Disney World

[Dallas Baillio]

We are planning a trip to DW in February. Will be in our BF and staying in Ft Wilderess. Will be visiting Epcot and Animal Kingdom.

Is there RV parking in the Epcot parking lot?

Do those of you who have visited DW recently have suggestions for "not to be missed" things in Epcot and/or AK?

[cmeadows]

Dallas,

At Epcot, we’ve enjoyed all of the world exhibits/rides and animal interaction exhibits. The top 2 at Epcot on my “must-experience-this” list are Soarin' and the Test Track. Both of these will likely have long lines but can be reserved with the Fast Pass. These are well worth reserving in advance.

It’s been 8 years since we’ve been to the Animal Kingdom. It's a smaller park and much easier to see all of the attractions. We enjoyed the Animal Kingdom but I don’t have anything insightful for a do-not-miss list.

There is parking at Epcot for RVs. The beauty of staying at Fort Wilderness is the Disney Transportation. Once we set camp, we have no reason to start a vehicle—we use the Disney transportation. From Fort Wilderness, you can ride the Disney transportation to get to both Epcot and the Animal Kingdom. If I remember correctly, the monorail goes to Epcot and a Bus goes to the Animal Kingdom. It’s pretty easy to get around all of Disney using the combination of bus, ferry and monorail. Also, as a guest at Fort Wilderness (and the Disney hotels), there are often earlier and later park hours that you can enjoy.

There are several smart phone applications that are useful for the Disney parks. We use “Disney World Wait Times” to keep track of line lengths.

Soarin' – Must do at Epcot!
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attra ... ot/soarin/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soarin%27_ ... 7s_version

Test Track Presented by Chevrolet – Must do at Epcot!
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attra ... est-track/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Track

Fast Pass
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/plan/ ... pass-plus/

Epcot Attractions
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attractions/epcot/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Epcot_attractions

Disney Parking
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest ... s/parking/

[fourleos]

This is a trip we would like to take too. We would bring our dog, do you have any recommendations or information about DW and pets? Thank you! Reni

[cmeadows]

Reni,

Disney is pet friendly with many designated campground loops. The campground has about 800 campsites. We go to Fort Wilderness for 3-4 days every year in the winter and don't always go into a theme park. We enjoy the break from winter in the north.

Loop 100 - Preferred
Loop 200 - Preferred
Loop 300 - Preferred (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 400 - Premium (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 500 - Premium (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 600 - Premium (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 700 - Premium (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 800 - Premium (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 900 - Premium (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 1000 - Premium
Loop 1100 - Premium
Loop 1200 - Premium
Loop 1300 - Premium
Loop 1400 - Premium
Loop 1500 - Partial
Loop 1600 - Full (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 1700 - Full (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 1800 - Full (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 1900 - Full (Pet friendly loop)
Loop 2000 - Partial

Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground Fact Sheet
http://allears.net/acc/faq_fw.htm

Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground Map
http://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/fortwilderness.htm

Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/resorts/ftwild.htm

[Dallas Baillio]

Thanks for the info. I asked about RV parking at Epcot because we will have our dog traveling with us. We will probably spend an entire day there. Our dog will need to be walked mid- afternoon. Providing the weather is suitable I would like to take the BF to the Epcot lot and walk her there. It is my understanding that transportation between parks can take up to an hour. Would like to save this time by parking at Epcot. Will this work?

[cmeadows]

Dallas,

You have a great reason to drive to Epcot. That would certainly work.

I'm not sure how long it takes to get from Fort Wilderness to Epcot. We've ridden the ferry to the Contemporary Resort and the monorail from there to Epcot. it could take an hour depending on connections.

Another approach is to break the day into halves. We have kids. What we’ve learned is that we need a break not only between theme parks, but also in the middle of the day. Between theme park days, we take a day off to recuperate and enjoy the campground, ride the transportation to other hotels and destinations to see exhibits and seasonal decorations, and in general to prepare for another marathon day at a theme park. The way we approach a theme park is to leave early, arrive at the gate when the park opens (one hour earlier for campers) and hit as many attractions as we can before the crowds hit their peak. Then when our family is tired from the morning activities, at around noon we leave the park and take Disney transportation back to the campsite. We eat lunch, kick back, take a nap, and gear up to go back and close the park. This seems to coincide nicely counter to the peak line times at the park and we happily miss the early afternoon rush snoozing in the coach. We spring to life at 3 or 4 pm and head back to the park to close the place down. So, we leave the coach at a ridiculous hour in the morning to take advantage of the early hours and then return to the theme park to enjoy the evening and night hours until closing. It works for us. With this approach we get full enjoyment out of a one-day theme park pass. This is also why we are unable to do 2 theme parks on consecutive days. We are exhausted by the time we get back from the second trip to the park. Some in our family will sleep until 11am or noon the next day! That said, we have returned to the coach as late as 3am on the nights when the parks are opened late.

One time we left Disney exhausted having done 3 theme parks in consecutive days. That’s when we decided to start taking days off and enjoying the surroundings of the campground. There is plenty to do on the off days. This year we will camp 4 days and do not plan to enter a theme park. We plan to relax and enjoy the campground and areas other than the theme parks. Bicycles are a great way to get around the Fort Wilderness campground. We also walk within the campground.

[fourleos]

We also have 2 kids, ages 11 and 13. Breaking the day in half sounds like a great idea and would allow us time to be with our dog in mid day. We could take the dog to their kennel, just for the day, but he would be happier in the BF. Some campgrounds don't allow dogs unattended inside RVs, I couldn't see that information on the links, so I would need to call. We had talked about this trip for this coming February and then let it go, now I am inspired to look into it again! Happy Holidays! Reni

[harrisgowing]

We stayed at Ft. Wilderness last February and are going back at the end of January, this time with grandkids! I don't recall any prohibition against leaving dogs unattended in the rv. We have 2 dogs and left them alone in the rv, as did the other campers in the dog loop. We did use the bus transportation system and found it to be efficient, less than an hour to Epcot for sure. There are buses that run throughout the campground quite frequently. You then transfer to the buses for the theme parks at a central location and they ran on the half hour last February. It also was not very crowded so we never had a problem getting on a bus. The only slow transportation was the boat. There was a lot of parking at Epcot, you just would have a bit of a walk into the park. Chuck and I went to Ft. Wilderness last year sort of on a whim because it was going to rain everywhere in Florida for 4 days. We really enjoyed it, even though it drizzled most of the time. No one seemed to care. Take some groceries, though. The camp store is very expensive and limited.

[charlesbell]

Take lotsa cash and credit cards