Fort Wilderness 2021 Campsite Rack Rate Analysis

[bama_ed]

Folks,

For the seventh year in a row, I have done a review of the coming year's campsite rates to look at trends, changes, and updates. The review comes courtesy of the raw data available at www.mousesavers.com who are really a great resource in general.

The rates that they show (and I use) are Rack Rates (non-discounted) with applicable tax included - in other words, this represents your nightly out-of-pocket cost. This is a good place to go to when trying to price out various dates or site levels for a future vacation at Fort Wilderness. As of this writing, Disney still has not allowed anyone to book a reservation beyond 9/26/21 but at some point that restriction will come off and Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas times will fill up quickly.

A couple of observations:

- First the data shows a rate "season" which Disney no longer officially uses but the dates can be correlated to their past seasons to allow for year-over-year comparisons. Of course dates change for when a season starts or stops but they help make general comparisons possible. Discounts released throughout the year would lower these if available.
- Second it appears that Disney "overreached" with its 2020 spring rates and they came back to reality a bit (mostly on weekdays) with prices reductions or smaller increases on weekdays (see the "Spring" row in the Heat Map). Those 2020 price increases over 2019 were big. Same for the April Marathon even ("Marathon 3" - 2020 was TOO much of an increase so 2021 came down).
- Third Premium Meadow is now an established category of campsite loops. When 2020 rates came out and were compared to 2019 rates, it was a big jump since 2019 didn't have the Meadow category.
- Fourth, Disney is now officially onto the weekend folks in the fall. The week after Thanksgiving is over, the first week of December is set with higher rates versus 2020. And then each week gets progressively more expensive all the way to New Years (see the price increases, particularly on the weekends as the Fall week passes to Winter week passes to Winter 2 passes to Holiday passes to Holiday 2).

First the rates by date (again rack rate with tax included):



Here are the same rates but listed by season:



Here is the heat map by season (price increases in 2021 compared to the same season/level price in 2020). Some negative numbers and some pretty big increases in other places:



Want to live at the Fort full-time (on back-to-back 30 day reservations of course)? Here is what it will cost you for 365 days at rack rate with tax and the percent increase over 2020:

Tent: $42,645 (+6.6%)
Full: $56,063 (+9.2%)
Preferred: $63,258 (+10.3%)
Premium: $67,131 (+10.5%)
P-Meadow: $72,852 (+10.6%)

Overall increase (every site booked every night at rack rate): +9.9%

Speaking of which, at rack rate if every site were booked every night, all the campsites at Fort Wilderness would generate $52.9 million dollars of revenue+tax.

Note the Premium Meadow Holiday 2 rate (Christmas-New Years 2021) is $281 - won't be long till we cross the $300/night barrier. (I remember when we crossed the $100/night barrier and we all cried about it).

If anyone finds an error, send me a PM and I will look into it and attempt to correct.

Bama Ed

PS - I know we all will grumble about price increases but until people stop going, prices will go up.

PPS - these rates are good for at the time they were pulled and compiled. Disney can always tweak them but here's where we stand currently.

 

[ucf_knight]

I’ve seen your posts/replies on here for a while now and you’re such a great resource for all things fort. Thanks for what you do.

 

[PaHunter]

Well ouch.

 

[Stork]

...Speaking of which, at rack rate if every site were booked every night, all the campsites at Fort Wilderness would generate $52.9 million dollars of revenue+tax...

First, thank you Mr Bama Ed.
Second, how much more than the $52.9 million potential income generated would it be if you included the cabin rentals, which are definitely part of FW?
And third, how does that $52.9 compare to say the Art of Animation or Grand Floridian?
Curious how we stand compared to the rest of WDW in terms of our perceived value to the company.

 

[bama_ed]

First, thank you Mr Bama Ed.
Second, how much more than the $52.9 million potential income generated would it be if you included the cabin rentals, which are definitely part of FW?
And third, how does that $52.9 compare to say the Art of Animation or Grand Floridian?
Curious how we stand compared to the rest of WDW in terms of our perceived value to the company.

Well you have to work out the numbers - but it would be good to not only know the Fort number but how it compares to its neighboring, on-property resorts.

Never done the cabin impact but the data source probably has the rates. And it would be fairly simple since cabins are not designated by type (Preferred, Premium, etc.) - there is in essence only one type.

The one thing I'm not sure of is how many cabins there are precisely. Bet there is a number out there somewhere, though. I might attempt that cabin number even if it is a rough count estimate.

But that's the problem with doing a comparison to, say, Pop Century. Pop has four room categories apparently (Standard, Standard Pool, Preferred, Preferred Pool). But you would need to know how many of each type there were. The number may be out there but I know where Fort resources are to use for the campsite calc.

And finally, Pop, it appears (because I never really looked till now) that the resorts like Pop can have up to THREE different rates during a week. Example: at Pop in 2021 for their "Summer 2" season Aug 8-Aug 21 for a Standard room they show $202 for Mon-Tue-Wed, $218 for Sun and Thur, and $254 for Fri and Sat. So you need to count how many of each day for each season period. It could be done but would drive me crazy doing so.

I might look at adding the cabin number but will not attempt another resort for the time being.

People said I would need something to do in retirement .

ED

 

[bama_ed]

I’ve seen your posts/replies on here for a while now and you’re such a great resource for all things fort. Thanks for what you do.

Thank you.

And I only notice this morning that the higher "Spring" rates which in the past have appeared in Feb-May has now stuck itself into late January and taken away another week or two of Value rates. Thanks Disney - that was a time frame I was aiming for in later years.

Ed

 

[Stork]

Well you have to work out the numbers - but it would be good to not only know the Fort number but how it compares to its neighboring, on-property resorts.

Never done the cabin impact but the data source probably has the rates. And it would be fairly simple since cabins are not designated by type (Preferred, Premium, etc.) - there is in essence only one type.

The one thing I'm not sure of is how many cabins there are precisely. Bet there is a number out there somewhere, though. I might attempt that cabin number even if it is a rough count estimate.

But that's the problem with doing a comparison to, say, Pop Century. Pop has four room categories apparently (Standard, Standard Pool, Preferred, Preferred Pool). But you would need to know how many of each type there were. The number may be out there but I know where Fort resources are to use for the campsite calc.

And finally, Pop, it appears (because I never really looked till now) that the resorts like Pop can have up to THREE different rates during a week. Example: at Pop in 2021 for their "Summer 2" season Aug 8-Aug 21 for a Standard room they show $202 for Mon-Tue-Wed, $218 for Sun and Thur, and $254 for Fri and Sat. So you need to count how many of each day for each season period. It could be done but would drive me crazy doing so.

I might look at adding the cabin number but will not attempt another resort for the time being.

People said I would need something to do in retirement .

ED

Wow, too involved for me and my 10th grade math to handle. Understand the answer doesn't justify the totality of the work required to find it; what would we do with the final product anyway...just curious where FW stands in the hierarchy of importance to WDW bottom line. But now I know how to find the answer if I am THAT curious. Thanks.

 

[Sjm9911]

Wow ed, $$$$$. Lucky i got promoted. Lol.

 

[StormyCA]

Thanks so much for your hard work, Ed. I've added the nightly rates for our 2021 stay (Spring, preferred site) to my budget sheets for reference. For our dates weekdays shows -11% and weekends only +1%. Nice. We were there in 2019 so I'll have to see what the price difference is for us for 2019 vs 2021.

Edit; Just checked....It's about $30 more per night over our stay 2019. Yikes, but worth it!

 

[bama_ed]

Yikes indeed

 

[Corgidad]

Once again like in the previous years bama_ed has burst everyones magic with the numbers. I have been waiting for this post as I like everyone else knew it was coming. Just wish you were better at another subject anything but math. Seriously though we all appreciate all the work you put into this and every post that you make here. Your knowledge helps so many first time posters and seasoned veterans. We are all lucky to have you, just slow down with the math. bama_ed is the MAN......

 

[bama_ed]

Once again like in the previous years bama_ed has burst everyones magic with the numbers.

Corgidad, although I hate being the bearer of bad news, I think folks need to know before starting to plan. The way prices are headed, I am going to have to pay more attention to the numbers on the PowerBall/MegaMillions lottery billboards now as I drive through Georgia and Florida.

And then maybe actually buy a lotto ticket.

And then maybe actually win some money.

Just to pay for my WDW vacation in the future.

Bama Ed

PS - my little state of Alabama has no lottery, no gambling, no slots, no sports books. We're not as progressive as, dare I say it, Mississippi in that regard And Disney keeps chipping away at the Value season that I want to try to aim for a longer stay in someday.

 

[Bishoparc]

Do you all realize that right now folks in states outside of Florida are getting cheaper rates than I am? Florida isn't eligible for the "Magic is here" rate so on a premium, the other states are paying $17 less a night than me. I checked our current Florida resident rates and the Fort isn't listed in it at all.

 

[cruising spud]

Our last Fort Wilderness visit was April 2019. After we set up, I did take a few minutes to soak up the feeling of amazement for paying such an exorbitant amount of money for a patch of dirt.

 

[bama_ed]

The Ignore filter works again. It blocks junk from my view - it's a great feature of the DIS boards.