Camping in December

[hundredacrewood]

We are planning our next trip to WDW in December...staying 16th through 22nd... We were at the Wilderness Lodge last October and had an INCREDIBLE experience... loved the lodge...had free dining...weather was beautiful...

I am both excited and a bit anxious at the thought of camping...although we all LOVE to camp. What is the weather like at WDW in December? In your opinions, is it difficult to transition from the amenities of a deluxe resort to a camper? How is the swimming pool at Ft. Wilderness and are there other amenities that I may not know about? How much does it cost to rent a golf cart? Understanding that we would not qualify for the 'free dining' plan, are there other ways of saving money? Should we book now? How can I find out where the best campsites are? Or are they all the same??


I suppose I would love to hear the "perks" of camping instead of staying in one of the hotels...

Sorry for ALL the questions... I probably have 20 more where those came from!!! Any and all comments/feedback would be very welcomed!!! Thanks!
Lisa

 

[dreaming4disney]

We were at FW for a week just this past Christmas holiday. The weather can be unpredictable. For us low to mid 60's with sunny skies(no rain)
This was our first trip with a trailer. In the past we had stayed at the Poly,GF, BW,PO. We are a family of 5 (DD9,DS7,DS5) For us, having a 27 ft tailer with bunks falls between a dlx hotel room and 2 br suite. It may not be total luxury with room service but it is nice to have your own place,food,coffee, etc and the kids have more room to explore.(you know who slept in the bed last It just feels more relaxing. FW is a beautiful campground. The pools are nice but unthemed(no slides) We had rented a golf cart and loved it! I forget how much.(45/day sounds familiar)
You can save a lot with eating in the trailer, but the meal plan is hard to pass up if you plan on eating out some of the time. We opted for the meal plan and ate brkfst in the trailer and other meals out. It cost a little over $100/day for fam of 5.
Hope the info helps. We have only used our trailer 2 times since we bought it, but we feel happy with the purchase and can't wait to take it back to FW this summer and other small trips this summer.
Michelle

 

[becky1960]

We stayed at WL in Dec 04 (1st week) and the weather was in 80's all week and kids swam every day. We decided to go back in Dec 05(1st week) and stay in FW and the weather was a little cooler and some rain every day although it turned out ok every day. The weather is unpredictiable but we enjoyed it so much we are going back this time Dec 06 thru Christmas. We have stayed in deluxes many times and we sure enjoy FW.

 

[Nickimouse]

We camped at Fort Wilderness last June after staying at other resorts including deluxes. We loved our stay!
I wanted to say if you want to stay in December you should reserve right away. According to the website the campground is sold out,but I would suggest you call and see if they can help. There are always cancellations.
Good luck!

 

[hundredacrewood]

Oh my goodness... I never dreamed it would be sold out... it was supposedly still "value season", so I thought it would be less crowded!!! Boy that would sure change the plans!
Thanks for the messages...it always helps to hear about other peoples' experiences!
Lisa

 

[becky1960]

After we came back last Dec 05, I called to make Resv's Dec 18-28 06 and the campground was booked solid at that time frame. I called several days in a roll for cancellations, and no luck. I called back and loll and behold the reservations CM was from my town and area with her family still here, she stated " let me what I can do". What she did was make reservation for me starting earlier and then cancelling some days and extending my reservation thru my days. I ended up with value season rates all the way and have resv in hand. I don't know if this can always be done, but I do know that a lot of people are cancelling because of high gas or so they are saying on other Disney sites.

 

[hundredacrewood]

Then please explain why this doesn't show up when I do the "reservations and scheduling" thing on the Disney world website... if I go to the site, and enter my dates of arrival and departure, it gives me a price...then I add the dining and park hopper options, and it gives me a new price...then I even purposely clicked on "Book" to see if then they would say "Sorry sold out" but it went straight to being ready for my credit card number.... Is there another website where this information is posted?? I guess I just need to quit the online stuff and call and speak to someone... Sure wish I could find someone from MY hometown!!! ha...
Thanks for all your info!
Lisa

 

[becky1960]

If their site lets you book, then there probably is availibility , we have always booked by phone. There several campsite types; Preferred, Fullhookup, Tent and Cabin. We were looking for Preferred, and as I stated we were booking several months ago so there are probably many changes in booking's from month to month.
I think you will enjoy Dec. as many people stay the the whole month and decorate their sites for Christmas.