CoachClough

Hello from a fellow MD'er...

ON our trips down we've done Pedro's.  Wife didn't love it.

We've done the KOA in Lumberton, NC.  Just fine.  Small but clean and well kept.

Twice now we've stopped overnight at the Hampton Inn in Santee, SC because they have RV sites where you can plug in 20amp while you stay at the hotel.  

I have nothing of value to add, just wanted to say hi from a fellow Eastern Shore person!

Hello from Preston!

Im in.  

Is the new truck dreamy?  So jealous you're able to make these short trips.  Look forward to hearing more...

I'll go ahead and cop out as a wrap up.  We had a lot fun, made a lot of wonderful memories and cannot wait to get back.  We are planning our next trip entirely too far from now, but its what our schedule and budget allows.  

I hope to read more form all of you very soon.  Happy camping y'all!

Mike

We stayed at this location on the way home from our most recent trip.  It worked out quite nicely.  Its a little over 500 miles from WDW, and a little over 400 miles from there to our home.  So we left FW at around 7ish, arrived at this KOA around 4ish.  Mostly pull thru sites, very clean and well run.  Nice pool, and town was only a couple of miles away so a short drive yielded a tasty dinner that someone else cooked 🙂   Bathhouses were very nice and sparkling clean.

Now it is a KOA, so not many trees, sites are close.  But we were there to relax, sleep and stretch our legs.  So for you fiends living further up on the east coast, this is a nice option on your trip.

Mike

Same.  I only did it once on our recent trip, but I was able to order and wait briefly while my wife and youngest stalked for tables at the Pizza place in AK.  Awesome pizza, nowhere near enough tables.  Mobile ordering was amazing because the lines were out into the park!

And when I say sleeping in, we didn't wake up until around 9 that next morning.  It was wonderful.  A slow start, some breakfast...we even went to the quiet pool for about an hour.  Then back to the camper for some lunch and off to HS.

We started off with the Aerosmith coaster, its my absolute favorite.  We also checked out the short film attraction and did Muppets 3D.  Since we were there a week before TS land opened, there wasn't as much to do in HS, but no crazy wait times either.  We did Midway Mania on standby and grabbed Star Tours on a short standby.

From there we headed back to the camper for a lite dinner, and finished the night at MK.  There were very nights that didn't end at MK for us.  We enjoy the amount of stuff there is to do and eat there.  And of course the fireworks.

A new experience as the boys are 15 and 11 is being able to let them do things like the Tomorrowland Speedway on their own.  The Mrs. and I went and grabbed a soda and just relaxed for a good 45 minutes while they waited in line and then rode it.  We're still not comfortable with them running free in the parks, but by the time we go back, they most likely will be.

Its so interesting how every part of the experience changes as we all keep getting older.

Thanks everyone!

So our first night was MK.  We finally got into the park after dinner, but thanks to Travis, we now had 5 fast passes.  So we rode seven dwarves, big thunder, space ranger spin, peter pan and Jungle Cruise.  We snagged some ice cream at the Plaza Cafe and went back to the camper and passed out.  We were exhausted.

The next morning we had a fast pass for Test Track, so we went to Epcot, rode it, turned around and came back to the fort to move our camper.  Once we did that we grabbed a bite to eat in the rig then headed back to Epcot.  We still had fast passes for Spaceship Earth and something else...Nemo maybe.  Its all a blur...lol...

We wanted to do Agent P but the kiosk was never open, and trying to use our cell phones just wasn't working for us, so we just walked around a bit.  The Mexico Pavilion was bursting at the seams, so we didn't even grab a margarita...we did Starbucks instead....

Once we ran out of fastpasses as trekked back to MK to wrap up our evening as always.  We were still tired....the trip down had zapped us...

We used the wonderful app to push all of our fast passes the next morning and slept in....hard....

to be continued...

Thankfully we did make it to the Fort safe and sound.  We were a full day late, but thankfully we had a 7 day stay booked, and we really only missed about a half a day in the parks.  

The "fun" continued however, as we were crawling down I-4 in the Orlando stop and go, I started hearing a no good metallic noise, kinda grinding, kinda squeaking.  It has since been diagnosed as a brake issue on the truck, nothing catastrophic.  

We made it to check in, were given a site in the 100 loop, which is our preference since we spend more time in MK than any other park, and love the convenience of the boat.  The good with the bad, we were given site 110, which is an inner loop site.  And 110 sits at an almost perfect 90 degrees to the road.  Thankfully we had some wonderful neighbors across the street that helped us back in.  It took us around 45 minutes, but we were finally parked.  We started to set up the trailer, got hooked up to the water and sewer, when my wife discovered we didn't have any electricity.  

Come to find out, the site didn't have any electricity, and it was something engineering knew about, as they were waiting on a part to fix it.  Apparently they didn't tell the front desk.  One of the duty managers got involved to see what they could do.  There were no more available sites in all of FW.  

The very nice manager, named Travis, did everything in his power to make amends.  And honestly, if it hadn't been for the axle bearing, this wouldn't have been that big a deal.  But at that moment, it felt like another huge kick in the pants.  Travis did the following:

1.  Put us up in a cabin for the night, as they were expecting mass departures the next day

2.  3 extra fast passes for MK that night

3.  Knocked a day off of our bill

4.  Gave us a golf cart for the week!  We had never gotten a cart before, because I am cheap.  IT will be tough to not do one from now on.  

The next morning we moved directly across the street to site 111 and it worked our perfectly.  Thus endth the doom and gloom portion, the rest of the trip was wonderful.  I'll share the happiness later today.

Howdy y'all.   My family and I are home now from an unforgettable WDW trip, and not necessarily for all the right reasons.  I cannot do a full trip report as we just don't take as many pics as the average fiend.   We departed out home on the eastern shore of Maryland at 5:20 am, Wednesday June 20.  Around 7:20 am, we had a gentleman in a Jeep Wrangler flagging us down yelling "Your Wheel".  So I immediately pulled to the shoulder, on I-95/495 split and looked for an issue.  And boy we had an issue.  I didn't notice anything on the passenger side.  Once I came around the back of the rig, I found smoke billowing out from the front, driver side RV tire, and it was sitting at a bad angle.  So the debacle began.  I'll spare you each set back, but here are the highlights:

28 hours in a Costco Parking lot in Northern Virginia

$1,000 in parts and repairs

1 full day late checking in to the Fort.

Sadly, that's not where it stops.  If anyone's interested, I'll let you know what happened once we got to FW.

-Coach

Fantastic trip report, start to finish.  3 things...

1.  $20 for 3 breakfast sandwiches, and thats why we stay in the fort and eat almost all of our meals in the camper.

2.  Everything is better with bacon

3.  That squirrel pic is awesome.  Well done sir.

And yes, a cruise sounds dreamy.

I lack for quality campsite decor as well.  I need to step up all my games it seems.

That's very scary...every campers nightmare.

And it also makes me wonder how many millions of hours of uneventful go pro footage is there now that everyone seems to have one in their cars, on their motorcycles etc.

I downloaded RV Parky.  Seems pretty cool, apple only though.  Just like the mention above me it shows walmart, flying j's, cracker barrels as well as campgrounds.

We've yet to get a golf cart, so we have totally missed out on the joys of looping.  Something we'll need to consider in the future.

Great update btw.

28 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

 

 

I know that Norm has a pop-up, but what about you other guys.

With my pop-up, I don't see the point of leaving the AC running all day long when I'm not there.  When the sun is beating down on the camper and it's 90+ degrees out, the AC struggles to keep it cool inside. I see no reason to leave it running full blast if I'm going to be away all day.  That can't be good for the AC unit. 

Once the sun is low in the sky, the AC will get my camper cool in 15-20 minutes.

So, in the summer, when we leave the site, I shut the AC down, and it doesn't get turned back on until we return to the site.

TCD

Fair question, I have a TT.  Our two trips with it have been in late june/early july...

Mine stays on all the time...

When I took my parents and niece along a few years back, my wife and 2 kids and I were in our camper, 100 loop, and my parents were in a cabin.  That worked out as we ate breakfast on our own, then met up to head into the parks.

We had my truck and their van for running errands, grocery runs etc.

All fantastic!  I want frozen drinks at the fort!!!!!

And you're way nicer to your kids than I am to mine.  Allowing them to banish your camera and all...

Pappi, lmao....

And the thing about our kids watching us, scary stuff....

Another great chapter.  Really makes me wish our next trip was sooner...

Congratz on all the great stuff!!!

Unruly children make me angry.  Its why I coach, I can punish children that aren't mine!

As my cynical wife points out, the harder it is to cook in the cabins, the less likely you are to do it, therefore you'll buy food from them...

Great TR btw, I have missed them....

You're still my hero...