J&J Adventuring..Julia

Day 5 - Same cast

Homeward Bound

We went to Trail's End for breakfast, took some pics and packed up. As we left WDW, I shed a few tears (as usual) but realized we would be coming back home soon.

Overall view of our first time at FW.

Unlike other resorts, you do not get the feeling of being herded. There is no rush to get to your room, get to the restaurants/food courts and then to the buses. We did not encounter the hectic nature you see at the resorts. It was a very calm and peaceful feeling which is needed after a day at the parks. I met some of the nicest people that you typically dont take the oppurtunity to meet at a resort. We had planned on staying at the AKL or WL for our honeymoon but after this week, we are hooked. Fort Wilderness it will be. Five stars. Amazing vacation.

Thank you all for sharing this trip with me.

Day 4 - Same cast (remember I am 37 and Josh is 29 at times we act like we are 2.)

EPCOT and CP with Neil Patrick Harris

We arrived at EPCOT around 10am . The crowds were pretty heavy. We got in , had some pictures taken and saw Daisy Duck with not a long line. Josh squealed "I love Daisy Duck." This was news to me. So, we go over to get our pictures taken. It's finally our turn and she notices our just engaged buttons, we makes a huge deal out of this and claps. Draws a huge heart in the air and motions a forever. Then we take pictures with my ring showing and she hugs each of us. Amazing character interaction. As we walk away, I look over and Josh has tears in his eyes. The magic has hit once again. Then we notice Stitch has appeared and we go over to get our picture taken. Stitch hugs each of us and motions to our buttons. Josh makes a joke as we pose for the pictures and I hear this laugh come out of the costume. We got a character to laugh. Wow. Moving on to the Land where we had lunch and rode Soarin. Amazing ride. Then come out and stood in line for Chip and Dale. Chip was mad cause Josh had a Dale pin and not a Chip pin and tried to steal me away from Josh. Walking off with me, etc. Dale took the water bottle we had an started throwing it back and forth and hiding it in the bushes. Hilarious. We walked through Innoventions and tried the Great Piggy Bank Adventure cause there was no line. It was cute. We made our way to a few more rides and then decided to stand in line for the Fab 5. The pictures were cute. I was wearing a Captain Hammer shirt and Pluto went nuts. Cheering at my shirt , clapping and showing everyone. (For those who wonder about this. Its a 45 minute movie with Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day and Nathan Fallon produced by Joss Whedon. It's called Dr. Horribles Sing A Long Blog) Twenty five minutes later and lots of laughs, it was time to head into teh WShowcase. Wandered through EPCOT and its starting to get cold and rainy. We are both in shorts/capris and tee shirts. Not expecting this weather. We went to dinner had the CP package. Ate at the Marrakesh. He had the Marrakesh feast and I had the Royal Feast. We stuffed ourselves and headed to take a few pictues and stand in line for the CP. About an hour later, we were seated and it was threatning rain. On and off rain all day. It was cold but it did not matter, we were about to see NPH. The show began and wow. Words cannot express the beauty of this show. The sign interepter was amazing and it looked as if she was dancing as she signed. NPH was as always, inpressive but took everything very serious. Towards the end, he began to sing with the choir and there was not a dry eye in the place. Wonderful job. We walked around and decided hey, lets go get some warm clothes and head to the Magic Kingdom. So, we headed over the Magic Kingdom around 10pm. More rides, more fun. The park was empty. We got out at 1am and went to the Fort and feel asleep.

Day 3 - Same Cast

Disney Hollywood Studios

With a late start , tummy's full of oatmeal and lanyards on we finally headed out to DHS. SInce we didn't find the pin Josh needed to complete his collection, we were once again stalking, I mean asking Cast Members to see their pins. It started the minute we arrived at the park. Today, was our semi relaxing day. We took our time as this was Josh's first time at DHS. It was about 11 when we arrived and they were already out of FP's for TSM. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. There was no way we were gonna wait two hours, so we moved on, We wandered around, rode some rides, pin traded, We met some really nice people in the process of pin trading and one child said "I think I saw a CM with the pin you needed over near the entrance to Sunset Blvd." What did Josh do? Took off. I mean ran. We looked at every cast member lanyard in the area. That is when I saw the concierage booth. I walked up and low and behold. There was the pin. The tigger pin we had been waiting for. Josh was bouncing as we waited in line. We finally got the pin.

We wandered down Sunset Blvd. just in time to see a street performance. It was hillarious. Josh and I are both huge fans of improv. so this made our day. Next, we decided to try the American Idol Experience. We had some really good singers and Josh declared that he wanted to see the finale show. I was thinking to myself, wait..no fantasmic, no osbourne lights. Nope. he wanted to see the finale. So, we went and played in HISTK playground. Realized I am not a kid anymore. Then it started to get dark. We popped in Osbourne and headed to the AIE finale. We missed lots of rides but hey, we have AP's so it's all good. We made the RNRC, ST, AIEx2, GMR (which Josh says is his fave), M3D, Backlot Tour. Lot's of just wandering.

We headed back to FW and decided we wanted to take a swim. Now, at this point, its about 10pm. We head over to the meadows and creepy.. There was noone there. Completely empty. We settled in the hot tub and about twenty minutes later we were joined by some other adult campers and eventually there were six of us. We met everyone and talked till 12am. Completely relaxed and head over heels in love with FW. Went back to the site, fell fast asleep. Another magical day.

Yea! A tent camping trip report no less!! So tell me about the weather, how did you fair in the lower temps? I'm loving this report and can't wait to see some pictures, what a magical trip you have had so far!! I'm glad your experience with 2000 was good, I've stayed there twice, first time was awesome, second time was rough (Halloween weekend was nutty!) Looking forward to more!

oh yes, and welcome to fort fiends, your gonna love it here!!! :heart:

The weather was amazing. Once we were cuddles into bed with covers and blankets, we were fine. I heard about your experience in the 2000 loop. We requested it for Halloween but now second guessing.

Packing up!!

We are trying to stuff some long weekend trips into our schedule before our honeymoon. I <3 Fort Wilderness and am trying to find a way to keep the tent cool while camping out at the fort. Any suggestions? Has anyone else braved the Florida summers in a tent?

I have thought about renting a popup but financially it may not work. However, it would guarantee cool. :)

Why did you have to introduce me to Pintrest? So addictive :)

No, I did not read the description. Woot went overboard with this. Crazy...

Anyone tried these bags?

http://deals.woot.com/sellout

Thank you all for your wonderful welcomes. So glad I found this site.

Day 2

Same Cast

Woke up and was not in the mood for oatmeal. We made our way to attempt to try and get in to Traild End. We arrived and only waited ten minutes with no PS. We sat down and was greeted by our server Kenny. He was delightful. Mickey waffles with banana walnut syrup, breakfast pizza, fruit, eggs, breakfast meats were all yummy but oh my...the eggs Benedict with the BBQ. How crazy addictive. These were amazing. After noms we wandered around the shops and made our way to the AK. This park was packed. DF wandered over to a cast member for some pin trading. We talked and joked with Scott and he asked a series of questions. Are you all going to be here most of the day? Yep. Are you going to see the parade? Yep. Would you like to Grandmarshall the parade? O M G. I squealed like a little child, got all teary eyed, bounced up and down...yes, yes, yes. Scott told us where to meet him and we thanked him a million times and went to enjoy the park. Of course, I could not focus on anything but the parade for the rest of the day. We kept trying to ride the safari but it was down most the day. Wandered around the park, rode some rides, took in the scenary and waited for parade time. Of course, DF is doing a ton of pin trading. It was cute. So, finally it was time to meet Scott. We were taken backstage, we got into costume (hats and vests), played with king louie, and boarded our float with Rafiki behind us. Then we were onstage. My face hurt from all the smiling and laughing. We waved and giggled the whole time. I can just imagine how many pictures, videos we are in. By the end, we were singing the songs, dancing and having a glorious time. Tons of photo pass pics and they gave us a Code for free downloads on all our parade pictures. What an introduction for Josh's first time in the AK...After the parade, we rode some more rides and it was getting close to closing time. We were on our way out of the park when we noticed a character path was still open. We ran down and were the only people with Pooh and friends. Had a blast. Pooh compared his tummy size with DF and we took pictures and played for awhile. At the end, we got a special pic with them all together. We left the park and headed back to the Fort. We were the only ones on the bus.

We decided to head to Earl of Sandwich for dinner. Everyone must go there. Had the holiday sandwich with turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce. Yummy. This is when DF realized he only needed one more pin to complete his Winnie the Pooh portrait pin set. This began a night of insanity. We searched out every Disney Cm at DD. after several hours, with no luck, we went home. This was a truly magical day

Pics are still being downloaded. Most of our pics are photo pass as we prepurchased the CD. I promise to post ASAP.

Arrival Date: December 7, 2011

Departure Date: December 11, 2011

Cast: Julia - Me (Been to WDW many times) and Fiance - Josh (second time at MK and EP, never at HS and AK)

Tent Camping FW Loop 2000 Site 2059

We arrived in WDW around 1:30pm on December 7. We did online check in, had no wait for check in, picked up our Just Engaged buttons and we were off. (We had requested the 1500 loop but received the 2000. We were VERY glad we had the seclusion of the 2000's.)

Camp setup took about an hour or so. This included lights, tent, canopy, bedding, etc. We gave ourselves some time to acclimate to the Fort and headed to the MK for MVMCP and to pick up our AP's.

When we left the site, the sun was shining and it was pleasant. We left the windows open for the tent to air out. Once we arrived at the Settlement, we made our way over to the MK and it got very cool and dark. Then, the rain started. Oh well, hope we are not flooded. Got our wristbands (around 4) and AP's. It poured for about thirty minutes and we checked in to get our haircuts at Barbershop. While we waited, got some photopass pics, dole whip. Loved the barbershop! Great cuts. Stopped at Casey's for dinner and went riding. The park was not very crowded at all. Walk on to everything. Then, Josh discovered pin trading. We had brought some pins to trade but I had no idea he would go crazy. He did. This begins the insanity for our pin trading. We got tons of congrats from our buttons. The cocoa and cookies were good (in Columbia Harbor house they also offer Apple slices and apple juice). We watched the memories castle show (our picture of us kissing under mistletoe was projected and I squealed). We talked to a CM in Fantasyland about the fireworks and she said she preferred to watch them from FL. So, we did. Best idea ever. We were the only people in a twenty foot radius and it was like they were on top of our heads. Best fireworks display I've ever seen at the world. Yes, we missed seeing the castle but well worth bypassing crowds and it was not crowded. Went over to our pics with Lady Tremaine and family. I am a villains fanatic and requested Lady Tremaine be in the center with me (as I had never seen her before). Cinderella looked shocked and LT beamed. The character interaction was great. They all wanted to see my engagement ring and made it very special. Rode most things multiple times with no waits. Walked down mainstreet in the snow, ate Banana bread pudding from the bakery, bought the photopass (preorder), tooks tons of pictures. Headed back to the Fort and to our surprise, it had not rained a drop at the site. Prepared our tent for the 44 degree weather and went to sleep. Amazing, magical night.

Will post pics and more TR as I get everything downloaded.