Just cancelled All 2007 FW Trips

[BillyRayJimBob]

I don't think that all the sarcasm and "disbelief" is warranted. One person's half full glass is another's half empty. The original poster said that it was no biggie that their site was not ready when they arrived. If that were it, it would have ended there. I'm with him about the old cart vs. new cart. If there's a stack of new ones available, a renter should get to choose or at least get a reasonable explanation as to why they cannot be had. That's good customer service and simple politeness. Now take it one step further, he takes the old cart over his objection and it dies almost immediately. So his concerns over the old cart were proven right. After getting that straightened out, he gets out to his loop and there's a bunch of available sites, yet when they finally come through with a site for him, its too small for the RV. I'm sure that I'm not the only one that would be thinking that customer service had gone to the dogs.

Now I might not have cancelled all of my trips, but I certainly would be PO'd and I'd want to let somebody know about it. These boards are here -- contrary to what some people seem to think -- not only for the rave reviews, but for the criticisms too. If somebody reporting a problem should make somebody lower their expectations of Fort Wilderness then they're either better prepared for things like dead golf carts (which does not seem to be that uncommon) or they don't experience the negative things and their trip is better than expected. The people who claim that they've never had a bad experience must either be the luckiest people on the planet or very resilient. All of our trips to Disney have had some flaw and the trips are generally so good that the flaws really stand out, especially a rude employee -- and that does happen.

We haven't stayed at Fort Wilderness yet, but we're staying at the cabins this summer. I reserved a golf cart through the bike barn. The experience was not positive. The employee was short and curt -- quite a bit different than what you usually get when talking to Disney. The experience was not like talking to someone at Disney, but more like talking to somebody you might rent a boat from at a marina. In my mind's eye, I pictured a hot sweaty woman wearing a t-shirt and shorts, maybe smoking a cigarette, writing my order on a paper on a clip board in a big dirty garage full partially disassembled golf carts. It was that kind of a call. I fully expect the reality to be a bit better than that, but I'm mentally prepared nonetheless. Some of the Rah-Rah posters might complain that a poster who posts negative experiences is just a negative person and should be ignored (or not believed), but they go a long way toward preparing the rest of us for what might happen (e.g., dead cart) and what to do about it (e.g., insist that the security person make a call even if he claims that he can't help). While the everything-was-perfect posts are nice to hear, that has not been my experience and I can learn a lot more from the things that went wrong than I can from hearing how great everything went for somebody.

 

[Colson39]

In my mind's eye, I pictured a hot sweaty woman wearing a t-shirt and shorts, maybe smoking a cigarette, writing my order on a paper on a clip board in a big dirty garage full partially disassembled golf carts.

Her name is Bertha by the way

 

[CottontailCurl]

Is the main reason you're not going back because you walked around the loop and saw there were empty campsites but when you called them they said they had nothing you could change to? Is it possible that people could have checked in and then gone on to the parks or to the store to get supplies? (Does anyone know if FW is like other resorts, sometimes if you arrive early, they let you check in and then you can call later to see which room you've been assigned to). We've done that at resorts before which had us getting back to our room later on and taking luggage in then. Many people have mentioned here that they drive all night to get to FW and park in overflow lot then go to the parks until they come back to go to their site. It's also possible that the people who do the site assignments do them a day or two in advance, it would make sense to me since they have to make sure people get a site that fits the dimensions of their camping equipment.

You were a CM there, you probably have more knowledge of how they do things, I wish you'd tell us what you did and what you know, you could help a lot of us out.

After writing this I kind of feel sorry for the site assigning CMs. Other resort's room assigners might have certain requests to fill when checking people in, but it can't be anything as troublesome as special requests (by the comfort station, away from the comfort station, no gators, no ice noise, no bus noise, no kids driving carts) in addition to making sure tents and rvs are on the right-sized lot. I'm suddenly even more thankful than before for all the site requests that were filled for us.

I believe you should give FW a few more tries before you decide. Dude, stuff happens, even at WDW. If there was any reason I would not stay there it would be the $90 cost to camp. I'd cancel some of those 7 that are in high season and keep to the value time of the year.

 

[CottontailCurl]

Sorry about that, I accidentally gave you two shots of CottontailCurl.

 

[Gatordad]

I didn't see any gators in FW..... Just some snakes.

 

[VAN]

We saw a small gator one last year in the canal near the dog run.

 

[auntie]

I've seen them on the golf course at what used to be the Disney Inn..now Shades of Green.

 

[Rhonda]

I'm going to close this thread now, since we've exhausted the OP's topic, and we've switched to another topic.

And, I'll start a new "Gator Sightings" thread!