Florida Keys

Florida Keys
Florida Keys September 2014

Friday, February 3, 2012

Camping with Mickey Mouse


Date: 2/3/12 – 2/5/12
Location: Fort Wilderness. Disney World. Orlando, Fl
GPS Coordinates: 28.409021, -81.556007
Normally camping at a place like Disney World wouldn’t be our go to location. Julie and I normally like to camp in quiet locations, with some of our most favorites being out boondocking by ourselves,. But for something different we decided to give Fort Wilderness a try. Disney is certainly a well run facility. We arrived well before the stated check in time, but we were welcomed by one happy “cast member” and allowed to head right to our site. The sites are pretty close together, but Disney does put a lot of effort into planting some vegetation between each site so you are not staring right at your neighbor. Plus it seems that many of the sites are offset enough that although close together, you do have some privacy. Also, each sites a full hookups, with electricity, water and sewer. And everything is extremely clean and well kept. What else would you expect from Disney?
One of Julie and my pastime's while camping is walking the camping loops within a campground an checking out everyone’s rig and camping equipment. At Fort Wilderness, there are a ton of loops, so we had plenty to look at. But with things being so spread out, we had to use our bikes to traverse the entire campground. That is one nice thing about Disney, there’s a lot of bike trails around the campground. So, there was ample biking opportunities. The main thing we discovered while making the rounds, is that there are a lot of Disney Fanatics. Some of them have their campsites just packed with Disney paraphernalia, lights, figures, etc. It was pretty “amazing”…
There’s also a lot of activities, with one night attending the Fort Wilderness campfire and movie. We kind of enjoyed that, but were put to work when the movie was done. On two separate occasions, we had to help an older lady get their scooter out of the gravel. Who would have thought that would happen twice, but we did our good deed for the day!
Another evening we traveled the different Disney transportation options (boat and monorail) and checked out the different “lounges” at the many hotels. We had a beer and some munchies at each and that was a good time. Something that you don’t do very often.
Here is our review of the campground:
Campground: Fort Wilderness
Campground Website: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/campsites-at-fort-wilderness-resort/
Site Number: 1413
Date visited: 2/3/2012 - 2/5/2012
Rating (1 = low, 5 = high)
Campsite size: 2
Campsite space between sites: 2 (varies by site)
Campsite privacy between sites: 2 (varies by site)
Campsite level: 5
Campsite parking: concrete pad
Campfire permitted: no (only if you have an industrial strength fire ring!)
Campsite picnic table: metal & composite material
Campground Facilities: 5
Campground access to hiking: 2
Campground access to water (kayaking, fishing, swimming, etc): 2
Campground access to biking: 5
Overall Campground rating: 4.5

Nice beach, but there is no swimming
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“Marina” where you can catch the boat over to the theme parks
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Looking across the lake towards Disney World. This is a good place to watch the nightly fireworks from Magic Kingdom.
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One of the campers at Fort Wilderness that are really, really into Disney!!
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Sitting  area outside our camper.
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Our site # 1413
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