12/14 Fort Wilderness Holiday Decorations

Disney allows campers at Fort Wilderness to decorate their campsites.  And I mean REALLY decorate their campsites!  They allow as many lit and unlit things to be placed on the ground as you can cram within a site and lights to be hung from trees.  They tolerate a lot, to say the least.  People plug into the park electricity, but some campers bring external generators because they have so many lights. 

Then consider that a lot of people like to come to Disney World, and a lot of those are retired with little to do during the day except plan for the holidays.  Apparently some people come in groups, and they come every year to enjoy the decorations.  Here are some daytime photos of the results that I took from my rental golf cart.

The people who set up decorations in this next photo had an operating train set in the first tent to the left.  They also had a real Santa in the right tent and games for children to play.  The front table has plates with the names of each of the reindeer and a real carrot in each one.

The next photos were taken after dark.  Sorry the quality is not better.

 

It was great fun having a golf cart to drive. 

12/14 Disney's Fort Wilderness

This was my last night here, so I rented a golf cart and toured some of the areas that were too far to walk to.  I think I had one of the best campsites.  I had asked for a premium site near the transportation which is exactly what I got:

Some of the areas were more open and more crowded.

If you don't have an RV or a tent, you can rent a cabin instead:

There is a recreation area with a campfire program area, fishing pond, and pools.

The Hoop-de-Doo is a family entertainment and meal event held a couple of times every evening at what they call the Outpost at the far end of Fort Wilderness, in the building on the far left of the first photo.  The second photo is the camp store, which sells a very few groceries and a lot of souvinirs.  The last two photos are of the ferry dock that provides direct transportation to the Magic Kingdom and some of the other lake resorts. Taking the ferry is cold, but it is a nice ending to a night at the theme park.  You can rent small boats or a pontoon boat there for a lot of $$$!

 

Also, at the Outpost is another restuarant with a buffet and takeout pizza.  There are also horse carriage rides available and bus transportation back to campsites and to the Settlement, which is where the parking lot is for the Hoop-de-Doo and the Fort Wilderness registration offices.

 

 

 

 



12/13 Mickey's Christmas Party

Tonight was a special event at the Magic Kingdom.  You paid an extra fee ($64 per person), got an armband, and spent several hours after the normal closing with tens of thousands of others who had also paid a special fee.  The draw was a special lighting of the castle and park, slightly smaller crowds, a special Christmas parade and fireworks, and free hot chocolate, if you could find it.

Temps have dropped substantially, so even with long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a jacket, I was pretty cold during the evening, especially since I took the open ferry across the lake to the Magic Kingdom.  Brrrr. 

Here is Main Street and Cinderella's Castle all lit up:

 

I will admit that the Christmas Parade was very nice. I had a great seat, but missed out on the rocking chairs that two ladies beat me to!

 



I took advantage of the slightly smaller crowd and went onto a few rides, including Thunder Mountain Railroad.  And how can you go to the Magic Kingdom without a trip through It's A Small World??

I left after the fireworks, but there was a very long wait for the ferry, and it was not heated, so I froze along with everyone else.  My back, knees, and feet were all killing me by this point anyway.  It was SO nice to get back home to my warm motorhome!  Flipped on both furnaces and took a hot shower, but I did not get to sleep until almost 2:00 am.  Nice end to my stay here, even if it was really cold.

12/12 Animal Kingdom

Some photos of Animal Kingdom at Disney.  This is more like a zoo than anything else, but it did have some interesting animals and displays.

Here is a weaver bird weaving a nest.  The birds had stripped all of the long, slender leafed palm trees in the exhibit in order to build their nests.

Oh, oh.  Time to go home since I got soaked again!

12/10 Disney Hollywood Studios Light and Music Show

Today, I went to Disney's Hollywood Studios for several hours late in the afternoon.  I got there in enough time to walk around a bit, but it got dark soon.  I got in a photo of the main street area.

The one ride I wanted to take, the Backlot Tour closes down at 5:00 pm, so I had a sandwich and Coke and then walked over to the area that is composed of fake buildig fronts and is supposed to be a street in New York.  Here is what it looked like before dark.

As soon as it got dark, the Osborne Family Light and Music Show began.  WOW!  It was fantastic and these photos do not do it justice.  I took some video but cannot figure out how to download it from my camera.

In the midst of the booming sound and flashing lights, my son from Ohio called me on FaceTime, which is a video service on my IPhone.  My grandson tried to say something, but I could hear nothing, so we ended the call.  Then I remembered that my daughter-in-law from California had never used FaceTime, so I called her and told her to pick up the phone when I called on FaceTime.  It was great to be able to show them what was going on and all the noise and lights.  Unfortunately, I couldn't hear a thing!  The show starts and stops every few minutes.  No need to find a place to sit on the curb for this show, by the way.  You just stand and walk around.  Very easy to see everything, even with the crowds.  Temps were in the 70s even at 7:00 pm at night, so it was a great night for wandering around, but my back, knees, and feet are getting old and sore, so I keep quitting early each day.

When the show stopped, I was able to hear more and got a partial tour of their new travel trailer.  We'll try this again when my connection is better and they have more time.  FaceTime is a lot better than Skype because you can wander around with your phone more easily than a laptop. 

Decided to come back here tomorrow to take in some of the rides.  I am spending very little money on this Disney trip because it is so nice to skip the lines and go back to my cozy home.

12/8 Disney World Electric Light Parade

After stopping at several places to pick up groceries, buy Christmas gifts, and order new glasses, I made it to my campsite in Disney's Fort Wilderness.  This is a relatively expensive, but very nice campground on site at Disney World.  In fact, it was one of the original "resorts" built here and consists of 800 campsites on 700 acres.  Individual sites are screened with trees and shrubbery, and fairly good-sized for a commercial campground.  The premium site I had reserved had an asphalt pad and picnic table area, with gravel around the full hookups and pine needles as mulch around the trees and shrubbery.  It felt nicely private. 

I had requested a site near transportation, and that is what I got.  I am only about 150 feet from the bus stop, which is nice. 

No campfires are allowed, but there are nightly group campfires, along with entertainment and fireworks every night.  You take a bus to the lake and a ferry directly to the Magic Kingdom.  Other buses at the check-in area take you to any other place at Disney World.  Personally, I like the ferries best, at least for the Magic Kingdom.  You can take a ferry to the Contemporary Hotel and then the monorail to Epcot or the Magic Kingdom.

I was going to sit around Saturday night and grade papers, but I couldn't resist!  I was at Disney, so why not go somewhere??  I hopped on a bus and ferry, and then went to the Magic Kingdom just as it was getting dark.  It was busy, but not too horribly crowded, so I was able to find a nice spot on the curb to watch the parade. 

 

 

It was a great night, especially since it was still warm at 11:00 pm when I got back to my RV.  No jacket needed!  Must be Florida.