Good and Bad experience

[klafollette]

My husband and I took a trip down to the Ft. Wilderness campgrounds Friday night for our first camping experience. We got their late afternoon and set up our tent in the 2000 loop and then decided to head over to the petting zoo and explore the area. After we were done walking around we rode the bus over to the meadow area to pick our seats for the 7:30 movie and marshmellow roast.

We had a blast watching the kids and really liked Ms. Sundee's sing-a-long. We bought our Smores kit and roasted some marshmellows. We also got to watch PeterPan on the outdoor movie theater which was pretty neat.

After the movie, we walked back to our tent area. By the time we got ready for bed, it was around 10:30 p.m.

Then it went down hill from there. The people next to us decided to stay up all night LOUDLY talking, laughing, drinking and playing cards. They had two awful little boys that they kept telling to quit throwing things into the fire (which they proceeded to continue to do) and you could see the glow of the flames getting bigger and bigger. Finally a man told them they were going to catch the tree behind them on fire if they didn't quit...so they stopped. I thought I was going to go postal. Finally at about 1:30 a.m. I got out of my tent and asked them politely "Excuse me...Do you guys think you could wrap up your game by at least 2:00?" They said "sure" and appologized which I thought was decent of them. I did overhear them making fun of me..but at least they stayed up until 2:00 then went to bed.

The next morning I was awakened by the same people at 7:00 a.m. loudly talking and laughing. Then the two brat boys started yelling and running around our tent (so close that you could see their shadows from inside and when they ran by it would blow the tent from the breeze they were creating). So working on a little less than 5 hours sleep, we got up and packed our tent and left...and thus the end of our first ever camping experience. My husband and I enjoyed camping, but we are a little reluctant to try it again because of rude people.

Has anyone had any problems with noisy neighbors? Are all campground sites (on and off Disney property) this close together?

 

[sapdaddy]

Don't let one bad experiance spoil your fun of camping. I have been camping for as long as I can remember. There have been only a handful of times that I have had some bad experiances but the majority of the time I have never had a problem. If it had been me I would have gone down to the office (even if it was 1:00am) an filed a complaint. More times than not if an official from the campground shows up most people settle down right away.

Please give it another try.

 

[FWCamper]

I have been camping at the Fort for almost 10 years and have never had a rude neighbor. I usually go to bed by 10pm and only hear the buses or fireworks. I have always found noise in hotels in be worse. We even camp on holidays when most people party. Out of all the places i have camped i find the Fort to have the most space between sites and the trees offer alot of privacy. I have never stayed in the 2000 loop. Sorry you had a bad experience, try it again. That is such a shame , i hope you fall in love with the Fort like the rest of us.

 

[christinou]

I am another one with no bad experience and we have camped there about 8 times, the one thing that puzzle me is that campfire are NOT allowed at the the fort, what kind of fire did they have??

 

[VAN]

We have stayed at Ft. Wilderness many times and have not experienced what you described. Fires are not allowed ... I think I would have reported these people by calling the front desk from the comfort station.

Give it another chance.

 

[klafollette]

christinou - They had a campfire going inside their grill. I talked with my husband and we will definatly give it another try. We liked the facilities (showers were a little iffy - but hey it isn't a resort) and the amenities that the Fort had to offer.

 

[LegoMom3]

christinou - They had a campfire going inside their grill. I talked with my husband and we will definatly give it another try. We liked the facilities (showers were a little iffy - but hey it isn't a resort) and the amenities that the Fort had to offer.

For you FW vets: should a fire in the grill have been allowed, as a "campfire" and not just for cooking?? "No fires" should mean "NO fires!", so I'm just curious. I'm also a tad nervous now about our next trip - we've only been to FW once, and we did tent - it was quiet then, but we've had some awful experiences outside The World with inconsiderate neighbors - Are CMs/staff at FW pretty good at enforcing the rules (by the way, what are "official" quiet hours?).

 

[JCJRSmith]

Are CMs/staff at FW pretty good at enforcing the rules (by the way, what are "official" quiet hours?).

IIRC, the official quiet hours are 10 pm to 8 am. I had to remind our neighbors of this when we were there last June. Three families got together on one site (one camper, two tents, three vehicles) and they were up laughing dancing, listening to music and generally raising a ruckus at midnight. I went over and pointed out the tent ends of our camper (we have a hybrid) and asked them to keep the noise down. They complied and the patriarch of the family even came over to apologize the next morning. They were a very large family from all over Florida, and this weekend was a family reunion of sorts. Never heard another peep out of them the rest of the time.

 

[RocklandRVers]

You know what? Jerks are jerks everywhere not just at Fort Wilderness. We have been there 4 times now and found our fellow settlers very friendly and respectful. Of course we don't tent camp and in our motorhome we don't hear much anyway, but we've never seen rudeness as you described except over July 4th weekend in a NY CAMPGROUND.

This was 3 years ago and since the NY campground we stayed at was PACKED (probably over packed) we got a nice large pull thru site since those were the only sites left. NICE..or so we thought. Shortly after we got set up a couple with a pop up got the last of the pull thrus right next to us. Then after sundown they were joined by 2 other families with tents who also drank and partied until wee hours. By morning yet another group had arrived and they had tents set up in our site!!!!

You see rude uncaring people are not exclusive to Fort Wilderness. If I were you, I wouldn't get involved with drunken potentially dangerous dopes, I would head to the phone at the comfort station and have security come put an end to it. I know they patrol the RV loops. They may not in the tent loops since that might disturb folks.