5kidsmommy

Listening to the "clip clop"  of the horses as they come around the road pulling the hay ride or the carriage. 

OMG, your schedule reminds me of the only episode of The Middle I ever watched, where the family went to WDW, and the daughter had this glittered/bedazzled binder with every moment of every day planned!
More power to you, I hate having to make 1 Fast pass.

I'm glad you got what you wanted. But as a non planner it sends my head into a whirlwind just reading it. I'm sure you'll have a blast though.
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I just booked the first week in May to take the kids down for the first leg of Dads deployment.  I can't participate in the festivities but would love to drop by to say "hello"  to everyone.  Its been far to long since I've seen some of you and need to finally meet the other gals. 

Yeah, all I can think of is you look out your camper door and see this...
 

That's a given. I always factor that in.
 
 
If I wanted to watch the fireworks at the Fort that night, that's what I'd do.
Take my time enjoying the buffet at TE, walk around checking out the decorations, visit with Fiends and then go to the beach. Sounds perfect to me.

Just spend your money elsewhere, it's their loss not yours.

That's ridiculous.
A new dually my can run you over $50K
And that camper can cost over $25K.
So they will let a $10,000 TT camp there but not a $75K rig.
Who's running that place? Fort wilderness rangers?

Now if they had a full time Star Wars character meal... then we'd be changing plans. I think they're really missing the boat on that. It would be super popular with boys and lots of men. 

There's no need to book at midnight unless you want Anna and Elsa or 7DMT. 

Thank you for the advice, Diane....but there is no way I'm convincing INC to stay up late and go through that mess.  I'm not even convinced I want to do it myself.  It's an absolutely awful system that forces guests to jump through hoops like this.  (And for all you Mouse apologists....yes I'm aware no one is forcing me to use FP+....but the other option of dropping a buttload of money on tickets and not being able to ride anything because standby lines are too long or in some cases not even allowed isn't ideal either).  

I just checked the website. I can't make my fp+ choices yet, because I haven't purchased our annual passes yet.  So the rat is forcing me to spend $$ I wasnt ready to do just to preplan rides that I will have no clue when we will go to each park.This system seriously SMB. I'm tempted to cancel the trip and tell disney to eat it. This type of planning goes against just about everything we like about vacation.

I thought the ones during a resort stay don't count towards your 7 days. 

If you have an ULTA near you they sell the H2O products for a very good price. No Mickey's on them but Sil loved some of the stuff on the cruise. 

We almost always check in early and get to go to the site about 1/2 the time. One time we did not get our site until 1:30 and I was PO about that.  If they told me up front it would be after 3:00 I would come unglued.
 
I am of the opinion  that the check-in CMs at the fort are only allowed to stay until they fully understand their job at which time they are immediately moved  mid shift to another position.  
 
This is the only reason I see why it takes so long to check in at the fort.  I have a paid in full reservation, I do online check-in, I have already set up a charge card, and it still takes longer to check-in than it does at a cheapo motel that I just show up and ask for a room.  

Somebody must have been very, very new. Check-out is 11:00 check-in is 1:00, cabins are 3:00. They will on occasion extend check-out to 1:00, but only during non busy periods. I would have asked for a management CM and if it happens again definitely ask for a management CM.

It really depends on availability of cleaned sites. Some people seem to have trouble vacating the site by 11. They werent saying you couldnt have the site you paid for just that it wasnt ready yet. You could have parked your car in the over flow and gone to the pool or a park till it was ready. The CM definitely sound like she hadnt had to deal with issues like this yet and hopefully learned some of the answers for next time. 

I've shared this before- but since Travisma is asking a specific question about it, I'll share it again.
 
I was in the Reception Outpost once when a couple showed up on a holiday weekend with no reservation.  They had tried to check in outside, and were told to park and go inside.  I heard them explain their plight, and the CM handed them a phone and dialed the number for WDW reservations. I am not sure how it ended, but they couldn't get a site.
 
This is the same thing that happened to me one time when we were at WDW and decided, on a whim, to see if we could spend the night at AKL,  I went to the check-in counter to see if they had any rooms available. The CM on duty couldn't tell me.  She also dialed the phone and handed it to me so I could speak to a reservation CM at the call center and ask.
 
Bottom line- if you go to the front desk of a WDW resort and ask if they have rooms (or campsites) available, they are going to hand you a phone.  The number they dial is the same one you can dial yourself.  So, there's no advantage to just showing up.
 
TCD

I'm gonna ditto this one....1. because I agree and 2. it is monday and I am lazy and sleepy.

From reading all these replies, I have come to 2 conclusions:
 
1.  I will spend more time at the campgrounds than I had originally planned - this many folks can't be wrong!
2.  I will no doubt break some rules 

They'll be a ton of Fiends at the Fort. Look for the FF signs, harass them, annoy them, and mooch off them. It works for me.

We have a seaworld here in San Antonio and they can be strict about you bring in. My experience at Disney has been that they'll let me bring in anything in my little cooler backpack...we shove all kinds of crap in there and never get questioned at all. They do look carefully for straws at AK, but otherwise it seems fair game. We almost always carry in one meal. And then eat ice cream or popcorn or dole whips for the other meal. Yep, we're that family. Bad mommy! :drool1:

My favorite thing to carry in is vodka....I mean water

This I know as we've done it before....the resort boat the to Contemporary runs early.  Take that, and walk from the CR to the MK. 

http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/2014/10/disney-cast-members-to-make-advance-fp.html?m=1
After almost an entire year, Disney Cast Members will finally be able to make advance FastPass+ selections from the convenience of their homes, just like most of the Guests visiting the parks every day. George A. Kalogridis, president of the Walt Disney World Resort, officially announced the news internally through a short video with details on how Cast Members may soon enjoy the features of MyMagic+ when visiting the parks as Guests.
Beginning October 20, 2014, will be able to link their Main Entrance Pass and all of their Guest Passes to their MyMagic+ profile. Upon completing this process, they'll be able to make FastPass+ selections for them and their Guests (optional) up to seven days in advance.
In addition to that, all Central Florida Cast Members will be eligible to receive one complimentary MagicBand. To receive it, they will need to customize it and order their own MagicBand on MyDisneyExperience.com by December 31, 2014. The MagicBand will then be sent to their homes in a special commemorative box. Cast Members will be able to use it interchangeably with their Main Entrance Pass for theme park admission and FastPass+ redemption.