In December 2008 Carol and I spent a few weeks at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. We took part in a Disney fan meet known as “MouseFest”. Carol and I, along with our friends John & Erin from New Jersey, co-hosted a walking tour of the campground to admire all the seasonal décor. About 45 of us wandered the campground admiring the lights, inflatables and the other imaginative displays. Someone we passed that evening said, “Be sure to check out site #551 – it’s great.” Alas, we didn’t make it that night! It was the following night when Carol and I circled the 500 loop and saw Dave “The Castle Guy” for the first time.

Wow . . . we were in awe when we saw his creation! Carol took a short video which I later uploaded to YouTube. I sent some friends a link to the video and urged them to visit Site 551 before they went home.

We didn’t return for the Christmas season again until 2011 when we were fortunate enough to camp just a few campsites down from Dave and his awesome display.

We visited back and forth with Dave many times during our stay and during our few weeks together he told me the story of “The Castle Project”.

This is how he described it, “In December 2007 my wife Dee and I spent 10 days at Fort Wilderness Campground, Disney World. You would not believe what folks were doing to their campsites. The Christmas decorations were out of this world. The campers really put their imaginations in high gear. All the time and effort they spent decorating their sites was really impressive.””

For me, it was inspiring. If you haven’t been to Fort Wilderness at Christmas, you should stop by. It is well worth the trip. All the campers are in a wonderfully good mood and the sights and sounds of Christmas fill the air. It’s truly a magical place to be during the holiday season.”

“When we returned home to Titusville, Florida I started thinking about making something for our own campsite. I thought, ‘What would be the coolest thing I could have on our campsite?’ The answer immediately came to mind ‘Cinderella Castle’. So, in April of 2008 I started on The Castle Project.”

Dave’s labour of love took eight months to complete. He started with a six foot by four foot piece of three quarter inch thick Medium Density Overlay (MDO), a resin-coated plywood which is very weather resistant. Dave took a picture of Cinderella Castle, blew it up to the correct six foot by four foot proportions and printed it out on 26 sheets of photo paper.

He described the decoupage as the most difficult task in the entire project; he applied the photo sheets to the MDO and then covered them with six coats of clear acrylic sealer.

Then he cut the castle out, beginning with a precision jig saw for the rough cut and then finishing the finer features with a Dremel hand-held tool.

Next step, Dave drilled some holes. There are 427 lights on the castle.

Each hole was drilled from the front and then countersunk on the back to accommodate the light socket. That’s 854 holes to drill! I’m exhausted just thinking about it!

Dee took charge of the trees which flank the castle. The first year there were 16 trees, now there are 26. Dee securely fastened each and every light so that they will survive the packing and repacking that is required every year. Everything about the castle is designed to be durable yet portable!

When Dave starts talking about the electronics my eyes start to glaze over. I can appreciate how The Big Bang Theory’s Penny feels when she’s talking to Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Since I don’t understand any of the technical stuff I’m going to quote Dave again, “The castle is controlled by 16 channels of lighting. It is surrounded by 16 Christmas trees so that adds another 16 channels of lighting. Above the trees are 3 lighted snowflakes, each representing a Disney character. All this has been put to beautiful Disney music, “When You Wish upon a Star” and Disney’s “Wishes”, with fireworks added in for the grand finale. It ended up being 48 channels of lighting that first year. Everything is controlled through my laptop!”

The Software that runs the show is “ShowTime Software Suite S3” from a company named “Light O Rama”. Much of the hardware is from the same company, Dave currently uses 5 Light O Rama (LOR) 16 channel controllers, 3 LOR Cosmic Color Ribbons with 150 channels each and 1 LOR Cosmic Color Pixel with 100 channels. Just imagine how glassy my eyes were as I typed this paragraph!

From the start Dave knew the first song he had to sequence would be “Wish Upon A Star”. It’s his favourite Disney song and it touches a spot in the hearts of all Disney fans. He selected the Eric Kunzel version, it’s beautiful. Then he used 4 tracks from Disney’s “Wishes” to finish it off. The grande finale is made up of 5 audio tracks of fireworks. Wow . . . when you see and hear it I think you will agree that it’s amazing!

After all the lights were installed on the castle, the Christmas trees were prepared, the lights and soundtracks were sequenced it was time for a test.

Dave set it all up in his garage, crossed his fingers and started the show. It was perfect – it ran like a charm. Next stop – Fort Wilderness!

Dave and Dee transport the Castle in their 40 ft motor home. The MDO castle lays on the bed while they are underway. Everything else is stored below in the cargo bays. One rule Dave has is that EVERYTHING has to fit in the motor home. He doesn’t want to tow a trailer so he keeps it all pretty compact. It takes him around ten hours to set everything up and around four hours to break everything down and pack it away for transport.

When Dave returned with his completed castle in 2008 he was a bit nervous. As he puts it, “We returned to Fort Wilderness Campground on December 7th, 2008. As I was putting put up the castle show, I thought to myself, “People are going to think I am crazy, this guy has gone off the deep end.” Boy, was I wrong! It was a total blockbuster hit. It was the talk of the campground. The reservation office folks were telling people checking in to “make sure you see the castle show in the 500 loop”. I have never met so many great people. It was a total blast!

Dave has improved and enhanced the castle show each year since then. “In 2009 we returned to Fort Wilderness with 64 channels, 10 more Christmas trees and a VERY special appearance by “Tinker Bell” (Tink is really hard to book during the holidays, you know). It’s the latest in lighting technology.”

“In 2010 I decided to light up the whole motor home in the show. That was fun. I also added another musical sequence, Disney’s Holiday Wishes.”

“In 2011 I added another musical sequence, Disney’s “Remember the Magic”. They used to play it at Disneyland years ago. It’s a great song.”

“This year, 2012, I am introducing a new musical sequence. It’s a mix of Disney favourites. I have also done a lot of fine tuning to all the other Disney songs. I have added a new “Tinker Bell” effect that I’m trying out. There are also a couple of surprises that I’m keeping a secret. The Castle show is now at 80+ channels and has 7000+ lights.”

“The Castle show starts automatically and runs continuously from 6:00 p.m. every evening. It shuts itself down at 10:00 p.m. Quiet time at the Fort starts at 10:00 pm.”

Dave’s castle show has been featured in Orlando Attractions magazine and on a local television station but if you haven’t seen it live . . . you really haven’t seen it!

The thing Dave most enjoys about his castle show is the opportunity it gives him to meet all the Fort Wilderness campers and Disney fans. He puts it like this, “Every night you can find me at my campsite meeting folks and talking about the castle and all the other wonderful decorations at the Fort. Last year a group of about 120 AllEars fans stopped by to see the Castle show; what a great group of people.”

“Another thing I really enjoy is giving out glow sticks to all the kids who stop by; kids young and old. Last year I gave out several hundred! I am really stocking up on them this year.”

The horse-drawn sleigh rides and wagon rides which tour the campground do not make any stops, except at Christmas when they all pause for a few minutes at Dave’s castle. Golf carts and pedestrians stop too! In fact, there’s often a traffic jam in front of Dave and Dee’s campsite . . . but it’s the happiest traffic jam you have ever seen. Dave hasn’t just built a castle . . . he’s made magic! I’m sure Walt looks down occasionally on Dave’s castle – and Walt smiles!

Click on the arrow to see a 15 minute sequence from of the 2010 Castle Show.

This year Dave and Dee will be at Fort Wilderness from December 5th through December 26th. The castle should be up and running by December 8th and the last show will be on Christmas Day.

If you are planning to visit Walt Disney World in December a trip to Fort Wilderness is a must. Set aside an evening to tour the campground and enjoy the amazing Christmas décor.

For some tips on how to get to Fort Wilderness and a few suggestions for your tour of the campground read the last few paragraphs a recent blog here.

So come on over and join the happiest traffic jam on earth! Don’t forget, Dave will be waiting to meet you . . . and he just might have a glow stick for you! Go check out his castle . . . you will be amazed!

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