Is FW out-dated?

[mash]

I don't think that FW is necessarily out-dated. However, it does seem like the rates continue to increase while the amenities are decreasing (old pool, swamp trail, petting farm, river country, etc). It is still very clean and well maintained and we always love our visits. It seems as if FW is the one resort they are forgetting to "re-invest" and maybe it's because it's so darned popular! I hope that all the rumors of upgrades on this board and mouseplanet are true.

 

[LargoLori]

Hey Lori, hows things going???

Just great!! Having fun planning our April trip to the Fort. How are you???

 

[LargoLori]

I just read this on Mouseplanet:

Fort Wilderness renovations/upgrades on the way
The renovation project slated to take three to five years will include a new pool area in the next year and a half, which may be inspired by the themed pool at Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort, including a slide and a hot tub. About a dozen new campsites will also be added, featuring wider and longer campsites.

Here's the link:http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=wd080121mg

Wow, that is great news!! Thanks for the info!

 

[poohbearwithme]

I get a chuckle at seeing all the high dollar campers at the fort.......not a child to be found in or around any of them......

I don't mean to be the darkside of the this discussion and before you chuckle too loud...you should consider not everyone who chooses to camp and not have children "to be found"... Don't always make that choice themselves, something it's not theirs to make. Not everyone who don't have a child "to be found" do it because they didn't want children "to be found". You don't always now the whole story on that one...

 

[Gatordad]

Just great!! Having fun planning our April trip to the Fort. How are you???

not too bad..... we are going in March, not sure if we will hit the Fort anytime before Memorial day

 

[CottontailCurl]

Well I'm one of those believers that the Fort was intended for all the blue collar FAMILY folk......nothing wrong with that......Walt wanted every angle covered...

I would say to the fort..... take back the cable tv.........you can have your wi-fi.....keep your dog walk......take away the remodeled CS they never bothered me or my family....

Give me back the steam train and the children that rode it with glee.........give me back the beaches and the sand castles and moms and dads buried to thier chins......let me wake to roosters crowing and peacocks singing........

Very well said.

 

[des1954]

I really miss a couple of things about the "Old Fort".

1) The train. (nuff said)

2) The light snacks you could get at Crockett's (not the full menu meals).

After a "hard day" of looping, hanging out with other campers, or a day at one of the parks, it was fun to go to Crockett's & get an order of buffalo wings, a slice of pizza, and a cold BEER!! Yeah, the prices were a little higher, but it was right there in your "back yard" & you could pull your golf cart into the parking area across from the Ol' Front Porch & walk in.

3) All the woodsy, pre-clearing ambience.

I really do not like all the clearing and no one at the front desk has given me a viable reason why it's been done. I've heard everything from pest management to fire control to security. Well, they've always done a good job at pest control at FtW, and if they're worried about fires, then ban smoking everywhere so smokers won't "puff and toss". Open fires have long since been banned at the Fort, so other than smokers carelessly tossing a butt, where's the danger? Security???? They've only made it easier for things to be stolen from your site by creating easy access for a "snatch & run". A friend of ours who camps each winter at FtW has taken to chaining & padlocking his GC to the picnic table each night because he's afraid it will turn up missing one morning.

All the bushes & vines housed beautiful cardinals & blue jays, rabbits, armadillos, hawks and owls. We even saw a bobcat on the sidewalk from the 1300 loop to Meadow Trading Post! We've camped at the Fort 5 times since they started clearing this year and have seen only a few rabbits and squirrels. No cardinals or jays which I always enjoyed seeing & giving peanuts to. It's just so sad to see the Fort gutted out & stripped of its' personality. The foliage also helped to buffer any noise from busses or other "happy" campers. I really loved the Fort back in it's original day of each site being carved out of the foliage. You never saw anyone on either side of you. Now, you're looking right into their camping equipment. Sad, sad.

The price per day at the Fort is relative to income. When we first went to FtW in October 1974, the cost was $8.00 + tax per nite. All sites were only equipped for water & electricity (no sewer back then that I remember). Now, in 1974 I was only making $2.12 per hour (and that was about $.70 above minimum wage for that time) - so $8.00/nite seemed a fortune to me. Today's rates are not out of line to income ratio - IMHO.

 

[auntie]

I'm a bit worried by all the thining of the brush I here people talk about also. We were there in May, and I did start to notice loops closed completely and clearning being done..woodchips placed on some of the sites.
We use to go to a campground/RV Park in the Adirondacks Mts. of NY..and they did this to a particular area of their campground. Tore out all the natural brush..and cut down trees. Planted shurbery between the sites. It looks so "un-natural"....funny thing is..that particular area used to be called "the pines"...now they may as well just paved it over if you ask me. Very startling when we saw it last year..looked stripped naked of it's natural beauty.
I sure hope this isn't happening to FW.

Also..What exactly is being served in Crocketts Tavern these days? I thought you could get light snacks..chicken wings that sort of thing? Is it open at all for anything?

 

[LarryJ]

We have been camping here thru all the changes except the railroad which was gone on our first visit back in the early 1980's and have seen the clearing starting in 2005/06 and now 2007/08 and I sort of like some of it .... IF and only IF they fill in the dips between the sites with all the open roots and plant some native lower type shrubs/trees like a lot of the orange/grapefruit they have done in the 1500/1600 loop. Only time will tell how things will shake out in the end.

Larry

 

[des1954]

IF and only IF they fill in the dips between the sites with all the open roots and plant some native lower type shrubs/trees like a lot of the orange/grapefruit they have done in the 1500/1600 loop.

Amen, Larry!!!

 

[CottontailCurl]

All the bushes & vines housed beautiful cardinals & blue jays, rabbits, armadillos, hawks and owls. We've camped at the Fort 5 times since they started clearing this year and have seen only a few rabbits and squirrels. No cardinals or jays which I always enjoyed seeing & giving peanuts to.

I thought I was the only one who noticed this. The kids couldn't find any critters at all on the 2000 loop (not even a lizard), we finally saw a bunny and a baby lizard when we moved to the 1500 loop. My daughter found many dead birds on the ground in the center area of the loop. The morning of the day they cleared by the CS I sat on the bench there and watched a group of small sized woodpeckers going from tree to tree. I didn't see them again after the clearing. I hope they've come back since then.

 

[BigDaddyRog]

Does that mean that the 1500/1600 loops are complete? Lush again?

 

[CottontailCurl]

Does that mean that the 1500/1600 loops are complete? Lush again?

I think that at some point in the past some planting of trees happened in the 1500 loop. They don't seem like the belong in central Florida (except, the citrus trees), they almost seem like the same type of trees planted around Wilderness Lodge. Maybe they were leftovers from that planting? Maybe those trees in the center of the 1500 loop kept other vines and things at bay. I'm more familiar with the outer sites on the 1500 so I don't know how much underbrush was taken out of the center area.

Larry, have you been able to get any citrus off of the 1500 loop?

 

[LONE-STAR]

I'm a bit worried by all the thining of the brush I here people talk about also. We were there in May, and I did start to notice loops closed completely and clearning being done..woodchips placed on some of the sites.
We use to go to a campground/RV Park in the Adirondacks Mts. of NY..and they did this to a particular area of their campground. Tore out all the natural brush..and cut down trees. Planted shurbery between the sites. It looks so "un-natural"....funny thing is..that particular area used to be called "the pines"...now they may as well just paved it over if you ask me. Very startling when we saw it last year..looked stripped naked of it's natural beauty.
I sure hope this isn't happening to FW.

Also..What exactly is being served in Crocketts Tavern these days? I thought you could get light snacks..chicken wings that sort of thing? Is it open at all for anything?

Crocketts Tavern has nachos, frozen pizza, buffalo chicken strips. and I thank thats all for the food.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

I thought I was the only one who noticed this. The kids couldn't find any critters at all on the 2000 loop (not even a lizard), we finally saw a bunny and a baby lizard when we moved to the 1500 loop. My daughter found many dead birds on the ground in the center area of the loop. The morning of the day they cleared by the CS I sat on the bench there and watched a group of small sized woodpeckers going from tree to tree. I didn't see them again after the clearing. I hope they've come back since then.

We had a group of woodpeckers that worked the trees regularly next to 920 while we were there at Christmas.

 

[LONE-STAR]

On our last trip Nov/Dec 07 they were doing a lot of clearing in the 200 loop. It was loud and annoying. But we still saw rabbits on the beach and a lot of deer every where. I did like it better before the clearing. From what I understand they were cutting out what was not native to Florida so they would be a more echo friendly campground.(thats what I was told )

 

[tim5055]

The price per day at the Fort is relative to income. When we first went to FtW in October 1974, the cost was $8.00 + tax per nite. All sites were only equipped for water & electricity (no sewer back then that I remember). Now, in 1974 I was only making $2.12 per hour (and that was about $.70 above minimum wage for that time) - so $8.00/nite seemed a fortune to me. Today's rates are not out of line to income ratio - IMHO.

By the time of your first visit (and mine BTW), FW had already undergone it's first expansion. As I recall, sewer was always there...


Fort Wilderness "History"

I had to go back to my old Disney stuff to figure this out, and here is the "History of Fort Wilderness" as I know it:

Fort Wilderness opened November 19, 1971 on 750 acres between the Contemporary Resort and the Walt Disney World Village. At that time it had 231 camping sites including loops 100 - 600.

June 1973 added 481 sites, loops 700 - 1900

April 8, 1974 "Treasure Island" opened with a pirate theme

April 1974 Pioneer Hall opened

April 1976 Treasure Island renamed Discovery Island and became an accredited Zoological park

June 1976 added 113 sites, loops 2000 - 2100

June 1976 River Country opened

April 1979 added Creekside Meadow group camping area

December 1986 added 383 cabin sites, loops 2200 - 2800

 

[LarryJ]

Larry, have you been able to get any citrus off of the 1500 loop?

No I scouted both the 1500 and 1600 loops and the Grapefruits were sort of a brownish and the one I tried was not very good at all and the Oranges that I saw had a lot of brown on them. Not sure if it was the lack of rain, but the fruit fishing was a bust this trip.

Larry

 

[LarryJ]

Does that mean that the 1500/1600 loops are complete? Lush again?

Nope not at all. I don't think they have gotten into the actually redoing/replanting a lot of things, but are still in the clearing stage.

To be honest I don't miss the armadillos at all since in the past when ever you opened the door at night your could hear one rustling thru the underbrush. Haven't seen one this trip nor IIRC in 2005/06.

Larry