Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort

We stayed at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in Clermont, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A second visit to TTO, the flagship Thousand Trails park.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2024-03-05
  • Check out: 2024-03-10
  • 5 nights

Weather:

  • Mostly cloudy, some rain
  • High temps ranging between 78-85°F, lows around 59-66°F
  • Negligible wind, gusts to 21 MPH

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train noise
  • Some neighbor noise, dogs
  • Distant fireworks from Disney some evenings

Site:

  • Mako 11, back in, asphalt
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
  • A little unlevel, high on right; used hydraulic leveling
  • Asphalt driveway about 45 feet long (plus about 30 feet of gravel behind that) by about 17 feet wide
  • Weedy grass between sites about 12 feet
  • Picnic table
  • No fire pit
  • A bunch of trash on site

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, conveniently located
  • 45 PSI water, conveniently located
  • Loose sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • T-Mobile: 55 Mbps down, 5-7 Mbps up, 36 ms ping
  • Verizon: 18-25 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
  • AT&T: 0.1 Mbps down, 0.01 Mbps up, 500 ms ping
  • Starlink: not used
  • Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpsters only in a central location
  • Package delivery to office, for $5 per package (we got a local mailbox)

We’ve done a review on Campground Reviews for TTO before, so didn’t bother doing it again.

Campground map; our site this time was in the narrow strip on the left side, above the X-ed out section:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site; a quiet area of the park, one that would be a good choice for a longer stay:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Swamp near our site:

Swamp near our site

Cabin near our site:

Cabin near our site

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

We enjoyed some Chinese food from the local takeout restaurant:

Chinese food

Sunset:

Sunset

 

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:

Route map

An interactive map:

Leaving the Fort Wilderness campground; we drove separately to a hitch/unhitch area, and toaded up there:

Leaving campground

Leaving campground

This is the overflow parking area, which might be a better place to kill half an hour, if there’s available space:

Overflow parking

Passing the Fort Wilderness entrance:

Fort Wilderness

Leaving the Disney World bubble; it’s been nice:

Leaving Disney World

A Mickey-shaped power pole:

Disney-shaped power pole

Fuel stop:

Fuel stop

Fuel stop

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):

Blue DEF box

Plane:

Plane

FL-33 highway:

FL-33

Our destination, Thousand Trails Orlando:

Thousand Trails Orlando

TTO gate:

Thousand Trails Orlando

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:

Line of RVs

Line of RVs

Line of RVs

We untoaded there:

Untoaded

Following our coach to a site:

Following coach to site

Our 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:

Fuse

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:

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:

Melted fuse

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:

Shopping for wire

That was an adventure in itself; the guy who helped us wasn’t familiar with wire cutting, but he figured it out.

Wire

I connected a short length of that wire to the breaker:

Breaker with wire

I then drilled some holes for the wires above the solar controller:

Installing breaker

And reconnected the controller to that wire:

Reconnected controller

Here’s the breaker installed, and preparing to re-mount the controller:

Installing controller

The completed breaker and controller (with the solar pulling in 14.4 amps):

Completed breaker and controller

Here’s hoping this solution will prove satisfactory!

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:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

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:

Golf cart

(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:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

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:

Playground

The campground offered horse and cart rides:

Horse and cart

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:

Decorated golf carts

Decorated golf carts

Decorated golf carts

Decorated golf carts

Decorated golf carts

Decorated golf carts

Decorated golf carts

Decorated golf carts

Decorated golf carts

Decorated golf carts

On our first evening we attended the onsite Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue:

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue

Afterwards, we watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the nearby beach:

Fireworks

Fireworks

Fireworks

Fireworks

Fireworks

Fireworks

Welcome to Fort Wilderness:

Welcome to Fort Wilderness

Store:

Store

Store

We took the boat to the Magic Kingdom park on several days:

Boat to Magic Kingdom park

Boat to Magic Kingdom park

Pioneer Hall has mobile-order or grab-and-go food options:

Crokett's Tavern

Crokett's Tavern

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

Other sites, which people often decorate too:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

There are sections of the campground with cabins, for people without RVs:

Cabins

Cabins

The Meadow Swimmin’ Pool:

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).

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:

Route map

An interactive map:

Paladin was happy to have his nest on the stacked dining chairs:

Paladin

Leaving the resort:

Leaving resort

Leaving resort

A drawbridge:

Drawbridge

On the Florida’s Turnpike toll road:

Florida's Turnpike

“Sample Road” — someone forgot to give it a real name?

Sample Road

Accident:

Roadworks

It was nice to see a bunch of wildflowers alongside the road:

Wildflowers

A stop at a service plaza for lunch:

Service plaza

Service plaza

Service plaza

Back in the coach, having a snuggle with Paladin:

David and Paladin

Another service plaza stop for a bathroom break (and yes, a truck in the RV-only sites):

Service plaza

Paladin on the passenger chair:

Paladin

Yeehaw Junction:

Yeehaw Junction

Florida's Turnpike

More wildflowers:

Wildflowers

Approaching Disney World:

Disney World

Entering the Walt Disney World bubble:

Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World

Fort Wilderness campground:

Fort Wilderness

Security gate:

Fort Wilderness

Reception:

Fort Wilderness reception

Unhitch area:

Unhitch area

Following the coach to our site:

Following coach to our site

Our site before parking:

Our site

Photographic artwork

Our coach came with some generic artwork on a wall in the bedroom. But we wanted to personalize it a bit, so we replaced that with 12 photos of favorite places from our travels, printed on aluminum (so we don’t need to worry about breaking glass).

We laid the prints out on our bed to decide on the arrangement:

Artwork

How many of those places do you recognize? I bet there are a few stumpers. Let me know in the comments which ones you recognize, and which ones you’ve visited. See the end of this post for a full list.

The prints came with metal hangers, which wouldn’t really cut it in a rolling earthquake of a motorhome, so I attached Command Strips to stick them to the wall; these Command Strips come in two parts like velcro, so we’ll be able to swap out the pictures in the future if desired:

Artwork

Artwork

The wall in question, with some markers to guide placement:

Wall

Adding the first picture:

Artwork

Paladin helping:

Artwork

Artwork

Artwork

Artwork

Artwork

Done:

Artwork

Artwork

How many of those places did you recognize? Here’s a list, starting from top-left, with links to corresponding blog posts:

  1. Olympic National Park
  2. North Cascades National Park
  3. Yellowstone National Park
  4. Crater Lake National Park
  5. Devils Tower National Park
  6. Custer State Park
  7. Joshua Tree National Park
  8. Death Valley National Park
  9. Arches National Park
  10. Goblin Valley State Park
  11. Grand Canyon National Park
  12. Monument Valley Tribal Park

A huge improvement, and a nice reminder of some of our favorite places.

Yacht Haven Park & Marina

We stayed at Yacht Haven Park & Marina, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A canal-front site, with a boat docked in front, and food onsite.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2024-02-18
  • Check out: 2024-02-25
  • 7 nights

Weather:

  • Mostly sunny; rainy on the first day
  • High temps 72-80°F, lows around 49-57°F
  • A little wind, gusts to 24 MPH

Noise:

  • Nearby freeway noise
  • No train noise
  • Nearby airport noise
  • Some neighbor noise

Site:

  • #425a, front in, astroturf
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
  • Unlevel, high in front and right; used hydraulic leveling
  • Wedge-shaped astroturf site about 45 feet long by about 13-40 feet wide
  • No picnic table
  • No fire pit
  • Clean site
  • Waterfront (canal)

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, conveniently located (with no breaker switch)
  • 20 PSI water, very conveniently located
  • Decent sewer connection, very conveniently located (2 2-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • T-Mobile: 25 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, 28 ms ping
  • AT&T: 200 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
  • Verizon: 14-24 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, 20 ms ping
  • Starlink: not used
  • Campground Wi-Fi: 0.05 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 22-72 ms ping

Amenities:

  • Pool
  • Package delivery to office
  • Garbage pickup from site
  • Food boats and trucks

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Mega yachts and pizza!

This was a nice enough place, but a bit expensive for the current amenities. They’re building a new pool and clubhouse, but it’s not there yet. We had a Grand Waterfront site, but our particular site (425A) seemed to also be a bit of a placeholder site. We parked directly on the astroturf and our power pedestal wasn’t a pedestal, just a raw outlet with no breaker switch. Other sites in the row had nice brick driveways with landscaping. If they finish installing this site, it will be lovely. As it was, it was just kind of meh and we were paying for the nice view of the canals. Watching the big yachts come and go was very entertaining. There’s a nice NY-style pizza place onsite which was pretty decent. We camped at Yacht Haven Park & Marina in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Campground map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Canal view:

View

Superyacht:

Superyacht

The boat out front had a couple of cats, one of which visited Paladin through the door:

Cat

Rental Airstream trailers:

Airstream trailers

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Yachts and RVs:

Yachts and RVs

Yachts

Yachts and RVs

Yachts

Yacht

Yachts

Party boat across the canal:

Party boat across the canal

Food boat:

Food boat

Pizza trailer:

Pizza trailer

Pizza menu:

Pizza menu

Pizza

Pool:

Pool

A new pool and clubhouse is coming soon:

New pool coming

Shelter:

Shelter

Shelter

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

Rental tiny home:

Tiny home

“Royal Point Waterfront” site shelter:

Royal Point Waterfront site shelter

Office:

Office