Trip Report July 13 - July 21

[mash]

We recently returned from a great camping trip. We spent 4 nights at Disney and then went to the Keys for 3 nights. This trip report will cover the full week and review the campgrounds at both Disney and the Keys.

The camping trip was planned as a family camping trip that would include my brother and his wife, my parents, my two nephews (my sister and brother-in-law’s boys), me, my husband and our two boys. My brother and sister-in-law had to cancel because of a family issue on my sister-in-law’s side. We were all disappointed that they couldn’t make it but understood why they had to cancel. My boys were with my parents for the two weeks prior and would be traveling with them and my nephews for the trip to FL.

Friday, July 13
Friday was the day before we left but it does mark the beginning of our adventure.

Our Friday Plan: Grocery shop, pack up the food, the clothes, bedding, towels, etc so we could get a decent start Saturday morning and arrive at Disney before my parents, nephews and our boys.

The day didn't go as planned:

Our truck broke down as my husband was running errors. Our truck wouldn’t run at all and didn’t seem like a minor issue my husband could fix.

Since it was late on a Friday afternoon it didn't seem likely that our truck could be repaired before we left on Saturday.

What would we do now???

Stay tuned...lots more to come.

 

[photogal06]

Oh no! That happened to us the day before one of our Disney camping trips a few years ago. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[mash]

Friday, July 13 continued

My previous post left off with a broken down truck and reservations for Disney's Fort Wilderness the next day to meet up with our family.

We called several rental companies but couldn’t find anyone in the area that would rent a truck that we could use as a tow vehicle. Fortunately our closest friends came to our rescue! My best friend offered to let us use her Nissan Armada if I would trade her my car. It was a deal! Thank goodness for good friends!!!

The positive way to look at the truck breaking down was that at least it didn’t break down in the Keys on US 1 with the camper behind it. It was much better to have it break down in our home city, without our camper behind it, in a parking lot. No one was hurt, nothing was permanently damaged and it we could get it to a garage easily.

Saturday, July 14
Since Friday didn’t go as planned it took us a lot longer to pack up and leave. Plus, I didn’t get the grocery shopping done the day before as planned. Since my parents were driving long distance I was on the hook to bring groceries and make sure we had enough to eat. I also hate the idea of spending my vacation running to Publix several times so I prefer to get it done in advance. So, on the way to Disney we stopped and made a grocery run. As we walked out of the grocery store we realized that we didn’t have any keys to the camper with us. Ugh. We keep the keys to the camper on the same key ring as the truck. But that set of keys was with the truck in the shop. We keep a spare set of keys in the truck as well. But again, that pair, too, was with the truck in the shop. Thankfully we have several sets of keys and still had a third set of keys at home. So, we turned back around, went home, got the keys and headed back out to Disney.

We finally arrived at Disney around 4 pm. I had checked in online prior to our arrival. In the past we have seen an “online check in” lane but no such luck today. It was pretty busy when we arrived but we were fortunate and picked a lane that was pretty quick. Our actual check in was pretty quick, too (compared to normal). I do wish that there was a regular lane dedicated to folks who check in online. It seems like it would make it faster for those who did their work in advance.

We were assigned to Site 1740 on the "Hickory Hollow" loop. We aren't real picky about what site we get. We figure any site at Ft. Wilderness is a good site!

Here is our set up at the site:

We have the pop up gizmos and have used them once before for cold weather camping. This was our first time using them in hot weather camping. During our set up we had two families stop and ask us about them and if they made a difference. We give them a resounding YES! We have hot weather camped before and the gizmos definitely kept our camper much cooler.

My mom gave me another tip, to point my air conditioning vents down during the day to keep the camper cooler. It's super simple but it made a difference when combined with the gizmos:

 

[ogfalconsr]

oh my! Everyones fear...mechanical breakdowns!!! Hope all went well in the end!

 

[t_daniels]

Joining in! Never thought of camping there!

 

[Princess Bette]

Joining in - love trip reports!

 

[jonimce]

I am sitting here in Sanibel FL (we head over to FW tomorrow morning) on pins and needles reading your trip report. Our youngest daughter with her hubby and 5 little ones are due to arrive at St Mary KOA any minute and their trip down from CT has been a nightmare. I'm afraid to say anything until they at least arrive at the KOA. Then I realized I never did the online check in. Thanks for reminding me. All done.

 

[gillenkl]

Great report so far!

 

[mash]

Great report so far!

Thank You! Lots more to come. I tried to take some good pictures as well. I hope everyone enjoys it.

I am sitting here in Sanibel FL (we head over to FW tomorrow morning) on pins and needles reading your trip report. Our youngest daughter with her hubby and 5 little ones are due to arrive at St Mary KOA any minute and their trip down from CT has been a nightmare. I'm afraid to say anything until they at least arrive at the KOA. Then I realized I never did the online check in. Thanks for reminding me. All done.

I hope that your family arrives safe and sound tomorrow and has a great trip at Disney. Sometimes life provides some challenges but it just makes you appreciate the journey more.

Joining in - love trip reports!

Thank you. I hope to have time to write more tomorrow. We had a great trip.

Joining in! Never thought of camping there!

Camping at Disney or the Keys? Both were great! The Keys are beautiful and so very relaxing.

oh my! Everyones fear...mechanical breakdowns!!! Hope all went well in the end!

Yes, this was definitely one of our fears. We were very thankful it happened in town and everything did go well in the end. We have terrific friends that were able to help us. The biggest plus was that no one was injured or hurt. In the end that's all that matters!!!

 

[t_daniels]

Disney. I'm not a camping girl really. Always sounds fun.. not sure I could do it though.

 

[2goofycampers]

Wow, what a start. I can't wait to hear about all the good stuff.

 

[CampingDad]

Just joining in! Great trip report so far. Thanks for taking the time. I feel your pain about the breakdown. We drive from Chicago every year and my truck broke down in KY on the way down 2 years ago. Unhooked the fifth wheel and got the truck to a dealership. Spent 4 hours there but it felt like days. Luckily you have such good friends so your vacation did'nt get canceled.

 

[mash]

Disney. I'm not a camping girl really. Always sounds fun.. not sure I could do it though.

You might want to try it once at Disney or maybe stay in the cabins at Ft. Wilderness. The campground is so much fun and beautiful. I like to stay in my camper. Besides sleeping in my own bed I have a small couch, my fridge with my food, a bathroom and even my own balcony (that's what I call the concrete slab underneath the canopy!).

Wow, what a start. I can't wait to hear about all the good stuff.

Thanks! I have lots more pictures to post. I tried to take notes while we were camping so I could remember all the details to write about.

Just joining in! Great trip report so far. Thanks for taking the time. I feel your pain about the breakdown. We drive from Chicago every year and my truck broke down in KY on the way down 2 years ago. Unhooked the fifth wheel and got the truck to a dealership. Spent 4 hours there but it felt like days. Luckily you have such good friends so your vacation did'nt get canceled.

You are right, we are so blessed to have such wonderful friends. We've rescued each other back and forth over the years from broken down cars, broken down boats, flooding kitchens, moving furniture, trading furniture, etc. They are the best. Plus, that Nissan Armada pulled our camper beautifully. My husband said that he barely felt it back there compared to pulling it with our Ford Expedition.

 

[mash]

Saturday, July 14 continued

We ended up having a quiet evening. My parents, boys and nephews had a very long 48 hours prior to finally arriving at Disney. They left their home on Friday and planned to drive for 10 to 12 hours, stop at a hotel for the night and then drive the remaining 10 hours on Saturday.

I think the official theme of this trip should be “Plans are made to be broken!”

They were unable to find a hotel for the night. This has never happened to them or to us before. They tried several hotels in several cities. They ended up catching a few hours of sleep in their truck in a rest area. Although this really wasn’t an ideal situation it was better than them continuing to drive while too tired.

2 adults, 4 boys (two of which are large teenagers) stuck in a truck trying to catch some sleep?!?! Shudder!!

For dinner we grilled some chicken breasts, fixed a salad with homemade blue cheese dressing and had escargot. The homemade blue cheese dressing is a Tyler Florence recipe and it is outstanding! I highly recommend it. Everyone loves it on nice, crisp iceberg lettuce. My husband purchased the escargot from our local specialty market at home Saturday morning. They fill the shells with butter and basil and you just pop it in your oven until they are heated through and the butter has melted. I personally can’t get past the snail part to eat them but they smell heavenly and everyone loved them.

Sunday, July 15

Since we had an early night I was up early. I set out for a walk around 7:30. I started off with my earplugs in and about halfway through my walk I realized that I was missing out on all the "good" noise. The campground was still fairly quiet and you could hear the birds and all sorts of nice sounds.

I didn't capture any pictures this morning but I did later in the trip and will share them.

Did I mention that my mom had a broken foot? She broke her foot in the spring and re-broke it two and a half weeks prior to our trip. She had surgery and decided that she was still coming on the trip, no matter what. She can be quite stubborn, although she prefers that we use the term “determined.”

She rented a motorized scooter from Randy's Mobility and they arrived at 8 am Sunday morning with the scooter. She loved the scooter and it really helped her move around the campground comfortably. Randy's was great and it was a good experience.

I made a big breakfast when I returned from my walk. After breakfast the boys wanted to rent the small boats at the Ft. Wilderness Marina. My husband took them down there and got them hooked up. They really enjoyed it and it kept them out of our hair for awhile. WIN WIN for everyone.

The only bad part is that I forgot we could have received a 10% discount on the boats as a passholder discount. Darn!

It rained later in the afternoon pretty hard but not for too long. I was thankful for the rain because it cools things down. As long as the rain doesn't last too long it's a pretty good thing during a Florida summer.

We fixed steaks for dinner and also steamed some clams. My husband had also picked the clams up Saturday morning before we left town for Disney. We all LOVE steamed clams. They are a real treat for my nephews as they don't get them very often where they live.

After dinner we decided to head over to the Contemporary Resort. My mom didn't go with us as her scooter wouldn't fit on the Resort boat. She decided to stay back at the camper and get some rest.

The boys hung out here:

The adults hung out here:

The boys won these tickets:

The adults sipped on these:

The drinks from left to right are a Vodka Martini, Godiva Chocolate Martini and a Margarita. I love the Godiva chocolate martini. It is like having a small dessert at the end of the evening.

The only bad part of the evening were the bugs at the Contemporary's boat dock. We have never seen anything like it. The bugs were swarming and it was very difficult to keep them out of your mouth, eyes and nose. They weren't biting bugs but they were all over us. Even the boat captain had to cover his mouth with a kerchief as he got us on the boat. He said that the Ft. Wilderness dock had been sprayed the night before and that's why they were bad there. But they were truly awful at the Contemporary. It made the wait for the boat miserable.

More to come. I took some good pictures of the Fort Wilderness merchandise which I'll share in another post.

 

[mash]

Monday, July 16

Everyone slept in a little and we had a relaxing morning with a big, hot breakfast.

We decided that it would be a great day to go to Blizzard Beach. I didn’t bring my camera so there are no pictures. It seems like such a pain to bring a camera, keep it locked up and then have to get it out of the locker to use it. I just never bother. We were able to spend about 5 hours at Blizzard Beach before the rain set in. 5 hours seems just about the right amount of time. Climbing all those stairs can wear a body out! We were able to ride all the rides we wanted, except for the Summit Plummet. I don’t ride it but the boys wanted to ride it. The wait time was an hour so they all decided to ride other things.

We love the Teamboat Springs ride. It’s so much better than the one at Typhoon Lagoon. The flume is much longer and so much fun.

I did miss riding Crush n Gusher at Typhoon Lagoon. That is my all time favorite ride at any Disney park!

It started raining as we were leaving. We did take a couple of minutes to buy the fresh mini donuts. Have you ever had these things?! It was the first time that I bought them and they were a little slice of heaven. We were all fighting over them!

It rained for a couple of hours. At times the rain was pretty heavy. But as I said before the rain really brings the temperatures down and makes it bearable. Once the rain finished it was really nice outside.

We cooked up hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. After dinner my parents watched the kids and my husband and I rode our bikes up to the Wilderness Lodge. We enjoyed a couple of drinks in the bar. My husband had his usual vodka martini and I tried the habanero lime margarita. It was very good.

We met a nice couple in the bar and chatted with them. They told us they recently hosted a martini tasting party where everyone brought their favorite martini. The hosts bought little martini glasses and everyone had a taste. They said it was great fun. We love this idea and hope to host one soon ourselves!

I didn’t capture any pictures of the day. However, during our trip I scoped out all the Fort Wilderness merchandise at the stores and got some pictures.

Here is the merchandise selection at the Meadows Trading Post:

Here are the shirts at the Meadows:

I really, really want this:

It is a blanket that costs $50. I want it for three reasons:

1) It is super soft and cozy feeling
2) It has the Ft. Wilderness logo and Ft. Wilderness is my favorite place to camp
3) It is green and matches the interior of my camper

But it's $50 and I couldn't bring myself to fork over the $. But I might next time because I really like it.

Here is the merchandise at the Settlement Trading Post:

The display looks identical to the Meadows.

They also had the Ft. Wilderness rocking chairs at the Meadows but I didn't capture a picture. They looked very nice but were pricey. I don't remember the exact price but they weren't cheap in my book.

I did decide to fork out some cash for this little baby:

It was $7 or $8. Right in my price range.

My oldest son says I am a nerd. But I don't care. My husband put it on our camper when we were in the Keys. I love it. I think I might be able to afford one of the key rings to keep our camper keys on but I didn't splurge out for that, yet.

 

[bama_ed]

Monday, July 16
:

It was $7 or $8. Right in my price range.

My oldest son says I am a nerd. But I don't care. My husband put it on our camper when we were in the Keys. I love it. I think I might be able to afford one of the key rings to keep our camper keys on but I didn't splurge out for that, yet.

Wow mash sorry I am late to your trip report.

I had a flat tire on my popup once on the way to the Fort and it was stressful. Sounds like the start of your trip was WAY tougher.

I got one of those license plate frames to put on my popup. I'm like you too about spending $50 for the FW blanket but I am about to the point where I will pay for the FW logo merchandise I like and disregard the cost.

Looking forward to more stories and pix. Thanks for taking the time to do a TR.

Bama ED

 

[mash]

Wow mash sorry I am late to your trip report.

No worries! I have lots more to write and pictures to post.

I had a flat tire on my popup once on the way to the Fort and it was stressful. Sounds like the start of your trip was WAY tougher.

It was a little stressful for a bit. But as soon as I told my best friend what was going on she immediately offered use of her truck. So we weren't too stressed when we made calls trying to find a rental. We knew we could use their truck if push came to shove, which it did. It is so nice to know you can rely on your friends to help you out in a tricky situation!

I'm like you too about spending $50 for the FW blanket but I am about to the point where I will pay for the FW logo merchandise I like and disregard the cost.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to splash out on the blanket next time we are there. It's nice to have a blanket in the camper, even during warm weather, because sometimes the air conditioning gets a little chilly.

Looking forward to more stories and pix. Thanks for taking the time to do a TR.

It's my pleasure! I get a kick out of seeing how many people have viewed the report and their comments. I hope it's encouraging to others to post trip reports. I love reading others' reports and seeing what they've enjoyed when camping at Disney.

 

[photogal06]

Thanks for the merchandise photos....I'm going to have to increase my souvenir budget for our next trip for sure! I'm with you on BB...when I do take my camera, I just leave it in the locker anyway, so why bother?! We also loved Teamboat Springs there and the mini donuts!

 

[mash]

Tuesday, July 17

Everyone slept in again and we had another hot breakfast. We decided to spend the day at Sea World. My mom would be able to join us on her scooter and we already had annual passes for Sea World. We have passes for Disney but they are only Seasonal Passes. I priced out upgrading our seasonal to annual passes. Ouch! It was pretty pricey and not really something that I wanted to do. We are pretty happy with the seasonal passes as I don’t really want to go to Disney in the middle of summer or during the holidays like Christmas and Spring Break. Too crowded and in the summer it’s way too hot.

So off to Sea World we went. I only took one picture there of the entrance area of the new Turtle Trek experience.

Overall we had a really good day. The crowds weren’t too bad. It rained all around us but never actually rained at Sea World. This kept the temperatures down and it made it kind of pleasant.

We got a call during the day that our truck was fixed and would be ready to pick up Wednesday morning. It turns out that our fuel pump was bad, just as my dad predicted. My husband decided that he would drive home Wednesday morning, trade trucks, drive back and then we would hook up the camper and head south to the Keys.

On the way back to the campground my husband dropped me off at the entrance to the Contemporary Hotel so I could walk over to Guest Services and fix a seasonal pass. We had renewed my husband’s seasonal pass the day before but long story short I screwed up and made a bad decision in renewing it. Guest services fixed it for me without any issues. I love Disney! I snapped a picture of the entrance to the Magic Kingdom as I walked to the boat:

Here is a picture of the area to catch the boat back to the campground.

I was first in line and the only other folks that joined me were a family of four. I chatted quite a bit with the boat guy (not the captain but the other guy). He was really nice and pointed out the area where they take the boats at night and also to work on them. He said that they have a dry dock lift back there that can lift up one of the ferries. You can’t see any of it from the water. I enjoyed talking with him during the ride back to the campground.

Here are some pictures of the campground after the rain. As you can see there was a lot of standing water everywhere. June was a pretty rainy month so the ground was saturated.

Back at the campground we had a quiet night and ate left-overs. My husband started taking things down and packing a little. Wednesday morning was going to be a busy morning.

 

[ebtready2go]

I'm anxiously waiting for the rest of your trip report!

The last time we were there we rented an RV in Jacksonville and drove it to Destin for a wedding. Then to FW for our Disney stay. Then to the Keys to spend Easter with the in-laws. We camped at Curry Hammock State Park in Marathon. Beautiful!

This time we're doing the opposite. Flying to Key West and visiting with the in-laws first (really build the Disney anticipation!). Then we're renting a car and driving north this time and staying at FW in the cabins.

Great report!