Tent camping and flying in?

KalamityJane

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
I'd love to tent camp at the Fort, but will be coming from Idaho, me and 3 kids. We are kitted out and will be on Southwest so 2 bags allowed free per person. My family lives in Orlando and would totally camp with us, worth it to haul our tent/sleeping bags on a plane? We will not be going to the parks (well, possibly the water parks) and this would be first half of May. Also, too hot to camp then?
 
(1) you could rent a tent from Disney.
(2) you could rent a pop up or travel trailer from Disney.
(3) you could rent a nice sized travel trailer that would accommodate several people from outside sources. I hear they come in and set up your TT and everything. Good reviews. " google RV rental Fort Wilderness " should bring it up. If not, others members here can tell ya.

What is hot to you may not be considered hot to someone else. We vacation at the Fort in January and 50 degree temp is nice weather to us. Last year we left home at 30 degree below so we were swimming at 60!

Check weather.com and it will give you the weather answers you are looking for.


I'd love to tent camp at the Fort, but will be coming from Idaho, me and 3 kids. We are kitted out and will be on Southwest so 2 bags allowed free per person. My family lives in Orlando and would totally camp with us, worth it to haul our tent/sleeping bags on a plane? We will not be going to the parks (well, possibly the water parks) and this would be first half of May. Also, too hot to camp then?
 
I fly SW too and have totally thought the same thing. I keep trying to convince my DH we could manage it. Just buy a cheap cooler when we get there and stock up on food (so we don't wreck our good cooler). can do walmart's ship to store super easy :)

It does save a bundle not to rent tent and sleeping bags u already have that are not that hard to pack and bring on a plane.
 
I can (and will) be staying at Wyndham Bonnet Creek for ~600/wk, so I didn't necessarily want to pay more per night to rent a trailer plus camp site if possible. I really love FW though, we stayed in '87 when I was a kid and I would love to give my kids the same experience :) they adore camping and we usually camp may through sept here in Idaho.

As far as temps, we are used to colder ones so I'm sure it will be hot to us, especially with the humidity. I used to live in FL but my blood was thinner then :)

I like the idea of a cheap cooler, we will have a rental car and can grab cooler/groceries. I'm used to cooking over a fire/grate, what kind of setup is there at FW?
 


There was a post here a few years back where a couple not only flew and tent camped but brought a canopy and two yes two folding bikes with them.
 
It can totally be done. DH and I flew down in 1992 with our tent, an air mattress, sleeping bags, lantern and a few other things. It wasn't bad at all. The worst was the heat, but that was late July/early August. I would say that if you comfortable camping around home that you would be fine at the Fort
 


Oh, I will look up the post! Thanks for the heads up on it!

Southwest doesn't charge baggage fees so it wouldn't cost us anything to bring stuff.

Do they have fire pit/grates to cook on or is it a charcoal grill?
 
They have charcoal grills. You can get charcoal at the store. We had those little electric things that you can put in a cup of water to warm it up. That was for hot chocolate, coffee and soup. We made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, brought boxes of packaged donuts and ate one meal each day out.
 
Oh, I will look up the post! Thanks for the heads up on it!

Southwest doesn't charge baggage fees so it wouldn't cost us anything to bring stuff.

Do they have fire pit/grates to cook on or is it a charcoal grill?

Just so you know no open fires. Also you can also bring a single burner hot plate and an extention cord.
 
Hello- one of the couple who flew down with gear and folding bikes responding. We went to the Fort this past February 2014, taking Amtrak and our gear and had a great trip. We're doing it again this coming February. I think our posts are in Archive, since that first trip via plane was in 2011.

One or two tips- we shipped a box full of dehydrated food and gear down to the Fort in advance of our arrival, to save weight and space. We did not use a cooler as we limited perishable items.

You can't have an open fire for cooking- see the various threads on that. The first time we went we used an electric hot plate to boil water, etc. that was because we flew and couldn't carry a gas cylinder for our stove. We didn't have a car that trip and used Magic Express. Going via Amtrak, we could carry fuel and that was a little nicer to cook with than the hot plate.

Definitely take an outdoor rated electric extension cord for bringing power into the tent.

Ask away if you would like to know anything else......
 
Your post, frankp01, gave us the confidence to try flying in and tent camping. It worked out great! We even bought Bromptons because of you!
 
Hi Frank! I went to your profile and found your old post and pictures. Looks like you both had a fun time!

Question for you....How was tent camping in February?

We were down last January (2014) but in our RV. I remember a few mornings it being very chilly. We are headed back here in a few weeks and bringing tents this time. We are prepared with electric blankets and heaters but still worried about getting cold at night. Last January was abnormally cold and worried we will have the same low temps as last trip. Days were great, just the nights were chilly.

We are driving down and also bringing a pull behind trailer with our cart and other camp gear so space is not an issue.

If you have any recommendations I would love to hear it.

Thanks!


Hello- one of the couple who flew down with gear and folding bikes responding. We went to the Fort this past February 2014, taking Amtrak and our gear and had a great trip. We're doing it again this coming February. I think our posts are in Archive, since that first trip via plane was in 2011.

One or two tips- we shipped a box full of dehydrated food and gear down to the Fort in advance of our arrival, to save weight and space. We did not use a cooler as we limited perishable items.

You can't have an open fire for cooking- see the various threads on that. The first time we went we used an electric hot plate to boil water, etc. that was because we flew and couldn't carry a gas cylinder for our stove. We didn't have a car that trip and used Magic Express. Going via Amtrak, we could carry fuel and that was a little nicer to cook with than the hot plate.

Definitely take an outdoor rated electric extension cord for bringing power into the tent.

Ask away if you would like to know anything else......
 
we "fly and tent" all the time. with southwest, you have plenty on luggage. We use all lightweight backpacking gear, always have had everything we need. have fun!
 
we also took all our tent camping equipment via Amtrak Auto Train. One trip we were too hot to cook one night (August) so we picked up KFC to eat at the site! We had a large water jug with ice and made our own instant iced tea the whole trip.

I already broke the news to my adult DS that we will do a split stay next trip with our tent at FW! (and then POR)
 
My DD and I flew SW from Chicago to Phoenix with our camping/backpacking gear. We had plenty of room for all of our stuff with two bags each on SW. We bought a soft sided cooler and a cheapo Styrofoam throw away when we got there. I would suggest a small (2 cup+/-) cheap pot for heating hot water in the morning if you are a coffee drinker. I really want to stay there one of these days too. Was not aware that WDW rented pop-ups.
 
I love the Horizon individually packed milks for this type of trip- no refrigeration necessary! That may be used in a variety of easy eats. I will bring two electric heaters next time, though, because if the one I had failed, it would've been cold there for a few nights last week. We had decent sleeping bags but would like to wake up to some heat.
 
Sur:

Glad to hear our post helped. We *really* documented last year's trip, with the intention of posting a 'how to', but haven't gotten around to editing the photos and videos yet.

Also glad to hear you were prompted to get Brommies. They're great!

We can pack almost an entire week's worth of meals using shelf-stable food (some of it's camping meals, but it's amazing how much shelf-stable food's available in groceries now. As you mentioned, boxed (almond) milk is one of the staples, but as a backup we'll also take along some Nido (Mexican dried whole milk. *So* much better than instant nonfat milk.) When at Disney, and flying or training down, we mail ahead a large flat-rate box with our groceries.
 

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