Had to Leave FW Early

[Skaught]

After spending the day at the Magic Kingdom yesterday, we arrived back at our campsite at about 9pm. When we got there we found our shade canopy upside down off to the side of the site. The legs were sticking up all over the place. It looked like a crashed moonlander. After getting it set back up...sorta...I checked out the tent. Everything inside was strewn all over the place. Odd, since it was sitting where it should be. The kid's blankets were soaked, all the pillows were wet, and one inflatable mattress was mysteriously deflated and filled with a puddle.

Our neighbor came over and told us he has set our tent back upright. It had turned upside when half of the stakes were pulled up by the wind. At the park there was some light rain and one very sudden heavy downpour, but I didn't think the wind was that bad. Our campsite (1514) was in a spot where some heavy "landscaping" (as Disney called it) was done. Wide open space with no trees. So the wind had a direct shot at our site (I sure hope some stuff grows soon...it looks like a fire had ravaged our campsite with EVERYTHING cut down).

We had no choice but to throw everything in the truck, haphazardly, and drive home at about 10:30pm. Luckily our drive isn't too long, only about 90 minutes to St. Pete. We were bummed, but we were there on Friday and had our half-day at FW and a full day at the park. We were just have gone to bed and checked out in the morning, so not a big loss. It just sucked to tear everything down, all wet, and have it start to rain on us. We did lose the canopy (only $50, but it was the first time being used). A strut was brokern and we couldn't even fold it back up. I stopped at the front desk to tell FW about it since we had no way of throwing it away and they said they'd take care of it.

Anyway, everything is out in front drying off form a good hose down. The one thing I was dissappointed in was the "landscaping". I guess if you have to do it, you have to do it. But we had only a couple trees around our site and a huge area of land next to us and behind us that was covered in thorn covered vines (my daughter was bleeding after a trek out there). A rather ugly spot. Other spots look okay, though. It'll take a while to fill in, though.

Scott

 

[becky1960]

I have seen those sudden winds at WDW personnaly, we were at Epcot, Mexico at the outdoor resturant sitting under the awning when a sudden rain shower and wind came across the small lake and blew down the awnings and food all over the place. We ran to the Mexico pavillon and little while later it was sunny again.

 

[auntie]

Wow..I'm sorry to hear you had to pack up early and leave with your belongings soaking wet. That's really too bad. Not a nice way to end your day at the park.
I know what you mean about the landscaping..we noticed on our last bike ride through FW in May that they were clearing and working on some of the loops.
I wonder sometimes if they think it's better to get rid of some the trees, especially in tent loops.
We saw a campground a couple of weeks ago(in upstate NY) that we had previously stayed in quite a bit..just took a drive through while we were in the area. We used to camp in what they normally referred to as "the pines"..only most of the "pines" were taken down..and it looked kind of barren. You could see clear through from one row to the next, where as you could never do that previously. They too had new trees..should say shrubs planted and some sort of sandy mix on the ground. As we drove through my son commented that it looked more like a desert than a forest. Sure hope this isn't the current trend in the campground renovations.

Nice that you live close enough to make another trip..and now you have a good reason to go again soon.

 

[Mom2Trey]

We had the same thing happen to us during our stay at the Fort in May. Fortunately for us, it was our last night and we live about 45 mins away. We ended up throwing our valuables in the car and going home to sleep. Then we went back the next day and packed up all of the wet stuff. We had to dry out the tent in our garage but everything turned out okay. Sorry it happened to you!

 

[John VN]

Sorry to hear about your early exit and loss of equipment. When Mother Nature gets huffy, she can do a number. These unexpected and unwelcomed surprises are a fact of life when camping.

Have bicycled around the loops after storms and many times I have seen awnings in un-natural positions after the heavy rains and winds.

I think we're going to have to get use to the new look of peek-a-boo loops and less shade coverage. My sorce indicates it is a long term change.

 

[Colson39]

I was just talking with someone this morning about the winds at the Fort. Actually, it's most of Florida for that matter. At any time you can get sudden gusts just blowing through, especially while we are still in the afternoon shower phase. You live in St. Pete so I know you know all about it.

I would imagine with the recent clearing of trees that there will be more problems with these gusts since there isn't much holding the wind back now. Also, that sandy ground that you drive stakes into isn't really the best for holding down tents, I think the next time we tent it at the Fort we're going to buy some really long stakes and maybe tie off to a tree or two as well (if there are any ).

 

[VAN]

Three years ago we were staying in the 1500 loop and came back in late afternoon ... our pop-up camper awning was no where to be seen! Everything else was as we left it.

We found the awning on the top of the camper. Our insurance company paid for a new one and now we use extra ties on the awning.

Anyway, we asked someone if a storm had blown through ... they said there was some wind briefly. It really doesn't seem to take much.

One year, we were down there and a cyprus tree fell on a camper. We were told that the area used to be swamp land ... once the land was drained for WDW, the trees (which are used to sitting in water) begin to dry and become fragile.

Another year, they cleared out all the brush. We were told that the particular type of vine/plant life tended to choke-out the desirable vegetation/trees.

They do have reasons for clearing out the brush ... fire hazard, undesirable vegetation, etc. If you are a yearly visitor; however, you will see that the plant life grows back rather quickly.

 

[des1954]

Wow....that stinks!