Saturday February 18th 2023

It was fifteen degrees colder today than yesterday. The cold front passed through late yesterday with only some wind to show for it, but the temperature went from above normal to below normal. Tomorrow it is forecast to be back above the norm.

I have finally recovered from theme park mode. The 7AM hour passed with me still sleeping. I didn’t feel rushed to get out of bed and get on with the day. Breakfast even included a second cup of coffee. Most of the day was very laid back, but included a few tasks to prepare for tomorrows travel. Specifically, I put some water in the fresh water tank and flushed the black holding tank. I won’t have a water hook up or a sewer hook up for the next four nights.

Walking around the campground again today, I noticed a few other changes since my last visit. They have added a dozen new camping cabins. They seem to still be working on installing them. Some seem to have transport damage that needs to be repaired and others still have extra braces in place to assist in transport. They all seem to look a little different, so I wonder if they are used units that are getting re-positioned to this campground from somewhere.

The park is full tonight. Most of the RVs in the transient part of the park are from northern climates. Most seem to be from the northeast. The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec augment the US states of New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Virginia are all heavily represented. I am surprised that the Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan representation that I’ve seen in other parks in this area isn’t represented this weekend.

I have a long way to travel tomorrow. The 11AM checkout time shouldn’t be an issue. I need to get started as soon as possible to complete the 200 miles before to late in the afternoon. I’ll be traveling south through the center of the state. There will be lots of towns and traffic lights.

Tomorrow night I will be in the middle of nowhere between Naples, FL and Miami, FL. I’ll be there for four nights. From past experience, I know that cell coverage is suspect. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The blog may not be published on time.

Friday February 17th 2023

The temperature tide the record high for this date in the Orlando area. It was 88 degrees this afternoon. There was a lot of bright sunshine and a strong wind late in the day. The front is forecast to pass through overnight with little to no fan fare. Tomorrow will be cooler.

This campground has had quiet a few improvements since my last visit in the spring. When I was here they had started to build a new playground and were trimming the big low hanging trees. Those tasks have been completed and they have also paved all the roads. Some of the sites have new gravel and most sites seem to have new picnic tables. They still seem to be actively making improvements. A fencing company is currently working around the office and pool buildings.

The other difference is the occupancy of the campground. My other stays have been in the fall or spring. There were many available sites at those times. On this visit all of the sites seem to be full although there was turnover this morning. The occupancy is probably because this is the peak of the snowbird season for northerners in Florida. The other possibility is the holiday weekend. The fact that this is a holiday weekend is a surprise to me. I wasn’t thinking anything about presidents day.

Traffic in the area is also at a peak. This park is located at the major intersection of Interstate 4 and US 27. There are four lanes of traffic in both directions on US27 as well as six traffic lights in about a mile. I waited for two cycles at most of them today. At least half of the cars seem to be from out of state. It makes getting anywhere a much slower process.

I’m still working on catching up on my sleep. I haven’t broken the habit of getting up early and going to bed late that I established over the last week at Walt Disney World. Despite trying to get to sleep earlier and sleep longer I seemed to only sleep the same short amount of time. I’ll try again tonight.

Thursday February 16th 2023

Today began warm in the sixties and climbed into the mid eighties. Warm weather for working outside preparing for travel and setting up at the other end isn’t ideal, but it is better than rain. The current weather trend is forecast to break tomorrow with the arrival of another storm front.

I said good bye to Fort Wilderness today. Departure from the fort is a little more complicated than other places. It isn’t really possible to hook up the car anywhere near my campsite. I use the overflow parking area about half a mile from my campsite. To accomplish this I need to drive the car out to the parking lot and take the campground bus back to my camping loop. Then I finish preparing the motorhome and drive it out to the overflow parking lot to mate up with the toad. I also took advantage of the parking lot to kill time from the 11AM checkout time to the 1PM check in time at my next stop less than twenty miles away.

The shortest distance between the two locations proved to be the longer time wise. I elected to use Interstate 4 to avoid all the traffic lights on the other route. Instead of an easier trip, most of the distance on I-4 was in stop and go traffic through construction. I suspect the traffic light route would have been less stressful. I arrived at the Orlando Southwest KOA at 1:45PM. I’ve stayed here many times before. It is a good filler between state park stays. This time I’ll be here until Sunday.

I enjoyed my stay at Fort Wilderness and my visits to the theme parks. Now I need to catch up on my rest. The nature of the place calls for early mornings and late nights. Even though I was back in my RV home every afternoon, the fatigue adds up. Yesterday I was falling asleep in the dark queue area for Avatar Flight of Passage. It is not surprising that you see lots of kids sleeping in carriages and others having a meltdown. The over tired adults are a little harder to identify. You see rude behavior, but it is hard to know if that is tiredness or their natural behavior.

Wednesday February 15th 2023

The improving weather trend continued today. The temperature climbed into the low eighties under a clear sky and a light wind. The trend is forecast to continue until Friday.

This is my last full day at Fort Wilderness. It is a perfect day for catching up on some of the things I wasn’t able to do earlier in my stay. Most of those things were at Animal Kingdom, so that’s where I started my day. The park didn’t seem as busy as it was Monday. I also got there half and hour or more earlier. Wait times were not as long.

My first ride of the day was the Kilimanjaro Safari. This morning the wait was listed as twenty five minutes compared to the hour it listed at on Monday. I was onboard the ride truck in less than the advertised time. The animals were very active and I saw more than usual.

After the safari and a walk through the nearby Gorilla trail, I headed to Pandora to ride Avatar Flight of Passage. This is a ride I’ve never ridden. The wait times are usually in the seventy to eighty minute range if not higher. Today I was willing to wait it out. The posted wait time was sixty five minutes. I reached the pre show area in sixty minutes and was finished with the ride an hour and a half after I got in line. Flight of Passage is a motion simulator type ride that emulates a ride on a giant bird like creature called a Banshee. The trip through the wilds of Pandora is beautiful visually, but it is filled with dramatic drops, climbs and turns. Somehow I survived the ride without any real nausea. The worst part of the ride was the long wait filled with a little fear of the ride. I might ride again if the wait is shorter.

After a return to my RV home for a short nap, I made a brief visit to Magic Kingdom. My goal was twofold. First I wanted to watch the Flag retreat ceremony and second I wanted to get another Brownie Sunday for desert. Both missions were accomplished with a ride on the People Mover and watching a character cavalcade thrown in for good measure.

This evening I made one last trip to the beach on Bay Lake to watch the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. While the show is more complete from inside the park with all the projections, the solitude at the beach can’t be beat. The crowds in the Magic Kingdom for fireworks are food for nightmares.

Tuesday February 14th 2023

Today’s temperature was one of extremes. This morning it was about fifty degrees. By afternoon it was in the high seventies only to drop quickly into the sixties when the sun set. All of this made dressing for the temperature a real challenge. I left my RV home for the theme park in a long sleeve shirt and sweatshirt. By mid morning I was carrying the sweatshirt and wishing I had a short sleeve shirt on. For my afternoon and evening trip back into the theme park I wore a short sleeve shirt and carried my sweatshirt. I put it on shortly after sunset.

Before I departed for Hollywood Studios this morning I tried unsuccessfully to make another reservation in a Florida State Park for next winter. The new web interface continues to frustrate me. This morning, no only was I unsuccessful, but the attempt delayed my trip to Hollywood Studios long enough that the wait times for rides was through the roof by the time I go there. I still haven’t been on Star Wars Rise of the Resistance despite several attempts. Waiting an hour or even a little longer would have been acceptable today, but the listed wait time was 120 minutes. Later in the day it was down.

I saw a couple of shows and road Toy Story Mania after a reasonable wait. I’m not very good at hitting the targets from the ride vehicle. My score was below average. After the ride the heat and my lack of food necessitated a return to my RV home for the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening I returned to Epcot. My goal was to watch the Harmonious nighttime show for the last time. Disney has announced that the last show will be at the beginning of April. I like the show content, but I don’t like the location. The show is only completely visible from a limited number of locations around the World Showcase lagoon. If you aren’t in one of those locations you don’t get the full value of the show. I think Disney understands that fact and is replacing after only a short run.

Monday February 13th 2023

The temperature got down into the forties overnight. It was fifty five inside my RV home at 7AM. I returned to my warm bed changing my plans for the day. The temperature reached seventy about 4PM, but dropped rapidly back into the fifties as soon as the sun set. Tonight is forecast to be back in the forties.

My original plan was to be at Disney’s Animal Kingdom for early opening for resort guests at 8:30AM. When I went back to bed this morning that plan went out the window. It was 8:30 when I finally got out of bed. The only thing that broke my slumber was the noise in the campground. I found out why the nearby sites were empty last night. A tree service arrived the first thing this morning to remove a big tree. They needed the sites empty to get access to the three foot diameter tree.

Random Animals at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

I set out for the Animal Kingdom about 9:15AM. It took two buses to get there. They first bus is the internal campground bus and the second is the bus from the front of the resort to the Animal Kingdom. Both buses arrived with very little wait time. I arrived at the Animal Kingdom a little before 10AM and found myself in a long line just to get into the park. It was an indicator of things to come. Everything had a long wait time. I walked around the entire park viewing the animals along the trails. The wait for the safari ride was over 80 minutes, so I never checked out those animals. The other thing I did during my visit was watch the Lion King Show.

Lion King Show Pictures

After an enjoyable, but not terribly productive few hours at the Animal Kingdom, I returned to my RV home for some food and park down time. Around 5PM I set out for Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The bus connections didn’t work as well. It took a full hour to get to the studios from Fort Wilderness. My goal for the evening was to watch Fantasmic, the night time show. I wandered around the park, had some food and got a seat for the 8PM show. Fantasmic was fantastic.

Hollywood Studios and Fantasmic Pictures

Sunday February 12th 2023

Today’s weather was dramatically different form yesterday. The sun was out this morning, but the temperature was in the low sixties. If never got near seventy all day. The temperature wasn’t the real issue. It was the wind. The wind speeds were very high all day. For a period of time this afternoon the Disney boats were all taken out of service. The only Disney transportation leaving the resort were the buses.

I spent the day at Fort Wilderness and the Wilderness Lodge. Many residents of the campground departed this morning. Several of the sites around me are still empty tonight. This seems to be a slow time at the Fort. I was able to make the reservation for this site last fall. Usually it is necessary to book closer to a year out. The fact that I could book this site and that there are others open tonight is even more remarkable when you consider that almost 100 sites in the campground are closed for maintenance. The 1400 loops and the 600 loop are all blocked off while new power and cable wires are run to each of the sites. The main Meadows pool is also closed for maintenance this month.

The people who camp at Fort Wilderness love to decorate their sites. For Halloween and Christmas just about every site is decorated. Some of the displays are very elaborate. Other holidays like St. Patrick Day and Independence Day get their share of decorating too, but I’m surprised to see a fair amount of decorating for Valentines Day. Blowup Mickey and Minnie Mouse figures exchanging hearts and flowers seem to be popular. I also spotted other slightly more generic Valentines displays.

After wandering around the campground checking out the sites, I stopped at the horse barn to visit the horses and ponies. All of the horses that pull various Disney wagons and carriages live in a barn. They can be seen pulling carriages around the campground or even in parades at the Magic Kingdom. There is also a small pony cart for the Shetland Ponies. Other ponies are used for kids rides in the corral behind the barn. Other horses, for adult trail rides, are at a different barn near the entrance to Fort Wilderness.

After visiting the horses, I took the bus through the woods to the Wilderness Lodge. In the past, you could walk a mile long trail to the lodge, but the construction of a new resort on the shore of Bay Lake where River country used to reside put an end to the walk. The construction was in the site preparation phase when it was suspended at the start of the pandemic. A plan to resume construction has not been announced.

The Wilderness Lodge was very quiet in the middle of the afternoon. Everyone was probably off at one of the theme parks. There were a few people braving the temperature and wind to take a dip in the pool. Others were gathered at the bars watching the Super Bowl pregame activities.

This evening I bundled up and walked back to the beach on Bay Lake beyond the Settlement area. I tried to video the 8:15 showing of the Enchantment Fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, the wind noise on the video completely drowned out the music and I didn’t have a long enough lens to capture them well. The fireworks were still enjoyable as usual.

Saturday February 11th 2023

The warm temperatures continued today, but the sun was hidden behind the clouds most of the day. There was also a lot of wind preceding the cold front approaching from the northwest. Toward evening a lot of short rain showers started to arrive in the area.

Since my Disney World Annual Pass doesn’t include weekend park visits, I spent the day outside the theme parks visiting other areas of the world. My first stop was a Disney Springs for some shopping, but not buying. It was a very busy day. All of the Cheerleaders that were in the theme parks Thursday and Friday seemed to be at Disney Springs today. Some of them were even performing on the big stage in the market place area.

From Disney Springs I took the boat to the Port Orleans French Quarter resort. I walked from there along the side of the canal to the Port Orleans Riverside resort. It was an enjoyable stroll on a nice afternoon. At both resorts I toured the gardens, lobbies and gift shops. Once again I was looking not buying.

To get back to Fort Wilderness from Port Orleans I had to either return to Disney Springs or take a bus to one of the theme parks. The first bus to arrive at the bus stop was heading for EPCOT. I had to walk from one end of the bus loading zone to the other to reach the Fort Wilderness stop. There were about twenty people there and many had been there for almost twenty minutes. Maybe I brought them luck. One of Disney’s random special buses arrived to pick everybody up. These are buses that travel around looking for people that have been waiting too long for buses stuck in traffic or some such issue.

This evening I walked down to the campground beach on Bay Lake. The fireworks from the Magic Kingdom can be scene clearly from the beach. The accompanying music is even piped in. I took lots of pictures of the fireworks.

Friday February 10th 2023

Last night’s rain let up in the early morning. This morning it was cloudy and humid. The temperature climbed into the low to mid eighties with a little bit of sun during the afternoon. In the evening the treat of rain was back. It didn’t fall on me, but my RV home got wet.

Today was a Magic Kingdom kind of day. I made two trips across Bay Lake to the theme park. The first was in the morning and the second was in the evening. It was very busy during both visits. Disney World is hosting some form of Cheerleading or Dance competition. There are hoards of young people in matching t-shirts all over the place. I’m guessing they are mostly high school age girls, but they weren’t all girls and there were a few guys in the mix as well.

Random Castle Pictures

The wait times this morning were out of this world. Two of the big rides, Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion, were down for a long period. This just drove the wait times at the other rides higher. There is no way I would wait in line fifty minutes to ride It’s a Small World. During my morning visit I road the Walt Disney World Railroad all around the park and I road the Tomorrow Land Transit Authority People Mover. I was back at my RV home by 2:30PM.

Random Pictures from my day at the Magic Kingdom

My evening visit was far more productive. I got to ride five or six rides and watch the fireworks. All of the rides were running and the crowds had thinned out some. I didn’t see as many cheerleading groups.

Fireworks Pictures

Thursday February 9th 2023

Today was moving day. It wasn’t a long trip, but with traffic it was a slow trip. The driving distance is about 25 miles in a giant U shape. As the crow flies it is a lot shorter distance between Lake Louisa State Park and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground. It took close to an hour to make the drive.

I checked in online earlier in the week and requested a 1PM check in. The official check in time is 3PM, but they are pretty good about accommodating earlier requests after the 11AM checkout time. The last couple of times I checked in online I was able to go directly to my site. Today, even though I’d received the check in verification notification on my phone, the guard insisted that I go to the check in toll plaza. It seemed to be a very perfunctory activity. The check in clerk got no new information from me nor provided any that I didn’t already know.

After unhooking my car in the overflow parking lot, I was backed into my site by 2PM. I’m in a Preferred site which means it is in a good location, but isn’t updated with more space. My RV home fits, but it is a little more shoehorned in than some of the other sites. It is still a very nice site.

About 4:30 I started a slow trip to EPCOT. The bus from the campground would be the fastest transportation, but I took the boat to the Magic Kingdom followed by two Monorail rides to get to EPCOT. I arrived shortly before 6PM. My goal for the evening was to ride a few rides, get some dinner, wander around and see the night time fireworks show, Harmonious. I achieved all of the goals but one. Watching Harmonious remains on the todo list.

Here are some pictures of the chalk art that probably got washed away by the rain shortly after I took this picture.

Shortly before 8PM, I spotted lightening to the west. A quick check on the weather app on my phone showed a line of heavy rain approaching. I was not prepared for a rain storm in a practical way or mentally. I decided to head back to my RV home. While I was on the bus it started to rain lightly. I got a little damp getting from the bus to my campsite, but it really opened up shortly after I got inside. It has been a very noisy storm for the last two plus hours. Heading for home before the fireworks was the right decision.