A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, just 52 miles from Disney World, Florida to Clermont, Florida, including a picture-in-picture from the 360 camera on the truck being towed behind the coach.
Month: April 2024
Travel from Disney World to Clermont, Florida
We drove our coach just 52 miles, about an hour of driving, from Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground in Disney World, Florida to Clermont, Florida.
It would actually take less than half an hour to go from Disney World to TTO (our destination), but check out time from Fort Wilderness was 11:00, and check in at TTO is very strictly not before noon, so we drove a longer route, with a fuel stop, to kill some time.
We’re planning to do this again next year, so next time we might instead wait in the Fort Wilderness overflow parking area, and go direct.
Here’s a map showing our route:
An interactive map:
Leaving the Fort Wilderness campground; we drove separately to a hitch/unhitch area, and toaded up there:
This is the overflow parking area, which might be a better place to kill half an hour, if there’s available space:
Passing the Fort Wilderness entrance:
Leaving the Disney World bubble; it’s been nice:
A Mickey-shaped power pole:
Fuel stop:
Our DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid, an additive to reduce pollutants) tank was about half full, but the DEF nozzle in our fuel lane was out of order, so we bought a Blue DEF box (for the first time):
Plane:
FL-33 highway:
Our destination, Thousand Trails Orlando:
TTO gate:
Unlike most Thousand Trails parks, at TTO arrivals go to a central area to await your turn to pick a site from a list of available ones. Since we arrived a bit after noon, there was a line of RVs waiting to get to that area:
We untoaded there:
Following our coach to a site:
Replacing solar fuse with breaker
As followers of this blog may recall, we had a fuse between our solar panels and the solar controller:
I had an issue where that fuse blew a few times, possibly due to our extra solar panels putting out too much power. The most recent time I replaced it with a 30 amp fuse:
That didn’t end so well — a few months later, that fuse melted. Perhaps cheap junk, I don’t know; it should just blow, not melt. It set off our smoke detector, so could have been much worse:
I considered replacing the fuse holder, but figured I needed a better solution. I decided to replace it with a circuit breaker, so if it is over-current again it’ll just pop instead of blow or burn.
I needed a short length of wire to connect it, so went to the nearby Lowes for wire, using 8 gauge wire, the same as used elsewhere in the coach:
That was an adventure in itself; the guy who helped us wasn’t familiar with wire cutting, but he figured it out.
I connected a short length of that wire to the breaker:
I then drilled some holes for the wires above the solar controller:
And reconnected the controller to that wire:
Here’s the breaker installed, and preparing to re-mount the controller:
The completed breaker and controller (with the solar pulling in 14.4 amps):
Here’s hoping this solution will prove satisfactory!
Disney World: Animal Kingdom
Finally, we spent a day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park, which is part theme park, part zoo.
The central Tree of Life:
Avatar land:
Africa:
Jenn likes collecting the pressed pennies:
African safari:
Lunch:
Train:
Snack:
Tortoise:
The Tree of Life; if you look closely, it’s covered with animal sculptures:
The backside of water:
One day was enough to see everything we were interested in at this park. Worth a visit, but probably not a re-visit.
Disney World: Hollywood Studios
We also visited Hollywood Studios in Disney World a couple of times.
Entrance:
Main street:
Us in front of the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge:
Smugglers Run ride:
Drinks and snacks at Oga’s Cantina:
Uh oh:
Lunch:
Rise of the Resistance ride:
Muppets:
Runaway Railway:
Hollywood Tower of Terror:
Video:
Mickey ice cream:
Toy Story Mania:
Alien Swirling Saucers:
We went to the Brown Derby restaurant for dinner:
Neon:
Another day:
Back to our favorite part, Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge:
Transition from Galaxy’s Edge:
… to freeway tunnel:
We had dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater restaurant:
Neon:
The Fantasmic! show, better than in Disneyland as they have actual seating:
More neon:
Disney World: Epcot
We visited Epcot within Disney World a couple of times.
Epcot’s Spaceship Earth globe:
We dropped off our backpacks at a locker, and marveled at the advanced futuristic technology nearby:
Spaceship Earth:
A customized video created at the end of the ride.
Topiary:
Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind ride:
Monorail:
Epcot is arranged in several sections called pavilions, around a central lake. We first visited the Mexico Pavilion:
Frozen ride:
United Kingdom Pavilion:
Fish & chips for lunch:
France Pavilion:
Morocco Pavilion:
Japan Pavilion:
USA Pavilion:
Germany Pavilion:
We had dinner at the Coral Reef Restaurant:
Seas exhibits:
Mission: Space ride:
During our second visit the Flower and Garden Food Festival was underway, so we sampled several of the options:
Journey of Water:
The second day, we had dinner at the Space 220 Restaurant, which simulates a restaurant on a space elevator 220 miles above the Earth:
Spaceship Earth globe:
We did the Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind ride again:
Monorail:
Disney World: Magic Kingdom
We spent eight days at the four Walt Disney World theme parks. We took over 3,000 photos during that time… so a bit of a challenge to filter them down to a reasonable number for the blog. (Where “reasonable” is rather subjective.)
I’m doing a separate post for each park, starting with Magic Kingdom.
Us in front of the railway station:
Main Street USA:
Cinderella’s Castle:
Adventureland:
Pirates of the Caribbean:
Something we don’t see in California’s Disneyland: alligators and snakes:
It’s a small world:
The line was inside, vs outside in Disneyland:
New Zealand representation:
Teacups:
The new Tron lightcycle ride:
A video:
Speedway:
Carousel of Progress:
Train:
Liberty Belle Riverboat:
Haunted Mansion:
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad:
The Dapper Dans:
Haunted Mansion:
Parade:
Skipper Canteen restaurant:
Back to the campground:
Boat from campground:
Monorail:
Train station:
Jungle Cruise:
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train:
A video:
Rain:
Tomorrowland:
Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor:
Peoplemover:
Space Mountain:
Peter Pan’s Flight:
Journey of the Little Mermaid:
Gaston’s Tavern:
Monorail:
Ferry boat:
Parade:
Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground
We stayed at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground, within Walt Disney World, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)
So nice to spend over a week inside the Disney bubble. Disney World is huge, covering 25,000 acres (39 sq mi; 101 sq km), including four theme parks, dozens of resorts, golf courses, etc. The Fort Wilderness Campground is 750 acres of tree-covered paved campsites, cabins, and various amenities, with boats and buses to the parks.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-02-25
- Check out: 2024-03-05
- 9 nights
- We had originally booked 7 nights, but added a couple more
Weather:
- Mostly sunny; a little rain later in the stay
- High temps 75-82°F, lows around 47-62°F
- Negligible wind
Noise:
- No freeway noise
- Little road noise (including bus on main road)
- No train noise
- Some neighbor noise (kids, especially basketball)
Site:
- #1334, back in, concrete
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
- Level; used hydraulic leveling
- Concrete driveway about 60 feet long by 15 feet wide
- Trees between sites about 20 feet wide
- Picnic table
- No fire pit
- Mostly clean site (a little minor trash)
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, somewhat inconveniently located
- 60 PSI water, somewhat inconveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 40-50 Mbps down, 35-45 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- AT&T: 500 Mbps down, 25 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 25 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Pools
- Garbage bin near site
- Golf cart rental
- Boats and buses to Disney World parks
Our review on Campground Reviews:
A state park, but make it Disney!
If you’re an RVer and want to do the Disney Bubble experience, this is the place to be. Direct access to all the parks from the campground (boat to Magic Kingdom, buses to all the others) and a bit of that trademark Disney flare in the campground itself. We stayed a week and have already booked for next year, we enjoyed everything so much. We spent pretty much all day every day at the theme parks, so didn’t use many of the amenities in the campground, but it looked like you could have a blast of a day just hanging out here.
Our site (1334) was plenty big enough for our 40′ motorhome, tow vehicle, and rented golf cart. Renting a golf cart is a must. There are shuttles that run through the campground, but we enjoyed the freedom of getting around on our own timetable. Unfortunately, our site was right next to a playground with a basketball halfcourt that some sociopaths thought would be fun to play on late at night and early in the morning. Not cool.
One other minor niggle was that we decided to extend our stay while we were there. I called the number for reservations and was told that only the front desk could do that. Went to the front desk and was told that they couldn’t do it because we’d booked a package through the Disney Travel Co. So I booked a new reservation online and then went to the front desk to get them to join the two reservations so we didn’t have to check out and check in again. A bit less magical than I expected from Disney customer service, but we got there in the end. We camped at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
We rented a golf cart during our stay, which is highly recommended to get to the boat and bus stops, and other amenities:
(They do have a shuttle bus to take people to various parts of the campground, too, so a cart isn’t critical, but it is more convenient.)
More of our site; we didn’t really use the site, other than to sleep, since we were at the parks during the days:
Utilities:
One thing we didn’t enjoy was that our site was right next to a playground, with a basketball hoop; kids bouncing basketballs is super annoying for us DINKs:
The campground offered horse and cart rides:
A popular thing is to decorate the golf carts, which not only makes them more festive, but also easier to spot in a parking lot (if you look at the earlier pictures, we added a couple of koi wind socks to ours).
Some examples of decorations:
On our first evening we attended the onsite Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue:
Afterwards, we watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the nearby beach:
Welcome to Fort Wilderness:
Store:
We took the boat to the Magic Kingdom park on several days:
Pioneer Hall has mobile-order or grab-and-go food options:
Bathrooms:
Other sites, which people often decorate too:
There are sections of the campground with cabins, for people without RVs:
The Meadow Swimmin’ Pool:
An excellent campground. We’ll be happy to stay here again in the future (though would see if we can request a site away from playgrounds etc).
Video: Fort Lauderdale to Disney World, Florida motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 213 miles from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Disney World, Florida, including a picture-in-picture from the 360 camera on the truck being towed behind the coach.
Travel from Fort Lauderdale to Disney World, Florida
We drove our coach 213 miles, about four hours of driving, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground in Disney World, Florida.
Here’s a map showing our route:
An interactive map:
Paladin was happy to have his nest on the stacked dining chairs:
Leaving the resort:
A drawbridge:
On the Florida’s Turnpike toll road:
“Sample Road” — someone forgot to give it a real name?
Accident:
It was nice to see a bunch of wildflowers alongside the road:
A stop at a service plaza for lunch:
Back in the coach, having a snuggle with Paladin:
Another service plaza stop for a bathroom break (and yes, a truck in the RV-only sites):
Paladin on the passenger chair:
Yeehaw Junction:
More wildflowers:
Approaching Disney World:
Entering the Walt Disney World bubble:
Fort Wilderness campground:
Security gate:
Reception:
Unhitch area:
Following the coach to our site:
Our site before parking:
