The Millers in Motion Podcast
The Millers in Motion Podcast
Join Ryan and Lauren Miller as they take you beyond the world of RVing to explore all things travel! Whether it’s road trips, flights, cruises, or the hidden gems of small towns and big cities, the Millers bring you along for the ride. In each episode, we’ll dive into our latest adventures, share insider tips, discuss travel challenges, and meet fascinating people along the way. Whether you're an experienced traveler, a weekend wanderer, or just looking for inspiration for your next trip, we’ve got stories and insights that will inspire your journey. Let’s keep those wheels rolling—wherever the road, sky, or sea might take us!
The Millers in Motion Podcast
EP22 - RV Destinations / Camping at Disney's Fort Wilderness at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida
Welcome to the RV Shenanigans Podcast from Millers in Motion, where we embark on adventures and share tales from life on the road. Join us as we explore the joys and challenges of RV living and discover the beauty of traveling this amazing country.
Episode Title:
EP23 - RV Destinations / Camping at Disney's Fort Wilderness at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida
Episode Description:
Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida is the top vacation destinations in the world, and their campground Disney’s Fort Wilderness. In this episode we take a look at the campground itself and share why it is one of our favorites!
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Thank you for joining us on the RV Shenanigans Podcast. Until next time, happy trails and safe travels!
Welcome back to the RV Shenanigans podcast brought to you by Wiquified.
Speaker 2:I'm Lauren, this is Ryan, and together we are Millers in Motion. We sold our ranch in Texas and now travel full-time in our Alliance Valor.
Speaker 1:And we have officially made it through the bazillions of podcasts we did from the 2024 Florida RV Super Show, and we're back in real time. It is just before the eclipse. To be specific, we're recording this on Wednesday, april 3rd, if you're curious. But we want to say a big thank you to not only all of y'all for listening and watching the live podcast back from Tampa, but also all of our guestsall for listening and watching the live podcast back from Tampa, but also all of our guests and Alliance RV for allowing us to set up shop in their booth. It was an absolute blast and we had some really fun conversations.
Speaker 2:It was a lot and we appreciate all of your feedback. It seems to have gone over really well.
Speaker 1:But we are also enjoying being back in real time as well, and not doing three or four a day and not doing three or four a day.
Speaker 1:That was a lot. Now, with that being said, we do have a little bit of a different format because we have brought on a sponsor. The guys at Liquified have signed on as our title sponsor, so we want to say a big thank you to them, but we also want to start hitting on a few kind of current event style things, and so, with that being said, we have two quick topics before we dive into our main topic of this week's podcast, and one of them is it's eclipse time. It's supposed to be the most viewed celestial event in the history of the world. Is my understanding now, and I will say at the time that you guys are going to hear this, it will have just happened. So hopefully, with that being said, you got a clear view of the sky. We are here in north texas, so we will be able to see it. We are in the path of totality.
Speaker 2:At the moment, we're hoping for no clouds, but it's not looking great I have a little different perspective on this, being in the field of medicine. We're pretty sure this is going to be worse than a full moon and we're all terrified oh, like, it's like bad juju or something bad juju. The patients are going to be wild. Everybody's going to be out of it.
Speaker 1:Good luck to us I'm going to try to record a video, um, but it's also going to be dark, so I don't know how that's going to work out. So stay tuned to the main youtube channel, uh, because we may put something like a glow-in-the-dark suit wow, I don't even know if you can. I don don't know. That's a lot of glow in the dark.
Speaker 1:Anyway, with that being said, the second thing we want to talk about, because we've been asked this question a gazillion times, is FrameFlex controversy, so we're not going to go into a lot of detail on this Shocker. You know we have not made a video on it. We really haven't said anything publicly on it. Our previous coach to our Lions Fowler was a grand design, solitude 390 RK. We did experience some problems with it. They were resolved. Um, it had absolutely nothing to do with what is currently happening with frame flex.
Speaker 1:We personally, as well as grand designs, mobile techs I forget what they're actually called- SRTs um tested for it as well, and we always stayed within the parameters of what that test for frame flexes is.
Speaker 2:And multiple times the text tested. We tested the shop like everybody tested Right.
Speaker 1:I will say that there are a few things that I would really like to clarify on this whole frame flex thing is that all frames flex they are designed to.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like when you see you're driving down the highway, see those big flatbed trailers there's always in the unloaded you have, you see that camber in it well, that's tension, so that when they put a big load on it, that it flattens out. So that's kind of how rv frames are, and I say kind of because that's a very rudimentary way of talking about it, but I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible. So, with that being said, as the houses are built on top of them, which is going to be your actual four walls, your aluminum structure or wood structure, depending on the type of RV, that's what's going to add some of that weight. Then, obviously, as you add weight to it as far as your own belongings, those types of things, it flattens that camber out, and so while you're driving down the road, you want that frame to actually flex. Now where it's becoming a problem is some of these frames are starting to crack.
Speaker 2:So it's really more of a frame failure than a frame flex issue Right and there's an allowable amount of flex versus an amount that exceeds that. So those are kind of your big differences.
Speaker 1:So a big thing with what our 390 did was and a lot of 390s experienced this in the back end the aluminum structure that was on top of the Lippert frame was under-supported for the weight, because that's the kitchen in that model that was not buckling completely, but it was slightly under-engineered and therefore it was falling a little bit.
Speaker 1:So a lot of people experienced some floor sagging which caused their slides to malfunction, and then grand design posted a few TSBs or service bulletins and it seems to have resolved some of those problems. We've been out of the loop on that for probably almost a year now, and so I could tell you that ours was fixed. I was happy with the fix to where we were comfortable selling that coach in the used market yes, with a good conscience on that right.
Speaker 1:So with that being said, I know we have friends that are experienced this frame flex thing. Um, we we have talked to people and we've been asked this question a lot. The only couple of things that I'll ask of you is that please, please, please. If there's actually an issue with whatever Grand Design or whatever manufacturer you're talking about is having, or Lippert itself, then obviously go through the appropriate channels and take care of it that way. With that being said, please check your load ratings, and I say that in terms of your weights, understand your weights. I feel and I'm going to call Grand Design out a little bit I feel Grand Design doesn't necessarily overload their rigs, but they put a lot of stuff on them to where you don't have as much cargo carrying capacity as you think. I know our rig, our Solitude, had only about 1,400 pounds of cargo carrying capacity from dry. So if I add water to that and I start adding stuff to that, oh hey, washer and dryer right those kinds of things so as we add those things, it very quickly becomes up to gvwr and
Speaker 1:potentially crest over that, especially in a model like the 390 and solitude's traditional fifth wheels, because there is so much storage space up front and, in addition, in that model, in the back and the reality of it is like we were talking about it most of our light stuff like our mats and those types of things that don't weigh a lot, that all went in the back. It might be cumbersome, but it went back there and our hookup stuff and all of that, and so that's the only thing I will tell you and a big reason why I wanted to go to toy haulers, because we felt, as full timers, that we were having to limit the amount of stuff we put into our coach so, and we actually don't have that much stuff, comparatively, like we don't have kids that bring their stuff and several things, um.
Speaker 2:So, yes, check your weights.
Speaker 1:Um, that's going to be really, really important so, with all of that being said, I would much rather talk about an RV destination. Have some fun. So if you do have questions, frameflex, we'll be happy to talk to people and answer. You can shoot us an email at info at Millers in Motion, or you can jump over to our website, millersinmotioncom or rvshenaniganscom, and there is a contact us form at the very bottom of the page and that's how you can reach us. If you're watching this on YouTube, feel free to just leave a comment down below and we can respond there as well.
Speaker 2:But the short of it is we didn't experience that.
Speaker 1:And we're very sorry for everybody that is and what they're going through, but I'm happy it's not us, so I'm sorry. All right, with that being said, let's take a quick break and then we're going to dive into our main topic. What's the worst part about RVing? It's the black tank. No one likes to have to deal with a stinky or messy black tank. Let the team over at Liquified RV Black Tank Management help you out.
Speaker 1:Created from the team over at Matt's RV Reviews, this is a 100% biodegradable product made right here in the good old US of A. Liquied will help break down your black tank waste as well as help with those odors. In addition to helping with those odors, it's got an actually really great orange smell to it, so not only does it help break down those odors, it also helps freshen the bathroom. One of my favorite features is actually this easy measure pour spout. Because it's designed this way, you don't have to bring in other cups or measuring devices of any kind. Dump what you need in for your size tank, put the cap back on and you're done. To learn more about Liquified RV Black Tank Trubit, you can visit liquifiedrvcom. Do us a favor please support the brands that support us because they enable us to be able to bring you the podcast and the regular videos. To purchase Liquified Black Tang Treatment please see the link down below. We are back, and a big thank you to Liquified and all of our sponsors. Okay, this one's near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 2:You can tell by the smile on his face.
Speaker 1:So I grew up going to Disney World Not every year, but we went a lot. We missed a lot of other things in the US and across the world because we did this. But that's what Epcot's for? No, I'm just kidding and that's why I said it right there.
Speaker 2:Yes, I traveled the world through.
Speaker 1:Epcot. One of the hotels and resorts that I never got to stay at as a kid because we didn't RV growing up was Disney's Fort Wilderness probably one of the highest rated campgrounds in the us and definitely one of the most expensive, but it is also nestled right in the middle of walt disney world. So is camping at fort wilderness worth it? What? What's the skinny on it?
Speaker 1:because it's one of those things that I feel like if you don't do any research, you're in for a world to hurt, potentially because yes you're getting yourself into some situations you may not completely understand and I mean that mentally, emotionally and physically, because Disney can be a lot for anybody. I will tell you that it is so much. This is going to be two episodes. So this specific episode is really about Disney's Fort Wilderness campground. There are cabins there as well, just as a disclosure. And then we are going to do a separate podcast on camping in Walt Disney World. That's going to focus more on Disney as a whole. So if you have questions about Disney, I promise you we're probably going to answer them in the next podcast. And if you hear us refer to the Disney podcast, that's what we're talking about, because it's more of a general information for Disney, whether you're staying in a hotel or a campground. So some stats on Disney's Fort Wilderness. It opened in November 19th of 1971.
Speaker 1:Yay, it's older than both of us Significantly. I'm still proud to say that, because the significantly thing is closing, but it wasn't an opening day hotel, but it was a very early on, because Walt Disney World itself opened in 1971. And so it is comprised of 750 acres, which makes it one of the largest campgrounds in the US.
Speaker 2:It does, and I have to tell you, when we were there, I thought it was larger than that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Disney has that magical thing of making things seem like they're not bigger or smaller. It also is comprised of 799 total campsites.
Speaker 2:Why they couldn't end at 800. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Probably because they couldn't fit that last one in without taking somebody off. It's there somewhere, come on 409 cabins which are in the process of being swapped at the moment and it is also a little random fun fact it's home to all of the equestrian horses that work all across wdw. In that area is called tri-circle d ranch, which we're going to talk about briefly as well yes, you can go see them so why I'm going to start this off by asking you a question? Oh boy why would someone want to camp at fort wilderness?
Speaker 2:so I I wanted to camp at Fort Wilderness. So I wanted to camp at Fort Wilderness so that we could take the RV. You know that's a big thing to us. We enjoy taking our home and having those amenities. But second of all, it's a little bit quieter than it is at the big hotels, and so I kind of enjoy that. I enjoyed being able to go for a walk a little bit more in nature. We could take the dogs with us and have the dog parks and have our home with us.
Speaker 1:I think a big thing too is that obviously there's the generic answer of Disney. That's why you camp. If you're a fan of the parks and you want to go experience Walt Disney World. It is a way to do it with your camper. Now, would you ever go camp at Fort Wilderness and not go to the parks?
Speaker 2:Yes, we did, now, granted, it was only for like 20 hours.
Speaker 1:We did do that. I don't recommend necessarily making a quick trip, and we'll talk about why soon, but you can make a trip just out of Fort Wilderness. There is quite a bit of free things to do, which again we'll address in our Big Disney podcast, but there are quite a bit of things to do there at Fort Wilderness as well as externally from the fort that don't really cost you anything except for like cost of food and that kind of stuff or shopping, if you were to buy something well, and if you think about a lot of the RV resorts, what are they saying that they have?
Speaker 2:well, they have a pool and they have a dog park and they have walking trails. Well, you can also get those at the fort on steroids right, and so if you're looking for that resort type atmosphere, for some people that's going to be a good fit right.
Speaker 1:so before we dive into the fort a little bit and I'm going to freak lauren out because I'm going out of order from what I put in our show notes here I do want to talk about kind of getting to the fort. We always like to talk about when we do rv destinations as far as like the towing in and out or driving if you're in a drivable, because sometimes just because a big RV fits into a campground doesn't necessarily mean that getting there is all that enjoyable. So, getting through central Florida and to Fort Wilderness. So we were coming from the North Texas area, we were on our way to um. We were actually on our way to Camp Margaritaville in central Florida to prep for the super show which you saw all the repercussions of that and because of some weather we actually sped our travel up to avoid some tornadic stuff that was happening in the South and we got to Orlando, central Florida area, a full day early.
Speaker 2:And, as you can imagine, january.
Speaker 1:In central florida there's a ton of options as to where to go so, with that being said, we were kind of talking about it as we were coming down from the gainesville area. We're like well, where do we want to go? We reached out to fort fort williams. We reached out to camp margaritaville. They were very full. A lot of other campgrounds were very full. We are not tt. I was gonna say tto members were not thousand trails members, so tto really wasn't an option because that pretty much fills up just with memberships from that. And so one of the places I knew we could get in because not everybody wants to go there because it is a specialty place is fort wilderness the fort now and we'll talk about backing in in a little bit.
Speaker 1:but it's not the easiest campground to get in and out of and so it was a little bit of a should we or shouldn't we. And it's expensive. To be honest, it is a pricier stay because of the amount of amenities and things you get, but the drive getting in.
Speaker 1:But the drive getting in was okay. It kind of depends on where you're coming from. So if you're like in the Ocala area, which is kind of northwest of Disney World, there's a couple different routes you can take. You could head towards Orlando proper and then come down four. Or you go down toward the Lakeland area, which is where Auburndale and Camp Margaritaville are, and you head up four. There's no good way to describe four except for it always sucks. It's not a hard highway to drive, the traffic's just always awful because the amount of people that commute from Orlando and Tampa cause they're not that far away is huge. So getting in and out, we chose the direct route via our RV, safe GPSs and and trip wizard things, and so we came down to Orlando. So we actually went right by universal studios, uh, and then the convention center came down.
Speaker 2:I just had a flashback to friends when Phoebe asked if you want to the northern route or the southern route and they have to play the game to pick which route they want to take. That's kind of what you do, Right.
Speaker 1:And that is kind of what it was essentially. So we are. We chose the northern route and we came down for it. There was some construction. It really didn't impact us, except for there were some guardrails and a lot of people. So if you're not comfortable driving a larger rig through construction, at least at this moment be aware of that. If you come up from the south, there is always construction. There's not as much from Tampa into Orlando that way, but in Orlando proper there was quite a bit of construction. And then once you get off the highway I'm not going to lie it's really easy.
Speaker 2:Disney goes out of their way to make it easy for you to get in. Now I'm going to throw a caveat in there, because the signs made it very easy, but our GPS really wanted to confuse us and take us a different way, and so we kind of had to pick are we going to listen to the signs from Disney or are we going to listen to the GPS?
Speaker 1:So I will say one thing to know about Disney as a whole and then we'll talk about this in the big podcast as well is they are always changing. When I say always changing, they are constantly looking for ways to better traffic flow, guest control, all of that stuff, and so I will tell you it's probably in your better interest to listen to the signs. This is a rare thing I'm going to say, because typically it's always the RV GPS, barring any weird construction or anything else, going on making sure your maps are up to date. But Disney changes so much and so quickly that I would almost tell you get on property, head towards the center of property and then listen to the signs, because our GPS wanted to take us another way, whereas this there were no.
Speaker 1:Like the you, everything in Disney World is built for oversized vehicles. The lowest clearing in Disney World is built for oversized vehicles. The lowest clearing in Disney World and don't ask me how I know this, because I had a little panic attack and I researched it the lowest bridge or anything that you go under is 14 feet 5 inches tall, short. However you want to say to the bottom of that bridge or thing that includes entrance into the parking areas because there's toll booths and all that stuff. Now, they're not the widest, but you can fit. There are always going to be two or three oversized lanes, kind of like when you go into airports and you have a dually you kind of aim for those oversized lanes. They're a couple feet wider, is the only difference, and so you can fit through everything. In fact, during one of the hurricanes this last year they had to evacuate because of the high winds, for wilderness, because of trees falling and those types of things. They didn't want anybody to get hurt. So what they did is they put everybody up in hotels and they had them move their RVs and they were scattered amongst three parking lots and they were for all the parks, because they're the biggest parking lots and the ticket and transportation center. So you can fit everywhere you go once you're on property.
Speaker 1:Now, once you get off property, you're back into the real world. You just don't trust anything. But getting to that point, then you exit off. So once you're in there, use the signs and then it's really just follow the signs around. There are some spots that can be a little tight because you are going down areas that a lot of guests don't necessarily go down, so it's two lane traffic, so take it slow.
Speaker 1:You're perfectly fine. Um, we don't not. A lot of RVs are bigger than us, with the exception of Todd and Sheila from switch it up. Uh, they may struggle. In fact, I don't even think they would be able to camp there. Um, but given that we're almost 64 feet long when we're completely hooked up and 46 feet of total length of just the RV completely hooked up and 46 feet of total length of just the RV, we made it in perfectly fine. Now I also, in the getting here portion I want to talk about we're going to bypass our check-in process here in the overview and talk about getting into our actual site real quick, because we're already on this topic.
Speaker 2:That was a different story.
Speaker 1:So Fort Wilderness was built in 1971. Imagine the size of campers in 1971. So as campers have gotten bigger, it's gotten tighter. So it is a very tight campground.
Speaker 2:And it is notorious for this. We are not the only people to say this. We won't be the first, we won't be the last.
Speaker 1:And I do think it's important to note here, and we'll talk about more of the different types of campsites briefly but there are different size sites based on your need, from standard stuff to just full hookup things that accommodate smaller RVs, all the way up to what they call premium sites. The premium sites are going to be your larger sites and so if you have a bigger ring, you definitely should consider a premium site only because it gives you a little bit more space to maneuver and get in. With that being said, it's still tight and it's the roads coming in. So when we were coming in and we stayed in the 1400 loop I don't remember the actual name of it, but we stayed in the 1400 loop we were coming around and there was a Disney service truck off to the side and they were servicing something in that area. There's comfort stations, restrooms, showers, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:They in that area there's, there's comfort stations, restrooms, showers, that kind of stuff they were working on something. It was probably just a maintenance truck. We could not get by right and he wasn't blocking the road, no, but he was just enough where we couldn't right.
Speaker 1:If we had gotten by there we would have scraped the other side of our rv along trees, um trucks, other things, and so you know. You just have to take that in consideration. So you definitely want to pack your patient pants when you're, when you're parking. The other thing too is, if you're not super comfortable backing up a larger RV in a tight, confined space, you may want to not consider staying.
Speaker 2:This is not the place to try that. And also, please, for the love, do not arrive at dark. No this is not the time to test that water.
Speaker 1:No, In fact, I would give yourself, if you think it's going to take you 30 minutes to back up a lot, an hour. Double whatever time you have in your head just for setup time, only because it can get tight. Now, with that being said, what we found is so somebody had the way our site was. Is we actually got really lucky? We, when we checked in, we told them like, obviously we're big.
Speaker 1:They can see that the cast members, which are the employees that's what they call them at disney that are checking in, they might not be rv savvy, they may just be college program kids or somebody that's paid to essentially register people, and so don't assume they understand that you're big. Tell them you're big, like, hey, listen, we're really big. It's kind of hard to maneuver. So if you have a site, that's maybe a little easier to get in and out, of, some of the sites angle perfectly to where you can pull forward and back straight up, and so and some are not that way, some are the opposite, and so they typically will go out of their way to try and help you. Obviously, it's based on availability when you get there. Um, but the one thing we found with working with cast members is they generally want to help.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, they definitely do. But you do have to be your own advocate and say, hey, we need a little bit extra. If you have a little bit extra, Right.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, when we were backing into ours I did have to swing a little wide because there was a tree branch sticking out I didn't want to connect with, and so we had to take ours a little bit funky.
Speaker 1:If that tree branch wouldn't have been there, I could have literally just gone straight back, but because of that I had to kind of swing out and angle back in. One of the campsites on the other side that I was going to get close to had a golf cart in a position they, quite frankly, shouldn't have had, and I was going to hit it. Now I was about to get out and just go knock on their camper because the vehicles were there and the golf cart was there, which means they have a higher probability of being there. Full disclosure. If you show up in the middle of the day, the chances of someone be there are actually really small because they're probably in the parks, but they happen to be there. Before I got to the door they actually came out and said let me move that for you, yeah everybody was super nice.
Speaker 1:And I will say everyone's at Disney, so for the most part everybody's in a really good mood and they're willing to kind of I don't know how much help, but at least get stuff out of the way so you can get into your site. And I think that everybody has a certain level of understanding too. Everybody has to deal with this. It's smaller. All of our RVs are getting bigger and so people are willing. Once that got out of the way, it was super easy to get it out Nice, big padded site's. It really made it a nice getaway, I would say well, and you said there's what?
Speaker 2:799 campsites? Right, and we were secluded. I felt like there were trees all around us. It's not that we were right on top of our neighbors. Honestly, we couldn't see them, we couldn't hear them. Like it was for how crowded it is, it was actually really quiet and nice and it is sold out a lot, especially in the winter, but it is right for the amount of people that are there it doesn't feel like there's the amount of people there
Speaker 1:we're not, it's no joke. We're not the biggest fan of rv resorts nothing against them. It's just there's a lot of activity where those people that'd be off. We'd rather be off the beaten path and in dead silence. It's just what we prefer.
Speaker 1:I felt like I barely felt like I was in a resort, with the exception of the amenities agreed. So, with that being said, as far as getting in to the fort and I'll even talk a little bit about getting out of it um it, it's difficult once you get on property to the fort, wilderness, um the disney portion of it's, but once you get in there, it's really easy. A quick note If you do have a drivable, they actually have a turnout after you check in, um called the unhook area. That's obviously not for fifth wheels but, uh, because it's so tight you don't ever want to have a toad on the back of your vehicle coming through there. So if you're in a drivable or a motorhome of any kind, you'll want to disconnect, but they have areas for that. And then, same when you're reversing, when you're leaving, you'll also unhook your tow or hook your tow back up.
Speaker 1:So just know that if you're coming in with someone with a tow, you do have to have someone drive that, or you need to ask them to go to the overflow lot, which is another little tip. We'll get to in a second, the overflow lot, and they'll allow you to unhook there. You can leave your vehicle and then move your motor home and then you can take one of their bus system transportations or a bike or a golf cart or whatever you got back, to go, get your vehicle and then bring it down to your campsite as well. They do discourage driving vehicles around fort wilderness as much as possible as you can imagine. 7 sites, lots of kids running around, it's Disney, everyone's hopped up on sugar, there's just they try to discourage vehicles. Um, I also did learn a little fun fact that they no longer allow electric bikes.
Speaker 2:Oh, sad day.
Speaker 1:And it's not even like you can't even ride them at all anymore. So like even in the off mode, you still can't because apparently people were getting hurt.
Speaker 2:But they still allow golf carts Like personal golf carts.
Speaker 1:They do, but you're required to have certain insurance requirements and you have to provide them when you bring them in with your registration.
Speaker 2:Disney, you just lost points.
Speaker 1:Well, and I do think it's a safety thing. I think a lot of littler kids were on e-bikes and going 30 miles an hour because they don't like their electrics, or some e-bikes are going faster than that because they're higher classes. But yeah, that does kind of stink a little bit because we have e-bikes, we don't have a golf cart and their golf cart rentals are pricey.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So at the time of recording, I believe it's $80 a night.
Speaker 2:Wow for Disney. I thought it'd be more. I'm going to be honest, so yeah well, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, let's talk about Fort Wilderness, just kind of as an overview. So again, it is 750 acres, 799 campsites and 409 cabins. The sites themselves are comprised of a bunch of different categories. So you have cabins, there are regular cabins and then what they call DVC cabins, which stands for Disney Vacation Club. There is actually no difference in these. The DVC cabins are typically a little different in the sense that how you book them and that's it, they're allowed. So if you're a Disney vacation club member, think of it like a timeshare, except you can rotate through all the Disney properties plus some non-Disney stuff. All of those cabins you can book with points and the other cabins are meant to be booked normal, like if you and I were just going to book a site. Now, that being said, you don't know which side you're going to actually end up in. They just do that for allotment purposes. So no actual difference there.
Speaker 1:Now, as far as campsites, you have tent or pop-up campsites. This is going to be a really short paved area, really just meant for cars and then softer ground. They use pine needles there a lot because that's what's native to that area. Again, it's meant for a small pop-up camper or a tent. Then you have a full hookup campsite pretty standard, again, not the biggest or smallest thing. Essentially it's a concrete pad that's 10 feet wide by 50 feet deep. You do have to be able to fit not only your motorhome but your towed or tow vehicle in that as well. Then you have a preferred campsite. It's the exact same thing as the full hookup campsite. The only difference is it's a little closer to other things and it's literally it's 45, so it's actually shorter. It's 45 feet deep and 10 feet wide, but it's closer to the marina area.
Speaker 1:Then you have a premium campsite. This one is where they start to get bigger, so now's 18 feet wide by 60 feet long, and then you have what they call a premium meadow campsite. So some of these things are just location based. Some of these things are physical size. So when I say of 60 feet, we had the entirety of our rig on the pad and we still had plenty of room for the truck. We had plenty of room probably for two vehicles, to be completely honest with you. So now the difference in standard, like a premium campsite and a premium meadow campsite a premium meadow, so premium campsites could be closer to, like the marina or the um what's it called settlement area okay, good job uh and then the meadow is going to be closer to the meadow area.
Speaker 1:So now that we've talked about campsites and we're starting to talk about areas, let's talk about everything as a whole. So you have the outpost which is where you.
Speaker 2:Where you check in.
Speaker 1:Yep Customer service is also there. They call it guest relations.
Speaker 2:I followed the roads.
Speaker 1:That's also where customer service and guest relations are. So if you need to do something with your reservation, you need to help with something you would go back up to that area. There is, when you are checking in, you don't have to physically get out of your vehicle. You pull through a check-in or reception area that you stay in. But then if you have to come back, there is an inside area as well.
Speaker 2:And don't be surprised. They ask you to turn your vehicle off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they do. I'm pretty sure that's just because of fumes and being able to hear and there's many reasons.
Speaker 1:I turn my truck off a lot when I go to drive-thrus just because you can't hear anybody over the diesel engine. The outpost area is also home to the transportation for the rest of the Disney Resort, as well as the riding area for the Tri-Circle D Ranch, which is again the equestrian site. So it's not where the ranch physically sits Right site. So it's not where the ranch physically sits, but it is where, if you're doing like pony rides, that kind of stuff, all of that is right there.
Speaker 2:And when you said transportation to the rest, that's a bus system. Just for clarification.
Speaker 1:Yes, so there are multiple modes of transportation across Disney world. There are two that we specifically use at Fort wilderness. One of them is a bus system. Now there are two bus systems at Fort wilderness, which makes it super confusing, you haven't, because of the size of the campground. There's an internal bus system that literally just goes from around the campsites and that's it, and there's two or three buses that run that and there's a couple of different loops. Then there's the Walt Disney World bus depot, which is going to actually take you to the parks or Disney Springs or other areas of the big resort.
Speaker 1:But per the usual this is all very well marked and we didn't have any issue finding out which buses went where Right. The fort is also inside of what's called the Magic Kingdom Resort area, which is comprised of the original hotels, which is the Contemporary, the Polynesian, and then later on added the Grand Floridian Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness campground and cabin. So that makes up that. So you are going to be closest to the Magic Kingdom Resort area as you go into the fort past the outpost. The next big section you're going to come up is called the Meadow the.
Speaker 1:Meadows area. So this is where the main pool for the property is. There are two pools, but this is the main one. There's also going to be more of a gift shop sundry store. They're going to have a lot of the things kind of your normal camp store. To be honest with you, with your Disney twist.
Speaker 2:And this was also where you could rent like a kayak or something and go out on the water, some stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the water rentals which you can actually charter pontoon boats and fishing guides and go bass fish. You can rent kayaks, you can rent bicycles, you can rent a lot of this stuff. The golf cart barn is also down here. It's just kind of hidden and nobody ever sees it, and so that's also where, if you are renting a golf cart, you would go and pick that up, or I thought you picked it up at the front so if you do it on your reservation, they stage it up there for you oh, okay so, in other words, if we were coming in like lauren, and
Speaker 1:I and we had pre-booked our golf cart. We would. Then you could either pop out and grab it then while I'm pulling in, or we would just get parked and then figure it out, drive up there, grab it and come back. So, uh, but if you need to reserve another one, you can can go either place. But the rest of the cart barn is actually down by the meadow area. So the meadow area also is home to, uh, chippendales campfire, singalong area, which is a huge outdoor theater. So they'll do outdoor movies, they do singalong stuff, they do like a s'mores bonfire most nights. Um, there's a bunch of activities. The meadow is kind of the hub of all those things, unless they otherwise say so, and keep in mind too, there's loops everywhere off of this. So, and then, if you, as you move closer to the water or down, you move into what's called the settlement area.
Speaker 1:This is where a lot of the food and beverage options are going to be. Fort Wilderness is also home to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Review, which is kind of a dinner show style thing Think fried chicken, meatloaf, that kind of stuff and entertainment Disney style. In addition to that, the buffet-style breakfast and dinner is there as well, as they have I think it's called Crockett's Tavern, which is more of a bar and small bites area. This is also the home to another gift shop, because it's Disney called the Settlement Outpost, and so that's again. We was closed while we were there because of timing. It just wasn't open. It was opening later in the day and we were already having a bolt because of our 20-hour thing.
Speaker 1:This is also the boat transportation. So this is where the boat transportation right. So this is where disney gets complicated and we'll talk about transportation in detail for the full resort. But at fort wilderness, if you want to go to any of the parks, with the exception of, or disney springs, with the exception of magic kingdom, you need to take a bus. If you're gonna go to magic kingdom you actually can't get there via bus you have to take a boat. Now, that boat serves also fort wilderness. Nope, we're at fort wilderness. That boat also serves. Um, what's the other hotel down animal kingdom not?
Speaker 1:nope, that's not right I don't know so that boat also serves other hotels in the area, just as a heads up and then takes you right to the main gate of magic kingdom or the main part.
Speaker 2:They always say in every relationship there are two types of people the one who plans everything and knows where the passports are and knows how to get everywhere, and the person who shows up. I'll let you guess who's who in this relationship.
Speaker 1:Gee, I don't know what you're talking about, so let's talk a little bit about our time, specifically at the fort. So, if you don't mind, since I've been talking a whole lot about that planning stuff, did you enjoy your?
Speaker 2:time? Would you stay longer, like what would be ideal for someone like? Well, let's just say us, since that's what's talking. So I really enjoyed our time and I would absolutely do it again. I know that we were only there for less than 24 hours, um, but it was. It was really nice to be able to get up and walk the dogs, take them down to the park. I did walk the loop around there and I can tell you it's well over a mile, but for me that's part of it. I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 1:Right, and I will say we didn't talk about where the dog parks were. They're kind of off the path, a little bit of the meadow. There is one made road that runs down and then a smaller one that goes the kind of like a loop around the exterior. It's kind of in between the two things, but the dog park was massive and there's two.
Speaker 2:There's one for small dogs and one for big dogs and it was. It was huge. Now it there was usually somebody in it. I would say, um, so make sure your dog's friendly and social, um, but we were able to catch it a few times when it was empty and there's a playground for kids and everything right.
Speaker 1:It's also's also fun too, because as you're walking around, like when you're on that main road, you can see other RVs, but again, they do such a good job of making you feel like you're not right next to each other. Now I will say, when you talk about differences in campsites, you know a premium is you're going to have a little more gapping between the sites and a little more foliage, and so, like we didn't, we actually didn't have anybody off our campsite there because of how the loop turned. We were the last one and then there was more, but they were kind of around the bend a little bit, so we literally couldn't see anybody out of our like, uh, campsite windows. You could see somebody on our off campsite, but there was still foliage between us.
Speaker 2:By no means that I feel like they were right on top of us. No, not at all. Shows yeah, that's fine. The food's okay, whatever, and even the restaurants they have there on site it's okay. It was a little expensive for what you got and it's certainly edible, but I think bringing your home they maybe they expect you to cook your own food a little bit more, so just be prepared for that.
Speaker 1:Well, and I do think that's one of the bonuses of, you know, staying with your camper at Fort Wilderness versus, like a hotel, at Disney, is that, quite frankly, disney prices are higher?
Speaker 1:And so if you don't understand that, you can literally go online right now to the Disney world's website and you can pull up menus for different restaurants and you're going to get a little bit of sticker shock and that goes across the board. I mean, a water's $5, literally a bottle of 20 ounce to Saudi is $5, that kind of stuff. And so I think understanding that and the perk of taking your camper is you don't have to eat out every meal right.
Speaker 2:But if you come in that first day and you haven't gone to the store yet and you're like, oh, we'll just take the whole family down to the restaurant that's on site, set that bar a little low well and like we talked about, even though we were only there for 24 hours, there are certain things that at disney that you kind of want to do and you don't want to cook every meal necessarily right but like, breakfast is one of those meals that I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1:I want to get my mickey waffles while in there, but like if you're there for a week once or twice right, I don't want mickey waffles every dang morning. No, I can get by with a bagel and the camper and my own coffee. To be honest, I'd rather have my own coffee and so, being able to do that or, you know, make a sandwich for lunch if we're not in the parks that kind of thing, and then maybe some dinners here, some dinners out, like pick the ones you really want to do right
Speaker 2:and then supplement from the camper the rest of the time exactly, and we had some really good food while we were there.
Speaker 1:It just wasn't at the fort yeah, I will also tell you that if you are considering coming on and getting like groceries or something like that, there's a couple of options. One publix is awesomeix is awesome. I love Publix Not as much as HEB in Texas, but I do like Publix. I would definitely recommend trying to stop before you get onto the fort because, getting out of Disney, as easy it is to get in. They don't really want you to leave, Because if you can't go buy those groceries, you're going to buy food there.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And so it's kind of like a casino in Vegas. They want you in easy. They just want you to get lost and not be able to get out, so I'm sorry. So, with that being said, there are a couple things you can do. One stop before you get in at a Publix or another grocery store, walmart, whatever Load up. Two, you can actually. Publix has a delivery service that is authorized through Disney.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't know that you can do this to any hotel. So you can't DoorDash and those types of things. They don't allow that. But Publix, if you go to the Publix website you can place an order and you can actually pull up your Disney Resort Hotel If you don't like, you don't even have to meet them there, they will leave whatever you buy with Bell Services or the entrance. My allergies are really bad.
Speaker 2:That was cute.
Speaker 1:You can leave. They'll leave the groceries with Bell Services and you can pick it up at your convenience. Obviously, if you're getting things like milk, you may want to get on it, but if it's all stuff that can sit out for a little while, then get it at your own discretion. But you can absolutely do that. So that's another way. I would recommend the first Because there is a delivery fee involved with that, as everything else in the world. Yeah, it's again the breakfasts, and depending on how hard you go, like if you're a family and you're going to come back and relax from the parks, then yeah, make lunch here and make some sandwiches and some of that kind of stuff. You and I have a tendency, when we've done the parks before which we didn't do it for wilderness, but we have a tendency to kind of go in more mid-morning and then go, and then when we're done.
Speaker 2:We're done. So we would probably eat in the parks, Right right, but it does save you a little bit as far as your vacation expenditures and your budget.
Speaker 1:Right, it absolutely does so. Now, with that being said, just a brief overview again. We're going to do a full podcast on the parks and transportation and everything, but obviously we're talking about Magic Kingdom, which is the original where the castle is, epcot, hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. You can get to all of those via transportation at the fort. You do not have to get in your own vehicle. Now you can if you want to. So when you get a hotel reservation, especially at Fort Wilderness, that includes your parking across everywhere.
Speaker 1:So if you'd rather get up on your own terms and go on your own, like if you're that person just would rather have your vehicle versus rely on a bus system or a monorail or a boat, then you can by all means go there. When you scan your magic band or key card so that's what you're going to access, like your charge backs and your room key essentially, which at Fort Wilderness really doesn't you get access to like the comfort stations. With that, they'll scan that and then you'll just be allowed to go park as normal. The downside of that is you're also going to walk in quite a bit versus the regular transportation, but obviously with that you also have to understand that there is a ticketed price for all those things. You can include it in your reservation. Just because you're staying at Fort Wilderness doesn't magically get you into the parks. That is an added ticket, just in case you didn't know that. All right, with all of these things being said, how much does it actually cost to camp at Fort Wilderness?
Speaker 2:now. It's cheaper than staying in the hotels on on property right it can be some of them.
Speaker 1:So there, I think it's pertinent to based on on what Lauren was just saying is that there are different categories of hotels, and then there's the campgrounds. So for starters, there's on-property and off-property. So off-property, you're going to have partner hotels and non-partner hotels. So there's an area by Disney Springs that has a bunch of hotels that are like Hilton's, hyatt's, those types of things that are partner hotels, which means they have a little bit of transportation. They're those types of things that are partner hotels, which means they have a little bit of transportation and they're nearby. That's it. Otherwise, you book through them. That's the only perk that they have is they're close and there's a bus sometimes. So inside of Disney World you're going to have what's called value resorts, moderate resorts and deluxe resorts, and it's exactly what you think they are. Deluxe is the most expensive, value is the cheapest.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to talk in terms of averages of price, because they use dynamic pricing at disney, and this goes for the campsites as well. They change as things get busy. Prices go up. As things empty out, prices go down. So just take this with a grain of salt that we are looking at these prices in early april and so again, it's going to be busier and the campsites get busier, when the hotels necessarily aren't, because of the different special events.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, the most expensive time to go to Fort Wilderness and camp is actually going to be late September, october, november and December. And the only reason it is is because when we get closer to Halloween, everybody likes to go and decorate their campsite and it's become a whole thing. There's actually a term for going around and looking at all the decorations, called looping. It's a whole culture in its own. It's the hardest time to get a campsite there. So if you're looking to go in more of the winter months, just know, if you go after the first of the year, you're a little better off. So I say that January, february, march Now, with that being said, now, once you get past March, it gets hot and then love bugs come out.
Speaker 1:It's a whole thing. So, at right now, the pricing can range from anywhere from about $109 a night up to $190 a night, and that breaks out very differently. Tent or pop-up campsites is $109. Full hookup campsites $145. A preferred version of that full hookup campsite is $169. A premium campsite is $177 and a premium meadow campsite is $190.
Speaker 2:Now to each their own. But I'm just saying you'd be hard-pressed to convince me to spend $109 a night to sleep on the ground.
Speaker 1:There are people that love that stuff. There are.
Speaker 2:I am who I am and you be who you are. That's good.
Speaker 1:And if you have a pop-up camper you can do that, and so you're not on the ground, you're just on a platform, and so you can definitely do that. Now I will tell you when you get down to full, full hookup campsites. I honestly think anything above 40 feet it's a no go, no matter what you do, um cause that only gives you 10 feet for your vehicle. So I would actually argue, if you have something 35 feet and shorter, you're golden, 40 feet up to you. Anything above 40 feet, I would hard pass on that and I would go to the premium. Now the physical layout of those premium versus premium meadow campsites they're exactly the same. The only difference is the location the meadow being closer to the main central hub in the center and the premium being a little closer to the marina side. I don't necessarily have a preference. We happened to stay in a premium meadow because it was available.
Speaker 2:That's right. No, I wouldn't have a preference either.
Speaker 1:We also booked last minute, Just know you can get deals by waiting to the very last second. If you book within, say, 48 hours, they can typically come down a little bit, but you also get better deals the further out you book. One unique thing too is Disney releases their pricing once a year for the following year. So at one point you can only book Disney hotel stays about six months out, but then, after that six-month window elapses, you can actually book for like 18 months out. The campsites are different. You can book 299 days in advance.
Speaker 2:Ask me how I know.
Speaker 1:Ask me how I know. So it is different, though. You can't book it through the website that way, because it's set up like the hotels, so you do have to call in and make those reservations. So if you are looking for one of those harder to get reservations during the halloween and christmas months decoration season, all that you definitely want to call in and make that reservation and then from there you make your reservation and then you can do what's called packaging so you can add your resort ticket or your your park tickets. You can add dining plans on now again as of early 2024. That's back, and so all those things you can kind of add on after the fact once you get inside the proper window, and then you can do everything normal at that point. So it's an expensive stay, but at the same time too, I feel like it's a cheaper way to do Disney and I'll be honest, I'd rather be in my camper.
Speaker 2:Right. So it's expensive? Yes, but there are a lot of things that are expensive, and so it's just. Is it worth it to you Now? No, this isn't just a Thursday, you know what I mean. Like, this is a vacation, so treat it as such.
Speaker 1:And yeah, just like anything in life, you can do it however you want to on the cheaper end, on the more expensive end. Well, and as a comparable note and we'll talk a little bit about, we paid back in january. So in january, fort wilderness, I believe we paid about 150 I think so.
Speaker 1:Right in that ballpark, again, we booked within 24 hours. So right, it maybe came down from 190 to 150 because they had open sites. So maybe we saved 20 bucks, maybe we didn't, I don't really know. Um, camp margaritaville that same week, like the next day, was 170, 170 or 177 a night, just as a point of like what's available. Camp margarita was a great rv resort.
Speaker 1:It's a very different feeling, rv resort it is, you are very aware you're in an rv resort at camp margaritaville, at fort wilderness. You feel like you're in a disney area, not necessarily just a campground. So right but it is becomes to each their own, like camp margaritaville. They have the bars, they have a lot of that stuff which they do have at fort wilderness. They're just much harder to find and they're not. Their emphasis isn't that? And so it's again to each their own. And what you want to spend your money on.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:So with that, if you have any questions about Disney's Fort Wilderness, we would love to go into detail. I'm actually a little. We should have brought the only person that I know that is a full-time RVer and a content creator that likes this place more than I do. We should have brought on and we didn't.
Speaker 2:Oh, sorry, Daryl. So that's Daryl.
Speaker 1:Tolson from Tolson Life. They were also on season two of RV Unplugged and it became very aware that we're all fans of the same thing during post-production of RV Unplugged, when he busted out a Fort Wilderness t-shirt and I went we just came from there.
Speaker 2:I see a trip coming in our near future, in our near future Definitely won't be documented at all. Not at all.
Speaker 1:From two different angles. So again, thank you so much. If you have questions, you can leave that down in the comments below. If you're watching on YouTube, if you are listening to this podcast on your favorite podcast platform, do us a favor. You can go down to the show notes and see all those same things. You can also email us. A big, big help to help promote this podcast would be to leave a rating and a review. That goes much further than you realize. We're currently up to about 32 ratings on Apple Podcasts and about 40 on Spotify. We'd love to see those numbers get into the triple digits and then also leave a little what you think of the show in those written comments, because that will allow it to again. That's the only way to really podcast push out via the algorithm. You got anything left on Fort Wilderness or in general. You just want to. Can't get it going off your chest.
Speaker 2:No, just let me know when we're going again. I'm good.
Speaker 1:That's more of a you question. I'm ready to go tomorrow. You're the one that's stuck to a job.
Speaker 2:On that note.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for watching, slash listening and we will catch you guys next time.
