Welcome to the boards ataylorrdh!!
I am another one of those TN folks Frank mentioned above.
We are planning a visit to the Fort in October as well....but arriving on the 9th. We will wave as we pass you on I-75.
There is SO much to do at the Fort and Disney, and lots of it is free. Disney of course can be as expensive as you want it to be, but one bit of advice I give first timers is not to plan every day at the parks unless you really want to cram in a lot. Our first trip to the Fort was 5 days, and we got 5 day park hoppers. We had a good time, but found we booked another Fort vacation just to stay at the campground and not do any parks. The Fort is a destination in itself with so much to do, so if possible plan some downtime to just hang out. If you can bring bikes it is THE BEST place to ride them!
Not sure if this is your first time to WDW or just your first Fort trip, but if you are unfamiliar with Disney dining and plan on eating any sit down meals out, check out the Dining website and get familiar with the reservation process, which they call ADR's (Advance Dining Reservations). You can reserve most restaurants 180 days before your arrival date for the length of your stay up to 10 days, and the popular ones book quickly. So if you want to do Hoop De Doo, or any of the park sit down restaurants, book those on April 5th (180 days before Oct 2). You can do it online. Of course, one of the benefits of having your fiver at the Fort is being able to cook meals....but just in case you will be eating out at all keep this in mind.
Ask questions as you plan your trip. You will get a lot of good advice on here. And if your topic quickly veers sideways into a discussion of BEER, don't be offended. It happens to EVERY topic evenually!
