Mini-Trip report/tenting FW no parks in Dec.

[CottontailCurl]

I thought I'd jot down a few lines about our trip to Fort Wilderness this past December when we camped and had no plans to go to the parks (gasp! call social services, that close and no parks!) Although my intentions are to write down highlights, I am fairly long-winded, you can just call me Wordy McWordington.
This was definitely an unplanned trip. My parents had e-mailed me and my sibs a couple months before to announce that my Dad would be celebrating his retirement by going to WDW in December, and would anyone like to join? Everyone was on board and although we wouldn't be going to the parks, I thought it would be fun to join the group at restaurants and areas outside the parks. My retirement present for my Dad would be to walk their dog for them during the day so they wouldn't have to leave the parks to do it. The only downer on this trip was that my husband wasn't able take vacation at that time. We had never been to WDW without him and there were a lot of "I miss Dad"s and "there's Dad's favorite..."s, etc. We survived it, though, just barely with all that peace and tranquility in the fort : ).

This trip was also different in that we didn't make any special requests for loops, sites or areas of loops. We decided that since we usually ask for the 1500 loop because of its convenience for getting to the parks, we'd just take what we're given and leave the 1500 loop for families going to the parks. Also strange was my lack of early prep for this trip - I don't know if it was because of the last momentness of it, or what, but I just wasn't on the ball with getting us ready (my daughter: "this is just weird, it's 4 days before we leave and there's not a line of camping equipment in the living room!)

I forgot to mention that a little before we left, my parents e-mailed everyone to say their Christmas presents this year would be tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!! Yay!! So, coming up; 6 days at Fort Wilderness, one night at MVMCP, yet the worst my legs and feet ever felt after a normal WDW trip, setting up camp w/out Dad, thoughts on 2000 loop and our site, weather in December, what we did since we weren't going into the parks, and taking 350+ pictures.

 

[Kanda]

I'm looking very forward to this trip report. We will be tenting in less than a month, and yes I have all the gear laid out in our bonus room.

 

[CottontailCurl]

We had a good and uneventful trip to Florida, the only thing worth mentioning is that the kids only needed one break in a 10 hour trip. That has never happened before, I'm waiting for a reply from Guinness! It might have had something to do with the freezing cold temperatures outside (remember the weekend of the 8th and 9th Dec was freezing cold on the east coast?), our first stop to get gas I was shaking so much I could hardly hold in the handle on the knozzle. It was a little better by our Florida welcome center break, still chilly but nice in the sun. We ate our subs there, had our 'yuge' OJ sample and were on our way. We arrived at Fort Wilderness at about 3:00 and checked in. This is the first time I stood at the far left of the counter to check in, you know, the one in front of the wizard's door? As I stood there and waited, the door was opened and closed several times giving me quick glimpses of the office inside. Right inside was 4 or 5 foot Christmas tree, just beyond were one or 2 desks with knick-knacks and paddywacks on them (maybe Christmas, maybe Disney? the glimpses were quick). By the third time the door opened, I had a desperate need to work there. There was just something about that office that drew me in. I'm sure they have their fill of office woes (people always requesting the 1500 loop!), but if there's anywhere I'd like to have office woes at, it would be at Fort Wilderness.
So, we were given our assignment of the 2000 loop, I started to say, "is it possible to check..." when I remembered our promise, took our map and went to set up our camp. The only preference we made was when he asked if we'd like to be near the comfort station or out in the middle of the loop. We asked for near. We also asked if we could keep our dog with us in his crate, in the van while we set up. I didn't want to check him into the kennel first and end up setting up camp in the dark, we were told that was fine.
We had campsite 2035, which is beside the comfort station that is toward the back of the loop. After we figured out where we're going to put the tent, we cleared the rocks and large shells and moved the picnic table to the electric outlet and water (Does anyone else move the table over there? We do every time, it just makes more sense, it gets heavier each trip, though!) Setting up without Dad ended not being a problem, I had to shorten the kids campsite exploration since we'd be losing our light soon, they made up for it every day after. We'd set up camp so often that everyone jumped in and did what was needed without too much prompting. Our camp set-up is very basic, we have a 'Fort Wilderness gives us all we need' mentality so we don't bring a lot of camping extras. One of these days we might grow up and do the real camping thing (we've never even owned a propane stove! we have a single burner electric hot plate and and electric griddle, we get by with that at the Fort!). So, where was I? I told you I'm long-winded! Kids did great helping set up camp, yada, yada, yada, we don't have an over the tent tarp this trip, hope December remains the traditional month for least amount of rain in Florida. After we finish, we take our dog Buzz to check him into the Empty Paws Hotel. We soon get a call from my Mom who says that they'll be outside EPCOT at 9:00 if we wanted to come by and see them. Luckily we headed out that way early, because I remembered that the Space Shuttle lift-off might be a 'go' that night. We are at the turnstiles into EPCOT at 8:00 and ask a CM if it's on, she says yes and tells us exactly when and which direction to look for it. As we're waiting, my sister and her family 'bump into us' as they're leaving EPCOT, the kids are very happy to see their cousins, I call my husband to ask him to check NASA.gov for a countdown and we're all there together as we watch the most amazing display of technology as the Space Shuttle lights up the night sky with its rockets. Even being 60 miles away, we could see the main glare of the rockets, plus a huge area of sky on either side was glowing orange! Then watching it rise into the sky was spectacular and we could hear comments of relief for a safe lift-off all around us. That's all, she wrote. We were at Walt Disney World for a week with no parks but we'd already been given an amazing show!!


Wanted to add this youtube video of the shuttle lift-off from the UK in EPCOT. Is anyone able to see the video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu0LIKVGbQI&mode=related&search=

 

[CottontailCurl]

I'm looking very forward to this trip report. We will be tenting in less than a month, and yes I have all the gear laid out in our bonus room.

Ha Ha! That's the way to do it!! I apologize in advance, not only am I wordy, but I glaze over and think I'm re-living the trip and write in the present, then back in the past!
Is it your first trip to Fort Wilderness? You're going at my favorite time of the year.

 

[CottontailCurl]

I've always felt that the 2000 loop was too far away from everything to be convenient for a trip to WDW (we'd stayed in the loop twice, once when we did the parks and once when we were evacuated by Floyd - that's a whole nother thread!) We were in the 2000 loop and it didn't feel that isolated this time. Maybe the bus routes that have been changed so often make it better, I don't know. To get to the Marina was equal to, if not shorter than, being in the 1500 loop. The 2000 loop to Marina bus goes to the right of the bus stop, runs every 10 minutes and the Marina is the next stop, the 1500 loop's route has a couple stops before the Marina, so if you're splitting hairs the 2000 loop wins the getting to the Magic Kingdom race. One morning I asked my son if he'd take my refillable mug to Trail's End to make me a cup of tea, it wasn't long until a bus came along, took him to the Marina where he made the tea and got back to the stop where the same bus driver brought him back to us. He timed it and said it took the driver less than 10 minutes to get back up to the Marina. That's the way out from the 2000 loop to the Magic Kingdom and MGM. Getting to Animal Kingdom and EPCOT and Downtown Disney and the waterparks was equally easy; we just took the bus going to the left at the bus stop, stopped at a couple loops in the cabin area and were soon out at the main bus stop. We were in and out of the campground at all different hours of the day, every day we were there. The best time of day to get transportation to the other parks was in the first couple hours of the morning around park opening time when there were more buses moving (which makes sense). We had very little wait times then. Buses were not so frequent in the middle of the day and then would pick up in the late afternoon. We only had one bus nightmare and that was going back to FW from EPCOT one morning after I'd walked the dogs. Apparently at that time of day everyone's on their way into EPCOT, not leaving it (8:45). After 3 bus drivers (in buses marked FW at the FW stop) told me they weren't going to Fort Wilderness and they didn't know where they were going next, I started to get ticked off. I don't get ticked off easily (as you can tell since it took 3 to do the trick!) but by the time #4 told me the same thing, I said "I have been here an hour waiting for a bus and have been told that every time, the next bus that comes by better take me to Fort Wilderness" <--- That's me losing my temper. He told me he'd tell his dispatch dude that I'm waiting. Another bus came along and I was hoping I wouldn't have to stamp my foot (nyuk, nyuk) when he opened the door and asked if we'd been waiting to go to Fort Wilderness. I told him yes and he says "Then this bus has been sent especially for you". With a grand sweep of his hand, he ushers us onto the bus and the whole display went over really well with my youngest. On the bus I realized the entire event took 20 minutes, not an hour; I guess I'd been wasting away in exaggerataville.
So, the 2000 loop got a thumbs up from us. I forgot to mention that the first night we drove around the loop it was like a party had exploded there. This was a Saturday, there were people everywhere, people walking around with cases of drinks, coolers, kids everywhere using every mode of kid transportation you can think of. A littler farther down one family had set up a projector screen and was watching a Disney movie. It was all very surreal and very block partyish. At one point in the week there were hardly any families in the loop (maybe 4 or 5 campsites full from CS to CS on our side, it felt like we owned the loop). So, when it was full, it was very, very full, when it was not it was morbid - hey, it kinda rhymes!

 

[proudmomof4]

I am glad you liked the 2000 loop, I prefer it over 1500 because it is quieter and the sites are bigger, and it really is not isolated if you know the back way over to the Meadows area.

 

[CottontailCurl]

This was very much a birder's campsite and I wished I had our book with bird descriptions with us. As soon as we started setting up camp they were visiting us. I was able to identify the cardinals that were on the branches above the electricity and water post (can't find a 'duh' smilie) and high above us a group of vultures was circling (taking a break from wishing people well at the big drop of Splash Mountain!). There was a hawk on a taller tree at the back of the campsite (he was named Frank by my son, because Tony Hawk's Dad is Frank). Later in the week we had the more brilliant display of birds. I was making breakfast one morning when, one by one, many vividly colored birds started landing on the tree just behind were I was standing. There were bright blues, violets, yellows, so colorful when the majority of birds in our yard are robins. I'm sure they were all there because I'm so much like Snow White and nothing to do with the food preparation!
We had many rabbits living in the brush behind our campsite. One morning (very early, sunrise) I heard what I thought was footsteps right outside my side of the tent. I opened the zipper just a bit and there were 3 bunnies right outside munching on stuff and doing what bunnies do at sunrise. I called my animal lovin daughter over and we spent the first 15 minutes of the day on a bunny watch.
The other critter worth mentioning is the owl that was softly hooting as I went to sleep on our first night at the fort. He was the first thing I heard the next morning, and I didn't mind that wake-up call. I objected to the critter on the skateboard who woke me up one morning at 6:45 though. Isn't funny how 2 sounds with the same result is responded to differently? I guess cha-chu, cha-chu, cha-chu, doesn't give as many as hoo hoo hoo (maybe that was Frank?). The skateboard made this sound because the path going to the CS is sidewalk poured in sections so the divisions made the chu sound. This was 2 skateboarders, back and forth, back and forth cha-chu, cha-chu. OK, I'll stop so I don't annoy you as much as I was annoyed. Their buddy in the 'crazy things kids do' category was a wee one of about 10 who drove his even weeer brother to the CS in a golf cart. He drove it up to where the sidewalk to the CS begins and pulled over to the left. Littler guy (about 8) jumped out and ran to the bathroom. The 10 year old sat there and waited, he reminded me of a little old man who was waiting for his wife to come out of store. My own thoughts made me chuckle until little guy comes back out and they try to leave. The next couple of minutes were very much like watching your child try to drive on Indy Speedway the first time they are tall enough to drive alone. Stop and go, sputter, stall, stop, go, look down to figure out what goes where. It just made me wonder, even if there were no rules about cart age limits, would you want a kid that's so young driving a cart? I thought about it a bit, decided to put it out of my mind until a few minutes later when he comes back around, this time to take himself to the bathroom.
So, site 2035; we liked it, it was large enough with plenty of room to spare for our 9x13 tent. It was very nice to be right next to the comfort station. Maybe a couple sites over would still have been convenient to the bathroom but spared us the people generated wake-up calls?

 

[CottontailCurl]

I'd checked the weather ahead of time and found that the first night would be the coldest with a low of mid-40's I believe it was. The rest of the week would be in the mid 70's with a low of 56 or so. I figured if we could make it through the first night, we'd be alright without a heater or anything extra for warmth. We each had an air mattress, a sleeping bag, a single sheet set and a throw. I had everyone make their bed so that when the sleeping bag was all the way opened, the sheet and throw were fulling opened on top of it. Then they'd fold it over to the sleeping bag's closed position so when they crawled in at night, they'd be like a taco between doubled layers of sheet, throw, bag. Not forgetting that the taco shell would zip around them . The first evening when we watched the space shuttle lift-off was pretty chilly, I had to wear a jacket and it's rare for me to wear anything more than a long-sleeved shirt in Florida in the winter. That night, with our taco beds, I was snug as a bug in a rug (what does that mean I've never seen a bug *in* a rug, let alone a snug one ). I mean I was really warm, the only evidence it was cold out was the chill on my nose because I don't like to put my head inside the sleeping bag. My kids don't mind being completely covered and when I asked if anyone got cold the next day, they all said they were warm throughout the night. As the week went on we didn't need to be quite so snug, I was just using a sheet by our last night (sleeping bag still under but top layer of bag and throw folded back).
We didn't have our over-tent tarp with us because I didn't expect much rain to make a difference in whether we had it or not. I wish I had taken it now, because, although we had a smallish rain one morning, it didn't cause as much of a problem as condensation did. I'd read that you can limit the amount of condensation in the winter by opening a window a little to have more air flow and that limits it. I'd realized too late that the wet mess inside our tent each morning was (no, not from toddlers) from condensation or dew from the tent's rain-fly that was coming through the secret condensation-reducing opening - d'oh!!
The smallish rain happened the morning we left, so I 'borrowed' some of the many empty sites around us to turn the under-tent tarp and tent onto to let them dry before we left. It didn't take much time to dry and after a quick brush of the sand, all was ready to pack.
The day we checked out, we checked into the Shades of Green. That evening there was a huge summer-like rainstorm, we couldn't have planned it better.

 

[CottontailCurl]

At Fort Wilderness? Yes!! In the resorts? Yes!! At the resorts in December? YOU HAVE NO IDEA!! I can't tell you how tired my feet and legs were at the end of that week!! I honestly have never ached in my feet as much from any of our previous trips going to the parks. There are many beautiful holiday visions to be seen in Walt Disney World, and we tried to see every single poinsettia in the joint. If you want the scents and sights of the holidays to fill your senses, Disney is the place and December is the time to be there. There were a couple places that we expected the 'travel channel extra' holiday decorations but there were none, and did that stop us from heading out that way and killing another layer of the soles of our feet? No!! (That would be the Polynesian and the Animal Kingdom Lodge; AKL was still breathtaking without the edible chocolate village near Boma's, and the Polynesian would still be perfect even if it didn't have a single red bow). We spent the majority of our resort exploring time at the EPCOT resorts with an unexpected additional afternoon there for a trip to the ESPN zone. I had to leave my son there on his own - no amount of tylenol or love for our team would keep me there - while I went a few doors down and ordered a pizza for lunch (very good pizza I might add). The hurting feet could be blamed on the fact that we walked the MGM to EPCOT path not once, but twice Let's just say I think those darn boats are slow! At one point I was tempted to grab my son and use him as an oar to make it go faster (he's 6 foot, about 6 inches in diameter, it could work!) If I could turn back time, I'd still take those walks; one was at sunset with the sun setting behind the Tower of Terror, the Christmas tree and the globe thing with Mickey on it, it was beautiful.

Since we weren't going to go to the parks, we brought our tennis rackets so we could play tennis and do all of the 'around FW' stuff you could do. We decided as the days wore on that we would not play tennis, etc., but try to see as many resorts as possible since we didn't know if we'd be back when the resorts were decorated for Christmas again. I don't know how worn out I'd have been if I'd done all that 'relaxing' stuff! The only 'making an event of it' we had at Fort Wilderness was the night we walked around the 100 to 500 loops and looked at the decorations and sang Christmas carols.

We really enjoyed our week of walking around and exploring pretty much EVERYTHING outside of the parks of Walt Disney World, and we took 350 pictures to prove it!

 

[CottontailCurl]

and every one got deleted! Waah! and Boo Hoo! On the 4th day of our trip and after being filled with pictures of My Kids at Fort Wilderness, the Grand Floridian, the Yacht Club, Beach Club, Boardwalk, (insert all resorts except All-Stars here), Downtown Disney and especially the night of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, my digital camera's card was found to not hold a single picture. Not one. We don't know what happened, if I'm not mistaken you are taken through at least a couple prompts from a digital camera to clean out an entire card of pictures. In the grand scheme of things it's only a piece of sand in importance but I was very disappointed when it happened. I didn't have a laptop with me to store pictures on as I took them, and had only the one card. I didn't realize that when Grandpappy said 'never keep all yer eggs in one basket', he was really talking about pictures and digital camera cards.
I had hoped to be able to add on to the lovely list of photos at the 'FW photo of the day' thread and spent a morning with my kids exploring Fort Wilderness taking lots of pictures. I ended up seeing a side of FW I'd never seen before and enjoyed it very much. I think I went places I wasn't supposed to go (hmm, maybe I just solved my own mystery!). I even, and I can't believe I'm saying this in public, went into the women's bathroom with the sole purpose of taking pictures. I didn't want Ynottony's men's room cowboy photo to be without it's gal! Luckily Proudmomof4's got my back - she posted the very same set of bathroom pictures today (and Fort Wilderness security is on the look-out for flashing coming from the Trail's End bathroom - oh you know what I mean!) I had also planned on taking a picture of the hidden mickey that was in the wall of the last stall, but that's gone with the construction.

A lot of the pictures were so beautiful - in Animal Kingdom Lodge I took a picture of the kids in front of the Christmas tree and didn't use the flash. With the darker colors in there and the light coming from the window behind it made a lovely warm golden glow around all of it. At least I still have that in my own memory card, eh? That was one of many, many, beautiful pictures, 350 or more to be exact, and now you know why this isn't laden with pictures or even teaspooned with pictures.

At this point I will try to stop whining because it made this part of the trip report so sad it made the tea table slam to the floor.

 

[CottontailCurl]

Well, that's it. I just wanted to give an idea of what it's like to go to Walt Disney World and not go to the parks each day. Before our trip and while we were there, the kids assured me they were OK with not going to the parks. They mostly wanted to spend time with their cousins while they were there. Little did they know that part of their time with their cousins would be at MVMCP! I think that since they've been on the rides before, it made it special to go on those rides with their cousins. I think the biggest highlight of that night for our kids was a boatful of family on Pirates and then on Splash Mountain to have one log filled with adults and one log filled with kids.
We definitely enjoyed Walt Disney's resorts decorated for the holidays, the smell of gingerbread still lingers in my memory. If you get a chance to go there when it's all decked out, whether going to the parks or not, you should.
And now, I have closure, I can remove my countdown!

 

[proudmomof4]

I love going to WDW and not going to the parks, there is so much to do at the resorts and DTD.

And I am glad that I was able to "cover your back" and post the pictures you had in mind, hey, great minds think alike right?

 

[Kanda]

I loved your mini trip report. I am so excited about our trip (and nervous) but I haven't admitted that to my family. We have 8 days and only 4 in the parks, so hopefully we'll have plenty of time to enjoy the campground and other non-park activities. We requested the 2000 loop, I can't remember why now, but I was wondering if their comfort stations are the newly remodeled ones? When I looked at Natasha's website, it looked like the only comfort station near the 2000 loop was quite a distance. Thanks again for the great trip report. And I'm so sorry about your pictures. Look at it this way, it gives you a perfectly good reason to repeat the same vacation next year.

 

[proudmomof4]

I loved your mini trip report. I am so excited about our trip (and nervous) but I haven't admitted that to my family. We have 8 days and only 4 in the parks, so hopefully we'll have plenty of time to enjoy the campground and other non-park activities. We requested the 2000 loop, I can't remember why now, but I was wondering if their comfort stations are the newly remodeled ones? When I looked at Natasha's website, it looked like the only comfort station near the 2000 loop was quite a distance. Thanks again for the great trip report. And I'm so sorry about your pictures. Look at it this way, it gives you a perfectly good reason to repeat the same vacation next year.

The CS in the 2000 loop are not renovated but there are 2 of them and either one is pretty close to any site in the loop.

 

[CottontailCurl]

I loved your mini trip report. I am so excited about our trip (and nervous) but I haven't admitted that to my family. We have 8 days and only 4 in the parks, so hopefully we'll have plenty of time to enjoy the campground and other non-park activities. We requested the 2000 loop, I can't remember why now, but I was wondering if their comfort stations are the newly remodeled ones? When I looked at Natasha's website, it looked like the only comfort station near the 2000 loop was quite a distance. Thanks again for the great trip report. And I'm so sorry about your pictures. Look at it this way, it gives you a perfectly good reason to repeat the same vacation next year.

Thank you, Kanda, are you nervous because it's your first time camping? You're getting the lay of the land from disboards so that will help you a lot in the Disney part of the trip. Setting up your tent at home will help out so much if you've never camped before and then establishing your own little home at your campsite will happen as you go along. Don't worry, it will be fine. And help is only a phone call away, there's a phone at the comfort station that gets you directly to the front office or ask campers around you, both very helpful groups (or you can put it on your cellphone, don't tell anyone, but I have 407-WDISNEY on mine!!). If you read something that made you like the 2000 loop, then stick with that instinct. We'll just ask Proudmomof4 how to get to the short-cut to the store and swimming pool area. You might want to bring binoculars to check out the birds (my kids loved that when they were younger).
About the CS renovations: We found out how beautiful they are when we did our tour of the marina loops. After we used one we were oohing and awing over how gorgeous they are and then one of my kids asked 'why are the loops renovated where most people already have a bathroom at their campsite?' Hmmm, a kid's POV. Disney, enquiring minds want to know...
There are 2 CSs in the 2000 loop so no matter where you are you shouldn't be too far from one.
I'm already thinking about that trip to re-take the pictures!!

 

[CottontailCurl]

I love going to WDW and not going to the parks, there is so much to do at the resorts and DTD.

And I am glad that I was able to "cover your back" and post the pictures you had in mind, hey, great minds think alike right?

Yes they do! Thanks PMo4!
Where is the path to get to the meadows area from the 2000 loop? If we call the part of the loop where you enter the 'upper loop' and the part where you exit the lower, I'm going to assume you go somewhere between one of the sites of the upper part of the loop? Thanks.

 

[CottontailCurl]

On the 4th day of our trip my digital camera's card was found to not hold a single picture.

I wanted to add information about one of the pictures of the fort that I was so looking forward to sharing. It was of the horses at the riding stable, it has a hidden Mickey on it and you might not know this because it's so hidden it's under the saddle! We saw it because we were out at the bus stop the morning of the bus fiasco to go to EPCOT, so it was between 7:30 and 8:30. They had all the horses out, lined up and being fed and groomed and without their saddles so we could see their details. I'm not sure of kinds of horses but I want to call this kind an appaloosa, with coloring that looks like a paint brush handle has been tapped on your arm causing the paint to splatter. Some of the splatters come out as circles and some are splotches. That's what this horse looked like. It stood with it's nose facing my left so the hidden Mickey is on the left side, it was closer to the top of the horses back and more to the rear of the saddle area. It's not huge, but definitely a clear 3 circle hidden mickey.

We also chatted with one of the CMs there who got to adopt one of the horses when it was no longer going to be needed at Disney World, she said he was Prince Charming's horse! I thought that was cool. I do believe there is a job for everyone at Walt Disney World.

 

[campingcorgi]

Thanks for posting your trip report! I really enjoyed it!! I think more of us should do this on this board. I hate wading through the other trip reports on that board to find 3 words about FW!

 

[OK GRUMPY]

Enjoyed your mini trip report! I have been tinking of going to WDW. staying at FW and not doing the parks. I think I could find some very fun things to do!
Thanks for the report I really enjoyed it.

 

[proudmomof4]

Yes they do! Thanks PMo4!
Where is the path to get to the meadows area from the 2000 loop? If we call the part of the loop where you enter the 'upper loop' and the part where you exit the lower, I'm going to assume you go somewhere between one of the sites of the upper part of the loop? Thanks.

In part of the loop you can see the back of the comfort station for Creekside Meadow (group camping), walk between 2 sites to the back of the confort station and then turn right and walk through the fields of the group camping area, you will see a bridge which leads to the 900 loop, walk to the front of the 900 loop and the Meadows area is across the street.

You can see it on the FW maps, just look for Creekside Meadow (just above 2000 loop as you look at the map) and the bridge is on the right of Creekside Meadow linking it to the 900 loop.

I hope all that makes sense.