WDW, Fort Wilderness : again

Just got back from a trip to Fort wilderness. All I can say is AWESOME. The best campground I have ever been in. Lots to see and do just in the CG. You can see the fireworks nightly from the beach, ride bikes all over. We had a golf cart reserved but canceled it because the bikes got us around easily. We spent all day at the parks so wouldn't have used the cart much anyway.

Bathhouses are really nice.

We stayed in the 300 loop at site 332. When you first drive into the loop and start looking at the sites you'll notice its kinda tight. when we pulled up to our site the guy next to me stepped up and said " You'll never get that in there." I said : " Watch This Dude ". Stuck it in there in one shot. ( X-over the road truck driver ) ......... The neighbor said " WOW ".
I had to position the slide between the water supply and the power supply box. The water supply looks like a tree stump that was cool. But it was a nice shady site. and plenty of room for the truck and camper slides. I knew it was gonna storm every afternoon so we never let the awning out but had plenty of room if we wanted to.
Had to take the bike rack off the bumper because of a tree in the rear of the site, no problem though.

I didn't get a chance to ride through some of the other loops just what I could see from the bike trail. Looks like loops 500 and others on that side of the road are a little bigger. 100/200/ 300 looked to have the tightest sites. But if you can back up with a little bit of percission you can back into any of the sites that are tight.
The 29RL's that some of you have would go in the tight sites real easy.
Super Super Nice camp ground.



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In the one picture of the front of the truck , my little girl is standing at the edge of the road, and theres a Trash can thats mounted halfway in the ground so you can't move it. You have to watch out for those to.

Hi Phillip,

Glad to hear you had a GREAT TIME!!!

How did Meredith like it?

Meredith had information / Fun overload to the brain. So did me and carolynn.
We rode the ferry over to magic kingdom to buy tickets for the next morning and watch the fireworks up close and Torture meredith by standing at the front gate and not going in.

Thurs morning : Magic Kingdom from 8am to 7pm -- Yea I was dead........... Meredith was crashed on my shoulder on the boat ride back to camp.....
Fri : MGM disney studio's or whatever they call it now. 10am to 6pm until it rained us out. went back to the camp ground and had reservations for the HOop DE Do dinner show at FW. Well worth the price of admission. Its a good family funny audience interaction show.
Sat : Universal studio's and Islands of adventure from 12pm til 6pm then we caught the Blue Man Group at 6pm, then went back in universal studios for about an hour til they closed at 9pm.


Blue Man Group is totally crazy. They do some wild stuff in their shows with the audience. Well worth the price to see.
Sun : Started crying cause I had to pack up and leave.

You could spend 2 weeks at Fort wilderness and still not be ready to leave.

That campground sounds great. Bummer that it's 2,500 miles from my home here on the left coast (500 gallons of #2 for the round trip). That's five days of driving just to get there. I'd do it if I could get a month off of work.

Does Disney Land In Calif have a campground ? seems like they would.

But yea, it would be worth the 5 day trip if you had time. Especially if you were doing a coast to coast. It would be a great destination to wind up at on the east coast side.

Don't believe Disneyland has a campground; they just don't have as much room as Disney World. There are campgrounds in the area. I remember a thread on the old forum talking about it.

Admin wrote:Does Disney Land In Calif have a campground ? seems like they would.

But yea, it would be worth the 5 day trip if you had time. Especially if you were doing a coast to coast. It would be a great destination to wind up at on the east coast side.

They used to (about 10 years ago), but had to rip it out for a massive parking garage when they added Disney's California Adventure. They built the new theme park in the old parking lot. I've camped at Orangeland, http://www.orangeland.com/, which is about 5 miles to the east, basically a blacktop parking lot. Was really hot when we camped there last summer, over 100. It was so hot the asphalt softened and when I made a sharp turn while adjusting the Cat, I managed to take a divot out of the black top. AC ran 7/24 to keep the cats cool.

In two weeks, we are going to try Canyon RV Park in Anaheim, it's about 15 miles north east, just off the 91 right next to the Santa Ana River. http://www.canyonrvpark.com/

Mark, please report back on what you think of Canyon RV Park when you return. I was considering trying them the next time we go down to Disneyland. Thanks.
Craig

Great photos. We plan on going back this fall. We've got three days left on our passports, and will stay about a week to 10 days, so will probably rent the golf cart.

Have they started construction on re-doing some of the campsites?

I think they're working on a few of them at a time. I believe they had already done the 300 loop I stay in. Its still tight but all the sites are very nice.

If you don't mind me asking how much was it per day at the CG and do they have pakage deals for the different amusement parks while your staying at the campground. Can you get to all the parks without driving the truck? Looking at making the trip next year.

grover wrote:If you don't mind me asking how much was it per day at the CG and do they have pakage deals for the different amusement parks while your staying at the campground. Can you get to all the parks without driving the truck? Looking at making the trip next year.

You can book all of your particulars here.


Fort Wilderness

This way you can see what options are available, four different prices on sites, different duration passes, even different types of passes.

For what I consider the best WDW information site on the internet, go to:

http://www.allearsnet.com/

Now I hope I don't get fired from the one I work for. :)

Here is some info about Disney's construction of new Premier sites:

The Premium Site is billed as "big-rig" friendly. They accomodate RVs larger than 45 feet in length and those that have multiple slide outs. The sites are wider (up to 24 ft), and deeper (up to 60 ft). They also feature all of the amenities - water, power, sewer and access to the high speed Internet (Internet is an additional daily fee), plus upgraded picnic tables and grills as well as prime locations.

Construction to build the new Premium Sites begins in July, 2008 and finishes in April, 2009.

A list of fees can be found in the accomodations section of allearsnet. Fort Wilderness is way down at the bottom of the list on the left side of the accomodations page.

We stayed in 332 of 300 Loop,






If you look on the park map, 100/200/300 are right next to the lake. Those were the prettiest sites to me. Nice cypress trees and other hardwoods. You could walk right out to the lake on the trail by the loops and see the fireworks everynight at 10pm. Be prepared for that, If you stay in they will rock your camper. Its across the lake but sound travels pretty good across there.

Those 3 loops probably have the tightest room to back up into your site. But with a spotter you can do it easy. The premium sites on those loops are set up for slides on both sides. Sewer / power/ water/ cable are Premium sites.

500 / 400 / 700 would also be real close to the boat dock and pioneer hall where most everything happens around there at night. Hoop De Do Dinner show is a Must..... You'll enjoy that. Its a funny western style dinner show.
Don't be afraid of the tight sites, I garantee you can get into any of the premium sites on those loops.

I'd recommend and also read other peoples comments about not buying the package deals. from what I saw you only saved a few dollars off any of them. And if you decide you didn't want to go to that park that day your ya know.

If you've got bikes, don't rent a golf cart. if you have a golf cart and are able to take it with you I'd do that. You can get around on the bikes real easy though.

Getting around to the parks is easy, Catch the ferry from the boat dock over to Magic Kingdom. Cool free boat ride. Or catch the other boat over to wilderness lodge if you want to see that ....
You can catch the CG bus out to the front gate, then catch a bus to any of the other parks. I recommend driving yourself to the other parks. The bus ride can be a pain in the butt if your coming from the park and don't won't to wait on the bus. Just jump in your truck and go. Its FREE parking while your staying at the campground at any disney park..... Sweet.

My Recommends on the parks,

Magic Kingdom #1
Animal Kingdom #2

Epcot ---- :roll:
Disney studios --- only thing fun there was Tower of Terror.


Universal Studios is Awesome.
Buy a ticket and get in 2 parks same day.
Islands of adventure is on one side., Water rides and roller coasters,,,,
Universal studios on the other side,,,, mostly inside rides and shows.

So if you where short on time, and only where gonna hit 2 parks. I'd highly recommend

Magic Kingdom and Universal........

when you first arrive at WDW, Take the epcot exit or the next exit which will put you on World Drive, follow that down toward Magic Kingdom and when you get to the parking toll booth, they will wave you through. ( no pay to park as a guest ) Stay in the right lane and follow the red line over to the right and take the first right past the gate. that will take you down to the entrance of FW.
Check in is at 1pm. Check out is 11am
You pull up to a window to check in and never get out of the truck, another sweet feature.

The loops toward the front gate are all in Pine thickets. The loops past the pool are all hardwoods mostly. 100/ 200/ 300 are surronded by cypress trees .....
Bugs didn't seem to be a problem while we were there. 300 is a dog friendly loop and we didn't have any problems with dogs or anything.....

Admin wrote: Getting around to the parks is easy, Catch the ferry from the boat dock over to Magic Kingdom. Cool free boat ride. Or catch the other boat over to wilderness lodge if you want to see that ....
You can catch the CG bus out to the front gate, then catch a bus to any of the other parks. I recommend driving yourself to the other parks. The bus ride can be a pain in the butt if your coming from the park and don't won't to wait on the bus. Just jump in your truck and go. Its FREE parking while your staying at the campground at any disney park..... Sweet.

We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge back in the summer of 2003, right before my daughter turned six. Buses in my opinion are not that bad to get anywhere, needed if you want to go to Animal Kingdom and MGM, now Disney's Hollywood Studios. You can also take the boat to the Magic Kingdom and then get on the monorail to EPCOT. We really like EPCOT, even with a six-year old at the time. Three great restaurants there, Le Cellier Steakhouse in the Canada Pavilion, pricy, good table service and excellent steaks. Rose & Crown Dining Room in the U.K. Pavilion, great British Pub. Reminded me of when I lived there as a kid when my Dad was stationed there in the Navy. Finally, another pricy restaurant, but well worth it, took my wife there for her birthday on our honeymoon way back when, called the Coral Reef Restaurant in the Seas Pavilion.

Water parks are a blast, had to sit under thunderstorm shelters for a couple of hours since we were there in June.

For me the dud was Animal Kingdom, but then I'm spoiled by the San Diego Zoo / Wild Animal Park. It's a good park mind you, just don't expect to see a lot of wildlife unless you are staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and have a room facing one of the exhibits or take the Kilimanjaro Safari.

No matter what you decide, you'll have a blast. Just remember plenty of water, sunscreen and bug repellant. We are thinking of going there this Christmas season to see the parks decorated for the holidays. We've always wanted to do that.

We are going in two weeks as the Food & Wine Festival is starting at EPCOT. So it will be nice to stay there. I will write when we get back and let everyone know how it went. As we live in Florida we have passes to Disney and we love it that we can go any time we want and stay in one of the parks for as little as 1/2 hour to all day. :king: :queen:

OK, OK, Rub it in will ya,,,

I wish I could go more often, and i'm just in Ga. FW will absolutely soil ya for sure...... Ya'll have fun and take some pic's.


Scruffy and Tater are headed that way this week also. You may run into them while your there. They should have their Logo and numbers on .....
If your not familiar with the number system we set up ,,, You can look at the first forum topic on the main page and look up a members number. The number will be on the front driver side top corner and on the rear of the camper. Pretty cool way to run into somebody on the road and know they're from the forum.

We'll be at Disney in October, the 23rd through 28th.

We are staying at Port Orlean's French Quarter though.......didn't want to pull the kid's out of school so many days to make the drive.

We usually make some rounds in FW though, if anyone is going to be there......??


Steve

huntr70 wrote:We are staying at Port Orlean's French Quarter though

We're staying there between Christmas and New Year, you'll have to let us know how you like that hotel.

mattebury wrote:

huntr70 wrote:We are staying at Port Orlean's French Quarter though

We're staying there between Christmas and New Year, you'll have to let us know how you like that hotel.

We've stayed at Port Orleans 2 times, very nice. We were supposed to be going down the end of Oct and staying in FW also for the food and wine fest and Mickey's Not so Spooky Halloween party, which is worth the money if anybody is there then. But the trip had to be postponed to early December. Since it was postponed due to the in-laws schedule, they offered to put everybody up at Port Orleans, so that is what we are opting for.

Enjoy the food and wine fest, the trick is to actually make it all the way around!!
We always start at Mexico for the margaritas and end at the beer garden in England. Watch out for Australia, it's a trap!!! By the time you are done tasting there, you need a wheel chair.

We'll be getting to Fort Wilderness Sept 25. Get set up, go to airport to pick up son and dil, take them to Wilderness Lodge, then find a lounge where we can unwind. :drunken: We'll be unwinding until Oct 4, when we take them back to the airport. Then we'll head home.

Bob and Karyn, if you are there while we're there, maybe we can get together. We'll be around the trailer all day on Oct 2 celebrating our son's 29th birthday again. :)

Steve and Vicki, Port Orleans French Quarter is one of our favorite resorts. We sure do miss Bonfamille's Restaurant, though

Brad and Danielle, sorry you'll be missing MNSSHP. You might be able to get tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party if they haven't sold out all nights. Or the Candlelight Processional at Epcot - you can get semi-reserved seating and dinner at one of several Epcot restaurants. You could also take a chance that there would be unreserved seats available (free) - there usually are, but you might have to get in line at least an hour ahead of showtime. Be sure to be at the Studios some evening to enjoy the holiday lights on New York Street. Port Orleans is beautiful during the holidays. We have two days scheduled for Epcot - we plan on "grazing around the world" both days. :)

We're going back again in January.

Tater

We have reservations for Dec 8th thru the 17th. The Christmas decorations will be up and we're hoping to avoid most of the holiday crowds going between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's not our first trip to WDW, but it is our first to Ft Wilderness. Can't wait! I think the wife and I are more excited than the kids!

You'll love every minute of it. We stayed in the 300 loop. You could walk out on a little trail by the canal and see the fire works everynight.

Did you request a loop when you made res'vations..?

Mid December is our favorite time to go to WDW. We went last year in December. The only problem with that is, I don't have time to decorate our house as much as I'd like.

We didn't request a specific loop. Since they made some improvements to the campsites (making some bigger), we don't really know where we'd like to be. Loop 1000 was very nice, and I definitely wouldn't mind being there again - but, part of the adventure is staying somewhere else.

Tater

The sites on 300 are tight for sure, BUt it was really nice to be able to walk out on the canal and be at the lake in just a short walk.

the 500 loop straight across from 300 looked like the sites were redone to be a lot bigger also.

We have requested the 800 "Jack Rabbit Run", after talking to one of the reservation ladies. We need a pet friendly loop; the 800 loop will have just completed construction in early November and will have some of the widest sites of all newly renovated loops; it is a good distance from the noise at loop 400 were construction will be going on; and its off the "beaten path" for most attractions in the campground, but only a few hundred yards from the playground and marina. sounded perfect ... we'll see.

With all of y'all going to WDW, I am now officially