Campground FULL in January and February

[Grumpy and Grandma 739]

As I've said before, Linda and I are blessed enough to be able to make extended reservations at the FORT during Jan-Mar. What I see as the root cause of the inability for many to get 7-10-14 day reservations is the fact that Florida residents fill the FORT on weekends. As Carol posted earlier she was able to find Sun-Fri reservations, but the weekends were the problem. I'm willing to bet that the locals make reservations well in advance and many make multiple weekends in a row (I've seen the same people there in the same sites only on weekends) so  when you try to get Sun-Sun it is all but impossible. We've actually seen the same thing at many State and Regional parks, the weekdays are wide open, but a reservation including a weekend is all but impossible to get.

 

Between the reservation system itself and the above there will always be those problems.  Jason can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think TA's have their own number to call and that system is probably more friendly for the CM's to use so they can find the all elusive reservations. JMHO..

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

 

Between the reservation system itself and the above there will always be those problems.  Jason can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think TA's have their own number to call and that system is probably more friendly for the CM's to use so they can find the all elusive reservations. JMHO..

 

We do have a separate number to call. However we use the same system as every one else and whether I am using the travel agent website or having the CM look I have to play the same games till something finally comes up. 

 

For the record while it doesnt happen as often this same game is played at the resorts too. Just today I had to search on an extended range of dates at POP to get what someone was looking for. 

[Grumpy and Grandma 739]

We do have a separate number to call. However we use the same system as every one else and whether I am using the travel agent website or having the CM look I have to play the same games till something finally comes up. 

Then you must have a "h--l" of a lot more patience than most of us. :rotfl6:

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Then you must have a "h--l" of a lot more patience than most of us. :rotfl6:

 

to be blunt a paycheck creates a lot of patience. LOL

[Grumpy and Grandma 739]

to be blunt a paycheck creates a lot of patience. LOL

Good point...

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

I will add though the paycheck by itself wouldnt be enough. i really like being able to tell people I found what they need. And it kills me when I cant. 

[Grumpy and Grandma 739]

i really like being able to tell people I found what they need.  :thumbsup1:

[Travisma 1,317]

Disney could easily expand FW and add a loop or two (or five).  It's not as if it's only at XMas or around Spring Break or summer that sites are hard to get; it's year round.  I really have no idea how much it would cost them to add another loop but I'm sure they have the space and even if this new loop is only at 50% capacity for the year, I'm sure they would pay for it very quickly (50% capacity of an avg $90 / night is still $16k / year, spread that over 5-10 years and it's not hard for it to be profitable).  They could even easily add a new "Extra Large site loop (maybe with pull-throughs)" at $150 / night avg and I bet you that would be 85% booked for the year (85% capacity of an avg $150 / night would be $46k / year).  (Just so it's clear, that amount would be per site - if they add 30 sites, they'd make that times 30.  I'm not in contruction but I just don't see adding loop for costing over $500k-$1 million.  At that price, they would recoup the investment of my modest 50% occupancy loop in 1 or 2 years)

 

IMHO, I think Disney doesn't really care about FW.  The profit margin on it is good enough that it's not worth tearing down to build another premium resort but I wouldn't be surprised if that's the long, long term plan (leave FW as is without putting much into it until we really need the land and then we'll tear it down).  As it stands, I don't think they mind that it's often hard to make reservations as it makes people commit to making reservations far ahead of time.  Their cancellation policy is great (because the know it's likely going to be booked up again as fast as it's cancelled) but with sites being difficult to get, people will reserve for XMas one year out and once the reservation is done, it's less likely they'd cancel it than if they hadn't made the reservation to begin with.

Lou answered this problem in another thread I started about expanding the Fort.

He said that even during busy times there are a lot of empty sites during the week, it's the weekends that are hard to get the majority of the time.

Based on that, he said that they probably wouldn't consider expanding the Fort.

[michelb 3]

I just read something that I thought might help explain why it can be so hard to get reservations on FW.  I think most of us have experienced the trouble of getting a reservation only to arrive at FW and notice there are tons of empty sites!

 

I was browsing another forum and noticed this advice to DW guests staying OFFSITE (paraphrasing)

 

 

 

Consider booking a reservation at Fort Wilderness to access advanced FP+, EMH.  Having a reservation (even if you don't plan on using it) will give you bracelets for up to 10 guests ...

 

I can see how this would be attractive to someone staying offsite.  For a group of 4+ staying offsite, spending an extra $75 / day probably isn't that big of a deal (especially since you'll get free parking for a couple of cars out of it).  Sucks for us trying to make a real reservations at the FW though ...

 

It might not seem like it would be enough to make an impact but based on a quick Google search, Disney World (all the parks together)  get well over 100k people visitors per day.  That's probably easily 25k families.  I'm not sure how many stay onsite but I'd actually be surprised if it was more than 10% but for the sake or arguement, let's say it was 40%.  That still leaves 15k families not staying on site.  Is is that much of a stretch to think that 1% would book a 'fake reservation' in order to get the onsite perks?  That would be 150 reservations (which will stay empty) ...  No idea what Disney could do to prevent that ...  This would also explain why it's so much harder getting a site on the weekend; it's not just that there are that many more people camping at the Fort on weekends (although I'm sure there are), it's that there's a whole lot more offsite guests trying to visit the DW who'd benefit from onsite perks ... (e.g. a family from Orlando might consider spending an extra $80 just to get 2 more hours at the park even if they have no desire to stay at the Fort).

[Grumpy and Grandma 739]

This has been brought up before and if it is happening it is very few people doing it. The FORT is normally full on weekends, so that means people are only booking "Ghost" sites on weekdays and I don't see that. If you want a week and the weekends are already taken your not getting a reservation.

Also DISNEY would be losing money since somebody could not get that week (7 days) as somebody already has one of those days so the site would be vacant for 6 days.

[michelb 3]

Not sure if it happens or not but it is interesting that if I search for the period of time that we are looking at (Dec 15-Dec 18 (midweek) - only because that's the only one I think I might be able to get around XMas at this time of year), the only resorts at Disney that do not have any availability are Villas at Grand Floridian (which I suspect probably have limited number and there is availability at Grand Floridian Resort and Spa) and Fort Wilderness.  All other 25 resorts have availability. 

 

Also puts in perspective the argument that it's not worth expanding Fort Wilderness because of vacancies during the week - it's the only resort that actually says is completely full. 

 

And to elaborate a bit more, if I change the search to Xmas vacation week (Dec 20 to Dec 26), 21 of 27 resorts have capacity (full ones are Grand Floridian Villas, AK Villas, Wilderness Lodge Villas, Contemporary Resort, Bay Lake Tower at Contemporary Resort and of course FW (So really the only unavailable resorts are Contempory Resort and FW)) - the rest are available even during arguably the busiest week of the year.

[Travisma 1,317]

My wife just tried booking the Fort for a partial site January 17-20 MLK weekend and that Monday Tuesday, and it showed full.  But a notice popped up saying if you were a DVC or passholder to put your number in and click continue.

 

We aren't definitely going that weekend, but she thought she would see availability.  We had never seen that message pop up before.

[michelb 3]

My wife just tried booking the Fort for a partial site January 17-20 MLK weekend and that Monday Tuesday, and it showed full.  But a notice popped up saying if you were a DVC or passholder to put your number in and click continue.

 

We aren't definitely going that weekend, but she thought she would see availability.  We had never seen that message pop up before.

 

Just like I checked for XMas, I decided to check during that weekend and similar to XMas week, the only resorts that are unavailable at that time are Grand Floridian Villas, Wilderness Lodge Villas, AK Villas and of course FW.  Basically, unless you specifically want a villa, every resort at DW is available except for FW.  IMO, this is yet another indication that there is enough support for a FW expansion ... (or that guests are possibly booking phantom reservations at FW to get onsite perks).

 

-- update --

 

Oops - put December instead of January in my search.  For that January weekend, the resorts that are unavailable are Pop Century, All-Star Movie, All-Star Sports, Contemporary Bay Lake Tower, AK Villas and FW.  (but still most of resorts are available except for FW).

[djbogue 1]

Jason :worship: , is helping me get reservations for over the new year and is working hard to get what we want. Hopefully he can get the rest of the days. I know it is a very busy week.