Bama Ed thank you first of all for all of your wonderful, detailed information you provide to us newbies. I've been planning our first trip to the Ft. for this spring break since last March! Your enthusiasm for the resort gets me and my kids all the more excited! We will be arriving on Good Friday 3/29, have a rented pop up coming, and I've requested the 1500 loop due to smaller size and it looks like a good location to the pool, etc. We also have a golf cart reserved with Kenny and we are stoked! I saw a pic the other day where the water was behind the campsites and a perfect lawn chair was set up on the bank. Oh how I can see my husband and kids (and me too of course) drowning some baits back there as we enjoy the Fort! According to the map the 1500 loop appears to partially boarder the water, so as my expert
what are my chances of reserving a waterside site at check in? I know there's NO guarantees, I just think that would be such a fun feature as fishing is a pass time we enjoy. I plan to only do 2 park days this trip and we're there for 6 nights so I WANT some down time. Again, I am so excited and this board has been SOOOOO helpful! Packing lists and dinner ideas have already started!
MDKLHunter,
You asked for my opinion so I will give it to you.
You can make requests regarding sites (as you said, no guarentee) but for people requesting 1500 (if you have a Partial site reserved with the only alternative being 2000), the odds are not in your favor but there are things you can do to improve your chances.
People (including myself) request 1500 over 2000 because it IS close to the Pool area. You'll have a Kenny Kart so the walking or waiting for the bus won't be that big of an issue.
If you don't know, 1500 has 21 sites and 2000 has 69 sites. So right off the bat, the chances of getting assigned to 1500 are only 23% (21/90) assuming an even distribution. Given that more people request 1500 rather than 2000 your chances are less than 20%.
However if you DO request 1500 as a note in your ressie or even to the Fort CM checking you in, they will try to accomodate you if one is available.
Your time of visit (around Easter) is sure to have a jam packed Fort with some of the highest prices of the year (except Christmas-New Years).
There are two canals bordering 1500-the wide one in the back runs down behind loop 300 to Bay Lake with sites 1510, 1511, 1513, 1514 backing up to it. (We stayed in 1513 for Thanksgiving week 2009 and you are right it's nice and quiet back there). 1509 (maybe) and 1512 are on the inside of the circle across the road from the others I named. There is a locked vehicle gate between 1513 and 1511 to permit Disney vehicles down by the canal and this is also a nice entry way to get back there for anyone without having to go through someone's campsite.
The second canal is narrow and runs back under the road and by the pool on the way back to the pond between the Bike Barn and the Meadow TP. Outer sites that back up to this are 1516, 1517, 1519, 1520 (I stayed in 1520 last trip). The canal is further back behind these and it is perfectly acceptable to walk along the back of this narrower canal if you want access to the water. The canal is far enough back from the road that, again, you feel like you aren't infringing on people's sites.
Definitely add a request to your ressie for a site along a canal in 1500.
So to get a request here's what you do to improve your chances:
1. try to check in on a Sunday-Thursday (more people come in on weekend nights). This isn't possible in your case but it helps generally speaking.
2. check in time of day is critical. The EARLIER you can check in the BETTER. Think about it:
In my example in the previous post, I told you how I checked in even though my site wasn't ready yet. THAT LOCKED DOWN MY SITE ASSIGNMENT. It couldn't be changed. (Once you check in that assigned site is yours-I verified this with the CM). But let's say I didn't check in until 4pm. You are arriving the same day as me and also requested 1500. Neither of us knows what our pre-assigned site numbers are.
But if I was pre-assigned a 1500 site and you weren't, and you arrived before me and asked for a 1500 site once you checked in, they would probably give you my site (I wouldn't know what I was missing). So later when I roll in they will tell me "I'm sorry but 1500 is already full" and give me a site in 2000. That happened to me in April 2011 and I was disappointed so on the way to 2000 I circled thru 1500 and sure enough, 1500 WAS full.
So you or your company setting up the popup, whoever gets there first should try to get there as early as reasonably possible to lock down a 1500 site if it was preassigned to you or to request it at the gate if it wasn't (even if it has not been vacated by the previous campers yet, cleaned, blown, and prepped).
If you can't get a canal site then take any 1500 site. Or be happy with your 2000 site. It can't hurt to ask and if your request is granted, fine, but there are no bad sites at the Fort.
Bama ED
PS - sorry for being so wordy!