TR | Tent Camping (while pregnant)

[JETS70]

Melissa,
Congratulations on your pregnancy and hope that all goes well. Also, thanks again for a great trip report and pics. You do an amazing job tent camping. Those that have tent camped know that there is a great amount of work that goes into making a tent camping trip successful.

Thanks again for the report,
Steve

 

[ilovedisneymm]

FRIENDS AT THE FORT
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After being on the DIS board for a year plus now, it was really nice to put names to faces this trip! We got to meet @friendofeeyore (Gloria) and her husband @grumpyaggie (Arnold), @bjschil (Barb) and her husband (Bill), @garneska (Kris) and her husband (Burt), and @2goofycampers (Denise) and her husband @Born 2 Fish (Frank). All lovely couples! Nice down to earth people sharing similar interests, aka the love for FW.

In addition to all the great DIS people we ran into more familiar faces in the 1500 loop. Looks like were not the only ones that come back same time of year and stay in the 1500 loop. It look about 10 minutes after arriving to notice our neighbor, Laura and her boyfriend Chris. I recognized their tents before them. Same couple, almost same spot as last year. We only chatted with them a few times on our last visit but ended up visiting with them almost every day this trip. They come down from CT every year and stay for almost 3 full months....in tents! They say, they like to escape from the hash CT winters. I'm not sure I would want to do that long at Disney nor in a tent. To each their own though, great couple! Also from last year we met Larry from WI. He comes down in a sweet little RV (yes small RVs can stay in the 1500 loop). Just ask Larry, he comes down in his RV and stays for about two months year after year. Anyway, he likes to complain a lot and we find him very interesting. He stopped by our site about every couple days last trip and this trip he made a daily appearance. We were chatting about our friend Larry from WI on our way down wondering if he would be back again this year. Sure enough he was there with even more interesting tales to tale! Good ol Larry. Sadly, his father took a turn for the worse and he flew up to be with him for about a week. Larry parked his RV in overflow and we kept an eye on it. Grace & Daniel made friends with all the kids on the loop last year (same this year too) but last year they took up an extra special friendship with a girl named Sky from Canada. Before we left (last trip) Grace and her exchanged addresses and had a little penpal thing going on over the course of the year. It was such a great JOY for Sky and her family to be back again this year. The kids picked up their friendship like they didn't miss a beat!

WHERE I TURN INTO A CRAZY LADY

So just like that my report turns from meeting so many great people to me turning into a crazy lady....yep!
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Our stay in the 1500 loop was great all with the exception of MLK weekend. 1500 is usually a nice small quiet loop but it turns into an ethnic karaoke group party from Friday - Monday. The scene on 1500 went from birds chirping, squirrels stealing from neighbors away for the day in the parks, parents relaxing and watching said squirrels steal from the neighbors, and little kids playing on their scooters and bikes and everyone just enjoying themselves to an all-out-party-down-night-club-free-for-all! The birds and squirrels even went into hiding. It was like the came in by the dozens and brought a UHaul. I am serious, they brought a UHaul for their kitchen tent. They occupied 5-7 sites with double to quadruple tents on each site with their kitchen tent right next to our site. These MLK weekend campers do not care about anyone other than themselves. The noise level had to carry over to the 1400 loop as well. Must have been 30 plus adults alone in the kitchen area on Friday night and likely the same in teenagers. The teens were playing football, basketball, and soccer up and down the road and overflowing onto other campsites not their own. At one point, little Daniel was trying to get though the teenagers gathered in the street and they told him to go away. This was when I went from (1) happy camper to (2) WTH is this huge group doing on our nice little loop to (3) they are loud I'm going to fix this to (4) they are not shutting up, good lord I'm going to flip out to (5) did that little SOB just say that to my kid? Yes, I think he did......(5) I'm now blind with rage, seething at the teeth and (6) I'm going to kill somebody.....NOW!

Oh the hormones that come along with pregnancy. While I was blind with rage, we managed to get the situation resolved. By resolved, I mean Disney moving us to another Disney property for the duration of their stay. We left that Friday evening and my vision returned once we were all settled into a two bedroom villa with full kitchen. It was a nice break from camping and the kids had a blast visiting the other pool and water slides. We had scheduled down days for MLK weekend anyway to avoid the crowds. It also came as a blessing as large thunderstorms moved in on Saturday evening and I was not so well on Sunday. In fact, hubby woke me up with breakfast in bed on Sunday morning around 10am. I believe I went to bed the night before shortly after 8pm. I ate breakfast went back to bed and woke up to a nice roast and carrots for lunch. The kids were enjoying some play time around the villa that morning so all was well with them. I still didn't feel so well after lunch so hubby took the kids to the resort pool and I slept. By that evening, all was well and Monday even better. While we enjoyed our time in the Villa, it was nice to be back at FW.

@MotherRunner - thanks! It was a bit more challenging but still fun with the pregnancy. That is a two burner electric hot plate from Target.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

THE PARKS
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We typically go into the parks around the 12 - 15th (give or take a day) and off and on through the end of January. While we know January is typically slower than most months, it has climbed in crowd levels (by my own personal observations from 2013 - 2014 - 2015) with each year growing even larger than the last. This year we actually entered the parks for our first day on January the 7th. The first and second week in January (after NYE weekend) were PERFECT. Crowds were lower than we have ever seen before, loved it! In fact, only one day did we end up needing to use all our fast passes. We went to AK on a day that was suppose to be a 5 and it was like a 1 or 2. No wait for Everest not once. Hubby and kids rode it three times throughout the day and never waited more than 15/20 minutes. We have never seen Everest that low of a wait time and last year we did AK on a 2 or 3 recommended day and still the wait was huge after the first hour or so. We did visit the parks a few days after MLK weekend on that following Tuesday and crowds were doubled if not more so. So I could estimate that 2016 after MLK weekend crowds were even larger, wait times even longer than 2015. Ideally, for us we will do first and second week in January for future trips.

So our annual Grace & Daddy Dumbo ride picture.



Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A pirate's (and mermaid's) life for me!



Our AK day. She wanted to collect all the badges again and get her Wilderness Explorer certification (again). Remember last year? How we had to return to AK for a second day of sticker (I mean badge) collecting? We started off this year at park opening with full intentions to accomplish this and after the first hour, I was like "oh dear lord, please help me get out of this".....Then, while waiting for our Tuskur House breakfast, I convinced her that once she became a WE then she will always be one and that she doesn't need to repeat the process. She went with it and was fully satisfied with that answer and I THANKED THE LORD, I didn't have to do that song and dance again. I'm not trying to knock it cause that little WE thing is really cute and great for kids. I just didn't feel up to it and it made our day go so so much better.



Daniel lost his, I mean ate his first tooth! I know what you're thinking, you see three missing teeth in the picture. Well, that is because those two top teeth had to be surgically removed thanks to his sister. Long story, accident when he was not yet 2 and they got bent backwards. Fast forward, two years later and abscessed formed and had to be removed. On this particular day, we went over to Big Top Sweet Treats or whatever it is called and got a snack and then waited in line for Barn Stormer and just as he was about to get on the ride (and me do the pregnant lady, slide across pass) I looked down to take his treat so he could ride and noticed the missing tooth.......but where was the tooth.....lol.



Princess Rapunzel spent some extra special time with my little Princess Rapunzel.



And the day after hair from a BBB appointment. Camp Hair Don't Care!

 

[ilovedisneymm]

FOOD AT DISNEY
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I didn't take any food pictures so I will keep this short and sweet! We ordered TE to go twice and both times were disappointed. The quality of food and service has gone down hill. We noticed a few issues last trip and even more this trip to the point where we just didn't go back for a quick dinner. Both times I had ordered the strawberry shortcake and both times they said they were out. Which is really odd cause I could see it right there on the buffet less than 5 feet from me.....hmmmmm. I just felt overall the to go side was really lacking and it shouldn't be. We had one sit down TE dinner and it was good but nothing out of this world like in the past. Maybe it was just me. We also did the Hoop Dee Do Review and the food on that side of things were fantastic. How is it that food from three different locations (which are really just the same) and all come from the same kitchen and yet vary so much? The strawberry shortcake on the Hoop Dee Do side was out of this world YUMMY and yet the strawberry shortcake from TE side is lacking in flavor and juice. I think they just make one giant batch of strawberry juice and give the HDDR side 90% of the strawberries and juice and leave the other 10% for TE. The kids had a great time at the dinner show and we all had one fantastic meal. I will also add that you really really do need to be song and dance show kind of people to get into it. While I enjoyed my son's over the top laughter, I really didn't care much for the show part. I guess I'm the odd one out here on this forum regarding that dinner show.

We also ate lunch a few times at Be Our Guest. I love love love that place, hubby does too, kids too. You can't go wrong there. The food is really good and plentiful for the price. I adore the grey stuff and didn't feel bad at all about dumping $40 on those cupcakes for us all over the course of two lunches.

Tusker House did not disappoint. We did the safari ride first thing, walked the trail to collect a few badges and then stopped in for a late breakfast. I ate my weight in mickey waffles, bacon and hash browns. Oh, we all dined like kings! It was a feast no doubt. After the brunch and after walking a few blocks, all I wanted to do was throw myself down on the concrete and waller around in the sun like the hippos I saw back on the safari. Oh, I was full! It took me a while to wake up from my food coma. I would likely do it again right now for some mickey waffles...

TREX at DTD was good. I'm not sure $19 for a cheeseburger good, but still good. I know, I know, I'm paying for the theming...I split my meal with my son so that helped on cost. We got to dine in the Triceratops booth and that was the one Grace had been wanting to sit at ever since last trip.

I can't remember any other place we dined that stood out enough to report on it good or bad.

TRAVEL BACK HOME
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We managed to break everything down and pack it all up by 1 on our departure day. We could have been out of there by 11 or so but had many visitors stop by to wish us well on our trip back home which was nice We drove a good 8 hours and then finished the second 8 hours the following day. It was uneventful and that is how you really want a traveling trip to be, right? We made it home safe and sound the next evening and ordered our favorite local pizza place that I had been craving ever since we left. We could have stayed another few days at the fort but glad we left when we did. If we had stayed another day we would have been driving through that snow storm the South got. I think it was 8 inches for Nashville? We managed to stop in there at the Cracker Barrel the day before that snow hit. Glad we left when we did.

WRAPPING IT UP
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We love the Fort. It really is a wonderful place to vacation at. I will say that after four years in a row, in January, I finally left fully satisfied. I usually want to cry on our departure day and kick and scream like a kid in a store that didn't get the toy they wanted. But not this time, I was ready to come home, so was hubby, so were the kids. There will always be a bump or two in the road along any vacation and Disney does an excellent job of keeping you happy and I really like that about them. While the 1500 loop is great, I won't stay over MLK weekend on that loop again. With the baby coming we also won't be doing tents again the next trip. Just too much work to try and tackle with a baby. The kids mentioned trying a new place next big trip and I like the sound of that. We have a big anniversary to celebrate later this year and Hawaii is on my mind. We have been putting off going back to Hawaii cause we would like to have just an adult vacation when we go there and have been waiting until the kids are a bit older for the grandparents to manage them while we're gone. With new baby coming, that adult only vacation is not happening for a long long time, so we have decided to just take all the kids too. I'm with them 24/7 anyway so I don't know if I could even enjoy myself without them. I enjoyed staying at the Cabins on our first trip so if we don't have a camper by the time we return, the Cabins might be the perfect solution.

LOVE YA FORT WILDERNESS XOXO

 

[MotherRunner]

You aren't going to tell us where Disney sent you for the amazing Villas?? I'm dying to know. I have called park rangers a few times rolleyes1) on rowdy campers so I can relate.

How many days did you go to the parks in total?

 

[ilovedisneymm]

We did 7 day park hopper.

You aren't going to tell us where Disney sent you for the amazing Villas?? I'm dying to know. I have called park rangers a few times rolleyes1) on rowdy campers so I can relate.

How many days did you go to the parks in total?