Wintering at WDW

[hfc1969 1]

Good afternoon..

We are not campers sorry, but we do visit the Fort and rent a golf cart every Christmas to look and appreciate everyone's decorations.

This year we will be over at the fort on Dec 27... 

Anyway, my question that I have always wanted to ask:  How many of the folks' winter at WDW (stay multiple months)?  You always hear rumors of cast members who live in the fort and get 1/2 of sites.

I was just wondering how much of this is true.  Thanks.. 

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

WELCOME! 

No need to be sorry about not being campers, all are welcome here.  I don't know an exact count of how many people winter at the Fort I'm sure it changes every year, depending on the economy and Fort pricing. There are or were at least one who more or less lived at the Fort.  As far as CM go I know of several who have "lived" at there for different amounts of time include one of the Fiends, I'm not sure what if any discounts they got. I have a friend who lived there for a while when he first moved to Orlando and was working as a captain at WDW, but that was 6 or 7 years ago and he was only there about 6 months before he moved to another RV park to save some money.

[ImDownWithDisney 342]

There are not any special rates for long term stay. There are several who winter and I know of one person who has lived there continuously since 2009. There is a CM rate. I am not sure if it is 50%. I bet part time time CM's would barely break even.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Welcome to the Fiends!

With regard to this:

52 minutes ago, hfc1969 said:

You always hear rumors of cast members who live in the fort and get 1/2 of sites.

 I can tell you that's not anywhere near true.

CM rates are hard to get at the Fort.  And even the CM rates aren't that cheap compared to what other campgrounds in the area charge.

There used to be a time, years ago, when the Fort would offer what was called "Settlers Rates" to long term campers.  But those discounts are long gone.

There are a few folks who stay for long stays in the winter months. but not very many.  And most of them are not CM's.

TCD

[djsamuel 322]

23 minutes ago, ImDownWithDisney said:

There are not any special rates for long term stay. There are several who winter and I know of one person who has lived there continuously since 2009. There is a CM rate. I am not sure if it is 50%. I bet part time time CM's would barely break even.

The cast member rate can be 25%, 40% or 50% depending on availability.  During busy times, it can be difficult to get a discount at all.  

[ck32250 1]

I have no way to validate this but while chatting with some folks who are there every year, they told me that the fort limits your duration of stay to several months (can't remember exactly how many) and they also mentioned that they received no discount for staying months, each year.

[LONE-STAR 370]

There is one lady that has been there for around 10 years. She use to be in the 700 loop now she is in the 400.

[Travisma 1,317]

Makes you wonder about the logistics of trying to keep booking a site.

As the year ahead date opens, does she have to book that day everyday?

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

12 hours ago, ck32250 said:

I have no way to validate this but while chatting with some folks who are there every year, they told me that the fort limits your duration of stay to several months (can't remember exactly how many) and they also mentioned that they received no discount for staying months, each year.

Not sure about the limit part - I know of a few people that have been here for a year or more (some multiple years).  You can only book one month on a single reservation though. The Disney reservation system won't let you book anything longer. 

With the crazy availability at the Fort these days, I don't know how people are even managing that - never mind consecutive months.  I'd imagine they're booking at the exact 499 day mark... and crossing their fingers.

Crazy thing is that we had to scavenge for weeks to piece together Oct 29-Nov5 - and it took 5 reservations to do it. Now we're here on 300 now and as of yesterday nearly half the loop is empty (still is).  Our in-laws were supposed to check in today.  When they realized they could get here last night, hopped online and booked it, easy peasy.

 

[Seals 111]

5 minutes ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Crazy thing is that we had to scavenge for weeks to piece together Oct 29-Nov5 - and it took 5 reservations to do it. Now we're here on 300 now and as of yesterday nearly half the loop is empty (still is).  Our in-laws were supposed to check in today.  When they realized they could get here last night, hopped online and booked it, easy peasy.

 

Isn't that because of the 5-day cancel with no penalty cancellation policy.  I was looking yesterday at a tent site Christmas 2018 and thought about booking  even though I have no clue whether we'd even be able to go, but I could hold that site until 5 days before the check in without a penalty. 

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

On 11/3/2017 at 8:37 AM, Travisma said:

Makes you wonder about the logistics of trying to keep booking a site.

As the year ahead date opens, does she have to book that day everyday?

I wonder if they have a work around like maybe that site or say 1 premium site is taken out of the reservation pool all together. Something arranged through Disney or Fort management were it's just a standing reservation.