CeciliaKy

awesome! thanks so much! when I searched this topic before posting ... I found that I had asked the exact same thing about 5 years ago. LOLOLOLOL ... I knew there had been some changes, but I wasn't sure what they were.  

thanks so much! :) 

Is the Meadow Snack Bar (and chuckwagon by the campfire) still the only place to use DDP plans for anything other than a snack? it's been a few years since we stayed at the fort & will likely have some leftover meal credits to use. exploring all the options :) 
 

it's unfortunate that the state park campgrounds weren't along your path ... there are some near-ish to Ashland (Carter Caves, Greenbo Lake) but not really convenient to I-64. they're still in decent shape, unlike the lodges & cabins which border on depressing. :/ 

I've spent a lot of time in Bardstown ... now live in Hardin Co. I love this part of the state! :) 

when can I expect the July calendar (for the Fort) to be posted? I've got a general idea of how to plan our time, but would love to see some specifics! I'm looking forward to being there for the holiday! :) 

I'm leaning more and more towards July 4 over early June ... we know well enough to stay out of the parks (at least the MK) on July 3 & 4. Those would be our Fort days. We've done late June & late July before, so we remember the heat. We hate it, but we know to be prepared. One upside is that our kids are older now ... late nights are much more doable. That helps. Summer is going to be more crowded than our usual October, regardless. That's just part of the trade off to vacationing with a college kid. Thank goodness he still likes to travel with us  

Thanks for all the input!! 

awesome! thanks, everyone! is it less crowded at the beach on July 3 to watch fireworks?

I've been to July 4th at the Fort a few times. It's fun!! Don't remember how much park time I spent, if any.

we don't intend to go to the parks on the holiday ... unless we go to Epcot. But I think hanging out at the Fort sounds much better. LOL ... wondering what the situation is with the locals? seems like I've read they like to visit on holidays. 

Hello all ... need some input from the experts :) 

We are seasoned Disney travelers -- visited the Fort several times, at different times of the year. The majority of our trips have been taken during Fall Break in October, but now our son is in college and we have to mix it up this year. 

Sooooo ... tell me about July 4 at the Fort. How bad is it? We've been there on other, minor, holiday weekends like Columbus Day ... but I have a feeling that July 4 is much, much worse. We'll be in a cabin. Do not intend to do parks on Friday or Saturday. 

Give it to me straight. Have I completely lost my mind? Should be consider the first weekend in June instead?

4 days;

4 parks;

4 runs;

4 PRs;

48.6 miles;

6 shirts;

7 medals.

I have friends that did the Dopey, too! Congratulations! 

 

 

The next time I see her, I'm going to speak to her and maybe get a photo. I agree-she is awesome.

 

TCD

we hadn't heard of her either, but I can certainly see why she is so popular. In addition to being entertaining, she is terribly kind and helpful. my teenage son & I wanted to catch the 3pm parade ... it was right at 3pm, so we knew our best chance to get a decent spot would be up near City Hall & the Fire Dept. There's a spot taped off, but isn't roped off until the last minute so it can be used for foot traffic. Barbara let us know of the opening & encouraged us to wait. (which we did) But before letting us fill in, she made sure the family with a wheelchair she had waiting in the shade had their spot. Barbara was amazing with that family. My son & I were blown away. 

Magic at its finest :)

 

I like how the lady dances too.

 

And she helped to pass the time.

 

In fact, it seemed like in no time at all the parade was upon us.

 

 

 

TCD

That's Barbara. Barbara is AWESOME. We met her in October ... wrote a letter singing her praises as soon as we got home. :)

Sorry. Somehow I missed that.

I may not have mentioned it -- my complaint was about the treatment I received when I went to process a refund that was offered to me at the MK the night before. Resort guests were told to go back to their resorts, and guest services would have the information to take care of it there. What took my friend 5 minutes at Pop Century took me an hour at the Fort, but I was finally refunded the amount of our MNSSHP tickets. In my email, I specifically mentioned that we had planned to enjoy our last morning at the resort and instead, I spent it at the guest services desk instead of with my family.

In that context, I think fastpasses for our family are appropriate. :) I can't think of anything Fort-related I would've rather had.

Just two fast passes? Disney could do better than that!

I got the full refund on the MNSSHP tickets, which was pretty significant. So I really wasn't looking for much else -- I didn't know what else to ask for, really. I'm not very good at asking for compensation when things don't go well.

Maybe I should've asked here first. LOL!

Well that's cool IF they follow through. (I mean with the training, not with the FPs) However, once again they are probably just saying something to make you feel better.

probably. LOL

I've already gotten the email with the FP information, so there is that :)

An update to my guest service concerns ... Disney called me this afternoon. I shared my experience and expressed my disappointment about being made to feel like they were doing me a favor by processing the refund. I was asked to give the date & time, and any names if I remembered because they planned on contacting the resort some additional guest training for their cast.

so, there you go. I think they listened.

she offered 2 good anywhere fast passes to use on our next trip, which I appreciate. we'll probably be going spring break to visit our son, so they'll come in handy.

I'd love to hear about your stay at the other resorts too! Glad they got the refund straightened out, too bad they weren't so nice about it. Congrats to your son!

we love the Swan. we have loved it since our first stay a gazillion years ago. I love it even more when it's free on SPG points our kids really enjoy the Boardwalk, walking to Epcot & the area in general.

Pop Century is our favorite value resort. Our room was in a perfect spot, close to the bridge to AoA & convenient to the pool and food court at Pop. Nice lake view. Quiet. Only downside is we were 29,000 miles from the parking lot (we measured ) and that was dreadful after the Tower of Terror 10-miler. LOL

I hope your son makes the College Program. If he does, I hope you will share his experiences. My younger two girls want to do the CP once they get to college, and they have spent a lot of time on recent trips talking to CP CM's when we run into them. It sounds like a great program.

TCD

Accepted this morning.

Spring 2013, custodial. I think he was hoping for merchandise, but he's thrilled to be accepted.

looks like at least one trip to the Fort in my near future! :)

Thanks for taking the time to post your report.

About the 100 loop cabins- regular folks do get to stay in those from time to time- you can always ask at check in- you never know.

Sorry to hear about your wash out at the MNSSHP. That was quite a storm! Worse that that is the way it sounds like it was handled. Every now and then we run into CM's who basically lie. Which sounds like what have happened here- they just wanted to get the guests out of the MK so they told you to take care of it at the resort, even though the resorts were not equipped or informed to handle it. Not very magical at all.

4+ inches of rain in just a few hours. we were prepared for rain, but not for THAT. LOL

this was the scene at City Hall, around 9PM. I was at the flag pole, and the line stretched behind me onto Main Street:

I hope your son makes the College Program. If he does, I hope you will share his experiences. My younger two girls want to do the CP once they get to college, and they have spent a lot of time on recent trips talking to CP CM's when we run into them. It sounds like a great program.

TCD

thanks - we have our fingers crossed! :) our middle son did the Keys to the Kingdom tour last week, and now he's ready to apply when he's in college. it was also interesting to hear him talk about the 4 keys ... with efficiency being one of them, and management handling the situation Thursday night anything but efficiently. LOLOL

I would let WDW know of your dis-satisfaction. Sure, they probably won't care because we are just lowly campers. But maybe, just maybe, your complaint will reach the desk of someone who actually feels WDW should give good service to all their guests.

Hope the rest of your trip was good!

I sent something to the wdw @ guest communications email address as soon as we got home on Friday. I filled out an online survey today for Ft. Wilderness and reiterated what I put in the email. Hopefully someone will see it!

We left right after all that, so there wasn't much left to the trip. LOL! We did have a good time, overall. We love doing a few days of DDP and then hanging out at the Fort to recover. We have our fingers and toes crossed now while we wait for our oldest to find out if he got in the College Program for the Spring semester.

I'm trying to think if there was anything else especially memorable that happened in the 48 or so hours we were at the Fort ... we did see the crane & construction for the Four Seasons Resort. While we aren't fans of the hotel going up, my husband has a fascination with cranes and did enjoy checking out what they had going on. LOL

There was a lot more standing water than I remember from years past. Makes sense, since it rained nearly every day last week, including the 4 inch deluge on Thursday night. Yuck. There were lots of crews spraying for what I think were mosquitoes in those areas.

I did have a hiccup on Friday morning that left me feeling frustrated and decidedly unmagical. My family & I attended the Not So Scary Halloween Party on Thursday (October 4) because of the lightning & torrential rain, Disney offered full refunds on the party tickets. I waited in line at City Hall for a while, and finally got the word from MK management that resort guest refunds would be processed at the resort. I double triple checked that information before getting out of line, as our flight was leaving early Friday afternoon. Yes. Go to guest services at the resort, they will have a directive about how to process the refund.

On Friday morning, I went to guest services to see about the refund process. I had our tickets, wristbands, and method of payment - just as the MK cast members said to do. There were 2 other guests in the lobby at the same time to do the same thing. When I explained that I was there to take care of my refund, I was told in no uncertain terms would that be possible, that guest services is not a ticketing agent and therefore could not process a refund. I asked if it made a difference if I went to the GS window near the Hoop De Doo and was told no. No refund anywhere at the Fort. The guests who were also there for refunds shared their experience from the night before, which was identical to mine ... told the same thing. No refund. A manager came out (I think he was a manager, anyway .. he had on a different color shirt than the other cast members did) and explained that our party tickets had been converted to a 1-day MK pass automatically last night. No refunds. Since that was NOT what any of us were told the night before, we were becoming a little frustrated. Calm, but frustrated. LOL. Finally, the resort manager on duty came out and authorized the refund. Thankfully, I had charged our tickets to the cabin, so that was easy enough to take care of ... but the guest services CM made me feel like she was doing me a favor, and kept pointing out how she was documenting all this in my file so accounting wouldn't come back on her because she isn't supposed to give a refund. While this is going on, the other two check-in CMs are commenting on how the parks cast dumps problems like this on the resort cast all the time and expects them to clean up their mess. They also had plenty to say about how the MK cast isn't prepared to handle a weather disaster like they had the night before. At that point, I was happy to get the refund and get out of there. It took an hour to do something it took a friend of mine a few minutes to do at AKL. I missed out on enjoying our last morning at the Fort, which was no fun at all

good to know! I was thrilled with our cabin location ... after 3 stays, I think I've finally figured out what works best for us :)

Perfect way to end a trip!

I've read that the cabins in the 100 loop are used for VIP. I'm sure somebody here knows more. I know I've read about them before.

I thought the same ... but on Wednesday, it appeared to be just regular people staying there. LOL

returned to cool & dry Kentucky after 7 nights in sunny, humid, cloudy, rainy Florida.

humidity. I forgot how much I detest humidity until this week. wow.

our trip was all over the place ... spending a night at the Swan (free on SPG points. can't beat that!), followed by 4 nights on the QSDP at Pop Century, ending with a vacation from the vacation: 2 nights at the Fort.

I don't have much to report from our time at the Fort, but did notice one change from our visit last year:

QSDP credits can now be used at the Trails to Go window. Not a clue when the change occurred, but I appreciated it on Wednesday when I was torn between letting the last of our credits expire or going over to Roaring Forks to use them there. Since we had our minds made up on getting a Giddy Up & Go, I was willing to let them go unused. I asked the CM at Trail's End, just in case, and was pleasantly surprised to learn we could get anything but the Giddy Up & Go meal :) Nachos & a BBQ sandwich, please!

A few other thoughts:

The Fort was very quiet Wednesday & Thursday nights. There were quite a few people checking in today for the holiday weekend, though.

I have a new found respect for tent campers after last night. wow. there was a LOT of rain. I don't know how anyone in a tent stayed dry.

We stayed in a cabin in the 2500 loop. Good spot to be in. Centrally located.

My kids want to know what the story is on the two cabins in the loop close to the marina. Do regular people get to stay in those? Are they even used for lodging purposes?

It was a good visit, always looking forward to the next one :)

good to know. I know his carts are faster than Disney's, which is worth something ... but I know it's going to be iffy on the short notice.

thanks, all!