Although it may be too late for me to make reservations I am thinking about driving a thirty something down to Orlando with the wife and kid just in time for the holiday madness. We get some rv creds and can better evaluate Barths when they surface. Are there any locals or other barthers who have some wisdom to share on the feasibility of such a venture? There will be no toad, so I wonder if many of the rv parks will have a shuttle or other transport available to Disney, Epcot, etc.. Taxi, public transport, will we need to rent a car to get around? Are the parking lots for the major attractions set up to accommodate 32ft rv's for the day so you can use the big guy as your daily ride. As you can tell it has been quite some time since I visited the Orlando area.

This may be of some help for the Disney World RV park (1,194 spaces!). Holiday rates 12/20-12/31 are absurd, but it would still be the most convenient, with shuttles to other Disney parks and so forth.

Florida RV parks start to fill up about this time of year, but with fuel prices being what they are, the numbers may be somewhat lessened. In any event, reservations are a must for just about any park. There are a few parks on US 192 east of I-4 and a couple west of WDW on US 192.

I don't know if WDW permits RVs in the parking lots, but a phone call could answer that. Other attractions tend to have much smaller parking facilities, so phone calls would be advisable.

Maybe some of the other FL Barthers can elaborate more.

Thanks Rusty, I called WDW and the campground is filled up as expected. With that many sites there are sure to be cancellations, but waiting for one to show up is a risky game to play. I did find out that the parking lots at the Disney resorts will accommodate RVs and they are quite common. At this point in time there are still vacant RV sites close to WDW off of US 192, but will fill up soon I am told. All of this is bringing home to me the usefulness of a toad for getting around if you have a 32 ft or so Barth, Lets see, one car, two trucks, large RV, toad, utility trailer, equipment trailer, boat & trailer X 2, that's a lot of tags, insurance and maintenance to deal with.

If you're bringing another driver, I'd suggest renting another vehicle for the week or two you're here. Many of the companies offer pickup and delivery, but even if not, you could swing by a rental place and drop off that other driver. Having been in the insurance biz for years, I always preferred Enterprise. They're heads-and-shoulders above the other companies.

WE use Enteprise when driving the Barth, they have no trouble coming to a campgrounds/State Park,or RV Park to pick us up, some others had questions so we said forget it.

Izomage, I have been at WDW during the xmas holdiays and will never be doing that again. It was so crowded that if you pass out, you wont fall, because there will not be room. and any thing you do will take 2 hours to ride anything, etc.. Fort Wildernes was booked solid after 12/19/06.
I have reservations for a month at FW from 1/16/08 made about 90 days ago.
If you do go, go thru Fort Wilderness, cause some of the people really have their rv's decorated up very nice with plenty of lights. some must stay there for long peiods of time.
Last December we stayed in the keys for 3 weeks, and was going to stay longer but every thing was booked after the 19th of december and those reservations was made about 6 or 8 months before.
Take care and happy motoring. sky

Quote by Sky: "if you pass out, you wont fall" We were going there for the kid but this is beginning to sound like my kinda joint. They do have an adequate supply of beer and wine at WDW I hope ?

The car rental is probably the most convenient solution for maximum mobility. Having access to a comfortable bed in the parking lot would be nice in case I happened upon a cache of Chimay Special Reserve, although it sounds like I can just as well take a nap standing up.

Alamo has a couple of location in Disney World. One of them is at the Dolphin Hotel. Either you can drive the barth to the Dolphin or use Disney Transportation. A car at Disney can be a huge benefit. Especially if you have meals at other resorts.

I've found that enterprise is not always the cheapes rental.

Unless one has endured WDW, one can't comprehend what the term "crowded" can mean. AFAIK, WDW has no upper limit on the number of WBs ("Warm Bodies") allowed into the park.

But I used to date a woman who I'd describe as a ge-yoo-ine WDW "expert", and her techniques worked very well.

1. Enter the theme park around 11:30AM to Noon.. The first rush is over, and the "amateurs" are already tired.

2. Enter the park at opening. Go immediately to the extreme far side, and work your way back to the entrance.

Both her techniques worked to perfection, and we never had more than a 20 minute wait for any ride.

Thanks a lot for the info, you guys are chock full of good ideas. I had pretty much decided against the trip as planned, but now an alternate arrangement is being tricked up, so we may get to try out the WDW experts techniques after all.