Port St. Lucie to Fort Wilderness
On Thursday morning, we left Outdoor Resorts in Port St. Lucie around 10 a.m. When we were in Stuart we had stopped at AAA and purchased a SunPass so instead of driving Route 95, we could take the Florida Turnpike at a discount. Smart idea – it was such an easy drive with hardly any traffic. As a passenger though I have to say it was really, really boring! The only excitement was an occasional curve in the road and an infrequent billboard. We entered the Turnpike in Fort Pierce and exited at Osceola Parkway in Orlando.
BTW, we bought a transportable model of the SunPass so we can move it between vehicles – the SunPass website lets you register as many vehicles as you want and state residency is not a requirement. They can be purchased at AAA, Publix and other retail stores, the non-transportable model is under $5 and the transportable version is $25.
We arrived at Fort Wilderness around 12:45 pm, late enough not to get caught up in the hoopla over President Obama’s arrival. The only remnants of his visit that we saw were groups of police on motorcycles leaving WDW so our guess is that they were part of the police escort from Orlando airport to Magic Kingdom. Since check in time is at 1:00 p.m. it’s probably the worst time to arrive – there were quite a few RV’s in line ahead of us so it took well over 30 minutes for us to finally check in. We were assigned to site #620 which is on Sunny Sage Way, the same loop that we were on last February. Backing into the site was a little bit of a challenge due to the site signposts but as usual Rob did an excellent job (despite my somewhat confused hand signals) and we finally made it. Although after we had settled in (connected all hookups, put out the slides, put up the Kitty Kabana, etc.), we realized that the site was pretty small, probably the smallest one in the loop with very little privacy. Two sites over was a vacant site which was much more spacious so we hopped in the van and drove to Guest Services to see if we could move. We were in luck so had to do everything in reverse which wasn’t too bad until we started the engines which threw the somewhat relaxed kitties into panic mode and back into their hiding spots. It didn’t take long for us to get settled to site #616. Despite the hassle of the move, it was well worth it – we’re much happier on this site. We have a small river behind us, lots of trees, and lots of privacy since there is only one RV on the passenger side and a pathway on the driver’s side.
That afternoon we didn’t do much, just took a walk down to the landing where you can catch a boat to Magic Kingdom. On Friday, we went to Downtown Disney….more about that later!
Hi there
I agree with the Sunpass purchase. We bought one a few years ago and it is a great time saver. We also use the Fast Lane pass for other travel through NY (Tappan Zee on the way home) and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. Not sure how much money if any you save with the Fast Lane but it is very convenient time wise.
Say hi to Mickey and Minnie
Gotta love driving in Central FL – the drive from Kissimmee to Atlanta via FL Turnpike and I-75 wasn’t much more exciting. Glad you got a better site!