CakeHenn

Is there a size limit? I'm guessing they say nonrolling to limit the size to something that can be carried. We have several of those little soft sided coolers that could hold say a six pack or a little more. Pretty much the perfect thing for a day trip. Are there plenty of picnic places within the theme parks? I'm guessing we would normally cook or pack most of our meals during our stay but but for sure go out to eat some too.

Great app...I'm glad I'm new and did not have to wait. Seems like this will be super helpful when the time comes.

Since my wife is a School nurse the only time we could really do this trip and have the 11 or 12 days in order to go would be June/July and the beginning of Aug. I would think we would have better luck late July early August as many people seem to plan their summer vacations in June. This has also been my experience with RV resorts and state parks where June and July are hard to get spots.

Not to highjack but what food/beverage items can you bring inside the park? We just went to Sea World San Antonio and they would let you bring in beverages that were not sealed...so like containers of water/juice or whatever and as far as food you could only bring in snack/single service type stuff. I found it odd...but at the same time I figured it's was to get people to buy food and drink from them.

With two little girls we always bring stuff like water, snacks, and sun sceen. We do roll with one stroller which is nice because there is enough room to put a little cooler or whatever under the seat.

Your system makes sense to me Lou! I just have to figure out what TTC means

DO you guys follow the Undercover tourist crowd calendar in order to go to the parks with the least traffic each day? Do you find it accurate?

What's the extra magic hours? Is that just an option to go in earlier than normal or stay later? Kind of a beat the crowds option?

OK...yesterday with your help I was able to kind of come up with a plan to tackle this crazy long drive we will have to take in order to get to FW. I've noticed that when you go on the Disney site to book a campsite at FW they will offer up packages that don't seem to be customization. They offer a ticket to the a park for each night you are staying plus one. To me that's more than I think I would need.

Here is my idea...come in on Sunday and leave on that Friday...so five nights. The way I see it the day you get in I'd just want to stay around FW...then of course that Friday we would probably hit the road after breakfast. So at most we would need 4 days worth of theme park tickets. Does that sound right? Considering FW has a lot to do on site I'm thinking we could even just have 3 days worth of theme park passes.

On my last thread someone recommended the Undercover tourist site and I can see they have a few different types of passes. They have just regular tickets where you would go to one park per day...then they have park hoppers...then they also have added water park stuff. I feel like park hopping would be unnecessary for us as long as we could just get back into the same park the same day if we left to say go back for lunch/naps/etc.

Thoughts and suggestions on booking campsite and theme park tickets?? Also how far in advance do you order? When you make reservations for FW I'm assuming you can't reserve a specific spot but you can ask? Can you get on the loop you want at least...with advance reservations?

My son loves traveling and is pretty easy going, but we did a Disney trip when he was 4 months (really for me and DH), just turned 3, and were going back for his 4th birthday. He LOVES it and still talks about random details from last year.

There's something the other Fiends haven't warned you about though. And it's serious.... The Fort ruins all other campgrounds. We were supposed to go somewhere else for Spring Break this year. I started looking for a nice campground and comparing amenities, etc. and nothing compared. I kept thinking, wow, this will cost almost as much as the Fort and isn't as nice.... So guess where we're going.

The most expensive place I've ever camped was an RV resort that was $56/night. It was actually really nice...down on the Texas coast...Port Aransas at a place called Gulf Waters RV Resort. It has it's own private beach access. But yeah FW is around $90/night...way more than I would ever spend anywhere else but it's the kind of thing that in my eyes right now this is a one time deal. Yes I know everyone here is hooked lol....who knows maybe I will get that bug.

One thing that I noticed it looked like the Comfort Stations had ice machines...is that right...free ice? Or should I say as part of your camping fee they offer ice.

Part of the reason to wait is that I would like our 3 year old to be just a bit older so she is easier to deal with and I think she would have more fun if she was older. The only concern is that also puts our 5 year old at 6 and I wonder if the princess phase will be "little kid stuff" by then. Obviously they is lots to do there and the princess stuff is but one little part but I think right now for my girls it would be the greatest.

Read all the trip reports!

You should try to do at least one Princess Character Meal. In my opinion the breakfast at the castle in the Magic Kingdom is the best. Try to get an ADR(reservation) before the park opens on your first day at the Magic Kingdom. It’s not easy to get this reservation. It’s so magical for a little Princesses first experience to walk into the park and head straight for the castle and meet Cinderella first thing. Not to mention the great photo opps with no people on Main street

Oh and make sure to bring some princess attire.

The character meal sounds like something we certainly need to do. I guess I'll need to read up more on that. We have the princess attire covered!

If you haven't already and want to poke around and see what the various sites/loops are like, take a look at the stuff we have stored on our Info pages. Specifically, look under "accomodations" on the Site Map...

http://www.fortfiend...u-need-here-r99

There are videos of all camping loops except 2000 and a link to a super handy site app that gives you all the skinny on each individual site.

I'll for sure check it out. Last night I downloaded a few apps including the Fiends app that has pics and descriptions of each site! The app is so simple yet very informative. I think just based on looking at the map that we would want to stay close to the swimming areas and playgrounds.

Your girls are the perfect age to experience everything "princess " at Disney World. I miss the Princess days. I would suggest checking the areas you plan to stop to make sure they have a campground and that it is nice and that they have pull thrus. From Temple, you could stop at Cajun Palms, henderson, la (close to Baton Rouge ) about 8 hours. Nice big pull thru sites, easy on and off, plenty of things for the kids to do while you rest. They even have food and food delivery to your site if no one feels like cooking. they have a nice website if you would like to check them out. The next day you could make it to Madison, fl ( about 8 hrs) and spend the night at the Jellystone park. Again, easy on/ easy off, pull thru sites and lots of things for the kids to do while you rest. ( this was actually too long for us so we ended up stopping at the KOA west in Tallahassee,It's ok but nothing special.) The next day is an easy 4 hour drive to the Fort...you arrive rested and you still have most of the day to set up and enjoy the fort on your first day. We make the drive twice a year with our grand kids. For us, we prefer driving hard the first two days and rolling into Disney ready to have fun. We always look for campgrounds that are easy on-eay off, with something fun for the kids to do. Stop every couple of hours and let everyone, including you, walk around a little. I would also suggest picking up a book such as "The Next Exit" or "Exit Now" to help you find fuel stops your rig will fit into.

We learned this the hard way. We've done the trip in several different time configurations (depending on where our starting point is) and have stayed at quite a few of the campgrounds along the route, so if you need any help please let me know.

You're going to have a great time on your first trip to Disney!

Great info. Thanks. I'm at the point now where I almost want to say forget next summer....let's go this summer! Not sure I could pull that off though.

2 words: Crock Pot

We have our RV cooking down. Most trips we cook all our own meals....we sometimes will go out to eat one day of a trip while making a run to get fuel and other supplies we may need.

That's what Fiends are for!!!!!!

Now that you know how to get there, just a note, you can make reservations at the Fort 500 days out, but for your time frame, you can easily wait until 2014 rates are released which will be sometime this August.

Then dining reservations start 180 days out.

Then start perusing the other sections to decide what level site you want, and go from there!!!

I think after the trip it will be down hill from there. But yeah I've looked at the Disney Packages and ended up with more questions than answers. I'll keep researching and as questions come up I'll post. I'm a fairly frugal guy so I'm sure with yall's help I'll be able to get the best bang for my buck for what we actually want to do vs going crazy and paying for stuff we don't really need.

OK, enough hijack.........

Back to the original topic, You could make the trip in an easy 2 and a half days. First day make it Baton Rouge. Next day make it to Madison, FL. and final day make it to the Fort before lunch. That is 8 hours the first two days.

That's actually not a bad plan either...a bit longer the first day/evening...but that third day would be just over 200 miles and very easy.

Well I want to thank everyone and this site for turning my afternoon nonproductive as far as work goes but very productive as far as planning goes.

Here is what I'm thinking now so far with the suggestions. First day I leave the day before I had planned at 3 pm on the thursday and drive the 313 miles it takes to get to Lake Charles LA. Google says that's about a 5 hour drive. I figure with one stop....it would be about a 6 hour trip assuming no terrible traffic. From there that's 832 miles to FW. If I then break that up into two days I could make a stop somewhere around Crestview FL on day two (the Friday) which is 432 miles from Lake Charles...or I could push it farther in order to get there sooner that Saturday.

I feel like I've made some progress here :)

That rig does rock Specularious! Those seats are really cool...is that gator?

One thing we do, and we only have 690 miles, is we pull out in the evening. Sometimes I sneak out of work at 2pm, sometimes it's 5pm before I can get out, but then we get a few miles behind our belts that night. (Our goal is to get past Atlanta, but then you don't have to worry about that).

That does get us to the Fort at or before checkin time.

So perhaps you could do some miles the first night, have a long drive the 2nd day, getting into FL, then a short drive the last morning.

Some additional background....My wife is a school RN so she gets summers off and this is why we would plan on going during the summer and this summer we already have several trips planned already.

I really like that idea of leaving later in the day! I could get everything hitched up say the Thursday morning and then go to work...my wife could then do whatever packing needs to be done and then during the afternoon I could come home and we could then hit the road around 3pm and drive till about 9pm. I'm thinking one stop around the 175 to 200 mile mark and then drive more..I bet we could make 300 miles. I'm just thinking out loud but that's a great idea...then probably for sure get to the Fort that Saturday night.

Best of luck!!!!!

And I understand you wanting to use your own vehicle and RV. Trust me, we just did a (less than week) trip tent camping without our RV...Boo. But we were only traveling ~400 miles one way. We did calculate that we were saving some $$$ by taking our car vs the RV mileage wise.

Sooooo, all that said, have you thought about renting a camper and still staying at the Fort? You could possibly drive something with better fuel economy and save some $$$ toward the rental. Might be less stressful. And possibly a quicker travel time to and from the Fort?

I think that's a great idea for a lot of people...but we love OUR trailer and in my eyes I'd be cheating on the Eagle, lol. This is not something I'm going to consider but it would be a great idea for a family that is thinking about getting into RVing.

Yeah we have the TV/DVD combo set up thanks to my father in law. It does come in handy. That and naps I can get them 300 miles without much issue....but 400 or 500??? Then add back to back days of that. I guess it's to be seen. But heck I'm more worried about driving that long.

The Duramax I have I bought used just recently...I tows like a champ but the weakness I've discovered is it's tiny 26 gal tank...and honestly I get to like 19 and the fuel light comes on...for that reason I'm considering a 39 gal replacement tank....if I make this trip I'm almost certain I'll want get that in order to limit my fuel stops which can sometimes be a pain when towing.

Wow...I can't believe the replies already...thanks. DaveinTN....There is not question we want to go! It's just a bear of a drive and I'd be the one doing the driving...I need to get the wife to learn I guess.

For those that say stay longer yeah I'd like to. I'm self employed and a financial planner running my own practice...solo. So when a client calls I have to respond. With smart phones and wifi conections I can get away with being out of the office say 7 days as my plan of an 11 day trip permits but I'm stretching it beyond that.

I live outside Fort Worth. It is a very long drive to only spend 3-4 days at Disney. I recommend 5-6 days minimum if you have the time. It's important to build in lots of Fort time. Bring the bikes. Lots of nice, flat roads and sidewalks. It's very easy to spend all day, everyday at the parks and eveyone ends up tired and cranky at night. Pace yourselves.

We take two days for the drive, leaving very early to avoid Dallas rush hour. Take I-20 to Shreveport, 49 to Lafayette, 10 to I-75 in Florida (sending the night around Milton,Fl), and the south to Disney. We make it into WDW after lunch sometime day 2. On the way back last time we went northwest near Mobile (17 to 45?) and spent more time on I-20.

Disney is a great place for grownups. You will have a great time. So will the kids.

My hope would be two get to the Fort either late Saturday night or more likely Sunday and then stay until the following Friday or Saturday and then get home that following Monday (day 11). That would give me 5 to 7 nights there. I'm sure I could push one or two more days.

Question for Judy...how many miles is that first day drive??? And is that with a trailer...that seems like a heck of a drive!

Well as you can probably see I'm brand new to this site. I've never been to Disney or Fort Wilderness. Honestly I've never had the desire. However I have two little girls ages 5 and 3. They are into princesses and all princess stuff. Every day when I get home from work they are wearing little princess dresses.

The wife has talked about going for a while. Well we started RVing over a year ago...bought a used travel trailor and have really fell in love with RVing and recently bought a new one...we go all over here in Texas and probably go on one to two short trips per month. However up to this point our longest trip was about 340 miles one way. Based on google maps it's about 1150 miles from our town to Disney in FL. We discussed maybe doing this trip next year...summer 2014. Probably leave town on a Friday take two to 3 driving days down...say 4 or 5 nights then take two to three days driving back. All in all take a max of 11 days. I look forward to looking at all the threads here and learning about Disney and Fort Wilderness.

In the mean time the first real hump that is the make or break is that distance. If anyone is from TX, OK, or even LA I'd love to hear about their haul down...or if you know anyone that has posted about these trips and you'd like to provide links that would be helpful. Where did you stop along the way? I figure I'd have to break this trip up with a minimum of one over night stop but most likely two. If I can figure out a way to make this 1150 mile haul manageable I'd be much more likely to make this trip happen. I'm very comfortable driving and towing our 35' travel trailer but dang that's a looooong haul!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.