I'm not sure how many people on here actually stay at campsites in Fort Wilderness, but in recent years I've been having more and more trouble making reservations a year in advance for the campground. Yesterday I went to make reservations for next January, and was only able to get two days out of the week and a half I was looking for! Does anyone have any idea why this happens? The only explanation that I can come up with is they don't open up the entire campground for reservations that far out, yet Central Reservations tells me that they open 499 days out. Does this happen at other resorts too? I've never actually had a problem getting the reservations, eventually. I just don't know why it's so difficult to get them now.

Chris

On another board a I have seen people who stay there for a few weeks up to a few months. This may have something to do with it. Plus the fact that it can be so much cheaper then getting a room even at a crappy off site motel with all the on property advantages.

It's called "snowbirds". Those are people from up north (cold) who get in their rv and move to Florida for the winter. Some stay at Ft Wilderness and actually work at WDW part time. If you have one of those ultra-expensive luxurious rv's I imagine it's a nice life!

If you have one of those ultra-expensive luxurious rv's I imagine it's a nice life!

I think I could 'suffer' living at Disney for part of the year, some one may have to twist my arm though! ;)

Just returned from a weekend stay at Fort Wilderness today, we booked the reservation months ago...I think in August.

We live here in Orlando, so we're pretty flexible on when we can go, but we have had a harder time making reservations for even 3 months out.

A few notes on the place, though. Looks like they've cleared alot of the brush/trees/bushes in between the campsites. It's a little disappointing, really, as it decreases privacy, increases the noise levels, and just makes the place look ugly, like a swamp.

I'm sure they've done it to prevent fires...but the place looks awful now where the campsites are.

The bathrooms are really nice now, since last year they've renovated all of them, I think. We were there last December '06 and only a few bathrooms had been finished with the new renovations.

It rained on us all this past weekend, but we had a good time anyway.

They get cancellations all the time, so keep calling early morning once a week. The woman at the reservations desk told us yesterday that they process all the cancellations early in the morning, so if you call reservations at 7am or something, you'll get first dibs on any open spots.

The bathrooms are beautiful, although I miss the old showerheads. And boy are they taking down trees - they woke us up a couple of mornings with chainsaws. However, I talked to several long term cast members, and it's apparently the efforts of a new (within the last two years) general manager who is really trying to spruce the place back up. It was getting noticeable over the last 5-10 years that not much money was going into the landscaping. They are replacing the trees and while it will take a while to build it back up, it should eventually be beautiful again. I've also heard (although I'm not holding my breath) that the main pool will be remodelled by 2009. Not the first time I've heard that, probably not the last either! But I can still hope.

Chris