Intro:
This my first post and I am so excited to tell you about our weekend trip to DisneyWorld Oct 20-22. Here's the cast of characters:
Eeyore: my DH, best friend, night owl, ends up having late night wildlife rendezvous.
Jaxtrip: me, wife, best friend, pops out of bed in the morning like a piece of toast out of a toaster, trip planner, lurker on DIS for ~6 months.
Opening scene:
Thanks to the DIS, Prez Bush, and some luck, we really were fortunate on the money side this time. We had always set aside our $600 tax rebate for Annual Passes so those were freebies.
I received $100 as a Birthday present so that just about covered 4 nights total at Fort Wilderness (2 nights in October, 2 night in December). We 'invest' in tent camping materials ~140.00. The tent stuff, $12.14 in gas, and some meals are all we have to lay out for actual trip.
I reserved 2 nights in Fort Wilderness, AP rate of $28.00, full hookup (OK so I only have a tent but full hook up was all that was available for the AP rate. More on this later.) Next, I am a Florida state employee so I was able to get DC with $10.00 discount = $30.00. Now, I'm off to Disney Store to purchase Annual Passes on Friday Oct 19 and Cast Member Michelle says "Oh, don't you know about the $50 thing starting tomorrow?". I say no. Well, it's seems that if I come back tomorrow and purchase Florida Resident Annual Passes, I get a $50.00 gift certificate to TDS and a free T-shirt. OK, I'll do it, I say.
Saturday 10/20 AM
Head to Disney Store and sure enough, we get $50.00 gift certificates to TDS, a free T-shirt that says 'Disney Fun Seeker', extra $5 gift certificates (for what I don't know?), extra 100 days on Annual Pass for Florida Residents as part of Disney's 100 Years of Magic, AND Cast Member honors my 'over the phone' DC member number for 5% off AP. All this for EACH Annual Pass so Eeyore and I walk out feeling very triumphant at spending well under our Prez Bush tax 'future rebate' of $600. Go Economy Go!
We live 'close' to DW, Jacksonville, so despite looking forward to this trip for 2 months and doing a little preparation (baking), we pack literally the last hour before we leave. The only major forgotten thing: TOWELS! Eek! and if you've ever purchased beach towels in DW before... $20.00 each!! OUCH.
Jaxtrip is slightly miffed at losing the 'savings' this trip was going to be. I get over it but Eeyore and I are sprinkeld with new towel 'fluff' the rest of the trip. Oh well, we'll consider it campers "Pixie Dust".
We arrive, sans TOWELS, around 3:30 PM and commence site set up. Ugh. OK, we learned the 'why you always practice at least once before you go camping for real rule. Broken spike on top of our dining fly. Ugh. But, handy pencil to the rescue. The pencil serves as spike holding our dining fly up, under which our done tent partially sits. So all weekend we depend on the pencil holding up... and it did! Good pencil!
A word about our site. We were in 1600 Timber Trail, a full hookup pet loop near the Meadow. Even though we didn't have any problems, we were a little 'put off' by the fact that we in a loop with all RVs. No other tents at all. And we got the site closest to 2 roads and the bus stop. So at 7:05 on the button each morning, SCREEEEEEECH! Bus brakes. No sleeping in (no problem for Jaxtrip, I'm up with the dawn and looking forward to each new day!). The bus does run fairly late into the early AM hours but we were able to sleep through that. So our little tent went where no tent has gone before, 'not the greatest' loop site with RVs filled with dogs as neighbors.
We held our own though! We enjoyed the outdoors with vigor and barbequed, smored, and hung our halloween lights. Lots of campers had Halloween decorations out by the way.
We planned hotdogs for dinner and campfire program tonite! Hooray! The Campfire program was a lot of fun, probably the best part of the trip as voted by Eeyore and me. We arrived early (we thought the program started a 7PM, did we read the FW Gazette? No. It stared at 8PM) Oh well, our behinds punish us for sitting on metal benches for 3 hours! But really, we had a great time! Kudos to Cast Member Sunshine for leading a rambuctious marshmallow- crazed group through "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly", Happy Birthday, "It's a Small World after all", and other traditional tunes while large campfires burned. Chip and Dale made a happy appearance. Chip was slightly harassed by one drunken guy.....
Oh well, we thought less of the drunken guy, bad for him.
Collapse on to air mattress around 10:30. Tomorrow the Magic Kingdom and the start of rain!
On to Part 2
This my first post and I am so excited to tell you about our weekend trip to DisneyWorld Oct 20-22. Here's the cast of characters:
Eeyore: my DH, best friend, night owl, ends up having late night wildlife rendezvous.
Jaxtrip: me, wife, best friend, pops out of bed in the morning like a piece of toast out of a toaster, trip planner, lurker on DIS for ~6 months.
Opening scene:
Thanks to the DIS, Prez Bush, and some luck, we really were fortunate on the money side this time. We had always set aside our $600 tax rebate for Annual Passes so those were freebies.
I received $100 as a Birthday present so that just about covered 4 nights total at Fort Wilderness (2 nights in October, 2 night in December). We 'invest' in tent camping materials ~140.00. The tent stuff, $12.14 in gas, and some meals are all we have to lay out for actual trip.I reserved 2 nights in Fort Wilderness, AP rate of $28.00, full hookup (OK so I only have a tent but full hook up was all that was available for the AP rate. More on this later.) Next, I am a Florida state employee so I was able to get DC with $10.00 discount = $30.00. Now, I'm off to Disney Store to purchase Annual Passes on Friday Oct 19 and Cast Member Michelle says "Oh, don't you know about the $50 thing starting tomorrow?". I say no. Well, it's seems that if I come back tomorrow and purchase Florida Resident Annual Passes, I get a $50.00 gift certificate to TDS and a free T-shirt. OK, I'll do it, I say.
Saturday 10/20 AM
Head to Disney Store and sure enough, we get $50.00 gift certificates to TDS, a free T-shirt that says 'Disney Fun Seeker', extra $5 gift certificates (for what I don't know?), extra 100 days on Annual Pass for Florida Residents as part of Disney's 100 Years of Magic, AND Cast Member honors my 'over the phone' DC member number for 5% off AP. All this for EACH Annual Pass so Eeyore and I walk out feeling very triumphant at spending well under our Prez Bush tax 'future rebate' of $600. Go Economy Go!
We live 'close' to DW, Jacksonville, so despite looking forward to this trip for 2 months and doing a little preparation (baking), we pack literally the last hour before we leave. The only major forgotten thing: TOWELS! Eek! and if you've ever purchased beach towels in DW before... $20.00 each!! OUCH.
Jaxtrip is slightly miffed at losing the 'savings' this trip was going to be. I get over it but Eeyore and I are sprinkeld with new towel 'fluff' the rest of the trip. Oh well, we'll consider it campers "Pixie Dust".We arrive, sans TOWELS, around 3:30 PM and commence site set up. Ugh. OK, we learned the 'why you always practice at least once before you go camping for real rule. Broken spike on top of our dining fly. Ugh. But, handy pencil to the rescue. The pencil serves as spike holding our dining fly up, under which our done tent partially sits. So all weekend we depend on the pencil holding up... and it did! Good pencil!
A word about our site. We were in 1600 Timber Trail, a full hookup pet loop near the Meadow. Even though we didn't have any problems, we were a little 'put off' by the fact that we in a loop with all RVs. No other tents at all. And we got the site closest to 2 roads and the bus stop. So at 7:05 on the button each morning, SCREEEEEEECH! Bus brakes. No sleeping in (no problem for Jaxtrip, I'm up with the dawn and looking forward to each new day!). The bus does run fairly late into the early AM hours but we were able to sleep through that. So our little tent went where no tent has gone before, 'not the greatest' loop site with RVs filled with dogs as neighbors.
We held our own though! We enjoyed the outdoors with vigor and barbequed, smored, and hung our halloween lights. Lots of campers had Halloween decorations out by the way.We planned hotdogs for dinner and campfire program tonite! Hooray! The Campfire program was a lot of fun, probably the best part of the trip as voted by Eeyore and me. We arrived early (we thought the program started a 7PM, did we read the FW Gazette? No. It stared at 8PM) Oh well, our behinds punish us for sitting on metal benches for 3 hours! But really, we had a great time! Kudos to Cast Member Sunshine for leading a rambuctious marshmallow- crazed group through "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly", Happy Birthday, "It's a Small World after all", and other traditional tunes while large campfires burned. Chip and Dale made a happy appearance. Chip was slightly harassed by one drunken guy.....
Oh well, we thought less of the drunken guy, bad for him.Collapse on to air mattress around 10:30. Tomorrow the Magic Kingdom and the start of rain!
On to Part 2
