michelb

I believe most dolly manufacturers say not to tow backwards but I heard of tons of people who do it. I believe one catch is that you need to tie down your steering wheel straight. The other option is to disconnect the driveshaft. IMO, this sounds like a lot of work and I wouldn't want to do it but I've heard people say it only takes a few minutes.

What you have (i.e. Class A, TT, 5th wheel): 03 Tiffin Phaeton 40RH (class A diesel) usually pulling a car or minivan on tow dolly If you're towing (so TT or 5th wheel) how heavy is it: mh loaded for travel is probably around 26500 lbs, car and dolly adds another approx 5000 lbs If you tow, what is your tow vehicle: Gas mileage: avg fuel mileage since we got it in 2012/08 has been 7.7 mpg (1729 gallons to cover 13292 miles) but that includes fuel used for the generator (we usually camp without electrical hookups during the summer). High is around 9.75 mpg, low is 2.5 mpg. If I exclude fil

FWI, we requested a loop when we booked (about 1 month before the trip) and got it. As far as the internet connection, I belive AT&T has a good signal across DisneyWorld, in my experience, other providers (we have T-Mobile) do not and if you aren't with AT&T, it might be worth getting the modem and your own wireless router (I didn't bring a router this past trip but will in the future, it pretty much had no data with T-Mobile were we were in FW).

Like PureTcrazy...rita said, look at a map but I'm not sure you'll save a lot of (or even any) walking by being on a prefered site. Also as mentioned, be aware that it could be very hot in August in a tent. Good luck

I think vehicle location has a lot to do with it. I think cold and poor road conditions up North really beat up vehicles (e.g. I think a car / truck can easily last 200k miles in the Southern US but because of potholes, road salt, etc northern vehicles start falling apart after 100k miles).

If you don't have much experience driving large vehicles, practice in a large, empty parking lot. Get a feel for how much room you need for taking corners (both left and right) or even turning around (you'll need to have a good idea when you get to gas stations). When turning, pay attention to the back wheels of the trailer in your mirror so you get a feel of how deep / wide you have to take corners. Speaking of gas stations, depending on how large of a trailer you got, find out exactly how tall you are and make sure you check for clearance at gas stations and lower bridges (a good idea is

Definately not allowed your own watercraft (not even non-motorized). Just as a follow up, we were at FW in the 1400 loop last week and since we were backing onto the river / canal (where the Bike Barn canoes / kayaks go) and happened to have our inflatable paddle board, I decided to take out on the water. In the span of about 20 minutes, I had 2 different staff members (one when I paddled by the Bike Barn and the other chased me down on a bicycle as I was getting back to my site after having turned around) tell me that I was not allowed my own canoe, kayak or paddleboard on the waterway.

We were really disapointed to hear about the changes to GAC program (my wife actually doesn't want to go back and wants to get a refund on the multi-day passes we purchased (but haven't yet used) - I'm trying to convince her that we should wait until we see how it works out). Our son has autism and the GAC allowed us to enjoy Disney. I'll admit that great part of the appeal and the biggest point of contention with the GAC is that it did shorten the wait time - while regular guests might have had to wait 30-45 minutes, guests with a GAC got to go one in 10-15 minutes. But that doesn't mean

DisneyLand is proposing to get rid of Guest Assistance Cards for Special Needs Families in the near future. If you are impacted negatively by this, I urge you to sign the petition at: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/disneyland-discontinues?mailing_id=15444&source=s.icn.em.cr&r_by=8806270'>http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/disneyland-discontinues?mailing_id=15444&source=s.icn.em.cr&r_by=8806270 Spread the word. Thanks, Mike

We travelled from Orlando to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada when our youngest was about 8 weeks old (who doesn't travel particularly well) so it can be done. As long as you don't mind working around their schedule it's do-able but as everyone else has mentioned, it depends a lot on the child. Also depends on when you want to drive - if you don't mind driving at night and the 7 month old (and all your other kids) sleep well, you can get alot of mileage done then. I'm guessing that by '1-2 stops' you mean 'overnight stops'. We do about that travelling from Canada but we also usually stop every fe

I agree that they aren't (weren't) the greatest manufacturer but I wouldn't be that harsh. If you're spending $3-4k on an older unit, I don't think the brand name matters as as much as the condition of the actual unit. Country Coach, Wanderlodge and Western Alpine are all also out of business and they all made very good quality products (Country Coach Corp is in business but it's not the same company as Country Coach Ltd (or whatever it was called). It's a new company with a very similar name as the old one, that bought the assets of the old company and is run by the one of the founders of

Late coming in to this thread but thought I'd share my limited knowledge. First, as you've seen and has been discussed in a lot of detail, unfortunately, all minivans are not very good tow vehicles because: 1) manufacturers don't really publish the numbers (just try to find the GCWR on them), 2) they have low tow ratings (I don't think any will tow more than 3500 - why they can't build a minivan that can tow 5000lbs or more is beyond me ...), and 3) there's tons of room so it's really easy to overload them without even considering the trailer. We have a Sienna so are in the same boat; while

You're probably right that the timing of Easter makes a difference. This year it's at the end of March so that might be busy. We went to MK on Easter Day in 2011 (April 24th so pretty late for Spring Breaks) and I didn't find it all that busy. In comparaison, we were also at MK on XMas day in 2012 and just walking through the park was hard. When we left for lunch / break around 2PM, the park was at capacity and we wouldn't have been able to come back in right away (didn't bother us since we were planning on going to the camper and pool for a few hours anyway - we ended up only returning ar

We were there on Easter two years ago and I really didn't think it was that bad - nothing like XMas.

Not sure how easy / hard it is to get one of the Fort's modem. We were last there in January and couldn't get one during the 3-4 days of our stay.

Wow, I had looked at some pictures a while back and had noticed lots of growth but hadn't realized it was in that sort of disrepair ... such a shame ... You are probably right about Disney never using that land for a campground. I wonder if they'll ever do any sort of expansion at the Fort (they certainly have the numbers to justify it but there might not be that much reason to actually doing it (by limiting the number of sites, it's probably much easier to justify premium prices they charge and pressuring people into early booking)). Looking at an airial map of the area, looks like they h

Thanks for the update. Part of me is happy that the haven't torn it down since I'm always hoping deep down that they'll re-open it someday since it would be so convenient to bike from the Fort. Realistically, I know that will never happen but it's such a shame to just let it sit and rot. I wonder if there's any chance they'll ever expand the Fort in that direction and re-use some of it as another Fort pool.

Yeah, I really don't know how previous generations travelled without electronics !!! We use to fight it and try to limit their video watching while travelling but now we've accepted that riding on the highway (particulary from the backseat) for hours and hours really isn't all that interesting to kids and if it keeps them calm and happy to watch movies, we let them. I figure the calmer they are, the less they'll distract me and I'll be safer on the road too. We do try to change it up a bit: force them to get out at rest areas, play games like 'I spy ...' for a while, etc but eventually th

Unfortunately, with rvs, there's a lot of compromises so you'll have see what works best for you. IMO, the most important thing is the floorplan. Granted a lot of floorplans are pretty much the same but, especially for families, there are differences. For families, I think TT and FW have by far the most and best options. As far as sleeping capacity, 'C's will probably be 2nd and 'A's last. There are more and more options for 'A's with bunks but they are still pretty limited - the vast majority of 'A's are designed to accomodate 2. There's always the option of sleeping on sofas and dinet

Thanks for the headsup. We decided to go ahead on order our multiple-day no expiry tickets from Undercover Tourist since their prices haven't gone up yet. For 10-day, no expiry, hopper and water park, the increase is still pretty significant (+ $21 on the days, + $5 on the Hopper & water park and + $50 on the no expiry for a $76 increase) Sadly, campground has increased a bit as well.

I'm pretty sure my wife asked last time we were there and she was told we were allowed to use the pool at any of the other Disney Hotels / Resorts.

When we were last there in January, we had reserved full hookup but they were overbooked in that section so 'upgraded' us for free to premium. We ended up in 1400 (which is my favorite loop). The ironic part is that I had checked on multiple times to see if I could reserve premium but I never got any availability so kept my full hookup reservatiosn and when we got in 1400 it was almost empty ...

One thing we noticed about the overflow is that there isn't that much room in it. We were there in mid-January (not particularly busy at the Fort) and there was not much free space in the overflow. We probably had to wait at least 30 minutes for someone to leave before we were able to find a spot. This was around check-out time so it's very possible that it's not as busy in the morning since they don't allow overnight but they do allow leaving trailers so it might not be that much better (it might actually be worse).

Newmar had the ATME 4188 for one year which was a mid-engine diesel Class A in their 2009 brochure. It has a wheelchair lift in the back and the floorplan was designed so that someone in a wheelchair could easily travel the length of it (looks like it was even doable with the slides in) but they abandoned the 'mid-engine' floorplans after that year and I've never actually seen one so it would probably be very hard to find one if any even exist. Floorplan: http://www.newmarcorp.com/uploads/floorplanpdfs/allstar/NewmarAllStar4188.pdf It's a bit surprising that there's not more available but it

IMO, if you are looking for the best price, craigslist is probably the best bet. You can get some deals on eBay but many of the eBay listings are dealers so you'll be paying a markup. PPL is good as they have a lot of variety but I think you pay a premium (like with pretty much all dealers or consignors).