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View Full Version : Calling All Pop-Uppers



bshaw96
01-11-2008, 02:51 PM
This is a question for all pop up owners or those who have owned one in the past. We love to use our pop up for weekend camping trips, 4 days being our longest trip. Here's my question. DH wants to take it to FW in November, for almost 2 weeks. I'm not sure quite how I feel about this. Now I loooove Disney, and could do Disney for 2 weeks no problem. In fact, our last trip was 12 nights, but that was in a room, with showers, and all that, lol. Again, I love camping in our pup, but have never done it for longer than 4 nights. And I know how much we pack for those few days, not to mention all the mess we acquire. Obviously, I'd be using the laundry facilities. But other than that, has anyone ever done a such a long trip in their pop up? Advice? My specific concerns are:
1) Is there generally a long wait for the showers?
2) How do you arrange meals? Is there a grocery store nearby?
3) Are specific sites better for pop ups? I know we want cable hook ups, so that puts us in a preferred loop, but that's all I know.

I'd truly like to try it just once. But that long makes me nervous!

medic9016
01-11-2008, 03:39 PM
Me, DW,and DD(13) did 9 days in our pop-up last Sept. We stayed in loop 200 which is a preferred loop for two reasons. 1)Cable TV:secret: 2) With all the Class A and 5ers in the 100 and 200 loop those folks are more likely to shower in their unit, which makes the comfort stations most of the time all yours. The comfort statioins are top notch. DW and DD did use the laundry once, later in the evening and it was all theirs. We did some cooking in the morning but were on the DDP, so no other cooking. We folded our table down to sleep on and used one bunk end for storage. I did lock up my computer in the truck, we have not had any problems with anyone messing with our stuff at FW. Our pop-up was nearly 20 years old, so that was our last trip in it and now have a 30ft Heartland North Trail TT TH. There is a picture of our pop up set up at FW on our website in my profile.

For groceries we stopped at Walmart on the way in or you could have them delievered.

We have also stayed 9 days in a tent in the 100 loop right between two big class A MHs.

drummerboy
01-12-2008, 12:50 AM
When we had a pop up, we took it to FW once. I think it was about a seven day stay. Our car was the overflow 'holding' area for extra luggage, groceries, etc.. Although we stayed in a non-preferred loop (cable didn't exist then anyway) the bathhouse was not problem. We were only about two sites away from it and I was able to observe the traffic patterns, so that helped. I will add that it was just DW and me on that trip, so the other bed was our 'closet'.

LONESTAR
01-12-2008, 12:51 AM
Growing up thats how we did it in a pop up. It was a lot of fun. You can buy food in FW at the trading post to cook But I would pick food up from an out side store. The comfort station is the cleanest you will find. To me staying in FW is half the fun of WDW. My parents took me to FW growing up. Then when I got married I took my wife. We stayed in a tent behind my parents TT my wife loved the whole trip. We froze in our tent. So when we got back home we went to buy a pop up and some how wound up with a 5er. But my point is do it you will love it. Take your pop up and take lights to decorate your site. Just make sure you take bikes. You can rent a golf cart for around $50 a day but if you own your own bring it. They have a camp fire where you can roast marshmellows ever night and then watch a out door movie plus there is a water parade every night at the marina. FW is just the only way to do WDW for us. But to each there own.
I never had to wait very long for a shower.
You can pop up at a preferred site no problem.

rubato
01-12-2008, 09:43 AM
We'll be arriving Feb. 1 in our pop up. We'll be there for 6 nights. I'm not worried at all about food. We'll do breakfast at the site, but the rest will be at restaurants. Of course, with a child, we'll have lots of drinks and snacks on hand. I have a mini van and plan to bring some plastic drawers from my sons room. I'm just going to treat the back of my van as a closet. We also have a dorm fridge that we're going to put in the back of the van so we don't have to mess with a cooler (the fridge in the Aliner is tiny). I'll let you know how the shower situation is when we get back. We'll either be staying in 1400 or 1500 so only one comfort station per loop (if I remember correctly). The one thing I'm disappointed in is the fact that we can't have a fire. That's always my favorite part of camping, no matter where we camp. Oh well. I'd rather be fireless at Disney than camping anywhere else!:)

ibrowse17
01-12-2008, 09:49 AM
Having stayed for 12 nights in our pup one trip at FW, I can say that you should have no problems. The comfort stations are very clean and if you plan it right, you should have no waits. Ice machines and washer and dryers can be found in the stations as well. Food was not a problem, and we had breakfast at the site almost every morning. The only problem I can see you having is the feeling when it comes time to leave:( Have a great trip, and know that so many of us would trade places with you in a second:thumbsup:

Camping Mom
01-12-2008, 12:11 PM
1993 was our first trip to Disney and we did it in a pop up. We were in loop 500. We turned our pop up sideways so the door opened toward our picnic table. We stopped on the way in and bought our groceries. (Note: the Goodings store outside of the parks is close, but more expensive than WalMart or Winn Dixie.) We would eat breakfast and then I set my crock pot outside so it wouldn't heat up the pop up (we went in June) and cooked a roast all day while we were gone. Came back and dished it up with a few vegetables I cooked on the stove and voila, dinner.

We NEVER had a problem with showers. Trying to camp in a loop with the big rigs is a great idea. We just returned from Disney over Christmas and are now in a 30' TT. I shower in the trailer and my DH and 3 DS went to the showers at the comfort station. Only one morning did they have to wait. They are clean and the showers are large. My husband LOVES them. It was also the first time ever that I washed clothes twice in a week and NO ONE was in the laundry room. I guess everyone was in the parks. IT was great.

If you plan to wash, it is 2.00 for washers and 2.00 for dryers. Dryers dry for around 30 minutes, but they are not very big. Your towels and jeans may take longer unless you spread them between a few more dryers.

Have a great time. I am leaving 1/13 to go back!! My DH has a conference on site and we are staying at the Caribbean Beach. Never have before, but I will MISS Ft. Wilderness.

TinaAndGlenn
01-12-2008, 10:23 PM
Years ago, we stayed for 2 weeks in our pop up. It was a small 8footer! We were 2 adults and 2 small children. I packed one cooler with our main food. I froze everything, so it would stay fresh longer-bacon, hamburgers, etc. The showers & laundry are the best there. Stop at a Publix, they are the cheapest. Just spent 8 days there in our 5th wheel. We loved our pop up days! Have a great time!

Janmac
01-12-2008, 11:51 PM
We had a pop-up for many years. Late May or early June, we would load up some stuff and our youngest grandson and head out, traveling all over the country, camping between 5 and 6 weeks before heading home again.

Camping for 2 weeks at Fort Wilderness would be heaven. We camped mostly at Forest Service and National Park campsites with no hook-ups at all.

One major tip that worked for us, bring fewer clothes - like 4 basic changes each. This might seem counter intuitive, but we were able to get our clothes washed in about an hour. Fort Wilderness with the laundries in almost every loop is great. It also helps to bring quick drying clothes rather than blue jeans, etc.

We had a couple of those plastic drawer units to keep our clothes in. When rolled up and held with rubber bands, and set in the drawer on end, you can really get a lot of clothes in a small space. If you've rolled them better, they're hardly wrinkled. And on end, you can see at a glance what there is to wear. We also had a hanging area for shirts.

The plastic drawer units were light enough to place on the floor, while traveling and then up on a counter while parked. We tried the clothes in the tow vehicle but it wasn't very handy. In the pop-up was better. I'm still using those drawer units in the travel trailer.

We had a sort of shower in our pop-up but a very small fresh water tank. Fort Wilderness, as has been mentioned here, has great shower houses, complete with air conditioning. :thumbsup: Like camping in heaven.

Our last two visits to WDW we have brought our travel trailer to Fort Wilderness and our grandkids still bike down to the comfort station for their showers. Just easier. As for lines, if you're showering in the morning to be at a park at rope drop, there might be a line. If you can time your showers for maybe mid afternoon - probably no line.

The whole shower thing is easier if you have some dedicated stuff. Like mesh bags with your shower essentials - soap, shampoo, razor, etc. We have three, in case of that many showering at once. (I think there are 3 shower stalls in each of the shower houses) Also, you'll want something to carry your clothes, toiletries, towel, shower shoes, and mesh bag back and forth. We have an assortment of the cloth type shopping bags. And a length of clotheline (ours fits across our awning) with clothes pins on it for hanging towels.

For several years we did not cook in our pop-up because we were traveling in the west and visiting National Parks with bear problems. Seemed best to keep all cooking smells away from where we were sleeping - again, Fort Wilderness would be heaven, because most of the bears are figments of bus drivers' imaginations. :D

We kept our food in our tow vehicle. We had a chuck wagon box, I guess you'd call it, with a drop down lid that made a work surface, with all sorts of compartments as our pantry. I did use the pop-up's fridge, rather than a cooler, shopping for fresh stuff every 3 or 4 days. But with dried and canned foods we could go for almost a week without hitting a store, if we were in a remote location.

Outside Disney are several choices for groceries, with a SuperWal-Mart not far away, now. You could make a couple of runs out to Wal-Mart to stock up, depending on how many meals you were intending to cook at camp.

Many campers at Fort Wilderness use a crock pot to have their supper cooking while they're touring.

We also developed what we call camp food. There is no way you will get anyone, kid or otherwise, to eat camp food at home but when camping, it's apparently required (no matter what I do). Our camp food is mostly a one skillet meal, like Rice-a-Roni or those noodles with sauce packets, with some veggies and meat thrown in too. In the boonies, canned meat. Doesn't seem to matter.

The two times we've camped at Fort Wilderness we did not camp in a cable loop. DH hung out in the campground rather than tour in the parks with us, and he likes his tv. He found plenty to watch off the trailer's antenna. So if you're not after a specific cable program, you may find the non cable tv adequate.

It is possible to pack lighter for Fort Wilderness than regular camping because your entertainment is the parks. You may not need to bring as much other gear (non-food/clothing related items). You don't bring that stuff when you stay at a resort. You will want towels for the pool, but then the pools at Fort Wilderness are about the only draw back. They are plain rectangles. No theming.

Somebody needs to do something about that.

If we could camp in a pop-up for weeks in the forest, I know you can do 12 days at Fort Wilderness.

Enjoy! And please write a trip report.

Jan

drummerboy
01-13-2008, 10:06 AM
Janmac, you are waaaaay too organized for the Drummerboy family. :D Sounds like you have a very good, time-saving system. I like the idea of standing the clothes on end. We have a Class C now, but still have space problems in the bedroom.

I don't think I've seen pop ups called pups before. I like that.

Janmac
01-13-2008, 01:18 PM
Drummerboy, I'm too organized for this family too - they tell me I'm **** but still depend on my planning to help things go closer to smoothly. When camping, something is always happening. :D

DH spent many years in the Navy on submarines and I think the mantra - a place for everything and everything in it's place has rubbed off. And then some.

Our travel trailer is also woefully deficient in clothing storage, altho we have plenty of storage in the kitchen and living areas. So the clothes are still rolled and stood on end except for some button front shirts hanging. Also the honeycomb drawer dividers help a lot too.

Currently I'm stuck in a house but I think a perfect world would be Missouri in April and October - two gorgeous months - with summers in the North and winters in Fort Wilderness. :thumbsup:

Jan
(closet Nomad)

TheMartellFamily
01-13-2008, 03:39 PM
IF you want the cable you will need to be in perferred section 100 and 200 are the closest to the marina to get to the MK. We love loop 100 it is our favorite. there is a comfort station ( shower house, toilets, and laundry room) available to those staying in Ft. W. They also have ice machines here. We wait until after park openings to shower in the morining and there is never a line. We also do our laundry mid-day during a break. The time do wait for machines is not long at all and usually it is get in a get out. We take rolls of quarters on hand to make it even easier. Showers are nice and they do not charge for the use like some campground do. the pressure and temp are great. Movies in the evening is great and to watch the Electrical water parade on the beach is so exciting. there is just so much to do and enjoy. We have stayed with 6 in a pop up for 14 days and stayed as long as 16 days all in a pop up it is truly a great place no matter what method of trailer you have. Once you try it you will enjoy it.

broadway_chick72
01-13-2008, 06:09 PM
I went camping in a pop-up a few years ago. We stayed at site 1503 and we were right beside the comfort station. There were few to no people in the station everytime I was in there. It really depended when you went. Don't go to one right at the beginning of morning because that's when the most people were there. And certain times at night were crowded.

As for the food, we stopped in another town for the night before we arrived at DW. We went to the grocery shop there and bought most of the food. We got a lot of snacky things and we got a few things that we would have to cook. Like, my dad made eggs and stuff one morning and one night we had steak. If you don't want to bring LOADS of stuff (like electric skillets, or frying pans) with you, I would just get snacky stuff like pop-tarts or fruit snacks.


I have no idea about cable. My two cents (hope you don't mind :)) is to not worry about cable. There is SO much at Fort Wilderness to do and see. And a lot of the time, you'll be at the parks! Cable would just be a waste of money. It's up to you though.

bshaw96
01-13-2008, 07:38 PM
I have no idea about cable. My two cents (hope you don't mind :)) is to not worry about cable. There is SO much at Fort Wilderness to do and see. And a lot of the time, you'll be at the parks! Cable would just be a waste of money. It's up to you though.

Yeh, normally we don't worry about it. But, being a 2 week trip, and having 2 young kids, kind of like the idea of having it for movies or stuff, especially if we have a rainy night in the pup.

Thanks everyone for all the advice/encouragement. As I said, I love the pup. Just wasn't sure about being in it that long. I do like the suggestions of keeping everything light though (food, clothing). :thumbsup:

broadway_chick72
01-13-2008, 08:07 PM
Yeh, normally we don't worry about it. But, being a 2 week trip, and having 2 young kids, kind of like the idea of having it for movies or stuff, especially if we have a rainy night in the pup.


Instead of getting a cable hookup, why not borrow or rent a portable DVD player? Just bring your kids favorite cartoons and movies. My cousin and I used one on the way down too, and bringing all Disney things could be memorable and get the kids in the Disney mood! We watched Alice and Wonderland and Pirates of the Carribbean. Then, my cousin brought the Narnia movie with her. It was really nice in the camper.

We never had a problem with rain. It rained throughout the day, but I don't ever remember it raining at night.

LONESTAR
01-13-2008, 09:07 PM
One nice thing about cable is the Disney channels.
They let you know park hours, what you can do in FW. Its nice to have.

broadway_chick72
01-13-2008, 09:18 PM
Yeah, when I went to Port Orleans in 2002, I was the only one who loved the channels. Mom and Dad hated them because they only were Disney. There was like one or two local channels. The cable is great for kids because you do see a lot of Disney cartoons

SoaringEpcot
01-14-2008, 04:09 PM
I have camped in a pop up my whole life. We go 1 to 2 times per month. We went to Fort Wilderness for 10 days last month. Sleeping on the beds does begin to get a bit hard after a few days though. So we bought some memory foam mattress and put them on top. Now no more sore shoulders or hips on long stays.

The loop we were in had several big RV's and I think they must have used their campers for showers, we never had a wait in the bath houses. But the lanudry was a different story. The machines seemed to run constantly.

kminton
01-16-2008, 12:03 PM
We stayed in our popup at FW for a week 4 years ago. We did the sterilite drawer suggestion with both clothes and some of our food. We kept our clothes in one bunk end and slept in the other. We had king size bunk ends and we were so tired - that we pretty much just collapsed after the day at the park. We had a shower in the popup but took all of our showers at the comfort stations. They were extremely convenient to our site and were very clean.

We stayed in the 500 loop - which is halfway between the Pool and the dock where you leave to go to Magic Kingdom. We were able to ride our bikes to both and not be stressed. We did put a battery-operated bike light on the back of our bikes; just to make sure we were seen (especially the DD).

We carried most of our food from home. Bought Poptarts and the individual sized cereals and had milk, juice and coffee for mornings. Had bread and peanut butter and jelly for snack once we got home from park. But we mainly ate our meals in the park.

Now when we went back this past summer in the TT, we were on the Dining package. We definitely had more room for snacks and a variety of breakfast foods and ate at the parks. But after 12 days, it was nice to have a home-cooked meal at the camper, the night before we left.

I think a week is a good amount of time to spend. DD got tired after the 10th day or so this last time.

You'll enjoy it - I'd prefer to camp at WDW but sometimes time constraints don't allow for the long drive towing.

Have fun,
K