Lots of camping questions

[disneynewbeemom]

My family is going to WDW in October. We are already booked in an offsite hotel. Since we have not purchased tickets yet for our trip, we were looking into doing annual passes or extending the tickets to 10 non expire. We were thinking that by doing this, we would save extra money and could go to the World again. My husband then mentioned camping. We are a camping family, but usually only camp for 2-3 nights, so I am somewhat worried about a whole week, but will do what I can to go back to WDW!! Here are my many questions:

1. Can I book 7 nights at FW campground and get the DDP also. Do I book the DDP at the time I book FW?

2. I think we would like just the partial hookup tent site, which would put us in 1500 loop or 2000 loop. Which one is better?

3. How do I go about getting a map of the campground?

4. I've been reading about the internal busses, etc. Can we ride our bikes to the main bus stop from either the 1500 or 2000 loop? (Our boys will be 5 and 7)

5. Would you recommend staying here or at a value hotel?

 

[We4mickey]

First off October is our favorite time to visit FW. The decorations for halloween at the campsites are fun to see. Extra activities too. You might consider trying it for this trip.

1.I don't know about the dining plan as we do not use it.

2.First choice would be the 1500 loop. This is also the smaller of the two partial hookup loops (fewer campsites). It is close to the meadows area where the pool and campfire program are.

3.Try http://home.hiwaay.net/~jlspence/fwmapnew.jpg

4.You can definately ride your bikes anywhere in the campground. It is about one mile from one end to the other. Our kids never had a problem at that age and we stay around the meadows area.

5. Absolutely! Your kids may not want to stay at a hotel again. Our 2 DS are 16 and 21 and to this day don't want to go if were not staying at FW.

 

[Charlotte&Carolina]

You can get the dining plan (but not the free dining plan they had). It is the same rules as with the hotel packages - everyone has to be on the plan for every night you have reserved, have to have at least one-day tickets for everyone in your party, etc.

You can ride your bikes anywhere. To the pool, to the bus stop, to the marina. The paths keep you off most of the main roadways but parallel to them. We saw a lot of people riding on them we thought it was safer to stay off of them with the camper and bus traffic and golf carts.

We didn't tour the 1500 loop but it is across from the pool and rec area and has an internal bus stop right there as well.

If I had to choose between FW and a value - I'd choose FW!

 

[MariaEllerºoº]

Definitely check out Jeff Spencer's Ft. Wilderness website that someone posted above! Great information! Just because you only need partial hook-up does not mean you can't get the better loops tent camping. You can find a map of the campground on Jeff's site. Anyways, my favorite loop in Jack Rabbit Run 800. It's about a 10 minute walk to the main Trading Post, Crocket Tavern, Hoop-de-doo, marina area. Just request whichever loop you really want and Disney will do what they can to see to your requests. Also be sure to ask to be close to the comfort stations since your tent camping and have little one's.

 

[irishbosoxfan]

We just got back a little while ago and we brought 5 kids and we loved it!
We did purchase the dining plan and it was great--We brought our cooler and had milk,soda and munchies delivered and brought cereal with us so we ate breakfast at the site then saved our plan meals for character meals and such

You do order the dining plan when you book your site----It is an all in one deal----site,dining and tickets----Camping saved us over $1000 versus a value!

We stayed at a partial hookup site in the 2000 loop and it was great--the bathroom was just around the corner down a small path and a bus stop was a 2 minute walk down the road----We walked to the bus stop hopped the bus and it took us right to the front so we could hop on the next bus for whatever park we wanted(epcot,mgm)----We took the bus to the boat dock to get the ferry to MK

 

[disneynewbeemom]

I've heard that the 2000 loop sites are bigger than the 1500 loop sites. Do you know if this is true? We have a large tent and a sun shelter. Is their any privacy between your site and the site next to you?

 

[irishbosoxfan]

I don't know about the size difference if any on the sites but the site we were at had a break of trees on one side then the other had the small path that led to the bathrooms then another campsite behind us was just all trees and the rabbits lived in there so every day the kids would go "hunting" rabbits(just looking for them)

We had one very large tent,a smaller tent to store luggage and a screen house(10x14) to go over the picnic table and we still had quite a bit of room


I posted a couple of pics of our campsite on this thread---Look at post 19

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1150363&page=2&pp=15



And a couple more here==Check out post #4

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1169714