Sanders... how did you like Fort Wilderness in your QS? We're thinking about taking ours there in a couple of years when our son gets old enough to appreciate it. How are their sites arranged? I've been to Disney many times but we've always stayed at one of the resorts but have never camped there. Knowing Disney I bet the camp grounds are very child friendly. I was just wondering how far away the facilities are (bathrooms, showers, laundramat, etc.) and restaurants. Also do they have any activities on site for kids and adults to do? Do they have child daycare? Any info you can share would be appreciated.
We stayed at Ft Wilderness for the first time last year. We could only get the Premier CS but there were other pop ups there also. There is a restroom, shower, laundry in each loop. The loops we saw were all paved. Fairly big and really clean. The restrooms were cleaned four times per day, they even cleaned them at 10 pm. Only Disney can run a campsite like this.
They have a outdoor movie, a couple of pools, video game rooms and the buses run constantly. If you have a campsite too close to the main roads the buses might be a problem.
Our boys are older so we just turned them loose on the parks. With the bus & tram service they were in hog heaven.
Disney is also good at fleecing your wallet, we cooked as many meals as possible at the camp. It was amazing how many people would walk by saying they wished they had thought of cooking at the campsite. Go out to some of the dinner shows and have a good time. We'll do it again in the future.
[quote author=Tonyride link=topic=764.msg6535#msg6535 date=1307447834]
Sanders... how did you like Fort Wilderness in your QS? We're thinking about taking ours there in a couple of years when our son gets old enough to appreciate it. How are their sites arranged? I've been to Disney many times but we've always stayed at one of the resorts but have never camped there. Knowing Disney I bet the camp grounds are very child friendly. I was just wondering how far away the facilities are (bathrooms, showers, laundramat, etc.) and restaurants. Also do they have any activities on site for kids and adults to do? Do they have child daycare? Any info you can share would be appreciated.
I don't disagree with anything that has been said about Fort Wilderness. We've stayed there three times in the last 6 to 8 years, and we absolutely love it! The only thing that I'm not thrilled about there is that their partial hookup sites are not paved. They have a very thick coarse sand surface that would probably be great for tents, but isn't the best for stabilizing jacks, chair legs, and such. Everything else about the CG makes up for this minor inconvenience. The transportation system is great. The bath houses are the nicest I've ever seen and are always clean. The entire CG is always clean. If you can go during Christmas season, the campers decorations in the CG are incredible. You could spend several days in Fort Wilderness without running out of things to do. Pools, horseback riding, boats, swimming pools, water slides, canoes, bicycles, and much more. There is NOTHING that you would want in a campground that is not available at Fort Wilderness.
We don't have kids, so I can't speak to child care issues. One of our visits there was a spring break trip with an exchange student from Siberia that we hosted one year, but she was too old for those services. They also have a kennel there for animal "children" care.
We've been there way too many times in the past 6 years or so, most of the time camping, and it's looking like we'll be back there this coming January again from the looks of things since a few of our friends are wanting to go. I agree with everything everyone said. It's a well run, clean campground with tons of stuff to do, never mind the theme parks themselves. Believe it or not, it can be warm enough in January to go to the water parks and/or pool, although it's not a guarantee and the temperature can be anywhere from freezing to 85 degrees at that time of year, so figuring out which clothes to bring can be challenging.
As far as child-friendly, it's at least as friendly as any other campground out there. Several playgrounds, a nice kiddie water play area next to the main pool. I think kids under a certain age eat free at the restaurants, but I don't remember if that's true and/or what age. We tended to spend most of our time at the theme parks and/or water parks, so we didn't explore the child-friendly nature of the campground too much.
One thing to keep in mind is that they don't have dish washing stations or any provision to dump grey water. If you have a full hookup site, it's not that big of a deal, but it can be for the partial hookup ones. I never had a problem with the crushed shell pads that S_Sanders is talking about, but I didn't like the fact that I had to do frequent sweeping of the camper and outdoor rug, regardless of how hard we tried to keep it out of the camper.
There's at least one "comfort station" (restroom/bathhouse/laundry) that serves each loop and should be within a reasonable walking distance. For some of the smaller loops, they may share one, but I can't remember ever waiting in line for the shower. It shouldn't be any worse than any other typical campground from that perspective.
To save some money, you *can* take snacks and even a light breakfast/lunch into the parks with you. I have a backpack with a water bladder in it. I'd pack it with ice in the morning, top it off with water, and put the cold stuff next to the bladder, and the rest of the stuff in the other compartment. I think that boarding the two dogs at home during our last trip was possibly more expensive than our last trip (minus purchases), since we had gotten annual passes the prior year.
There's two Wal-Mart super centers within about 10 miles or so of the campground, plus numerous grocery stores.
We generally didn't take the internal bus system, preferring to walk. It tended to average out about the same, plus it was a pain to fold up the jogging stroller back when we needed one, and we got the extra exercise. For the theme parks and other destinations, we took the boat launch over to the Magic Kingdom since it drops you off right in front of the gates, but preferred to drive since your resort parking pass also works at the theme parks. The buses, while a nice option, tended to eat up way too much time. The park hopper is a nice option for your park passes, since it allows you to swap parks during the day, should you find something interesting at one of them, or finish one of the parks, which is fairly easy to do with Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom on a light day.
http://allears.net/index.html is a good general Disney resource. There are a few others I've run across, even one that's primarily about Ft. Wilderness, but I don't recall what it is.
Slow times are usually Mid-Oct until the week before Christmas (except Thanksgiving week), and mid-January through February. I've also heard from a friend that it can be really slow right after Labor day.
We're headed there in November for our first time and you can't beat the price since it's value season, $46.00 a night for a partial hookup W/E.
After all is said and done, we are going to end up paying $2062 for 5 days, 6 night plus park tickets and the dining plan for 3 adults and 2 children. We decided to do the dining plan, because we wanted to do a couple character meals for our daughters (3&4), and after doing the math, it was about the same to pay out of pocket for the meals and cook the rest of the meals at the site. Something to look into if you plan to do that. I learned a lot on http://www.fortfiends.net. They are a group of people who love Fort Wilderness, plus there are a lot of trip reports and pictures.
Best Regards,
Norm
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