Fort Wilderness Campsites?

[Mchurchill96]

Ok, the Readers' Digest version is we have reservations for 8 nights in August, in the Cabins at Fort Wilderness, for our 20th Anniversary (the hubs and I and our 4 kiddos will be road-tripping from Wisconsin). Unfortunately, my hubby has been laid off so much this year, I'm really sweating whether we'll be able to come up with the cost of our trip! (we have a 9 day Magic your way pass, no park-hopper, and Disney Dining). Yes, I know, we could shorten the length of our stay, or go with a Value resort, but here's my thought. We're buying a nice second-hand pop-up camper (very cheap!) from church friends of ours this month, and since we're road-tripping anyway, I thought if any campsites are still available, we could change our reservation so we can stay the full length of time that we planned on, which should save us a significant amount of money. My questions to you are: How miserable would we be (temperature-wise) sleeping in the pop-up in Florida? My hubby is a HVAC guy, he could probably rig an a/c unit (actually--I'd pretty much demand it! Lol). How far would we have to go to get to the rest rooms? Do all the "comfort stations" have showers? Anything else I should be aware of before considering this? I haven't even called yet to see if there are any sites available--thought I'd do a little research first. Thanks so much--I'll be heartbroken if we have to cancel our 20th Anniversary trip, as well as have to break it to our kiddos!

 

[TXWAC]

Sounds like a plan. Have camped at the fort twice in a pop up and had a great time. Definitely work out the AC. Comfort stations are close and better than most hotel facilities. Laundry and ice are right there.

Biggest job will be making the trailer 'yours'. Pop it up in the driveway and clean it out. Then start setting it up. Make sure the mattresses are good. Bonus is you get your own bedding.

At Disney we didn't worry too much about food, but you can pack some basics. You will want to bring hot dog and s'more makings for the Chip and Dale campfire.

If you are a big park person all you really end up doing at the camp is sleep. I would concentrate on the pop up. It will make or break the trip. At the least go on a few shake down weekends. Closer the better.

EDIT: check out the camping forum. More info than you care to ever know. Fun group.

 

[tobikaye]

First, I am going to direct you to check out the Camping Board if you have not. You might get more direct answers there.

http://www.disboards.com/forums/camping-at-disney-world.24/

I have not camped at FW, but I really want to try it soon. I have stayed in the cabins 3 times and I always make sure to check out the different loops. I know that if I was tent or pop up camping during the summer, I would want air conditioning. Depending on the loop you end up in would depend on how far a comfort station, which all have showers, would be. There are 2 loops that are set up for tents/popups. I think one has 2 comfort stations and the other has one station.

 

[disnut8]

I will just tell the story of my family's first trip to Disney World back in 1977 for my sister's high school graduation. We were campers, first rate campers, and would camp at least once a month and our two week summer vacation was "road tripping". And we had - a pop up camper. So that's what we had when we pulled into Fort Wilderness way back then. After we got checked in and set up, we enjoyed Disney World (basically, the Magic Kingdom) for a week and this is what I will never, ever forget. My dad, truck driver and provider for the family who made darn sure he got the most for his money and his time since he didn't get many breaks. He was standing in the middle of the road in front of our campsite. He had his hands in the back pockets of his pants (not jeans) and was just looking around. I asked him if something was wrong (he and I always did the outside work while my sister and mother took care of the inside stuff) and he just looked at me and smiled and said "Disney does it right". No other camping trip was ever the same after staying at Fort Wilderness.