Ft. Wilderness Trip - December 2016

We just got back from a trip to Disney World and stayed in the Fuse at Ft. Wilderness.  Both kids came with us and since the Fuse only sleeps 3, we brought a tent with us for our son.     We had a great time.

One of our goals for this trip was to have Sonya become more comfortable driving and setting up camp.  She is going down with our daughter and a friend in February for a girls weekend in the Fuse and needed the experience.   So she drove most of the way down.  I handed the RV over to her once we got out of Tallahassee.

She drove and I sat in the back trying not to be a pest.  I did get some stuff done while going down.  It was the first time I spent any real effort trying to track down some rattles.  I found and corrected several as we were driving down.  (Sonya's note:  Don usually comments that it is unsafe for folks to be moving around in the back of the coach when driving down the road, but he is a bad passenger and couldn't sit still.  At least, he wasn't micro-managing my driving.)

We left Tallahassee Friday morning and got to Disney mid-afternoon.   We stopped at the rest area just south of Ocala and ate lunch.  Going down the Fuse got 14.3mpg.  Not too bad but it had 50 in-town miles on this tank from the past several weeks.

We did find out that the low fuel light does work and had to fill up once we got to Disney.    Believe it or not, the fuel prices at the gas stations at Disney are pretty good.  Our Fuse likes their diesel as it seems to get better milage than with the Murphy Diesel that I normally use.

We got down and set up camp.  We had a Full Hookup site, the lowest tier of motorhome spots at the Fort.  Anywhere else it would be a super premium site.  1636 was a great site.  It was half way between and fairly close to two bath houses.  Pretty close to the entry/exit of our loop.   And being Christmas, it was 2 spots down from the one of the biggest Christmas displays in the Fort.  That puts you in the Holiday mood.

Sonya set up the site.  I tried to stay out of they way.  I failed, but she did great.

We spent this trip looking at holiday decorations.  We talked about the ones at Ft. Wilderness in an earlier post, but we also spent time looking at the decorations in the hotels and parks.  Disney does Christmas great and we highly recommend going sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas to see it.  The best time is between 12/1 and 12/15 to avoid most of the crowds.  There were plenty of spots during the weekdays.  The Fort was full on Friday and Saturday night.

We did the Hoop-De-Doo Review dinner show, the Family Christmas present from our daughter.  I got picked on by Claire and we had a blast.  Sonya said it helps to be old, balding and sitting in the center if you want to be singled out.

Sonya took down the camp with one exception.  She did not want to dump the tanks and made that my job.  She said she was going to supervise my daughter doing it in in February so it was realistic practice. (Sonya's note:  I've told the young ladies I'd take care of accommodations but they had to take care of dumping the tanks, I don't care how they just have to get it done.  So if you are at Fort Wilderness in  February watch out for two innocent looking young ladies...)

Coming home we got 14.7mpg.   Overall we had a great trip.

Christmas Time at Ft. Wilderness

If you have the chance, you should experience the Christmas holidays at Disney World.  Disney goes all out for the holidays and the Fort Wilderness is no exception.

Everyone at the Fort gets involved especially the campers.   The displays people put out at their campsites are amazing.  The closer you get to the actual date, the more decorations come out.

There are lights, music, displays.   Some of them rival any commercial setup you would see in your home town or on television.  They are even more amazing if your remember that the campers have to keep their displays in the confines of their campsites.

The majority of what you see are inflatables.  We have even gotten into the Christmas spirit.  There are are 3 inflatables at our campsite including "Hula Santa".

We even have our Fuse in the act  as part of our display.  Sonya and our daughter made a Mickey wreath.  Lights and all and we have it mounted in the front window.

Campsites are not all that are decorated.  Many people decorate their golf carts as well.  If you are here on Christmas Day (the lucky few) there is even a golf cart parade on Christmas Day.  Disney sponsors a contest for the best decorated campsite on Christmas Eve and the best decorated golf cart in the parade with the winners announced at an awards ceremony on Christmas Day.