FWCabins compared to DVC

[StormTigger]

Hi there,

Okay, my turn to bounce a question off or you all. Anyone who's stayed in the Fort Wilderness Cabins. I was wondering how they compare to the DVC rooms?

I have a friend who normally stays in the Cabins at Fort Wilderness Camp Grounds, and although I had heard about them never looked into them at all. Well since she goes down often I wanted to talk to her about DVC, but then I started to do just a little research (there doesn't seem to be as much info about the cabins as the other resorts), and discovered that the cabins sleep 6, but are actually in the price range of the DVC studios. Seeing this I started to reevaluate my purchase in DVC , after a moment of panic. I calmed and realized I still made a good purchase, but I can't help but wonderings how the cabins compare to the DVC's.

So long story ... short.. for those of you who have seen or stayed in both.. how do they compare?

Thanks!!

 

[zurgswife]

OK first let me start with I did not enjoy my stay in the cabins...here is my story...

For my husbands 40th birthday I surprised him with a trip to Disney. I reserved the Cabins since friends of mine raved how much the like them. It definately had the campground feel. We pulled up to our Cabin and it was slightly seluded feeling. Upon entering he had a nice kitchenette and table or counter. Smallish living room with Murphy bed and then a bathroom and back bedroom with beds to sleep four. OK size but sort of small as well.

The things that I enjoyed from my other disney stays. Themed pool, gift shop that was close, being able to catch a disney bus with realitive easy...these were missing. So, on the second day I happened to mention to my DH that this was not the Disney experience that I had hopped for....I'm a hotel kind of gal. He said he felt the same way. I immediately picked up the phone and called CRO and explained my feelings and asked was there anything avail. That might have some sort of kitchen that we could switch too.

What she came up with was a Studio-Plus at BWV. It had a frig and microwave. I jumped at the chance. We pre-cooked all of our food and dumped it in the freezer that night. Purchased a syrofom cooler to transport the food in and went to bed relieved we were leaving and excited at the chance at staying at such a deluxe hotel.

Well we loved the studio so much we did the tour and ended up purchasing before leaving that week.

If your friend really loves the Cabins she may not be interested in purchasing DVC. and if she uses them as most Families do to fit a familiy of 5 or 6 a studio wouldn't work as they would need a 2bdrm. But that is what we get. We used to stay at CBR and for basically the same price we get a larger place with a kitchen, washer/dryer, and deluxe amenities...

Good luck with your friends. If it right for them, they will love there decision..

 

[Richyams]

Ft Wilderness Cabins sounds so much nicer than "Permently mounted, cheap trailers"

But that is exactly what these things are. They are meant as an affordable alternative for families with five or six. They are niether nice or luxurious.

 

[luckytso]

I have never stayed at the cabins. I was very intrigued by the concept and there are many people on the resort board raving about it. Plus it has the petting zoo, nightly campfire nearby, and so on.

I was very interested in knowing more until one day I saw the pictures someone posted on their website via the links on their post. That stopped me from ever looking into it further. I guess if you like the rustic feelings and camping, this may be great. We like hotels and not the camping type, and I would not consider staying there. If I like the other activities, I would stay at Wilderness Lodge or Villa and walk over.

It is really coming down to preferences. But I don't think it does justice to compare the cabins with rooms in DVC resorts. I don't want to sound like a resort snob because I do like different Disney resorts as well as DVC resorts and someoffsite places that we may try in the future, but the cabin is not one of them.

 

[Michelemouse]

The cabins are most definitely nice and, as far as cabins go, they are very luxurious. They are themed much like the Wilderness Lodge with rich deep colors. The fixtures and decor are all top-notch.

We actually enjoy the secluded feeling of the cabins. (We also have tent-camped at Fort Wilderness and absolutely love the resort). There are two stores, one in the middle of the resort and one at the marina end. The resort offers a full-range of recreational activities including biking, boating (both on canals and on Bay Lake), horseback riding and more.

Now, as to the comparison between the cabins and DVC, I think it is apples and oranges. We like both but each have their own positives and negatives. If you are going to be staying only in DVC studios then my opinion is that the cabins are a better option. You get a separate bedroom and full kitchen, plus the ability to sleep six. If you will be staying in larger units at DVC then I would go with that option. The larger DVC units have a washer and dryer in each unit (a BIG plus to me) and provide much more space. Also, when you get a 2BR you will have a second bathroom.

But remember, the price of the cabins (and studios) will keep going up with inflation. You have locked your room price in with your DVC purchase.

Rich, perhaps you are thinking of the old Wilderness Homes, which were just basic trailers. The cabins are much, much nicer than those old units. They feel like free-standing homes, rather than trailers (and it can be very nice not to have noisy neighbors!).

 

[JOC]

You could compare all the Disney resorts all day long and everyone will have differing opinions. We loved the cabins when we stayed there last year. They have full kitchens, not kitchenettes, and were more than adequate for our family of three. The peacefulness of having our own "home" to return to after a busy day at the parks was nice. We have yet to go "home" to DVC (first trip will be in December) but my husband hopes our room and stay will be just as nice as our stay at the cabins.

 

[brittsmum1998]

Love the cabins. I found the inside of the cabins beautiful. Recessed lighting, full kitchen. Not much storage in the bedroom though. Very cozy. But not small, at least for our family. We stayed once w/ our family of 3. It is so relaxing but a completely differant feel from DVC. As people said, apples to oranges but not being a "woodsie" type family, we really fell in love w/ them. In as much as its a "waste" to use points there, we do plan on doing just that next year when we go down w/ a couple other families w/ children. And we are very much looking forward to it.

 

[Beth]

We stayed in the cabins for two nights last October on points and really enjoyed it.

Sure we missed our DVC - but this was a really nice change of pace...

I think one of the biggest differences is... With DVC - the only size accomodation that (legally) sleeps six is the 2BR - which is going to have two bathrooms. If you slept 6 in the cabin - you'd be dealing with ONE bathroom!!

Plus - you only have one TV - instead of three - if you're inclined to let the little ones fixate on Disney cartoons while you catch up on news or sports.

But, still - we SO enjoyed FW! We rented golf carts for one day - which was great. The next day we rented bikes and rode all OVER the place. We even rode up to WL and went and had a drink by the bar by the pool. It was a wonderful time!

Understand - it's just DH and I - so there was PLENTY of room for us - but I'm not sure that we'd be comfortable staying with any other adults in the same cabin.

"One" cool thing. Did anybody notice how many towels there were in the bathroom?!? WOW!

 

[JOC]

"One" cool thing. Did anybody notice how many towels there were in the bathroom?!? WOW

We only had Mousekeeping come in every other day but they would leave us sets of clean towels every day. We ended up storing all the extra towels in the hallway closet because the bathroom cabinets were full!!!

 

[chris1gill]

Hmm, I don't think I've seen it mentioned, but the Cabins are only 550 sq. ft... Richyams complains about the size of the 1 bed BWV's, but the BWV's look enormous when compared to the Cabins

Honestly though, I don't think you can compare the cabins to anything else on property... the concept is so very different...

you really need to compare the Cabins to the 1 Bedroom DVC units... the 1 bedroom units have full kitchen, washer/dryer, jacuzzi tub & king bed... it's also about 800 sq. ft. or at OKW I think it's closer to 1000 sq. ft. All the DVC units SCREAM luxury, you may like the theming of the Cabins, but they don't scream luxury to me....

Again, I don't think it's really fair to the cabins to compare them with the DVC units though....

 

[TIdoublegaER]

Ft Wilderness Cabins sounds so much nicer than "Permently mounted, cheap trailers"

You crack me up Rich!

Sue Holland wrote up a piece on the cabins w/photos for Mouseplanet. Here is the site:




They look nice, but no where near as nice as DVC!

 

[TIdoublegaER]

Sorry, I tried to post it as a link and well... it didn't work very well.

 

[JOC]

Here are the Mouseplanet links to Ft. Wilderness info:

http://www.mouseplanet.com/sue_holland/sh030328.htm
http://www.mouseplanet.com/sue_holland/sh030411.htm

 

[TIdoublegaER]

Thanks, JOC! That's the one I was trying to put up there!

 

[JOC]

We thought the cabins were very nice...now I'm really excited about our first DVC stay because everyone is saying it's so much nicer (we bought sight unseen).

 

[Simba's Mom]

We'll find out the answer to this first hand in about 40 days. We reserved a 2 BR at OKW from 5/25-5/30. Then for the weekend, we're staying at FWCabins. Why there? About 15 years ago, when our boys were little, we stayed at the cabins (then they were trailer homes) and loved it. Now our sons are older and this may be our last "family" trip before they go off and start their own families. So this is Mom's nostalgia weekend.
If anyone's interested, I'd be happy to let you know first hand how they compare (although I think it will be hard to truly compare)

 

[tvwalsh]

Originally posted by Simba's Mom
We'll find out the answer to this first hand in about 40 days. We reserved a 2 BR at OKW from 5/25-5/30. Then for the weekend, we're staying at FWCabins. Why there? About 15 years ago, when our boys were little, we stayed at the cabins (then they were trailer homes) and loved it. Now our sons are older and this may be our last "family" trip before they go off and start their own families. So this is Mom's nostalgia weekend.
If anyone's interested, I'd be happy to let you know first hand how they compare (although I think it will be hard to truly compare)

By all means revisit the wilderness cabins on your visit but do that first. The two bedroom at OKW is soooo much nicer that you will not enjoy stepping down to the cabin, honest. Your boys will miss the luxury as much as you will!

 

[Richyams]

THat's right, they were actually trailers at one point and now they are little houses. I think that saying that they are appointed luxuriously is a bit of a stretch. I was in one of the homes with the murphy bed thing, it was not furnished with OKW quality furnture, fixtures or decorations.

I just think six with one bathroom is rough, but its better than overoccupying an OKW one bedroom.....

 

[wdwendyd]

When you say the FW cabins are the same price as a DVC studio, what are you going by? I just checked at Mousesavers.com and the cabins with a code are $169/ night. For the same time period, studios are between 11 and 14 with 27- 32 on the weekends. We figure that our points are worth about $5 to $5.50 per point. That would mean, on the weekends you are paying a little less than for the cabins but during the week, you are paying less than half! And that is if you can get the discount on the cabins. Normally they are $269 per night.

 

[Regina]

I visited a friend staying in a cabin, and it definitely was "cozy."

The bedroom has a set of bunk beds and double bed, while the LR has the Murphy bed. Personally, I don't care for any bedding smaller than a Queen since we have a King bed at home.

The bedroom was very small. Unlike what someone else mentioned, I thought that both the bedroom and LR had TV's, but I could be wrong.

I don't care for the internal bus system that you have to use to get around the complex.

To each his own, but I don't think that there's much of a comparison between the Cabins and DVC.