Avatab.... Steve
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Posts posted by Avatab.... Steve
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I've been using the Garmin RV760 for a couple of years now. It's not perfect (no GPS is...) but it was better than the others when I bought it. I like the big 7 inch screen and the notices it gives you about what services are off the next exit.
I also use one of my older 5 inch Garmins in the RV. I keep one zoomed out so I can see the overall area, and I keep the other zoomed in so I can see the immediate road and any turns coming up. I leave the RV760 speaker on and mute the other one. (they both get Traffic info and will warn of any issues coming up)
Lately, I have been putting my phone on a holder on the dash as well and using the "Waze" app while driving...... My dashboard is starting to look like a 747 cockpit.....
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On 11/23/2017 at 6:55 AM, Starbuc71 said:
I stated in another topic a while ago, Disney will never build more sites unless all the other ones were filled 7 days a week. If you are a regular to the fort like we were, you will notice the place packed Thursday through Sunday and the holidays. Mom-Thursday is like a ghost town.
Even on the weekends there are still some "Phantom Sites" when the system shows everything booked.
I'm curious though..... do the Resort Rooms show the same "Weekend Warrior" effect? Are the hotels booked more on the weekends and less-so midweek? Or is that just at the Fort?
I'm talking just WDW here, I know that CG's and hotels elsewhere do book up weekends much more quickly in general.
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On 11/22/2017 at 10:00 AM, michelb said:
I have to agree with you that there does seem to be a lot of empty sites when the campground is "full" so there seems to be room for improvement there.
Having said that, I would strongly encourage anyone that tries to book something and can't to send DisneyWorld a message suggesting they expand Fort Wilderness and mention that you were trying to reserve and weren't able to (I've done it on a few occasions).
There's tons of space if they wanted to and it just depends how much they want to grow. In my opinion, to really do it right, they should look at expanding to the West of the campground including adding a new pool there. I think if they did that, they should consider adding a "Super sized" section section with pull-through spots. It doesn't quite fit with the design / look of Fort Wilderness but I think it would satisfy a demand and some people would be willing to pay a premium for 70' + long pull through sites (I could see those going for $225/night at XMas).
But they could also easily "in-fill" a few campgrounds to add a bit of extra capacity. They could easily add one big loop or two small loops East of 1800 / 1900 and they could easily add one or two loops on the East side of Big Pine Drive opposite 1400. They could also add loop(s) on the West side of 700 although the easiest access to that would probably where the bus stop is at the Settlement and they might not do that.
I think if they get enough requests, they might see that the numbers work. I actually have no real idea how much it would cost to do this but say it was $500k to add 60 sites near 1800/1900 or 1400. At an avg of $70/night, figuring 70% occupancy (no idea if this is accurate), they would pay it the investment in 6 months ... And that doesn't include the extra money they get from people spending when they are there. And I'd be really surprised if it was $500k to expand.
Several of us have emailed Disney over the last 5 years or so, but it seems to fall on deaf ears other than a canned thank you response.
My own idea was that since Disney is fixated on Resort Room thinking (and DVC DVC DVC....) then make camping more in line with the Resorts: Create 3 levels of Campgrounds to match with the Deluxe, Moderate, and Value levels of rooms/resorts.
Clear an open area, put parking lines in and put in basic electric and water for each space with a central dump station. Call it the Value area aimed at people who just need a place to plug in for a night or a weekend and don't care about their surroundings.
Make the Fort as is the Moderate Level CG
Then create your "Super-Sized" loops in a separate area, call it the Deluxe area, and have all the Bells and Whistles, maybe even Concierge Service.
If Disney figures out they can get even more money from some campers, and they can relate them to room levels, maybe they'll be more willing to expand.
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Come on..... I make a Princess Bride reference and no one responds?
Inconceivable!
Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress in this period in history.
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On 11/28/2017 at 3:00 PM, Tri-Circle-D said:
How will they connect the parks separated by I-4?
TCD
Universal was able to connect the two Harry Potter Lands by thinking outside the box and making a moving attraction out of the Hogwarts Express. Maybe they have something similar in mind here but on a larger scale?
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On 11/30/2017 at 1:28 PM, Travisma said:
I remember years ago, carnival/circus side shows used to have them and announced "See the Giant S American Rodents".
Of course the posters outside had them depicted as some ferocious man eating giant rat!
I think they actually meant to say "See the Rodents of Unusual Size!"
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Great pictures of the MK Christmas Tree! It's so nice you got to spend at least a little time there.
FYI, Several years ago I went on one of those Behind the Scenes tours and they took us to the holiday decoration warehouse. The man in charge at the time was telling us how great it was when they changed the Christmas Tree to LED lights. He said they used to have to run all kinds of power cables all over the place and put temporary covers over them on the sidewalks so no one would trip over them, but once they started using the LEDs they could run the whole tree off of one regular outlet.
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2 hours ago, BigTom said:
Love your photos, don't worry about the ones you reject, I had a friend that took photos for a living and he told me if he get one good shot out of 2 rolls of 35mm film he was happy and sometimes he only got one good shot out of 10 rolls. This was a fellow who traveled all over the world taking photos at important events like super bowls, and world leaders for famous magazines and such.
As a former pro photographer I can second this, I used to cringe when I saw how much we spent on developing and printing photos that weren't usable and I believe that digital photography has been a true blessing.
But.... even with digital I still end up taking several different shots of important scenes, and rejecting most of them (if not all of them! LOL) later at the computer.....
And I also love your photos Gwen, there's no question you have the eye for it :-)
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On 11/15/2017 at 7:58 AM, Cortezcapt (Derek) said:
Sounds like a horrible waste of good butter to me!
I agree! I guess it is or was a travelling promo for a Dairy Farmers group. It had its own truck to take it to fairs and shows.
I said at the time they needed to be towing one of those Airstream Bambi's made up to look like a giant toaster.....
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Went to this two years in a row awhile back. We stayed at Lazydays RV Park/Sales Lot, so it was easy to get to. Great show and lots of RV stuff and gadgets for sale.
Plus they had the worlds largest display of carved butter! What more could you ask for?
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1 hour ago, mouseketab.....Carol said:
Actually, I think that's where they had the "Golf-Cart" Drive-In Theater, therefore the PortaPotties. We never left the loop Halloween night, so I can't confirm it, but it was very calm that evening.
If that was the case then that obviously is a good thing not bad, and by all accounts this Halloween was relatively sane compared to years past. Hopefully this is an indication that the Fort will finally start enforcing its own rules.
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On 11/10/2017 at 10:01 AM, Specularius said:
But then on Halloween night they closed down the main road, Fort Wilderness Trail, from the intersection with Peacock Pass to the 4 way stop at Frontier Way and Big Pine Trail to turn the small meadow at the Hitch/Unhitch area into a parking area complete with porta-pottys and a hand washing station.
This jumped out at me. If it's true that no one was allowed to enter the Fort if they weren't campers, or had reservations for Trails End, etc, then why would they need all that extra parking? Why were that many cars being allowed in? And supplying Porta Potties? Hand washing stations?
If you are driving a car to Fort Wilderness on Halloween there is an excellent chance that you are either staying off-property or live locally and are bringing your kids to TOT at the Fort.
This sounds like another one of Disney's patented "please obey our rules, but while you're breaking them make sure you spend lots of money at the gift shop!"
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On 11/13/2016 at 4:09 PM, mouseketab.....Carol said:
This is true. I went to Disney Quest once... simply because I heard they had BattleZone in there. (I used to have a full sized BattleZone in my living room with my ex husband. He was in the Navy and gone a lot, so I had plenty of time to get pretty good at it). Sadly, the BattleZone at DisneyQuest was unplugged and out of order
I used to go to DQ every trip for several years because they had an original full size sit down Atari Star Wars game..... complete with ancient computer wire frame graphics..... BUT I could still feel as though I was actually flying down the trench of the Death Star due to the excellent sound and music effects
I loved that it had the original theme and Obi Wan sound clips from the movie: "Luke, the Force will be with you..... always!"
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On 10/24/2017 at 9:44 AM, geoffdaddy said:
Thankfully we've never experienced noise from pets while at the Fort...even though we've seen several pets in campers in the loops we've stayed at.
I've been a couple of places where dogs left alone barked loud enough and long enough to be a real problem.
And one time WE were the problem at the Fort. Left our well-behaved Lab Retriever in the camper for a couple of hours and when we got back we heard her barking as we neared the site (it was in the 1900 loop I think). Turns out the AC had failed and there was a warning buzzer going off that was driving her crazy! Poor thing was VERY glad to see us... We apologized to the neighbors and then dropped her off at the Kennel each morning for the rest of the trip.
Of course that was when the Fort HAD its own kennel.... yet another piece of the Fort's original amenities gone forever
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I don't have a problem with this, the annual car pass for State Parks here is $60 per car.
My guess is that most will opt to get the Annual Pass for 80, especially if they live nearby, or if it is part of a trip.
The NPS has been underfunded for decades with a huge backlog of needed maintenance. It hasn't helped that they keep getting stuck with new "National Monuments" every couple of years that also need staffing and maintenance.
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On 9/19/2017 at 4:13 PM, alexwyattmommy said:
I read them, but don't comment because someone has already said what I would said and I feel pretty stupid looking like a copy cat.
That being said, you should definitely put you and your family first for your vacations.
I do apologize for not showing my appreciation for your time and insights. And everyone else who has written a trip report, I also apologize to.
Same here, I rarely get the chance to read the TR's as they are happening and usually someone has already asked the question I would have or too much time has passed since it was written.
I do make liberal use of the "Up Arrows" for whatever that is worth, although they don't seem to be used as much as they used to be.
And I also apologize for not showing more appreciation, esp to TCD for his reports, which have turned me into a "Junior Yuri" on my last couple of trips, skulking around what's left of River Country, the old Nature Trail, and any fencing I can try and look through.....
I do wish it was easier to post pictures here. Photobucket was always a pain, I am trying IMGUR but it doesn't look any easier. It would be nice to post pics directly here like FB does, but I get why it's not possible with the current servers.
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Not sure if this has been posted yet but while I was reading this months Motorhome Magazine I came across a one page article about the Fort.
Entitled: "The Spookiest Campground in America" it is on page 11 of the October issue. The subtitle is: "The spirit of Halloween brought to you by the magic of Disney"
I thought it was ironic to come across this while reading the posts here. The very short article does not say anything about whether you need to be a resort guest or not, it simply says to "be sure to arrive in time for the resort's annual Halloween celebration" but it does give the number and website to make reservations.
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On 9/1/2017 at 11:29 AM, Tri-Circle-D said:
Evenings at Disney Springs are crowded because Disney has been closing the parks way earlier all summer than they have in past summers. And guess what? There's a convenient bus at each park that will take guests directly to Disney Springs at park closing. Genius.
TCD
I'm surprised that Disney doesn't require ALL the buses leaving the Park to go to one end of DS and require everyone to get a Resort bus at the other end... That would be the Bus equivalent of having a Gift Shop at the exit of every ride....
I probably shouldn't be saying that out loud since someone at Disney might read it and think it's a good idea.....
I'll bet they are working on a way to make all the cars leaving at night also go thru Disney Springs....
Mandatory Drive-Thru Gift Shops in the future?? Disney Mngmt is finally embracing the old Horizons Motto: "If We Can Dream It, We Can Do It!"
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Great trip report Robin Looking forward to the rest
Sounds like you saw the best and the worst Disney has to offer... LOL
You also had a front row seat to the 2 opposite abuses of the campsites: 1. Large groups overcrowding the loops when they should be in the Group Camping Areas, and 2. A so-called "Phantom Site", where people who are staying off-site will rent a campsite, put up a tent but never actually use it. That allows at least 10 of their off-site group to get Magic Bands and all the benefits of staying on-site.
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15 hours ago, LONE-STAR said:
Just hope they fall while your at the park and not in the RV. See there's the comforting part.
I know you're kidding but that actually happened to me at the Fort back in 2004. Came back from the Park and found a tree had crushed the front bunk on my Class C in the 1900 loop!
All I could say at that moment was "Thank You God that no one was in it!"
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34 minutes ago, Starbuc71 said:
In my opinion, I don't think they will ever expand the fort. As much as we all talk about how hard it is to get a reservation, there are way too many empty sites Sunday through Thursday. Sometimes on a Sunday, traffic can be backed up to the four corner stop to check out. If all the sites were full all the time they might consider it. I think the thought of adding lake front sites would be great but I'm sure they would be well over $200 a night at all times
Which is another mystery..... Disney has gone to great lengths to try and spread out the crowds/demand in the parks to eliminate the old "slow times", why not do the same at the Fort?
Advertise a special lower rate for Sun thru Thurs to fill those sites, and/or shift the demand by adding weekend-only parking lot type sites with minimal services and minimal themeing to try and re-capture the family business they are losing because they can't get in or can't afford the current high rates.
And even if this is a "boom cycle" for RVs, the minimal service Lots would be easy to build and just as easy to shut down if demand drops. I know if the price and availability was right I would stay for a few nights in one of Disney's unused parking lots, even longer if I could get electric and water and a central dump station. Would I like it as much as the Fort? Hell No! But I would still be at Disney and just a short ride away from the Parks and all the "Magic" I could handle for the day.....
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2 hours ago, PghBob said:
I talked with a manager type at the Outpost last Fall and asked him that question. The person responded that expansion of the Fort was under discussion by the big wigs. This person also noted that the expansion might include space across the road from the Fort, near the Fort entrance. I'm not holding my breath.
I've mentioned this before but if I was Disney (oh, if only....LOL) I would add two more CGs:
One for the high-end market, big diesel pushers and the like, call it the "Deluxe Level" and ALL the Loops would be the 3000 Loop....
Put it near/next to the Fort, (which would become the "Moderate Level"), and make some/all of them waterfront sites. (Can you imagine the charge for those??)
And then build a "Value Level" in some God-forsaken corner of Disney property that would be a glorified parking lot. Make it as large or small as you want. Just someplace to plug in, hop on a bus to the parks, and only come back to sleep. The build for this would be cheap, it would be easy to shut it down during slow times, and most importantly it would allow people to get a last minute spot again like the old days, even on the weekends.
I know this will likely never happen, but I am astounded that Disney is ignoring an entire market segment like this. Two markets really, the high end and the low end, and then the rest of us in the middle who would go to the Fort more often if only we could get a site at a true moderate price, so really Three market segments I guess...
If Disney was losing potential on site hotel customers to off-site properties, they would be holding non-stop meetings to figure out how to get them back on-property, why they don't seem to care about the RVers and Campers that they are losing is beyond me, but maybe I just answered my own question........
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On 8/26/2017 at 0:45 PM, ImDownWithDisney said:
It is a shame, but if it were cheaper it would be that much harder to get a reservations. RV use is exploding right now. Look at what is happening in the national parks. They are swamped during peak season. The NPS is contemplating a reservation system for Zion just for a day visit. The problem is the end users are growing faster than the facilities or attractions.
Which is exactly why it is a mystery to me that Disney does not expand the Fort and/or add an additional separate campground or two.....
If one of their Resorts is popular they waste no time in expanding it or building another one right next to it. The only capacity they have added to the Fort since the 1970's was the additional sites on the 600 loop and removing the cabins on the 2100 loop (but that was campsites originally so really doesn't count...)
Either the Fort turns a profit or it doesn't, if it didn't I would imagine it would be gone tomorrow and if it does and demand is so high, why aren't they building more loops?
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On 8/10/2017 at 0:54 PM, Tri-Circle-D said:
* and Minnie Vans!
By making the bus service less enjoyable, they can drive business to the $20 per trip vans.
That's what you call a win/win for Disney!
TCD
So, another way Disney is separating people into Haves and Have-Nots......
When I first started going to the Fort you could take a boat, an open-air Tram, even a Steam Train!
And yes, a bus. But they all cost the same to everyone: Zero.
If you paid to come to Disney, you had already paid for transportation and most of that transportation was deliberately designed to be part of "the Show".
I see enough buses in my everyday life, I don't want to see even more of them up close and personal while I'm on vacation at a "Resort"
The one bright spot I see is the new Skyway they are building. It's the first time in years Disney hasn't just thrown more buses at a problem.
Now if they would expand the monorail, or at least bring it back up to Disney Standards.....
Christmas reservations
in General Camping Discussion and Questions
Posted
I agree that CG's would usually take up more space per guest than a Resort Hotel, although I do wonder how the footprint of the Fort compares to the other Resorts in total land use when you include their parking lots, access roads, utilities, etc.
TCD, we need your Magic Purple Crayon!
And is space an issue at WDW? Other than space near the Lakes/Monorails isn't there plenty of room to plunk down another CG or two?
My bigger question is that if some or all of the hotels also only really fill on the weekends and holidays like the Fort, that fact hasn't stopped Disney from adding new Hotels, so why wouldn't they add Campsites in some form to meet the weekend demand at the Fort?
Wouldn't the weekend sell-out revenue alone justify building more RV sites, especially "Value" ones?
And if hotel rooms don't have to be full all week to justify building more hotels, is this Disney again looking at the Fort in a different way than all their other Resort areas?