So frustrated!!!

[Running_Bell]

While I am sorry that you are running into difficulties, you are still in WDW while the rest of us are at home. You are staying at FW and are a boat ride away from the Magic Kingdom. For crying out loud - HAVE A GOOD TIME!!! Don't let this ruin you and your family's trip. I would weigh the cost of adding a second grill or crock-pot against the cost of food, hassle of moving, disappointment of your children, etc. This could be a good learning opportunity for your children on adapting to the circumstances.

I hope you and your family enjoy the rest of your trip!

I hate to say it... but it seems like a awful lot of trouble to go to just to cook a specific way.... there is SO much to do at FW... have fun and don't sweat the small stuff. If you and the kids are having a great Disney time.... I'm sure no one will notice how the meat is cooked.

 

[seguinfamily]

I hate to say it... but it seems like a awful lot of trouble to go to just to cook a specific way.... there is SO much to do at FW... have fun and don't sweat the small stuff. If you and the kids are having a great Disney time.... I'm sure no one will notice how the meat is cooked.

Yes and no. There are meals that aren't meat. We don't buy store bought bread - so I have to cook that in the fire. Many of meals couldn't be made in a crockpot or on this tiny unlevel grill that is provided, or on my coleman cookstove. Like I said, my family is weird. lol That is why I called ahead of time to make sure it would work for us. Also, my kids love to camp ... we booked 10 days here and the kids picked only 4 days for the parks. They prefer to hang out here at the site, etc. Again, I know my family is weird. Which is why we call and make sure things will work for us. Last time we came to disney we bought 7 days of Disney Parks and 7 days of Sea World. The kids asked not to use all those days. We're generally low key and they gravitate towards low key activities. We only came back to Disney for the homeschool days, and stayed on site because we thought it would have reliable transportation.

 

[ilovemk76]

This is not our first time to Disney, but it is our first time to Fort Wilderness. I have to say - this is the worst trip ever!

I checked ahead about bringing a fire pit so we could cook over it. My kids don't like to eat out very much and it made so much sense. We were so excited to learn we could camp and just bring our own firepit. Well, tonight I get a CM at my site in the middle of preparing dinner and they tell me I can't have it. I have one with a full mesh screen, not a covered lid. I checked beforehand and this was fine as long as we didn't back to a creek. Well, nope. They told me I can't use it. I have some food that I just can't cook on a coleman stove or the little grill they give. So now I have about 300 dollars in organic meat that I will have to throw out and spend who knows how much on food in the parks. I wouldn't be so frustrated if I hadn't called ahead to make sure!!!

Not to mention waiting an hour for our Epcot bus to bring us to homeschool days ... making us walk into homeschool days late, which they then told us they had run out of seats.

I'm so done with this place, I'd just like to pack up and go home but I'm stuck here till Saturday.

How much meat does your family eat? $300 to eat between now and Saturday!!!

Since when can you not cook meat over a grill but only over a fire pit.

Are you really at FW?

 

[bigredbill]

Again, I hope your family is able to enjoy the trip. If one of my family members or employees brought this issue to me, I would tell them the following:

Adapt. In the grand scale of issues -- this is pretty low. How you decide to handle it, either by getting creative with solutions and getting past the issue OR by letting this fester and be a dark cloud over the vacation, will teach your family a greater lessen (either positive or negative) than they will ever learn in a day of schooling.

I know it may sound cliche, but I firmly believe that life is 10% of what happens to me, and 90% of how I react to it.

Have a great time at WDW.

 

[seguinfamily]

Yes, we're in site 2056, if you're here too come say hi.

We eat only organic food. My coolers are full of organic food. Pop in at Whole Foods and check out the prices. Most of my cuts of meat are over $20/lb. Not to mention cheeses and other items. That's another reason we prefer to avoid restaurants, there are few if any that serve food we would eat.

Like I said, the ribs we had would be too large to fit on the grill here. Things like that. It took me 3 hours to cook them on my tripod. On the grill I could "maybe" fit one rack. That's why it is upsetting. I called first to make sure I could cook here, if they had said "sorry, no" it would have been fine. Instead I'm all set up here.

Someone just came to level the grill, so between that and my coleman stove I will be able to get by. Not the meals we planned, but it will be ok for this trip. Again, these workers have no idea why they told me my firepit can't be used. They thought this mesh screen would be fine. The one worker, in Spanish, said a few of the security guards are crazy. He was good for a laugh. LOL.

Next time I know that the firepit rules are inconsistent and know to stay elsewhere.

 

[Disney Bunny]

Yes and no. There are meals that aren't meat. We don't buy store bought bread - so I have to cook that in the fire. Many of meals couldn't be made in a crockpot or on this tiny unlevel grill that is provided, or on my coleman cookstove. Like I said, my family is weird. lol That is why I called ahead of time to make sure it would work for us. Also, my kids love to camp ... we booked 10 days here and the kids picked only 4 days for the parks. They prefer to hang out here at the site, etc. Again, I know my family is weird. Which is why we call and make sure things will work for us. Last time we came to disney we bought 7 days of Disney Parks and 7 days of Sea World. The kids asked not to use all those days. We're generally low key and they gravitate towards low key activities. We only came back to Disney for the homeschool days, and stayed on site because we thought it would have reliable transportation.

Just a thought if you camp much or even if you make your own bread at home would be to invest in a bread machine. If you don't want to do that, Coleman makes a camping oven that works pretty well over their 2 burner cook stove.

 

[Running_Bell]

I have to admit.... I was thinking this had to be a joke... no one would cancel FW because of this? would they? But... God makes us all unique and I'm not going to knock your wants. Just have to ask... the fact that you have to cook this way... is it a need? or a want? this is just my opinion... please don't flame me... but if this were my "want" and I was about to uproot my entire family further away from Disney.... for the sake of cooking over a firepit... I'd have to reevaluate my perspective and priorities.

Also, you say it's not your first time to Disney, but your first time to FW.... how did you do it before? Since you're not familiar with local camping... my guess is that you didn't camp and maybe stayed in a hotel? I'm sure they don't allow tripod over firepits in hotels.... So did you eat out? Maybe you could just do as before and hopefully salvage your fun....

I'm not knocking your specific diet needs.... we are also a heavy organic family and keep our gardens that way as well. We have family members that are vegan and one that suffers from Celiac disease...Disney makes a lot of diet accommodations that maybe you could take advantage of. But... honestly... if I don't eat organic for a meal here and there on vacation...I don't die. : )

You know... even when you dont' go to the parks there is so much to do at FW.... biking, canoeing, swimming, horseback riding.... etc... I'm sure the kids would enjoy those? I know if I told my kids we were gonna sit around a firepit for 3 hours while I cooked ribs... AT DISNEYWORLD... they would tie me up and leave me there : )

Whatever you decide.... have fun! Also... another poster mentioned this... but there are quite a lot of campgrounds that do not allow firepits. Something to think about.

however... I am still having trouble with sympathizing... sorry. I'd eat earthworms raw dipped in pesticides to be there.... : )

 

[luckycharm19335]

I think the burn bans and the Red Flag warnings are called by the county governments not by Disney itself.
It is all a matter of safety.

 

[pooh4me]

Just wanted to know what brand and name of fire pit do you have?

 

[FansoftheMouse]

I'd eat earthworms raw dipped in pesticides to be there.... : )

That's just funny!

 

[tlh0726]

Yes, we're in site 2056, if you're here too come say hi.

We eat only organic food. My coolers are full of organic food. Pop in at Whole Foods and check out the prices. Most of my cuts of meat are over $20/lb. Not to mention cheeses and other items. That's another reason we prefer to avoid restaurants, there are few if any that serve food we would eat.

Like I said, the ribs we had would be too large to fit on the grill here. Things like that. It took me 3 hours to cook them on my tripod. On the grill I could "maybe" fit one rack. That's why it is upsetting. I called first to make sure I could cook here, if they had said "sorry, no" it would have been fine. Instead I'm all set up here.

Someone just came to level the grill, so between that and my coleman stove I will be able to get by. Not the meals we planned, but it will be ok for this trip. Again, these workers have no idea why they told me my firepit can't be used. They thought this mesh screen would be fine. The one worker, in Spanish, said a few of the security guards are crazy. He was good for a laugh. LOL.

Next time I know that the firepit rules are inconsistent and know to stay elsewhere.

OP, I hope things work out and you can enjoy your trip.

 

[chartle]

Perhaps there could have been misunderstanding. I researched on here and some other boards, so was pretty clear in talking about what I had - mesh cover. Not a solid cover. So, I don't see how that can be. The man that came said they just changed the rules and now no mesh covers at all, only if the top is solid. We actually waited until we talked to FW to buy the firepit because we wanted to make sure it was the right one and we didn't have one. All other campsites we have gone to have had firepits. The FW worker told me to put a 4inch circle of aluminum foil on the top of the mesh cover to get around the rule. One, I don't like "getting around rules" and two - we did that to finish cooking our dinner last night and it melted the aluminum foil ... so it is ineffective. It would seem that the rules have changed, He brought me a print out of the new rules ... if there is a way to post a pdf I am happy to post it so that others can have it.

You posted that FW changed the rules.

I'm wondering since most of the fire ban comes from outside WDW that the change in rule may also come from that outside authority.

Just making sure you are blaming the right people.

 

[sukhakuli]

Why didn't you make bread at home and bring it with you? I make all my own bread, and honestly, I wouldn't want to make bread over a firepit on vacation. but different strokes and all. Do you grind your own grain as well? We do, but once again, I'm not bringing my nutrimill on vacation... I do do a huge amount of baking before we go, though, so we have healthy food to eat in the car and the hotel room.

Anyway, I hope you get it sorted out. Don't sweat the small stuff. One day you may look back on this trip and feel silly for flipping out over a firepit, lol.

 

[Troll4eva]

WOW! Cooking while on vacation? Interesting, my sister and I have a theory your on vacation for a reason, you don't do anything you enjoy yourself, so cooking while your on vacation goes against our beliefs. Just saying.

 

[ob1quixote]

$20/lb?????

Wish I ate that well!

But if I did, I would cook it in one of those round charcoal smokers using charcoal. You can vary the smoking action by the amount of wood chips used, or none at all. You can move the grates and fire pans around to use it like a {small} grill. A wrap of aluminum foil around the base is a good idea if it is windy. Lastly, bring a few pieces of brick for extended cooking time. Place the fire pan on the bricks and lower the smoker over them. when it is time to bump up the fuel, lift the smoker off and have at it!