Season 6: November 1-15,2025. Florida

We stayed at the Canoe Creek Rest Area which is right on the Florida Turnpike. Had Wendy’s for dinner. I am definitely missing the cruise food. That Wendy’s salad was nothing compared to the salads I have been having on the cruise. However, the Wendy’s Frostie was unbeatable. 

We are about 40 minutes from the Fort Wilderness Campground at Disney. We are meeting our friends Barbara and Frank there and their daughter Caitlin and her kids, Adrian and Collins. They are big Disney people but this will be their first time camping at Fort Wilderness. 

So we got an early start and arrived at the campground at 9 am and lo and behold, our site was ready!! We nestled into site 2039, put our chairs out and enjoyed the morning, waiting for Barbara and Frank to arrive.

They arrived soon after us and their site was also ready. They were able to get the loop next to ours. We headed over there for lunch and then we took the Daisy bus to the water park.

If you stay at one of the Disney Resorts or the campground, the water park is FREE on the day that you arrive. We love FREE! We also love the beach pail they fill with icecream so going to the water park was a no brainer. Last time we were here it was raining so we didn’t go on any of the water rides. But this time, the sun was out and we had an awesome time on the rides!!

The only mistake we made was not bringing sweatshirts or a change of clothes for the bus ride home. It was sooo cold!

Next day was Epcot Day and the food and Wine Festival. We arrived and went to the Ratatouille Ride. They give you 3D glasses and shrink you down to rat size where you then are being chased by the chefs in the kitchen. I didn’t really like the ride and kept my eyes closed for most of it. After that we ate tons of food. Crème Brûlée, Beef Burgundy in France. chicken Pita wraps and pita with assorted dips in Morocco.  Sushi in Japan, Nachos with Guacamole in Mexico, turkey leg in America, Paella in Spain. It was a lot of eating and then a bunch of rides as well. But we didn’t go on any really crazy rides just the slow moving ones so as not to kick up the vertigo. While Barbara and her family were in line for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride, Greg and I went to Mickey and friends.

We closed the park down and then headed back to the campground on the bus. This time we remembered our sweatshirts and jackets so it was a much more enjoyable ride.

Next day was a much needed day of relaxation. The pool at the campground is awesome. All the pools at Disney are great. we did the first showing of the Hoop De Do Review which is a Hokey Country show right at the campground. It includes a family style meal and lots of comedy. We loved it. 

After that we went to the Big Campfire Sing Along Featuring Chip and Dale. 

Next day was the Magic Kingdom and Collins 7th birthday. Barbara, Frank and the family woke up and got there for the rope drop. We met up with them a little later.

We did so many rides, way more than what we normally do. Collins went to the Bippity Boppity to turn into a princess while the rest of us went to the new pirate bar.

At the end of the night we all went to Cinderellas castle for dinner. They had 5 princesses there. I knew 2 of them. I really need to watch more Disney movies. Maybe someone can lend us there password for a month or two.

I accidentally called the last princess Aladdin. She was not happy about that and told me I could just call her “Your Majesty.” 

At the end of the night we took the boat back to the campground and the bus back to our campsite. I was asleep in like two seconds. It was a long and exhausting day but I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Next day was check out day and we took the van to the parking lot and then the bus to the pool. It was such a beautiful day and the pool was just perfect.

We had some fun hats to wear to the pool as an extended celebration for Collins. We left Disney at 3 and headed to the Florida West Coast to visit Greg’s Parents.

We stayed in Palm Harbor visiting with Greg’s parents for 4 days. On the last day the temperatures started dropping and we woke up to 40° which is so crazy for this time of year in Florida. We love when that happens because it makes sleeping in the van so much more enjoyable. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures of our four days there. We made it to Picayune State Forest where the skies were blue and the sun was out and the only thing we needed to worry about were bears and bobcats. This campground is only $13 a night. It’s pretty quiet, I guess because there’s no electric or running water but we do have a picnic table and fire pit which is really all we need in life. We had our pick of sites and decided on site J. Stayed a couple of nights so that Greg could work on the solar. We had a brand new 200 watt shade tolerable solar panel delivered to Greg’s parents so Greg has been working on removing the old solar panels and putting up the new. It was “almost” a perfect fit. He had to widen a couple of drill holes in the aluminum strips that we have on the roof. Up and down the ladder he went but finally with a lot staring, he was finally able to get the pane installed. This is a big deal in the way we live. This panel works even in the shade which is a game changer. It is pulling in way more amps than our 7 year old panels. 

While Greg was busy I did a little sewing. I sewed some new Velcro strips onto our curtains that separate the cab area from the living area. The Velcro needed to be switched out so that when we are stealth camping we don’t have any light showing through from the inside of the van.

We headed to Dania Beach a day early. We are planning on leaving the van at a hotel in the area like we did when we cruised out of Miami. We decided to stay two nights at that hotel and got a great spot for the van in the shade. We had the best Cuban Sandwich ever from a small shop down the road and enjoyed a day at the hotel pool.

We took a walk that night to a casino for dinner and a little plunking of quarters. We both won, cashed out and will use that money on the cruise ship to maybe win a few more free cruises.

We took an early Uber at 11 to the cruise port and were settled into our room an hour later, unpacked and then went for lunch and to explore the ship. The Celebrity Silhouette has recently been refurbished and is absolutely beautiful. Our room is on the 9th floor in the front of the ship.

The ship is about to leave and I just realized that the Blog goes out today. So I’m filling in all the blanks and hoping to send out the blog before I lose my cell signal. So I’ll end it here. In two weeks when we get back, I will have another blog all set for our adventures on the open sea.