Day 13
Back in Orlando! We were here for several weeks just 7 months ago when we were establishing our Florida residency in April, 2017, and stayed until June sometime.
Anyway, the kids (and us!) are excited about going to Disney World!
We stayed at our favorite RV park in Kississimme (KOA) for one night before moving into Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort for a week. We headed to Disney Springs that night.
Day 14
I was nervous about parking the RV in the parking lot of a Disney hotel, not knowing how easy would be to get in and out and also wondering if we would find enough room to park it. We found a good spot! We just had to hope that no one would park on both ends of the RV and block us in at the end of our stay.
We got settled into our room and headed to the Magic Kingdom!
Tripp ride Goofy’s Barnstormer roller coaster, which was a big deal! He loved it and rode it again.
Day 15 – 18
We spent the next four days in the parks. Even in the middle of winter the parks can get pretty crowded! The kids have had fun, but they were already ready to take breaks from the parks after just a few days. We probably came back to Disney too soon! Tripp has done really well with riding new rides, though. He has added these rides to his list of favorites now:
Goofy’s Barnstormer
Soarin’
Test Track
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
(Thunder Mountain will soon be on the list)
We took a break from the parks and drove to an REI store in Winter Park. On our way, we totally lucked out and got to see the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket blasting into space! This was history in the making, as it was the most powerful rocket ever launched and contained a Tesla roadster sports car that is now shooting through space toward the astroid belt between Mars and Jupiter!
Day 19
We then relocated to the KOA Southwest Orlando RV park in Davenport, about 20 minutes from Disney World. Everything was OK until they assigned us to a backin spot that had some ruts. Out of all the spots in the park, I think this was the only one like it. The ruts didn’t look too terribly deep so I decided to try to back in. Bad decision. I got stuck!
Several guys from neighboring campsites immediately came over to help out. They tried putting a couple of boards under a rear tire, but we eventually decided to pull the RV backward with a pick up truck and some heavy to straps. That did the trick! I then found out that someone else had gotten stuck in that same campsite the day before and they didn’t attempt to even fix the ruts. I was furious! $50 worth of gravel would have fixed the problem. After we got unstuck, we moved to the campsite next to that one. A little later that day, I saw where they simply shoved some of the sand and dirt back in the ruts so that the next person can sink in just as easily as we did. Sheesh… Also, the Wi-Fi doesn’t work at all. Never going to stay here again. The Kissimmee KOA is a million times nicer and we would have stayed there if they had had an opening.
Day 19
Just a typical workday / school day today. Traffic around this town is crazy. GPS told us it would take 12 minutes to go 2 miles just to return a Redbox DVD. I opted to keep the movies for another day to avoid 20+ minutes of driving just for that. I think a lot of people live here that work in the Orlando area.
Day 20
Finally got fed up with staying at this campground. The I-4 traffic into Orlando is really bad, so it takes longer to get to Disney than we had expected. Given that our power breaker keeps tripping when we approach 50A, no working Wi-Fi, a grass/dirt site full of ants ready to attack as soon as it rains, and people cutting through the campsite, we finally decided to change campgrounds. Fortunately, there was a cancellation at the Kissimme KOA, so we got a week there and moved today. It felt great! Our new site is paved, has a nice patio with a fireplace and furniture, and is minutes from any and everything, and closer to Disney. That’s why we like this RV park!
We headed to Magic Kingdom for the evening.
Day 21 – 24
Carla and Tripp. acquired some kind of sickness that got worse each day, so we decided to can the rest of the trip and head home.The kids were already getting tired of going to the parks anyway. On day 23 we drove 600 miles and on day 24 we drove the remaining 600 miles home. Avin got sick the night before we got home and I thought I was going to get it as well. Fortunately, we made it home without anyone getting worse and it felt good to be home again!
Our next trip will be to the Pacific Northwest in mid July for the summer, with the chance of a non-RV-related trip in May.
Love the pics!