Thinking of moving to cabin! UPDATE - WE DID IT!

[sharadoc]

Hi everyone,

You guys are doing a great job convincing me that we NEED to be at the Fort during our August vacation. I've tried to search through all of the threads and really need some final answers to make my final decision.

We don't want to rent a golf cart, since we budgeted for an All-Star trip, so this would be adding a few hundreds to the cost of our trip just by switching.

1. To get to the main pool, the campfire, and the trading post do we switch from the purple bus to another bus?
2. We're driving, so we will only take transportation to MK on the boat. How often do they run, and how often do the internal buses run to get there? We're not commando, I would just want to know how long to expect to get there, that's all.
3. How well lit is everything at night? When we get off the boat, jump on a bus, then have to walk to our cabin, would we need a flashlight?
4. Is there really a chance we could see otters there? Would we need to just leave beer on our deck and they would come visit??

I swear, I want to go to the Fort just to hang around with some of you guys.

Thanks to everyone.

UPDATE - called today and switched the reservation. SO EXCITED about it. Just hoping we can get our request, which seems likely since there is a lot of availability still during our week.

Thanks to everyone for the help and suggestions.

 

[SandrA9810]

1. No you don't need to switch, the purple bus will go down the center of the campground and stop at the Meadows for you. Unless there is a boy scout event going on, it will then revert back to the old path. (This happened to me when I visited the fort a couple months ago). And you can always bring bikes.
2. Busses run about every 10 minutes. And the boats about every 20mins. Of course you could see a few more in the morning rush. Or if you would like to cheat, hop on a bus at the settlement to Wilderness Lodge (the orange bus goes there), and you can catch a bus from the Lodge to MK. However the busses drop even further away than the Fort boat. And it might not be a time saver. But I've done this during the winter when the boat is freezing.
3. There's a couple stops in the middle of the cabins. So yes you'll have to walk back to your cabin. The cabin section seems to be lit more than the camping section. Mostly because you're inside with blinds. Unlike us tent campers. But you'll want a couple flash lights for the kids, especially when exiting the campfire area.
4. You'll see plenty of wildlife... but i've never heard of that. Although one time I grabbed a few things from the car and asked kari to get what I missed, leaving the door open. Well she never went to the car, and left the door wide open. To say the least, our bag of bagels where now crumbs and shredded plastic. So a critter or two will get to it... just don't know what kind.

 

[BigDaddyRog]

You'll be A HAPPY CAMPER for switching to the Fort!!! The price increase doesnt HAVE to be quite so high, if you're looking for the full Fort Wilderness experience...rent a luxury RV from www.CampAtTheFort.com for a much lower cost than the cabins. I'll be using their service in October and have heard some GREAT reviews about them. Just something for you to consider to help stretch those disney dollars to their fullest.

You may also want to check with www.MakeCampingEasy.com if you need a smaller camper. Both businesses come very highly recommended from many regulars here on the DIS camping board.

 

[liv luvs disney]

sharadoc, I felt the same way you feel right now! I had reservations at Pop for Septemeber with free dining, but the more I "hung out" with these folks, the more I wanted to stay at FW. Our original plan was to stay at Pop (w/ FD) in September and then stay at FW in January and prepare our own food. We are now staying at FW in September and January, preparing our own food while saving lots of $ both times. I realize the cabins are more expensive so it won't be cheaper to stay there vs a value resort, but if you can swing it, I say go for it. There are lots of people who get around the Fort just fine w/o a GC. Don't let that be a deciding factor.
Good luck making your decision!!!

 

[clkelley]

Actually, the Purple bus has returned to it's original route. If you are in the cabins and want to go to the Meadows area, take the ORANGE Settlement bus. It will come from Outpost, run through the cabins, past 2000, then loop around and go down the center past the Meadows area.

 

[sharadoc]

sharadoc, I felt the same way you feel right now! I had reservations at Pop for Septemeber with free dining, but the more I "hung out" with these folks, the more I wanted to stay at FW. Our original plan was to stay at Pop (w/ FD) in September and then stay at FW in January and prepare our own food. We are now staying at FW in September and January, preparing our own food while saving lots of $ both times. I realize the cabins are more expensive so it won't be cheaper to stay there vs a value resort, but if you can swing it, I say go for it. There are lots of people who get around the Fort just fine w/o a GC. Don't let that be a deciding factor.
Good luck making your decision!!!

Thanks - we are currently booked in a Family Suite, so the price is around $80 a night more, and we'll be there for 9 nights. I worked through cooking vs. Free Dining, and we will still be doing a couple of buffets, etc. so we're going to keep Free Dining.

We can't stand a regular hotel room, and we originally had planned to do a cabin for our Jan 09 trip, then decided to try the suite. We liked it and figured we'd do it again. BUT then I found out about all the values being sold out. We don't want to be in a frenzy of activity and we really do want to explore Fort Wilderness, so I think we're going to do it!

Before we had kids, we used to go to Disney World twice a year. Now that we finally got around to taking them, we think we'll be doing the twice a year thing again and I think FW will be the best solution for us.

Thanks again for the encouragement. When are you going in January? I think we'll get there MLK day and stay for around 8 days.

 

[sharadoc]

You'll be A HAPPY CAMPER for switching to the Fort!!! The price increase doesnt HAVE to be quite so high, if you're looking for the full Fort Wilderness experience...rent a luxury RV from www.CampAtTheFort.com for a much lower cost than the cabins. I'll be using their service in October and have heard some GREAT reviews about them. Just something for you to consider to help stretch those disney dollars to their fullest.

You may also want to check with www.MakeCampingEasy.com if you need a smaller camper. Both businesses come very highly recommended from many regulars here on the DIS camping board.

Thanks. We plan to do the free dining, so we couldn't do that in the RV. For future trips, we can get a AAA discount on the cabin, so I think the cost would be about even. I think we prefer a cabin. We have done RV camping in the past - my parents have had a travel trailer, then a single wide for the past 30 years. We've rented an RV near them and liked it, but didn't love it.

We love the idea of the cabins, so I think that's where we'll stay! Thanks for the idea, though.

 

[liv luvs disney]

Thanks - we are currently booked in a Family Suite, so the price is around $80 a night more, and we'll be there for 9 nights. I worked through cooking vs. Free Dining, and we will still be doing a couple of buffets, etc. so we're going to keep Free Dining.

We can't stand a regular hotel room, and we originally had planned to do a cabin for our Jan 09 trip, then decided to try the suite. We liked it and figured we'd do it again. BUT then I found out about all the values being sold out. We don't want to be in a frenzy of activity and we really do want to explore Fort Wilderness, so I think we're going to do it!

Before we had kids, we used to go to Disney World twice a year. Now that we finally got around to taking them, we think we'll be doing the twice a year thing again and I think FW will be the best solution for us.

Thanks again for the encouragement. When are you going in January? I think we'll get there MLK day and stay for around 8 days.

Totally understand! Becuase of your trip being in August, I assumed Free Dining was involved.

I'm not sure when we will be there in January. We home school and would like to attend Disney's Home School Days. I'm waiting for for those dates to be announced. We are attending Home School Days in September as well. Maybe we'll run into eachother in Januuary? Have fun in August...we'll all be awaiting a trip report.

 

[liv luvs disney]

You'll be A HAPPY CAMPER for switching to the Fort!!! The price increase doesnt HAVE to be quite so high, if you're looking for the full Fort Wilderness experience...rent a luxury RV from www.CampAtTheFort.com for a much lower cost than the cabins. I'll be using their service in October and have heard some GREAT reviews about them. Just something for you to consider to help stretch those disney dollars to their fullest.

You may also want to check with www.MakeCampingEasy.com if you need a smaller camper. Both businesses come very highly recommended from many regulars here on the DIS camping board.

Surely I've missed this in another thread/post, but why aren't you taking your "new" camper? Okay, so this is actually none of my business. Maybe I should say, Rog, I can't believe you're not taking your new pop-up!

 

[Born 2 Fish]

GO FISHING !!
Try it,, you'll like it.