Public events at FW?

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

All I'm saying is that it seems like the Fort Activities (maybe because they are better or unique) are more widely publicized than activities at the other resorts. Until we stayed at FQ, I didn't know they had a marshmallow roast.  We thought that only the Fort did that.

I don't think I've ever seen a FB post saying hey lets have our group all go to X resort for their movie on the lawn or go roast marshmallows at X.

If management suddenly started to have a large influx of guests showing up at their events, I can bet that they would start checking to see if they were a resort guest.

I'm actually betting Fort management gets wind of this sooner than later and puts some measures in place to keep things from getting out of hand.

Just a guess, but I think some of this is that the layout of the place in general has made it very easy to just drive into the Fort from wherever, park your car and roam around.  It's totally open and feels a lot more like a "park" than a hotel. At other resorts day guest parking can be further away, you have to go through the lobby to get anywhere, and activities are held in places that don't feel quite as public as the open spaces at the Fort.  

I also suspect the activities are better attended than some other resorts because people camping at the Fort actually "hang around" the Fort a lot more. How many hotel guests intentionally plan entire days just to hang around their resort? The more people in general know about them, the more they tell other people, the more public the information becomes. 

To that point, how many other resorts have entire forums dedicated to them??

 

[Travisma 1,317]

31 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

I'm actually betting Fort management gets wind of this sooner than later and puts some measures in place to keep things from getting out of hand.

Just a guess, but I think some of this is that the layout of the place in general has made it very easy to just drive into the Fort from wherever, park your car and roam around.  It's totally open and feels a lot more like a "park" than a hotel. At other resorts day guest parking can be further away, you have to go through the lobby to get anywhere, and activities are held in places that don't feel quite as public as the open spaces at the Fort.  

I also suspect the activities are better attended than some other resorts because people camping at the Fort actually "hang around" the Fort a lot more. How many hotel guests intentionally plan entire days just to hang around their resort? The more people in general know about them, the more they tell other people, the more public the information becomes. 

To that point, how many other resorts have entire forums dedicated to them??

 

I guess we're the odd ones.

We went to FQ 2 times, and Yacht Club once and stayed mainly at the resorts. In fact we left Yacht club to go have dinner at FQ.

When we went it was black out dates for our AP so we couldn't go to parks if we wanted to.

But I feel like your missing out on your resort if you are gone all day to the parks. We've been to the Fort when we could go to the parks, and my wife and I hurried back just to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Yes to a certain extent the Fort is more open, or more accommodating to non resort guests.

When you try to  visit a resort and aren't a guest at another Disney resort, you may or may not get into the parking lot if you drive. We've been turned away at Beach Club more than once when we wanted to get ice cream.

And with resort buses going to DS, it may take a while, but you can get anywhere on the property, even the parks just by parking at DS.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

1 hour ago, Travisma said:

But I feel like your missing out on your resort if you are gone all day to the parks. We've been to the Fort when we could go to the parks, and my wife and I hurried back just to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Agreed!!  And I know some people do plan "pool days" to hang out at their resorts, but I wonder how many people do much more than that? Just based on my family/friends that stay at other Disney resorts, it doesn't seem like a big percentage.

I think how frequently someone goes to WDW plays into this too.  If you don't go fairly regularly, my guess is that you're going to be in the parks more than hanging out at your resort.  We are super fortunate that we can go often enough and for long enough that we can spend plenty of time just enjoying the Fort.  But I remember our first trip when we stayed at the Beach Club.  We were in the parks from open to close and I'd be hard pressed to tell you anything about our room, much less the resort.

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

Just want to throw this out there.

Our last trip we were fortunate enough to stay at the Grand Floridian and their pools did not have MB scanners, anyone could walk in and out of either pool.

We thought we saw some people pool hopping but you really never know if they were or not.  I do know that their pools are much larger and nicer than the Fort.

YOU HEAR THAT FREE LOADERS!

Go to the Grand Floridian, they have two pools, a waterfall, waterslide a zero entry, hot tub, two bars, complimentary towels and a kids play area!  They also have grills near by because of the GF Villas!  Go there and give the Fort a break!

lol

WBI

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Just now, WannaBeImagineer said:

Just want to throw this out there.

Our last trip we were fortunate enough to stay at the Grand Floridian and their pools did not have MB scanners, anyone could walk in and out of either pool.

We thought we saw some people pool hopping but you really never know if they were or not.  I do know that their pools are much larger and nicer than the Fort.

YOU HEAR THAT FREE LOADERS!

Go to the Grand Floridian, they have to pools, a waterfall, waterslide a zero entry, hot tub, two bars, complimentary towels and a kids play area!  They also have grills near by because of the GF Villas!  Go there and give the Fort a break!

lol

WBI

THIS  :)

 

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

1 minute ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Agreed!!  And I know some people do plan "pool days" to hang out at their resorts, but I wonder how many people do much more than that? Just based on my family/friends that stay at other Disney resorts, it doesn't seem like a big percentage.

I think how frequently someone goes to WDW plays into this too.  If you don't go fairly regularly, my guess is that you're going to be in the parks more than hanging out at your resort.  We are super fortunate that we can go often enough and for long enough that we can spend plenty of time just enjoying the Fort.  But I remember our first trip when we stayed at the Beach Club.  We were in the parks from open to close and I'd be hard pressed to tell you anything about our room, much less the resort.

I think you're right.

When we were fortunate enough to go often we loved visiting and hanging out at the resorts.  Now that we are down to one trip every year or two it's hard to make ourselves relax at the resort or go to Downtown Disney.  There are not way too many things that we want to do each trip and it's hard to pick what gets cut.

WBI

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

It's funny because when I went with my brother's family in October we split our stay with Beach/Poly (because I am the luckiest freeloader alive-LOL).

They didn't kill themselves, and did plan a couple of pool days for some down time, but they were trying to cram as much park stuff in as possible. And even then, they never made it to DS and only briefly saw a couple of other resorts when we went for dinner.

And then there was me - who would have been more than happy to spend all my time at the resorts, especially at the Poly (sigh). My SIL even commented about how much time I spent on the balcony. Shoot, if I could have dragged the couch out there...  

[WrigleysWagon 32]

1 hour ago, WannaBeImagineer said:

Just want to throw this out there.

Our last trip we were fortunate enough to stay at the Grand Floridian and their pools did not have MB scanners, anyone could walk in and out of either pool.

We thought we saw some people pool hopping but you really never know if they were or not.  I do know that their pools are much larger and nicer than the Fort.

YOU HEAR THAT FREE LOADERS!

Go to the Grand Floridian, they have two pools, a waterfall, waterslide a zero entry, hot tub, two bars, complimentary towels and a kids play area!  They also have grills near by because of the GF Villas!  Go there and give the Fort a break!

lol

WBI

Is this not a perk of Disney?  I though if you stayed on property at one resort you were allowed to allowed go to pools, recreational activities at the other resorts as well. We've never done it, but have talked about doing just that on our next trip. 

 

As far as those just slipping in to take advantage of free (to them) amenities, that's just selfish people being selfish. I would venture to say that the amount of Disney security to prevent that would be seen as an unacceptable burden to most guests, and the Disney bottom line as well.  

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

16 minutes ago, WrigleysWagon said:

Is this not a perk of Disney?  I though if you stayed on property at one resort you were allowed to allowed go to pools, recreational activities at the other resorts as well. We've never done it, but have talked about doing just that on our next trip. 

Pool hopping is not allowed.  It used to be OK a long, long, long time ago (like when the only resorts were the Polynesian, Contemporary, Golf Resort and the Fort).  But pool hopping has not been allowed for at least the last 30 years, give or take a few.

TCD

[WrigleysWagon 32]

3 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Pool hopping is not allowed.  It used to be OK a long, long, long time ago (like when the only resorts were the Polynesian, Contemporary, Golf Resort and the Fort).  But pool hopping has not been allowed for at least the last 30 years, give or take a few.

TCD

Good to know. Thanks. 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

2 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Pool hopping is not allowed.  It used to be OK a long, long, long time ago (like when the only resorts were the Polynesian, Contemporary, Golf Resort and the Fort).  But pool hopping has not been allowed for at least the last 30 years, give or take a few.

TCD

Do they still allow it between the All star resorts?

pop and art of animation?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

8 minutes ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

Do they still allow it between the All star resorts?

pop and art of animation?

I don't think anyone cares about pool hooping at the All Stars.

But Pop guests have never been allowed to use the big Art of Animation pool.  That one has had a MagicBand reader since the day it opened.

TCD

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

45 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

But Pop guests have never been allowed to use the big Art of Animation pool.  That one has had a MagicBand reader since the day it opened.

TCD

That SMB!!! This Christmas will be our first time staying at POP.  I was hoping to check out the pool and other facilities at AoA.      

Do you know if POP's pool has a reader?

i know it's not kosher but I would really like check out both resorts pools 

I wonder if we could change to AoA?  

 

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

I don't know if frowned upon or acceptable but I did notice this past weekend people going back and forth between the pools at the French Quarter and Riverside. I have never actually walked up to the Riverside main pool but know there are also several other pools on property. 

 

Nothing to do with pools but the one thing I didn't think about and tried while there was using my MB to open the Riverside car gate. Which I found weird since you can drive from one resort to the other without ever going out of the gate and our building was actually closer or at least as close to the Riverside gate as it was the French Quarter gate. The guard let us through but explained our MB would only open our resort gate. 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

26 minutes ago, Cortezcapt (Derek) said:

I don't know if frowned upon or acceptable but I did notice this past weekend people going back and forth between the pools at the French Quarter and Riverside. I have never actually walked up to the Riverside main pool but know there are also several other pools on property.

About 4-5 years ago we stayed at POFQ and they told us at check-in that the pools and all the facilities at POR were available for us to use.  But I think they aren't like the yacht club and beach club and share pools and facilities. And are basically the same resort. 

[Avatab.... Steve 124]

Not sure if this has been posted yet but while I was reading this months Motorhome Magazine I came across a one page article about the Fort.

Entitled: "The Spookiest Campground in America" it is on page 11 of the October issue. The subtitle is: "The spirit of Halloween brought to you by the magic of Disney"

I thought it was ironic to come across this while reading the posts here. The very short article does not say anything about whether you need to be a resort guest or not, it simply says to "be sure to arrive in time for the resort's annual Halloween celebration" but it does give the number and website to make reservations.  

 

[LONE-STAR 370]

So what was the day all the people are supposed to show up at the campfire? I want to make sure I am not there.

[HeatherT 0]

Anyone can go to any of the resorts and shop at the stores or eat at the restaurants.  I would put the paid activities in the same category - wagon rides, boats, fishing, archery, etc.  FW even has a group rate for the wagon rides - $300 for 35 guests for 45 minutes.  But I would think taking advantage of free things without being a paying guest (campfire, pool) would be in the same category as walking into any hotel and eating the continental breakfast without being a paying guest.  

[bdm 47]

7 hours ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Agreed!!  And I know some people do plan "pool days" to hang out at their resorts, but I wonder how many people do much more than that? Just based on my family/friends that stay at other Disney resorts, it doesn't seem like a big percentage.

I dont think the vast majority of people that stay at other resorts plan for "down days" due to the fact that its costing them $300+ a night per person for the room, and not having the facilities to cook for yourself you are spending another $150 per person on food.

So by cutting your nightly stay by even 40% (camping in your own camper)  you can spend a few days relaxing.

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

5 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

But Pop guests have never been allowed to use the big Art of Animation pool.  That one has had a MagicBand reader since the day it opened.

TCD

Which has always been standing open everytime we've gone over for lunch or dinner.

[mileshigh 0]

19 hours ago, Breezy2 said:

Unfortunately security at Disney isn't well thought out or consistent.

This is another big issue they need to address.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

15 hours ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

That SMB!!! This Christmas will be our first time staying at POP.  I was hoping to check out the pool and other facilities at AoA.      

Do you know if POP's pool has a reader?

i know it's not kosher but I would really like check out both resorts pools 

I wonder if we could change to AoA?  

 

I just stayed a Pop Century last month- the main pool is fenced, but it does not have a MB reader.  There are multiple gates, and they are unlocked when the pool is open- just like they do at the Fort.

As Grumpy alluded to above, it isn't hard to work around the AoA MB scanners on the main pool gates.  I haven't seen the gates left open, but I have seen plenty of guests scoot in when someone opens the gate to exit the pool area, or right behind someone who opens the gate with a MB. If you wanted to pool hop, it wouldn't be hard, and I imagine that it happens a lot.

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

15 hours ago, Cortezcapt (Derek) said:

I don't know if frowned upon or acceptable but I did notice this past weekend people going back and forth between the pools at the French Quarter and Riverside. I have never actually walked up to the Riverside main pool but know there are also several other pools on property. 

 

Nothing to do with pools but the one thing I didn't think about and tried while there was using my MB to open the Riverside car gate. Which I found weird since you can drive from one resort to the other without ever going out of the gate and our building was actually closer or at least as close to the Riverside gate as it was the French Quarter gate. The guard let us through but explained our MB would only open our resort gate. 

PO guests are allowed to use both pools.  At least we were able to the 2 times we stayed there.

We've stayed at FQ both times and used pools, and activities at both resorts.

If you get the activity lists from both resorts, you'll see that most of them are staggered on different days, so you can do both if you want.

We never tried driving up to Riverside, we always walked or took the boats.

POR has a scavenger hunt for kids that is fun.

Sunday mornings is the Beignet Fun Run.

And a helpful hint unless you're a masochist, spend the few extra $$ to take the evening carriage ride instead of renting one of those multi-person peddle surreys!!!

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Last October at the Beach/Yacht we went to the pool 2 days.  First was in the afternoon - gate was wide open, no one there or checking MBs. CMs at the top of the slide weren't checking either like I've heard they sometimes do.

Second was early in the morning.  The gate was open, but there was a CM walking around with a scanner and wristbands.  Unless you were going to play hide and seek with her, if you weren't a resort guest, you weren't going to be staying.

We went to the Poly pool several times.  The gates had readers but no one checking anything.  If someone opened the gate ahead of you, you could walk in. And their version of the "quiet pool" doesn't  have a gate/readers at all.

Like TCD mentioned, wouldn't be hard to do at some resorts if you really wanted to. But how well it's enforced seems to generally be hit or miss so Your Mileage May Vary.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

19 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Last October at the Beach/Yacht we went to the pool 2 days.  First was in the afternoon - gate was wide open, no one there or checking MBs. CMs at the top of the slide weren't checking either like I've heard they sometimes do.

Second was early in the morning.  The gate was open, but there was a CM walking around with a scanner and wristbands.  Unless you were going to play hide and seek with her, if you weren't a resort guest, you weren't going to be staying.

We went to the Poly pool several times.  The gates had readers but no one checking anything.  If someone opened the gate ahead of you, you could walk in. And their version of the "quiet pool" doesn't  have a gate/readers at all.

Like TCD mentioned, wouldn't be hard to do at some resorts if you really wanted to. But how well it's enforced seems to generally be hit or miss so Your Mileage May Vary.

That is odd for the Beach Club Pool.  We stayed there for a couple of nights last summer, and they had a CM at the only gate in to the pool with a hand-held MB reader, and each guest had to have his own MB in order to be issued a wrist-band. No exceptions. We didn't know that everyone in the party had to have a MB with them, so we were short one.  It was easy enough to pass that MB through the fence and get it scanned again for another wrist band.  There's always a way.

The main pool at WL does not have MB scanners, but they sometimes have CM's at the gates with hand-held scanners and wristbands.  The new DVC pool does have MB readers, but no wristbands.  So, it wouldn't be hard to sneak in there if you needed to.

TCD