How Many Tents on One Site?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

One of the questions I've often heard asked by Fort Wilderness guests is how many tents are you allowed to have on your campsite?

It's a simple question, and you'd think there would be a clear and simple answer.

But there isn't.

Considering that Fort Wilderness is operated by a corporation with a global presence, you'd think that their website would be a good place to go for some clear information about what you're allowed to have on your campsite.

But, this is all that you will find if you look on the website:

It's amazing that whoever posted that information did such a poor job.  And, it's been that way for years.  Looking at this, you wouldn't know that all of the Full Hook Up sites are pet friendly.  And, you'd have no idea what you can and can't put on a Preferred site.  Nothing is mentioned about tents on premium sites.  They say you can put one or two tents on partial and full hook up sites.  But is two the limit? 

Useless.

They used to give you a packet of information when you checked in to the Fort.  In that packet, there would be a booklet with rules and such.  Here's a photo of what it used to say about what equipment you are allowed to have on your campsite:

Now we're getting somewhere- that tells us that everything needs to be on the campsite pad.  Except a dining structure, and that has to be within 10' of the pad.

But, there's a problem.  I don't think that they distribute a packet of material at check-in anymore.  On my last two Fort visits, all I got was a map and parking pass.  Nothing else.

Maybe those helpful Fort Rangers know?  They patrol the campground and pass out warnings to guests who violate the rules.  At least they used to. Here's a love note I got in 2014 because we had three vehicles parked at our site for one evening:

This document tells us about vehicles and RV's and campers.  Even boats and open trailers.  But nothing about tents.

So what are the tent rules?

There aren't any.

I've seen it with my own eyes many times, and most recently when I popped by the Fort this past weekend.

I used to take my kids to the Fort on President's Day weekend. It wasn't too hard to get a campsite in February when the weather can be less than ideal.

But things have changed.

Big groups have honed in on this weekend as a good time to visit the Fort, because it used to not be so busy.

There's one group in particular that the Fort has catered to for the past four or five years on President's Day Weekend.  They let them have the whole 1500 loop, and they bring in extra picnic tables for them, and let them do pretty much whatever they want.

Check it out:

That's site 1504 you see over there.  A nice site, and it looks like they were able to squeeze 4 good sized tents on it.  And a flag, too:

This is site 1503, the second outside site on the loop.  These underachievers only have two tents. But, they're big ones:

Now we're looking at site 1509.  Also a nice site- they've got three tents on the pad, and another back there behind the pad.  That's not a dining structure, it's a tent:

Actually, these folks have a whole little tent village set up in the interior of the loop. All far away from any actual campsite:

These folks only have three tents, and a personal chiminea:

They use this site to set up their chafing dishes for the caterer to use when they bring the food.  You know, like how we all do when we camp:

Now here's something I haven't seen before- they let them set up their own theater area complete with multiple chimineas so the poor campers don't get cold in the frigid 60 degree temperatures which were forecasted:

You might be wondering now if these folks just came in here and set this stuff up without the Fort management knowing about it.  But, if you are thinking that, you're wrong.  Look at all of the picnic tables set up over there at the back of site 1511- the Fort management did that for these folks.  Isn't that nice?:

During the holidays, the Fort management cracks down on guests who set up holiday decorations in common areas.  But, it's perfectly fine to bring in your own movie screen and set that up in the common areas. Good to know:

Remember that rule that you can't have a trailer (open or enclosed) at your site unless it fits on your pad?  Poppycock:

Apparently, that rule is just for regular guests.  It doesn't apply if you bring in a huge group and pay enough money.  Then, you can do what you want, and nobody cares if the Fort is safe and uncluttered.

These tents are not on the campsite pad:

That looks like a nice place for a tent.  Better than setting up in that awful coquina that sticks to everything. And the view!:

Now we're behind site 1514, we can see two sites in this photo, and at least seven tents between them:

Looking back down the canal bank:

Incidentally, this is the same canal that they spent Lord knows how much money installing fencing along behind the 300 loop.  Alligators, you know.  I guess Disney alligators are trained to not come out of the canal here?

Now we are behind site 1516.  Tents for days:

None of these tents are on the campsite pad, or even within 10 feet of it. And, there's an illegal firepit there on the right:

Here we're looking at the space behind sites 1516 and 1517-I see 6-7 tents in this photo:

More tents nowhere near a site pad:

Here's a real genius. He set his tent up in the water retention area next to site 1520.  Unfortunately, we haven't had much rain in Florida the past couple of months, and we didn't get a good rain while this guy was here:

In addition to completely overtaking the 1500 loop, these folks rent out a lot of golf carts.  More money for Disney:

It looks like these folks overflowed into the 1600 loop this year.  Here's a bunch of tents all over the place on the outside of the 1600 loop:

So, what have we learned?

How many tents can you have on your campsite?

As many as you like, and then some.

Now we know.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

We got the check in package last (2016) 4th of July.  It had the double sided information page, plus the booklet.

I don't have the full booklet any longer, so I don't know what they say about tents.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

4 minutes ago, Travisma said:

We got the check in package last (2016) 4th of July.  It had the double sided information page, plus the booklet.

I don't have the full booklet any longer, so I don't know what they say about tents.

You must be special.  I didn't get one over Memorial Day weekend, or last Thanksgiving weekend (2016).

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

Guess we must've looked like newbies! 

It had a bunch of pamphlets in it about Disney Springs, the parks, etc, plus the Fort booklet and the 2 page Rules for Vehicles/Cart, etc.

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

When I first started reading this I though you were going to be talking about how poor the website was.  I was already to chime in and agree and talk about how it's like that with all resorts.  For our upcoming trip I've been doing lots of research and found that their website doesn't have near the info that other private sites have in regards to the different room types.  BUT then you took a turn in your narrative and showed those tents!

That is outrageous!  I don't get it, are they really spending that much money that the Fort caters to them?  If they spend that much money why not setup a group at a resort?   If they are doing all of this special stuff and not taking advantage of the actual Fort activities or WDW why not go to some completely different spot or heck an open field and setup your own tents, fire pits, movies, etc. for free?  I don't get it.

WBI

[rm0530 5]

"Hunger Games District 1"

I'm curious what events this group planned that would fit the Hunger Games experience. It's not exactly magical Disney everyone wins type stuff.

[keith_h 420]

22 minutes ago, WannaBeImagineer said:

 If they spend that much money why not setup a group at a resort?  

I agree with this. I think they should turn the existing group area into an improved group loop complete with full hookup and a CS or two. When there isn't a large group they could rent the sites out on a nightly basis to locals or other short term campers.

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

So, what have we learned?

How many tents can you have on your campsite?

As many as you like, and then some.

Now we know.

TCD

That group has been doing that for the last 4/5 years when we were there. 

[Travisma 1,317]

I cant wait to get home and be able to see TCD's photos.  PC i'm on doesn't allow viewing.

[sherryberry 35]

Goodness gracious, man! That's a lot of tents!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

29 minutes ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

That group has been doing that for the last 4/5 years when we were there. 

Has it always been this out of hand?

I recall you saying that this group caused no problems.

TCD

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

We were over in the 1700 Loop when this was all going on, and other than seeing the tents and quite a few golf carts running around, they didn't bleed over and didn't fill up the buses (at least when we were riding).

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

35 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Has it always been this out of hand?

I recall you saying that this group caused no problems.

TCD

Just about.. and yes, much more behaved than smaller groups.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

This bugs me.  At least they rented out the entire loop, so that was something however... you have to know that their noise spilled over into other campsites that were not part of the group  

I really think feel that large groups should only be allowed in the group camping area (especially with catering, a movie screen and such).  If you want to rent out a loop...that's okay, but no more than 2 tents per site and none of the "stuff" that this group has/does.

 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

35 minutes ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

This bugs me.  At least they rented out the entire loop, so that was something however... you have to know that their noise spilled over into other campsites that were not part of the group  

I really think feel that large groups should only be allowed in the group camping area (especially with catering, a movie screen and such).  If you want to rent out a loop...that's okay, but no more than 2 tents per site and none of the "stuff" that this group has/does.

 

It bugs me too.

They need to write some clear rules and enforce them.  What's so hard about that?

The Fort has a group camping area.  If that doesn't work for a group, then they should follow the same rules as everyone else.  What's wrong with that?

The problem here is poor management.

But what else is new?

TCD

[lightbikes 73]

2 hours ago,  twiceblessed....nacole said:

This bugs me.  At least they rented out the entire loop, so that was something however... you have to know that their noise spilled over into other campsites that were not part of the group  

I really think feel that large groups should only be allowed in the group camping area (especially with catering, a movie screen and such).  If you want to rent out a loop...that's okaTy, but no more than 2 tents per site and none of the "stuff" that this group has/does.

2 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

t bugs me too.

They need to write some clear rules and enforce them.  What's so hard about that?

The Fort has a group camping area.  If that doesn't work for a group, then they should follow the same rules as everyone else.  What's wrong with that?

The problem here is poor management.

But what else is new?

TCD

 

It bugs everyone - we've even been evicted from the 1500 loop when these folks have come in and told we have to move off our site while they are there.    A few years ago three different site were comped cabins for the weekend to make room for these folks.  

Seriously ticks us off!!!! Which is reason number 2,011 why we werent there this year. LOL

And by the way they leave a serious mess behind them

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On ‎2‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 4:52 PM, lightbikes said:

It bugs everyone - we've even been evicted from the 1500 loop when these folks have come in and told we have to move off our site while they are there.    A few years ago three different site were comped cabins for the weekend to make room for these folks.  

Seriously ticks us off!!!! Which is reason number 2,011 why we werent there this year. LOL

And by the way they leave a serious mess behind them

They comped three cabins to make room for this group?

I hope that they are making a lot of money off of this group to make up for the lost business.

But, somehow, I doubt management is that smart.

Ridiculous.

TCD

[Goose's Girl 9]

This is my first trip back in 4 years.. I hope I don't get crap for my two tents and my canopy.. that would be my luck!! 

[Travisma 1,317]

38 minutes ago, Goose's Girl said:

This is my first trip back in 4 years.. I hope I don't get crap for my two tents and my canopy.. that would be my luck!! 

We had a PUP, a tent like yours, a screen room, and a little dome tent on our site and didn't get any grief about it.

But we did have the PUP turned sideways on the concrete pad which blocked anyone from seeing the sand pad looking straight back.

Just print off a couple of the pictures TCD posted and if they give you any crap show them to them!  

 

 

[Goose's Girl 9]

We had a PUP, a tent like yours, a screen room, and a little dome tent on our site and didn't get any grief about it.

But we did have the PUP turned sideways on the concrete pad which blocked anyone from seeing the sand pad looking straight back.

Just print off a couple of the pictures TCD posted and if they give you any crap show them to them!  

 

 

Great minds think alike! That is exactly my plan [emoji23]

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[Travisma 1,317]

1 hour ago, Goose's Girl said:

Great minds think alike! That is exactly my plan

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You can see our layout in this TR

 

Hot, Hot, Hot, a sweltering visit 6/28 thru 7/6

[Roberta 42]

On 2/27/2017 at 2:13 PM, Travisma said:

We had a PUP, a tent like yours, a screen room, and a little dome tent on our site and didn't get any grief about it.

But we did have the PUP turned sideways on the concrete pad which blocked anyone from seeing the sand pad looking straight back.

Just print off a couple of the pictures TCD posted and if they give you any crap show them to them!  

 

 

How did you move the PUP at that angle? Do you have a hand dolly, or are they just light enough to move around on a solid surface? We have one, but never tried. We live on sand and it's tough to move much by hand. 

I'm a chronic rule follower, but there doesn't seem to be any real rules about number of tents. I would never spread out past our site, or have an illegal fire pit (Hello, Chip & Dale have one! What's wrong with people? lol) But I would like to have a PUP and two medium sized tents on our site, facing each other with our RV mat as our "courtyard." 

[BigTom 76]

The most I have seen was in the 1500 loop, 5 tents and 3 pop up canopies. 

[Avatab.... Steve 124]

I have a picture somewhere I took a few years ago on the Dog Path along the canal behind the 800 Loop. I posted it on one of TCD's threads I think.  It showed a large group with several sites that had tents all over the place. So many in fact that they had some set up ON the dog path that runs behind the loop. They also had a bag toss game set up in the middle of the path.

They had other tents set up in the woods between the actual sites and the path. It looked like they had cut back some of the bushes/tree branches to make little paths between the tents. They literally had big and small tents everywhere there was a space for one!  LOL

Between the tents and the game everyone using the dog path had to detour off the path and duck under the tree branches next to the canal to get by.

They had one site set up as a dining site with a big shelter and grills and the other sites were all tents. IIRC I'd say they had 25 or 30 tents between 3 or 4 sites.

I almost never call up front, but I did this time to tell them about blocking the dog walk. They said they'd send someone to check it out.

Nothing happened, nothing was moved, and the group was there for a couple more days at least.

 

[JMSisko 0]

We were staying in 1400 loop while this group was at the fort. We saw a significant amount of wild golf car driving by this group. Carts driving/racing side by side NASCAR style in front of 1400. Also, we were nearly run down when one of these people did a "full speed" u-turn in the middle of the street with no regard for on coming traffic or pedestrians.

Eventually there was a significant security presence to restore order. I don't know if the fort called in overtime for security or they were just more visible, but we did start to see plenty of security as the weekend progressed.

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