Starbuc71

Maybe now they can go back to the Christmas garland on main st.

Just remember.  Bigger is not always better. When we had our 40 ft TT we ended up spending more time inside the RV instead of doing what camping was all about. Being outside, playing with the kids and enjoying the hammock. I know you folks with the big rigs will say I’m full of it, but the new little 19ft we bought is turning out to be the most fun we had in a camper in a long time. It pulls like a dream and super easy to park. No swearing at the fort trying to get a 45 ft 5er in a tiny site here. 

On 4/6/2018 at 11:48 AM, DaveInTN said:

Yes, the service and experience on DCL is phenomenal.  No argument from me, and you know I have loved my DCL cruises.  But keep in mind...you experienced all of that on a CM rate.  Over the past 2-3 years, as I have considered taking my entire family on another Disney cruise, I've seen the prices literally skyrocket.  So much so, that for us to book 2 cabins for 8 people (1 Oceanview and 1 Interior) for a 7 night Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy we'd be paying between $11-15k depending on timing!  The only conclusion I can make is that Disney is handling DCL similarly to how they are handling WDW....too many people want to vacation with them, so keep raising the prices until demand levels out a bit.  So far, demand seems to have kept pace with the increases, because many of the sailings fill up.  And those that don't get offered up with CM and Travel Agent rates to sell the remaining cabins.  It's a beautiful business plan.  But it kinda stinks for those of us who want to take their family on vacation but think spending a year's worth of college expenses on a 1 week vacation is stupid.    

I totally agree. Coming from a guy who has never been on a cruise, I can’t see dumping that much money. I have the fear of the day walking on the boat saying,”this is the best thing ever” to the day walking off the boat saying,” what the hell did I just do dumping all that money?”  We were supposed to go on a Disney cruise a few years back but we just couldn’t afford it. I agree with supply and demand but it makes a lot of people unhappy. I guess who am I to talk when camping for a week at Disney with site, food and tickets will put me back around $1600.....for CAMPING.  WTF...

Last time I was at universal, they had just opened up back to the future. I think I was 20. I’m now almost 50.  I guess a lot has changed. Have fun

On 4/2/2018 at 6:21 PM, desiphil said:

We are headed down in early June for 5 nights. I believe it's around $1600 for the four of us for tickets. Pretty confident we won't be purchasing, as it just doesn't seem worth it. Plan on doing some resort hopping and have scheduled a few ADRs. Wife and I still have APs for Universal, so will probably spend a day there. The rest of the time we'll be at the Fort.

Good luck with a Disney/fort trip in the summer months. We decided 2 years ago to skip our Tennessee trip and do a week at the fort at the end of June. It was so hot, our a/c could not keep up. We ended up watching Disney channel inside our camper for most of the week. Also the pool was so crowded, you could walk across by stepping on heads

Mine is sitting somewhere on I-4 between Disney and Tampa

Kinda of funny when when we sold our trailer last year a lot of people on here said we were crazy for giving up on Disney and price increase and crowds shouldn’t stop us from making Disney memories.  Now I see a lot of people feeling like I did last year. We didn’t buy this new trailer just for Disney. We plan to use it for ATV trips more for my son and I. If the $210 a night price will be correct for spring break next year, Disney can stick it. That’s where I have to draw the line. 

Well, as some of you know from my other post, we are campers again and spent a few days at the fort and the parks last week.  Since it’s been over a year since we did a true Disney vacation, I wanted to give some opinions on some of the changes we saw:

Animal Kingdom:

its been over 2 1/2 years since we have been to this park and we actually went twice this trip. We were very excited to see the 5 year project of Pandora completed. As much as flight of Passage is an awesome ride, I was very disappointed with Pandora overall.  First, I thought the area would be much bigger. I was not impressed with the usual Disney use of concrete for everything(trees, plants,etc). I felt a lot of inspiration from Epcot.  As Much as the floating mountains are impressive, they didn’t do much for me. I know they can’t actually float a piece of concrete, but to me they didn’t even look like part of a the movie. The river cruise was alright. The use of projection for the animals and the waterfall was great. But again, it was a short ride and I expected way more than a little mermaid ride. Overall after a 5 year project, I was not overly thrilled with Pandora. Flight of passage though was a fun ride and I think a tad better than soarin and we love soarin.  Pandora was saved for us because of this ride. 

We had a FP for rivers of light and I have to say, one the best if not the best night time show of all the parks. There was some great imagination that went into this show and we really enjoyed it.  Are those floating flowers on a track?  If not, kudos to the flower drivers. 

We had dinner at Yak and Yeti for the first time and actually had a great meal and cheaper than most resort restaurants. The sevice sucked but the food made up for it. Maybe because this is a Landry’s restaurant that is not solely operated by Disney like the rain Forrest. Overall, Animal kingdom used to be my least favorite park but it’s starting to gain momentum  we had a great time both times  

The Fort:

a few little changes.  I loved what they did with the cart parking at the Marina  it was starting to get out of hand with carts parking all over the place  it’s nice the bikes are out of the sand and grass is now growing in areas once damaged by carts  the picnic tables are a little strange there, but I’m sure it was a typical fort quick fix.  I also thought they did a great job with the landscaping by the new cart parking and all  the new shrubs along the cart path.  It’s nice seeing them put money back into the fort.  The chuck wagon was a good idea to give another food option at the fort.  The fencing of the playgrounds was beginning the last time we camped along with fencing of the pool  both great ideas   At least now I know my kids will not wander off

Overall we had a great time and loved camping again  we went to the other parks but no real significant changes.  I did notice more security after dark at the fort and less people out and about after the fireworks.  Probably another good thing.  Now for the biggest con, we went to book spring break for next year and a premium site was $210 a night.  WTF

9 hours ago, Specularius said:

Going with too heavy spring bars can make for a rougher ride in the Tow vehicle. Looks great but my wife would never go for it. She refused to ever go anywhere again in my truck camper as it was too small. The truck camper had two slides and weighed over 5,000 pounds. It was huge for a truck camper. So I sold it and got a Momentum toy hauler.

Well, I figure my cart weighs about 950# so my 800-1200 bars will do fine and I feel no difference in the truck. I tow it with a regular hitch when there is nothing on the deck with no sway and you don’t even know it’s there. It fits us fine and you must know that no two women are the same....lol.  I wish I could afford a $60K momentum and probably the $80k truck to pull it, but the same family memories can be made in a tent and hopefully I can retire at the right age 😊

11 hours ago, LONE-STAR said:

I am surprised it took you this long to buy a camper. Congrats and enjoy. What are you towing it with?

I’m still a Toyota guy.  No need for a diesel with this little one

33 minutes ago, ImDownWithDisney said:

I am almost there myself. My son is just about ready to take the training wheels off of his CRF 50. Once that happens we will be loading up the toyhauler.

Awesome. My spoiled son has a raptor 90 atv and a TTR50

10 minutes ago, ImDownWithDisney said:

That's a sweet little rig. It would be great for national forest and national park campgrounds too.

That’s my plan. My son and I ride ATVs in the Ocala national Forrest so this will work great. Bigger is not always better 😊

38 minutes ago, DaveInTN said:

Congratulations!!  

May I suggest that you avoid O'hana?

True that

1 minute ago, dblr....Rennie said:

What is the tongue weight with the GC loaded???? 

Not sure but I bought a 1200# WD hitch to be safe

It’s actually a lot of bang for the buck.  It has a full shower and bath, but a tiny toilet and only a 9 gal black tank. We turned the dinette into a permanent full bed. It has a 1/2 size fridge, a gas only (☹️) 6 gal hot water heater, a 2 burner stove and microwave.  We added a bumper mount gas grill and a cargo trailer tongue storage box.  The deck is stated for 1000 pounds. Lot of tounge weight with GC but bought a WD hutch for when we haul th GC. If not for that, it’s an easy bumper pull with no sway for 3000#

9 minutes ago, shaffecv said:

Pretty sweet. 

A/C unit and an awning. Do the make some sort of pop up room you could mount on the hauler deck ? That would add a fair amount of room for extra sleep or dining area.

The front deck is tiny. I actually had to modify it by adding longer planks to accommodate the GC. The unit is only 7ft wide vs the normal 8 of most trailers

Just now, dblr....Rennie said:

I think with the front bed deployed that would use up the space on the hauler deck.

There is no front bed. Wish there was. 

42 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I can't believe it. Good for you!

That is a cool trailer. It's awesome that you still have your cart and can still bring it. 

Hopefully, I'll see you at the Fort. 

TCD 

Believe me, I will still complain about the rates and the shenanigans upper management pulls here and at the parks, but if the kids enjoy it for now, that’s all that matters

It’s been 6 months without an RV and a year since we camped at the fort. I broke down for Christmas and bought the family the Florida resident gold passes in hopes we would do some quick weekends at a value resort.  After one trip to pop century, everyone missed camping at Disney. So I did what any dad would do that spoils the $:€#% out of their kids.....buy another RV.  I went shopping at the beginning of the year and bought the cheapest TT that would haul our golf cart, (never sold it) and accommodate the 4 of us.  I would love to post some pics but refuse to pay photobucket just to post photos here. But here is a link to our tiny vacation home on wheels:

https://www.rvt.com/Starcraft-Autumn-Ridge-19RT-2018-Marion-NC-ID7598269-UX110733

so, fast forward to last Saturday and here we are at the fort for a few days   I opted to buy a carefree of Colorado add a room for our 10ft awning and it was worth every penny  it created an awesome small TV room   We even survived the heavy rains and winds today without anything ripping or getting damaged  

we are happy to be back camping at the fort and have enjoyed some of the changes over the past year   

On good note, 3 days parking at a deluxe resort equals 1 day golf cart rental...lol. You choose.  Drive to Tennessee and make Dollywood you new destination of choice

8 hours ago, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

As my son told my husband for how much you got, it was still a good deal. We purchased a jar of the Apple Pie Moonshine to bring home.

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We bought 24 jars to give out as Christmas gifts last year. They had great deals like buy 12 get 6 free.  We looked like a bunch of drunks walking out with 4 cases

7 hours ago, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

As I said we stopped in Gatlinburg on our way home from VA. Just an FYI if you are wanting to do the moonshine samples, they now charge $5 for 13 samples. They give you a $5 coupon at the end. We were able to use two $5 coupons at one time.

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I think even though you will find the most hospitable people in TN, they finally realized everyone was getting their fill of free booze and they were giving a ton away. 

Sorry for joining in so late. Lot of things going on. As some of you know Gatlinburg/PF is our favorite place. I’m sure I don’t know as much as the locals but I can tell you a lot. 

If your camping and want to be off the beaten path, I would recommend smoky bear campground. It’s a beautiful place with maybe 30 sites. I believe there are maybe 6 concrete pull through sites and the rest are gravel. They are all full hook up except for a few primitive sites. They have a nice pool and hot tub along with a playground , laundry facilities and super clean restrooms. The only downside is that they are s good 20 minute drive into Gatlinburg and they are not on the trolly route. 

Up the creek we tried last year and loved it. Small campground with full hook ups and very shaded. It’s only a 5 minute drive to the parkway in PF just past the goats on the roof mountain coaster.  The downside is no pool, playground, laundry facilities and no facilities or bath house.  I don’t think they allow pop ups and of course you would need facilities in your camper.  They are on the trolly route. 

If your staying at a resort, I have to hands down recommend the Dollywood dreamore resort. This place is great. Great hospitality, great food and restaurants, not too big and great rooms.  The plus side staying here is that if you purchase tickets at the resort and staying there, you get the time saver pass (Dollywood fast pass) free of charge. It’s normally $30 each.  They also provide transportation to the parks and drop you off at a guest entrance. 

I wont get into the restaurants in the area since I agree with everyone.  I will say that the blue moose, Hana’s kitchen, timber wood grill at the island and smoky mountain brewery are always top on our list.  The peddler in Gatlinburg is a very nice upscale restaurant.  

Besides Dollywood, there is a lot of things to do. I would recommend one of the smoky mountain coasters. They are all fun. Lots of mini golf places. Our favorites are Davey Crockett  and hillbilly golf in Gatlinburg. 

If you haven’t been there. It’s definitely a must do

$212 a night?  Seriously?  It’s becoming a joke

Great ideas. We miss herbie. He served us well