Since I live in the Disney area and my wife is recently retired after 17 years at Disney, we get a great opportunity to stay at the Fort and take advantage of the discounts my wife gets even as a retiree. As a result, we generally get 6 or 7 stays a year at the Fort. So far this year, we've had three stays, one in January to run the 10K during Marathon weekend, a stay for Mother's day and a stay for Father's Day. Prior to the Father's Day trip, I found myself getting a bit frustrated at how the Fort seemed to be run, the lack of rules enforcement, and the general rudeness of some of the guests. My favorite places to camp are generally state parks and more so the National Parks because of the general attitude of people camping and not glamping. So, I was approaching the Father's Day trip with a bit of anxiety.
We checked into the Fort on Wednesday June 14th. The check in was excellent, it was not crowded, we got our requested site and it was ready. More importantly we had a great time talking to Frederick about the time he spent in Africa; really interesting and he's a really nice guy. We got settled into our site and headed to disney Springs for our traditional post hook up Earl of Sandwich lunch. We beat the rain and got back in time for the deluge, but that was fine. We relaxed in the camper.
Thursday morning we had a great breakfast at Trails End. We normally ask for Ken, but this time we got Margerita. She was excellent; really friendly and the food was delicious, a bit more than normal. We hung around the campground because rain was moving in. That was a bit frustrating since I had fast passes for Mine Train, but that was closed due to the storms for most of the night. So, we relaxed some more!
Friday we had a terrific lunch at the Biergarten. Sometimes I wonder who we will be seated with, but the host saw my wife striking up a conversation with another couple and sat us together. It was just the four of us at the table and we had a great time. Very nice couple from Tennessee and we all enjoyed the food and the entertainment. We've eaten there several times before, but I don't remember the food being this good. I had a fast pass for Soarin, and also the Character Spot for pictures. We then headed back to the camper to once again beat the rain. However, we waited over 50 minutes for the bus back to the campground. After we got to the outpost, I went inside to let them know how long the busses are taking and a LOT of people were complaing. The guy at concierge was excellent, and he said he is getting a lot of complaints. I told him that I wasn't looking for anything, I just wanted to let him know there is an issue. He saw we had fast passes at Studios the next day so he gave us a couple of universal fast passes for the park that day, which was not expected. I used them to continue my losing streak to my wife on Toy Story Mania.
Sunday was Father's Day and we spent the day at Magic Kingdom with our daughter and son in law. Had a nice time there (not too crowded) and then hit Trails End for dinner. Kevin was our server and he was really good. I was a bit disappointed in the beef brisket, and the generally smaller selection of food than I remembered. There were two complete serving lines, so I thought maybe they reduced some of the offerings to allow the two lines for Father's Day. It wasn't bad though, and the highlight came when Kevin ran over to Hoop de Doo to bring over one of the large strawberry shortcakes for us because they had coffee problems and he felt bad that my wife had to keep waiting with nothing to drink. We didn't say anything, he just noticed it. In any case, after the others at the table had a few bites, the shortcake was mine. I think I rolled out the door.
The next day we checked out after a very nice extended weekend.
Here are a few observations:
1) The campers during this trip were the most polite and friendly I've experienced at the Fort in a long time. Even though there were several dogs in the loop, everybody kept them quiet, respected other campsites, and cleaned up after them. That is all anybody can ask. The kids in the loop were very well behaved and were enjoyable to watch. Some of the meals people were cooking smelled amazing.
2) Enforcement at the Fort was the best I've seen in a while. Several times I saw bus drivers flag down golf cart drivers who passed them while stopped. I also saw them strictly enforcing the rules about not boarding busses while others are getting off and not to board via the rear doors. The Fort Rangers were around, and were very friendly and were enforcing where people could take their pets. We saw one couple walking their dog towards the Settlement and the ranger stopped them. He asked them where they were going and when they told him the Setllement area he very nicely showed them the sign and told them they would have to take their dog back. They were not bothered at all and turned around. They certainly did NOT enforce their no parking on grass policy, but that was fine given the other improvements. That never bothers me anyway. The trash collection seemed to be much more frequent, and they fixed the labeling on the recycling bins. It now says "Glass" under the left door, and "Recycle" under the other doors. I guess they only need to separate glass. The comfort stations were also very clean and the A/C back to operating as it should. I also noticed that at the horse barn they added the free 12:30 tour of the facilities. I don't know how long that's been around, perhaps a long time, but I never noticed it before. We didn't get the chance to do that, but will sometime if still offered.
3) The only negative we experienced, and I add this as something to watch for, is somebody tried to remove the hitch lock on our camper. I came back to the camper on Saturday and noticed that the chains from our weight distribution hitch were moved, the lock cover for the hitch lock was on the ground and the rubber end on the other side hitch pin lock was pulled off and laying on the ground. it takes a lot of force to pull that rubber end off, so somebody was trying hard to separate that lock. I didn't call security, although perhaps I should have (I didn't want my wife worrying about what was going on). But, the only thing making me wonder what someone was trying to do is the fact that my truck was backed right up near the hitch, about an inch away. There was no way they were going to get that camper out of the campsite with my truck parked there blocking it. I don't know if it was just some teen age kids messing with the lock or what it could have been. Nothing else around the camper was touched.
So, it was a nice trip that had some encouraging signs regarding the direction the Fort may be heading. Maybe it was just a good anomaly; but I am hoping it is more of a trend.
Obligatory picture:
Greetings all! My first post here, so feel free to move this to the right category if needed.
We recently completed a restoration of a Super8 home movie from 1976 that I think you will all enjoy. There is general footage of the Fort from 1976. There are great scenes of the beach/boat area, Meadows Depot, Settlement Depot and more! And of course, some of the best footage of the FWRR I've seen. Enjoy!
(We have some great vintage River Country footage too if anyone is interested).
Full article about the film: http://www.retrodisneyworld.com/imageworks/films/art-and-linda-go-to-fort-wilderness-including-fw-railroad-restored-super8-film
-RetroWDW
I'm reading the permit application now and I see the shapes they are talking about that look like a gondola station but man that's a big leap on very limited information.
The engineer report is very vague (probably on purpose) here's the project summary:
This application, L402 Basin Update, seeks a permit modification for additional stormwater system improvements within the L402 Basin. These improvements are in support of various building, roadway, construction laydown and parking lot modifications across the L402 basin.
WBI
