Thursday May 5th 2022

Today’s weather was the natural progression from Wednesday. The hot and sunny weather continued with a little more humidity and a few degrees of temperature. The temperature peaked in the low to mid nineties with no evening thunderstorms.

My plan for the day was to visit EPCOT during the second half of the day. Things went pretty close to plan. The only variation was the duration of my stay at EPCOT. I didn’t make it to the closing fireworks show at 9PM. About 8PM, I headed back to my RV home.

The crowds at EPCOT were better than they were last week. For most of the afternoon it was easy walking and the lines were a little shorter. I started my visit with a walk on to the Space Ship Earth ride before making my way to the French Pavilion at the back of the park. The new Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure only had an projected wait time of sixty minutes. I had tried unsuccessfully this morning to buy a lightening lane (skip the standby line) pass, so waiting was my only option. When I arrived at the back of the line the sign predicted a seventy minute wait. I was on the ride in about fifty minutes and back in the hot sun in an hour. It is a cute ride using trackless autonomous ride vehicles and 3d projection screens.

After the ride I took a break from the park and road the new Sky Liner transportation system to its hub at the Caribbean Beach Resort and back to EPCOT. This is a ten passenger gondola style ride similar to a ski lift without the mountain. I really wasn’t impressed, but it is better than the Disney buses which is the only alternative.

Back at EPCOT I saw a couple of shows, road a couple of rides and wandered through more gift shops than I usually tour in a year. The park was also getting busier. A media event for the new Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster was being held in the park. All things considered I didn’t wait for the Harmonious Night time show.

Here are more of the pictures I took during the afternoon. There are a lot of pictures of the beautiful orchids at the Mexico Pavilion as well as the topiaries scattered throughout the park for the Flower and Garden Festival.

Wednesday May 4th 2022

Everything came together weather wise today. It was sunny all day and the wind was very light. As a result the temperature climbed into the low 90s and thunderstorms threatened in the late afternoon. So far the storms have passed to the east and south of my location, but the rumbling of thunder has echoed.

Probably because of the lethargy resulting from the heat, today turned into a Rest, Relaxation and Reading day. The triple Rs were interrupted by a couple of walks around the RV resort and an extended cooking session involving my slow cooker. In general I kept finding things to keep me busy and not make the trip to Disney Springs for shopping I had considered for today.

I have a theme park reservation for tomorrow at EPCOT. Since I want to stay for the evening fireworks and laser show, I will probably not leave for the park until afternoon. The goal with be to stay engaged all afternoon and stay dry during any thunderstorms that pass through the area. Stay tuned for an update in tomorrow’s blog entry.

Tuesday May 3rd 2022

The morning clouds were a little thicker and hung around a little longer than the forecast anticipated. The end result was a slightly cooler and drier day. The sun made an appearance during the afternoon allowing the temperature to climb into the upper eighties, but the forecast thunderstorms never arrived.

I got an early start to the day. Shortly after 8AM, I was walking into Disney’s Animal Kingdom park to visit the animals. It was just as crowded as it was a week ago. I don’t know what happened to the concept of slow times at the theme parks. Today seemed to be a day for huge family groups all dressed similarly. One group of about twenty people all in green Mickey T-shirts seemed to be blocking my path most of the way from the front of the park to the Safari Ride. The group complete with several strollers and an Electric Convenience Vehicle (ECV) got in line in front of me. They took up at least one whole safari vehicle.

Another group of similarly dressed people put a little thought into their T-shirts. The majority said “Baxter Family” on the back, but a few said “Baxter Family Friend” and I say one that said “Baxter Family Enemy”. I wonder what that was all about.

The wait for the safari was listed as thirty minutes. I think it was a little longer. It was worth it. I would have taken a second safari if the wait time wasn’t over an hour the next time I checked. Different animals were active this morning. Last week the Giraffes were out in force, but today I only saw a couple. The female Elephants were also missing from their area. On the other hand the African Painted Dogs were out and the White Rhinos were very active.

Following the safari I walked the Gorilla trail. They were very active this morning. Some were eating and some were playing. The little ones were getting into it as well. According to one of the cast members today was the first time they have seen the youngest Gorilla climbing on its own.

I walked around the entire park looking at all the animal exhibits. Today was the first time I got a good view of the kangaroos that are in the area near the tree of life. I only recently learned there was a kangaroo exhibit in the park. There is a real eclectic mix of animals in the tree of life area.

As the noon hour approached the crowds were still huge and the wait times for everything were getting longer. The two attractions in Pandora I really wanted to see were particularly long. The Avatar Flight of Passage flagship ride was over 120 minutes and the Na’vi River journey was over an hour. I decide to end my day at Animal Kingdom early. Shortly after noon I was back at my RV home having lunch.

Monday May 2nd 2022

The upward temperature trend continued. Today’s high was around ninety degrees. The TV weather talkers report the expected average high at 87 degrees, so it is a little above normal. The scattered afternoon showers were all north of here. Tomorrow has a higher chance of thunderstorms in this area.

I battled the traffic this afternoon to check out some of the changes in this area since my last visit. Other than a few buildings that are now empty lots and a few empty lots that are now buildings, there wasn’t much to see. My actual destination was one of the local Walmart stores for groceries. It has been two weeks since my last stock up.

I was in search of typical groceries, but many of the people in the store were in search of very atypical items. The Walmart, Target, CVS and Walgreens stores in this area all have big Disney merchandise sections. The family in front of me in the checkout line had a basket filled with Disney souvenirs, Mickey Mouse T-shirts, candy, soft drinks and a few breakfast style food items. They were clearly stocking their vacation rental for an extended stay. It was over three hundred and fifty dollars in merchandise. A gallon of milk and a basket of strawberries were the only things I would categorize as healthy food. At least the souvenirs were cheaper than at the theme parks. I guess you’d say, I had fun people watching at the grocery store.

The campground is in a midweek lull in occupancy. A few more people departed this morning and haven’t been replaced by new arrivals. On my walk around the resort his afternoon it was very quiet with lots of unoccupied RVs and empty sites. The only busy area was the swimming pool and the adjacent laundry facility.

Sunday May 1st 2022

I spent the day relaxing which didn’t generate anything particularly blog worthy, so reader beware. It was sunny day with a high temperature in the mid eighties. Late in the afternoon and earl evening there was a lot of thunder in the area. One brief period of light rain occurred before sunset.

The campground really emptied out today. It seemed to be many more than just the weekenders. Possibly because it is the 1st of May, many of the extended stay guests seemed to be leaving today. They are easy to identify by the number of golf carts that arrive as they are packing up to wish them good bye and good travels. Two were across the street from me. All of the visitors really didn’t help them get hooked up. One guy seemed to be struggling just to remember all the things he had to do, but kept getting interrupted. Everybody was gone shortly after the 11AM checkout time.

Walking around the campground this afternoon there were lots of empty sites. I only saw a couple of rigs arrive to fill them. There is some thought that we are in a transition period. All of the northern school vacation weeks are over and the end of the school year in the south is still two or three weeks away. I plan to visit Disney a couple more times this week, so it will be interesting to see if the crowds have slowed down some.

Saturday April 30th 2022

I slept in this morning for the first time since last Sunday. The Disney experience encouraged an early start to the day even though I ultimately resisted the challenge. Today started cloudy and gradually became sunny allowing the temperature to climb into the mid eighties. The weather pattern is now a summer one. There is the threat of thunderstorms every afternoon and evening. Today it wasn’t quite humid enough to result in storms in this area, but the chance is higher tomorrow.

The primary activity of the day was settling in at the campground. I did the last few setup tasks after a relaxed breakfast that lasted most of the morning. In the early afternoon I set out to explore the changes to the campground since my last visit. My first observation was the water level in the stream that passes through the campground is very low. In some areas it is only a trickle through a mud flat. In other areas there was enough water to support a young alligator. It still had its juvenile camouflage and was about three feet long.

They have also expanded the campground into an area that was used for storage. A number of new sites with concrete pads have been built, but haven’t been opened for use yet. In other areas I think some of the park models on leased lots have been removed. There are still plenty of the little cottage style models painted in Caribbean pastel colors all over the place. Some are used for rentals and some are owned.

The campground is not full, but very active. It has a combination of long term residents and travelers. I saw license plates from a wide variety of states and provinces. The furthest away was from California and the most frequent non Florida plate seem to be from Minnesota. Late in the day the number increased when another Minnesota trailer arrived on the site next door.

Friday April 29th 2022

Today was checkout day at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort. I had to be off the site by 11AM. I moved my car to the overflow parking lot shortly before 10AM and moved the motorhome off the site just before 11AM. I hooked up the car for towing in the overflow parking lot after killing more than two hours. There is a lot of activity to observe in the overflow lot. Many people coming and going are hooking up utility trailers to tow their golf carts. Most of the regulars believe a golf cart is a necessity or maybe just a status symbol. There are also drivers from local RV rental services bringing rental RVs off the sites into the parking area to wait for the next tenant later in the day. The area is a mad house particularly on a Friday.

Shortly after 1PM I pulled out of the overflow parking lot for my fifteen minute drive to my next destination. There is a strictly enforced 1PM check in time at Tropical Palms RV Resort in Kissimmee FL. I was setup and ready for lunch by 2PM. Over the next week and a half I’ll recover from the hectic pace I inflicted on myself over the last week and visit the Disney parks a few more times.

Fort Wilderness is a very nice camping resort. Last January I really enjoyed my stay. I didn’t visit the theme parks at all that time. When you put visits to the theme parks into the mix all of the bad parts of Fort Wilderness come into play and you don’t get a real chance to enjoy what the campground has to offer. Disney transportation from Fort Wilderness is my biggest complaint. The buses require to much waiting for unknown lengths of time.

To avoid the wait and at least keep moving when going from the campground to EPCOT I got creative both times. The first trip to EPCOT on Monday afternoon I took the boat to the Magic Kingdom then the Monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center followed by the other Monorail to EPCOT. Returning to the campground in the evening the bus was packed even though I didn’t wait for the park to close. For my second visit to EPCOT on Tuesday evening the bus to EPCOT which also serves the Wilderness lodge didn’t have room onboard for the Fort Wilderness guests. The next bus was twenty minutes away, so I took the bus to Hollywood Studios followed by a boat to the EPCOT International Gateway Entrance. In that case I got to the part of EPCOT I wanted to visit faster than the bus to the main entrance.

My basic issue is having time to really enjoy Fort Wilderness. If you go to the park in the morning and stay all day you have no time for wandering around the campground and using the recreational facilities. If you come back to the campground after a morning session in the park, you don’t have much time before you need to start back for any evening activities. The only time I had to explore a few of the areas in the campground was Thursday afternoon when I didn’t return to the theme parks.

My basic advice for campers that want to visit the theme parks is if you are an early riser that can take advantage of the morning early entry half hour for guests staying on property then you might have value in staying at Fort Wilderness. If, like me, you aren’t taking advantage of the early entry then staying off site for almost half the cost may be better. You’ll have to be able to drive to the park and pay for parking, but the cost differential still works out. Driving from many places off site doesn’t take any longer than using Disney transportation.

Thursday April 28th 2022

After a long day yesterday I didn’t even try to get an early start today. The first item on today’s agenda after breakfast was completing yesterday’s blog entry. I posted the details of Wednesday activities and back dated it to the appropriate date. It is available here.

I arrived at Magic Kingdom about 11AM to pick up where I left off Wednesday night. Once again it was very busy. Simple rides that I road Wednesday night with very little wait had 30 to 50 minute waits today. Most of my time in the park today was spent wandering around checking for anything new since my last visit. I managed to see Mickey’s Philharmagic with the new scene based on the movie Coco before I got in a fifty minute wait for the Haunted Mansion. They were using an extended queue area that looped along the Rivers of America. I probably only waited forty minutes.

The long wait times and crowds raised my frustration level. I made my way out of the park via all of the shops along Main Street USA only to spend another long wait for the boat back to the campground. It was about 2PM when I got back to the campground. Overall it was a very short park day. Since I bought a pass good for most week days for a year, I don’t have to worry about value of my visit. If I were a traveler visiting Disney on vacation I’d have to spend as much time in the parks as possible to get the value from the expensive ticket. That’s what creates all the rushing and tired people on the Disney transportation system.

This evening I watched the Enchantment fireworks from the campground beach. The fireworks seem so much bigger and significant than they do when watching from inside the park. The castle is clearly the focal point inside the park. The fireworks are just used as added decoration to the overall show. To me the inside the park show and the fireworks seen from outside the park are two different shows. They both are great.

Tomorrow I move on from this stay in Fort Wilderness. With all the focus on visiting the parks, I didn’t get a chance to really enjoy the resort. I’m not moving far. I plan to visit the Disney parks again over the next week.

Tuesday April 26th 2022

Today was my first full day at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground. I had a park reservation for Disney’s Animal Kingdom. One of the advantages to staying on site is early entry to the theme parks. A half hour every morning some of the rides in each park are open for people staying on Disney property. I wanted to take advantage of that feature, but it was just too early for me. Animal Kingdom opens to the general public at 7:30AM. Early admission starts at 7AM. To get there using Disney transportation I’d have to leave my RV home at 6AM. I set the alarm and tried, but it was no use. I needed sleep more than a ride to Pandora.

I made it to Animal Kingdom by 8:30AM. The Kilimanjaro Safari had a posted 45 minute wait. It was only 35 minutes, but some of it was walking through a very long extended queue area. The animals were all out, but this particular driver didn’t slow down much to allow for decent pictures. In addition to the safari ride, I wandered around the whole park checking out the various animals between watching two shows. I saw the current version of the Lion King show which has several social distancing accommodations incorporated in the production and the new Kit Tails show.

Animal Kingdom Animals

Celebration of Festival of the Lion King

Kite Tails

The lines for many of the other activities at Animal Kingdom were very long so I returned to my campsite shortly afternoon. I took a nap to re-energize for my return to EPCOT in the evening. The night time Harmonious show was well worth the return visit.

EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival Topiaries

Space Ship Earth

Harmonious