Today we will finally be arriving in Disney World. Check in time is 1pm and we will most likely arrive just before then. The nights sleep wasn’t too bad though the road noise was distracting. It was nice not having to have the heat on, instead we got to use the A/C which is strange to us in December.
We woke up and got through all the chores of preparing the RV and we were off around 8:30am. I wanted to again fill up the fuel tank, so we took a back road over to a Flying J. This Flying J actually had RV lanes, which were empty when we arrived. I proceeded to begin pumping another $100+ dollars into the tank, and washing the windshield with the longest squeegee I have ever used. While I was outside my son came out to tell me my wife’s sunglasses had broken and for me to see if they had any more inside. The inside of the store was very large, and had quit a selection of items. I found two possible pairs for my wife so I got them and some eye drops for me. My son had found some cereal for us at the last Flying J, and they were the most expensive boxes we have ever purchased. I think they were $6 for a very small box, but at least we now had breakfast.
Once we were finished at the fueling station, we got on the expressway and within minutes were crossing the Florida line. Boy is that a good feeling, knowing you are now in the state of your destination.
The drive through Florida was fairly good, though at times there was a lot of traffic congestion. But at least the expressway remained open and we were cruising along. We stopped at the rest area near Ocala before the I-27 exit and had lunch. I really like not having to get out of the RV as we travel it is so convenient.
After a quick lunch we were back on the road, next stop Disney World. The state of Florida has put a lot of money into improving the roads leading to Disney World. The expansion of I-27 really helps spread the traffic out. Before too long we were on I-4 which is going through it’s own construction project (always seems to be), and then we were getting off onto Disney property. The GPS was routing us to Fort Wilderness by way of Disney Springs. This meant we wouldn’t be passing under the Walt Disney World sign. I decided to ignore the GPS and route us under the Welcome sign.
It sure is a beautiful sight.
Going this route also allowed us to see the Magic Kingdom’s ticket booths and their wonderful signage.
With a quick turn to the right and a short drive we then saw this. 
The check in process should have been easy as I had already done the Online Check-In. We hadn’t received our text letting us know which site we were going to be staying in, so we got in line behind the other campers arriving. There were quite a few people checking in so we had to wait. We sent the kids into the Outpost to get the wheelchair for my wife. The kids took my phone in case they needed any information from the email about the wheelchair.
As we were about to pull up to the cast member to check-in my son arrived back at the RV telling us we got a text saying our site was in the 1300 loop. I had requested the 700 loop since it is close to the marina and we stayed there last year and really liked it. My son went back in to help with the wheelchair and I pulled up to speak with the cast member. The cast member was nice enough to move us to the 500 loop which is much closer to the marina than the 1300 loop. I don’t know if this was a good thing or not as we didn’t really enjoy the 500 loop.
After checking in I pulled forward and waited for the kids to return with the wheelchair. Luckily the came right out and we headed to our campsite. Finding the 500 loop was very easy, and we were quickly circling the loop looking for our site. We were in site 545, which was around the majority of the loop. We found our site and easily backed in and began setting up the RV.
Since this is a Disney campground all the sites are level concrete pads. This makes leveling the RV very easy. While I was connecting the water, sewer, and electric our neighbor and I had a long conversation. He was very nice, but this was the only time we spoke.
One of the bad things about the 500 loop was the number of sites in the loop. The loop has a total of 56 sites, which causes a lot of noise from all those sites. There also wasn’t a lot of privacy with so many people walking around. I did however enjoy sitting out on our patio and relaxing. We were on a corner so we had a small treed area between our patio and the road, which was nice.
We decided to head over to Whispering Canyon Cafe for dinner. I tried to get a reservation but there weren’t any available. We figured we would be able to get in even if we had to wait for a table.
We walked down to the Settlement depot and boarded a bus to Wilderness Lodge. It was interesting to enter Wilderness Lodge from a different angle. The bus ride only took a few minutes and the A/C on the bus felt great. We sent the kids to Whispering Canyon to put our name in for a table. They returned saying it will be about 30 minutes. We started looking at the Christmas tree in the lobby.
The tree is beautiful but we only got to look at it for a few minutes before our table was ready. Our dinner was great and Disney does a great job with their gluten free options. We all were able to enjoy the All You Can Eat Skillet which was delicious as usual. We took some of it back to the RV for anther meal at a later time.
After dinner we spent some time looking around the resort, enjoying the lobby and gift shops. We had the photopass photographer take our picture in front of the Christmas tree.
We rode the bus back to the Settlement and then spent some time walking through some of the loops looking at the different decorations the campers have put up.
Some of the campers really go all out on the decorations. We relaxed in the RV the rest of the night.