Fort Widerness

[Sargehut234]

Planning a trip to Walt Disney's Fort Wilderness.
Any tips or opinions.
Sarge

[DavidP]

Been going the last 9 years over Easter and we love it. Looking forward to it again this year!

[Cecilt]

We will be at the Fort in just over 3 weeks for 8 nights over Spring Break and can't wait. We love the Fort and Disney. It is expensive no doubt but that comes with the territory. Being able to drive to the parks and park for free, take food from our camper to the parks so we don't have to have a dining plan, the boat ride to MK and riding around the Fort on our golf cart are priceless. This will be our 4th Spring Break trip since 2012.

[PghBob]

Ok guys, we have different opinions. That's OK and let's leave it at that.

Thanks.

[suprz]

Seeing how you have been here for such a long time and im not unique, i guess you know what you are talking about, so you have a good day. Glad you will be at Disney. Enjoy your stay.

[soren]

suprz wrote:

soren wrote:

suprz wrote:

soren wrote:

suprz wrote:
Hated it. Too expensive. Sites electrical in the far back corner, never saw one employee that looked happy. Only time we did see an employee was on our last morning, asking us if we would be out by 10:00 am. Its overpriced and over hyped. I lived in california for 28 years went to disneyland at least 2 times a year, is disneyworld bigger and better, YES, but i would never waste my money camping at fort wilderness again

Spent at least 100+ nights there, and I have yet to meet an unpleasant employee, and never got asked about when we were pulling out. This trip, (two weeks ago) was the first time I got a site that had the power WAY too far to the rear of the pad, but it isn't typical. To each his own, but when you are running an operation that has 100% occupancy for months on end, demand pricing that results in $150+ a night prices in some time slots, and folks obsessively surfing your website in hopes of hitting a rarely available cancellation, and a chance to get into the place for a few days, I'm pretty sure they aren't losing much sleep over the statistically tiny number of haters out there. When it comes to the North American RV resort market, I doubt that there is a better run, more profitable operation, with a higher customer satisfaction rating.

"More profitable operation" --- MAYBE, But, You doubt that there is a better run resort, with a higher customer satisfaction rating??? Come on.... :R

I spent weeks try to find a few available days in the first three months of this year, and eventually turned the task over to a travel agent that specializes in the task. She was only partially successful, but I took whatever she could get. When I book for Christmas weeks I book 15 months ahead. Any later than that, and they are full. As I mentioned previously, I NEVER met a single employee with anything less that a friendly professional attitude. The place is operated to such excessive standards that you can drive around after a night of heavy frost, and see landscape crews quickly replacing flowering perennials that died overnight. This is as the sun is coming up. I don't know what irrational standard you would use for customer satisfaction, but mine is pretty simple. If you have 100% occupancy, while charging a multiple of average rates in the business, and you are turning customers away, I'm guessing that most of them are pretty satisfied. I've talked to hundreds of neighbors at our FW campsites over the last two decades, and one striking observation is that unhappy campers are pretty rare. If you didn't like it, that's fine, move on. There are plenty of folks waiting to take your spot. Attempting to dis one of the highest rated, most successful resorts in the industry for things like the fact that you were asked if you were leaving by ten (oh, the horror of that) or that the power outlet was a bit further away than you like.....................seriously? Sounds like that's not the only place that was happy to see your tail lights.

So i dont agree with you about fort wilderness, and my truths hurt your feelings about the place and you have to make it personal about the kind of person and camper that i am? Sorry very sad

LOL. your "Truths" are nothing that hurt my feelings, or impact the situation in the least. In fact, I'm sure that many of us that really like the place secretly would hope that more guests would leave, and say "never again", since it would make it a lot easier to get a reservation.

My post is just an observation of your comments. You stay at what is considered by many to be the best CG in North America, you have a few minor complaints, and claim that it absolutely sucks. Sorry, but this looks like the kind of situation where the customer simply isn't going to be happy, regardless of how much effort is taken to provide a quality experience. I've been here a long time, and you're not unique. There are many threads where the vast majority of members will highly recommend a CG or RV resort, only to have one outlier who vigorously claims that it sucks. Often the detractor has a few really petty issues, and after they respond to a few subsequent posts, it becomes clear that they wouldn't be satisfied if the ownership agreed to shoot all the employees, and burn the facility to the ground.

Nothing personal, hope you recovered from your Fort Wilderness experience, and can move on.

[suprz]

soren wrote:

suprz wrote:

soren wrote:

suprz wrote:
Hated it. Too expensive. Sites electrical in the far back corner, never saw one employee that looked happy. Only time we did see an employee was on our last morning, asking us if we would be out by 10:00 am. Its overpriced and over hyped. I lived in california for 28 years went to disneyland at least 2 times a year, is disneyworld bigger and better, YES, but i would never waste my money camping at fort wilderness again

Spent at least 100+ nights there, and I have yet to meet an unpleasant employee, and never got asked about when we were pulling out. This trip, (two weeks ago) was the first time I got a site that had the power WAY too far to the rear of the pad, but it isn't typical. To each his own, but when you are running an operation that has 100% occupancy for months on end, demand pricing that results in $150+ a night prices in some time slots, and folks obsessively surfing your website in hopes of hitting a rarely available cancellation, and a chance to get into the place for a few days, I'm pretty sure they aren't losing much sleep over the statistically tiny number of haters out there. When it comes to the North American RV resort market, I doubt that there is a better run, more profitable operation, with a higher customer satisfaction rating.

"More profitable operation" --- MAYBE, But, You doubt that there is a better run resort, with a higher customer satisfaction rating??? Come on.... :R

I spent weeks try to find a few available days in the first three months of this year, and eventually turned the task over to a travel agent that specializes in the task. She was only partially successful, but I took whatever she could get. When I book for Christmas weeks I book 15 months ahead. Any later than that, and they are full. As I mentioned previously, I NEVER met a single employee with anything less that a friendly professional attitude. The place is operated to such excessive standards that you can drive around after a night of heavy frost, and see landscape crews quickly replacing flowering perennials that died overnight. This is as the sun is coming up. I don't know what irrational standard you would use for customer satisfaction, but mine is pretty simple. If you have 100% occupancy, while charging a multiple of average rates in the business, and you are turning customers away, I'm guessing that most of them are pretty satisfied. I've talked to hundreds of neighbors at our FW campsites over the last two decades, and one striking observation is that unhappy campers are pretty rare. If you didn't like it, that's fine, move on. There are plenty of folks waiting to take your spot. Attempting to dis one of the highest rated, most successful resorts in the industry for things like the fact that you were asked if you were leaving by ten (oh, the horror of that) or that the power outlet was a bit further away than you like.....................seriously? Sounds like that's not the only place that was happy to see your tail lights.

So i dont agree with you about fort wilderness, and my truths hurt your feelings about the place and you have to make it personal about the kind of person and camper that i am? Sorry very sad

[soren]

suprz wrote:

soren wrote:

suprz wrote:
Hated it. Too expensive. Sites electrical in the far back corner, never saw one employee that looked happy. Only time we did see an employee was on our last morning, asking us if we would be out by 10:00 am. Its overpriced and over hyped. I lived in california for 28 years went to disneyland at least 2 times a year, is disneyworld bigger and better, YES, but i would never waste my money camping at fort wilderness again

Spent at least 100+ nights there, and I have yet to meet an unpleasant employee, and never got asked about when we were pulling out. This trip, (two weeks ago) was the first time I got a site that had the power WAY too far to the rear of the pad, but it isn't typical. To each his own, but when you are running an operation that has 100% occupancy for months on end, demand pricing that results in $150+ a night prices in some time slots, and folks obsessively surfing your website in hopes of hitting a rarely available cancellation, and a chance to get into the place for a few days, I'm pretty sure they aren't losing much sleep over the statistically tiny number of haters out there. When it comes to the North American RV resort market, I doubt that there is a better run, more profitable operation, with a higher customer satisfaction rating.

"More profitable operation" --- MAYBE, But, You doubt that there is a better run resort, with a higher customer satisfaction rating??? Come on.... :R

I spent weeks try to find a few available days in the first three months of this year, and eventually turned the task over to a travel agent that specializes in the task. She was only partially successful, but I took whatever she could get. When I book for Christmas weeks I book 15 months ahead. Any later than that, and they are full. As I mentioned previously, I NEVER met a single employee with anything less that a friendly professional attitude. The place is operated to such excessive standards that you can drive around after a night of heavy frost, and see landscape crews quickly replacing flowering perennials that died overnight. This is as the sun is coming up. I don't know what irrational standard you would use for customer satisfaction, but mine is pretty simple. If you have 100% occupancy, while charging a multiple of average rates in the business, and you are turning customers away, I'm guessing that most of them are pretty satisfied. I've talked to hundreds of neighbors at our FW campsites over the last two decades, and one striking observation is that unhappy campers are pretty rare. If you didn't like it, that's fine, move on. There are plenty of folks waiting to take your spot. Attempting to dis one of the highest rated, most successful resorts in the industry for things like the fact that you were asked if you were leaving by ten (oh, the horror of that) or that the power outlet was a bit further away than you like.....................seriously? Sounds like that's not the only place that was happy to see your tail lights.

[WTP-GC]

We go there at about 1-2 times a year, but we pick the times when rates are lower and the weather is cooler. We recently looked at going during spring break, but the nightly rate would have ended up being at least $180 per night, so we picked a hotel instead. The difference is that we live 2 hours away, so we can do 2 parks and a single hotel night but for camping, to do 2 parks (2 days) you really need to be at the Fort for 3 nights.

I've always thought of the Fort as a convenient place to stay in your camper, but never a place to go camping. The sites can be challenging to get into sometimes, and we've had some run-ins with careless and reckless attitudes of drivers who want too drive waaaaayyyyy too fast. However, we've gemerally had positive experiences. One thing we've decided not to do again is going there without going to the parks. We got pretty bored of just hanging around the campground all day, because there's really nothing to do there.

I do find it ironic when people who drive $60K plus trucks, pulling $30K-$50K (or more) rigs from several hours away write off the Fort due to the high prices. Like having a beach-front house and complaining about the cost of insurance...

[Acampingwewillg]

Its expensive, we all know that but I do agree, Disney goes out of its way to make sure your stay is "magical" to coin a phrase. And I do agree that you would be hard pressed to find a better run large scale Resort anyplace in the world! I am always looking for discounts when I'm checking on rates at the Fort...but then again, I try to check during the slow season(if ever) haha 🙂

[suprz]

soren wrote:

suprz wrote:
Hated it. Too expensive. Sites electrical in the far back corner, never saw one employee that looked happy. Only time we did see an employee was on our last morning, asking us if we would be out by 10:00 am. Its overpriced and over hyped. I lived in california for 28 years went to disneyland at least 2 times a year, is disneyworld bigger and better, YES, but i would never waste my money camping at fort wilderness again

Spent at least 100+ nights there, and I have yet to meet an unpleasant employee, and never got asked about when we were pulling out. This trip, (two weeks ago) was the first time I got a site that had the power WAY too far to the rear of the pad, but it isn't typical. To each his own, but when you are running an operation that has 100% occupancy for months on end, demand pricing that results in $150+ a night prices in some time slots, and folks obsessively surfing your website in hopes of hitting a rarely available cancellation, and a chance to get into the place for a few days, I'm pretty sure they aren't losing much sleep over the statistically tiny number of haters out there. When it comes to the North American RV resort market, I doubt that there is a better run, more profitable operation, with a higher customer satisfaction rating.

"More profitable operation" --- MAYBE, But, You doubt that there is a better run resort, with a higher customer satisfaction rating??? Come on.... :R

[soren]

suprz wrote:
Hated it. Too expensive. Sites electrical in the far back corner, never saw one employee that looked happy. Only time we did see an employee was on our last morning, asking us if we would be out by 10:00 am. Its overpriced and over hyped. I lived in california for 28 years went to disneyland at least 2 times a year, is disneyworld bigger and better, YES, but i would never waste my money camping at fort wilderness again

Spent at least 100+ nights there, and I have yet to meet an unpleasant employee, and never got asked about when we were pulling out. This trip, (two weeks ago) was the first time I got a site that had the power WAY too far to the rear of the pad, but it isn't typical. To each his own, but when you are running an operation that has 100% occupancy for months on end, demand pricing that results in $150+ a night prices in some time slots, and folks obsessively surfing your website in hopes of hitting a rarely available cancellation, and a chance to get into the place for a few days, I'm pretty sure they aren't losing much sleep over the statistically tiny number of haters out there. When it comes to the North American RV resort market, I doubt that there is a better run, more profitable operation, with a higher customer satisfaction rating.

[soren]

Lwiddis wrote:
$75 to a hundred per night? I’ll pass. “They pave over paradise and put up a parking lot.”

The place is beautifully wooded, with incredible landscaping, and it's continually and meticulously maintained. If it's not what you're into, that's fine. But it's about as far the song lyrics you quote, as a campground can possibly be. As for price, It can go far higher than your numbers, and having been there 17-18 times now, it's always worth the price.

[suprz]

Hated it. Too expensive. Sites electrical in the far back corner, never saw one employee that looked happy. Only time we did see an employee was on our last morning, asking us if we would be out by 10:00 am. Its overpriced and over hyped. I lived in california for 28 years went to disneyland at least 2 times a year, is disneyworld bigger and better, YES, but i would never waste my money camping at fort wilderness again

[Sargehut234]

I can't seem to find which sites are"premium".