Spring break: Pregnant, tent camping, and still the best day ever - a March 2012 TR

[ksl5f123]

Hello DISers!

We just returned from a wonderful week at WDW. We tent camped in Fort Wilderness for the first time. I also have a TR going over on the camping board that will focus on our experiences of camping as a family. Here is the link to that if you just want the highlights:
Pregnant and tent camping during Spring Break - a March 2012 TR

This trip report will give ALL of the moment-by-moment details. So stick around here if you like that kind of stuff! I only have 820 pictures to share!

First, let me introduce the cast:

me, Karen:

I'm 38 and this was my 14th trip to WDW and 2nd trip to Ft. Wilderness. DH and I stayed in a cabin with my in-laws back in October 2000. The above picture was taken on a trip I took with just my girls in July 2011. On this trip, I was 22 weeks pregnant (5 months for those of you who don't do pregnancy math ) My riding philosophy is "I only ride stuff that moves slower than I can walk" so being pregnant didn't really cramp my riding style very much. My favorite attractions are Soarin' and Kali River Rapids.

DH:

He is 39 and a Florida native. He has been to WDW more times than he can remember and camped at the Fort several times as a kid. He loves thrill rides and can't wait for the kids to be ready to join him on the roller coasters. He will ride anything (except the tea cups and Disney buses). Both make him .

DD8:

This was her 8th trip to WDW. She started riding thrill rides for the first time on our June 2010 trip. She loved BTMRR the most and is VERY upset that it was closed for this trip. She has mostly left Disney characters behind for the moment and currently loves Harry Potter (she has read the first 4 books). At home, she is in 3rd grade and does gymnastics, sings in the choir, and plays chess. She is always on the go!

DD6:

This was her 7th trip to WDW. She loves purple and Rapunzel. She still enjoys being a princess. She is completely uninterested in thrill rides despite being tall enough. Her favorite attraction in all of WDW is Carousel of Progress. When asked what she most wants to do at WDW, she answers, “See Rapunzel”. At home, she is in Kindergarten and does gymnastics, ballet, and tap and loves to do art of any sort.

DS3:

This was his 4th trip to WDW. He loves Cars. He is the stereotypical little brother who gets into stuff and makes lots of messes. On our March 2011 trip, he suddenly developed a fear of all of the rides. The only one he liked was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger spin. When asked what he most wants to do at WDW, he answers, “See Buzz Lightyear and shoot Zurg.” At home, he goes to preschool 2 mornings a week and loves to play with his cars.

MIL:

Because they live in Vero Beach, my MIL and FIL usually accompany us on our trips. The love spending time (and money) with the grandkids.

FIL:

Up next, the backstory!

 

[ksl5f123]

For those who didn't read my PTR, here is how this trip came about:

This trip began with me doing some reading over on the Budget board. Someone mentioned a deal where you could buy one adult ticket to Legoland and get a child ticket free. We REALLY want to go to Legoland. The park is marketed toward 3-10 year olds and our kids are 3, 6, and 8. Perfect! In addition, DH is a college professor. One of his classes is a general education robotics course where they use Lego robots. I think it is a cool course. If you were an English or a history major, what would you rather take to fulfill your science requirement: Chemistry 101 or Robotics? Yeah.

Needless to say, we bought the Legoland tickets which are good until the end of May. Now, we needed to decide when to go. We decided to head down for spring break (March 17-25). MIL and FIL live in a condo in Vero Beach so we thought we would spend a few days there and stop at Legoland on our way home. Simple and very inexpensive vacation (probably around $500).

Well, clearly that didn't happen. What changed? Well, MIL and FIL decided to spend a couple of months at their other house out in the Colorado Rockies and RENTED OUT THE CONDO for March!!!!!! With that option out, we still wanted to take the trip but needed somewhere to stay. We paid $523 for our very own patch of Disney dirt... ok....sand and chose to tent camp at Fort Wilderness.

If you have read any of my previous TRs or PTRs, you will know that we are a family that lives by a budget. For every trip, we decide on an amount that we can afford and we stick to it like glue! Sometimes that number is $1300. Sometimes it is $4000. For this trip, our budget is $2000, but we would REALLY like to come in under that.

Up next, travel days!

 

[ksl5f123]

Chpater 1: travel days
Chapter 2: Downtown Disney
Chapter 3: Caribe Royale Resort
Chapter 4: Arriving at Fort Wilderness
Chapter 5: The pool and our first night
Chapter 6: Legoland - part 1
Chapter 7: Legoland - part 2 - Land of Adventure
Chapter 8: Legoland - part 3 - Lego City and Lunch
Chapter 9: Legoland - part 4 - Miniland

 

[ksl5f123]

We officially left for our trip on Friday, March 16. We picked our girls up from school early at 12:30 and hit the road. We wanted to leave a little earlier, but DD8 successfully passed all of her timed multiplication tests (ones through twelves and then 3 mixed review) that week and was being rewarded with doughnuts during lunch. There was NO way she was missing that doughnut!

There was some annoying construction on I-40 – like turn off your car, get out, and meet the other bored people construction. The guy in the car next to us had been driving since 4:30 AM trying to get to a college basketball game. He didn't even know what road he was on at this point. I really hope he got some sleep soon! It put us a little behind schedule which was very annoying. At least we knew how bad it was and were able to avoid it coming home.

Luckily, we didn't have to stop much. Mainly, we stopped for supper in Tupelo, MS at Cracker Barrel. MIL and FIL had given me a $50 gift card to Cracker Barrel for my birthday earlier in the month, so that paid for our supper. I couldn't figure out how to leave the tip with the gift card, so we left $5 on the table. I made the mistake of having the fried cod for supper. It was yummy, but we had eaten fish sandwiches from McD's for lunch and fried food twice in one day didn't sit well with me. Yuck!

We drove until 9 PM which put us in Prattville, Alabama (just north of Montgomery). We decided to stop at a Country Inn & Suites because they are very accommodating of families of 5. I usually like to make our reservations in advance, but DH didn't decide what time we were going to leave until the night before so that wasn't possible. Very few hotel chains deal with families of 5 (soon to be 6) well, so I keep a list of those that have rooms that can handle more people. The room we were assigned was called a junior suite. It had a king bed and a couch with a pullout. The girls slept on the pullout and DS joined DH and I in the king.

Our room was directly over the lobby so we had a quick walk down the stairs in the morning to breakfast. Country Inn & Suites always does a free hot breakfast and this one was very good. They had make your own waffles, a toppings bar for the scrambled eggs (so they were kind of like having an omelet), toppings for the oatmeal, and even toppings for the yogurt. I enjoyed my strawberry yogurt with some granola and a banana (still settling the tummy from all the previous day's fried food). DH enjoyed a waffle and the girls mostly had muffins and fruit. The only problem was a lack of seating. The girls sat at a table on one side of the room. I sat at a table on the other side of the room. DS3 sat on my lap and DH had to stand.

After our breakfast, we continued on to WDW. There had been a discussion somewhere on the DIS that it was quicker to take highway 82 out of Montgomery over to Tifton, GA and then I-75 down to the Florida turnpike. We usually take 231 out of Montgomery down to I-10 and over to I-75. Despite the testimony on the DIS of the new route being faster, it actually took us 6 minutes longer than going the other way (basically a toss-up). The disadvantage of 82 is that it is more of a winding road and so DH had to drive the whole time to avoid getting carsickness. I think in the future we will just stick with 231.

By about 5 PM, we were on the Florida Turnpike. We called MIL and FIL and decided that we would all meet at Downtown Disney. When we made this plan, I failed to think about the fact that it was St. Patrick's day and there were celebrations going on at DTD. Oops. In general, Orlando was crowded. We inched along the couple of miles of I-4 and then inched along on 535. The first 3 lots into DTD were all full, but I had planned to park at the other end anyway. We finally arrived and found a parking place at about 6:30 PM.

With that, I mark our official arrival at WDW!

So, let's sum up the cost of the travel days: $158.17 for 3 tanks of gas (YIKES! We paid between $3.60 and $3.80/gallon), $111.38 for our hotel, $27.02 for lunch at Subway somewhere in Georgia, and the $5 tip at Cracker Barrel = $301.57

Up next, Downtown Disney!

 

[TinksThree]

I'm here! Subbing and will come back when I get home tonight to read what you have written so far!

 

[ksl5f123]

I'm here! Subbing and will come back when I get home tonight to read what you have written so far!

Hooray! You are here! Congrats on being first!

 

[lovesdumbo]

Enjoying your TR! Can't wait to read more.

We decided to stop at a Country Inn & Suites because they are very accommodating of families of 5. Very few hotel chains deal with families of 5 (soon to be 6) well, so I keep a list of those that have rooms that can handle more people.

I can so relate to this! We are going to DL this summer. I had considered staying at the Grand Californian as this is likely the only time we will ever go to DL. They will let families of 5 book a room but very few rooms actually sleep 5. If you get a room with just 2 queens they bring up a sleeping bag. None of my kids would find that fun so we are staying at Paradise Pier that has daybeds in all the rooms. We are also planning on spending a few days in San Diego and very few hotels have rooms for 5.

 

[ksl5f123]

Enjoying your TR! Can't wait to read more.


I can so relate to this! We are going to DL this summer. I had considered staying at the Grand Californian as this is likely the only time we will ever go to DL. They will let families of 5 book a room but very few rooms actually sleep 5. If you get a room with just 2 queens they bring up a sleeping bag. None of my kids would find that fun so we are staying at Paradise Pier that has daybeds in all the rooms. We are also planning on spending a few days in San Diego and very few hotels have rooms for 5.

I know. We are thinking about DL for next summer and I don't think we have a choice but to stay offsite. I know it isn't as big of a deal there, but I like Disney resorts.

 

[ksl5f123]

When we last left off, it was 6:30 PM and we had just arrived at DTD. To say it was crowded would be the understatement of the year! Like I mentioned before, I had forgotten it was St. Patrick's Day and I think half of Orlando was there to celebrate!

We entered down by Disneyquest and called MIL and FIL so that we could meet up. Luckily, they were VERY close by having drinks outside of the House of Blues. They had put their name on a list to get a table, but they were told that the wait would be at least 75 minutes. We decided to have FIL get his name off of the list and to just head to Wolfgang Puck Express.

I had originally planned to walk down to the Marketplace to either go to Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck Express down there, but after trying to walk even 20 feet, we decided to just go to the WPE on the West Side. The menu is much more limited, but by this point we were hungry and everyone found something to their liking. MIL and I sat with the children at a table outside awhile FIL and DH went inside to order.

DD8 waiting:

I just had a chicken caesar salad and a cup of water. I don't have a picture because...well..it was a salad and water.

DH started with the butternut squash soup which he enjoyed very much followed by the Margherita pizza which was also awesome.

The girls both got the kids macaroni and cheese and DS3 got the cheese pizza. He was still recovering from the long car ride and didn't eat much of it, but the girls ate most of theirs.

MIL also got the butternut squash soup and then ate some of DS3's pizza. FIL got a salad, but I can't remember which one. He then finished up the rest of the girls macaroni.

Then it was time for some ice cream. MIL decided we would go to Haagen Dazs because she doesn't like the ice cream at Ghirardelli. Usually, I would have argued with this, but Haagen Dazs is on the West Side and Ghirardelli would have meant wading through the crowds all the way down to the Marketplace. So, I just gave in. We each got one scoop of ice cream. DH and I got ours in waffle cones and everyone else got a cup. DS3 and I both had chocolate, DD8 had strawberry, DD6 had cookies and cream, DH had chocolate chip cookie dough (I think), FIL had coconut, and MIL had vanilla. I have had Haagen Dazs ice cream before and enjoyed it very much, but this night my chocolate really lacked flavor. It basically tasted cold – with a slight hint of coconut that made me wonder how well they were cleaning the ice cream scoops in between servings.

We took our ice cream outside and sat around a table. There was a duck that was wandering amongst the tables that people at the next table were feeding. Why would anyone do that in a crowded area? I don't know, because it leads to things like the attack of the killer squirrels!

OK, not exactly, but after the duck wandered off the squirrels soon followed and they would not be deterred!!! I actually had to remove DS3 or there would have been a squirrel in his cup of ice cream! It literally got within 6 inches of his cup before I picked him up and moved him away. It then headed for DD6 before MIL chased it away with her purse. At some point, one of the adults commented that the squirrels were “aggressive”. For the rest of the week, the kids pointed out every “aggressive squirrel” that they saw – and let's just say there are a LOT of squirrels at Fort Wilderness!

DH and I finished our ice cream first and then headed over to Guest Services to get a Disney Visa rewards card. While we were walking back, we thought it would be nice to ride the boat from Pleasure Island back to the West Side (since Haagen Dazs is close to Pleasure Island). I later told DH that when I have bad ideas like this he needs to tell me. I don't know what I was thinking. When we returned to the kids I suggested that we go ride the boat. DD6 was immediately excited and DS3 immediately refused. We thought maybe if he saw the boat (and realized he wasn't going to get wet) he might go for it. So, we all trekked over to the boat dock. What looks like a short walk was actually a march through nearly shoulder to shoulder crowds. Ugh!

When we arrived at the dock, DS3 still refused to ride. This caused DD6 to melt down because she really wanted to ride. Ugh again. MIL offered to walk DS3 back and meet us at the West Side dock. At this point everyone except DH, DD6, and I decided to walk. Fine. Whatever. Of course, what I had forgotten through this whole process was that the boat only goes in one direction – from Pleasure Island to the Marketplace and then finally to the West Side.

To look on the bright side, we had a great boat captain from Pleasure Island to the Marketplace. He let DD6 unhook the rope and welcome everyone on board. When we arrived at the Marketplace, he was explaining that he had arrived at 4 PM for an 8 hour shift and it was time for his supper break. Our new captain boarded and took us down to the West Side where everyone else was waiting on us.

We finally made it out to our cars and headed off to our hotel for the evening.

We didn't actually spend any money at DTD as MIL and FIL paid for our supper and ice cream.

 

[ksl5f123]

Thanks to the advice that I received on the camping board, we decided not to try to set up camp on Saturday night. The general consensus was that we would be too tired from the drive and it might get too dark to get our tent up and organized with an evening arrival. This was EXCELLENT advice! So, we checked into a 2-bedroom villa at Caribe Royale Resort.

From Downtown Disney, it is a relatively short drive out to 535 and then about a mile down the road and left on World Center Drive. Caribe Royale isn't visible from 535, but its sister resort, Buena Vista Suites, is there on the corner. Despite what looks like a short drive on paper, it actually took about 30 minutes because traffic was so bad on Saturday night.

DH went inside and got us checked in and then we headed back to our villa. The villas are in the back of the complex and are accessed through a gate that requires a key card. Our villa was on the 3rd floor. I really wish I had taken my camera upstairs with me, because the room was AMAZING! It is one of the Mousesavers preferred hotels and if you look on that website it shows some pictures that look exactly like our room. We all commented that it would be hard to camp the next night after staying in such luxury.

If you are ever in need of a place to stay with a large group, let me strongly recommend Caribe Royale. The 2 BR villa sleeps 8 people with a king bed in one room, 2 queens in another and a pull out sofa. There is also a little laundry room in the villa with a stackable washer and dryer that MIL used because somehow she had dirty laundry on arrival day.

MIL and FIL offered to stay in the room with the 2 queen beds and all 3 kids while DH and I took the room with the king bed – although sometime during the night FIL moved out to the sofa. DH and my room also contained a large whirlpool tub which I enjoyed that evening.

After MIL got the kids settled down, DH and I walked around the property. Why? We forgot something a little important – we forgot to print our Legoland tickets! Luckily Caribe Royale has a 24 hour business center. We enjoyed walking around the property. The pool really was beautiful and it would have be nice to use it. After a few minute walk, we made our way back to the main building and upstairs to the business center. Five minutes and $2 later our tickets were printed. Whew!

By 11 PM, we were all tucked into bed and ready to sleep.

 

[Ciciwoowoo]

Loving your report! I started out by reading what you have posted on the camping site, and wandered over here to read more.

Love the details!!!

 

[ksl5f123]

Loving your report! I started out by reading what you have posted on the camping site, and wandered over here to read more.

Love the details!!!

Thanks so much for coming over! I am detail-obsessed. I learn so much by reading other TRs that I want to share as much as possilbe in case someone else finds a little tip in there somewhere (although sometimes I am just rambling...)

 

[ksl5f123]

Sunday morning, we checked out of the resort and headed to the 9:15 Mass at the Shrine (we are a Catholic family). This is first time we have gone there with all of the children. They were initially impressed by the large space, but DS3 became wiggly after about an hour. I understand that they are not a parish and therefore rely on visitors for funding, but the fundraising always takes a little too long for my liking.

After church, we made our way to the Macaroni Grill on 535 arriving basically when they opened the doors. We were the 2nd table seated that day. I had a Caesar salad and the Chicken Parmesan. I really miss when they had lunch portions. I received THREE chicken breasts! Who eats that much? I ate one and DD8 ate one and I think we left the third on the table. DH had the Eggplant Parmesan and MIL and FIL both did the “create your own pasta bowl”. DS3 had cheese pizza (his standard fare), DD6 had macaroni and cheese, and DD8 had ravioli. The kids ravioli portion is too small for DD8, so she was very happy to eat my extra chicken.

We finished lunch at about 12:15 and decided to make a quick run to Walmart before we checked in. My shopping list included a new alarm clock and batteries for it, blue buttons, pool floats, and a child's toothbrush. Anybody want to try and guess why we needed such a random assortment of stuff? While DH and I picked up these supplies, MIL and FIL took the kids and bought a large amount of other random stuff.

Finally ready to go, we took off down the road and by 1:15 PM, we were here:

Soon after, we were here:

And then finally we were here:

One thing that was interesting about the check-in procedure at Fort Wilderness is that you stay in your vehicle to do it! We were directed to the right-most lane which put us right next to the beautiful butterfly garden that is here at the outpost.

Aside from the fact that you stay in your vehicle, check-in is just like any other Disney resort – although with this method I really see no advantage to doing online check-in. We hadn't made any sort of request for loop or location – we just took the luck of the draw. We were assigned spot 2056.

We had great afternoon shade as you can see in the above picture which was taken at about 2:15 PM. We were about 4 spots down and across the street from the comfort station which I found to be an ideal distance. We were close, but not so close that we were bothered by people walking there. Directly behind the comfort station was the bus stop for the internal bus (purple route) for our loop which was appropriately named Spanish Moss circle.

The sites all have a picnic table and grill.

There were also plenty of mature trees for hanging a line to dry some towels.

Now, it was time to set up camp! We started with the tent. We had a new Coleman 9 person instant tent. We got this for Christmas because we had “outgrown” our old tent. We practiced setting it up in our backyard before we went so we knew what to do. As you could see in my previous post, the right side of our site had afternoon shade so we chose to put the tent on that side and toward the back. Since we had practiced, we had our tent up and ready to be staked in under 5 minutes.

Once our tent was up, DH went to set up the canopy and screen while I started organizing inside the tent. In the tent, we had two queen size air mattresses – one for me and one for DH and DS3.
Here is DH and DS3's bed:

Next to their bed is our big blue suitcase that contained DH, DS3, and my clothes.

In this next one, you can see DH's bed and DD8's bed. The girls slept on pool floats that we picked up at Walmart an hour earlier. (One random item revealed!) These were cheap and worked fine although they were a little noisy when the girls moved around at night.

Also in between them you can see a 3 drawer storage unit. This contained all of the girls clothes and was wonderful. It was so much easier for them to open a drawer and pull out what they needed than to unzip suitcases. In the future, we will bring these for everyone! On top of the storage unit, you can see a white plastic basket that contained everything that the girls and I would ever need to bring to the comfort station (soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, hairdryer, etc).

In the next picture, I have turned around and you can see my bed on the left and DD5's on the right.

Now I have backed up a little so you can see the “room dividers” and the bottom of our lantern hung at the peak of the tent.

One final shot showing where we put the hamper between the girls' beds

Here is the outside of the tent showing our Mickey string lights. These were awesome for finding our site at night and were LED lights so they never got hot and we could leave them on all of the time.

While I got the tent all ready, DH was working on the screen house.

We moved the picnic table onto the main pad since we wanted it inside the screen house. We also had a small folding table that we put in the screen house. It held our crockpot, griddle, and toaster. All of our paper supplies and non-perishable food was stored in plastic bins under the table. I took the following picture later in the week when it looked a little messy, but you get the idea.

Here is our space showing both the tent and the screen house.

Now, you may be wondering where did MIL and FIL sleep? Well, I don't have a picture of this, but I really wish I did. They backed their minivan in next to ours (there was plenty of room on the asphalt for both), laid down the back row of seats, took out the middle row, and put in an air mattress. Yep, they slept in their minivan.

As soon as everything was set up, I got out a bag of potatoes, rubbed them with some oil, wrapped them in foil, and dropped them in the crockpot. Viola! Supper was cooking!

The total amount of time from arrival at our site to “let's go put on our swimsuits” was exactly 2 hours. I consider that pretty good for completely unpacking our minivan and being ready to go.

Up next, the pool!

 

[TinksThree]

Wow! I am super jealous of your organization! I love the basket for the comfort station and the drawers. I need to get those for our camper! The tent looks roomy too.

DTD is not so much fun when it is crowded so I can't blame you choosing Haagan Daas instead of fighting crowds for Ghiradelli but Ghiradelli is so good! That pizza also made me hungry!

 

[ksl5f123]

Wow! I am super jealous of your organization! I love the basket for the comfort station and the drawers. I need to get those for our camper! The tent looks roomy too.

DTD is not so much fun when it is crowded so I can't blame you choosing Haagan Daas instead of fighting crowds for Ghiradelli but Ghiradelli is so good! That pizza also made me hungry!

I did a lot of studying of other peoples pictures over on the camping board to try and figure out what would work best for organizing the tent. I LOVED the drawers ($10 from Target about a month before the trip). Next time, we will have those for everyone! The basket actually originally contained pool toys purchased from Walmart or the Dollar store. It was PERFECT for carrying our stuff to the comfort station.

Moving through DTD was a nightmare. That said, had I realized we were going to take the boat to the Marketplace anyway... Of course, we had about a 30 minute wait at Ghirardelli last year when the crowds were moderate. I bet there was an hour wait this night - and there was no wait at all at Haagen Dazs.

 

[ksl5f123]

When we last left off, we had just finished setting up camp. It was 4:15 PM, supper was cooking and we were heading to the pool.

I started off staying with MIL and DS3 in the little kids play area.

My little guy loved this space! He must have gone down the slides 100 times!

As you can see, he pretty much had the run of the place when we first arrived. That lasted for about 30 minutes. During that time, DH and FIL took the girls over to the big pool. After about 30 minutes, they came back and informed us that Disney had cleared the pool for “unexpected maintenance”. Ewww.

DD6 is still under the 48” height limit for this little play area. So, she joined DS3 playing here. There were some other kids that came over from the big pool who really didn't make that cutoff. DD8 was one of them and I didn't let her “play”. I did however give her a job. In this picture, you can see a steering wheel.

It controlled whether the water came out the side like it is doing in that picture or down like a waterfall over the stairs. Well, DS3 HATES having water fall on his head. However, lots of the other kids playing over there liked it. So, I put DD8 in charge of changing the water direction so her brother would be happy.

It probably took another 30 minutes for the pool to re-open. As soon as it did, my girls went straight back to the big pool. A couple of minutes later, some CMs came over and “strongly encouraged” all of the big kids to get out of this play area.

After a few more minutes playing here, we all went over to the big pool for a little while.

Jumping in to daddy:

DD6 showing that she remembers how to back float:

In all, we were probably at the pool for about two hours before we headed back to camp. While DH got all of the kids changed, I put some broccoli and vegetarian chili on the griddle. My DH is a vegetarian so I have to be creative in cooking. When that came off, MIL put some bacon on for the omnivores among us. By this point, everyone was hungry. We set up a baked potato bar with butter, broccoli, chili, shredded cheddar cheese, and MIL's bacon. I made enough potatoes for everyone to have two. Although not everyone ate two, let's just say there weren't any leftovers! For dessert, we had some Oreos.

My original plan allowed for all types of adventures this evening: the campfire, the water pageant, Wishes from the Contemporary or the Poly beach. What did we do? We went to bed! By the time we finished eating and did the dishes, it was 8:30 PM! The kids enjoyed getting out their flashlights for the short walk to the comfort station. The kids were in bed by 9 PM and MIL and FIL soon followed. I had a project to finish up, so I moved a camp chair into the screen house along with the lantern. More on that later...

By 10 PM, we were all in bed. It took me a little while to fall asleep. I did bring some earplugs which I used every night, but two spots down from us there was some sort of reunion. On that site, there was only a screen room. I assume they all had campsites nearby and were using that one for their evening gathering. Let's just say at least one gentleman had a very loud voice as they were reminiscing.

Eventually, I fell asleep, but by midnight, I was awake – and COLD. The official weather report says that the low this night was 62 degrees. I don't buy it! I grew up in a house where my mom kept the heat on 65 during the day and turned it down to 62 at night (in Ohio where it does get cold). I know what 62 feels like – and this was colder. Now, I will say that I made two mistakes this night. One, I went to bed with hair still wet from the pool. This is always a bad idea. I always feel colder when my hair is wet. The problem is it is also really thick so it takes 24 hours to air dry or 45 minutes with a hairdryer. Two, I didn't close all of the windows of the tent before going to bed. So, at midnight I closed the window over DD8, but I couldn't reach the one over DH and DS3.

I went back to bed and tried to snuggle deeper into the sleeping bag. It didn't work. At 2:15 AM, I was awake again. This time, I woke DH up and made him close that window. That helped and I was able to go back to sleep until DD8 woke me up at 4 AM needing to go to the bathroom. I reluctantly rolled out of bed and walked her down to the comfort station. When we returned, I tried unsuccessfully to get back to sleep until we needed to get up at 6:30 AM.

Luckily, my kids are extremely sound sleepers and none of them woke up cold at all. They get this from DH who also had no problems. However, MIL did comment in the morning that she had also been cold.

Up next, our first park day – but not a Disney park!

 

[JolllyHoliday]

I am enjoying reading about your camping experience at Disney. I have seen some of the campsites all decorated for Christmas when we went over to do the Chip and Dale campfire one year.

 

[TinksThree]

The kids play area looks like so much fun! Eww...on the "emergency maintenance"!!! I love the baked potato bar idea. That is on my list for our next camping trip!

Your "plans" for evening activities sound like mine...so many plans and where do we wind up? Asleep!! I would have woken up cold too! I always seem to wake up cold when we are camping (even if it is 100 degrees!)!!

 

[sherylcin]

Well, it finally dawned on me that I needed to actually sub into your new Trip Report to get updates, duh! I kept wondering when you would start your report and waited for an e-mail. Oh, well, just got all caught up! Since I'm not a camper, it's fascinating to read about all your organization and planning. Your campsite looks inviting and the potato bar sounds yummy! I think I could even camp if I could have some small kitchen appliances to help with cooking.

Your evening at DTD sounds like it's good you started on the West Side! I love WPE in the Marketplace but I would have settled for the West Side too. We've eaten there but only inside at the restaurant. Love it!

Looks like everyone enjoyed the pool! Great first day! Too bad about the cold at night though. My theory is that the more humid air in Florida feels colder to us Midwesterners. Hey! I could be right! I can't sleep either if I'm too chilly.

Look forward to more....

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!!