I wanted to update this thread now that we are back from the Treehouse Villas. First, they are a lovely place to stay. It was very quiet at night, although during the day there are lots of staff carts and buses. It didn’t appear to be fully booked, especially during the week. We put out a bucket of candy daily and had some takers, certainly not like the campground.
Regarding our promised access to the Fort for Halloween and how that worked out.. well I can’t say that went smoothly, as I feared. On Saturday afternoon we went down to the Carriage House to inquire about the bus later and were told there was no bus, only those displaced staying at Port Orleans were to have access, in fact our folio was flagged no access. The cast member at Saratoga could not help and suggested we speak directly with a manager at Fort Wilderness. Two of us hopped a bus to Hollywood Studios and transferred to the Fort to speak with the manager. He took my information and went into the back to look over our notes. He came back and apologized and said what were told at Saratoga was correct that we were to have no access and questioned how were even got there on the bus, because they were supposed to be verifying who got on at the parks (they weren’t). After I explained the few phone calls I got about the overbooking and mentioned that the cast member who called me the second time said ‘they were given new guidance’ when they offered me the treehouse, he said just a minute and went back and read through the notes again. He then agreed that it appeared that it was implied we would have access, because other reservations he looked up that day specifically said ‘guest agrees to no access’ while ours did not. I have to assume something changed after our call because in order to comp rooms we were supposed to agree to no access due to capacity issues, but I can’t say for sure. In the end he said it was a cast member error and agreed to let us have access on Sat after 5 and Sun after 3, if we drove over and the guard gate could be told we were ok to let in, as he couldn’t control other means of entry.
That being said, we came over later Saturday and whoa .. we have camped a few weeks before Halloween and I have to say we prefer it then. We walked from main parking to 600, 500, 400, 1400, then back down to 1600, 1700. Couldn't believe the overflow parking all down the main drag! Didn’t check out the beach bash happening that night. The decorations were fun, but it was just too crazy, especially with us having tent campers, had we camped. Too many people, too many carts, too much noise, too much stuff to navigate a rig through, a little anxiety inducing for one in our group. In fact I got vetoed to go back on Sunday knowing it would be even crazier, in favor of football. But hey now we know and probably won’t be fighting for that much coveted reservation next time. I get the hype though if that’s your jam!
Halloween decorations at the Treehouse
Edited to add: We did set up the Blackstone outside and had no issues, it was great. On Friday morning we went to the Fort to get ornaments and walked in through the exit by the Four Seasons, while some in our party made a gas and grocery stop and came back to pick us up and no one questioned us walking through there at all. In hindsight, I should have followed up with the front desk and manager then instead of making the trip over Saturday to square things away.
We were also surprised to see at least 6 open sites when we were walking through.
