Escape Artist
Planning another getaway
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2006
- Messages
- 500
Hi Everybody
Sorry to take so long to post after we got back from our WDW / FW trip!
Unfortunately, it was one of those ok, were going to have to make some lemonade out of these lemons kinds of trips, but it was still good. Rather than bore you with all the details, I figured Id just share some highlights, since so many of you were helpful in educating me along the way while I was putting this trip together, for which I am soooo grateful.
So, heres the high/low-lights:
We wanted to camp in FW with my inlaws from Ohio. Shes 70 and hes 81, and they hadnt used their RV (a little Class B) in two years. Unfortunately, it overheated in an 8 hour traffic jam in West Virginia, causing part of a fan to melt. To fix that in Georgia, the repair guy swapped a fan from their air conditioner into the engine, so they could keep going. They arrived at FW on time, but were really, really sweaty and it didnt seem to affect their health. Whew!
Good news: they got their 4-year-old RV repaired free, under warranty!
Bad news, my dh spent a huge amount of time on this over several days, which signficantly cut into our WDW trip plans. 
More bad news: my MIL bashed her knee on the edge of a parking tram at Animal Kingdom on our second day, and by about an hour later, could no longer walk any distances. Just taking a few steps was incredibly painful for her. So that was the end of going to the parks with them. Apparently she ripped something in her knee, and the doctor is hoping it will heal on its own and avoid surgery. It wasted almost all of their expensive WDW park tickets and my 81-yo FIL had to drive the whole way home, 1100 miles. Bummer.
Really bad news, fortunately recovered by the reservations gods at FW: I figured out three days before we left that the AAA agent had messed up my FW reservation! My original room-only reservation was correct, but apparently when she added my park tickets, she switched me from a Preferred site to a Full hookup site, ironically, with a request for an adjoining campsite to my ILs, who were still booked in a Preferred site. (Hmmmm .) I worked on this for 5 rather stressful days since the park was quite fully booked in early August, and it wasnt resolved until we came thru the gate at FW, but they got us and my ILs two sites apart in the 200 loop. I was so thankful (and relieved!), I started to cry at check-in at the front gate! And trust me, Im not like that!
So we get to our campsite - #204 - and just sat in our van for a few minutes. Lo and behold, Tinas husband Darryl shows up right away with their Wildcat 5th wheel RV. We were blown away!!!!!! We normally camp in a Fleetwood Westlake popup, and this was so much nicer than were used to!!!!! It was like camping in a 3 room apartment, with a kids bedroom, a master bedroom, and a great room with kitchen, dining, and entertainment center. And the slideouts made it so spacious! For campers who figure were getting pretty spoiled sleeping up off the ground in our pup and rarely have a sewer hookup, we were living the good life now in Tinas trailer. One night the dealership repair department kept my ILs RV overnight and we had to move them and their stuff in with us. Im pretty sure things would have gotten ugly if wed tried to cram all 7 of us into our pup for a night. With Tinas RV, it was no trouble at all! They slept on the fold-out sofa and there was tons of room in the fridge for everything. It was amazing. We rented Tinas 5th wheel for nine days, and I could have lived in it for months. Thank you, thank you Tina!!!!!
We also appreciate Tinas nice towels and her dishes! Her Mickey dishes and silverware are so cute, and her freezer can hold FOUR GALLONS of ice cream! (Our pup doesnt even have a freezer.) I tell you, it was great. She even has a double sink. In a *trailer*!!!!!
Later that first day my sweaty ILs arrived and they were assigned to site #202. It was perfect, so close to us, and for my 70-yo MIL, so close to the comfort station, too! Thank you, thank you, Fort Wilderness reservations agents, for straightening out our reservations mess.
We rented a golf car for a day and had a great time looping in it, as well as riding Tinas bikes around the campground and WL. We were surprised to see so many Mickey lights and so few--actually only one--DIS Camping Board sign. But, it was at Dsnyrulz site, and we (honestly!) thought they had the best of all the Mickey lightstheir globe changes colors! We were surprised how tacky some of the other sites décor was. Not to mention names or site numbers, but one was a long-timer in a prominent site on the 100 loop that I would have been embarrassed to be on their site and have someone think I did that! And we all cracked up when we saw the blue Mickey lights hanging way up in the trees, not too far from the cabin loops. My daughter started singing Mickey in the Sky with Diamonds. Pretty funny!
My ILs left after 6 days, leaving us on our own for the rest of our trip. Id gotten Universal tickets on the 7 day park hoppers for $86 deal that was advertised at the top of the DIS boards a few months ago. Wed never been to Universal and didnt expect much there. We were amazed!!! The parks were much nicer than we expected and we had a great time. And it was fun to have real roller coasters to ride. We even saw the Blue Man group one night, although opinions varied and how great that was. Universal, well be back!
Tinas friend came to pick up her RV on the morning of the 17th, and we reluctantly said goodbye, to the RV and her bikes. Renting her RV turned out wonderfully and Im so glad we did it. At that point, I drove over to Old Key West, where wed rented points from a DVC member to stay in a 2 bedroom DVC villa. When we got in there, it was incredible! The place was so huge, we all thought it was bigger than our apartment when we moved to Texas! A king suite for us, two queens for the kids, two bathrooms, a washer and dryer with no quarter slots, a big balcony with a table and four chairs overlooking a small lake and the golf course, and a full kitchen with a big fridge, a garbage disposal and a dishwasher! I tell ya, between Tinas RV and the DVC, we were really pampered on accommodations for this trip. The irony is that wed bought into DVC before we left for the trip, and had chosen Old Key West as our home resort even though wed never seen the place. We were so glad that we liked it!
The DVC was an especially nice place for us to be since Hurricane Fay was on her way. I was already feeling kind of ripped off because wed done so little of the Disney parks with my ILs, and now Fay was going to take away what was left. After a bit of pondering, I decided that wed spend our last day at WDW at Animal Kingdom. It turned out to be our second best day there, ever! There were no lines for anything since most everyone stayed away from the parks. My 15yo rode Everest 9 times! And she got dream fastpasses and dream mouse ears! My 6yo got to start the Pocahontas show, and the girls got to pet the snake afterwards. We even got a backstage tour of Everest. The only place we got wet was on Kali, and we made it back to OKW before the storm really got going in earnest. It was a great day, which was not what we were expecting when everyone thought the parks were going to be closed that day.
On the way back to our room, I decided to drive thru FW just to see what it looked like while Fay was on her way. It was sooooo weird! Our old loop2000had been cleared out. No one was camping there and the tents were all gone. A few people had folded up their popups and left them on their sites to ride out the storm, but there were no people around. Occupancy on 2000 was 0% that night. Over on some of the other loops, it was more like 10% of the people were still there. But then I drove over to our area from this trip, 100/200, and it didnt look much different than normal, and still had about 60% occupancy. It was very interesting to see, and Im glad all those people on the partial sites were safely away that night. We were very grateful to be on the 3rd floor at OKW with a real roof over our heads with the impending storm on the way!
The next daythe 20th, when the storm really got goingwe left for home. Fortunately, we could drive a lot faster than Fay travelled, and soon it was like a normal trip home.
So despite my screwed up reservation, my ILs broken down RV and my MILs broken down knee, we still had a really good trip. We always have such fond memories of our FW time. Its amazing how magical the place is, isnt it?
Sue in Texas
...and if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Sorry to take so long to post after we got back from our WDW / FW trip!
Unfortunately, it was one of those ok, were going to have to make some lemonade out of these lemons kinds of trips, but it was still good. Rather than bore you with all the details, I figured Id just share some highlights, since so many of you were helpful in educating me along the way while I was putting this trip together, for which I am soooo grateful.
So, heres the high/low-lights:
We wanted to camp in FW with my inlaws from Ohio. Shes 70 and hes 81, and they hadnt used their RV (a little Class B) in two years. Unfortunately, it overheated in an 8 hour traffic jam in West Virginia, causing part of a fan to melt. To fix that in Georgia, the repair guy swapped a fan from their air conditioner into the engine, so they could keep going. They arrived at FW on time, but were really, really sweaty and it didnt seem to affect their health. Whew!
Good news: they got their 4-year-old RV repaired free, under warranty!
Bad news, my dh spent a huge amount of time on this over several days, which signficantly cut into our WDW trip plans. More bad news: my MIL bashed her knee on the edge of a parking tram at Animal Kingdom on our second day, and by about an hour later, could no longer walk any distances. Just taking a few steps was incredibly painful for her. So that was the end of going to the parks with them. Apparently she ripped something in her knee, and the doctor is hoping it will heal on its own and avoid surgery. It wasted almost all of their expensive WDW park tickets and my 81-yo FIL had to drive the whole way home, 1100 miles. Bummer.
Really bad news, fortunately recovered by the reservations gods at FW: I figured out three days before we left that the AAA agent had messed up my FW reservation! My original room-only reservation was correct, but apparently when she added my park tickets, she switched me from a Preferred site to a Full hookup site, ironically, with a request for an adjoining campsite to my ILs, who were still booked in a Preferred site. (Hmmmm .) I worked on this for 5 rather stressful days since the park was quite fully booked in early August, and it wasnt resolved until we came thru the gate at FW, but they got us and my ILs two sites apart in the 200 loop. I was so thankful (and relieved!), I started to cry at check-in at the front gate! And trust me, Im not like that!
So we get to our campsite - #204 - and just sat in our van for a few minutes. Lo and behold, Tinas husband Darryl shows up right away with their Wildcat 5th wheel RV. We were blown away!!!!!! We normally camp in a Fleetwood Westlake popup, and this was so much nicer than were used to!!!!! It was like camping in a 3 room apartment, with a kids bedroom, a master bedroom, and a great room with kitchen, dining, and entertainment center. And the slideouts made it so spacious! For campers who figure were getting pretty spoiled sleeping up off the ground in our pup and rarely have a sewer hookup, we were living the good life now in Tinas trailer. One night the dealership repair department kept my ILs RV overnight and we had to move them and their stuff in with us. Im pretty sure things would have gotten ugly if wed tried to cram all 7 of us into our pup for a night. With Tinas RV, it was no trouble at all! They slept on the fold-out sofa and there was tons of room in the fridge for everything. It was amazing. We rented Tinas 5th wheel for nine days, and I could have lived in it for months. Thank you, thank you Tina!!!!!
We also appreciate Tinas nice towels and her dishes! Her Mickey dishes and silverware are so cute, and her freezer can hold FOUR GALLONS of ice cream! (Our pup doesnt even have a freezer.) I tell you, it was great. She even has a double sink. In a *trailer*!!!!!
Later that first day my sweaty ILs arrived and they were assigned to site #202. It was perfect, so close to us, and for my 70-yo MIL, so close to the comfort station, too! Thank you, thank you, Fort Wilderness reservations agents, for straightening out our reservations mess.
We rented a golf car for a day and had a great time looping in it, as well as riding Tinas bikes around the campground and WL. We were surprised to see so many Mickey lights and so few--actually only one--DIS Camping Board sign. But, it was at Dsnyrulz site, and we (honestly!) thought they had the best of all the Mickey lightstheir globe changes colors! We were surprised how tacky some of the other sites décor was. Not to mention names or site numbers, but one was a long-timer in a prominent site on the 100 loop that I would have been embarrassed to be on their site and have someone think I did that! And we all cracked up when we saw the blue Mickey lights hanging way up in the trees, not too far from the cabin loops. My daughter started singing Mickey in the Sky with Diamonds. Pretty funny!
My ILs left after 6 days, leaving us on our own for the rest of our trip. Id gotten Universal tickets on the 7 day park hoppers for $86 deal that was advertised at the top of the DIS boards a few months ago. Wed never been to Universal and didnt expect much there. We were amazed!!! The parks were much nicer than we expected and we had a great time. And it was fun to have real roller coasters to ride. We even saw the Blue Man group one night, although opinions varied and how great that was. Universal, well be back!
Tinas friend came to pick up her RV on the morning of the 17th, and we reluctantly said goodbye, to the RV and her bikes. Renting her RV turned out wonderfully and Im so glad we did it. At that point, I drove over to Old Key West, where wed rented points from a DVC member to stay in a 2 bedroom DVC villa. When we got in there, it was incredible! The place was so huge, we all thought it was bigger than our apartment when we moved to Texas! A king suite for us, two queens for the kids, two bathrooms, a washer and dryer with no quarter slots, a big balcony with a table and four chairs overlooking a small lake and the golf course, and a full kitchen with a big fridge, a garbage disposal and a dishwasher! I tell ya, between Tinas RV and the DVC, we were really pampered on accommodations for this trip. The irony is that wed bought into DVC before we left for the trip, and had chosen Old Key West as our home resort even though wed never seen the place. We were so glad that we liked it!
The DVC was an especially nice place for us to be since Hurricane Fay was on her way. I was already feeling kind of ripped off because wed done so little of the Disney parks with my ILs, and now Fay was going to take away what was left. After a bit of pondering, I decided that wed spend our last day at WDW at Animal Kingdom. It turned out to be our second best day there, ever! There were no lines for anything since most everyone stayed away from the parks. My 15yo rode Everest 9 times! And she got dream fastpasses and dream mouse ears! My 6yo got to start the Pocahontas show, and the girls got to pet the snake afterwards. We even got a backstage tour of Everest. The only place we got wet was on Kali, and we made it back to OKW before the storm really got going in earnest. It was a great day, which was not what we were expecting when everyone thought the parks were going to be closed that day.
On the way back to our room, I decided to drive thru FW just to see what it looked like while Fay was on her way. It was sooooo weird! Our old loop2000had been cleared out. No one was camping there and the tents were all gone. A few people had folded up their popups and left them on their sites to ride out the storm, but there were no people around. Occupancy on 2000 was 0% that night. Over on some of the other loops, it was more like 10% of the people were still there. But then I drove over to our area from this trip, 100/200, and it didnt look much different than normal, and still had about 60% occupancy. It was very interesting to see, and Im glad all those people on the partial sites were safely away that night. We were very grateful to be on the 3rd floor at OKW with a real roof over our heads with the impending storm on the way!
The next daythe 20th, when the storm really got goingwe left for home. Fortunately, we could drive a lot faster than Fay travelled, and soon it was like a normal trip home.
So despite my screwed up reservation, my ILs broken down RV and my MILs broken down knee, we still had a really good trip. We always have such fond memories of our FW time. Its amazing how magical the place is, isnt it?
Sue in Texas
...and if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
