Minnie&Mickey
I want to live at the Fort!
- Joined
- May 15, 2000
- Messages
- 1,456
April 6, 2010
On this trip are:
Me (53)
My husband, Toby (53)
Emily (22), our youngest daughter who will be graduating from college next month, and getting married less than a month after that. This will be our last trip with her as a single woman!
This trip had a very rocky start to it. Last year at this time, we bought our first motorhome and really haven’t used it as often as I had hoped we would. We do love it, but we always seem to have issues with it. Most problems can be attributed to user-error and inexperience, but ever since we bought it (it was used), the front driver’s side slide has had trouble going out. We decided to put it in the shop three weeks before our trip to get it fixed. They had to order a new motor for the slide, and we also asked them to do an oil change and service the generator. The Friday before we left, they finally called to say it was ready. Unfortunately I had to work late that day, and by the time we got to the repair shop, they were about to close. So we quickly picked it up and headed home.
As soon as we got home, my husband realized that the generator didn’t work at all, so it went back into the shop the following day. Luckily for us, we were able to pick it up Tuesday afternoon. We packed it and got on the road about 10 pm that night.
We drove for a couple of hours and then stopped at the Dooley County, Georgia rest area to sleep. We were on the road by about 7 or so the next morning. We stopped a few times along the way, the most time consuming was when my husband stopped to pick up new wiper blades for the RV. I felt like we were on a wild goose chase as we were sent from RV dealership to RV dealership. We eventually found a place that had the right ones, but it delayed us by over an hour! When we were almost to the Fort, we decided to find a Publix so we could get some groceries. Unfortunately our GPS kept sending us in the wrong direction…actually it kept telling us to get off of 429, go left, and get back on 429 going the opposite direction! One of the times when we got off, it once again tried to put us back on 429, so we made a U-turn and tried to get back on, only to find one of those unmanned toll booths where you have to have the exact change! We had to pull the RV off the road while we searched for .75, but luckily we finally found it. It was very frustrating. We eventually got off at the exit after Western Way and hit the Publix there. Around this time, Kenny called to see what time we would be at the Fort and we told him we would meet him in about an hour figuring that would give us plenty of time.
Before pulling into the Fort, we called Cheryl and Jeff (4mickey2). They offered to drive around the 800 loop (which we requested earlier in the week) and find us a good spot. We pulled up to the guard gate and were directed to lane 4 since we had done online check-in. Big mistake! We are never lucky with the online check-in line. Every line moved except for ours. I even got out of the MH at one point to see if the women in front of us had done online check-in (figuring we could move to another line if they hadn’t)…they hadn’t done online check-in and told me they really weren’t sure they were even at the right place! We let Emily out of the RV so that she could go meet Omar for the cart, and about that time Cheryl called to say that they were going to go check on our golf cart for us. Of course, we forgot to tell them that we had rented from Kenny, so they went to the Fort’s rental area instead. Jeff spotted the RV and came by and suggested that I go inside to check in. Jeff and I went in while Toby stayed in the RV in line, only to find the most unpleasant CM at the Fort. First she told me I couldn’t check in inside because we did it online, and then she went out and got our packet. Then she told me that we weren’t in the 800 loop, but in the 500 loop. I explained to her that we wanted to be near our friends and since Jeff agreed that they wanted to be by us, she called and got us site 839!!! This was one of the good sites that Jeff and Cheryl had picked for us. I asked the CM why they don’t hang a sign over the express check-in line so that only people who did the online check-in would go there, and she informed me there was no such thing as express check-in…I guess I just used the wrong terminology, but like I said, she wasn’t very nice.
I hopped into the golf cart with Emily and Toby drove the RV to the site. Jeff stopped by to help guide Toby into the site, and we spent the next hour or so getting everything set up on the site.
After that, Emily and I did a little bit of looping, stopped by Trail's End to fill our mugs. When we got back to the RV, we mixed up a yummy pitcher full of pina coladas! This is the perfect start to our vacation.
Shortly after that, Cheryl stopped by and invited us to dinner at their site. We were very happy about this since we were pretty tired from our trip. Dinner was fantastic!!! Burgers, brats, beans...yum!!! Then Cheryl gave me a cute Disney towel that she found at property control last year that had my name on it. I was so surprised, and I love it! It's now hanging in the bathroom in the RV…isn’t it cute?
We also met Jeff’s brother, sister-in-law, and niece and they were very nice. They were all going to Downtown Disney and Cirque, so we headed back to our RV to relax.
Emily and I drove the cart over to the campfire (Toby was exhausted and just wanted to stay home) and picked up a s’mores kit. We each roasted a marshmallow, ate our s’more, ran by Trail's End and refilled our mugs, and headed back to the RV.
One disappointment with this trip was the bugs. There were these tiny little gnats that seemed to swarm all around our site. Jeff and Cheryl didn’t seem to have as many as we did and I’m not sure why, but even our bug candles couldn’t keep the bugs away. Unfortunately that meant that we didn’t get to sit outside as much as I had hoped.
Coming up...EPCOT's Flower & Garden Festival!
On this trip are:
Me (53)
My husband, Toby (53)
Emily (22), our youngest daughter who will be graduating from college next month, and getting married less than a month after that. This will be our last trip with her as a single woman!
This trip had a very rocky start to it. Last year at this time, we bought our first motorhome and really haven’t used it as often as I had hoped we would. We do love it, but we always seem to have issues with it. Most problems can be attributed to user-error and inexperience, but ever since we bought it (it was used), the front driver’s side slide has had trouble going out. We decided to put it in the shop three weeks before our trip to get it fixed. They had to order a new motor for the slide, and we also asked them to do an oil change and service the generator. The Friday before we left, they finally called to say it was ready. Unfortunately I had to work late that day, and by the time we got to the repair shop, they were about to close. So we quickly picked it up and headed home.
As soon as we got home, my husband realized that the generator didn’t work at all, so it went back into the shop the following day. Luckily for us, we were able to pick it up Tuesday afternoon. We packed it and got on the road about 10 pm that night.
We drove for a couple of hours and then stopped at the Dooley County, Georgia rest area to sleep. We were on the road by about 7 or so the next morning. We stopped a few times along the way, the most time consuming was when my husband stopped to pick up new wiper blades for the RV. I felt like we were on a wild goose chase as we were sent from RV dealership to RV dealership. We eventually found a place that had the right ones, but it delayed us by over an hour! When we were almost to the Fort, we decided to find a Publix so we could get some groceries. Unfortunately our GPS kept sending us in the wrong direction…actually it kept telling us to get off of 429, go left, and get back on 429 going the opposite direction! One of the times when we got off, it once again tried to put us back on 429, so we made a U-turn and tried to get back on, only to find one of those unmanned toll booths where you have to have the exact change! We had to pull the RV off the road while we searched for .75, but luckily we finally found it. It was very frustrating. We eventually got off at the exit after Western Way and hit the Publix there. Around this time, Kenny called to see what time we would be at the Fort and we told him we would meet him in about an hour figuring that would give us plenty of time.
Before pulling into the Fort, we called Cheryl and Jeff (4mickey2). They offered to drive around the 800 loop (which we requested earlier in the week) and find us a good spot. We pulled up to the guard gate and were directed to lane 4 since we had done online check-in. Big mistake! We are never lucky with the online check-in line. Every line moved except for ours. I even got out of the MH at one point to see if the women in front of us had done online check-in (figuring we could move to another line if they hadn’t)…they hadn’t done online check-in and told me they really weren’t sure they were even at the right place! We let Emily out of the RV so that she could go meet Omar for the cart, and about that time Cheryl called to say that they were going to go check on our golf cart for us. Of course, we forgot to tell them that we had rented from Kenny, so they went to the Fort’s rental area instead. Jeff spotted the RV and came by and suggested that I go inside to check in. Jeff and I went in while Toby stayed in the RV in line, only to find the most unpleasant CM at the Fort. First she told me I couldn’t check in inside because we did it online, and then she went out and got our packet. Then she told me that we weren’t in the 800 loop, but in the 500 loop. I explained to her that we wanted to be near our friends and since Jeff agreed that they wanted to be by us, she called and got us site 839!!! This was one of the good sites that Jeff and Cheryl had picked for us. I asked the CM why they don’t hang a sign over the express check-in line so that only people who did the online check-in would go there, and she informed me there was no such thing as express check-in…I guess I just used the wrong terminology, but like I said, she wasn’t very nice.
I hopped into the golf cart with Emily and Toby drove the RV to the site. Jeff stopped by to help guide Toby into the site, and we spent the next hour or so getting everything set up on the site.

After that, Emily and I did a little bit of looping, stopped by Trail's End to fill our mugs. When we got back to the RV, we mixed up a yummy pitcher full of pina coladas! This is the perfect start to our vacation.
Shortly after that, Cheryl stopped by and invited us to dinner at their site. We were very happy about this since we were pretty tired from our trip. Dinner was fantastic!!! Burgers, brats, beans...yum!!! Then Cheryl gave me a cute Disney towel that she found at property control last year that had my name on it. I was so surprised, and I love it! It's now hanging in the bathroom in the RV…isn’t it cute?

We also met Jeff’s brother, sister-in-law, and niece and they were very nice. They were all going to Downtown Disney and Cirque, so we headed back to our RV to relax.
Emily and I drove the cart over to the campfire (Toby was exhausted and just wanted to stay home) and picked up a s’mores kit. We each roasted a marshmallow, ate our s’more, ran by Trail's End and refilled our mugs, and headed back to the RV.


One disappointment with this trip was the bugs. There were these tiny little gnats that seemed to swarm all around our site. Jeff and Cheryl didn’t seem to have as many as we did and I’m not sure why, but even our bug candles couldn’t keep the bugs away. Unfortunately that meant that we didn’t get to sit outside as much as I had hoped.
Coming up...EPCOT's Flower & Garden Festival!