Has it been a year already...Snowmedic's Feb. - March 2017 pre-trip, trip report.

[snowmedic]

It has been almost a year since we (me, DW, and DD 9 going on 10) have been to the Fort. We had made plans to be back this past Oct. but with work that just fell through. I was fortunate to see that I was going to be busy which gave me plenty of time to make reservations. Oh, we will be arriving at the Fort on Feb. 1 and checking out Feb. 17. Our daughter will be celebrating her 10 birthday, and Dw and I will be celebrating our 25 wedding anniversary.

Depending on the weather, we will leave out the morning on Jan. 29 and stop over in Virginia for the night, then drive to St. Mary's and spend the night there, ( we use to live in St. Mary's), then get up on Jan. 31 drive to the Cocoa Beach and have lunch and check out the beach stores, ( we use to live in Melbourne also), then head over to Disney and check-in at All Star Music Resort for one night. Then on Feb. 1 while the girls are still sleeping I will drive over to the Fort and check in, hopefully there will be a site available, come on 1600 loop, and if their is I will get the tent setup and then go back and get the girls.

We have dinner reservations for Rainforest at Disney Springs on the 4
T-Rex at the Springs on the 8
Chef Mickey's and the 13
and our final meal will be TE on the 16.
We have also rented a golf cart from Disney for 3 days, hoping DW will like it so I can go out and buy one for our Halloween '17 trip, reservations already made.

DW had to much time on her hands yesterday and she made this countdown calendar.



Well that will be all for now. We have 52 days until we check in, so there will be plenty more to add, enjoy.

 

[burnaroonie]

Great countdown calendar The wife and I will be there during the same time. Have a great time!

 

[Teamubr]

I can't believe it's been almost a year. It was great following along last trip. Have you started on FPs yet? That will be new for me this trip. I had ADRs mapped out before we left last trip since it was Spring Break, but FP+ was still in the future then. I'm not sure I'm going to like planning out each day 2 months in advance. The ADRs were usually pretty easy. We only did 3 or 4 and some of those weren't even in parks (Chef Mickey, California Now I have to decide which parks I plan on going to each day. Not sure I'm crazy about that. Except for a few specific plans (MK the first day), we don't decide on the specific park until a day or two out. A lot depends on how we feel, the weather, how much we got to do the current day...

Oh well, keep us up to date on the planning and we'll be happy to chime in and critique everything for you.

j

 

[tiggerdad]

Looking forward to reading along with you Vince. Tell the girls we say "hello".

 

[snowmedic]

Have you started on FPs yet?

We don't do Disney parks, to crowded for me, I have a hard time being around a "lot of people", but we do go to Universal and Aquatica, those parks I can handle. This is our 2nd time doing ADR, we all liked T-Rex last year, especially DD who got to go and Build A Dino when we got done eating. We have never been to Chef Mickey's and the last time we did TE was back around 2002.
As for our off-site park days, we don't plan, we decide which park to go to while having breakfast at the site.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

on Feb. 1 while the girls are still sleeping I will drive over to the Fort and check in

1) We will keep a light on for you.
2) Welcome back to The Fort.

 

[peg110]

Love the calendar. Hope you have an awesome trip.

Like Tiggerdad, I will be waiting for the show.... err.... Trip report!

 

[snowmedic]

Today had us taking the Rav to the dealer for servicing, inspection (has to be done once a year, it's the North's way of trying to keep unsafe cars off the roads) and new winter tires, the all-seasons would not have passed inspection due to tread depth. Now to work on getting that CC paid off before the trip. Work decided to delay our bonuses until this coming week, that is what we are using to pay off our camp site and buy AP for Aquitica and Universal. Have to get into the garage and locate tent and cooler. We brought the tent home in March and got it set up to dry out because it started to rain the day we checked and didn't want to store it in FL. due to mildew. We want to buy a new tent but that will come before our Halloween trip. That is all for now.

 

[FortForever]

Today had us taking the Rav to the dealer for servicing, inspection (has to be done once a year, it's the North's way of trying to keep unsafe cars off the roads) and new winter tires, the all-seasons would not have passed inspection due to tread depth.

Yearly inspections were the bane of my existence in WV. Thankful to be left to our own judgement in Florida.

We will be at the Fort during the same time as you. I love your countdown calendar, so cool! Just to let you know that the second week of February (weekdays) have very low crowds at the Disney Parks, in case you decide to hit any up.

Have a wonderful trip and amazing anniversary and hope your DD has the best birthday ever. Can't think of a better place to spend it than the Fort.

 

[tiggerdad]

I wonder if they push the inspection more due to the winter weather and heavy use of salts. They finally dropped that garbage here MS two years ago.

New tent? You gonna upsize or stick to what you have?

 

[snowmedic]

Have a wonderful trip and amazing anniversary and hope your DD has the best birthday ever.

Thank you. While we where there last year we had so many people and cast members telling us Happy Anniversary or Happy Birthday. Maybe we will meet up at the Fort. Have a wonderful time.

You gonna upsize or stick to what you have?

Definitely going to upsize. We are looking at a 16X20 canvas wall tent.

 

[FortForever]

Thank you. While we where there last year we had so many people and cast members telling us Happy Anniversary or Happy Birthday. Maybe we will meet up at the Fort. Have a wonderful time.

Thank you! We have a pop-up and I had reserved at tent loop. After reading your trip report about the 2000 loop, I am looking into upgrading to full hook-up loop. My son has PTSD and all that racket with kids will have him over the edge. He takes fairly high doses of anxiety medication, but will still be edgy with that. Even his nephews, my grandchildren, stress him out so bad that we can't camp with him and them at the same time.

Post your site when you get there, and I will do the same.

Definitely going to upsize. We are looking at a 16X20 canvas wall tent.

A bear to put up, and will weigh a ton, but will last a lifetime. I have a "thing" for tents still camp in ours close to home, when we can. I have to be feeling well enough to get up and down from an air mattress, and that could change any time, so we don't do far trips with it anymore. I'm scheduled to have both knees replaced next year, so hopefully that will help. Right now DH has to do most of the work when we tent camp.

Our pop-up is the next best thing because it has canvas and I can still get that outside feel when I sleep. I would love to see your tent photos from your trip report. Unfortunately, they are all gone. Are they on an image hosting site somewhere?

 

[tiggerdad]

Oh yeah Vince, thanks for the Christmas card. Yours should have gone in the mail yesterday or today.

 

[snowmedic]

I am looking into upgrading to full hook-up loop

We love the full hook-up sites, no more carrying our dish water to the CS, and quitter location. We were in 1600 last October and loved it. We were in site 1643, on site before the end of the loop, not to close to the bus stop, although you could still hear them running, and just a short walk to the CS. The walk over to the Meadows was easy also.

Are they on an image hosting site somewhere?

They are not, I just resize in paint and post that way. Here are a couple from our last few trips.

Nov. 2014 loop 2000







2015 loop 1600






March 2016 loop 1500

 

[snowmedic]

thanks for the Christmas card.

Your welcome. Like I said about our countdown calendar, DW has a lot of extra time on her hands and loves her Cricut.

 

[sirenia88]

Sounds good Vince. Very jealous right now as we have no plans for the Fort as this time. It's been a real mix as you may have noticed in your neck of the woods. Today we are having some Fog and rain as part of the forecast with a high of around 50°F. Yesterday, the weather was cold, snowy and then turned over to a mix by late AM. It was awesome.

Looking forward to the PTR and LTR portions of this thread

 

[snowmedic]

It's been a real mix as you may have noticed in your neck of the woods.

Friday was real bad with the wind chill and temps only getting up to 6 degrees. Saturday we got 5 inches of snow and last night the freezing rain came in, 1/4 inch this morning on my work truck, car was nice and warm in the garage. Temps will be back up around 38 by mid week.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

I just love your tent pics! Did you reserve a tent site or full hook up again?

 

[snowmedic]

Did you reserve a tent site or full hook up again?

We went full hook up again. The only reason we did tent site last March is that was all that was available at the time I booked, and I didn't want to keep calling and trying for full. Hoping for 1600 again, and with us checking in early in the week and morning, I hope it's not a problem.

Good to hear from you, take care.
Vince

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Did you have any issues with the tent in the full hook up areas? I take it you and your family enjoyed a more quiet loop? The sand is less correct? We stayed in the 1800 loop back in 2013 when we had the RV and loved that loop. I remember it was very quiet!!!

We went full hook up again. The only reason we did tent site last March is that was all that was available at the time I booked, and I didn't want to keep calling and trying for full. Hoping for 1600 again, and with us checking in early in the week and morning, I hope it's not a problem.

Good to hear from you, take care.
Vince