Tent Camping at the Fort in October...Are We Crazy? An Oct '17 Trip Report REAL LIFE UPDATE 10/31

[FrozenOne16]

Howdy yall! My name is Brandi and my DH Chase and I just got back from our big vacation of the year. We did a split stay between my dad’s house in Tampa, Fort Wilderness (in a tent!) and my dad’s house again! It was a busy week, but also relaxing at times! We had so much fun and I can’t wait to relive it in this trip report!



I have attempted a trip report before, and never finished it. I blame it on our internet that we had at our old house. It was worse than dial up! So I finally just gave up on that report. But I promise, I won’t let that happen with this one! Our internet is a lot better now, since we bought our own house in a cute little town that my husband grew up in and are no longer renting in the country!


So where are we from? We live in the Triad in North Carolina. We both grew up here and lived about 30 minutes apart. We met online in 2011 and married in 2014! My DH actually proposed in front of the castle at MK! It was his first trip and my mom helped him plan it! Unfortunately, it was also her last trip. She passed away about 2 weeks after we returned home from that trip. She had breast cancer and had fought for a few years, but it had spread and she didn’t tell anyone because she didn’t want us to worry. I bring this up because we were at Disney on her birthday and I will reference her favorite ride that we rode in memory of her.



Sorry for the sadness! I am a pretty transparent person and I believe my mom’s illness helped me to become that person. I want to celebrate her and I try to do that on a daily basis. I even work with cancer patients in my job and help them as much as I can.


Anyway! Back to Disney! As I mentioned before, my DH and I bought a home earlier this year. We were super excited, but we also knew that the extra expenses would mean that we wouldn’t be going to Disney this year. We had a vacation planned for Florida, but to visit my dad - we decided that would be fine, because it would still be a vacation and we would get to spend time with my dad and stepmom!


Sometime in the summer, we started exploring into tent camping. We ran some numbers, and decided why not camp for 3 days at Fort Wilderness and attend MNSSHP & EPCOT for food & wine. So basically, we were going to Disney, & for a lot cheaper than we normally go to Disney for! The only thing we were worried about was the heat. We constantly checked the weather leading up to the trip, & it started out ok, but by the time it was time to camp it was in the upper 80s with the feels like temp at 100! Needless to say, it was a hot adventure!


So here are the specifics:

What? Our spooktacular October Vacation!
When? October 7 - 15, Disney days are October 9 - 12
Where? Tampa & Disney!
Who? My DH & I, with appearances from my Dad & Stepmom!
Why? Because we felt we still deserved an awesome vacation! We also LOVE Halloween, so why not celebrate at the Happiest place on Earth??


I hope yall will join me for the wildest ride in the wilderness! ​

 

[SCSteve]

Joining in. Looking forward to details on your tent camping such as what connectivity you have at a campsite; electric, TV, internet, and comfort stations etc. I want to do tent camping in WDW but...... in January

 

[QueenBeeMB]

Looking forward to hearing all about the fort in a tent! We have been looking into doing a tent stay but keep getting scared off by the humidity.

 

[B&WMickey]

Joining in. We were there Oct 7 to 14. Look forward to your take on things.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Glad you had a good time, Brandi! Looking forward to reading more about your stay at the Fort!

@SCSteve & @QueenBeeMB tents are a good time at the Fort & you can more certainly avoid the humidity. We have done tent camping at Disney in January several times There is a camping at Disney forum on here with a wealth of info to help guide your trip.

 

[dmea10]

Following along!

 

[rdkeim]

Following! I've never read a camping TR so looking forward to hearing how it went!

 

[FrozenOne16]

Joining in. Looking forward to details on your tent camping such as what connectivity you have at a campsite; electric, TV, internet, and comfort stations etc. I want to do tent camping in WDW but...... in January

I will definitely highlight on all of these! We didn't have TV or internet, but there are options to get a modem if you want internet at your campsite. We have unlimited data, so we just used our phones. Comfort stations were really nice, but took a little while to get hot water. And yes, next time we go, it will be in January or February!

Looking forward to hearing all about the fort in a tent! We have been looking into doing a tent stay but keep getting scared off by the humidity.

Thanks! I can't wait to relive our trip! I would definitely recommend tent camping in the winter months.

Joining in. We were there Oct 7 to 14. Look forward to your take on things.

Awesome! Did you tent camp as well?

Glad you had a good time, Brandi! Looking forward to reading more about your stay at the Fort!

@SCSteve & @QueenBeeMB tents are a good time at the Fort & you can more certainly avoid the humidity. We have done tent camping at Disney in January several times There is a camping at Disney forum on here with a wealth of info to help guide your trip.

Thanks! I definitely agree with tent camping in January! And the camping forum was super helpful to me when planning our trip. There are a lot of great people over there willing to give their advice!

Following along!

Following! I've never read a camping TR so looking forward to hearing how it went!

That's honestly why I wanted to do one! I love reading the trip reports on the Dis, and I couldn't find a camping one! So I decided I would write about our trip!

 

[FrozenOne16]

Chapter 1: Life is a Highway
Travel Day to Tampa
October 7, 2017

Our Disney portion of the trip isn’t until Monday, so if you want to wait for that update, I understand! I will try to get these first 2 days out of the way!

So this post is mostly our travel day to Tampa. I know travel days are notorious for being boring, so I will try to spice ours up!

We both worked full days on Friday. And boy were we both ready for vacation after Friday! On the way home I picked us up some dinner (McDonalds) & after we ate, we packed up the car so we could head out early the next morning.

Our wake up call came super early on Saturday. 1:15 to be exact! We actually were going to sleep until about 1:45, but we both woke up & couldn’t sleep, so we decided to go ahead & get on the road. We headed to get gas, ice & some coffee from sheetz, & then we were off! I wrote down that we were officially on the road at 1:50!

We hit South Carolina at 3:33, & decided that we were making pretty good time! The next note I have on my Google Keep app was at 5:05 - we stopped at a rest area on 26, and a family asked us if we had an air pump. The only one we had was for our air mattress. They needed it for their tire, so that wasn’t going to work. We found out they asked because we drive a Jeep, and sometimes they come with air pumps?

I didn’t write down what time we arrived in Georgia or Florida, but I do have pictures! Of course, we had to stop at the welcome center in Florida. I was hoping that they would have an epcot map with food and wine, but they didn’t.





I am in charge of the tunes when we travel - we usually just listen to Pandora, but this trip we started off with some DisUnplugged podcasts! We listened to 4 in between Pandora. I had them downloaded, so when we would go through a dead zone we would switch over to those. Also, I had to throw in some boy bands - DH was not impressed!



We arrived at my dad’s house at 12:45, only to find out that their air conditioner had went out that morning! They have a 2 story house, so that definitely was not fun. It was about 85 degrees in their house when we got there, and it just got hotter! They wouldn’t be able to get the air fixed until Monday, when we would be off to Disney! At least the guy that came to fix it hooked up 2 portable air conditioners. They basically pushed around hot air!


I took a short nap & watched This Is Us with my stepmom, and then my dad cooked us some steaks for dinner. So far the conditions weren’t great with the air, but we were happy to be with family & the long drive was behind us!​

 

[paradesintherain]

Definitely intrigued how camping in a tent is at Disney!

 

[FrozenOne16]

Definitely intrigued how camping in a tent is at Disney!

The camping was a lot of fun! It was the heat that we weren't too fond of. And if you like to take afternoon breaks, it's not appealing when you don't have a nice air conditioned room to go back to. But, we worked with the heat and still had an amazing time! And we are already talking about when we would like to go again!

 

[mamamelody2]

Ah, a modern classic...Bye Bye Bye by N Sync. LOL. Love it!
I am very interested to hear about the tent camping in Florida in October.

 

[FrozenOne16]

Chapter 2
I AM GROOT!
October 8, 2017

Today we woke up super early (about 6am) - mainly because we were hot. We laid around for a little while and got moving. This day was dedicated to time with my nieces who live about 10 minutes from my dad. We were taking them somewhere they had never been, despite living in the area.

DH was up and going before I was, and had already taken a shower and was waiting on me to get moving! We were out the door about at about 7:15 - DH wanted coffee from dunkin donuts. So we got him some coffee and headed to pick up my nieces. We ended up getting there sooner than we thought, and they weren’t quite ready to go yet. So we hung out with their mom for about 20 minutes until we headed out.

We were headed to top golf, an attraction we absolutely love! It is basically a huge driving range & the golf balls have technology in them that keep score depending on which targets you hit. We got there before they opened at 9 (I thought they opened at 8), so we just hung out in the car. Once they opened, we went in & got my nieces their membership cards ($5 gets you a lifetime membership) & then got a bay on the top floor. We also got a pretty cool silicone shot glass for DH when we got their memberships.

We played for an hour, which was $25. We also got some queso & fries to share. We aren’t big breakfast eaters, so we were excited when our waiter told us we could get anything on the menu!



After Top Golf, we went to the mall. Our original plan was lunch, but we were all full from our snacks. So we took them on a shopping spree. We got these super cute Halloween Mickey & Minnie stuffed animals to put in our house.



Once we were done with that, we went to lunch at Wow That’s Fresh, one of my favorite places to go because of their fries & hot dog meal. Sooooo good. Unfortunately, they removed that from the menu! I was bummed. So I split a pizza with DH. My niece got a kids meal pizza, & when we got our food we realized it was the same size as ours! Lesson learned for next time: order off the kids menu!







From there, we took the girls home & headed to walmart for some last minute things we forgot. Then we headed home for some football & ribs! My dad makes the best ribs - they’re the only ones that I will eat. (I did try some at HDDR later in the trip.)


We did some laundry (yes, already!) & then watched guardians of the galaxy volume 2. I thought it was much better than the first one. And I LOVE baby Groot, as I am sure everyone does!


We went to sleep and were so excited that we were leaving for Disney the next day!!!​

 

[FrozenOne16]

Ah, a modern classic...Bye Bye Bye by N Sync. LOL. Love it!
I am very interested to hear about the tent camping in Florida in October.

I know! Unfortunately, DH did not think the same. LOL. Tent camping was definitely different while at Disney, but still fun! Thanks for joining in!

 

[FrozenOne16]

Chapter 3
Boo To You!
October 9, 2017

Today is the day you have all been waiting for! It’s Disney day!

We have sort of a tradition for our first Disney day. We like to check out the outlets first. There are 2 reasons for this - if we need to get souvenirs for someone else or ourselves, they are a lot cheaper here. I also love the vera bradley disney collection, and last year we found a great deal on them at the outlet. However, there are 2 different ones, and this year we went to the one closer to WDW to save time. They didn’t have the vera bradley merchandise, so next year we will go to the one that is further away. (The closer one to WDW is off Vineland Ave.)

So anyway, we were up & moving around 6:30 this morning. We left my dad’s house at around 7:30. On the way, we listened to a Spotify station that played Disney Halloween music!



We hit traffic in Dade City, about 20 minutes away from the outlets. We still managed to get there pretty close to 9, when they opened. (Side note - they usually open at 10. It was Columbus Day, so they had special hours). At the Disney outlet, we saw a really awesome mug that we both wanted instantly. We picked one out & continued shopping. We ended up getting a couple tsum tsums, the Halloween mug for us, and 2 mugs for DH’s parents They were taking care of our cats while we were gone for the week.


(borrowed from the Shop Parks app)

While we were at the outlets, I realized I didn’t bring any sunglasses. I don’t usually wear them at home because I would rather wear my normal glasses & be able to see (that’s kind of important LOL), but I know Epcot can be brutal. So, we were looking for a cheap pair for me. Luckily there was a claire’s outlet & I found a cute pair for $6. Better than Disney prices for sure! DH also got a pair of Crocs that are awesome!


(borrowed from Crocs website)

We finished up at the outlets around 10 & were looking for something to eat. It was too late for breakfast, so we were debating to eat before we got to Fort Wilderness or just wait until we got settled. We decided the need to get to the fort outweighed the need for food. This may have been a bad decision, but only time will tell. (foreshadowing!)

We headed to Disney property & I got the picture everyone always wants.



We pulled up to the Fort and headed to check-in. Since this is a campground, check-in is a little different. You pull up to open lanes & stay in your car while you check-in. It was super easy & convenient.





We were given our campsite number (2059) & told it was ready. The cast member hinted that it was close to transportation & a comfort station like I had requested.

We got to our campsite & realized we were one campsite away from being right next to the comfort station & bus stop. I was pretty excited about that! I am pretty sure we went & checked out the comfort station before we started setting up our tent & ez-up.

It took us about an hour to get everything set up. We realized just how hot it was when we finished. Luckily, we worked well together & then entire setup took about 45 minutes to an hour. We managed to not take pictures of our campsite until the last day when my dad asked to see it. Haha, oops! So, I will put those pics here!







Up next: The never-ending debate of what to eat!​

 

[Lesley Wake]

Following along! Also, I have that "Victory is sweet" shirt! So comfy!

We have sort of a tradition for our first Disney day. We like to check out the outlets first. There are 2 reasons for this - if we need to get souvenirs for someone else or ourselves, they are a lot cheaper here. I also love the vera bradley disney collection, and last year we found a great deal on them at the outlet. However, there are 2 different ones, and this year we went to the one closer to WDW to save time. They didn’t have the vera bradley merchandise, so next year we will go to the one that is further away. (The closer one to WDW is off Vineland Ave.)

Smart! I totally overdid on the souvenirs from World of Disney!

So anyway, we were up & moving around 6:30 this morning. We left my dad’s house at around 7:30. On the way, we listened to a Spotify station that played Disney Halloween music!

I may need to check that out this week!

 

[FrozenOne16]

Chapter 3 - Part 2
Boo to You!
Oct 9, 2017

Once we got our tent set up, we decided to catch an internal bus up to the settlement & see if we could find something for lunch. We stopped at P&J’s, but there was no one there working...it was odd, because they were open, just no one at the register. We waited for a few minutes, & then decided to take a boat to either Wilderness Lodge or the Contemporary. We were pretty hungry, so we decided to get off at the first stop.

The captain of the boat announced that WL was first, so I pulled up the menu of Geyser Point & Roaring Fork. While I was doing this, DH asked me about a tree with some tennis shoes on it. I am so glad he did, because I had forgotten to look for it! I told him I read about how the retired boat captains throw their shoes on the tree on their last day. I also pointed out the remains of River Country to him. He thought both were pretty interesting.

We decided on RF, but when we got over there, the menu showed potato barrels (tater tots) as the side with the chicken nuggets, & I am not a fan of those. So we walked back to GP & ordered there. We shared a bacon cheeseburger with waffle fries. We got a soda to share, as well as a black cherry lemonade with vodka. We went back to RF to eat inside - GP only has outdoor seating.



I forgot to take a picture of our food - I blame it on the fact that it was so hot! However, I did manage to get a few pictures of WL!







We headed back to the fort around 1, and took a super short nap. It’s kinda hard to nap when it’s so hot! When we woke up we took a quick shower, really just to rinse off the sweat of the morning! Then we got dressed to head to the Magic Kingdom!

We caught a bus to the Settlement and went by P&J’s again to get a cup of ice. This time, there was a cast member in there & gave us a cup for ice water. We just got it for the ice, to pour a drink in that we brought from our campsite. It started raining at this point, and of course I realized that our ponchos were in the tent. DH was not happy, as his shirt was white & he really didn’t want to walk around with a wet see-through shirt & wet shoes all night. So we ran over to the trading post to look around & kill some time.

When we saw the boat coming, the rain had let up a little bit, so we decided to make a run for it! We made it, and we weren’t that wet. We arrived at MK at 3:57, so before 4! We went through bag check & then through the tap-stiles & got our wristbands for the party.

And that is where I am going to leave off. I promise more pictures are coming!


Up next: MNSSHP!​

 

[FrozenOne16]

Following along! Also, I have that "Victory is sweet" shirt! So comfy!


Smart! I totally overdid on the souvenirs from World of Disney!


I may need to check that out this week!

I love that shirt! It was definitely a good choice to wear at Epcot!

We managed to not overdo it too bad on souvenirs this trip, but if we saw something we wanted, we made sure to get it! I think I only spent $15 in WOD! Shocker, I know!

Definitely check out the spotify station, if you haven't already! It had some great songs, especially from Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus!

 

[FrozenOne16]

Real Life Update #1

So we were thinking about going camping locally in the mountains when we got home from Disney. We waited a couple of weekends, & then decided why not? Let’s go Friday! So last Sunday, I booked a campsite at Hanging Rock State Park. We were going to do a couple’s weekend with DH’s brother & his wife, but they weren’t able to get a sitter for their kids, & decided to take a rain check. So it ended up just being the 2 of us.

Let me tell you, if you ever need a relaxing night, go camping. We had a blast. We got to the campground around 6:30. We were fighting daylight, but we managed to get our tent up before it got dark. We got everything set up in about 30 minutes & then started our fire. We roasted some marshmallows & hot dogs & then we just relaxed. We went inside the tent around 8:30 & just relaxed. It was such a peaceful night.



Needless to say, we have definitely found something that we love to do together & is a nice & cheap mini vacation. We cannot wait to go again!

In other news, it's Halloween!! We are so excited since we just moved into our neighborhood. We have never had trick-or-treaters, so we are hoping to get a lot. We have our candy bowl set up ready for the kiddos!!

And I love having a house to decorate!

​

 

[WalkingintheFog]

Real Life Update #1

So we were thinking about going camping locally in the mountains when we got home from Disney. We waited a couple of weekends, & then decided why not? Let’s go Friday! So last Sunday, I booked a campsite at Hanging Rock State Park. We were going to do a couple’s weekend with DH’s brother & his wife, but they weren’t able to get a sitter for their kids, & decided to take a rain check. So it ended up just being the 2 of us.

Let me tell you, if you ever need a relaxing night, go camping. We had a blast. We got to the campground around 6:30. We were fighting daylight, but we managed to get our tent up before it got dark. We got everything set up in about 30 minutes & then started our fire. We roasted some marshmallows & hot dogs & then we just relaxed. We went inside the tent around 8:30 & just relaxed. It was such a peaceful night.

View attachment 280683

Needless to say, we have definitely found something that we love to do together & is a nice & cheap mini vacation. We cannot wait to go again!

In other news, it's Halloween!! We are so excited since we just moved into our neighborhood. We have never had trick-or-treaters, so we are hoping to get a lot. We have our candy bowl set up ready for the kiddos!!

And I love having a house to decorate!

View attachment 280684​

Frozenone, Come back and finish your trippie! It’s never too late! Looking forward to it!