campground help

[pocomom]

Getting into the area a day early with my RV and the fort is booked. anyone have a campground recommendation for a big RV?

 

[Sundancer330]

If you want a campground close to the fort try

Lake Magic
Campground
9600 US Highway 192
Clermont, FL 34714

Its only 15 miles from the fort.

 

[bama_ed]

Hi pocomom.

In those kind of situations I stay at Lake Louisa State Park south of Clermont on Hwy 27. It's just to the west of Disney, convenient if you are coming down I-75 and the Turnpike (the way I come in to WDW), and leaves only 30 minutes to the Fort. Sites are about $25 per night.

IIRC they use a ReserveAmerica-type website and you reserve a specific site. I use it when I'm coming in late in the day or early evening and don't want to pay $100 for the privilege of sleeping at the Fort. I drive over to the Fort the next morning (they accept checkins beginning 630am) and I have an entire day to enjoy the Fort after having paid only $25.

Just another option to consider.

Bama Ed

 

[StormyCA]

Hi pocomom.

In those kind of situations I stay at Lake Louisa State Park south of Clermont on Hwy 27. It's just to the west of Disney, convenient if you are coming down I-75 and the Turnpike (the way I come in to WDW), and leaves only 30 minutes to the Fort. Sites are about $25 per night.

IIRC they use a ReserveAmerica-type website and you reserve a specific site. I use it when I'm coming in late in the day or early evening and don't want to pay $100 for the privilege of sleeping at the Fort. I drive over to the Fort the next morning (they accept checkins beginning 630am) and I have an entire day to enjoy the Fort after having paid only $25.

Just another option to consider.

Bama Ed

Kinda OTT, but you mean they may have a campsite available at that time? Or just that you can park it in the 'park n wait' area until 1pm. It's my first time at FW but we always stay onsite at DL in CA & always check in way early and have been able to get a room right away. I figured that would be a 'no go' at FW.

BTW, want to thank you for your kind answers to my questions. You are a fount of knowledge!

Sorry for the hijack, now back to our regularly scheduled thread.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

In those kind of situations I stay at Lake Louisa State Park south of Clermont on Hwy 27. . . .

If busy and as a backup, try Thousand Trails RV, which is about 5-miles prior to Louisa on Hwy-27.

 

[John VN]

Tropical Palms only 12 minutes from Disney. Last time there, saw a number of Prevost

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Walt+Disney+World+Resort,+Lake+Buena+Vista,+FL+32830/Tropical+Palms+Resort,+2650+Holiday+Trail,+Kissimmee,+FL+34746/@28.355143,-81.5742997,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x88dd7ee634caa5f7:0xa71e391fd01cf1a0!2m2!1d-81.563874!2d28.385234!1m5!1m1!1s0x88dd7f57ad762515:0x7af831a488a31691!2m2!1d-81.51782!2d28.324911

 

[pocomom]

Thanks all! I'm so excited to get there I just kept driving only 8 more hours left and ressie is not until Monday. Already a great trip, first time I managed to pull off a surprise trip AND invited my daughter's best friend ( who she hasn't seen in months due to distance) which none of the kids knew about until she got onboard. If we went home now it would be one of our best trips ever - but of course we won't!

 

[bama_ed]

Kinda OTT, but you mean they may have a campsite available at that time? Or just that you can park it in the 'park n wait' area until 1pm. It's my first time at FW but we always stay onsite at DL in CA & always check in way early and have been able to get a room right away. I figured that would be a 'no go' at FW.

BTW, want to thank you for your kind answers to my questions. You are a fount of knowledge!

Sorry for the hijack, now back to our regularly scheduled thread.

StormyCA, let me explain.

11 am is the official checkout time each day and 1pm is the official checkin day. It is possible, though, to get set up earlier. Using the My Disney Experience (MDE) site that you use to make FP+ reservations, etc, you will get an "Early Checkin" option a few weeks before arrival. It has options for you to specify your expected checkin time, make a loop request (preset options you can choose from like 'near a comfort station', 'near a bus stop', or more popular loop choices, to prepay your remaining balance if you wish, and to put a credit card on file so you can use your Magic Bands to "pay" for stuff . Before they started using MDE in the last year or two, people like myself would get an email about 2 weeks before arrival that offered early checkin. They do all this in advance of our arrival so when you DO show up at the Fort, the actual checkin process is quicker.

The Early Checkin option allows you to specify an estimated time of arrival which includes times earlier in the morning. Keep in mind that the Fort pre-assigns you a camp site number before you drive up and they know who should be checking out on your arrival day and how many empty sites they had the night before. If you said your arrival time was 10 am, they might pre-assign you to a site that was empty the night before. If you said your arrival time was 3pm, they might pre-assign you to a site that had a camper leave that morning by 11am. The Fort needs time after a guest leaves to clean, blow, wet down, and prep a site for the next guest.

Early checkin can only occur, though, if the Fort is not Full and they have empty sites available to pre-assign to early arrivers. So early checkin is not universally available. Busy times when there are few empty sites can prevent early checkin and you may have to wait in the overflow lot. I've had to wait till 3pm before. In those cases they give you all the paperwork, etc but they don't tell you a site number. You can pull over to the parking lot or go off property, whatever. They will ask you for your cell number in checkin and text you your site number when it is ready for you and you can drive right down to it and back in.

Finally, you may be an in-betweener where you arrive at the Fort, the site you were pre-assigned to is not ready yet (maybe the guest hasn't left yet and/or it hasn't been cleaned/prepped yet), but there are other empty sites available. You can asked to be swapped from your pre-assigned site to one available right now if you want to check in right away. But you may lose your requests. The available site may not be in the loop you requested; it may not be near a Comfort Station like you requested; it may not be near a bus stop you requested; if it's an upgrade (from a Full to a Premium for example) you may have to pay the difference. It's up to you to take what's available now or wait for what you were pre-assigned. Fort CM's will NOT tell you what site number you were pre-assigned. But I have asked them, "can you tell me if my pre-assigned site is in loop 1500 (for example) that I requested" and they will say yes or no. So that kind of answer is good enough for me. I have waited in the past. I have taken another site in the past. Just depends on how you feel that day.

Sorry for the long answer but early checkin when available is a benefit of the Fort. I believe WDW basically has the same policy with their hotel rooms.

Bama Ed

 

[ColleenFL]

We stayed at lake Louisa once, and will never go there again. I think most woman would agree with me. It's like primitive camping but with hook up they do have 50 amp. This place has way too many spiders for me and just not my cup of tea of a camp ground if you want to call it that. Just my opinion for what it is worth.

 

[SouthAlabama5er]

We have checked in earlier than 3pm. Last time we was at the Fort we checked in around 8 or 9 am. We leave home with the fifth wheeler around 1 or 2 am. Try to get there early to make the most of the day in the Fort.

 

[StormyCA]

Thanks Ed! That's pretty similar to the hotels; no guarantee, but may be possible.

We'll be arriving (hopefully) a day or two early since we're allowing 8 days on the road for a 6 day trip since 'ya just never know'. We have a place to stay those 2 extra nights if we need it, but you know how it is…..you just want to get into that 'Disney Bubble' as soon as you can! We'll be within 20 mins of the Fort so it would be nice to be able to get in early, but I won't count on it! I figure I'll call the Fort a day or so ahead and see what's up. We aren't going during an historically busy time so fingers crossed!

 

[lookingforthemagic]

Thank you all for this info, as I was wandering the same thing. We plan to drive during the night, probably getting there around 8am. How is the overflow parking if we need to use it? We have a 32ft fiver, so parking in a lot sounds a little worrisome to my hubby

 

[luckycharm19335]

The Rally Park at LazyDays is a beautiful facility.
It is in Seffner about an hour from Disney World.