Trip Report May 6 through 8, 2011

[bama_ed]

Very nice TR mash . Thanks

Bama ed

 

[cruising spud]

Before we started to camp, we stayed at Disney hotels. We had to wear wrist bracelets to use the pool. And, yes, the staff checked. I don't see why the campground couldn't use the same system.

 

[Born 2 Fish]

I totally agree about the Fort being abused/used by the locals. It's WRONG and has been out of hand for years now. It's just wrong that locals can come in with their bikes, buggies, friends,etc, use all the Forts privileges that are meant FOR THE GUESTS (who are paying BIG $bucks) and they don't pay squat !!
In fact, I hear a LOT of locals do this all the time and for some reason actually think they are entitled to do this !
(apparently !)

And for the life of me I can't understand why, but Disney will never change that problem,

 

[Born 2 Fish]

mash,,absolutely lov'n that trip report !

 

[disney minnie]

We were in the CRAZY pool on Saturday. I was with my 5 year old daughter who is loving swimming for the first time this year. She was dropping a Snow White swim stick and then going down to get it. We did this for about thirty minutes and we had to keep moving our area a little bit because of all of the people. At one point my daughter went straight down to get her stick and a boy around 8 swam over her. The next thing I knew this boy was tapping me to tell me that my daughter was rude because she had kicked him. Honestly I was too shocked to say much.

We left the property on Saturday morning to go to Downtown Disney. On the way back in there was a security guard at the turn near the bus stop. (After you go through the security gate and drive around the parking lot) I showed him our parking pass and he said he needed to see our actual keys. I'm not sure if this was because of the triathalon or because they realized there were too many people at the fort.

 

[AuntBJ]

I have enjoyed reading your trip report, especially the pictures!!

On the pool issue, I hope they do something to resolve this problem soon. While we have not utilized the pool much in the past, if we have kids on the trip I know they would want to try out the new slides. They should really crack down early in the season to send a message. Then they could put a locking gate to the pool area that requires a key card to open with signs that the pool is for guests only. I know a few determined locals would probably get in but it would probably help.

 

[mash]

Thanks everyone for your nice responses! I don't have time to post the next installment of the trip report tonight. I will try and finish up the rest of the report and pictures this weekend.

I did forget to add one thing about the pool experience on Saturday. A little boy of about 4 years came down the slide and wasn't a strong swimmer. He was struggling and the life guard had to jump in after him and pull him out. When she asked him where his parents were he didn't know. He couldn't find them when he looked around. His slightly older sister came down the slide next and she couldn't tell the life guard where her parents were either. The life guard had the little boy put on a life vest before she would let him back in the pool. I watched these two little kids for about a half an hour before we left. Never once did I see their parents. I saw them look around for them several times but they didn't see them either. I cannot for the life of me imagine leaving my children to swim at the pool without supervision when they are so young and clearly not strong swimmers. I found this whole episode very disturbing.

I will be writing a letter this weekend to complain about the pool situation. It frustrates me that everyone is so frustrated and have complained with no solution in place.

 

[rapriebe]

Thanks for the trip report, nice to see some pics at the Fort and the F&G at Epcot. It sure seems like the pool situation is getting out of control. Wonder if Disney will do anything about it.

 

[bama_ed]

Thanks everyone for your nice responses! I don't have time to post the next installment of the trip report tonight. I will try and finish up the rest of the report and pictures this weekend.

I did forget to add one thing about the pool experience on Saturday. A little boy of about 4 years came down the slide and wasn't a strong swimmer. He was struggling and the life guard had to jump in after him and pull him out. When she asked him where his parents were he didn't know. He couldn't find them when he looked around. His slightly older sister came down the slide next and she couldn't tell the life guard where her parents were either. The life guard had the little boy put on a life vest before she would let him back in the pool. I watched these two little kids for about a half an hour before we left. Never once did I see their parents. I saw them look around for them several times but they didn't see them either. I cannot for the life of me imagine leaving my children to swim at the pool without supervision when they are so young and clearly not strong swimmers. I found this whole episode very disturbing.

I will be writing a letter this weekend to complain about the pool situation. It frustrates me that everyone is so frustrated and have complained with no solution in place.

Mash,

I saw a similar episode on my April visit. A youngster, 2-3 years old, came down the slide and hit the water and sort of dog paddled in place, stunned. I was soaking there in the shallow end watching folks come down.

The lifeguard was standing right near the slide steps and noticed the kid floundering (not getting out of the way where the slide dumps out) and hit a button (maybe to keep the light red at the top of the slide) then jumped in with sandels, golf shirt, red lifer shorts, and buoy and scooped up the kid.

I asked myself "where were the damn parents?" My DW can be accused of being over-protective but on this point (as yours) she is correct that parents should watch over and be responsible for their young children. I had to help once take a kid out of a lake on a body board (possible spine injury [somebody jumped in the lake on top of him] and the possible outcomes are not tasty).

I looked to see if anyone got the child because I was ready to read them the riot act. They may not like it but facts are facts and they don't HAVE to like what I have to say. There are some things I get worked up about and that's one of them.

There are "stupid parents" out there and they should be called out when the obvious is presented to them.

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Whew. Off my soapbox now. Thanks for letting me vent.

Bama ED

 

[Born 2 Fish]

more trip report please,
.

 

[flamingogal]

Thank you for your TR. Its great to read about everyone's camping trips since we've been so busy that we haven't even been camping locally yet this year.

We won't be to the Fort until November but until then, hanging out with you all is almost as good. Thanks again.

Jeanne

 

[mash]

Trip Installment #6

Everyone slept in late. We had originally planned to get up and see the Danksin triathlon but evidently we all decided sleep was more important! As I mentioned in a previous post that we had a complimentary late check out due to the triathlon. After a casual breakfast the rest of the family decided to try the pool again while I got myself ready for the day and started to organize stuff to pack up and go home. The family reported that the pool wasn’t so crowded and they were able to enjoy the pool and slide for an hour or so.

I’m glad that we had a late check out because it gave us a chance to pack up the camper on a more relaxed schedule. We had a great system down with our old camper but we don’t have it quite down with the new one. More stuff to put away and we stumbled a little over the order of things. I’m all about a system and tend to be really organized. We’re camping again in a couple of weeks so I think we’ll really get in our groove with the next trip (nope, not at Disney).

After we packed up it was time to leave. Hopefully it won’t be two and a half years before we return! That was way too long of a gap. We are already talking about our next trips. Hopefully we’ll get there again sometime during the summer and we really want to plan a stay during the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival.

Now for a few miscellaneous observations:

Grad Nite was held the two nights that we camped. We could hear the music from the concerts for most of the first night. I can’t say it really bothered us. We kept waking up because the mattresses were so uncomfortable. The second night we didn’t hear anything at all. Maybe the wind changed direction? A Cast Member told us that Saturday night was the last Grad Nite forever for the Magic Kingdom. I attended Grad Nite many, many years ago. It was such a fun night and I am sad that my children will not get to go to one. Yet another piece of nostalgia for me in this trip report…it seems to be a common theme with me!

I have seen several posts about whether or not the yellow flies are present. My husband and one of our children were bitten. Initially we thought they were horseflies but now I think they might have been yellow flies. The flies were mostly in the wooded area behind the camper. As long as we didn’t hang out in the sandy part of our site they didn’t seem to bother us.

I have heard rumors of Fort Wilderness merchandise returning. I didn’t see any in the stores. When we stopped at the Lodge during our infamous travel to EPCOT we did stop briefly in their stop and they have Wilderness Lodge merchandise.

It seems like a lot of new plants and trees Disney put in a couple of years ago are starting to grow in nicely. Here are a few photos that I took of the new stuff:

Here is a photo of a great display in the 700 loop:

More miscellaneous photos and observations in the next post.

 

[mash]

Trip Installment #7

Here are a couple of miscellaneous photos of the Fort:

And finally, as I mentioned the Danskin Triathlon was taking place on Sunday. Here are some photos of the set up:

They had 3 sites on the 700 loop blocked off with nothing but golf carts parked on them:

And this my friends concludes my first ever trip report! I should have posted a trip report sooner. This was more fun than I expected. I really enjoyed seeing everyone reading along and providing comments. I hope other "lurkers" will soon join in the fun and provide a trip report. There have been several new contributors posting trip reports and it has been great to see all the new perspectives on things at the Fort.

 

[Born 2 Fish]

BRAVO !!
great trip report!

 

[cruising spud]

Thanks for the report. I love seeing pictures of Disney.

 

[bama_ed]

Ditto what Frank said. Nice job!

Bama ed

 

[parrothead365]

Very nice job!!! Enjoyed every bit of it.

 

[CCIntrigue]

Great trip report!

 

[dblr]

Thanks for the trip report GREAT JOB and loved all the pictures.

 

[kmccain]

Just wanted to say Thank You for the very nice trip report mash!