The 2023 Fort Wilderness Rack Rates and Analysis

[bama_ed]

Fort Campers,

Once again, I have pulled the latest (2023) available Fort Wilderness campsite rates, organized them into a useable table, and done some analysis on the data. The source for this information is www.mousesavers.com and they are an excellent web resource for WDW planning. I have been doing these annually since the 2015 rates became available so we have several years of data to see trends. (I also have the 2009 rates but am lacking the info in-between). This table is a handy way to estimate out-of-pocket costs for a campsite stay at Fort Wilderness.

As always, I have to outline a few caveats:

1. These are non-discounted full cost rates (known by the term "rack rates").
2. They include the total 12.5% tax applied to campsites and thus represent the full out-of-pocket, bottom line cost.
3. The rates are rounded to the nearest dollar so the number is an integer (easier to work with).
4. The source location pulled the data for 2023 earlier this year (2022) but you never know if/when Disney might tweak the rates.
5. Weekdays = Sunday through Thursday nights; Weekends = Friday and Saturday nights.

Price increases for 2023 were a modest 4-5% across the board for the most part but there are deviations from that, of course. Here is the table:



One deviation I noticed was that the Tent rates increased 1.5% y-o-y, Full increased 2.5%, and Preferred/Premium/PMeadow increased a very consistent 4.2%/4.2%/4.3% respectively. So when I did a "stare-and-compare" of a random line of 2023 data to a prior year or two of the same timeframe on Full and Tent, I saw again a 4-5% bump. But the math said 1.5%. So I looked a little harder and found what happened. How SHOCKED would you be if I told you Disney LOWERED prices?

For Full and Tent rates, in the 2022 year Disney put a huge increase on the month (approximately) in the summer after July 4th week. Past historical trends were coming out of May and into June, Disney kept these two categories with high rates (probably capitalizing on the different out-of-school-let's-go-on-vacation timeframes in school systems). These were maintained historically through July 4th week and then rates would fall down considerably for the rest of July and even more so in the full August month. I compared that July-Aug time window across three years:


You can see Disney "went for it" in 2022 but it must have produced more EMPTY campsites this past summer so they went back to the historical trendline for 2023. I checked to see if the 2022 numbers were a typo/mistake but they were in the original data. So as far as I can tell, the data is accurate. I think were it not for this 2022 adjustment, Tent and Full sites would also have been in the 4.2%/4.3% for 2023.

For yucks, I looked back at past years to see the total overall price increase year over year:

2023 - 3.7% (consistent 4-5% in all but Full/Tent which had July rate reductions)
2022 - 6.2% (with Full/Tent rate spike in July-the other 3 categories were up a consistent 5.5%+/-)
2021 - 9.8% (getting in front of the 50th Celebration to capitalize on increased visits?)
2020 - 10.7% (most categories were up 8-9% but carved out Premium Meadow with even bigger rate hikes which drove overall number up)
2019 - 5.8%

Finally, if you want to "live" year round at the Fort (if you could, I mean, because due to the elimination of back-to-back long reservations, you technically can't) , here's what it would cost:

Tent = $46,899
Full = $61,724
Preferred = $69,457
Premium = $73,680
Premium Meadow = $80,238

If EVERY campsite were booked EVERY night of 2023, the Fort campsites would produce $58,279,987 in revenue (these numbers include the tax).

I welcome any feedback or corrections.

Bama ED

 

[morrik5]

Fort Campers,

Once again, I have pulled the latest (2023) available Fort Wilderness campsite rates, organized them into a useable table, and done some analysis on the data. The source for this information is www.mousesavers.com and they are an excellent web resource for WDW planning. I have been doing these annually since the 2015 rates became available so we have several years of data to see trends. (I also have the 2009 rates but am lacking the info in-between). This table is a handy way to estimate out-of-pocket costs for a campsite stay at Fort Wilderness.

As always, I have to outline a few caveats:

1. These are non-discounted full cost rates (known by the term "rack rates").
2. They include the total 12.5% tax applied to campsites and thus represent the full out-of-pocket, bottom line cost.
3. The rates are rounded to the nearest dollar so the number is an integer (easier to work with).
4. The source location pulled the data for 2023 earlier this year (2022) but you never know if/when Disney might tweak the rates.
5. Weekdays = Sunday through Thursday nights; Weekends = Friday and Saturday nights.

Price increases for 2023 were a modest 4-5% across the board for the most part but there are deviations from that, of course. Here is the table:

View attachment 707059

One deviation I noticed was that the Tent rates increased 1.5% y-o-y, Full increased 2.5%, and Preferred/Premium/PMeadow increased a very consistent 4.2%/4.2%/4.3% respectively. So when I did a "stare-and-compare" of a random line of 2023 data to a prior year or two of the same timeframe on Full and Tent, I saw again a 4-5% bump. But the math said 1.5%. So I looked a little harder and found what happened. How SHOCKED would you be if I told you Disney LOWERED prices?

For Full and Tent rates, in the 2022 year Disney put a huge increase on the month (approximately) in the summer after July 4th week. Past historical trends were coming out of May and into June, Disney kept these two categories with high rates (probably capitalizing on the different out-of-school-let's-go-on-vacation timeframes in school systems). These were maintained historically through July 4th week and then rates would fall down considerably for the rest of July and even more so in the full August month. I compared that July-Aug time window across three years:

View attachment 707073
You can see Disney "went for it" in 2022 but it must have produced more EMPTY campsites this past summer so they went back to the historical trendline for 2023. I checked to see if the 2022 numbers were a typo/mistake but they were in the original data. So as far as I can tell, the data is accurate. I think were it not for this 2022 adjustment, Tent and Full sites would also have been in the 4.2%/4.3% for 2023.

For yucks, I looked back at past years to see the total overall price increase year over year:

2023 - 3.7% (consistent 4-5% in all but Full/Tent which had July rate reductions)
2022 - 6.2% (with Full/Tent rate spike in July-the other 3 categories were up a consistent 5.5%+/-)
2021 - 9.8% (getting in front of the 50th Celebration to capitalize on increased visits?)
2020 - 10.7% (most categories were up 8-9% but carved out Premium Meadow with even bigger rate hikes which drove overall number up)
2019 - 5.8%

Finally, if you want to "live" year round at the Fort (if you could, I mean, because due to the elimination of back-to-back long reservations, you technically can't) , here's what it would cost:

Tent = $46,899
Full = $61,724
Preferred = $69,457
Premium = $73,680
Premium Meadow = $80,238

If EVERY campsite were booked EVERY night of 2023, the Fort campsites would produce $58,279,987 in revenue (these numbers include the tax).

I welcome any feedback or corrections.

Bama ED

Thank you for putting the time in to doing this every year for us. At a glance being able to estimate the cost of accommodation at The Fort is handy and AWESOME!

 

[StormyCA]

Thank you so much for your hard work on this!!!

 

[amcc]

Fort Campers,

Once again, I have pulled the latest (2023) available Fort Wilderness campsite rates, organized them into a useable table, and done some analysis on the data. The source for this information is www.mousesavers.com and they are an excellent web resource for WDW planning. I have been doing these annually since the 2015 rates became available so we have several years of data to see trends. (I also have the 2009 rates but am lacking the info in-between). This table is a handy way to estimate out-of-pocket costs for a campsite stay at Fort Wilderness.

As always, I have to outline a few caveats:

1. These are non-discounted full cost rates (known by the term "rack rates").
2. They include the total 12.5% tax applied to campsites and thus represent the full out-of-pocket, bottom line cost.
3. The rates are rounded to the nearest dollar so the number is an integer (easier to work with).
4. The source location pulled the data for 2023 earlier this year (2022) but you never know if/when Disney might tweak the rates.
5. Weekdays = Sunday through Thursday nights; Weekends = Friday and Saturday nights.

Price increases for 2023 were a modest 4-5% across the board for the most part but there are deviations from that, of course. Here is the table:

View attachment 707059

One deviation I noticed was that the Tent rates increased 1.5% y-o-y, Full increased 2.5%, and Preferred/Premium/PMeadow increased a very consistent 4.2%/4.2%/4.3% respectively. So when I did a "stare-and-compare" of a random line of 2023 data to a prior year or two of the same timeframe on Full and Tent, I saw again a 4-5% bump. But the math said 1.5%. So I looked a little harder and found what happened. How SHOCKED would you be if I told you Disney LOWERED prices?

For Full and Tent rates, in the 2022 year Disney put a huge increase on the month (approximately) in the summer after July 4th week. Past historical trends were coming out of May and into June, Disney kept these two categories with high rates (probably capitalizing on the different out-of-school-let's-go-on-vacation timeframes in school systems). These were maintained historically through July 4th week and then rates would fall down considerably for the rest of July and even more so in the full August month. I compared that July-Aug time window across three years:

View attachment 707073
You can see Disney "went for it" in 2022 but it must have produced more EMPTY campsites this past summer so they went back to the historical trendline for 2023. I checked to see if the 2022 numbers were a typo/mistake but they were in the original data. So as far as I can tell, the data is accurate. I think were it not for this 2022 adjustment, Tent and Full sites would also have been in the 4.2%/4.3% for 2023.

For yucks, I looked back at past years to see the total overall price increase year over year:

2023 - 3.7% (consistent 4-5% in all but Full/Tent which had July rate reductions)
2022 - 6.2% (with Full/Tent rate spike in July-the other 3 categories were up a consistent 5.5%+/-)
2021 - 9.8% (getting in front of the 50th Celebration to capitalize on increased visits?)
2020 - 10.7% (most categories were up 8-9% but carved out Premium Meadow with even bigger rate hikes which drove overall number up)
2019 - 5.8%

Finally, if you want to "live" year round at the Fort (if you could, I mean, because due to the elimination of back-to-back long reservations, you technically can't) , here's what it would cost:

Tent = $46,899
Full = $61,724
Preferred = $69,457
Premium = $73,680
Premium Meadow = $80,238

If EVERY campsite were booked EVERY night of 2023, the Fort campsites would produce $58,279,987 in revenue (these numbers include the tax).

I welcome any feedback or corrections.

Bama ED

Thanks for putting it all in such stark relief!! Our Fort vacations are on the 2 most expensive seasons - Easter and New Year's. Thankfully, I am the vacation planner in our house as my husband would have a heart attack if these numbers crossed his path considering we just paid under $50 for an oceanfront site at Bahia Honda in the Keys. I just wish I could get Loop 1500 once in a while. I've had an easier time letting go of going to the parks every year than dropping my Easter and New Year's at the Fort. It's just my happy place and obviously Disney knows to take full advantage!

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Fort Campers,

Once again, I have pulled the latest (2023) available Fort Wilderness campsite rates, organized them into a useable table, and done some analysis on the data. The source for this information is www.mousesavers.com and they are an excellent web resource for WDW planning. I have been doing these annually since the 2015 rates became available so we have several years of data to see trends. (I also have the 2009 rates but am lacking the info in-between). This table is a handy way to estimate out-of-pocket costs for a campsite stay at Fort Wilderness.

As always, I have to outline a few caveats:

1. These are non-discounted full cost rates (known by the term "rack rates").
2. They include the total 12.5% tax applied to campsites and thus represent the full out-of-pocket, bottom line cost.
3. The rates are rounded to the nearest dollar so the number is an integer (easier to work with).
4. The source location pulled the data for 2023 earlier this year (2022) but you never know if/when Disney might tweak the rates.
5. Weekdays = Sunday through Thursday nights; Weekends = Friday and Saturday nights.

Price increases for 2023 were a modest 4-5% across the board for the most part but there are deviations from that, of course. Here is the table:

View attachment 707059

One deviation I noticed was that the Tent rates increased 1.5% y-o-y, Full increased 2.5%, and Preferred/Premium/PMeadow increased a very consistent 4.2%/4.2%/4.3% respectively. So when I did a "stare-and-compare" of a random line of 2023 data to a prior year or two of the same timeframe on Full and Tent, I saw again a 4-5% bump. But the math said 1.5%. So I looked a little harder and found what happened. How SHOCKED would you be if I told you Disney LOWERED prices?

For Full and Tent rates, in the 2022 year Disney put a huge increase on the month (approximately) in the summer after July 4th week. Past historical trends were coming out of May and into June, Disney kept these two categories with high rates (probably capitalizing on the different out-of-school-let's-go-on-vacation timeframes in school systems). These were maintained historically through July 4th week and then rates would fall down considerably for the rest of July and even more so in the full August month. I compared that July-Aug time window across three years:

View attachment 707073
You can see Disney "went for it" in 2022 but it must have produced more EMPTY campsites this past summer so they went back to the historical trendline for 2023. I checked to see if the 2022 numbers were a typo/mistake but they were in the original data. So as far as I can tell, the data is accurate. I think were it not for this 2022 adjustment, Tent and Full sites would also have been in the 4.2%/4.3% for 2023.

For yucks, I looked back at past years to see the total overall price increase year over year:

2023 - 3.7% (consistent 4-5% in all but Full/Tent which had July rate reductions)
2022 - 6.2% (with Full/Tent rate spike in July-the other 3 categories were up a consistent 5.5%+/-)
2021 - 9.8% (getting in front of the 50th Celebration to capitalize on increased visits?)
2020 - 10.7% (most categories were up 8-9% but carved out Premium Meadow with even bigger rate hikes which drove overall number up)
2019 - 5.8%

Finally, if you want to "live" year round at the Fort (if you could, I mean, because due to the elimination of back-to-back long reservations, you technically can't) , here's what it would cost:

Tent = $46,899
Full = $61,724
Preferred = $69,457
Premium = $73,680
Premium Meadow = $80,238

If EVERY campsite were booked EVERY night of 2023, the Fort campsites would produce $58,279,987 in revenue (these numbers include the tax).

I welcome any feedback or corrections.

Bama ED

Not sure if I missed this part somewhere, but did they eliminate the back to back reservations for next year? I only ask, because we are actually doing something else next winter! LOL! This year, I have a total of 6 reservations (due to trying to get certain days that weren't available when we booked at 499 but one of my reservations is October 30 - the month of November pretty much and then because that topped out at 30 days, we just started another reservation and they are all in my name, we didn't switch that up at all.

 

[bama_ed]

Not sure if I missed this part somewhere, but did they eliminate the back to back reservations for next year? I only ask, because we are actually doing something else next winter! LOL! This year, I have a total of 6 reservations (due to trying to get certain days that weren't available when we booked at 499 but one of my reservations is October 30 - the month of November pretty much and then because that topped out at 30 days, we just started another reservation and they are all in my name, we didn't switch that up at all.

I posted about that change last summer.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...k-to-back-reservation-policy-changed.3849867/

I had noticed some changes in the fine print that's tacked onto the end of your reservation confirmation that comes via email. Newer reservations had the limiting language. It's still in there on recent reservations I've made.

Whether Disney enforces it (or can accurately check for it) is a different matter. They have lots of rules in place that they don't always follow to a Tee. But the wording is a new change.

As desperate as they are for revenue, I can understand their approach. The campsites will be filled with our without this rule for the most part. However, they want guests to ALSO buy lots of merch, pay for lots of dining, add ons like hoppers, daily park tickets, party tickets, tours, special cakes, etc. over-and-over-and-over. And the next guest arrive and do the same.

People who were staying long term, in my opinion, buy an AP, dine sometimes, buy less merch, and are not the spendy consumers like short term guests.

So old reservations that don't have the language are safe. But who knows when Disney may choose to start enforcing this rule? They're getting desperate enough now to restrict changes to reservations in some ways to avoid orphan nights. They will just keep turning the screws on us slowly but constantly.

Bama Ed

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Our 5 week stay in the 1700 loop Jan/Feb 2016 is a distant memory now.

 

[SL6827]

I posted about that change last summer.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...k-to-back-reservation-policy-changed.3849867/

I had noticed some changes in the fine print that's tacked onto the end of your reservation confirmation that comes via email. Newer reservations had the limiting language. It's still in there on recent reservations I've made.

Whether Disney enforces it (or can accurately check for it) is a different matter. They have lots of rules in place that they don't always follow to a Tee. But the wording is a new change.

As desperate as they are for revenue, I can understand their approach. The campsites will be filled with our without this rule for the most part. However, they want guests to ALSO buy lots of merch, pay for lots of dining, add ons like hoppers, daily park tickets, party tickets, tours, special cakes, etc. over-and-over-and-over. And the next guest arrive and do the same.

People who were staying long term, in my opinion, buy an AP, dine sometimes, buy less merch, and are not the spendy consumers like short term guests.

So old reservations that don't have the language are safe. But who knows when Disney may choose to start enforcing this rule? They're getting desperate enough now to restrict changes to reservations in some ways to avoid orphan nights. They will just keep turning the screws on us slowly but constantly.

Bama Ed

Wow! Just wow! That's some serious greed on Disney's part.

 

[bama_ed]

Wow! Just wow! That's some serious greed on Disney's part.

Hot Take: "Water Is Wet".

Pay or don't play. Their rules. Fort campsites have not been expanded/increased since the mid-1970s. Demand has increased and supply hasn't. I get the economics of it but don't like it any more than you do..

Bama Ed

PS - I'm retired so I can travel in the off-season to catch the lower rates (I have a pop-up camper so can slip into the less expensive Tent sites as need be). But it's getting tougher to justify a FW/WDW visit since we're getting more for less (on the WDW side).

 

[neffernie]

I posted about that change last summer.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...k-to-back-reservation-policy-changed.3849867/

I had noticed some changes in the fine print that's tacked onto the end of your reservation confirmation that comes via email. Newer reservations had the limiting language. It's still in there on recent reservations I've made.

Whether Disney enforces it (or can accurately check for it) is a different matter. They have lots of rules in place that they don't always follow to a Tee. But the wording is a new change.

As desperate as they are for revenue, I can understand their approach. The campsites will be filled with our without this rule for the most part. However, they want guests to ALSO buy lots of merch, pay for lots of dining, add ons like hoppers, daily park tickets, party tickets, tours, special cakes, etc. over-and-over-and-over. And the next guest arrive and do the same.

People who were staying long term, in my opinion, buy an AP, dine sometimes, buy less merch, and are not the spendy consumers like short term guests.

So old reservations that don't have the language are safe. But who knows when Disney may choose to start enforcing this rule? They're getting desperate enough now to restrict changes to reservations in some ways to avoid orphan nights. They will just keep turning the screws on us slowly but constantly.

Bama Ed

I worked for the mouse for a bit and according to our training, the change had less to do with greed and more to do with people establishing themselves as tenants rather than guests. Under the law, they would have had to be evicted if they didn't pay rather than removed by the sheriff's office.

That's why technically you aren't supposed to be allowed to have your name on any resort reservations that add up to more than 30 days and there is supposed be a break between reservations with your name on them. Not sure if they are sticking to that though.

 

[SL6827]

I worked for the mouse for a bit and according to our training, the change had less to do with greed and more to do with people establishing themselves as tenants rather than guests. Under the law, they would have had to be evicted if they didn't pay rather than removed by the sheriff's office.

That's why technically you aren't supposed to be allowed to have your name on any resort reservations that add up to more than 30 days and there is supposed be a break between reservations with your name on them. Not sure if they are sticking to that though.

That is interesting.

 

[bama_ed]

I worked for the mouse for a bit and according to our training, the change had less to do with greed and more to do with people establishing themselves as tenants rather than guests. Under the law, they would have had to be evicted if they didn't pay rather than removed by the sheriff's office.

That's why technically you aren't supposed to be allowed to have your name on any resort reservations that add up to more than 30 days and there is supposed be a break between reservations with your name on them. Not sure if they are sticking to that though.

Well I see your point, @neffernie. They essentially are tenants paying a monthly "rent" rather than a guest who comes in, visits, and leaves. And tenant law is certainly different than innkeeper law.

Nevertheless, though, I'm sure the increased profitability resulting from the new policy, when it kicks in and is actually enforced, has not escaped the bean counters at Disney.

Thanks for the enlightening information.

Bama Ed