Tiggerdad trip report (6/8 - 6/15)

[TOGA]

Hope you're having fun.

 

[Disney Bunny]

Great day at SWW, one year old actually laughed and played with one of the sand people (proud dad). By the end of the day my 6 year old owned a light saber (purple of course). Big storm came in around 9pm, so we ran back to campsite...only to find my canopy ripped, torn loose from camper, and twisted on the ground (sigh). Not sure what to think now. I will send the family to Animal Kingdom tomorrow while I figure out what to do.

So sorry to hear about your awning. I noticed in your picture that it didn't appear that you had it tied down. I also noticed that it has the scissor type hardware. I'm assuming that it is an electric awning? I know some of them have sensors to retract when rain hits them.

Back when we were still tent camping, we always set up a screen tent. We came back to our campsite late one night after a day trip to Six Flags over Georgia to discover a storm had come thru and totally mangled our screen tent and toss it in some trees. Fortunately the sleeping tents were okay. Mother Nature can and will wreak havoc on camping equipment.

Call your insurance company and find out if they have an adjuster in the Orlando area that can come out and take a look at it. They can probably set up an appt time for you to meet them at the camper. Clean up the damage and then enjoy the rest of your vacation. Life is too short and you should be enjoying the time with your family. The awning can be fixed when you get home, but you can't replace the memories that you could be making.

 

[cah5525]

Great site! Beautiful family! The awning? So sorry to hear but just remember... the damage is done, don't give it a second thought...enjoy today, you can worry when you get home. Have a magical time!

 

[testtubes]

Sorry to hear about the awning. As previous posters noted, go make wonderful memories with the family because the awning can wait til you get home and back to the real world. Will be following along on your TR.
Love college football and WDW!

 

[tiggerdad]

Aight, Disney was good enough to bring by a list of people who do on site repairs. The first two were already here, in total they said they had 15 or more calls today on awning damage. The fault is all mine, I usually roll it in, but for some reason didn't this time. Insurance adjuster said go ahead, so parts will be in and repaired on Thursday. Good news, wife and older kids went to AK, so the one year old and I had the whole day to bike the resort, so it made up for the rainy day we started off with. I got lots of pics. Going to Pioneer Hall for dinner. Update and pics later.

 

[bama_ed]

Tiggerdad, I feel your pain too.

I had an awning tear under the weight of puddled water (I hadn't slanted it steeply enough) that had gathered after a rain storm at the Fort.

Gotta watch out for those squirrels. I think they're highly organized, have sophisticated tastes, and know how to hustle visitors. They got a pack of orange peanut butter and crackers near my site in March and went hog wild on it.

I'm enjoying your TR. Your site does look nice and shady.

Thanks,

Bama ED

 

[tiggerdad]

Oh man, getting a late start today. Ate at the Hoop last night, and I must say if you have not done this dinner show, you really need to. It was really good, funny, and some really good food. By far the best all around dinner experience I have ever had here at Disney.

I mentioned that I had finally gotten to roam the Fort yesterday. Biked all of the loops except the cabins. This place is really well designed. I only saw a very few sites that I did not think would be good places to stay, and I mean only a few. There was one site that literally looked like it was only about 10 feet from the bathhouse. I attempted to go around behind Pioneer Hall toward the pavilion to try and sneak a pic of old River Country, I came across a pair of hawks just sitting there on the grass. A pair of squirrels digging around on the ground next to them. You never see this anywhere else, absolutely amazing to see the two of them that close and it not be a dinner show...

The wife and I left the kids with my niece at the camper after dinner, and we walked down to the beach to catch the float show and the fireworks last night.

I forgot to mention earlier while we were at HS my niece got pulled from the audience to take part in the Indiana Jones Adventure. She had a blast, great pic of her covering her face as the Tower of Terror let the bottom fall out.

Did I mention how much I like this porch outside of Crockett's?

Going to Epcot today to take advantage of the late extra magic hours tonight.

More to come...

 

[tiggerdad]

Got up early this morning and made the opening at AK. The girls slept in until around 10:30, then we met up at Hollywood Studios for a round at Toy Story Mania. Finished up at Downtown Disney. Just ate at the camper and plan on catching the evening fire and movie. Here are some more pics...

Another view of the camper pre-storm damage

and here is one of my oldest practicing her music skills from last nights Hoop Dee Doo...

More to come...

 

[sweet maxine]

I have enjoyed reading your trip report each day. Thanks for taking the time to write and also to post pictures.

 

[Mouse14]

Are you a fireman?

 

[tiggerdad]

Are you a fireman?

Fireman and emergency department nurse

 

[tiggerdad]

Well, I pulled out of the Fort this morning...truly sad. I hated to leave, because I really felt I did not have enough time to truly get to experience this place fully. The rain and repairs to the camper really took a bite out of this vacation, but I will get to that in a minute. I have now set up shop at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL. I missed the last two days of the report due to insurance adjuster and repairs to the camper. By the way, if you are at the Fort and need on site repairs, I strongly recommend Camper Connection. These guys are great, they are very fast and know a lot about what they are doing. They even gave me $200 off the regular $1200 that the repair parts would have cost.

On to the end of the trip.

We spent Thursday bouncing around from park to park picking up on some things that we had not got to do earlier. I ran into a couple outside Crockett's that apparently were having a similar National Lampoon's family vacation like I was. They said their youngest child had gotten a shiner by swimming into the pool ladder, and later that night the husband had gone to the bathhouse without his towel. When the wife went after him she stepped in a hole and badly twisted her ankle. She said she had it x-rayed (my opinion is that she has a tarsal fracture judging by the severe swelling and the fact that it is 5 days old and looks really bad). Now I don't feel so alone in the "man, this trip just isn't clicking along like it should be" mindset. Very nice people, I believe they were from PA. Hope she gets to doing better.

We finally made the campfire show, and here are my two daughters and my niece with Chip...or is it Dale. Dang, I get this whole one has a gap and the other doesn't thing...

Marshmallow mouth...

We got up Thursday morning and had breakfast at the castle, I strongly recommend the steak and eggs...

I had to leave the park early to meet the repair guys. After they were done we heard the usual thunder and realized that the rest of the day was again a washout. We stayed in the camper until it was over and caught the fireworks down on the beach again.

So we got up this morning...

Cooked breakfast...

and said goodbye to my good pals who never let me be alone out on the patio...

To sum it all up, I will without a doubt be back to this campground. For all the things that went wrong for us on this vacation, (there were several things that I have just not mentioned because they took away from the point of the post) I have decided that staying in my own bed, with my own kitchen, and my own porch is the best way to be. That night when I came in and found my awning destroyed, I just stood there for about 2-3 minutes debating on just hooking up and getting out before anything else bad happened. Two separate buses had broke down on us that morning, so we got to Hollywood Studios really late, and it was beyond packed. My wife had her toe cut by a running teenager who stomped on her foot on his way past us. I seriously thought about going...and I just realized that the kids were having a blast. Even if I felt like it was all going wrong, they were happy, and that was what was important. This place is like nothing else on Earth. When you look around this campground you don't see the frustrated parents dragging their kids crying. You see parents and their kids riding bikes, or all sitting around the table outside eating. Everybody here waves and says hello...even the Auburn fans You don't see this at the resorts, or at least not as much. Camping is probably the one thing left that is a true family bonding moment, and I for one am sold on it and this campground. I'll be back in couple years after I finish up grad school.

So the lessons I learned on this trip:
1. Roll up the awning
2. If you bring the camper, eat your meals at the camper (table service meals are just too expensive. I could have stayed another 2 nights for what I paid for one meal)
3. Ed's right, these squirrels are not dumb. They have coordinated attack plans and can take out a bowl of Froot Loops quicker than you can blink)
4. Roll up the awning (I don't care what the weather prediction is)
5. Vaseline works to keep ants out of your camper (They will not cross this stuff) Put it around anything that touches the ground.
6. Keep the awning rolled up...

 

[2goofycampers]

Thanks for taking the time for the TR. It is appreciated.

 

[stpetedisneydad]

Even with all the bad that happened you still had a good time and THAT is all that matters. As for Chip & Dale, don't pay any attention to the teeth. Many Many years ago a very wise waitress at Trails End told us that Chip has a "chocolate chip" nose (black and looks like an upside down chip), Dales nose is reddish brown.

 

[testtubes]

Really enjoyed your TR. Thanks for the daily updates.

 

[Princess Bette]

Thanks for the tip about vaseline and ants - did not know that one! How is Gulf Shores state park? We are considering going next month and would a mini - review if you have time!

 

[tiggerdad]

Thanks for the tip about vaseline and ants - did not know that one! How is Gulf Shores state park? We are considering going next month and would a mini - review if you have time!

Vaseline works great. Just put it around anything that touches the ground. Put a light layer around the base of your jack and stabilizers. Make sure you don't leave any open spots. Put it around your sewer line, water hookup and power cable just before it goes into the camper. It doesn't wash off in the rain, so it will last for quite some time. You can wipe it off with a paper towel when it is time to go. When we came in to Disney the guy in front of me was staring at me as I was putting around each of my axles, I tried to explain it, but I think he thought I was just an idiot. I promise it works, just have to make sure that you apply it to everything. I will post you some pics on this thread of the Gulf State Park. We have wifi at the campsite. It is really big, but very few trees. The wildfire here last year has really put a dent in it, but it will recover. Bath houses are clean. Still like Disney better, but that is expected.

 

[Mouse14]

Fireman and emergency department nurse

Awesome me too ... Minus the nurse part I'm, fire/ medic for tampa fire rescue, enjoyed the TR I'll be there soon for fourth of July weekend cant wait

 

[tiggerdad]

Thanks for the tip about vaseline and ants - did not know that one! How is Gulf Shores state park? We are considering going next month and would a mini - review if you have time!

Here are some pics from Gulf State Park. Bamaed put me on this one and I changed my reservations to here. I really like it, minus the lack of shade. The wildfire here last year really hurt the tree life. There are a lot of spots and they are level and clean. The bathhouses (like 11 of them I think) are very clean as well. They have some lakefront sites, but you need to book early. This place is full to the brim right now. It works like Disney, you can't request a site, they assign them on your arrival. You have access to at least two beaches with your camp site pass as well. They recently installed a great looking pool, the kids really like it.

 

[vtwinwilly]

Thanks for the TR. I've really enjoyed it.

The vaseline trick sounds like a great tip. Will have to try that one.