The September 2017 Post Hurricane Trip Report pics added

[KT0191]

We arrived safe and sound to Kissimmee KOA. Very nice park. Drove down 429 and came through WDW from Western Way. You should have heard my niece when I drove under the entrance bridge. Fun stuff.

A few observations from the drive. First, I was surprised how little hurricane damage we saw. A few small trees down in southern GA. As we got closer to the FL line the number of billboards with the canvas wraps shredded increased. Mostly on the southbound side. Northbound signs fared pretty well.

Second. I think I guessed right on evacuees returning this weekend. North of Atlanta, half the cars on I-75 had FL plates. Once we go past Macon, 3/4ths of the cars were from FL. Some with fuel jugs on the roof or receiver racks.
Good to see people trying to get home.

A nice treat was all the toll plazas were wide open with "Tolls Suspended" signs up. Even on 429. Further north on the toll pike, it was obvious they didn't have power restored yet. The plaza had power but none of the signs on the highway were lit. As you got closer to I-4, you started to see more things lit up.

It was dark by the time we pulled onto WDW property so we couldn't see much, but the roads past Typhoon Lagoon and on Osceola Pkw looked fine. No evidence of trees or debris, but it was dark.

Chris,
The girl from guest services said the Fort won't open until Wednesday the 20th. I like your plan. If you are there in person, it is harder for them to say they can't find a place for you.


No extra money required. We will be in a family room with Lagoon View. DW look it up and I think it is $250-300/night.


I'll let you know Mike. All they said was a "family" room, big enough for 5 and a Lagoon View. Ive only been to CBR once and it was a single night before we flew home from the Rolex 24 hour race. The room was pretty basic.

J

Glad ya'll made it safely and you're all accommodated! You won't have a pirate room since those only have two double beds. You'll have the room with two queens and a pull down Murphy bed.

 

[Teamubr]

You'll have the room with two queens and a pull down Murphy bed.

That will work. DS will like the Murphy bed.

J

 

[tigger92662]

We arrived safe and sound to Kissimmee KOA.

Glad to hear you made it down OK. Sounds like you have fun time ahead of you. Following along

 

[serenitygr]

Looking forward to seeing pictures! What's your checkout date again?

 

[friendofeeyore]

& then brush their teeth with it!!

 

[friendofeeyore]

All be safe & good & God's speed getting you to Fort on our arrival date. Do want the pictures when you can get them out to us.

 

[Roobear77]

6 sleeps till we leave home, and 10 till our check in at fort. Had a convo with DH today about whether we should book the Kissimmee KOA as a back up and he said no way. Not only is he confident the fort will be up and running, if it's not he is happy to be accommodated in a hotel for no extra charge. The food budget will be affected so that is my only concern. Fingers crossed all goes well and the fort reopens in the next week for all of us.

 

[Teamubr]

We are here. Slight change in plans. After looking at the "Murphy bed" in the family room at CBR on the computer last night, we realized it probably wasn't going to work out. It USA "child size" pull down below the TV. DS would probably end up on the floor. That's manageable for a night or two, but gets rough for 4. We drove over to CBR this morning to explain we weren't 2 traditional couples and a 6 year old, the desk CM immediately said, Oh, this won't work. Unfortunately there really isn't too much open for 5 people. He tried 2 regular rooms at 5 other places with no success.
The booking manager finally pulled a 2 bedroom villa at OKW and said we could have it.

It's amazing how far Please, Thank you and some humility can go. That and some genuine Pixie dust.

We would have made the family room work, but the staff went out of their way to help us out.

Time to grab some lunch and head to MK.

Oh, OKW is very tight on parking. The camper is sitting next door at PO-FQ, just down from an enormous toy hauler. And yes, Michael, the lot started leaning a little.

j

 

[bama_ed]

Oh, OKW is very tight on parking. The camper is sitting next door at PO-FQ, just down from an enormous toy hauler. And yes, Michael, the lot started leaning a little.

j

Jim,

I am glad you finally got into your Disney accommodations. OKW is not not a bad place to be.

I'm left to wonder what the security people at the gates and the other guests at the resorts think about all you camper folks travelling with your trailers/rv's for a Disney vacation. Popping out the slideouts in the parking lots (as reported in prior posts). Firing up the grill and outside kitchen in the parking lots (as reported in prior posts). It's a rare sight for them - my bet is they don't often have many trailers/rv's parked at FQ or at other resorts.

Sorry you didn't get to try Lake Louisa SP on this trip. Hopefully you can next trip.

Bama Ed

 

[PaHunter]

So packed up and ready to roll. Have been in touch with TeamUBR. Nothing he hasn't already covered. Disney called today, Monday/Tuesday at All Star Sports, then moving back to our original plans at the Fort. We have KTTK tour on Weds, so probably dragging trailer with us to TTC. We will see how things are once we are down there.
Also met us with Sirenia88 and the family at the RV show. Very nice to meet the whole family. Also met a nice couple that has reservations at the Fort in Oct.
Time for bed and will be on the road at 3am. Will update as we can.

 

[FtW Mike]

Chris safe travels and enjoy. Would love to see what Happens to PO-FQ parking lot after you pull in next to Jim

 

[JETS70]

So packed up and ready to roll. Have been in touch with TeamUBR. Nothing he hasn't already covered. Disney called today, Monday/Tuesday at All Star Sports, then moving back to our original plans at the Fort. We have KTTK tour on Weds, so probably dragging trailer with us to TTC. We will see how things are once we are down there.
Also met us with Sirenia88 and the family at the RV show. Very nice to meet the whole family. Also met a nice couple that has reservations at the Fort in Oct.
Time for bed and will be on the road at 3am. Will update as we can.

Safe travels

 

[Teamubr]

Have a good drive down Chris.

We got checked in and things moved over from the camper about 12. The condo/villa here is really nice. Almost enough to think about buying into one on the resale market, but then I do the math on just the annual fees. I'll keep the camper.

Headed over to MK this afternoon. Sort of a free day for us. We did have a FP for 7DMT in the evening, but no other specific plans other than seeing the new night time show. Also did Ariel's Grotto. It is really cute and the theming is fantastic. The summer humidity is still going strong. Felt like August. Found some air conditioned shows to kill time and my niece and sister got to experience more then just the "rides". DN really likes Mickey's Philharmagic.

We rode the train and the riverboat. You can get a good perspective on the hurricane damage. The trails on Tom Sawyer Island are still covered in debris and the woods on the back side of the railroad look really bad in some areas. Many places where you can see chain saw work to clear the tracks.

The bus to MK went past the Fort on Vista Blvd. You really can't see any evidence of problems from the road. The Outpost looks good and there were a half dozen campers in the overflow lot. I did see a couple of dump trucks and a huge excavator. Two different resort CMs said they have worked at the Fort. One said he was there on Wednesday. Described trees criss crossed all over the roads. He said they couldn't get a vehicle back to the cabins to check on them until Wednesday. And these weren't trees a person could move out of the way. Let's hope they are able to get things opened up on Wednesday.

Saw Happily Ever After in person. It was a very neat display of technology. There is so much going on. I even missed Tinker Bell flying while watching something else going on. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the same emotional effect for me that Wishes did. I kept thinking the show tonight was just a highlight of Disney media IP on a big screen in front of me. Maybe it will grow on me. Wishes tugged at my heart strings the first time I saw it standing with my DW and DS and gave me the same feeling every time I saw it.

Tomorrow is Ohana for breakfast with LILO and Stitch, then off to HS. Not sure how long we will stay there. My 6 year old niece is not the "walker" Ian was and the humidity is wearing on everyone except me. Might have to check out the pools here at OKW in the afternoon.

j

 

[PaHunter]

So on the road at 315 this morning, stopped for lunch now in SC. Navigator missed first fuel stop but we made it to second one no problem. One more fuel stop in eastern SC then on to GA for the night.

 

[snowmedic]

Drive safe. Here's to hoping the Fort will be open on the 20th.

 

[tiggerdad]

Keep it coming guys! Good to hear everyone is traveling safe so far.

 

[tigger92662]

So on the road at 315 this morning, stopped for lunch now in SC. Navigator missed first fuel stop but we made it to second one no problem. One more fuel stop in eastern SC then on to GA for the night.

PaHunter, just curious if you have you seen much damage traveling through SC?

 

[Teamubr]

Sitting outside Olivia's at OKW waiting for dinner. Another sticky day. Not too hot (90) unless you were in the sun.

Today was a HS day. Started breakfast with Lilo and Stitch at Ohana for breakfast. Lots of fun and good food. Then it was over for a RNR and ToT fast pass. DW isn't into ToT so she took DN6 to Frozen Ever After. She said it was really cute.

The big decision for today was to become AP holders. We were planning on going to St Thomas next year, but seems like a bad idea now. After I bought a tie, some socks and a shirt and calculated the $84 would have been $67 with an AP, that kind of help decide it. We will shoot for an early Spring trip, not during Spring breaks. I'll see what kind of bounce back I can get and may try a resort next trip. If not, the Fort should be in good shape by then.

Tomorrow was going to be another MK day, but I switched up fastpasses to go to EPCOT instead. Wednesday will hopefully be our moving to the Fort day and I didn't want to loose half a day at EPCOT.

Here's pics of Ian and DN (Alayna) with Lilo.



Here's DN finding a hidden Mickey at Poly.


j

 

[PaHunter]

PaHunter, just curious if you have you seen much damage traveling through SC?

Very little damage thru SC and down thru GA.
We have arrived and are at the St. Marys KOA. They had some trees down also, but doing well otherwise.
We covered nearly 900 miles today and it is time to hit the hay.
We found all the Floridians, if you are missing any and would like to claim them, they were all on Interstate 26 and 95. And driving like the world was on fire.......
Tomorrow we will be up and headed to Disney. See what the day brings.

 

[sirenia88]

Living vicariously through the trip threads just make happy and jealous at the same time. Happy cause well you are at the happiest place on earth. Jealous you are at the happiest place on earth and I am not there with my trailer. However, my day will come again. Then the rest like myself will be in the same position. The last couple of trips just worked out better with flights and timing in general. Any future trips are going to be the same way most likely. The side effect I have become a deluxe resortie type because of being spoiled by the Fort's accessiblity to WDW on the whole. Here's to all the Dis boarders that are making the Fort what it is after Irma.



Can someone past the popcorn? My bowl is empty.