geoffdaddy

Just an update on this... 

We made it to the fort. We leave tomorrow.  anyways we went through the normal check in process when we arrived at about 9:30am and nary a peep about the camper. A site wasn't available that early obviously so we parked in overflow and went to Epcot for the day. Ended up in the 1500 loop along with two other hybrids, one of which is 5' longer with a slide out the same series as our camper! We did have a little trouble backing in due to the proximity of the marker post for the site across from ours but I think I probably started backing in later than I should have. A CM came around with a flashlight to guide us in since we were setting up after dark (around 9) We fit with tons of extra space front and back, side to side otherwise. Now the only trouble is we have to leave in the morning.  

At the fort right now. I can confirm that our surpass is working fine now. We traveled both 429 and 419 so far on this trip and smooth sailing with the transactions this time around.  I like not having to worry with stopping for tolls. 

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

That's how we keep the state running.  Next time you cross the border you will be picked up and hit with a bill that has been quintupling daily so you will owe us $4000 on a $3 dollar toll! 

I hope you're joking! :)

<sigh> Sunpass...

So, since we make enough trips down to justify this thing now, I sprung for it on the trip before last. We bought it about an hour before we hit the first toll plaza on Florida's Turnpike. According to all their documentation online, the transponder is active almost instantaneously after you set up an account. Well, first toll plaza we go through "TOLL NOT PAID." Great. so much for saving time I'm thinking. We looked through the website again and fixed what we thought was wrong, including the website putting our street address to a street in MADISON, FL, instead of... well, MADISON, AL like we put in. got off on 429 and went through the E-PASS which of course has no feedback at all.

Looking at the Sunpass account website, there's no indication that E-PASS worked either. I ended up calling up Sunpass and they did something to fix it and they told me to just pay the unpaid toll notice when I got it in the mail. Still haven't seen that and it's been well more than 60 days.

I'm hoping I don't get a nasty surprise one day...

One improvement I think they could/should make at the swimming pool is get rid of the ledge around the pool. I have seen one kid before trip on the thing and hit their chin on it on the way down. BAM! Bloody lip.

On 2/17/2016 at 2:24 PM, Travisma said:

Maybe a memory loss, but I think back then they just had a driver?  Could be mistaken.  Hopefully they wouldn't have to do the big safety talk.  And would it be any worse then the ear piercing warning when the bus kneels?

That drives me nuts more than anything. And, I can't really understand why the warning. I mean, it's not like the kneeling bus is much of a safety hazard compared to say backing up or letting the ramp down. I haven't noticed any pinch points anywhere.

Thanks for the tips guys. Last time we were there we looped the 2000 and were tent camping in the 1500 loop and I didn't notice any campers of any sort other than pop ups then.

So, should I just go through the normal check in process or park it in the overflow and go inside?

Ours isn't a large one... about 21' total length including the tongue, and from what I've seen in both partial loops I think we'd fit with loads to spare in either of them.

1 hour ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

I've had my hybrid on a full hook up site.

Full or Partial?

2 hours ago, ceemike...Mike & Judy said:

 

GAG = Giddyup and Go, the carryout chicken dinner at the Trails End Restaurant

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I figured that's what you must have meant, but I couldn't think of the proper name for it other than the delicious chicken dinner. Yes, we've partaken in that every single time for the past 3 or 4 visits. It is well worth it.

36 minutes ago, PGHFiend said:

Ahhh, the GAG. We get one after we set up, amazing deal.

We're crock potting this time for sure, but the only place we plan on eating offsite this time is a breakfast type place that we last went to in Vegas called Hash House a Go Go. We just found they opened one on International Drive. It was on man vs food tv show a while back.  

Ha! that is so funny...our best friend's favorite place to go while in Vegas is also Hash House as well.

My acronymulator must be broken right now... what is GAG?

So, I snagged a three night stay at the Fort in a partial hook up site next Sunday a couple days ago! We're going to the Fort!!! We have a hybrid camper, so I'm tempted to bring it, even though I'd be breaking the rules. I'd be off the fence if someone could tell me with any certainty that they'd let me onto the site with the camper, but so far I haven't seen evidence on here of many people recently doing this. If anyone has any sage advice I'd like to hear it, otherwise we're tent camping. I don't mind that though, especially this time of the year.

Does anyone have any recommendations on places to eat off property? We already have one fancy place, Ohana's on a ADR that we haven't tried, but I think that may be it for the top of our budget. We've wanted to try it and since we're going without the kids on this trip it's the perfect opportunity.

I agree, it is confusing. I think I've seen it enough times now though that I've learned how it works. hahah

Well, I have to agree partly about the Fort being about Wilderness. I do think that there are three things that bother me most about the current state of the Fort:

The Meadow Pool seriously needs an upgrade

No more swamp trail...

No more Cypress Point Nature Trail...

Seems like those things would fit nicely into the current Fort Wilderness. The latter two (or ones similar) wouldn't be major expenses to do either.

On 2/9/2016 at 3:20 PM, keith_h said:

I think Disney would have to do quite a bit to create a new River Country even if they scaled it back to be resort sized. While I feel the risk is very low the sandy bottom and warm water temperatures you have at River Country, or in much of the deep south, makes for the type of environment Naegleria fowleri amoeba thrives in. Disney already had one death in the 80's due to this amoeba which leaves a potential public relations problem if they try to reopen something similar. In order to eliminate this risk Disney would need to isolate the RC area entirely from Bay Lake and install some type of a hard bottom (i.e. concrete) and chlorinated water system. I just don't see this happening due to cost versus ROI. They can make a lot of money with what they have today and minimal risk both physically and with public perception. To make even more money they can turn RC into a DVC area and who knows maybe use Steve's suggestion of high end campsites where everyone has their own mini Yosemite/Yellowstone campsite for $2000/night. 

Yeah, I understand that, I'm not advocating opening the natural water pool back up, but surely they could put a new chlorinated pool in its place.

We've been going to the Fort since we started in 2009, sometimes a couple of times a year, and a couple of things I'll mention:

Even with the prices the way they are, it is still our favorite place to vacation, hands down. Even if we didn't visit the theme parks, that wouldn't bother us so much.

Now, that said, I read The Troll's responses, and I think that he has several things spot on. I never visited the fort (or even knew of its existence) in its heyday, and from reading about it I feel like I can commiserate with the old timers sense of what has been lost. I think this is the thing that bothers me about the Fort. They are jacking the prices up, because they can (and that's The American Way), but from my perspective, I can't think of a single thing that they have improved at the Fort since 2009, where's the money all going? It can't cost very much money relative to the other resorts to maintain the Fort, even accounting for occasional improvements or repairs to the infrastructure. It's gotta be going straight into the shareholders pockets, and they have to be profiting by a much wider margin than any of the other places. The amenities are all the same as they have been since 2009. Now clearly, the Fort is popular enough that they don't need to bother with this, but you would think they would want to roll a little more money into the cash cow instead of milking it bone dry. How about some updated amenities? I like the idea of a lazy river, or heck, scale back River Country and make it as some have suggested a shared amenity for guests of the Lodge and Campground? Seems like even in its current state of disrepair it would be less trouble to refurbish it than start it brand-new. It's only been vacant for 15 years, that's not a very long time....

Of course, we all know that that is not in the cards, since clearly they've spent some serious $$$$s designing a River Country DVC and that's the site they have in mind. They will pour money into that before anything at our beloved Fort.

Now, to suppress my grumbling and to think happy thoughts about my favorite place...

I can attest to the barricades in the pedestrian path being a pain for bike trailers, and I find the bikes on the ped path counter intuitive. In the world outside of Disney, bikes are supposed to ride on the road with other traffic, not on sidewalks. I tend to follow that rule unless safety dictates otherwise. I agree ped paths are probably good for smaller kids on bikes though and perhaps that is what they intended.

I think Tusker House is my favorite place to eat on property.

For us living in Huntsville, AL, there is no direct freeway route to Atlanta despite the relatively close distance. The shortest path is all backroads (which is kinda pretty) to Adairsville about an hour north of Atlanta on i-75, via Rome, GA (traffic light capital of the world), via Chattanooga, or via Birmingham. We have driven via Adairsville three times, and via Birmingham (the longest path by about 60 miles) and have hit snarled traffic in Atlanta all the times we've been. I didn't attempt the 285 bypass to i-20 though this last time, so maybe that might have made a difference? Who knows? looks like from Nashville it's about 56 miles difference vs i-65.

Like TnBob, I prefer his exact route. We have done this way numerous times and it's a lot less hectic, for us it's only about 30 miles difference from the shortest route through Atlanta, and my parents live in Dothan so we have a good mid-point stay that we can do if we go that way. Under ideal conditions that means about a half hour's longer drive by the numbers, but I consider that each time we have gone via Atlanta now it has taken AT LEAST 1 hour to traverse the city with white knuckled driving (and one time we were stuck in stop and go for about 2 hours). There are traffic lights in Dothan and Montgomery (on Taylor rd), but traffic is generally light there. Birmingham and Alabaster (just south of Bham) are usually the problem points on that route, so if you can time it where you can get through that area to avoid rush hour traffic you should be good.

I wanna say I am positive I remember the rules stating no gas powered carts at least the first few times we visited the Fort (first trip was in 2009), but I am equally positive that the last couple times we visited this past year it didn't specify against gas at all.

Oh yeah, we have seen that firsthand too I believe. The first couple times we stayed at the Fort we requested and got the 100 loop both trips were November trips, and each time the same RV was parked on the same site, with a TON of decorations. We asked one of the CMs in the Settlement Trading Post about it and she said, "oh yeah, they have been here for a couple years now..." So, it happens. I would love to know what they do to be able to afford a year long stay.

You know, it could just be a matter of how long someone's there for.

We took our girls to do the arts and crafts thing over by the bike barn a couple trips back and were joined by another family. The CM asked where everyone was from and one of the girls from the other family said, "oh, we live here." I don't think she meant Orlando area, I think she meant Ft. Wilderness specifically. Now, as weird as that may sound, I believed her based on some of their other comments, and I have seen/heard reports of people staying for well over a year (one person stayed there for like 9 years straight!).

I haven't seen Hocus Pocus, but the unavailability of an actor hasn't stopped Disney from making sequels in the past.  They can have her character suffer an untimely death and replace her with someone new, or just plug a new actor in the roll, and everyone can pretend like nothing happened.

 

Bette should shut up and take the money.  Does she have anything better to do?

 

TCD

I have been told by my wife, who is a big Hocus Pocus fan that Bette Midler said that it was her favorite role in a movie and that she frequently performs "I put a spell on you" at concerts she does, so I don't think she would be against it.

Suits me!

We have been multiple times and requested specific sites, only to be given another site and find all of our requested sites were empty and no one setting up. Why can't we have those empty sites? "We have a big group coming on the weekend."

Oh, I thought these were first come-first served sites... nope, here's a huge group, here for three days... sorry pal, you can't have it for the five days prior since you are staying through the weekend. Sure enough, the sites sit vacant for a full five days.

Pretty crummy if you ask me.

Yeah, the server was a piece of work I think. At one point he was talking with a couple of other cast members who must have been friends in the lobby about how he was hoping to be transferred to another restaurant on property, he certainly spent more time talking to them than he did the entire time at our table.
 

I am sure that management has a fine line to walk on policing the resort. Too heavy a hand might turn off a lot of business and vice versa. I expect a certain amount of this type of behavior and will tolerate some, however in this case, the kids were out of control I think.

I've decided to make a write a formal complaint about these two issues.