We're home now after our whirlwind long-weekend trip to Disney, and have had some time to decompress and share some thoughts on our experience.
We usually camp at the Fort, driving down from northern Michigan, but didn't have the luxury of that kind of time for our SW/GE experience. We'd been at the Fort a while back when we saw some boy scout-style tents being put up by some CM's, and asked about it. We were told that people can rent tents/cots for around $50/$55 per day, that Disney will both set the tents up and break them down so you don't have to do that work. I liked the way the tents we saw looked, so didn't have an issue calling Disney and setting up our tenting experience.
Our experience was somewhat less than magical. First off--major caveat here--the CM's were great. The tent was ready at our arrival, and put up excellently. I have not one negative thing to say about them
The downfall came in the condition the tent and cots were in. The tent smelled of mildew, was fairly dirty, and smallish. I know there were only two of us, but given my experience seeing the much larger (with more headroom) tent previously, what we got was something we (who are kind of on the short side) could barely stand upright in if we were standing in the middle.
But the cots needed to be thrown away. There were large stains on them, and were very dirty. We ended up getting large garbage bags from the store to put under our sheets. There was no way I was bringing those sheets home (no time really to wash them before leaving), so we trashed those. I"m not a overly picky person--I've camped out on the ground in Yellowstone, camped all around the country since 1968, and I can put up with a little dirt. But those cots were just gross.
We didn't ask to have our tent/cots changed as we weren't going to be there long enough to go through that hassle, but if someone is contemplating renting a tent from Disney, I'd suggest they ask in advance what kind of tent they're going to end up with.
Additionally, I'd like to share a note on the bathroom conditions in the facility closest to the bus stop in loop 2000. For the first time, since we first camped there in 2007, the bathrooms (I can only speak to the women's side, but my s/o said the mens was bad too) were not kept up well. There were broken/empty paper towel dispensers, the electric GFS outlet on the wall wasn't working (it wouldn't reset), and the outlet on the left hand side worked but my hairdryer plug kept falling out. There was mold in the mens side showers (as related to me by my s/o), paper on the floor from early evening to later morning (obviously the CM's who used to clean in the middle of the night are no longer doing so), and the bathroom floor was flooded by what I'm guessing was one of the toilets when we arrived--and it was in the same condition the next morning.
One of the main things I loved about the Fort in the past was the cleanliness of their bathrooms. This time, not so much.
On a different note--I don't know if it was just me or what, but the dinner at the Trails' End was even better than ever. The CM's there bent over backwards to getting us into the restaurant on our arrival evening, as we couldn't make reservations due to us being unsure what time we'd eventually get to the Fort. But they got us in, even though it was crowded, and averted us going into a full on hangry meltdown lol. Loved the experience, and we'll always have a soft spot for Trail's End.
We usually camp at the Fort, driving down from northern Michigan, but didn't have the luxury of that kind of time for our SW/GE experience. We'd been at the Fort a while back when we saw some boy scout-style tents being put up by some CM's, and asked about it. We were told that people can rent tents/cots for around $50/$55 per day, that Disney will both set the tents up and break them down so you don't have to do that work. I liked the way the tents we saw looked, so didn't have an issue calling Disney and setting up our tenting experience.
Our experience was somewhat less than magical. First off--major caveat here--the CM's were great. The tent was ready at our arrival, and put up excellently. I have not one negative thing to say about them
The downfall came in the condition the tent and cots were in. The tent smelled of mildew, was fairly dirty, and smallish. I know there were only two of us, but given my experience seeing the much larger (with more headroom) tent previously, what we got was something we (who are kind of on the short side) could barely stand upright in if we were standing in the middle.
But the cots needed to be thrown away. There were large stains on them, and were very dirty. We ended up getting large garbage bags from the store to put under our sheets. There was no way I was bringing those sheets home (no time really to wash them before leaving), so we trashed those. I"m not a overly picky person--I've camped out on the ground in Yellowstone, camped all around the country since 1968, and I can put up with a little dirt. But those cots were just gross.
We didn't ask to have our tent/cots changed as we weren't going to be there long enough to go through that hassle, but if someone is contemplating renting a tent from Disney, I'd suggest they ask in advance what kind of tent they're going to end up with.
Additionally, I'd like to share a note on the bathroom conditions in the facility closest to the bus stop in loop 2000. For the first time, since we first camped there in 2007, the bathrooms (I can only speak to the women's side, but my s/o said the mens was bad too) were not kept up well. There were broken/empty paper towel dispensers, the electric GFS outlet on the wall wasn't working (it wouldn't reset), and the outlet on the left hand side worked but my hairdryer plug kept falling out. There was mold in the mens side showers (as related to me by my s/o), paper on the floor from early evening to later morning (obviously the CM's who used to clean in the middle of the night are no longer doing so), and the bathroom floor was flooded by what I'm guessing was one of the toilets when we arrived--and it was in the same condition the next morning.
One of the main things I loved about the Fort in the past was the cleanliness of their bathrooms. This time, not so much.
On a different note--I don't know if it was just me or what, but the dinner at the Trails' End was even better than ever. The CM's there bent over backwards to getting us into the restaurant on our arrival evening, as we couldn't make reservations due to us being unsure what time we'd eventually get to the Fort. But they got us in, even though it was crowded, and averted us going into a full on hangry meltdown lol. Loved the experience, and we'll always have a soft spot for Trail's End.
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