Trip report!

[geoffdaddy 33]

A quick trip report... just got back from a trip to the Fort! It was fabulous as always with one exception. I'll start with the bad: on Saturday it was like teenagers gone wild! We observed copious unsupervised groups of teens (DL age or not) riding around the campground roads and our loop in golf carts, blaring loud music with lots of profanity, yelling at each other, honking their horns, and squealing tires. Thankfully our younger girls were both asleep (a testament to how late this was in the evening too I might add) so that we could avoid them hearing lyrics blaring from a radio of one group that went right past our campsite that said, (and I apologize to other more sensitive readers, skip to the next paragraph) "...p**** in my face..." If we were the parents of these kids we would have been highly embarrassed. 

 

Another incident I actually reported to the front desk. Some kids had removed the barricades to the cart trail next to the tennis courts at the meadow swimming pool area and drove a full size car down the path, a silver Honda Accord and parked next to the tennis courts in the grass!

 

Saturday night was in stark contrast to all of our other visits to the Fort, which have always been very/reasonably quiet and courteous. If any parents are listening that were present over the weekend, please remind your teens to be mindful of other campers. I suspect a lot of this had to do with the last Saturday of the Food and Wine festival this year.

 

Another negative... we went to lunch at the Whispering Canyon over at the Ft. Wilderness lodge and had really lousy service. Granted, this is one of those sarcastic/rude sorts of dining experiences as you get over at the 50's Prime Time Cafe at Hollywood Studios, however our server was hardly ever present in the section we were seated, both at our table and the other tables, our glasses ran dry without offering refills, and he neglected to bring out cornbread after we were all seated. Our waiter's schtick was rude, but not necessarily in a playful rude way. In fact, I would wager that he wasn't having to act very much if at all. A fill in waiter came in to pick up his slack at one point and his act was more what we were expecting. When we asked for more water (since our waiter didn't seem intent on actually serving our table), he brought out a large 2 gallon sized mason jar and put straws together to fit down into the jar for everyone. That was pretty funny. In contrast, our own waiter when confronted by a passing guest in the lobby (we were sat in the overfill section that opens up into the lobby next to the trading pin cart) who remarked "can I have some ketchup?" replied with "sir, you're not even eating here! You need to go away." Okay, fine enough, but then that escalated to him throwing a bottle of ketchup over the rail into the lobby at the guy and he said "EAT IT!" The group left right after that and he yelled across the lobby to them "RUN AWAY COWARD!" or something to that effect. Later on he announced to the whole lobby that we was going to "TAKE MY UNION BREAK!" over, and over, and over again. I think involving the lobby got him in trouble because he met with a couple of cast members that looked like managers off to the side at one point.

 

On the plus side of the trip, this was the first time we've experienced the Very Merry Christmas Party! It was a lot of fun and if you are considering it, we highly recommend it. We went on Thursday night and the crowds were light, plenty of room for the shows, parades and fireworks. The toy soldier section of the parade was our favorite. And apart from what I think was genuinely rude service from one wait staff person at the Whispering Canyon, the food was top notch! We will try it again on another trip. Oh yeah, we took our two girls for the first time on Kali River Rapids. I got completely soaked, twice, head to toe and our youngest stayed completely dry. Perhaps she would have had a different opinion of the ride if she had gotten wet, but she absolutely LOVED it. the best reaction we have gotten out of her on any ride I think. that was a high point of the trip to be sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Wow on the crazy behavior at the tennis court and Whispering Canyon.  

 

What is the world coming to? 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Great report!

 

Wow at that server at Whispering Canyon.  I expect that he isn't going to be a Castmember for much longer with that attitude.

 

I don't understand the attitudes of some of the servers at WDW.  Unfortunately, a lot of them have lost the Disney magic. I know that a lot of folks here love certain long-time servers at Trail's End, but the fact of the matter is that some of them have gotten pretty lazy and bad at what they're supposed to do.

 

Sadly, that rowdy behavior you experienced has been going of for a long time.  The Fort attracts Weekend Warriors who know nothing of camping (or any other kind) etiquette.  The frustrating thing is that it wouldn't take much to stop it, but the Fort management chooses to ignore it, so it continues to happen.

 

I'm glad that you had a great trip overall despite the isolated negative experiences.  

 

TCD

[geoffdaddy 33]

Yeah, the server was a piece of work I think. At one point he was talking with a couple of other cast members who must have been friends in the lobby about how he was hoping to be transferred to another restaurant on property, he certainly spent more time talking to them than he did the entire time at our table.
 

I am sure that management has a fine line to walk on policing the resort. Too heavy a hand might turn off a lot of business and vice versa. I expect a certain amount of this type of behavior and will tolerate some, however in this case, the kids were out of control I think.

 

I've decided to make a write a formal complaint about these two issues.