rtguy007

Hoping you all can help me out. I have some funky reservations coming up for thanksgiving this year. I didnt make them early enough so we will be at the fort monday-wednesday thanksgiving week. We then have to move over to all star sports wednesday-saturday. After that we are back at the fort for 2 weeks starting that saturday. My question is, will they allow me to keep my camper in overflow while we are at all star sports knowing we are coming back? I believe in the past this was allowed but that was before all the parking charges and changes at the fort itself. Any fiends know the answer?

On a side note, I am praying that Jason is able to snag us those 3 missing nights at the fort in a premium site so we dont have to move. He has them on his list so if anyone is going to have to cancel thanksgiving can you give him a heads up for me?

35 minutes ago, Katman1356...Jason said:

I have my list prioritized by Fort Wilderness first just waiting to go for Tuesday morning. 

Lol

2 minutes ago, Katman1356...Jason said:

They probably just loaded the calendar early again. But nothing actually released for online booking yet. 

Yeah I was. That explains a lot.

Has anyone been able to get even a single nights reservation in 2020 at the Fort? I have checked about 10 weeks throughout the year for 2020 and there is no availability. Thinking it was weekend being booked up I started checking just tuesday and wednesday nights randomly throughout the year and I am not seeing any availability for any camp site type. Unless Galaxys Edge has caused a full booking for the entire year or they are shutting the Fort down I cant seem to figure it out. I am betting if anything that the reservation system is messed up again.

Something tells me you are not making it in the full hookup loops anymore.

Thanks for your help and support on booking Jason. We all appreciate it.

8 hours ago, mouseketab.....Carol said:

Even with our 690 miles and our tiny trailer, we break up the drive. We leave mid afternoon and get South of Atlanta, then just a few more hours the next morning. I couldn't imagine going 20 hours straight towing.

The older I get the rougher it is. Last couple of trips we stop on the way back and eother sleep somr in a roadside rest or get a hotel. On the way there though, there is so much excitement in the car that the adrenaline keeps us going u til we get there.

2 hours ago, Travisma said:

I keep my speed to just below 60.

We have a tiny old (1985) Coleman PUP, weighs in around 900-1000 pounds.

Has the small tire/wheel combo that get inflated to 85 PSI. I put new ones on and repacked the bearings a couple of years ago.

I tow with a 4 door 8 cyl. Ram 1500 and don't even know the PUP is back there.

I keep it below 60 for better gas mileage and safety.  Not sure if a blowout at 58 is any better than one at 70, but I'm happy staying at that speed.

Of course the furthest we've gone is the 70 miles from Tampa to the Fort, so maybe if we are going on a long haul I might be tempted to raise my speed limit. 

 

I can tell you driving from Columbus OH to the Ft is about 1000 miles. At 65mph it gets nerve racking really quick. Going down 75 it isnt bad until you hit Georgia. Once you hit the state line there it seems to take forever and you have already been at it a good 7 to 8 hours. A straight through drive for us with the camper takes about 20 hours at 65mph.

On 5/22/2019 at 9:29 AM, Travisma said:

I have 3 design ones.

One was Orange Bird we got when we won the blog contest for MNSSHP.

My daughter got me a Kylo Ren one when they first came out because it was supposed to light up the scanners a different color and make a different sound.  It only worked at HS and now it doesn't do anything special..

Then I bought the Nightmare before Christmas one.

Some of my special ones do the same thing. Use it a few times and it will reset the scanners and the lights and sounds start working again. Noticed this last time we were there. Some of my nee ones took a few uses before they kicked in with the special lights and sounds.

Why do I get the feeling that this is the beginning of the end for the fort. This is just sad.

5 hours ago, Travisma said:

Because todays music sucks!  The music in the past was sooo much better! 

Oh dont get me started.

3 hours ago, ImDownWithDisney said:

Sounds like we have similar situations at the moment.

Another thing that I have been thinking about is we are somewhat fickle and obsessive about vacations.  10 years ago we spent most of our vacation time and money doing ski trips out west. It was all we wanted to do. Now we barely ski, but I am sure we will swing back that way some day. We tend to go through phases. I wouldn't be surprised in 5 years or so that our Disney trips are a lot less, and we will be on to something else.

We are the same way. Our camping has been reduced quite a bit over the past 2 years because we save all our vacation to go to the fort. We are not in a position to sell the camper nor wouldbwe want to. With the kids starting to get older we also think they will start losing interest in disney in a few years. While the deal they offered us is pretty good compared to current rates, I am not sure the gamble is worth it. If I cant use it all the time for the fort and we have trouble with the RCI conversions then its just not worth it. Its just cheaper to book the fort and cough up the money vs the yearly renewal with the monthly payment for 10 years.

This thread is exactly what I needed right now. As I sit here in our room at port in St Thomas on our cruise we are contemplating a DVC membership. The deals on the boat make it look good but the more I dig into it the less sense it makes. They are offering us a 150 point at Saratoga for a little under 25k (160 per point) with full benefits as of this time. Problem is the fort is the only place we would use it. They pulled up the point rate calendar for us and it showed availability pretty much every week for the forseeable future on a premium site for 13 to 15 points per night. Our upcoming trip for 2 weeks is going to cost 2k which is the most I have ever paid. We never stay in any other resort and if we do it is for a 1 night splurge to get away from the kids while their grandma watches them in thw camper. The more I look at it the less sense it makes. Honestly I would rather take the 25k and put it towards the down payment on a house in Fl vs the timeshare.

The only big advantage I see is the RCI conversion. Even then it doesnt seem to make a lot of sense as we dont travel around much.

At least we got $100 in stateroom credits and extra fast passes for our next trip for aittong through the presentation and talking to them.

Is there a limit to the amount of things you ca  check onboard? Can we check 2 bags, 2 cases of water, and our allowed allotment of alcohol? Are we allowed to carry on a backpack/duffle bag for things we want to keep with us like yeti cups, cosmetics, etc? Also is there a fridge in the room? I have some medication that needs to stay refridgerated and not sure how to handle that at the moment.

51 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

If you're a beer or wine drinker, you're allowed a six pack of beer or a bottle of wine per adult. Your beer will taste better than the $8 beers they sell on the ship. 

TCD

Thats good to know. Thanks for the tip there. I saw the prices on bottled water and about lost it.

15 minutes ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Your own life jacket and survival gear.  I am never getting on a ship.

Have fun though! 

It was a lot of fun 10 years ago. My first cruise I was really nervous but after we left port it was great. Now planes on the other hand, i dont do them.

Less than a month away. Any tips for what we should take with us? Its been 10 years since we have been on a cruise and this is our first Dosney Cruise.

1 hour ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

I had to look up where Lehiegh Acres is at.  Looks like a nice area.

And did a quick search on Zillow. There are a lot of houses  for sale in that $100/ sq ft range.  That’s cheap!   But I think it would be to far from the beach for us and therefore make it harder to rent as a weekly/monthly vacation home.

Its a really odd place. We drove by a really nice house over there and then a block away from it in every direction looked like a deserted development. There is a history down there that I wont get into but when we drove through there were a lot of empty parcels of land for sale. It seems like miles and miles of emtpy city blocks with a house here and a house there.

21 hours ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

What did you think of the Fort Myers area?  Particularly the Ft Myers Beach area.

That’s were we plan on going to next to check it out.  

Our goal is to have a small house or condo, or if I can talk my DW into it, and RV.   That we can live at from Christmas till spring in Florida and than be back in Oklahoma for the rest of the year. 

I want to be a snow bird  😂 

We would rent out the Florida house or condo the rest of the year.  So we are focusing our search in resort/beach areas. 

We didnt make it down to the beach or south Ft Myers. North Ft Myers we didnt care for at all. We spent most of our time driving from random house on realtor.com to another house we foind on realtor.com just getting to see what was between point a and b. We liked some areas around Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda. I would like to check out the beaches area as well as the soutthern side of Ft Myers and down to the Naples area at some point. That may be for our trip in 2020.

On a side note, I do have an idea for a lot of those open lots in Leheigh Acres if I can figure out all of the logistics. My wife thought I was crazy. Lehiegh Acres is just plain wierd when you drive through it. Or what there is of it.

23 hours ago, Travisma said:

If you can get things lined up... job, housing, etc. I wouldn't wait until retirement.  But, make sure you visit FL in the summer before deciding to move.  Get to experience 95 degree weather with 99% humidity and daily summer thunderstorms!

It was just the two of us when we moved from NY to FL.  I had a job lined up, we owned a mobile home in NY that a friend lived in until we sold it.  We loaded up our van and a U-Haul trailer and headed south just in front of a major snow storm.  Some items we stored at my moms.  Left all our family up there, which was the hardest part.

About a month after we got to Tampa, we found out my wife was about 7 weeks pregnant.  If we had delayed our move, we probably would've never left NY.

 

We have a few things keeping us in Ohio but I do want to get there before retirement. My mother in law is here and would be by herself if we left. My kids are still in school as well and we dont want to uproot them. My existing job will allow me to work from home anywhere I live but my wifes wont.

We started looking around areas last time we were there for if/when we get to relocate. We drove down to Ft Myers/Cape Coral/Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda last time we were there. The time before that we looked around New Port Richie area where my grandfather lived for a few years. We have a few more trips planned this year and I am hoping to look over in the Sanford/Deltona area to see what it is like. I would like to stay near Orlando but far enough away so I wont need to deal with the traffic daily. We live out in the country today but the wife wants to live closer to civilization if we move again.

Realistically we will probably live there for 9 to 10 months of the year and the other 2 to 3 will be up north or wherever the kids land when they get older.

13 hours ago, Travisma said:

Will be back up in the 70's almost 80 starting tomorrow here in Tampa.  It's been the high 60's low 70's the last couple of days after our deep freeze last week of low 40's a couple mornings.  Brrrr

 

PS, I had a bandanna on Sunday doing yard work, because i was sweating so bad...

I am still trying to convince my wife to move to Florida. So far it looks like retirement is when that may happen in at least 20 years. This weather is driving me nuts. Its starting to cool down and it has been pouring down rain for abour 2 hours and on and off all day. My yard has a lake in the back now.

Sign me up....I need a break from this crappy weather. 50s yesterday, 60s today, tomorrow high 20s. Been snow and rain constantly for days.

Crap....my passes expire on July 28th. May still try to go though.

5 hours ago, MicknMin...Holly said:

It wasn't as bad as the other rooms next to it.  We were in 10660 on an earlier cruise and it was more noticeable there.  Our daughters were in the next two staterooms down on that sailing and they were really bothered by it.  I don't think 10658 was as bad.  You will feel a lot of vibration from the engines though.  It didn't bother me too much until one night when the ship seemed to be going really, really fast...and then suddenly all of the engines stopped!  I was a little freaked out thinking that we were having engine problems.  I found out much later that it was actually a medical evacuation and that when the ship was going fast, they were trying to get in place for a medical ship to catch up with us just off the coast of Freeport.  I think you'll really like 10658.  

Good to know. Thanks for the information. Cant wait to go.

On 12/10/2018 at 3:59 PM, MicknMin...Holly said:

Yes, you can definitely move it, but it really doesn't work well for two people trying to watch tv in bed. Not a big deal since I really don't watch much tv in bed.  Other than that, we LOVED the stateroom.  It's such an odd configuration and it really feels like you have more room than others nearby (we were in 10660 the cruise before this one).  You'll love it!  

How bad was the morning noise on the deck above? I have read that chairs being dragged around could make it a little noisy.