Trip Report | All work and no play…

[ilovedisneymm]

We were up and out the door extra early Saturday morning and stayed the course. We stopped in Jacksonville to see some landlords we farm for and bring them a quarter beef from home. After a nice visit, we made our way straight to St. Augustine. The plan was to get there by 5 pm and visit the beach, but it was after sunset once we arrived at a place to stay. I didn’t have any time to book in advance, but hubby had two spots in mind - St. Augustine’s State Park or the KOA down the road. We’ve never been to St. Augustine, so it was neat driving thru the scenic down town area. The stone fort was pretty interesting and I sure wish we had more time in our travels to allow for more time spent there. The landlords we farm for said twice “next year when you’re back down here.” Twice they said that. Hey, Danny, did you hear that? If you want to keep good relations with the landlords, perhaps we should come down next year, too. Like they said…twice. Hahahaha. And that’s how I’ll trap, sweet talk, remind, whatever you want to call it…get another trip to Disney! Wooohoo!

The state park was full so we ventured down to the KOA. We went to the beach that next morning at sunrise. Little did we know, there are plug ins at the parking lot. If I would have known that, we would have stayed right at the beach parking area and saved $100.

Beautiful beach.

More time allocated to St. Augustine’s area for sure for next year.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

After a few hours of watching the waves and the kids running around, it was time to make that two hour drive south to Fort Wilderness.

We checked in around 11 am without fail. Yeah right. There is drama with every check in and why would this be any different.

What a mess. I loathe stay in your camper check in. No. I’m not doing that ever again. We had the insurance card and all that for the golf cart, but that wasn’t good enough. They wanted full outline with details. Itemized line by line breakdown. What? You don’t want that info for our ton and a half truck. You don’t ask that for my camper. Did you ask that guy with his 46 foot Tiffen over there? No. So why you want that for my golf cart? What a rack it! So I had to call our insurance guy, on a Sunday morning at his home, and make him push some buttons and email me more details. We sat there for 40 minutes getting this thing lined out. All the while dangling some useless sticker of approval over our heads. As if that sticker had some kind of magical powers to make our cart go or something. Those gatekeepers of the Outpost sure take their ounce of authority to a new level. It would be one thing if she was helpful, but young attitude and my premenopausal attitude don’t mix well.

And if it’s really about safety don’t you think Disney would spring for the $68 add on accessory turn single kit for their rentals? Please take my $600 you charged me for my six seater cart this past week and buy eight kits. Cause honestly, the lack of those turn singles is a bit dangerous. And that’s wild coming from me. I never advocated for more structure, but turn singles would be a good idea for those carts.

I’m not even going to get into the next level round we went over my second site.

Oh, ok. What’s that you say? You do want to hear more? Of course you do. We all do.

 

[bama_ed]

One thing I would offer, @ilovedisneymm, is that if you and DH return with kids to FL as soon as next year (to the J'ville area), check out the following:

About 5 years ago my DW and I decided to visit as many Florida lighthouses as we could as an adjunct objective (WDW was always the PRIMARY objective). But including the LH we visited decades ago in Key West and Fort Jefferson, we hit 15 LH (most of which were on the northern Gulf coast of Florida or the Atlantic side) in the span of 4 years.

The Atlantic side for you has 3 LH within easy reach: Amelia Island (NE of J'ville), St. Augustine (very close to the entrance to Anastasia SP), and Ponce de Leon (down near Daytona where I4 pulls off from I95). You and the family would enjoy visiting each one of those on a future trip (or maybe some on the SB travel and other on the NB travel).

You might think 'if I visit one LH I've seen them all' but that's not true. Proximity to the ocean, immediate surroundings, height (Ponce is SO tall), LH Keeper houses (chief and assistant), and the gift shops/museums. To me they are fascinating and I am glad so many volunteers have stepped up to preserve these monuments to navigation.

I will get some more popcorn to follow your trip report updates now that you are home-bound.



Bama Ed

PS - Me and DW made the decision to the LH pursuit because our knees are getting any younger! As I said, PdL is probably the tallest IMO that we climbed (interior circular stairs). We climbed to the top of all of them - glad we did it while we were still "young".

PPS - and although I have not BEEN to the Amelia Island LH (tucked up in the NE corner of the state thus requiring the most commitment to go out of our way to visit it), I did go to Amelia Island (The Ritz-Carleton Hotel) for a corporate shin-dig [hey, I didn't pay for it]. But the former QB for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Terry Bradshaw, was brought in as the main speaker and he was actually quite good. Serious, not goofy like he is on Sunday afternoons on fall TV. I gained some new-found respect for him.

PPPS - oh and hey, if you rolled up to Anastasia SP hoping to find an available campsite, I'm not surprised there were none. FL state parks in tourist areas in winter are nearly always full (snow birds escaping the winter weather try to grab their two weeks at a time) and Anastasia in general being close to a tourist area is always in demand (small (short) campsites, stayed there twice). But St.A as a whole is worth building an entire day to tour the historic downtown area (and LH nearby). It's severely underrated, IMO. Oh, don't try to drag the trailer to park downtown or at the LH.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Thanks for all the travel tips, Ed. That would be neat to visit a few lighthouses on the way down next year.

We visited some beautiful lighthouses along the coastline of Oregon in 2024 and plan to visit more along the Pacific Coast this summer.

 

[team bradfield]

And if it’s really about safety don’t you think Disney would spring for the $68 add on accessory turn single kit for their rentals? Please take my $600 you charged me for my six seater cart this past week and buy eight kits. Cause honestly, the lack of those turn singles is a bit dangerous. And that’s wild coming from me. I never advocated for more structure, but turn singles would be a good idea for those carts.

Last 3 years my GC Disney rentals had turn signals

 

[ilovedisneymm]

The second issue was my second site. I booked a full hookup site for us (cause I love the 1800 loop) and a tent site for diesel mechanic. I booked everything under my lovely Disney experience account. I paid for both with my credit card and both are linked to my address. I was able to get my second choice site for full hook-up and was happy with that. The tent site however could not be released until diesel mechanic arrived. Well we flew the boy in and he’s not scheduled to land until much later that day. My plan was for the kids to set his site up and Daniel and I would get ours set up. Then we all could go to Disney Springs for dinner. Well, without them releasing the site to me, I couldn’t get him set up and that would delay our day by hours. They wouldn’t release the site until the boy listed on that reservation was there in person. No, no they wouldn’t reassign it, add me or another guest member of my party. None of that common sense. Gatekeeper told me I had to call guest services to get it resolved even though I asked for a manger and explained three times about how every little bit of information was linked to me on that second site but the name occupying it. Still not good enough. Would not get a manager for me. I had to call guest relations and was on the phone with them for 43 minutes. This is after the 40 minute go around with the insurance. I kid you not, we were in check-in mode for almost two hours. Momma needs a drink at this point! Three. I don’t even care if it’s 12:30. Guest relations is telling me to get a manager and that they would be able to check me in and they (guest relations) could do little. Gatekeeper disagrees. We’re are having a three way conversation going nowhere fast…but it was like turtle mode.

We’re done here.
Danny, pull this over and lets go in.

Now, folks. Now is where the cellphone dings start to flow like dominoes followed by a couple phone calls.

Hahaha.
I’m kidding.
A little.

And so I went inside and five minutes later we had our second tent site number assigned.

Imagine that.

Folks, all is blue skies and sunshine from here on out…

 

[ilovedisneymm]

@team bradfield well that is good to hear. At first I was wondering if our cart was the only one, but I noticed many many other rentals doing to left arm out to turn gesture. I didn’t notice any rentals ahead of me utilizing theirs either, which makes me believe theirs, too, did not have them.

Glad to hear some do.

We brought our golf cart down.
After new bushings were put in the front.
After four new batteries.
After one new solenoid.
After a trip to buy new heavy duty ramps cause our old ramps were too short for this truck.
After adding new insurance to make it Disney legal.
After 40 minutes go round with gatekeeper to prove our worthiness.

After all that, the darn thing goes and then just stops all of a sudden. That was discovered on our way from the overflow to our site. Darn.

Well, we can’t be having it just stop suddenly. That would be extra dangerous. So off to golf cart rental we go.

I’m not mad at this. Bummed we went through all that just to have speed control go out, but things breaking is nothing new here. That’s how it goes sometimes. We will get that fixed before it’s time to haul garden goods this summer.

Also, I’m not sure how I feel about this new modern-design-to-look-vintage remodel of the lobby.

Here is the photo they had displayed in 2022 and the newly remodeled one.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

And so after a few obstacles we managed to get both sites all set up.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

The best showers are the showers after a long travel with the campsite all set up ready to start the holiday.

Disney Springs.
On the people level scale it’s a 10. Solid 10.

Deluxe Burger was awesome! It also gets a 10. Although, I feel they’ve adapted McDonald’s policy on fries. Fluff don’t stuff. That was the first red meat Danny and I’ve had in like three years from a restaurant, but I’ll take a Deluxe Burger, please! Yumm.

Amaretto’s Bakery
Lego Store
Sleep

We are almost to the Gulf of America. Headed to the beach to watch the waves and grill out some salmon on the Blackstone. And have ourselves one more evening before returning home.

I’ll update more when we’re on the road tomorrow.