Fort Wilderness Question

[lawnspecialties]

As part of my landscape business here in NC, we do snow removal. It is extremely sporadic down here vs. up north. One winter we could get 3-4 good snow storms and then it may not snow again for four years.

Since I do landscaping, long summer vacations are not possible. The best we can do is a 3-4 day trip down to Willow Tree or Ocean Lakes but that's the limit. A big trip like Disney is not even a consideration.

But before we started doing snow removal, we did two trips to the Fort (2006 and 2008) in January. In fact, right around today's date. We'd leave the weekend after MLK Day and stay at least a week or more. It was fantastic and the weather and crowds both times were awesome. Nothing like leaving home at 30 degrees and by the time we get to Jacksonville, its over 70.

We miss doing stuff like that so much, we're contemplating abandoning the snow removal. Its fantastic money but our kids aren't getting any younger.

So now finally my question. What are the chances this time of year, me calling Fort Wilderness and getting a reservation within 2-3 days for maybe a week? In other words, I might would call them today and see if they have anything available this Monday or Tuesday for several days. I trust the long term forecasts enough that if they're saying the following week should be warm and dry, I could easily take time off and we could load up and go. We home-school our kids so that wouldn't be a problem. But we all know how popular the Fort is. I'm just hoping its not as popular in the dead of winter that they could squeeze us in. Our flexibility is open and I'm hoping that would be enough to get us a spot once in awhile.

[ependydad]

Find a travel agent you like and send an email. Let it be their job to check a few times for a couple of days. It doesn't cost you anything.

[DrewE]

tsetsaf wrote:
Chances are always good. Call

What's more, chances are much better when you call than when you don't bother checking. The chances of getting a reservation through mere wistful thinking are pretty near zero, in my experience.

[tsetsaf]

Chances are always good. Call

[lawnspecialties]

As we headed out AGAIN this morning to spread salt and plow snow/ice, we were talking about how to handle this next year.

We don't mind driving. Most RV families don't. Its slightly over 600 miles to the Fort from home. We have done two "Friday-Monday" trips in 2008 but we drove the car and stayed at resorts. That was when we had APs but had sold the TT.

But our thought has always been to take the camper, it needed to be for a week to justify the fuel expense. But not anymore. Who knows what fuel will cost next year but whatever it is, we'll just have to remain open to the idea that we may need to do a Monday-Thursday trip.

As bakedalaskan1 said, maybe we can add a day or two while we're there. If not, we could always see if our schedule works out again before the winter ends and head down there two months in a row. Wouldn't that be crazy. :B

[bakedalaskan1]

Just do it. Have camped at the Fort over 30 times. Call today and book whatever days they have available for your dates. Call again tomorrow and see if any new dates are available. Book any new available days. Call everyday until you fill up your week. We have never not been able to get all our days. (We have always stayed away from busy weeks.) We have even arrived at the gate and added new days. You may have 3 different reservations but they will straighten it all out at the gate. Good luck.

[Bears_Den]

I'm at FW right now it is 36 degrees with a high of 55. I live in Fl and by Fl standards it is cold, I actually turned on the heat this morning to take the chill out. I started looking for sites back on Dec.12 both calling and on the website with no luck. I finally got a site about a week before we wanted to come. The CG is full but it seems to be older folks mainly without kids. Ours are grown but one came down from Charlotte with his family for a long weekend. I am not complaining about the weather though because I'd much rather have no snow than what many other places have right now.

[americanrascal]

We're there now and are seeing several empty sites around (even next to us). Obviously does not mean they aren't booked and may be tough to get a site for a week. We booked 45 days ago for this time slot with no problem and got 11 days. We went back to the phone last week trying to add 3 more days but were only successful with one for a total of 12 days.

Didn't see anyone lined up to get in here in the late afternoon when we went out for a bit.

Maybe flexibility would pay off and offer to move sites as needed to get a week at the old Fort?

Give it a shot.

[Beverley_Ken]

x2 on calling them, We've gotten in on short notice many times, with the exception of peak times, (Easter, July or Christmas). Sunday to Fridays shouldn't be too bad but we have seen lots of FL residents for the weekends.

Ken

[jerseyjim]

All you can do is call. Forget the website, except to make reservations months from now. Y'never know...they may have a cancellation, even fit you RV in somewhere depending on it's size.
If not...there are plenty of great cgs in the area. Try one of the KOAs. I think one of them even offers a shuttle to WDW. Otherwise, you use your toad or rent-a-car. Plenty of them, too.
Get on RVreviews.com. Click on Florida, then Orlando. Or Kissimee or a number of other towns right in that area. Links galore!

g'luck!