My 1980 dream of Camping at the Fort, Fall 2012: Pop, BWV and THE FORT! .. update: 10 years later .. Trip report is complete!

[WalkingintheFog]

The Boardwalk Adventure Continues Oct 3: Wednesday.
On tap for today: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! (Oct 3 continued)

For supper, I had Bongos Cuban Café in mind...I was determined to try a new restaurant!
By the time I was hungry at 7, it was dark and that menu on the side of the wall is not (was not) lit up. I explained I was not able to see the menu, did they have another one I could look at, but was told “all we serve is on that menu”. I explained again, that because it was dark & the menu was not lit, I couldn’t see what was on it. “No,” the girl said in an irritated voice,”all that we serve is on that menu. That’s the only one we have”.

Do you think I ate there? No way, Jose!

Next stop: Wolfgang Puck Express West End (so much for some place new!)
Wolfgang Puck Express rarely fails to please! It’s tableservice disguised as counterservice!
Placed my order, and sat at one of the few vacant areas (a set of 3 tables).
The table staff were all so great! I asked the lady serving the other table for vinegar malt or white for my fries (How does one eat French Fries without vinegar??): she came back saying no white/malt but she brought a little pot of balsamic in case that would do. And the one assigned to my order was so pleasant as well. When I was done, I looked for both to give a tip to each (sometimes tipping irritates me, as it’s an expectation regardless of service. But when somebody treats me genuine & nicely, I try to acknowledge them.

*************************
So, that’s lot of walking this evenying, but are my feet hurting as badly as before?
Nope!..Those arch supports I picked up at Dollar General yesterday are really making a difference! Not hobbling!

 

[WalkingintheFog]

The Boardwalk Adventure Continues Oct 3: Wednesday. Oct 3 continued.
It's my last night at BWV!!!!! (Oct 3 continued)


Guess what????? This is my last night at BWV! Tomorrow it’s goodbye to EPCOT living, and Howdy to The Fort! The Camping Adventure begins tomorrow!!!!!

 

[glennbo123]

Good stories! The little kid passing you on the stairs up the slide, that never happens to me....I try to take up enough space that they can't pass and/or I shoot 'em a mean look. As mean as I'm able.

That guy taking video -- creepy.

I hadn't heard of Lifeproof cases, I might have to look into that.

I don't blame you for not eating at Bongo's with the reception you got. You should've told her you can't read.

Looking forward to the camping stories!

 

[WalkingintheFog]

Fast forward to late Oct 2022…….Ten years later & I’m finally truly planning another FORT CAMPING adventure for 2023 November: My theme will be “my 60th for my 60th”.

But, good grief, I never finished my 2012 Trip Report, I abandoned it right as “My 1980's dream of Camping at the Fort” became a reality!! So, gosh darn it, I’m going to finish it now!

 

[WalkingintheFog]

Oct 4 2022..oops 2012 Moving day!
Day 9 onsite, after a couple days at POP, and ~a week at BWV, my things are no longer condensed & I’ve also accumulated more supplies!

Bell services watched in awe as I fit everything into the rental sedan (In addition to my carry on & two big suitcases, at this point I also have picked up a cooler, coolerbag, camp chair and supplies from Tina of “CampingAtTheFort“ (which includes a super large marine cooler, a fan the size of the Moon and a huge plastic bin)).

This is it!! I’m on my way to The Fort!!! Woo hoo!

 

[WalkingintheFog]

Oct 4.. Thurs! Day 1 at THE FORT (even 10 years later this makes me smile)

I didn’t realize that there was a Drive-thru checkin, so parked the car & went inside the Outpost. Lol, I was so excited to be there, I realized the next day I didn’t listen to half the explanations that were given at check-in.
But, I did pay attention to the site number! The one I was assigned was too close to the other sites behind and on one side, and right next to the comfort station… That might be great if you’re in a trailer or camper but noisy if you’re in a tent: Luckily there was a much better site available if I was willing to wait an hour or more for checkin… Oh yes please!

They stowed my perishable groceries in their ‘bell services’ fridge, & I meandered up via bus to The Meadows to check out the shop (haha, I really just wanted to check the price of beer! $5.75single, and $15 6pk) & have a swim — once again I gave myself a thumbs up for upgrading from a flip phone to an iPhone on the spur the moment a few days before my trip— I got their text that my site was ready within half an hour!

My site was great for me! Nice and level, and a grassy bank behind me.

 

[WalkingintheFog]

SETTING UP CAMP

After a hour or so— a hot humid dripping hour! before I had the Eureka! idea of plugging in the huge fan from Tina — I finally had my groundsheet & tent set up, more or less: Where’s my camp mallet???
I had flown down & brought all my basics with me in checked baggage…well, almost all.. turns out I forgot the mallet for the tent pegs !
Most of the neighbouring sites were trailers or small RVs, and nobody around, …. turns out that this was one item the Meadows store did not carry! Aargh!

So, for now, I made up my bed & put everything inside the tent & crossed my fingers for no huge gusts of wind!

Next task is to add my overhead tarp for shade & extra rain protection (and now a means of holding my tent down!) …..well gosh darn, I just can’t manage to get my rope slung high enough up the nearby trees.. After an idiotic unsafe move of stacking coolers by the tree, I managed ~7‘ high.. which translated to ~only 5’ high because the trees were down a little bit of a hollow. (2023 trip planning: if I don’t bring a couple foldable tarp poles, I’ll pick up a couple ~8’ posts at a lumberyard in Wdw vicinity).
…. Heading to MK for MNSSHP tonight, but no way am I heading out til I‘m sure all is rain-protected & relatively shipshape. Rain is in the forecast!
I managed to pull & tug the heavy picnic table to a place where I could have it under the tarp & also as to attach the 2 tent guy ropes (the fire grill post came in use as well for both tentguy & tarpguy!))

Solid planning on my part as the heavens opened up shortly before I head out! Check out the resulting pond!!!

 

[MinnieFan4ever]

Oh my gosh. This is hysterical! How in the world can you remember what you did 10 years ago? I can’t even recall what I did last week at Disney World.

 

[DL1WDW2]

It is midnight in Florida
I just can not stay up all night reading this .
I will return … And hope for updated / completion?
Hectic week for me so right after Halloween .

P.S. I have been trying to find a see thru bag to squish my huge oversized sleeping bag into. It is in perfect shape Have had it for over 20 years Coleman plaid w/ green on other side.
Never been used , just keep moving with it So it has been all over the place… Currently moving now too.
Finally found something online from REI …. reviews swear they fit a tent into this.
Your original post mentions the people that stuffed bicycles into their suitcase.
Ziploc Bags and Hefty need to make bigger plastic bags apparently.
it arrives Tuesday I will let everybody know if it is really really big
Just in case you need to stuff your tent for storage.
Haha

 

[WalkingintheFog]

P.S. I have been trying to find a see thru bag to squish my huge oversized sleeping bag into. It is in perfect shape Have had it for over 20 years Coleman plaid w/ green on other side.
Never been used , just keep moving with it So it has been all over the place… Currently moving now too.
Finally found something online from REI …. reviews swear they fit a tent into this.
Your original post mentions the people that stuffed bicycles into their suitcase.
Ziploc Bags and Hefty need to make bigger plastic bags apparently.
it arrives Tuesday I will let everybody know if it is really really big
Just in case you need to stuff your tent for storage.
Haha

Our local stores Dollarama sells these ‘space age/clear plastic vacuum-or-squeeze-all-the-air-out bags which are cheap & great! I dunno if I would store a sleeping bag compressed, but for space-saving travel packing , it would be amazing!

Let us know if your REI bag meets your needs!

My parents were always campers, tent campers until dad built his own canvas pop-up trailer circa early Sixties, to accommodate five little girls, and eventually a small trailer.
The family cabin still has some of the sleeping bags ….Back then it was all cotton material and flannel inside, with lumpy stuffing…..no compressing those!

 

[WalkingintheFog]

May 12 2012 I wrote:

I just paid for my park tickets! Woo hoo!
..........
..........
Still have to get MNSSHP tickets, but I'll do that just a day or 2 before which ever date I choose.... sure don't want to pre-pay for tickets and then find out rain storms will define that day!

Haha… famous last words! Rainstorms did not define the entire day, but did define the last half of the day!

 

[WalkingintheFog]

hmm... just a blank post to be deleted...

 

[DL1WDW2]

Our local stores Dollarama sells these ‘space age/clear plastic vacuum-or-squeeze-all-the-air-out bags which are cheap & great! I dunno if I would store a sleeping bag compressed, but for space-saving travel packing , it would be amazing!

Let us know if your REI bag meets your needs!

My parents were always campers, tent campers until dad built his own canvas pop-up trailer circa early Sixties, to accommodate five little girls, and eventually a small trailer.
The family cabin still has some of the sleeping bags ….Back then it was all cotton material and flannel inside, with lumpy stuffing…..no compressing those!

I just got those REI in mail …they are nice but no way .
Thanks for Dollar Store tip….
You are amazing and father even more so!
Gives me encouragement cause staying in tent at Fort W on my bucket list.
Also really wished I had booked that during recent hurricane for one night and then get moved to resort stay by Disney Haha !

 

[WalkingintheFog]

Also really wished I had booked that during recent hurricane for one night and then get moved to resort stay by Disney Haha !

Haha, That would be sweet! Everyone dreams of an upgrade!

 

[WalkingintheFog]

Day 10 continues... Oct 4 ... 2012

CRASH! BOOM! BANG!!! but this time it's from the heavens above!
the skies turned dark fast, and pretty soon it was pouring rain, thunder and lightning!

It's not camping unless it rains, but man, thunder & lightning I can do without.
That right there was one of my #1 reasons for wanting a car on my site!

I had just gotten dressed for the MNSSHP (just an $10 Orange Hallowe'en Tshirt from Target), so I hunkered down in the car for an hour or two, and evaluated my plan for getting to MK:

Orig decided boat across was quickest option, but I figured prob tied up in this weather, so I drove down to the Outpost (main entrance) & jumped on bus.. oh my stars, I should have just driven to the TTC parking & took the ferry or monorail!! The bus I took went right thru the campground, stopped at the Meadows & at the Settlement, unloaded all at Wilderness Lodge where we had to wait in the downpour for a bus to MK, and there at MK, had to get thru a wall of people heading away from the park.
Yep, driving would have been faster.... that trip toooooooookkkkkkkkk forever.

 

[WalkingintheFog]

Day 10 continues... Oct 4
MNSSHP has never failed to impress!

I think I've done 5 up to current date: 2 alone, 1 w/ a cousin & 2 w/ 2 of my sisters (we went as 3 identical flower pots! We got a lot of enjoyment just coming up with diff accessories for ourselves! One sister carried a watering jug as a purse, and, we had some silk flowers to wrap around our arms & treatbags, and I think we all stuck random lady bugs & butterflies over ourselves!

I can't post a picture of us, but here's our head pieces!


We were lucky that there was no rain, never even considered it as a possibility! We each used a tin of haircolour spray on our hair to match our head pieces.... At the end of the night back at the resort, I stuck my head under the bathtub faucet, and the pink just poured!

S-T-A-R-V-I-N-G!!
So, once I'm in park, got my wristband & lootbag, it's straight to Pecos Bill!
(wait, who am I kidding? My photo journal clearly shows a few candy T.o.T stops first!
People always ask what's the ONE food place you always want to visit at each park.
In MK, it's Cosmic Rays Pecos Bill..... I refuse to choose! It's both.
What's yours????

I knew from FB an old friend & family were at the MNSSHP that night, so messaged & we connected a few times that evening as the thunder, lightning & rain eventually eased off.
The 1st parade was cxled, but the fireworks and 2nd parade happened!
(my note to self tells me if the Fireworks are cancelled, you can ask to have your ticket refunded... not sure if still same policy... hope so, but for me both the parade & the fireworks are a HUGE part of the event.



I loved the haunted mansion waltzers, and the gravediggers are always a hit.



Even tho’ there were many crowded areas, many rides were walk-on or low wait times --which is another draw to doing the MNSSHP during the week - this was a Thursday.. no doubt the weather helped to thin the crowds a bit as well.

Given I had my handy dandy rain poncho on, I didn't hesitate to ride Splash Mountain twice -- I am always so in awe of the attention to detail, and there's always something diff to see each time.

It was an amazing night (it was warm, somewhat humid and DISNEY!!!!), closing time was Midnight, and I dragged my feet, leaving the park at 12:30.
Boat was running, so had a quick ride back to the fort.

DOIING!! Forgot the car! it's down at the Outpost... thankfully, the internal bus still running.

I saw 4 deer as I drove back to my site! wow! (we don't have deer here on my island province ... no raccoons, skunks, or porcupines either)

Not quite hopped up on sugar, but not ready to sleep, so took stock of my loot!
(wee bit OCD.... it all has to be sorted!)



Yawn.... good night all. Good night to all the other tenters here at the Fort.
Good night creepies & crawlies... please don't creep around my tent, and especially don't crawl under it!

 

[glennbo123]

Thanks for finishing the report!!!

 

[WalkingintheFog]

Oct 5 2012 Day 11 of my trip, but Morning 1 at the Fort..

CRASH! BOOM!! BANG!!! I wake from a solid sleep at 7:30am... it's not the 5:30 am baggage carts a-clanging..... it's not the weather above a-rumbling....
Ah, it's a beautiful crash boom bang! it's the kids from nearby sites already up and outside!

(Truth, it was more of just a crash boom bang, they weren't NOISY, it was just louder than quiet & so managed to wake me up - No complaint here!

Sigh, I'm at Disney... at the campground, in a tent! It was a perfect moment.
It put a smile on my face as I got up.

 

[WalkingintheFog]

First full day at the Fort!

My original plan for today was
- Early morning run, 8k.
- Rope Drop at MK
- Back to campground late afternoon, swim & chill out.
- Have a late picnic supper on the beach at the Poly or at the Fort or somewhere that I could catch the MK Fireworks.

What I actually did was... none of that!

I scrapped the morning run (because I slept in!) & as out surveying my kingdom aka my site., I see y tarps didn't hold up the best, not surprising given the wacko rope & peg treatment I gave it, .... all saggy & droopy! But all was dry inside!


Chatting at another camper as heading to or from the comfort station, and borrowed a mallet from them to properly guy things out .... Didn't really manage to hoist the tarps higher, but hey, they were still high enough to walk under!
Spent the first part of the day lazing & puttering around the camp site & just roaming a few loops & a wee swim at the pool.
Arrgh... the skies just turned dark pretty fast1
CRASH! BOOM! BANG!!! again! Yep, again it's from the heavens above! It's midday, and pouring rain, thunder and lightning! More so than yesterday! holy crap! Hid out in the car again!

Eventually it eased off, and I'm just getting out of the car, when I get a visitor!
It's the young guy (young by my age!) who I borrowed the mallet from earlier in the morning.....
Bless his heart! He came over to check on me, and made sure to tell me his name, his wife's name & their friends, and if anything went wrong, let them know!
(They were camping a few sites over, in tents as well, but in honking big pickups, and had those big frame canopies that everybody seems to use these days.)

I figured rain/thunder/lightning was prob the order of the day, so decided I'd meander up to the Settlement & maybe Crocketts Tavern for a nachos and beer supper (my site was Loop 1500).
It's so humid, I know I'm going to want to freshen up before I go in anywhere for a meal, so I left on my shorts, my swimsuit top & coverup, threw a dry top (yes, and bra) in my big disney fannybelt/purse (next to the perpetual disposable rainponcho, and the wee bottle of hand soap) & headed up.....
I'm hot, sweaty & just icky. (sorry.. TMI?)
At one of the last comfort stations before Trails End, I popped in to .. tinkle... and hmm! why just a get wipe when I could actually jump in the shower there?!
Used my runsleeves, swimsuit top and a couple paper towels to dry myself off, wrung them out, stuck those in my waistpouch rolled in the rainponcho, shook out & finger combed my hair, cleanshirt on....
....I feel better now! That was a great idea, you!

 

[WalkingintheFog]

Oct 5 2012 Day 11 of my trip.. I make a friend!

Fresh as wilted daisy, I checkin at the Trails End desk & find all the tables are designated for the Supper buffet & snack meals are 'sit-at-the-bar-counter' only...
yeah.. no. A bar counter is for a drink, not for a meal of any sort. But, hey! they could fit me in the supper buffet right away. Great! That was on my agenda during the stay.

By 6:26pm, I'm on my 2nd plateful!



oops that's the 1st plateful! Here's the 2nd one! I notice I was not as virtuous on the one... no veggies apparent!
I sure can't eat those quantities anymore (remember.. this trippie is embarrassingly 10 years late!!!!).



And, there was a dessert plate as well! But using my new iphone, and still not very good w/ it, so dessert plate photo all blurry! But they brought out a chest of teas to choose from, loved that touch!

Oct 2022, that buffet meal at the fort for one cost $22 usd! And it was so enjoyed by me!

​

When I was done (ie ready to be rolled out), I wasn’t quite ready to leave the area, wanted to set a spell in one of them rocking chairs & take a memory photo .... but that’s prime territory and hard to claim tho!
And, turns out I'm not the only one who has that great photo op tradition!
Check out this thread that was started in 2015:

Kickin' it at the Fort (not my thread... Mods, delete if my share is not permitted!​

No chairs avail, but determined, I sat a bench behind one, waiting to pounce!

Like you would, I exchanged a few niceties with the lady sitting next to me.
lol, we were on the same wavelength on so many things, we actually stayed there chatting an hour or longer! She was awesome! A former Disser and her husband!
Eventually they went on (they had popped up to get the takeout fried chicken which apparently was an awesome bargain at the time, enough for 2 meals for them).