StPeteDisneyFan trip report

[StPeteDisneyFan]

Hey all!! Just got back from our trip to FW. Had a great time all in all. A couple of problems which I will explain.
Day one: Arrived at Fw on Sunday around noon. Now I know check in is not until 1 but just couldn't wait. When we got there they told us our site wasn't ready but we would be on the 1500 loop like I requested. They gave us the number to call to check on our site. Called at 1 to check and it still wasn't ready. Had lunch in the overflow parking lot. Yum Yum!!! Kept calling every 15 minutes to check on the site. Figured they would get tired of hearing from me. By 2 pm we had had it. It was hot and all I wanted to do was get camp set up and relax. (Bathing suits were in trailer and we couldn't get to them without opening pop up. Won't do that again.) We took the bus to the 1500 loop to look to see if there were any open sites. Got there and there were 5 sites sitting empty. They were washed down and everything. A site/loop worker saw us looking grumpy and asked if there was a problem. We explained everything to him and he told us he called the sites in as being cleaned 2 hours ago. He got on his walkie and told them "The Randall Family has waited long enough for their site. They will be going on site 1508 now." What a great guy. We went right up and got our trailer and set up camp. Finally around 4:30 we were done and relaxing with a drink.
We had ressies at Trails End for dinner at 6. I hate to say we weren't impressed with it. I know I didn't eat $18 worth of food. Oh well! Live and learn.
After dinner I decided to go to the Outpost and ask for a phone number or email address that I could call to complain about check-in to. They had the manager come out and talk to me. I explained the whole check-in situation with her. She told me that the number they give you to call to check on your site is a call center that isn't even located at Disney. For all I know I was calling Timbuktu. She said alot of the people who work there don't even know the difference between a site and a room. How stupid is that!?!? The manager did a great job of kissing a**!!!! She wanted to make us happy so they credited us one nights stay. (I didn't even ask for it) That gave us an extra $65 in my pocket. Cha-ching!!!
We decided to make it an early evening since we were going to Hollywood Studios on Monday. I would say by 9 we were settled in for the night. Hopefully the rest of our trip would be better. It sure didn't start off well. More of the trip report will be coming tomorrow. I still have some stuff to unpack and clean. Until tomorrow, Good Night!!!!!

 

[Isi]

Hope the rest of the trip was good can't wait to read more..

 

[clkelley]

Sounds like an interesting start. Although one nice thing about the Fort is you can look around and see if your site is ready or if there is another site nearby that will work for you. At resorts it's kind of hard (and rude) to go looking in room windows to see if there are any that are ready!!!

 

[Us3]

Sorry your trip started this way...sure hope it gets better! Waiting to read more...

 

[momoffive]

Sorry to hear about the rough start. Hope to read that it gets better!!
Loretta aka momoffive

 

[StPeteDisneyFan]

Day Two:
We started our day early. DH and I were up by 5:30. I love getting up early and watching the world wake up. Take the time to listen to the birds and watch the sun rise. Also it is quiet with the 2 kids still asleep.
We headed to HS around 8. We like to take the buses instead of driving ourselves. Especially with the price of gas. Once there we headed right to Toy Story Mania. What a great ride. The que area was a flashback to my childhood. I had all the games and toys. The Mr Potato Head was neat. I finally found my first Hidden Mickey. (Without using one of the books as a cheat) I was really proud of myself. The ride itself was fun. DH and I sat on one side and DD and DS were on the other. I haven't seen my husband enjoy a ride in so long. He was laughing and really getting into it. He ended up winning by 500 points. Not bad for our first time. Kids both loved it.
Next we did the Backlot Tour. DS didn't remember any of HS since he was little the last time we were there. So it was all new to him. He thought the prop room was neat. Same with Catastrophy Canyon. We went next to watch the High School Musical 2 Show. DD was in her glory. What 13 year old girl doesn't like that music and dances? We then went to Lights, Motors, Action. What a cool show that is. We were all impressed. DS especially. We had lunch and decided to go back to FW for a swim and to pick up the golf cart. Boy did we have fun with the cart. We went looping in the afternoon. I saw one Disboards member in the 2000 loop. Don't know who it was cause I couldn't read the name on their van. (There was a magnetic sign on the door of the van with a picture of Mickey. No one was there when we went by otherwise I would of introduced myself.) We had dinner at our site and spent the evening hanging around FW. We were going to go back to HS for Fantasmic but were having too much fun at FW to stop. We watched Wishes from the beach. We could just hear the soundtrack behind us. Would of been great it there wasn't these 2 ladies sitting by us who had obviously had too much to drink. They wouldn't shut up. They kept talking about each firework and what they thought it looked like. "Hey that one looks like saturn, that one is green, that one was huge." It was kinda annoying. Right at the end they finally heard the music and asked what it was. When I explained I think they felt bad for being so loud. Next time I will go farther down the beach away from other people so we can really enjoy them. So that was the end of day 2. I'll write more later.

 

[clkelley]

Sounds like a fun day!!!!

 

[2goofycampers]

thanks for the info at the new stuff at DHS, sounds like great fun for you and us when we get there. at least here you can ignore the motormouths.

 

[Colson39]

Thanks for the report!

 

[Us3]

Cool, I'm enjoying your report. Sorry, but the stuff about the "loud mouth" ladies really made me laugh!

 

[DznyRulz]

A few little hiccups so far but it sounds like you're having a great time.

 

[Mmketeer]

Wow, that's a rough start to your vacation, but I am glad they at least credited you a nights stay and the maintenance CM had enough guts to do what he did. I hate it when CM's think they don't have the power to make a magical moment or take control of a customer service situation.

Hope the rest of your trip is magical!

 

[StPeteDisneyFan]

Day 3- We didn't have any plans to go into the parks at all. We wanted to spend our last days just relaxing and enjoying the fort. DH and I got up early as usual. Figured we'd let the kids sleep in. I took the golf cart for a ride early in the morning. The smell of camper's cooking breakfast is yummy. Bacon frying is the greatest smell in the world. I stopped at the Trading Post to get some donuts and the newspaper. Figured it was time to see what was going on in the world. Was that a mistake. The headline was that Publix has bought a portion of the Albertson's stores in Florida. (I work at an Albertson's in the liquor store.) I called my mom to ask her if our paper said which stores were closing. She told me my store is one of them. That put a bit of a damper on my vacation. Oh well, better enjoy the rest of our vacation. So that's exactly what we did. We went to Downtown Disney, enjoyed the pools. (NOT the ones at WL. HaHa!!) We took the boat over to the Contemporary and rode the monorails around. Hobnobbed at the Poly and GF. Spent quite a bit of time just sitting at our site. I love it when DH and I can just sit there and talk. We never seem to have the time in everyday life.
Tuesday afternoon there was a heck of a storm that rolled in. We were stuck in the camper for a couple of hours. Game time!!! Afterwards we rode around FW to see if anyone suffered any damage from the storm. We saw quite a few broken awnings and collapsed tents and canopies. I feel sorry for those people who were at one of the parks and have to come back to that mess. Hopefully no one got hurt or suffered too much damage.
Again we went to the beach to watch the fireworks and boat parade. We were smart this time and went farther up the beach away from people. It was a nice way to end our day.
Day 4- Today was basically the same as day 3. The pool, looping, sitting around. Very relaxing!!
Day 5- Check out day!!! BooHoo!!! Got camp broke up and left the fort by 11.
All in all it was a great trip. Now I have to find a job so I can start planning our next trip to FW. Hopefully it won't be too long. I'll just live vicariously through the boards until then.

 

[2goofycampers]

Glad you enjoyed your trip, thanks for the TR. Hope the job search goes well.

 

[stacktester]

I hate to hear about the awnings and tents. If we leave the fort I always close my awning. When we were there last year I saw awning after awning broken off and laying on the ground. During our winter stays it's not a biggy to leave out but during those summer months you need to close them.

Great trip report. Hope your job hunt goes well.