What's New at the Fort?

[tungpo1]

Awesmoe pics!!! oh yeah did someone say UM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Speaking of golf carts,

We saw quite a few interesting ones this past weekend.

Snapped a few photos.

This beauty was parked by the Meadows pool:

The boat walls are made out of wood paneling like we used to have in our rec room back in the '70's. There is a PVC pipe frame that was attached to the golf cart frame, and then the paneling was strapped on with plastic ties.

As I was admiring this amazing feat of engineering, a fellow pulls up in another decorated cart, and says that his son had done the pirate ship, and that there was also a Stitch cart in their group. Here is the father's cart:

And we found the Stitch cart parked outside the Meadows Trading Post:

We also liked this Tigger cart (they weren't with the pirate/stitch group). The young lady driving it told us her father had hand painted it. It had a cute fabric tail on it, which you can see a little of in the second photo:

I still have more, check back later.

TCD

 

[Boomer1]

Great pics and trip report. Makes me miss the Fort. A couple of years ago after the hurricanes there were alot of trees down, perhaps this is just a continuation of the clean-up.
Colson 39 , as a lady, we kinda like the Vin Diesel look. Also we don't have to worry about you stealing our hair care products, LOL!

 

[Bunchkin]

Thanks for sharing the pics and info TCD.

We'll be there in Sept. and I'll be anxious to see if the Settlement Trading Post is up and at full swing by then.

 

[Colson39]

Wow, I love that pirate ship golf cart, that was awesome. I love the ingenuity that is going into these carts now a days.

As for the ex that got thrown off a golf cart, when I get back to work tomorrow I'll post the story in the chit chat thread About to go outside and watch the space shuttle launch!

Keep the great pics going TCD!

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Wow, I love that pirate ship golf cart, that was awesome. I love the ingenuity that is going into these carts now a days.

As for the ex that got thrown off a golf cart, when I get back to work tomorrow I'll post the story in the chit chat thread About to go outside and watch the space shuttle launch!

Keep the great pics going TCD!

You say "thrown" but the rumor is she was pushed.

 

[Camping Cat]

BTW... great post TCD.. love those pics, its almost like being home.

LOL! That's exactly what I was thinking. I called my husband in to look at the pictures and we felt like we were there! We miss that place SO much!

 

[Shannone1]

Hello Ft. Wilderness Fans-

The TCD gang is back from a quick three night trip to the Fort. We arrived on August 3, and left on August 6th. The last time we had visited was in mid-March. So, here is my report, focusing on what is new, different, or interesting at the Fort:

We arrived around noon on Friday, and were assigned to site 1023. We stayed on the 1000 loop for the first time last Thanksgiving, and thoroughly enjoyed the location and set-up of this loop. This is a full hook-up loop, so no cable TV for the TCD kids. We were able to receive all of the major broadcast networks, and a bunch of other networks- about 20 channels in all- with a pair of rabbit ears. Truthfully, I have grown to prefer the full hook up loops over the preferred loops. The preferred loops are always crowded, and it seems like most of them are pet loops now. Not that I have anything against pets, but things are much quieter on the non pet loops.


TCD

Whoo hoo !! Thanks for the great pictures and the "spy" work. I love the creative golf carts too. Guess it's silly to ask if you enjoyed your stay, lol. When is your next trip ??

 

[rushing]

Thanks for the pictures. I can't wait until Feb.

 

[tellnotails]

i heard she had a hold of his hair just prior to the push......

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Whoo hoo !! Thanks for the great pictures and the "spy" work. I love the creative golf carts too. Guess it's silly to ask if you enjoyed your stay, lol. When is your next trip ??

Oh, yeah, we enjoyed our stay, as always.

Also, I am not a spy. Spies get paid. I am just nosey.

Unfortunately, it looks like we won't be back to the Fort until October. We almost always make it to the Fort for my BD in September, but this year, we have something else planned (Discovery Cove).

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

i usually ask the grounds crew what they are doing and they said they are having problems with potato vine at the fort.......growing al over and killing trees and bushes........

Yes, they definitely have a very bad problem with Air Potato vines at the Fort. Back in the day when the TCD kids were small, they used to spend hours collecting the little air potatoes off of the ground- by the bucket full. One time, one of them even smuggled a bucket of them home! Someone later told me that these things are poisonous. Not sure if that is true or not.

There is still a very bad problem around the bridge over the water way behind the Meadows area. The vines have covered everything.

I think that they are spraying herbicide around to kill these vines.

On Monday morning, a fellow was going all around the 1000 loop spraying the vegetation around all of the sites:

That hose was connected to a tank on a little truck that he was driving around.

The truck said WDW Pest Control. It could have been some type of pesticide.

But, it did seem like a lot of the plant life around our site was dead or dying. With all of the rain in Central Florida lately, everything around my house is green and growing like crazy. I think that they are killing off this extra growth, and that it will be removed, as has already been done in the 1000, 1200, 1300, and 1700 loops.

I wonder if this is going to continue on in the other loops. I would expect yes. I am not sure people will like it in some of the tighter loops, like the 300 loop for example. Right now, you can't see from one site to the next on the interior loop sites. The comfort station sits in the middle of the loop, but you can't see it. If all the extra brush and growth gets cleaned out, people will see how close those sites are to each other, and I can't imagine folks will like it.

But, as I have said, it will grow back. And, I would not be surprised if Disney plants some new, nicer things in some of these loops. A few years back, the 1400 loop got cleared out pretty good. On one trip, we were assigned to the very first site on the outside of the loop. The bus stop is right behind this site. There was nothing growing between the bus stop and that site, so people at the bus stop got a front row view of life in our site. Now, if you look at that site, they planted some new bald cypress trees, and other plants, and you can't see anything from the bus stop.

BTW- I just realized that I don't think I saw any air potatoes on the ground around the 1000 loop.

TCD

 

[OK GRUMPY]

Thanks for giving us the heads up on whats going on. Its been a very interesting thread. When do you go in October? We will be there the end of October.

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Thanks for giving us the heads up on whats going on. Its been a very interesting thread. When do you go in October? We will be there the end of October.

For the past couple of years, we have been able to go near the end of October, usually whatever weekend falls right before Halloween.

But, this year, the kids' school schedule is going to force us to go a little earlier. I haven't booked yet, and I may have messed up by waiting this long, but I almost always have good luck by being persistent.

So, my best guess would be that our next trip will be around 10/18 for three nights.

TCD

 

[Colson39]

There is a history of wildfires that have happened at the Fort. The last big one was very dangerous and spread very quickly through the ground cover. Ground cover is one of the worst things during a wildfire.

And yes I hate those air potatoe vines, ugh. They sound yummy, but they're not!

Edit: You know, I just looked at the picture of the guy spraying the vines again....

Hold that sprayer a little lower and that picture could have taken on an ENTIRELY different meaning

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Alright, since this is kind of a convoluted trip report, let me share a few observations with you all before I post some more photos.

First, it is HOT at the Fort in August! Since we hold Florida Resident’s Seasonal Passes, we do not usually visit the Fort in the summer time. We go a lot in the Fall and Spring. We took this trip to visit the water parks. Our site (1023) got direct sun from about 11 am until 4 pm. The AC just could not compete with the heat. No problem at night time, but during the day it was brutal. I don’t know how the tent campers do it. But, the tent sites were full, and people were doing it. It was funny once we got home. You really appreciate central air after you have been away from it for a few days.

The next thing that I notice different about the summer time was how crowded the main (Meadows) pool was. All day. We stopped by for a quick dip around 11 pm on Friday night before turning in, and the pool was packed. I mean packed! When we camp in the November-March time frame, it is pretty cool at night, and there usually is no one at the pool this late at night. And, not only was it packed, the crowd there was wild! There are no life guards at the pools this late at night, so it was anything goes. People were drinking beers in the pool, kids were jumping and flipping off of the life guard stand. It is a miracle that no one gets hurt when this is all going on. I’m not judging anyone- everyone is entitle to enjoy his vacation, but people were getting a little carried away.

On this trip, we hit Typhoon Lagoon on Saturday. They have Extra Magic Hours there in both the morning and evening on Saturdays in the summer. The EMH’s at TL are great! We got there at 8 am, and rode Crushin’ Gusher all we wanted. No waits. The park started getting really crowded by around noon, so we ate a quick lunch, and headed back to the Fort, where we hung out until after dinner, and then headed back to TL at around 7. EMH’s went from 8 to 11 pm. TL was still crowded during the EMH’s, but it was not bad considering it was a very hot evening in August. It is fun to do a Disney waterpark at night. Especially Shark Reef.

Saturday was also the day that the Air Force was conducting fly overs in Central Florida. There was previous mention on the Board here about a letter that was distributed to each camp site alerting everyone to this. We did see two jets fly over while at TL, but otherwise this was a non-event.

The next day (Sunday) we did something we have never done while staying at the Fort. We left WDW property! The reason is that we wanted to visit Wet and Wild. In all these years that I have lived in Florida (almost 30 now), I have never been there, and the TCD DD’s have not as well. There was a show on the Travel Channel that rated Wet and Wild the number 10 waterpark in the country. Some of the attractions there sounded interesting, so we decided to check it out. Well, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t Disney. They sure have a little gold mine there. That place is maybe 1/10 the size of a Disney waterpark, but the cost of admission is within a few dollars of a WDW water park. In Wet and Wild’s defense, they do pack a lot of attractions in that little space. That is easy to do when you don’t have to worry about aesthetics. Anyway, the visit was good, as we got to see how much better the WDW product is. But, there are some very cool slides there at Wet and Wild (Disco H20 and Brainwash). Wet and Wild also got very crowded by mid-day, and we followed the same plan as TL- we left and headed back to the Fort right after lunch. We didn’t plan to go back, but since they were open until 9, and since it was so dang hot, we ended up going back at around 7 and closed out the park at 9.

As we headed back to the Fort on Sunday evening, we drove down International Drive. Man, what an eyesore! But, the place was packed. Bumper to bumper traffic at 9 pm on a Sunday night, and thousands of people out walking up and down the street. After seeing this, it sure made me appreciate the peace and quiet of the Fort. It amazes me to think that for what those poor folks were paying for their rooms in the nondescript hotels and motels that are crammed on International Drive, I have a private piece of paradise in the middle of WDW!

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

While off-property, we went by the Kwik-E-Mart outside the WDW gates to get a Squishee.

I'm not sure if you all knew about this:

Actually, we snapped these photos the week before our Ft. Wilderness trip.

The Kwik-E-Mart has already turned back into a 7-11.

TCD

 

[tellnotails]

While off-property, we went by the Kwik-E-Mart outside the WDW gates to get a Squishee.

I'm not sure if you all knew about this:

Actually, we snapped these photos the week before our Ft. Wilderness trip.

The Kwik-E-Mart has already turned back into a 7-11.

TCD

i am offended..... my great uncle twice removed best friends brother in-law was of middle eastern descent....

 

[Colson39]

We saw the Qwik-E-Mart last time we were there, I have to admit it's a rather genius marketing campaign, kudos to them.

And yea, we rarely visit during the summer either, same reason, Florida Seasonal Pass, just too hot. But we've visited twice this summer. One time was in late March/early April, and believe it or not, the last cold front of the season came in, and it actually was really pleasant all weekend. We also went about a month ago, it was hot, but it's been worse. This summer in general has been pretty hit and miss, some days it's brutal, other days not so bad. The last couple summers had pretty much routinely been nothing but brutal, so it's a nice change.

Meadows trading post pool. I know I've mentioned it before, but it's one of my claims to fame in the Fort. Brother and I were the first one's ever to set foot in that pool as guests, were there first thing in the morning on opening day. Amazingly, there was no one else there (I think it was around 7 AM back then), if that happened now there would probably be a line waiting to get in...lol.

 

[Tri-circle-D]

OK, time for some unauthorized behind the scenes photos:


If you head toward the old River Country entrance, this is what you see:

If you walk around to the outside of this wall, and peak around, this is what you see:

There used to be a burrowing owl who lived in that cage.

Look to the left, and you are looking at the former ticket windows. They now have bait tanks set up there which I presume they are using for the fishing excursions that are now offered.

Here are some photos of the area behind the wall closer up:

Check out the ticket prices- and those aren't from all that long ago. I believe that River Country was last open in the Summer of 2001.

This makes me real sad. I was a huge River Country fan.

The TCD DD's barely remember it, but we used to go there every time we camped. Discovery Island, too.

I hope that you all appreciate the extra effort it took for me to bring these photos to you.


TCD