caveat lector

Great TR and the pics are wonderful. Especially like the foggy Castle pic 

Lol, I guess details aren't important.  #BringBackLawnmowerTree 

First off, let me say it's great to see a trip report here.  Enjoying reading it! 
But I also have to say, regarding the part I quoted above...I don't know what any of that means but it sounds like the garbage I deal with at work every day.  Technology that is supposed to make things better doesn't work as intended, and we waste more time trying to find a workaround than it would have taken to do it the old way.  Why would I want to do that on vacation?? 

That rumor is true Grumpy!





 




 
There is too much sod, there are a lot less trees, but it’s 1000% better than the eyesore that was here for the past 2 1/2 years. As far as I could see, there are no speakers anymore- so no fireworks music unless they set up portable speakers.
TCD

Oh and even if you use a travel agent such as myself you still have control, we just do the tedious work of sitting on the phone with Disney for you. Yes any changes or payments have to go through us after we book for you but we work for you. At least I do. I try to respond to all of my clients in as quick of a timeframe as possible. 

They sure are great memories. I met so many great folks during my hundreds of unannounced vists to the Fort. I've remained close to many of them.
I do remember the note Fred. Ahh the famous TCD FWRR spikes. Even though I handed out a lot of them at the Fort I think I still have some in my trunk. The best thing about the spikes is the story of how TCD hunted them down.

The three day limit is for those with out onsite or good neighbor hotels (havent seen a specific list of those, Four Seasons, Swan and Dolphin, Disney Springs are all ones I do know) 

Some AP holders with onsite reservations were having issues with only allowing 3 days but that seems to have been corrected to allow for length of stay up to 14 days to now be booked. 

As far as I know that 3 days limit is until you use a day then you can make another. I could be wrong on that but I do not know. Word is though for AP with out a resort they are going to be releasing additional Park Pass availability. Havent seen that direct from Disney though so don't hold me to it. 

And in case anyone hasnt seen this yet here is the Park Pass availability calendar you can check out before booking things. To see availability right now be sure to click on Disney Resort Guests until the other options open up. 

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/availability-calendar/?segments=tickets,resort,passholder&defaultSegment=tickets

Hopefully Imgur is going to co-operate and I'll be able to add some photos to this report.
Some of you may have seen some of my other posts looking to purchase a T@B.  We found one about 6 weeks ago in Atlanta, and this was going to be our maiden voyage in it.  Previously we camped in a tent then moved up to a old 1986 Coleman PUP.  The T@B is in another universe all together.
We went to the Fort over Veteran's Day weekend.  I worked a 1/2 day Friday, so we left Tampa around noon.
I had hitched up the camper Thursday night, and used my wife's car Friday to go to work.  While I was at work, she loaded 3 tubs and the tent in the bed of the truck and the suitcases in the back seat along with our snack bucket.  When I got home, I filled the ice chest and tossed it into the truck and we were off.
It was an uneventful trip, other than trying to avoid the numerous potholes on I-4 and keeping from getting run over by semis and idiot drivers.
We were able to check in as soon as we arrived, but then hit our first snag. 
We were assigned to the 2000 party loop or as some people refer to it Miami North.  We tried to get a site in 1500 but they said it was full. 
They did allow us to pick our site in 2000 and we picked 2030.  We got over to the site which was just about at the upper part of the loop.  It was a nice site and we had the big grassy area behind us which led to the comfort station.
I attempted my second time backing the camper.  It went better than my first time into our driveway, but I ended up unhitching on the road and pushing the T@B back into the site.  We arranged the camper enough to get my truck off the road and then started setting up the tent for my daughters and our screen room.  We worked on those first because the sky was getting darker by the minute.
We were able to get those set up and the camper and it still hadn't rained.

 
My daughters and granddaughter showed up around 5 and we had dinner.  By then it had started to sprinkle.
We decided to catch a bus to Disney Springs and go to the Christmas Tree Trail.  It rained on and off while we were there, sometimes pretty hard and other times just a mist.
We saw some trees



Had a frozen eggnog fortified by Captain Morgan.
We walked around to a few stores but as usual, Disney has done a wonderful job promoting themselves so everything was packed.  The kids decided to stay and my wife and I caught a bus back to the Fort.
 

It is neat, but at a cost of a monthly fee any month you use it.
I'll stick with the Central Florida Expressway Authority E-Pass Xtra. The Xtra is EZ-Pass. So, this one pass will cover all tolls in Florida, the few tolls in Georgia, the few tolls in North Carolina and the 18 EZ-Pass states.
I cancelled my SunPass account and my EZ-Pass account and now just use my E-Pass Xtra.
https://www.cfxway.com/

Today was the day I was most looking forward to. We are going to Mickey's very merry Christmas party! We have never been to any after hours event and I could not wait!
We got up showered, dressed and made breakfast. Today the sun was shinning and it was a beautiful day the high was going to be 84. Remember we are leaving this site?  We packed the tent back up and went over to the 1500 loop to check things out. When we checked in the CM gave us the choice of 1505 or 1506 we told her to pick for us. There was about 5 empty sites including the two choices we had been given. We then drove over to the Outpost. We headed in to see if are site was ready. . We got in line and waited about 5 min. A CM came over on a I Pad to help us. While we explained what was going on the super friendly CM that checked us in came out. She filled the CM in on what was going on. The new CM went into the back came out a few min later and told us it would not be long. And are site was 1505. We would get a text when ready.  It was now about 11:20. Off we went to Kroger to get something for dinner and a few other things. When we arrived back we still had no text. We decided to drive over to the site and see for ourselves. The site looked fine to us. We have a plug in cooler that we use has a fridge we took that out in plugged it in. Put the groceries away and I called the front desk. We still did not have a text on are site. While I was on hold a worker that clean the sites came over. I told her the site was fine to us and she didn't need to clean it up. Just then a CM came on the phone. I explained what just happened and she said ok if your fine with the site not being clean. While I was on the phone my husband had started to put up the tent. After this was done I had called home to my son and my dad to rub it in that I was sitting in Disney while they had to shovel . We had a cold drink and relaxed for a bit.
UP next how was the party? Would we like it? Would it be crowded? Does the weather hold up?
 

Thanks for the update J.  That was definitely a sweetener that will be missed

The overal athestic of the land is top notch. The textures, the layout, the sounds, etc are very well done. Better than Pandora, I think. I really liked the bazaar area attached to Ronto's Roasters. Even the restrooms are cool. The gift shop adjacent to Smugglers Run is really nice. The artifacts on the walls are amazingly detailed. Overall it truly feels like another world. It is also really nice at nighttime. 
The lightsaber build experience was also very cool. The CM that we had directing it was great. He really pulled you into the story and made it feel real. Bode absolutely loved it. 
Smugglers Run ride was kind of "meh" for me. It was good, but not jaw dropping like I felt when riding FoP for the first time. The que,  however, is almost as good as the ride. I really wish it was 3D. I feel like Star Tours is more exciting. 
I hope RotR is a standout. SR is about a 30 minute wait tops, IMHO. 
Overall it is really good. The CM's and characters in the land do a great job of making it seem like you're really in a Star Wars movie location. 

Totally agree that any work done in a recliner at the Fort doesn't spoil the fun.
When we managed to pull off our 6 week stay at the Fort a couple of years ago I worked full days for 3 of those weeks.  But that work was done either in a recliner at our site or a couple of times one on the Fort beach.  DH entertained himself with the dogs, looping or just relaxing, and neither of us felt that it ruined anything. Hey - it allowed us to stay at the Fort for 6 weeks!.  When the laptop closed at 5pm we did were free to do all the usual fun stuff. 

I just go. Long ago came to the realization that on my death bed, I won't remember the extra time that I worked but will remember every walk down MK main street.

I'm watching a Florida Panthers game. There are like 47 people in the stands. I guess I wouldn't be there either if I were in Florida.

Honestly I like the idea of having a DVC type area.  It doesn't have to be near the water either.  It is impossible right now to get anything at the Fort under DVC.  It probably will be in the future too, but I can dream.

Was at the Fort today. The dog park is now  newly sodded. The fence needs to be finished and a few other items cleaned up. 

I don't buy this rumor.  I do expect we'll see an overhaul of the settlement area, including some sort of project to beautify the area to the rear of PH and TE.  But I expect the Fort Settlement may be one of the selling points for the Reflections resort, so I can't see them moving it a mile away. 

I was expecting to see Dave posting a cinnamon roll picture.

It has gotten expensive but I still prefer the fort to a hotel. I make about 4 trips to fort each year and don’t plan to stop until I get too old to camp
I camp at country thunder and it’s 1500 for 3 nights including 2 tickets  
 

I didn't like the high prices either, but everybody seems to forget it's all about supply and demand. When the latest RV boom hit everybody started complaining about not being able to get a site in many State and local parks unless they reserved 6 mo out or longer same at WDW. Every article you read about the new construction at Coronado Springs and the new Resort going up ar the FORT mentions the need to meet demand. Many tourist industry experts say the price increases, both at the Parks and Resorts are the only way for WDW and Universal to have to help with crowd control and it really doesn't seem to help.
Prices go up and the crowds get bigger.

The term "giddyup and go" is offensive appropriation of Cowboy cultural terminology.  Disney is simply doing the right thing by listening to the cowboy population and respecting their social norms.  #yeehawbobisnext

Thank you to my father, US Navy, my uncle US Army Vietnam, and my grandfather, US Army, WWII

A little work beats a boring hotel room any day. And I don't care what class of room, not one other then the Fort has my truck 10' from the front door. We tried the resort and it was easy but we still came back and bought a camper. 

Heads up- they still don't have permanent signage in place for the new Fort Wilderness access road off to the right, so DO NOT follow the signs for Magic Kingdom resorts. You want to stay in the far right lane as you approach the toll plaza. The new road is marked with a temporary flashing sign. You will turn on it before you get to the toll plaza. I was just by there on Tuesday of this week, and that was what was going on then.
TCD