Day One- June 23
Get ready for 9 days of trip reports with this bunch. Let me introduce you to the gang:
Minnie Mouse- that's me. My new nickname by one of the adult leaders stuck with me throughout the week.
15 Boy Scouts ages 11-17, plus one Eagle Scout (18) who was half scout/half leader for this trip.
13 adult leaders and chaperones. (Only 2 scouts came without an adult family member)
7 extended family members who did not camp with us (one family stayed in the WL, the other at an off-site condo)
I have been planning this trip for a full year. I have done all the travel arrangements, programs, campsite, group meals, schedules/itineraries, etc. I have planned which Merit Badges we will work on and have provided each scout with a workbook for that purpose. Several other adults have planned the campsite meals/grocery shopping. One family has rented a car we can use for shopping. Another leader volunteered to ship much of our gear directly to FW.
This is my big day- I am praying furiously that all goes well and that my love for Disney is infectious and that the "scouting" aspect of the trip proves itself.
Here we go...
It's 3am and I've already been awake for 30 minutes before my alarm is set to go off. I've finished my shower and am getting last minute items into my duffel bag. It is raining, thundering and lightning. Oh boy- is this the way we want to start the trip? Woke the kids up at 3:15, John got up at 3:30. We all get dressed and into the truck. At 4:00 we pull out of the driveway to pickup another scout. Already I have forgotten my sons' medicine and we have to return- it's only 1 block away- so we're still OK.
It rained the whole way to the airport. A stop at Wawa for coffee, juice & bagels wakes us all up a little more. We arrived at 5:10- about 10 minutes later than I commanded everyone to be there (oops). Anyway, Spirit Airlines did not make us wait until everyone arrived to begin checking us in. About half of our group were checked in when we got there. All 35 of us had completed check in without any difficulty by 5:45. Now we wait til 6:45 before we can board the plane. One mom, who is not coming on the trip with us made yummy blueberry muffins for everyone. We took a few group photos, had bathroom stops, said goodbyes to those we were leaving behind and finally boarded our plane. By now the weather was clearing, no more rain! We took off just about on time.
The whole group was subdued (it's still pretty early), we relaxed, had soda and pretzels, and chatted on the way down. I had one scout who had never flown before, and several people who hadn’t flown in quite awhile. We all enjoyed the flight. We arrived right on time to more rain!! I arranged for a towncar service to pick us up and they were right there at the bottom of the escalator waiting for us with 3 vans. However, with a large group like ours, they do not bring your bags to the car for you... we all had to get our own gear (all 52 bags!) and lug them down the escalator, across the street and to the vans. That's OK, we're scouts, and we're used to backpacking, etc.
It stormed all the way to Fort Wilderness- lots of lightning and hard rain. We pulled up to the check-in building and found everything was all set. We got our key cards. I had to ask what they were for- after all- we didn’t have any doors to open (we were staying in tents) and we couldn’t charge anything to the "room." They were for the bathrooms- they lock the comfort stations at night. Later we found out they don’t lock the group area comfort stations- so we never used the key cards at all. We also got the real key cards for the one cabin our group had. It took some persuading to get the drivers to take us in to the campsite. They are usually not allowed (for security reasons) into FW proper. But they said OK and dropped us off (in the rain) at the Creekside Meadow bus stop. Our group's site was about 60 yards away. We sent some adults out to check out the lay of the land and then decided to go ahead and set up the tents. We had 11 boxes shipped down before us, and the FW van brought them over right away.
We had everything in place just as the rain was stopping and the sky was clearing. There are 6 group sites in Creekside Meadow. We had the "orange" site and only one other site was occupied. They were a group a of Girl Scouts who were leaving the next day. I only saw them once. It was now about 12:30 and we were starved. We had planned to go grocery shopping for our week's food, but no one could wait another couple of hours to eat- so we decided to head over to Trail's End Buffeteria for an all-you-can-eat lunch. I reminded everyone we had 5:00 PS for Whispering Canyon- another all-you-can-eat meal, but we pigged out anyway! It was GREAT!
We walked back to our campsite and explored along the way. The guys decided to swim, now that the rain had stopped. The pool isn’t fancy at FW, but certainly adequate. They had fun outdoing each other's jumps and playing chicken in the shallow end. It wasn't at all crowded. Then we walked back to the site. Right next to us was a sand volleyball court that would get A LOT of use throughout the week. They had a game going in no time.
We headed over to the Wilderness Lodge at about 4:15. It is difficult to move such a large group around and we had to add much more transfer time to everything than you would normally do for a family vacation. We took the launch from FW and checked out the awesome lobby until our table was ready.
This dinner was fun. We had 3 long tables along the rail by the lobby. We had 3 servers who kept us in ample supply of drinks and food. The table with the younger scouts had an excellent server who kept them laughing. He had them in jail, tied one up and paraded him around the room. Had the whole table take 3 laps around the lobby (on stick horses) shouting "Be Prepared, Be Prepared" for not immediately answering his question about the Scout Motto. The scouts kept him on his feet as well, hiding his rope until they got dessert, etc. We ate and ate and then ordered brownies a la mode- 2 huge plates per table. Yum
We took the boat back and had a reflection service on the beach at Fort Wilderness. This is a camping tradition with us. We all (35 people) stand in a circle and each take a turn sharing our "Thorns and Roses" and something for which we are grateful. A thorn is something that happened that you didn’t like, and of course a rose is something you especially enjoyed. It takes a bit of time, but makes you stop and think about how much fun you are having. Some people's roses are other people's thorns, but that just shows us that we are all different. It was a great ending to the day and just the beginning of a perfect week. We all showered and got ready for bed. Tomorrow morning we get up at 5:45am!!
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Linda aka: wendy*darling
Intercot Staff: Disney & Orlando Dining
[email protected]
DVC owners at the Wilderness Lodge Villas
WDW:
4/92 (MK day trip only); 9/93 (Poly); 10/96 (DL & BC); 6/98 (YC); 2/00 (Contemporary); 12/00 (BWI)
Next: June 2001 (Fort Wilderness tent camping with the Boy Scouts!!)
[This message has been edited by wendy*darling (edited July 02, 2001).]
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Setting up camp in the rain sort of reminds me of the Camp Granada song: "hello Muddah, hello Faddah". 
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