Disney Fort Wilderness vacation Discount

All true. Disney Corp pursued this tactic because of the lessons learned from Disneyland and California politicians. Private interests quickly bought up land immediately adjacent to DL and hoped to resell it to Disney Corp at massively inflated prices. The CA political machine sought to exact huge revenues on DL seeing it as a source of unlimited $ for personal pork barrel projects and so when DW was in planning, Reedy Creek was the solution.

Now it's 40+ years later and those who govern Disney Corp have changed the ethos of Disney in certain aspects and are using similar political tactics. Such is the stuff of history lessons.

joe b. wrote:


Disney has no land restrictions in Florida. When WDW bought the land, they had the state legislature set up a special district for them. They have all the same rights as a town or county. They can operate their own school system, police department, waste disposal, water treatment plants, fire departments, EMS ambulances and electrical power stations. Their Improvement District also allows them to operate a nuclear power plant which they have never shown any interest in applying to build.
However they contract with the near by sheriff's department for police services, even though they have a security force of over 3,000 personnel that work for WDW.

There is a saying in Florida, that what the Mouse wants, the mouse gets. With a daily payroll of over 70,000 employees at WDW, they are the largest single site employer in the state.

All the land, etc, is owned in the name of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The land was originally purchased under the name of the Reedy Creek Ranch, to keep prices under control. It was only later the land sellers found out they had sold to Disney.
You may have seen their trucks running around the Fort campground, if you have been there.

The Improvement Dist. has a board of directors that hold monthly meetings open to the public, just like county commishners would do. To be on the board, you have to own land within the Improvement District. There are only 5 parcels of land available and all are owned by the operating officers of WDW, so they are the Board of Directors.
WDW's Improvement Board has also chosen to let the two Florida counties where the are located to assess and collect property taxes. Last year, the two counties received approx $125,000,000 from WDW in property taxes. Both counties fall all over themselves to do what the Mouse wants, like the state does.

If WDW decides to increase the size of Fort Wilderness campground, no one is going to say no to them, not the state, not the two counties and certainly not the Improvement District, which probably has the legal authority to approve it. Zoning and building codes also come under the Improvement Districts areas of control

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reedy_Creek_Improvement_District

This is from the Reedy Creek web site
http://rcid.org/About.aspx

Disney uses a variable pricing schedule based upon demand. For example we stayed the first week of Dec and paid "only" $80 per night. The next week it jumped to $100 per and topped out around $180 per by the 1st.

Point is be flexible on dates and you can save a ton.

Become a Disney travel agent and sale enough to earn 1/2 off your stay. Then you also get a few park passes for free. Fort Wilderness might be more $$$ to stay there but there is nothing else like it.

I agree, joe.b very interesting and thanks for those links. Kind of neat to read after having been there last year to see it in person. Will never return because we hated it but none the less still interesting.

I often wonder how many businesses in the US are also governmental units. While there are some other Improvement Districts in Florida, from what I understand, none of them even come close to what WDW has done with the Reedy Creek one. They can and do tax themselves to cover the cost of roads, water and sewer, power generation, etc, which must be a tax deduction for them. They also, as mentioned in the two links, have the right to condem and take property outside the Improvement District which they used once for land needed to build one of their many canals. They also have the authority to issue tax free bonds for needed improvement. A source of contention with some other government units in the state.

Seems like every couple of weeks I get an email from them offering a discount on one of the hotel properties but never on the Fort Campground. On our last stay at the Fort, ten days, I ended up paying 4 different nightly rates, bach in December. I sometimes think they used the same software to set their site prices that the airlines use for ticket prices. LOL last year, with lodging taxes added, we paid from a low of about $65 for a night to a high of about $125 a night for the same class of camp site. Of course, most were closer to the upper end. But we can pay about the same rates in the Keys.

joe b.- very informative and thank you for the links.

Sort of a "self imposed land usage restriction" in order to maintain "environmental integrity in the developed to undeveloped ratio" as explained to me a lonnggg time ago when I asked an individual in the WDW loop as to why there weren't more loops in FW. Figured he knew what he was talking about since it sounded Walt Disney like.

Lake Louisa State Park is in nearby Clermont and has some full hook up sites. You would have lots of spending money for WDW by staying some place that is much less expensive. It is an easy drive to WDW.

RV-1/2n-FUN wrote:
Discounts at FW are pretty much a thing of the past. Building new loops???? highly unlikely due to land restrictions. There are plans for a Disney Vacation Club timeshare by the old River Country section utilizing the shore and into the water. Don't recall seeing any RV sites.

Remember, the cheap prices are for smaller tent/pop-up site loops-1500 and 2000 with only water, electric and cable.

Disney has no land restrictions in Florida. When WDW bought the land, they had the state legislature set up a special district for them. They have all the same rights as a town or county. They can operate their own school system, police department, waste disposal, water treatment plants, fire departments, EMS ambulances and electrical power stations. Their Improvement District also allows them to operate a nuclear power plant which they have never shown any interest in applying to build.
However they contract with the near by sheriff's department for police services, even though they have a security force of over 3,000 personnel that work for WDW.

There is a saying in Florida, that what the Mouse wants, the mouse gets. With a daily payroll of over 70,000 employees at WDW, they are the largest single site employer in the state.

All the land, etc, is owned in the name of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The land was originally purchased under the name of the Reedy Creek Ranch, to keep prices under control. It was only later the land sellers found out they had sold to Disney.
You may have seen their trucks running around the Fort campground, if you have been there.

The Improvement Dist. has a board of directors that hold monthly meetings open to the public, just like county commishners would do. To be on the board, you have to own land within the Improvement District. There are only 5 parcels of land available and all are owned by the operating officers of WDW, so they are the Board of Directors.
WDW's Improvement Board has also chosen to let the two Florida counties where the are located to assess and collect property taxes. Last year, the two counties received approx $125,000,000 from WDW in property taxes. Both counties fall all over themselves to do what the Mouse wants, like the state does.

If WDW decides to increase the size of Fort Wilderness campground, no one is going to say no to them, not the state, not the two counties and certainly not the Improvement District, which probably has the legal authority to approve it. Zoning and building codes also come under the Improvement Districts areas of control

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reedy_Creek_Improvement_District

This is from the Reedy Creek web site
http://rcid.org/About.aspx

With Disney and the Fort you just have to bite the bullet and go.

My daughter got a cast member rate in Jan. 2012, but there was a short list of sites to start with and shorter due to occupancy. As we neared our checkout date, she ask about any Wilderness sites. Cast members are allowed to speak more freely to ea. other. There were no other discounts even for her, so we moved on.