Theed31u

When I used the My Disney Experience app I would take a screen shot of the the My Plans for the day and set it as my lock screen.  I could turn off my data to save battery and be able to look at my fast passes and dining reservations very easy without opening the app.  When I wanted to check wait times android makes it easy to flip on data and then open the app.

Here is the best picture of the inside of the boat.  The stroller is a Britax double and is probably the widest you could get on there. 

2 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

The walk to the marina from most of the cabin loops is close to twice as far as it would be from the 1700 loop.  That might be a bit much for this family with a grandpa in an ECV and two double strollers to push.  Plus, pushing a stroller in April is not the same as pushing a stroller in August.

TCD

According to my mapping program from where we were in the 1700 it ia about 1.06 miles to stepping on the boat and 1.28 miles from the furthest back of the cabin loop to stepping on the boat.  Being a parent of 4 young kids and strollers packed with stuff for kids, walking a mile and a half to avoid unpacking and folding a stroller is a win.  April is much different then August but we are talking about going to a theme park and being out in the heat most of the day, I would do extra walk with the strollers any day.

On the bus strollers have to fold,  but the evc can just drive on and they don't have to disembark.  I would send people on the bus except those pushing the strollers.

Also, who wouldn't want to take a walk in the fort and see everything you can?

We were just there in April and had two kids in a double stroller.  We did one of 2 things to make it to the magic kingdom.  1) for the internal bus we would each use a carrier and just carry the stroller until the settlement or 2) just walked with the stroller to the settlement and bypassed the bus.  Option 1 might be hard because you would have to tandem carry two 20 month Olds but I would go for options 2.  We were in the 1700 loop amd the fort is not a long walk when you look at it as compared to walking in the parks all day.  The boats to the magic kingdom are the bigger boats that the strollers can push right on and the kids don't have to get out.  If I have time tonight I will see if I have a picture of inside the boat to give you an idea of how it works.

We tried that while we were there because when we bought a cup of coffee they gave us one of those cards.  Didn't work.  We got a confirmation text but never got the mobile discount.

We we there a couple weeks ago and after the fireworks we headed for the back of the park.  We could just about walk on to any ride except 7 dwarfs.  If the magic kingdom is open later then the fireworks it is a great time to get some attractions in!  

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

Good pictures.

Two down, only 4398 to go !

With my slow Internet speed I would have to sit here for weeks to post all those!

I lucked out with the spot I got to watch the fireworks.  Our older daughter started fussing that she had to go to the bathroom so we ran to one and as we were heading back to find the rest of the family the fireworks started.  We were walking looking for them and decided that we would just find them after the show and there was this little clearing in the crowd.  I just stood in the back of that clearing and had a good view for the pictures.  All the pictures are taken looking through the camera because we have not played with it enough to have the screen show the pictures yet.

After the fireworks we ended up only being about 10 feet in front of the rest of the family but with the lighting down we couldn't see each other.

We got up the next morning around 8 and it took us a couple hours for everyone to get moving.  We did get moving and went to Animal Kingdom.  The kids like the Wilderness Explorers and it makes a good free souvenir!  Our younger son loves dinosaurs so he loved the rides in that area.  Our older boy loves Expedition Everest and  would do nothing but ride it all day long.  We had Fast Passes for Kilimanjaro Safaris, Expedition Everest and DINOSAUR.  We use the stroller swap and the fast passes so it works out well for the kids getting to do the rides twice.  We packed our lunch and found a spot that was not very busy and had some lunch.

Our older daughter had a break down while we were working on a wilderness explorer task.  The cast member gave us a little magic that saved her day.  She was in complete meltdown mode and the cast member knelt down and started talking to her.  At first nothing seemed to change but she didn't give up.  She saw my daughter looking at a pin she had and right away offered her the pin!  It is just a little thing but to a little girl getting a pin of her favorite character and having that individual attention for those few minutes really made her day.  She had to have the pin on immediately and would look at it all the rest of the day.  Here she is with her pin.

We went back to the fort after the Animal Kingdom closed and cooked some dinner.  We grilled some sliced pork loins for sandwiches and just enjoyed hanging out in the nice Florida weather!  We made it an early night and got ready for epcot the next day.

Before I get to the next day, I'm going to see if I can get some pictures going.  Should be a picture of the fireworks and one taken at 1:25 AM (according to the image info) as we were heading out of the park.

We made our first trip to the fort a couple weeks ago and stayed in a full hookup at the 1700 loop.  I don't think we we'll change for our next trip.  The site was plenty big enough for our motorhome, it was a short walk to the outpost for busses, and it seemed a little more quiet then the preferred or premium loops we walked through.  We walked from the settlement to our loop a few times while we were there and it is not a bad walk, nothing compared to walking in the parks all day.

So because we were just planning and parking in the overflow and coming back later to get set up in the site we got a little later start in the parks and missed our first two fast passes.  Our plan was to hit the Magic Kingdom and start heading from adventure land around clockwise around the lands.  We got most of Adventure Land and Frontier Land except that splash mountain went down while we were in line.  We went up to main street and checked in for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom and watched the light parade and the fireworks.  We decided to hit Fantasy Land and that paid off big time!  We stayed in the park until about 1:30 AM and hit ton of stuff.  We walked right into see the princesses and all the rides that were in the back of the park.  The kids did well being up so late.  It is nice having the boat going to the Magic Kingdom but with sleeping kids in a stroller unloading to get on the bus kind of sucks.  But we figured out a good method for that later in the trip.

One thing we did before we went on the trip was to get a new camera.  A Nikon D5500.  We got it a day or so before the trip so we were going to put it to the test with this trip.  We ended up taking about 4400 pictures and were not disappointed.  I have not set up a way to host the pictures yet so I will have to add more later.

We arrived at the Fort!

We faxed in a site request and they had us going to that site but when checking in they offered a site that was open at that time (about 9:00 AM) and we decided to take it as we could just pull in and be done with it.  We got site 1721, I don't think that the kids realized that we had arrived and would be at Magic Kingdom in just a few minutes!

Yep, Cullman, AL.  We took the a little longer route through Alabama to avoid Atlanta and some of the mountains east of Nashville.

So the first day of driving we got a very late start, about 3 hours after what we were planning.  We drove and got to Nashville then decided start looking for a place for the night.  My wife got on the phone and started calling campgrounds and found that there was something going on in Nashville and everyone was full.  She finally found a place at Cullman Campgrounds, it was nothing fancy we just parked on the grass and plugged in for the night.  The next morning my wife said a tire looked low and when I checked it was very low.  I had put an air compressor in the storage under the motor home and filled the tire and headed into town to get it fixed.  

We arrived in Cullman and found McGriff Tire.  They had room I could back the back of the motor home into one of their bays and they got right to work getting the tire off.  They could not find a leak spraying the tire so the put it in the water tank that allows them to find small leaks.  They still found nothing wrong so being the outside tire on the back side they started adding the extender on that was on the valve stem and found out that it was a little metal extended piece that the previous owner put on that was leaking.  Easy fix just some work to get it figured out.  I took those off all the wheels and they replaced them with a new style that they said would not leak and put new caps on all of them.  I went to pay and they said have a safe trip and would not take any money!  This was the first of the magic that happened on our trip. 

After the late start getting the tire done we drove and made it to Wekiwa Springs State Park in Florida before checking into the Fort the next day.  We arrived late at this park but what time we did spend there was nice.  It was quite and the amenities were nice and clean.

Here are the kids and my mom as we were on the road the first day.

Just realized I never updated this!  Thank you to the person that stopped by and got us fixed!  

Fiends are great and I'm glad I found all you guys here!

We just got back from the fort and we were in 1721.  It was a good site, easy for me to put our 34 for mh in and nice and quite with little traffic.  What we found out is that everything at the fort is within walking distance so with a cart it should not be a problem.  We traveled with our 4 kids ages 8, 5, 2 and 1.

Last fall my wife and I decided to take a trip to Disney and because we had just bought our motor home and discovered this forum we thought the Fort would be a good idea!  We shared our plans with our families and welcomed them to plan the trip with us and go as a group.  The only taker was my Mom so she just hitched a ride with us. 

So our dates were set and we knew who was going (My wife and I, our four kids and my Mom).  We made plans to drive April 1st and 2nd.  April 3rd - 10th at the fort and drive home the 11th and 12th.  We were going to be at the fort for 8 days and got 7 day park hoppers.  On our off day (Thursday) we scheduled Chef Mickey for 7:30.

I will be trying to put each day into a post but adding pictures seems to be giving me trouble so I will start tomorrow with the daily reports for each day!

We just got back a couple of days ago from our first trip to the fort and our first trip since we had our 4th and last child. 

Our favorite souvenir of the fort is a key chain for the motorhome that is in the shape of one and lights up the headlights.

We were also looking for a souvenir that we could keep in the motor home that we could collect from places we travel because this was our first trip.  We settled on dish towels that have the castle on them.

I am planning on doing a trip report on our first trip to the fort, we had what I would consider a lot of Disney magic.

My water heater is leaking from the plug.  This is out first trip our and the socket that fits that didn't get packed.  Anyone down here with one?

Just got to the fort for our first time yesterday!  Site 1720 if anyone is around.

4 minutes ago, GPoppins said:

Anyone know any travel agents who book the Fort?!

Send a message to Katman1356...Jason on here.  People on here speak very highly of him and he posts great information.

On 3/9/2016 at 8:38 AM, jrbdad said:

I lived in San Diego for 18years so to me bad/rush hour traffic is 5 mph for mile and miles. 

I live in rural Iowa, don't really have rush hour but try being stuck behind tractors for miles and miles without being able to pass!

4 hours ago, Retired and Happy (Ken) said:

I don't know the length or your stay, the size of your fridge, or how many people are involved, but we try to bring as much as we can from home,  We run the fridge on the road to insure things stay cold.  If we're out for a week or so, we usually have enough, but our month long Christmas requires a trip or two to Walmart or Winn-Dixie.  We buy occasional small purchases at the Trading Posts...ice cream, tv dinner, bread.

We are staying 8 nights and are going to pack the fridge as full as possible before leaving home and will have cases of water in storage under the motorhome.  Even if the prices are high I think we would utilize the store.  We can go use a gallon a day and a 18 eggs in a single breakfast with the 4 kids.  I looked some at a service but seemed not to be cost effective to just have a gallon of milk and a couple dozen eggs delivered every day.  We will not have a car so we will try to stay on property as much as possible.

We are getting our final shopping list finalized and starting to pack the mh.  I know there are options to get groceries delivered to you at the for from various sources but my question is what is available on site?  Does the trading post sell things like gallons of milk or eggs?

24 days until we arrive!