Day One: Walt Disney World Camping Trip

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: The time finally came for us to head to Walt Disney World to go camping. We have been to Fort Wilderness on several occasions but never to go camping. But that was going to change today as we booked a campsite at Fort Wilderness.

This time we decided to bring the dogs with us. Typically, we board our dogs at our local vet during our trips. However this time we packed up the lab and cockapoo and brought them with us to Disney.

We made reservations for the dogs at Best Friends Pet Resort. They are located on the Disney property across the street from Port Orleans Resort. The check-in process was very quick and easy and the facility was spectacular. We were able to board the dogs together and they were close enough to visit to avoid getting homesick.

Then we headed over to Fort Wilderness. Since check-in wasn’t until 11:00, we were not expecting our campsite to be ready. We just wanted to get the paperwork process out of the way so that when we were done at the park, we could come back and build our campsite and not worry about checking in. Something that was new to us on this visit is that Disney now sends you a text message once your room/site is ready. I do no know how long they have offered this service, but it is extremely handy.

It was then time to pick a park and head out to have some fun. We decided to go to Hollywood Studios since it was the lowest rated park in terms of crowd as ranked by Touring Plans. Since the park was already open, we took our vehicle to the park rather then wait for the Disney transportation bus.

We arrived at the park a little after the 9:00 opening time and still managed a second row parking spot. As we approached the gates, the park was relatively slow despite being open for over an hour thanks to the Early Magic Hours. I was skeptical about going to a Early Magic Hours park after the regular opening time has passed, but once again Touring Plans led us in the right direction and the park crowd was low just like forecasted.

Our first stop was Toy Story Midway Mania. The ride opened in 2008, but we have not had a chance to ride it yet as it always had a 90 minute or longer wait each time we visited. Today, the stand-by wait time was listed as 55 minutes so we decided to give it a chance. The wait time we by rather quickly as the line queue was quite entertaining. The line features larger then life replicas of many of the childhood favorites such as Viewfinder, Lincoln Logs, Candyland and many more. Towards then end of the line was a large interactive replica of Mr. Potato Head who helps entertain the last 25 or so minutes of the wait with songs and jokes. It was finally time to board the ride vehicle. With the help of a pair of 3-D glasses, the games came to life. After a brief pie toss introduction, it was time to start the game. Your ride vehicle travels through a series of midway style games themed around Toy Story. The highest score in the ride car wins. I managed to score 100,600 points, not too bad for the first time. By the time we got off the ride, it became perfectly clear that our choice to ride now was a good one as the line had already swelled to 80 minutes. 

We then went next door to ride the Studio Backlot Tour. The beginning part of the show is not the same without the live volunteers. In the past Disney used volunteers from the audience for the Harbor Attack stunt sequence that opens the tour. However the past two times we have visited, they did not use live volunteers and it really didn’t have the same effect.

Afterwards we headed towards Sunset Boulevard. On the way there, my son stopped off to do some pin trading with a member of the Disney Vacation Club staff. He traded for a Pluto pin for his collection. Then we headed back towards Sunset and the Tower of Terror. My son wanted to ride Tower of Terror however as we got closer, my wife felt it wasn’t the best ride for a six year old plus he was starting to have second thoughts. So we decided to watch the Beauty and the Beast instead. Not a favorite of mine, but it was nice to get out of the sun and off the feet for a little bit.

Next we stopped in for the American Idol Experience. I haven’t watched the TV show for several seasons but the WDW show was great. The Disney staff spared no details in making the WDW show feel like the real TV show, even filling the judges chairs with personalities that fit the previous judges (Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi and Simon Cowell). The best singer from each show competes in a finale show later in the evening with the winner getting a golden ticket to advance to the front of the line at the next local American Idol audition. The female singer that won our show was amazing.

We then headed across the park to watch Light, Motors, Action. Since we went straight from the American Idol Experience, we did not get there early enough to get a good seat, however there isn’t really a bad seat in the house. We ended up in the third row on the side where the cars enter from. Not too bad, although not as good as center show. A neat addition to the show is the Lightning McQueen sequence inspired by Cars 2.

As the day started getting away from us, we decided to head back to Fort Wilderness to set up our campsite before it got dark. But before we left the park, we stopped by the Oasis for an afternoon snack. That is where our trip turned disastrous. As we headed to the bench to sit down and eat our snack, my wife missed the step and fell face first down the flight of stairs. She hit hard on her hands, knees and tops of her feet. I helped her to the bench and then quickly headed to first aid to get her some ice. While I was gone, Disney castmembers quickly came to her aid and summoned the Reedy Creek Fire Department. The paramedics evaluated her and treated her injuries. The staff from Disney was very helpful and did everything within their power to make my wife comfortable during the incident. They replaced her broken flip flop that broke during the fall as well as provided her with a wheelchair to use the rest of the day. In the end, she had a large abrasion to one knee, a possible broken toe on the opposite foot and scrapes and cuts to both hands, knees and feet.

The pain from the fall made us quickly evaluate the rest of our trip and we decided to cancel the remainder of our stay and head home. We cancelled our campsite and picked the dogs up early from Best Friends. It would not make sense to tent camp with my wife in as much pain as she was in. Under those conditions, she would not have been able to enjoy herself so it wasn’t worth staying.

We were all disappointed that we were not able to finish the trip. We were looking forward to camping at Fort Wilderness. We have been to Fort Wilderness plenty of times in the past but this was our first time camping there and we were looking forward to it. We will look at rebooking a campsite again in the near future once she is healed and ready to go back.

As for passes, our annual passes expired yesterday. Our initial plans were to renew them prior to heading back to the campground. However with the chaos from the fall, we forgot to do it before heading home. I actually remember as we got on I-75 southbound from I-4. Hopefully we can get that renewed without paying another deposit.

I think the staff did a great job handling the incident. There professionalism made my wife feel as comfortable as possible. There actions went above and beyond normal expectations and made me proud to be a Disney Passholder.

Click below to watch a slideshow of photos from today’s trip to Hollywood Studios.