What path brought you to the "Fort"?

[HS3kids]

This is a fun thread!

1st 3 trips to WDW as a child-
age 6- pop up trailer at FW,
age 12, motor home at FW,
age 17, motor home at FW

As an adult-
Carribean beach resort in 1995 with DD1,
Contemporary in 1998 with DD1,
Wilderness Lodge in 2004 with DD1 & DS & DH

Now Oct 11-18, 2010 at FW Cabins...
we always end up at FW for the Hoop de doo Revue and the movies, and I had such great memories of FW as a child, that I really wanted to stay at FW again. Also added a third child (DD2) and we needed the extra space as well. Luckily hubby is pretty laid back, so long as we are on Disney property... This trip my parents, sister and BIL are also getting cabins. Really looking forward to it! 28 days!! Woo!

 

[MandMLUVMMandDVC]

Hwy. 417



I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it any longer, those words just HAD to be said

 

[Magicbus]

Hwy. 417
I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it any longer, those words just HAD to be said

Didn't we just let you out of your room for being bad?

 

[MandMLUVMMandDVC]

Yes, but I'm not being bad (well maybe sort of, but I'm not being a meanie)

 

[twinklebug]

Great question! I'm loving reading everyone's experience with the Fort & kind of hoping I run across someone who was there when I was as a kid.

I was about 7 on our first trip.

Back in '72 my parents left my brother, baby sister and I with my aunt & uncle up north while they went to FL to check it out. As far as I knew they were checking out the beaches (mom even mailed home an envelope of sand ). My aunt & uncle were SO good to put up with us given all the trouble I caused hehe.

In '73 we took the HR down and bypassed our usual destination: myrtle beach. My very first impression of Ft W: WOW! The campsite is level?!?! (OK, I was 8 but I was so used to Dad having to take awhile to level up the trailer with mom guiding him & there was no need!) They allowed me to run right off to the playground once I got my bike out. I remember the train in Ft W -- it sort of scared me, Over in the MK I can still picture dad negotiating the ticket transaction at the little kiosk in tomorrowland and the skyway scared the bejebies out of me.

The next few years we came down changes stated happening: So much came and went. A MK ticket counter opened up outside of HDDR. The playgrounds had cool metal tree trunks we could climb up to "tree houses" (these may have been there before, but I hadn't noticed) The train was no longer running. The trams were fantastic, and fun to ride with funny drivers... but those too disappeared and were replaced by the buses.

I used to hang out in the store while mom would go to the deli counter to replace all the cheese and bologna we kids cleared out. I don't think we ate a single meal out on our individual family trips. The nightly movie was a bring your own chair or blanket affair. There was no Chip or Dale, no Campfire... and to us, it was perfect. There was no pool, but we swam in the lake or took the boat over to the Poly or Contemporary to swim. River Country finally opened and it was (in my mind, it still is) the best water park ever created.

 

[shoreline99]

4 kids + a desire to stay in one room instead of two overpriced suites or one of the all star resorts led us to stay in a cabin at the fort. First trip we made the mistake of not renting from Kenny. THAT won't happen again.

3 trips in 3 years with 4 kids = Fort Fiends for life!

 

[mgsmom]

This thread is awesome - I love reading all the stories! Mine is not quite so exciting...

Grew up camping and loved it. We never had much money and WDW was something we didn't even think about - too far and too expensive. I wonder if we would have gone had my Daddy known there was camping & fishing there...

Fast forward to '99 and my DH's parents asked us if we would all want to go to WDW for Christmas that year. Of course we did!!! I had still never been (early 20s). So, the in-laws put up the whole fam at the Contemporary for a week. It was awesome! We all met up for dinner every night - back then you could just call the reservation line that day for a table. Had Christmas dinner in Italy - it was so cool. We all talked about how we wanted to come back.
Less than a year later, DH tragically passed away.

Fast forward again to '05 and I had just remarried. DH had in-laws in FL and they were all DisneyPeeps. We were talking out by the pool on our honeymoon and he said I should go again. I agreed. So we stayed at his bro's house and just spent a day at WDW - we did all 4 parks in one day - it was so much fun!
I do remember riding the ferry from MK to TTC and seeing the boats go past the Cont. and asking him where they were going. He said there were campgrounds over there. I was like "Are you serious? You can CAMP at Disney? How awesome is that?" This is when I learned that DH was not a big camper...

So we just did FW this past summer in a cabin and fell in love with it. DH might try camping yet - he was impressed. We drove around to some other resorts, and I just don't know why we would stay anywhere else.

Nothing like coming back to our own space, tons of trees and outdoor space, and a deck to sit out on and talk about the day after DD goes to sleep. It's just a beautiful place and perfect for vacation!

We are planning to return next summer, but I'm already scheming on how we can get there again before then...

 

[ZeroMyHero]

Here's my 2 cents - sorry for the length.

Drove down to WDW in '82 with my family to tent camp at FW. We met my uncle there with his family and his shiny new Class C. My mom and I were so taken with it we left my dad and bros in the tent and moved into the RV with my uncle, aunt, and cousins. *Loved* the RV, *loved* FW, even though I got the worst sunburn of my life at River Country after falling asleep on the beach for almost 2 hours. I would have loved to have gone back, but for my father WDW was a once in a lifetime trip, so that was that.

Fast forward to 2003: good friends of ours suggested a trip to WDW to break in their new camping gear. The four of us drove down and tent camped at FW and, again, I loved it. DH was not so keen on sleeping in a tent (or on WDW for that matter) as I was. He said that after this trip, he didn't see a reason for us to go back. A year later our oldest DD was born, and WDW was back on the radar.

On our 2008 trip, we stayed in a hotel and it was fine. I mentioned taking our then-DD4 camping at FW sometime and DH said something noncommittal. Oh well, at least he had changed his mind about WDW.

We're going back to WDW in 2011. We had originally planned to stay in a hotel onsite, then decided we want the room a FW cabin would offer, even though the cost made us a little uncomfortable. To cut the budget down a little bit, I thought about renting an RV from a commerical rental place until I found out there were people here who rent their RVs. To my complete surprise, DH loved the idea, so we'll be going back to FW and staying in a Dis-er (Fiend?)-owned RV almost 30 years after my first FW/RV stay. We are really excited, especially me! I'm hoping this trip will convince DH we need an RV of our own. Stranger things have happened.

 

[LemonTwist]

Ours is really simple.

2003 Caribbean Beach

2006 Poly

2008 Port Orleans

And that's when it all changed for us. We got bed bugs at Port Orleans. Had it confirmed by Disney pest control at 3 am. Moved to French Quarter for the remainder of our trip. Swore off hotels for the rest of our lives. Bought a bunch of camping gear and the rest is history. We went to the Fort for the first time last week and fell in love. We had such a great time. The kids loved being outside and cooking out. It was a totally different Disney experience and we are hooked!!! Already planning our next trip!

2010 Fort Wilderness Campground
___________________________________________________________

Me DH DD (13) DS (10) DD (5)

 

[suevr]

1976-1986 ~ visited MK and Epcot a few times when we would come to Florida to pick up my grandmother and drive her back to Canada...never stayed on site since she lived nearby.

1990 ~ went to Disneyland when I went to visit my Dad who lived nearby. It was nowhere near as awesome as WDW.

1999 ~ went to MK and Epcot with DH at New Year's...stayed off site because we had a free hotel room. It was so crazy-busy that we couldn't get on any rides and it was freezing...very disappointing trip, so much so that I couldn't convince DH to go back for another 10 years.

2009 ~ stayed at Fort Wilderness for the first time and fell in love! We didn't know it existed but my mom told us about it and we thought a cabin would be great for our family. Having a full kitchen and separate bedroom for our two boys was perfect. We decided then and there that we would buy a travel trailer for our next trip because we loved the Fort so much! I even booked our campsite for this coming fall without having anything to camp in.

2010 (May) ~ Had to go to SIL's graduation from U of F so since we were nearby we took a quick trip to Disney. The cabins were way too expensive so we stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort...cool pirate room but it was still a hotel and couldn't compare to FW.

2010 (October) ~ We'll be taking our first trip to the Fort in our new 36 foot travel trailer. After only camping once in my life and never setting foot in an RV it was a big step. We love the new TT and it has everything we need. We definitely won't be needing to upgrade anytime soon! We're all extremely excited to be coming for Halloween and have rented our golf cart from Kenny and I'm buying Halloween decorations left and right!

 

[SCtigercock]

Short answer, since a glimmer in my Mom's eye. My parents starting taking my bro and I at least annually in 73/74. I didn't realize how good I had it. Started off in a converted bread truck, then moved down to travel trailerand eventually to two different pop ups with the cabins in thrown in somewhere. Didn't miss a year until college. We relapsed at the Beach and Yacht once, the Contemporary twice and All Stars twice But nothing is the same as The Fort. Just went down in July with the husband in our class C. Hope to head back in Dec 2011