Thanksgiving Camping turns into off site with family in May

[lledman]

I’ve been a long time lurker and recently joined. I love reading trip and pre trip reports so I decided to give it a go myself.

We will be visiting the World again for Thanksgiving this year – yes I know 8 months away but I think it’s fun to read the excitement others have counting down on the DIS and I want in.

Another obvious from my thread title - we will be staying at Fort Wilderness Campground for a week. We camped there in April 2008 and loved it (even my DH who is not a huge Disney fan but humors the kids and myself enjoyed the campground at Disney). We plan to leave Wednesday, November 24th after work (or sooner if I can convince DH to only work until noon as the kids and I both have off this day). We’ll (read he’ll) drive until we are tired and then just stop at a rest stop – we’ve done this several times on other trips and it works well for us). We’ll arrive sometime mid day Thursday the 25th.

OK, so that’s the when and where now for the who –

I’m Lisa, declared by all who know me as a Disney “freak”. I’m 31 and work full time in the administrative field.

DH – Chris is 34, he’s not a Disney fan like the rest of us so I won’t comment much on him – he does tolerate the rest of us so I guess I have to give him credit for that.

DS1 – Tyler is 11 and a great kid. He does well in school although he struggles he does try hard. He’s very active in our local 4-H club, plays basketball, is into the drama club, and much to my dismay is starting to exhibit sings of being a teenager.

DS2 – Devin is 4 and also a great kid. He will hopefully be starting pre-k this coming school year. Dev loves to camp and hike.

DD – Tyra is 2 and a spitfire princess – lol. She loves to climb trees and wear dresses – yes, all at the same time.

 

[lledman]

I'm soo excited about this weekend I'm taking the 2 youngest to Hershey to see Disney on Ice Princess Classics. This will be our 4th Disney on Ice show and I know they will love it - it's going to be a surprise. Tyler has a mandatory all day play practice this weekend (also if his team wins in the basketball finals on Thursday night they will play again on Saturday) and DH (the non fanatic) really has no desire to go b/c he thought the show we saw for Valentines Day (100 Years of Magic) was too similar to the one we saw at Halloween (Celebrations) - the kids and I don't agree - there were some of the same characters but totally different story lines. For anyone who is wondering we've also seen the Disneyland Adventure with the Incredibles.

I'm also excited to go to Hershey b/c there is a Disney Store Outlet there - we have one in Maryland that's a little over 90 minutes away from where we live but that doesn't make it very convenient so whenever we go to Hershey I make it a point to stop by the one there.

 

[lledman]

Since I’m talking to myself here why not ramble a little about our Disney and other vacationing history. I like to say "we take lots of trips but rarely go anywhere" – I mean we are centrally located to a lot so we can drive 2 or 3 hours and have many possibilities.

I’ll start this little background with where it matters – Disney of course, and also include our camping history since it's part of my PTR title.

In 2008 we were lucky enough to take 2 trips to Disney World. As I’ve mentioned before the kids and I truly believe this is the happiest place on earth, DH has yet to find a destination to fully wow him but he is a great sport and tolerates us well.

But let’s back up to our first Disney experience – back in 2004. This was a first visit for all 3 of us. We stayed offsite in my aunt & uncle’s timeshare, they drove us down in their van and then left the next day to head further south to Sanibel Island so se actually only saw them like 3 days of our 7 day vacation with them. The timeshare was great, located just outside of Downtown Disney, it had a full kitchen and laundry, there was a pool and mini-golf just outside our building. Tyler was 6 at the time and it was a perfect age for Disney – old enough to keep up and young enough to believe in the magic. We had a wonderful first trip - photos can be seen here.

We try to budget our vacations so we like to do a big trip every other year so in 2005 we began camping - it was fun and pretty cheap. We were bitten by the camping bug - no one was actually bitten by a bug but we did a lot of camping this summer and discovered we loved it.

In 2006 we took a cruise, another first for our family. It was super fun for all of us, Tyler had such a great time that we barely saw him the entire cruise – he always wanted to go to the kids club. We got to experience awesome excursions at every port - of course I have photos from the cruise as well. We all agreed that we loved the cruise and would love to take another one but it was quite expensive and as you'll soon be able to tell I'm very frugal so I always justify out the cost of everything vs. the return on my investment - while the cruise was great we could go to Disney twice for what it cost us.

In 2007 we got season passes to a local (less than 2 hours away) theme park and visited there 23 times that year – we got our monies worth out of them and had a grand time doing so – but Tyler and I agreed it wasn’t Disney. Also in 2007 we traded in our tent for an older used pop up, it was nice but still required just as much work at the tent so in August we upgraded again and got our travel trailer. The week after we picked up the trailer we took a week long vacation through upstate NY and loved it (visiting Watkins Glen, Letchworth and Niagara Falls). Over the summer we decided that we wanted to expand our family, I didn’t want a baby and Tyler was already 9 so we decided to adopt, my aunt had just adopted 3 children through our local foster care system, so we followed suit and in the fall we became a certified foster family – requesting a 4-6 year old (didn’t matter boy or girl) who would b adoptable. In December we got a call that they had a placement for us - a 6 month old baby and her 2 year old brother. Say what 2 children – and both in diapers – I don’t think this fits our request - sometimes things have a way of happening not quite as you planned but for the better - we accepted them into our home and it has been a wonderful decision (we adopted them officially in June 2009)

 

[lledman]

Back to vacations – we are now up to 2008 – somewhere in the summer of 2007 we made plans with a bunch of our camping buddies to go to Disney – a grand gathering – 5 families. Well this sort of fell apart – we all went at the same time but everyone sort of did their own thing – we are the only ones that ended up camping, 2 families got an awesome deal on a rental house just off property, and the other 2 stayed at pop. Since we were all at different locations this made meeting up kind of hard – but I think it actually worked out ok for everyone that went and we all had a great time. I think we made the best decision b/c we loved Ft. Wilderness and couldn’t wait to return one day – mine and the kids 2 favorite things Disney and camping – what could be better. I think the not so grand gathering we took in April with our friends was the best vacation I’ve ever had – everything was soo laid back b/c we loved the camp ground and at the parks we weren’t rushed at all, we’d be back in just 5 months. With having 2 little ones the laid back approach was wonderful. We also visited Sea Worlds one day this trip and loved it – we purchased season passes to Busch Gardens in VA and were able to visit the park there plus Sea World when we went to FL so it was awesome. Photos from this trip are here

Flash forward to August 2008 and we returned to Disney World b/c my MIL treated my DH’s entire family. My FIL passed away unexpected in December 2007 (just 10 days before we received Devin & Tyra) our lives had been turned upside down and then around again all in a matter of a week basically. After the initial shock of it all wore off (February) my MIL announced that my FIL always wanted to do a family vacation with all his grandkids at Disney World. Well we had our plans very firmed up for April (just 2 months away) and since we were traveling with our friends we couldn’t bale on them (even though we rarely saw most of them the entire trip). My BIL didn’t want his kids to miss school so that meant that DH’s family going for our April trip was out of the question. A second trip just months later, who am I to say no to that. So it was set – we booked our second grand gathering that year and in August we stayed at Pop – all 14 of us. It was a wonderful trip but August is hot - do not underestimate the warnings you read. I don’t think my MIL enjoyed the trip as much as us b/c of the heat but she was a trooper and hung in there. We all had different plans for the trip but since we had just been and she was paying for our stay we were very content to take it easy and spend some down time with her while the rest of the family hit the parks pretty hard. I think it was difficult for her to try to spread herself amongst her 3 children’s families but everyone had a wonderful trip. I almost forgot to mention, my MIL purchased mack-daddy 10 day no expiration park hoppers with the water park and more option tickets for everyone and called them an investment on our future vacations. We’ve invited DH’s family to join us this year but I don’t think any of them will – we shall see. and here are the photos from this trip.

 

[lledman]

We filled 2009 with MANY camping trips to more beautiful locations – my favorite being a fall trip to the Hocking Hills, OH area.

Now onto the present - this coming trip was the idea of my cousin’s husband. We camp with them a lot and our families get along really well. He has heard wonderful things about Fort Wilderness from everyone that has been so he told her he wanted to take their family. They went to Disney a couple of years ago over the Thanksgiving holiday and loved it. I was tossing around the idea of going for Columbus Day (our school calendar works out so that the boys would only have to miss 3 days of school for a week long trip). Well when they told me they were going I sort of invited ourselves along and we now have a grand gathering between our 2 families. The boys will end up missing a week of school but we’ll be staying for a couple extra days and I’m fine with them missing – now what their teachers will think is another thing but we’ll cross that bridge when we need to). Thanksgiving actually works out slightly better for me anyway b/c I have the opportunity to earn comp time at work the 3rd weekend in October that I would have missed if we went when I was planning. They are now contemplating having another baby and if it is meant to be then they will push back their trip a year – we’ll still be going this year though no matter what.

We plan to use 3 days hopping from the tickets my MIL bought us and possibly purchase tickets to a MVMCP (still on the fence about this one). We had to purchase tickets for the little ones and our local military base had some of the old style park hoppers for children on hand that they were selling for $259 – a 7 day childs park hopper tickets from Disney is $253 so I’m happy with my purchase. The new tickets have 7 hopper days and 3 more options while we have 6 hopper days and 8 more options remaining on our tickets. My cousin’s family has purchased 4 day passes. We plan to meet up when we can but not spend every day together. We both are planning a lot of down time/days so that we can enjoy the campground and other things not inside the parks.

 

[lledman]

I figure one more month until the November park hours are released. As I’ve mentioned I love to plan so I usually use previous years parks hours and EMH schedules to help with my early out ideas and so far not much has changed for our previous trips. I am amazed at how many of you DISers have your down to the minute plans months in advance – DH would kill me if I ever tired to tour like that – but I do love to plan so he allows me to go this far - I’m thinking our plan of attack will be something like this

Wednesday – 11/24 – leave home as early as I can convince DH to – the kids and I will both have off this day – knowing me the camper will have been packed for 2 weeks so the only thing standing between us and Disney World will be him and the 17 hour drive to get there. We’ll drive until he is tired and just stop at a rest area along the way.

Thursday – 11/25 – Happy Thanksgiving – My cousin would love to grab a holiday lunch at a Cracker Barrel while on the road but I’m thinking/hoping we can make it to the campground by noon. I’d love to do a semi traditional simple dinner meal at our campsite – we’ll see how this turns out. I also want to let the kids try to make it to the campfire sing along – we did this in April 08 and they loved it.

Friday – 11/26 – Since we only want to use 3 days off our passes I want to try to avoid some of the holiday crowds at the parks – I’m thinking a lunch ADR at T-Rex for Devin then maybe Disney Quest for Tyler and Chris. If it’s warm enough maybe we’ll hit up a water park instead.

Saturday – 11/27 – 2 plans for this day, a- visit my aunt and uncle at their camper lot near Canaveral and hit the beach maybe or b – stick around the campground, let the boys do the archery experience (Tyler is a member of the 4-H shooting sports team and DH is their coach) then a dinner ADR at Cinderella’s Gala Feast for Tyra (this is the fallback plan as I’d rather do the princess breakfast at EPCOT)

Sunday – 11/28 – we’ll finally make it to a park – going to try for an early morning before the park opens breakfast ADR at Norway for Tyra and then we’ll spend the day at EPCOT (Tyler’s favorite park). Since we are only planning to visit the parks for 3 days I don’t want to waste too much time eating but I think my tiny-tot will love this meal and if we do it before the park opens then we aren't cheating ourselves out of any ride time. I think I may leave DH and Tyler here while I take the little ones back to the camper for a nap around 1 or 2 and we’ll meet up later in the day. We had a wonderful time at the Playhouse Disney Dance Party when we went to EMH at Hollywood Studios on our August 08 trip so using my pre-planning method this will be our night to hit that up (time will tell if my method continues to work or not)

Monday – 11/29 – again using my pre-planning method we’ll hit AK for morning EMH and then end the day at MK for evening EMH (again with a nap probably mid day for me or Chris and the little ones)

Tuesday – 11/30 – another down day. Depending on what we do earlier in the week we may head to DTD for some shopping & maybe try for lunch at T-Rex if we don’t make it there on Friday. In April 08 we also visited both mini-golf courses and loved them (my favorite was Winter Sumerland but the boys loved Fantasia Gardens so I guess I’ve been out-voted). I’m sure we’ll visit one or both on one of our down days. I’m thinking there will be a MVMCP this night. The goal of tonight will not necessarily be the party activities but rather catching as many rides as we can with little lines, if we do any party activities they will be bonuses.

Wednesday – 12/1 – recuperate from the previous night - maybe Disney Quest or a water park or visiting my uncle if we haven’t done any of these yet, maybe just hanging around the camper– who knows where today will take us. Thinking I might try for a late breakfast at Chef Mickeys.

Thursday – 12/2 – our last full Disney day – we’ll start our day off at Hollywood Studios and end it at EPCOT but we’ll just see what we miss earlier in the week.

Friday – 12/3 – pack up the camper and head home. I wanted to schedule a character meal before we got on the road but the logistics of having the trailer make it a little difficult so that’s where Wednesday’s Chef Mickey’s visit will probably come into play. We did Ohana’s on our last day in August 08 and it was a great way to end the trip but I just don’t want to have to hurry to pack in the morning and then race back to pick up the camper from the campground or have to drag it around to the resort with us for the meal.

 

[lledman]

Oh man, I had typed up a great review of the Disney On Ice Princess Classics show and thought I posted it last night when we got home – guess something went wrong. Anyway the show was just ok, Tyra loved it but wanted to know where was Tiana and “the Princesses Frog” – we’ve never seen this movie so why she choose to ask about them or expect them to be there I don’t know. Devin was pretty bored with the whole show and DH ended up going with us and didn’t care much for it either. I love all things Disney but will say that the last 2 shows were much better (everyone agreeing that the best being Celebrations). We tried a new to us hotel and loved it – if anyone will be staying in the Hershey area I highly recommend the MainStay Suites in Grantville – less than 10 minutes from the Hershey attractions and the nicest laid out suite I’ve ever stayed in at a hotel. We also visited Chocolate World on Sunday morning and then hit the Disney store before coming home. Oh and before we left Tyler’s basketball team won the county championship – no team has ever gone the entire season undefeated until now – Go Terps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photos from our little trip are here (Since this was our 3rd Disney on Ice show in 6 months basically I decided to go super cheap and pre-ordered tickets for the upper section which only cost me $15 a seat - this was the highest up we've ever been for any event but I was able to get row A end seat so there was really nothing in front of us except a railing and we had an amazing view (no one walked in front of us the entire time)

 

[anl]

Hey...looks like I"m the first poster. We are also going for Thanksgiving and am interested in seeing how the camping thing works out. We don't even have tent yet but have been saying for a while we should get one.

 

[martinolichfamily]

Hi!
Jumped over from my PTR!

Great start to your PTR! We stayed at Ft Wilderness last July but in the Cabins...its a great place although we didnt take any downtime to really enjoy all that is offered there. Ya'll will it there!
We had booked a Spring Break trip the Fort w/our camper but had to push that trip back til July(staying at Pop).
We also enjoy camping...we are in the process of trying to sell our travel trailer to upgrade to a 5th wheel! Maybe I could convince DH to break in the new 5th wheel by a trip to the Fort! I really want to go while the Christmas decor is up! Maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas break....not sure if he'll go for that though!

 

[Angies1274]

Hi!! Joining in!! Your plans look great so far! We are thinking about trying Fort Wilderness when we go back in 2012, since we will probably be bringing family members back with us and I know it would be something they would love to try! Your Disney on Ice pictures turned out great! It looks you had a great time!!

 

[lledman]

Welcome aboard – I was beginning to think I was just typing to myself – being that I sometimes talk to myself this isn’t very unusual to me but nice to know there are others out there reading along.

anl – what are your travel dates? We love camping – we started in a tent and sometimes I think I enjoyed camping more when we tent camped – then the temperature reaches 100 degrees with 100% humidity and I quickly remember why we moved on when I step into the trailer with the a/c blaring. But we went to Disney back in 2004 at Thanksgiving time and I don’t remember it be super hot so you should be fine.

martinolinchfamily – good luck with your camper upgrade – I’ve been looking at newer models (mostly 5th wheels) but have yet to find one that meets all the requests I want my next one to have so we’ll stick with what we have for a while longer. I think a shakedown trip to the Fort sounds like a perfect idea though. I’m hoping that there will be lots of Christmas decorations up both at the parks and at the Fort – I want to rent a golf cart even if it’s just for one day so that we can go around and look for sites that are decorated – I’ve seen photos from others and some people go all out. I picked up some stuff on clearance after Christmas to decorate our site but we won’t be lighting up the world like I’ve seen some people do.

Angies1274 – thanks for coming over – I enjoyed your PTR and can’t wait to read all about your trip.

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Hi Lisa!

I just found your PTR - your title caught me - we are avid campers too!

Great start to your PTR - you guys have done a lot of traveling! We are planning our first Disney trip so I love seeing what others have done and how to make it all work with kids of various ages and interests. We hope to travel more now that the kids are a little older.

Your pictures remind me if me - designated family picture-taker for EVERYTHING! Often when we're out places I look around and realize that I'm the only person there with a camera!!

We've had our travel trailer parked at a seasonal site for the past 4 years and we're looking to sell it this year and start traveling. Its been nice and super easy camping with the kids when they were babies, but now we want to get a bigger camper and be able to travel and see more - gets a little boring for the parents always going to the same place, although we do have many friends there and have had many good times.

Looking forward to hearing more of your plans!
Karen

 

[lledman]

We've had our travel trailer parked at a seasonal site for the past 4 years and we're looking to sell it this year and start traveling. Its been nice and super easy camping with the kids when they were babies, but now we want to get a bigger camper and be able to travel and see more - gets a little boring for the parents always going to the same place, although we do have many friends there and have had many good times.

We've never even considered a seasonal site but I do think it would be nice to have some place to get away to when ever I wanted - if we didn't have to tow I could go on my own (no I don't drive the truck when the camper is behind it - I've drove home once so hubby could prove to me that I could do it - but I didn't really like it much - I'd much rather read the map and navigate). We like to go to new places - we do have a few favorites that we try to make it back to every year - but we usually like to try at least 5 new places a year - we’ve seen some amazing places. Good luck with your traveling - oh and welcome to my pre-trip report.

 

[lledman]

No Disney updates but in 5 weeks I can call to make my dining reservations – sooo exciting.

Tyler’s school play (the King & I) was last weekend – it was very nice – I still have all the songs going around in my head after seeing it all 3 nights.


Devin started t-ball – can’t say that he’s really into the games but he loves to go to practices.


Tyra – well she’s been beating herself up – her cheek is finally healing from where she fell from the cherry tree in our yard and caught herself with her face so this weekend Tyler was swinging her and she fell off – when she stood up the swing came back and knocked her in the eye – my poor battered baby. If she keeps this up I'll only be able to have her pose for photos on her right side.


Chris and the kids have been busy working on getting the pig pen and goat shelter ready for the 4-H animals to come next month - look what they found in the pig pen on Tuesday night - I guess one of the barn cats had kittens

 

[taymacsmom]

Here I am! We also love camping and would love to do it "Disnsy" style but being way up here in CT makes it an awfully long drive. DH and I keep saying that we are going to retire to Fort Wilderness and the kids can come stay whenever they want! Looking forward to hearing the rest of your plans!

 

[lledman]

DH and I keep saying that we are going to retire to Fort Wilderness and the kids can come stay whenever they want!

I tell my DH the same thing - he just shakes his head and laughs at me. I even have jobs picked out for us - he can drive a bus, be the boat captain, or do grounds maintenance - I want to work at the Backyard BBQ as the dance leader(not that I really know how to dance but I think that would be awesome), be a photopass photographer, or work at the turnstiles.

 

[taymacsmom]

I tell my DH the same thing - he just shakes his head and laughs at me. I even have jobs picked out for us - he can drive a bus, be the boat captain, or do grounds maintenance - I want to work at the Backyard BBQ as the dance leader(not that I really know how to dance but I think that would be awesome), be a photopass photographer, or work at the turnstiles.

I never thought about getting jobs, but that is a great idea! Let's see, DH could drive a bus or a boat and I would do anything! Especially with the little kids, maybe the BBB! Ahhh, big dreams!!

 

[lledman]

I think I’m a shopaholic – picked up some Disney sand molds today at the dollar store. I think this trip Tinkerbell is going to visit the kids and leave a small gift every morning – I’ve read that others do that here and it sounds very cute. I’ve got lots of little things for them – new flashlights, diary/notebooks & pens, color wonder sets, dry erase boards and sunglasses. I think the most expensive thing I got was like $3- I love the dollar sections of Target & Michaels.

 

[taymacsmom]

I did the same thing for my DS last year. We also have a dollar store nearby where I got some Disney books and glowsticks. Nothing better than finding a bargain! I had bought so many glowsticks that my kids ended up sharing them with other kids at the Spectromagic parade. A little pixie dust for those kids I hope!

 

[lledman]

This morning I get an email from a friend – hre family wants to go to Disney in August and would like some pointers, tips, and plans – I do love planning Disney vacations so she has come to the right place. This is the 3rd friend who plans to go in August that has asked for help – must be a popular time to go amongst my friends. But I can’t believe that of the 3 friends that have asked for help, none have invited me along as personal tour guide – I mean I could make that sacrifice for them, all they have to do is ask – that’s just the type of friend I am.