The rest of that evening we explored the campsite, ate a light snack in the cabin and went to bed around ten.
Everyone was very impressed with the cabin and what we had seen so far and so I went to sleep happy because if they are happy it makes all the planning worthwhile.
Went straight to sleep but woke up twice hearing fireworks which we realised were from the Magic Kingdom or Epcot or both I think.
Highlights of day will centre around smells quite often as you may come to realise. Fort Wilderness has a lovely pine smell overlaid with a brackish, boggy smell. The insects, small birds and rodents make rustling, snuffling, and buzzing noises which you can hear from the deck of the cabin and it seems a world apart as we came to realize once we had dipped our toes in WDW proper in the days to come.
! It is not very often we get a Fort Wilderness trip report, and I really enjoyed reading this!
