Trip Report May 6 through 8, 2011

[mash]

This is the first trip report that I have written. Before I get started on the trip report itself I will take a little time to introduce myself. I have been a member of the Disboards for several years now. I have mostly lurked and rarely posted. However, with all the recent changes I heard the call for more participation and trip reports to rebuild the camping community to its former glory. So here goes...

I have been camping at Ft. Wilderness since the 80’s. At first with my in-laws in their motor home and after we had children we purchased a pop up camper and camped regularly at Ft. Wilderness since 1998. We loved our little pop up (1994 Fleetwood Pioneer Avalon) and it gave us many great memories. About two and a half years ago we decided (or I should say I decided) that our family had out grown our little camper and it was time to upgrade. It took us awhile, for a variety of reasons, to finally purchase a new camper and we stopped camping during this period. Happily we purchased a used 2005 Fleetwood Niagara in April. This trip to Ft. Wilderness was our inaugural trip with it.

We headed to the Fort on Friday, May 6. On our way over we hit a lot of love bugs. Ugh. I really hate this time of year. Our tow vehicle was completed coated by the time we arrived. Here’s a picture but it doesn’t really do it justice. It was clear that we would have to wash the tow vehicle as soon as we arrived.

We arrived at the Fort just before 5 pm. We used the online check in before we left. We hadn’t used the online check in before so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. The first gate had somewhat of a wait.

We proceeded on to check in and to our surprise the online check in lane was open. Keep in mind that it was a Friday near 5. In our previous trips the check in is usually packed and we have waited 30 minutes or more to get through. This time, we were on our way in 5 minutes or less. What a pleasant surprise. We will be sure to use the online check in again.

We were assigned to site 1903. We haven’t made requests for any particular loop in the past as we were fairly happy with most any site. We usually requested to be near the comfort stations but now with a potty in our camper we didn’t even have to make this request! We are in the big time now! The site was lovely, lots of shady trees and close to the comfort station. I kind of like being in this back loop as it seemed quieter overall.

The Danksin triathlon was scheduled for Sunday. We saw this sign posted at the entrance to every loop.

Good news! We could have a late checkout on Sunday. This would give us a little more time to relax.

That is all I have time to post now. I will try to post more of my report throughout the week as time allows.

 

[2goofycampers]

Great start ! Patiently waiting.

 

[cruising spud]

Okay, mash, I tend to be a lurker, too, but you're right-the camping boards need a bit of extra input right now, so let me say-thanks for posting. I always enjoying reading about the trips that other campers have taken.

 

[Born 2 Fish]

Welcome ! And congrats on on the new "indoor plumbing" !
Your off to a great start , and great pics too,

 

[dblr]

Thanks for the doing a trip report you do have a couple of pair of big shoes to fill but your off to a great start with your report and we love seeing pictures. Looking forward to the rest of your trip, Thanks again.

 

[UMADDBG]

I've been mostly a lurker too! Thanks for posting the report, I don't get to go back to the Fort untill next year...and need to live vicariously through all of you!!!
Looking forward to the rest of your report!
THANKS!!!

 

[bama_ed]

Mash,

Glad to see you started your tr. Dont sell yourself short, man, you write very well. I love the first picture you had of the windshield. I have seen similar view out the front of my truck.

So whats next?

Bama ed

 

[nessz79]

Looking forward to more!

 

[rapriebe]

Wow, it's great to see all of these posters come out of "lurkdom". The more trip reports the better, can't have too many of those.

Okay Mash, we're ready for some more!!

 

[proudmomof4]

Thanks for posting, I need these trip reports to get me through until my trip in July.

 

[shem]

Great start. I'm looking forward to more.

Love the windshield picture- Gross but Great!

 

[mash]

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I appreciate it!

Here is the 2nd installment of my trip report:

Now one observation I made on our loop and the loops in this area was that there were a lot of tent campers. I do not recall seeing so many tent campers outside of the partial loop before. Lots of nice set ups, large tents and families.

Notice that the tent was set up off the concrete pad and the sandy area. I have no problem with this and noticed that many of the campers had a similar set up.

I also saw this cool camper on a neighboring loop:

It was a Dodge and I really dig the color. Also love the colorful lights strung up outside. Definitely the most unique looking camper that I saw at the Fort this weekend.

Now on to setting up our camper...We have set up our camper several times before this trip to clean it, repair some miscellaneous things and make sure we knew how to operate everything. We did pretty well setting up on this trip. We are really experienced with the overall pop up set up but our previous pop up didn’t have any features like this one that needed to be set up. Our old one was pretty much pop it up, hook up the electric and water and we were done. This one requires a little bit more set up but it was totally worth it. I expect that as we continue to use it we’ll get a little faster. This time took about an hour to completely set up.

Over the years we used to bring quite a bit of food and do a lot of cooking but lately we have been scaling back. We are trying to keep it simple and low-key. We brought cold fried chicken from Publix and had a simple meal. After that we did some exploring of loops on our bikes and took our usual ride down the Ft. Wilderness fitness trail at dusk to check out the wildlife. We absolutely love biking around the Fort. We hit the jackpot and saw a group of 6 deer on the trail. In the past we have seen everything from deer, bobcats and owls on the trail. Always a crowd pleaser with my family! Here is a picture of one of the deer we saw:

We also saw a carriage come through on the path:

We had a relatively early night as it had been a long day trying to get ready for the trip. Overall our first night in the camper was great except for the mattresses. We thought the mattresses looked plusher than our old camper and didn’t bring our air mattresses. Big mistake! Let me just say that the first thing I did when we returned home from this trip was grab the air mattresses and pump out of the garage and put in the storage area before we even started unpacking! I am not going to leave home without those little puppies again!

We had a lazy morning and had a simple breakfast of bagels and cereal. It was a beautiful day and not too hot for early May in Florida. We decided to go to EPCOT but I realized that I left our seasonal passes at home. I didn’t want to get all the way to EPCOT only to find out we were out of luck and couldn’t get a temporary pass so we decided to ride our bikes up to the Marina and ask the ticket counter there if it was even possible to get passes. The Cast Member at the window said yes, we could get replacement tickets at the ticket booth at EPCOT. Since we were at the Marina we jumped on the smaller resort boat with the intention of catching the monorail at the Contemporary, over to the Transportation and Ticket Center to catch the monorail to EPCOT.

More to come in another post later but be prepared...I'm going to whine a little (or a lot) about the bus transportation...

 

[CCIntrigue]

Looking forward to reading more. BTW, you checked in on the day we left.

 

[Born 2 Fish]

Sounds like a very wonderful day
Are you gonna serve crackers and cheese with that whine ?

 

[dblr]

How about a picture of your new camper all set up, let's see your new toy!!!!!!!!!

 

[mash]

How about a picture of your new camper all set up, let's see your new toy!!!!!!!!!

I don't have a pic of the camper with me right now. I will try and post one this weekend. We love the camper and are so glad we decided to purchase a larger one. It's so much more comfortable for our family.

 

[mash]

Trip Installment #3

Let the whining begin! Does anyone else miss the bus from the Settlement Depot to the Transportation and Ticket Center (TT&C)? We thought this was such a convenient way to get to EPCOT from the Fort. Before our journey to EPCOT completed I really, really missed that bus! So here’s what happened…

As I mentioned in the second installment of my trip report, we jumped on the resort boat from the Fort's marina and planned to head to the Contemporary resort to catch a monorail to the TT&C and then catch the monorail from the TT&C to EPCOT.

The resort boat reached the Wilderness Lodge first and for whatever brainiac reason we thought we would leave the boat and catch a bus to EPCOT from the Lodge. Great idea –right? Nope. For all of you that are familiar with the bus system at the Fort I bet you are all having a good laugh right now. It took awhile for the bus to arrive and guess where it stops next before EPCOT? That’s right, you got it, Ft. Wilderness! The bus was crowded and there was only standing room available for the guests who got on at the Fort. Several of the guests were pretty disgruntled about it and I don’t blame them. One lady decided to confront the bus driver and gave the driver a lecture. While I certainly understand her frustration I do not think you should take it out on the bus driver. The driver only drives where he/she is instructed by management. If you think this isn’t a good idea, address it with management, not the driver!

We finally reached EPCOT and went to the ticket counter to enquire about replacement passes. Good news…it was no problem at all. We produced our identification; the cast member looked it up and printed new passes in a jiffy. What a simple and easy process to fix my mistake. Gotta love Disney!

We enjoyed looking at Flower and Garden Show topiaries. We spent a lovely few hours at EPCOT, had a snack and mostly just walked around. We had to visit the garden train at the Germany pavilion as this is our family’s tradition. We aren’t allowed to visit EPCOT without the obligatory stop to view the trains. I love how they “accessorize” the train garden based on the season or event at EPCOT. This time the area was accessorized with Flower and Garden show stuff, to include miniature topiaries. Love it!

We headed back to the Fort using the monorail to the TT&C, to another monorail to the MK entrance and then a boat to Ft. Wilderness. Did I mention that I really miss the Ft. Wilderness bus to the TT&C? I think I need to write a letter to Disney.

We had a light snack back at the camper and then the whole family took some time to relax, nap, etc. This I have to say was my favorite part of the trip. I got an opportunity to sit under the awning with a book for an hour or so. I really forgot how much I enjoyed that part of camping. It wasn’t too hot, it was shady, the campground was beautiful and it was just so peaceful. I really felt myself unwind and relax. This is why we keep camping!

 

[marclichon]

Great trip report so far! We've gotten our setup-routine down to about 30 minutes from shutdown-to-awning (including hookups, stabilizer jacks and bicycle deployment). But, we have 4 kids each with their own jobs so it makes it easier (except when they get so excited they forget) It'll get faster for you, but your time looks pretty good so far! Glad you're enjoying your larger rig, I can't wait to see a pic. We've never employed a pop-up but can only imagine how much more work they are to set up.

 

[mash]

Trip Installment #4

After everyone had a bit of rest we headed over to the pool. We hadn’t visited the Fort since the pool was upgraded although I followed all the progress on the disboards. The pool was packed on Saturday. In all of our visits over the years we have never seen it this crowded, especially when you consider that the pool area has expanded capacity with the new water play area for the little ones. It was so crowded that I didn’t even bother to get in the water. I really can't stand excessive crowds. My husband and children said that they were constantly kicked, shoved, etc because it was just so crowded. Ugh. The official reason we were given is because the cabin pool is closed for refurb. That might be part of it. But, could it be because of the locals taking advantage??? The Fort was not a capacity this weekend. We saw plenty of empty sites throughout the weekend. I’m guessing that the Fort was at 80% to 85% capacity. So, the crowded pool didn’t make sense from a site capacity perspective. So what is my final conclusion? Well, all I will say is this…when we were on the bus to EPCOT and it made the infamous stop at the Fort I spied a car unloading in the parking lot. All the car occupants were dressed in swimwear and hats. I wish I had thought about it and taken a picture but I didn’t. Here are pictures of the crowded pool area and you can draw your own conclusions.

I need to write a letter to Disney about it. We are paying more for a campsite now than we ever have it in the past. To think that the pool looks unappealing because it is so crowded due to locals (i.e., non-paying customers) frustrates me. I have heard that things are being done to control it but I couldn't see any controls. Disney really needs to do something here to ensure that the pool is reserved for guests who are paying for a campsite.

That is all I have time to post now. I will try to write up more of the trip report later this evening but it will depend on whether or not I get the rest of my work done!

 

[mash]

Trip Installment #5

After the swim, or whatever you want to call it, we headed back to the camper for a cookout of hamburgers and hot dogs. This is the only meal we cooked during our trip. Actually I should be honest here and say that this is the only meal my husband cooked! I didn’t cook a thing other than putting my own bagel in the toaster each morning. It was nice and relaxing meal.

After dinner we decided to catch the boat to the Contemporary and play games in the video arcade. This is another family tradition. It is always a pleasant way to spend an hour or so. I do, however, miss the old arcade. It was much larger and even had a shooting gallery in it. I have a lot of fond memories of it.

I snapped a photo a River Country from the boat as we passed.

We took the boat back to the Fort and jumped on our bicycles back to our camper. It was a beautiful night out and was cold for us Floridians riding on bikes. We were all freezing by the time we made it back to the camper. On the way back we noticed a couple of things. The first is that security was directing cars, golf carts, people on foot and people on bikes at the intersection near the marina. We hadn’t seen that before. We saw this on both Friday and Saturday evening. There did seem to be a lot of traffic around this area and it was nice to have some organization. I also noticed a big stop sign as you leave the bike path at this intersection. Maybe it has always been there and I didn’t notice it before. It was very large. Here’s a picture

The evening was so nice and the temperatures were cool for May that we decided to sleep without the air conditioning. I do not recall sleeping without it on at this time of year. It seems like it is always too warm or too cold to sleep without the air or heat running.

One thing that we learned about our new camper this evening had to do with lighting. I had turned off all the lights in the camper because the children were sleeping except for a bunk end light. Our old camper didn’t have a bunk end light so this was a new feature for us. As I returned from the comfort station I noticed that our bunk end was completely illuminated. If we had been inside the bunk end you would have been able to see our shadows perfectly! My husband was sitting outside the camper and we both commented on it. We thought that maybe one day we could re-enact the tent scene from the Austin Powers movie and give the neighbors something to talk about (we really wouldn’t do this, we just enjoy laughing about the possibility!).

That's it for tonight. I've had a VERY long day and am ready to decompress. Hope everyone has a wonderful evening.