I'm Back...Finally

[rtguy007 74]

It's been 3 years since we were last at the Fort. 3....long....years. A lot has clearly changed.

Going to run a trip report for those who may still be around lurking on the forum. It looks like it has been pretty slow for a while. Hope this place isn't dying off.

Night 1...or I should say the day we arrived unplanned. We ended up getting to the Fort on the 18th which was a day earlier than planned. I had this idea for 3 years that I would be first to check-in on the 50th anniversary of the Forts opening but somehow we wound up getting in a day early. Due to some oddities our 1 night reservations got really messed up and somehow my name wound up on my sisters reservation in addition to mine. The funny part was that I was the primary on both reservations somehow according to the front desk but when we checked the app it all looked normal with me on mine and her on hers. This led to a very odd series of events that allowed me to still be the first to check in and get into our site.

Midnight rolls around on the 19th and I have my app open doing the online check in. At 12:09am I got my verification email that I had checked in and a few seconds later got the text notification that my site was ready. Now this may sound odd because we all know you can't check-in and get your site before the desk opens at 6am and here I was with my site shortly after midnight.

So how this worked out, we have 2 week reservations in a premium site that Jason helped us book in advance. Since we got here early we needed a place to stay and we were able to get into a premium meadows site for the night and we figured that we would have to move in the morning to our premium sites. I was all ready to get up at 4am and go sit in the outpost until they opened so I could be first in line. However I didn't have to do that. When we checked in we were put into our premium sites but they never checked us in and linked our 2 reservations together. So at midnight on the 19th I was able to do our online check in and the sites were automatically assigned to be the ones we were already in. Not only was I the first to check in, but also first to get onto our site on the 50th anniversary of the Fort due to a technicality in how our reservations were setup.

So on the 19th I started setting up our Christmas decorations. This was our first time doing site decorations and so far it's been a blast. I will grab some photos and post them later but I think the decorations turned out great for being the first time I ever did them.

After getting the decorations up I went into the camper to get things settled in. Low and behold I found a problem with the camper that caused me to lose a bit of my day at the Fort. I planned on it being cold at nights based off of the weather forecast I saw before we left home. I did a full check of the propane system. Everything was good at home and when we got here somehow a pin sized hole made it's way into one of my propane lines. It was an easy fix but it did take some time away from our vacation to fix the lines.

More to come as we progress through our trip.....

[dblr....Rennie 224]

Thanks for posting a trip report and also welcome back!!!!! Anxious to follow along and also see pictures of your handy work decorating your site.

[kadancer 82]

Thanks for a new story.

[ThemeParkCommando 81]

Yay!  I'm still here and following along.  How awesome is it to be the first to check in on the 50th!  That is a lovely memory to have. 

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

Looking forward to your adventures.

 

stupid pinholes

 

[Travisma 1,317]

On 11/21/2021 at 12:45 AM, rtguy007 said:

It's been 3 years since we were last at the Fort. 3....long....years. A lot has clearly changed.

Going to run a trip report for those who may still be around lurking on the forum. It looks like it has been pretty slow for a while. Hope this place isn't dying off.

Night 1...or I should say the day we arrived unplanned. We ended up getting to the Fort on the 18th which was a day earlier than planned. I had this idea for 3 years that I would be first to check-in on the 50th anniversary of the Forts opening but somehow we wound up getting in a day early. Due to some oddities our 1 night reservations got really messed up and somehow my name wound up on my sisters reservation in addition to mine. The funny part was that I was the primary on both reservations somehow according to the front desk but when we checked the app it all looked normal with me on mine and her on hers. This led to a very odd series of events that allowed me to still be the first to check in and get into our site.

Midnight rolls around on the 19th and I have my app open doing the online check in. At 12:09am I got my verification email that I had checked in and a few seconds later got the text notification that my site was ready. Now this may sound odd because we all know you can't check-in and get your site before the desk opens at 6am and here I was with my site shortly after midnight.

So how this worked out, we have 2 week reservations in a premium site that Jason helped us book in advance. Since we got here early we needed a place to stay and we were able to get into a premium meadows site for the night and we figured that we would have to move in the morning to our premium sites. I was all ready to get up at 4am and go sit in the outpost until they opened so I could be first in line. However I didn't have to do that. When we checked in we were put into our premium sites but they never checked us in and linked our 2 reservations together. So at midnight on the 19th I was able to do our online check in and the sites were automatically assigned to be the ones we were already in. Not only was I the first to check in, but also first to get onto our site on the 50th anniversary of the Fort due to a technicality in how our reservations were setup.

So on the 19th I started setting up our Christmas decorations. This was our first time doing site decorations and so far it's been a blast. I will grab some photos and post them later but I think the decorations turned out great for being the first time I ever did them.

After getting the decorations up I went into the camper to get things settled in. Low and behold I found a problem with the camper that caused me to lose a bit of my day at the Fort. I planned on it being cold at nights based off of the weather forecast I saw before we left home. I did a full check of the propane system. Everything was good at home and when we got here somehow a pin sized hole made it's way into one of my propane lines. It was an easy fix but it did take some time away from our vacation to fix the lines.

More to come as we progress through our trip.....

So being the first to check in, I’m guessing you got a free stay and lifetime APs?

[rtguy007 74]

2 hours ago, Travisma said:

So being the first to check in, I’m guessing you got a free stay and lifetime APs?

I wish. Got nothing but bragging rights.

[rtguy007 74]

Ok it's been a few very busy days. We got to stop in and see Gwen and David. It's been a few years since we have seen anyone from the forum and it was nice to see them. Was glad to see Gwen doing much better than she was a few years ago when she was in some pain when she was here.

We have not been able to ride the bikes much. My oldest nephew was here the past week so we spent a lot of time running around so that he could get as much done before he had to fly home to get back to school. He is in a private school and there is little to no tolerance for him to miss any days.

This trip I have created a personality called Capt Ryan. I have been out doing scavenger hunts after we found a facebook group for them. I have been hiding the fort wilderness medallions they sell at the trading post. So far it has been a blast. These people are crazy competitive when someone post something that they hid.

I was able to get the propane lines fixed. Glad I was able to because it has been cold a few nights and the furnace came in handy. We have a small electric heater but I prefer to not use it if I don't have to.

For those who remember my crappy luck, I did have something else break on this trip. One of the kids was standing by the door bouncing up and down being antsy to get out to the park. The bouncing cracked the subfloor in front of our door and now I have a soft spot in the floor. It didn't break all of the way through but it is soft now. Called our dealer and they are going to get it in to look at it in mid January. Will be calling the insurance company when I get home to start a claim. Hopefully they will cover it since there is no signs of water damage.

So to the parks, we have noticed that they are packed and lines are long. This is our first trip without fast passes so we are experiencing things we normally wouldn't....like standby lines. Normally we would hit our fast passes and maybe one or two rides that are short waits. The kids have been complaining about waiting but it is good for them to learn patience when it comes to standing in lines. The nice thing is at least the lines move vs before with fast passes when they seemed to never move.

Good juju for us in the parks. We were able to grab a virtual pass for Remy's and we were the first ones on that morning. It's a cool ride but not something I think I would wait in a long line for. We also were lucky enough to rope drop HS and walked on to Rise of the Resistance. My son really wanted to get on it and I was glad we rope dropped it. After the early morning entry the line grew to over 3 hours. Adding to that we did single rider multiple times on Smugglers Run and we're able to get on it within 10 minutes each time we rode it.

Over at the MK it was different and we rode very few things. We spent more time introducing the kids to the Joffreys mission to smores latte. I think we had 3 or 4 of them each between the two times we have been in there.

Overall we have done very few rides but a LOT of eating. So far the highlight was our trip today into Epcot for Space 220. I was lucky to grab a reservation the first day I could. The experience was awesome and my flat iron steak was great. Prices were high for the portions but I guess you pay some extra for the experience.

Our biggest thing we have done this trip is shop. We have spent a ton of money on oddball stuff we normally would have never looked at. We were able to get a lot of our Christmas shopping done which was a good thing. I am stoked about my Helly Hansen coat I picked up at Norway. Plowing snow in Ohio sucks and this coat will make that job much more enjoyable.

Of some of the things I have purchased, I picked up the 2021 Passholder Magicbands. We bought our Platinum Plus passes 3 years ago and never got to activate them. We did this trip and man it's crazy how much they have increased in price. I know a lot of people are complaining about the cost of APs now which is why I thought it was in poor taste that Disney used Scrooge McDuck on the 2021 Passholder bands.

We discovered how bad the wifi has gotten at the Fort. Lot of people using it to stream anything they can. Kids have had a hard time checking their schoolwork so we ran out to TMobile and picked up a 5G hotspot. It was even struggling until we force set it to 4G and everything has been working great since then.

I have not taken a lot of pictures yet but will get some before we leave and post them when I get home. I have some pics of our Christmas decorations but they are nothing compared to 1211s. They moved in yesterday and setup the Storm Trooper army today. It's cool that they are almost directly across from us so we get to see them daily.

Last thing for my updates for now. We invested in a projection screen and projector. This was our first time using it. We watched the Rocketeer the other night and was surprised how many folks stopped to figure out what we were watching. I know it didn't get great reviews but I thought it was a good flick. We have plans to watch Treasure Planet one night this week. The kids really like it.

Thats all of the updates for now. Will post more here in a few days.

[ThemeParkCommando 81]

Thanks for the update! Can't wait to hear more. 😃

 

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

Of some of the things I have purchased, I picked up the 2021 Passholder Magicbands. We bought our Platinum Plus passes 3 years ago and never got to activate them. We did this trip and man it's crazy how much they have increased in price. I know a lot of people are complaining about the cost of APs now which is why I thought it was in poor taste that Disney used    Scrooge McDuck on the 2021 Passholder bands.

Sorry, but this made me laugh.   WDW doing honesty in marketing?

 

Your trip is going well even with the blips, thanks for sharing.  and YES the nights have been chilly 🙂

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

On 11/28/2021 at 9:23 PM, rtguy007 said:

Ok it's been a few very busy days. We got to stop in and see Gwen and David. It's been a few years since we have seen anyone from the forum and it was nice to see them. Was glad to see Gwen doing much better than she was a few years ago when she was in some pain when she was here.

 

Overall we have done very few rides but a LOT of eating. So far the highlight was our trip today into Epcot for Space 220. I was lucky to grab a reservation the first day I could. The experience was awesome and my flat iron steak was great. Prices were high for the portions but I guess you pay some extra for the experience.

 

So happy that you got to see Gwen and David ❤️

Ahhh.... the Mouse has trained you well.   Paying more to get into the parks, riding fewer rides and then paying a lot for food.  Yep, the Mouse always wins.