CoachClough 12 Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 Howdy y'all. My family and I are home now from an unforgettable WDW trip, and not necessarily for all the right reasons. I cannot do a full trip report as we just don't take as many pics as the average fiend. We departed out home on the eastern shore of Maryland at 5:20 am, Wednesday June 20. Around 7:20 am, we had a gentleman in a Jeep Wrangler flagging us down yelling "Your Wheel". So I immediately pulled to the shoulder, on I-95/495 split and looked for an issue. And boy we had an issue. I didn't notice anything on the passenger side. Once I came around the back of the rig, I found smoke billowing out from the front, driver side RV tire, and it was sitting at a bad angle. So the debacle began. I'll spare you each set back, but here are the highlights: 28 hours in a Costco Parking lot in Northern Virginia $1,000 in parts and repairs 1 full day late checking in to the Fort. Sadly, that's not where it stops. If anyone's interested, I'll let you know what happened once we got to FW. -Coach Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy and Grandma 740 Posted July 4, 2018 Report Share Posted July 4, 2018 This doesn't sound good already.....☹️😑 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kadancer 82 Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Sounds very scary... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DaveInTN 3,247 Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Normally I'd say I hope things got better, but since that's not the case I'll just say I hope everyone made it home safely and I hope you made at least a couple of good memories. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CoachClough 12 Posted July 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Thankfully we did make it to the Fort safe and sound. We were a full day late, but thankfully we had a 7 day stay booked, and we really only missed about a half a day in the parks. The "fun" continued however, as we were crawling down I-4 in the Orlando stop and go, I started hearing a no good metallic noise, kinda grinding, kinda squeaking. It has since been diagnosed as a brake issue on the truck, nothing catastrophic. We made it to check in, were given a site in the 100 loop, which is our preference since we spend more time in MK than any other park, and love the convenience of the boat. The good with the bad, we were given site 110, which is an inner loop site. And 110 sits at an almost perfect 90 degrees to the road. Thankfully we had some wonderful neighbors across the street that helped us back in. It took us around 45 minutes, but we were finally parked. We started to set up the trailer, got hooked up to the water and sewer, when my wife discovered we didn't have any electricity. Come to find out, the site didn't have any electricity, and it was something engineering knew about, as they were waiting on a part to fix it. Apparently they didn't tell the front desk. One of the duty managers got involved to see what they could do. There were no more available sites in all of FW. The very nice manager, named Travis, did everything in his power to make amends. And honestly, if it hadn't been for the axle bearing, this wouldn't have been that big a deal. But at that moment, it felt like another huge kick in the pants. Travis did the following: 1. Put us up in a cabin for the night, as they were expecting mass departures the next day 2. 3 extra fast passes for MK that night 3. Knocked a day off of our bill 4. Gave us a golf cart for the week! We had never gotten a cart before, because I am cheap. IT will be tough to not do one from now on. The next morning we moved directly across the street to site 111 and it worked our perfectly. Thus endth the doom and gloom portion, the rest of the trip was wonderful. I'll share the happiness later today. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dblr....Rennie 224 Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 This might rate right up there with Jason's trip years ago, I am sure he will chime in with his details for the two of you to compare. Glad to hear that everything eventually ended up well and also nice to see someone at Disney stepped up to make things right. Looking forward now to reading about all the fun you had. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twiceblessed....nacole 433 Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Oh gosh... rough start, but it sounds like y'all were blessed with a little pixie dust at the Fort! I'm sorry for those hiccups and hope that the rest of the trip was uneventful and a huge blessing, full of wonderful memories ❤️ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beckers 1,136 Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Yikes! Sorry to hear about the events on the way down but I’m glad you guys were okay! And good for the fort for taking care of you for the electrical issue! And I still am amazed by your wife’s cookies, I love following her on FB. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Rough trip on the way down but so happy to hear about all the pixie dust once you got to the Fort! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CoachClough 12 Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Thanks everyone! So our first night was MK. We finally got into the park after dinner, but thanks to Travis, we now had 5 fast passes. So we rode seven dwarves, big thunder, space ranger spin, peter pan and Jungle Cruise. We snagged some ice cream at the Plaza Cafe and went back to the camper and passed out. We were exhausted. The next morning we had a fast pass for Test Track, so we went to Epcot, rode it, turned around and came back to the fort to move our camper. Once we did that we grabbed a bite to eat in the rig then headed back to Epcot. We still had fast passes for Spaceship Earth and something else...Nemo maybe. Its all a blur...lol... We wanted to do Agent P but the kiosk was never open, and trying to use our cell phones just wasn't working for us, so we just walked around a bit. The Mexico Pavilion was bursting at the seams, so we didn't even grab a margarita...we did Starbucks instead.... Once we ran out of fastpasses as trekked back to MK to wrap up our evening as always. We were still tired....the trip down had zapped us... We used the wonderful app to push all of our fast passes the next morning and slept in....hard.... to be continued... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kadancer 82 Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Glad some of the clouds from your journey are lifting. Looking forward to the rest of the story. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fladogfan aka Gretchen 259 Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Scary start but nice for pixie dust from Travis! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CoachClough 12 Posted July 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2018 And when I say sleeping in, we didn't wake up until around 9 that next morning. It was wonderful. A slow start, some breakfast...we even went to the quiet pool for about an hour. Then back to the camper for some lunch and off to HS. We started off with the Aerosmith coaster, its my absolute favorite. We also checked out the short film attraction and did Muppets 3D. Since we were there a week before TS land opened, there wasn't as much to do in HS, but no crazy wait times either. We did Midway Mania on standby and grabbed Star Tours on a short standby. From there we headed back to the camper for a lite dinner, and finished the night at MK. There were very nights that didn't end at MK for us. We enjoy the amount of stuff there is to do and eat there. And of course the fireworks. A new experience as the boys are 15 and 11 is being able to let them do things like the Tomorrowland Speedway on their own. The Mrs. and I went and grabbed a soda and just relaxed for a good 45 minutes while they waited in line and then rode it. We're still not comfortable with them running free in the parks, but by the time we go back, they most likely will be. Its so interesting how every part of the experience changes as we all keep getting older. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mouseketab.....Carol 1,261 Posted July 9, 2018 Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 11 hours ago, CoachClough said: new experience as the boys are 15 and 11 is being able to let them do things like the Tomorrowland Speedway on their own. The Mrs. and I went and grabbed a soda and just relaxed for a good 45 minutes while they waited in line and then rode it. We're still not comfortable with them running free in the parks, but by the time we go back, they most likely will be. Its so interesting how every part of the experience changes as we all keep getting older. On our trip when our boys were 15 and 16, we basically let them go as they wanted, except they had to join us for dinner, and be back at the hotel room by 11pm unless we were at late night Magic Hours. They spent a lot of their trip at Disney Quest, and "not surprising" they spent some time at Wide World of Sports watching softball. (We were at All-Stars, and there were some softball teams staying there.) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
disneylitch......Debbie 61 Posted July 9, 2018 Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 I think our best trips were when the kids were teenagers. We could be together when we wanted to and also do thinks on our own. It made the trips very enjoyable. I'm pretty sure that most families get tired of the forced every waking moment togetherness. Glad things turned around and you are having a great time. We are also from Maryland. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ImDownWithDisney 342 Posted July 10, 2018 Report Share Posted July 10, 2018 Glad your trip got better. My girls are 11 and 12. It won't be long before they are exploring the parks alone..... I'm not sure how I feel about that. Lol Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CoachClough 12 Posted July 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2018 I'll go ahead and cop out as a wrap up. We had a lot fun, made a lot of wonderful memories and cannot wait to get back. We are planning our next trip entirely too far from now, but its what our schedule and budget allows. I hope to read more form all of you very soon. Happy camping y'all! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twiceblessed....nacole 433 Posted July 16, 2018 Report Share Posted July 16, 2018 14 hours ago, CoachClough said: I'll go ahead and cop out as a wrap up. We had a lot fun, made a lot of wonderful memories and cannot wait to get back. We are planning our next trip entirely too far from now, but its what our schedule and budget allows. I hope to read more form all of you very soon. Happy camping y'all! Mike Thanks for sharing! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kadancer 82 Posted July 16, 2018 Report Share Posted July 16, 2018 Enjoyed reading along. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Robin 48 Posted July 16, 2018 Report Share Posted July 16, 2018 Thanks for the report. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ivy 36 Posted July 17, 2018 Report Share Posted July 17, 2018 Thanks for the report. Enjoyed reading. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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