Fort Wilderness, FL

My son Chris and his family, Lisa and Jack, came to Orlando for a mini vacation from the rigors of work in Dallas. By coming a day earlier than originally planned they got to enjoy the experience of washing the motorhome in preparation for the weekend trip to Fort Wilderness. The ladies and Jack tackled the interior and the guys took care of the outside.  We were able to knock it out in record time with all that help. Chris and I were soaked through by a combination of sweat and spray, while the ladies were crisp and cool thanks to running the generator and the A/C. We celebrated our accomplishment with a drive to Kissimmee for grouper sandwiches, then a dash home for naps.

This morning we eagerly packed the car and drove to the storage facility to load the motorhome for the short drive to Disney. I was disappointed to find that I had turned off the battery switch when leaving the coach the day before. That also turned off the refrigerator, so we had a warm one. The whole idea of taking the RV out of storage the day before is to allow the refrigerator to chill down. RV refrigerators are no where near as efficient as your home unit, and they take over twelve hours to get down in temperature under the best of circumstances, and much longer in hot, humid Florida. We kept things in the coolers until evening when the refer finally caught up.

As you would expect from Disney, Fort Wilderness is a first class camping experience. We arrived right at check-in time along with everyone else, so there was a pretty long wait to get checked in, but once through the gate all was well. This is a huge campground with hundreds of campsites of varying sizes, but it is set up nicely so that you do not feel cramped together. Our site was nicely wooded and had a large concrete slab for the outdoor living area that made it easier to keep the RV interior clean.

Once we got Jack up from his nap we did some walking through the campground and took advantage of the free water taxi ride to the Wilderness Lodge Hotel where Jack got to play around the pool and check out the huge lobby before getting a bus back to the campsite to grill up some dinner.

After dinner we walked over to the campfire and theater area. Disney puts on a free movie each evening after a campfire sing-along with Chip & Dale (Chipmunks). Disney sells long sticks and gigantic marshmallows the size of baseballs for the kids to roast and make s’mores. All the kids have a ball, and there were plenty of adults bellying up to the campfire with sticks in hand as well. Jack was a little intimidated by the crowd at the fire and was not having anything to do with Chip & Dale. He had the same reaction to the Easter Bunny at his school this year. Large furry things are not his cup of tea yet.

Jack wants no part of the big furry guys!