Possible Rally and Fort Wilderness Merchandise

A few years ago Disney stopped having merchandise specific to the resorts. Now they've begun having resort merchandise again. At Fort Wilderness they have some tee-shirts, sweatshirts, a tire cover (not as pretty as the ones they had years ago), a camp chair (director's style), and a rocking director's style chair. If I remember, I'll check the prices on the tire cover and chairs. Other merchandise compares in price with all of the other WDW stuff.


Tater

I wish we could afford to seriously suggest a Wildcat Rally at WDW. Then we could ALL have Ft Wilderness trinkets as part of the pkg!

TC

Actually, TC, I have an idea. I'll find out more in January. Maybe some of you who might be interested could tell me what is affordable, how many nights you would or could stay, and how much you would want to interact with the Wildcat group (stop by to say hello when you see other Wildcatters at home, or pot luck dinner one night, things like that).

Opinions and suggestions are needed, and nobody is committed to anything until it's time to make reservations.

Tater

Scruffy and Tater wrote:Actually, TC, I have an idea. I'll find out more in January. Maybe some of you who might be interested could tell me what is affordable, how many nights you would or could stay, and how much you would want to interact with the Wildcat group (stop by to say hello when you see other Wildcatters at home, or pot luck dinner one night, things like that).

Opinions and suggestions are needed, and nobody is committed to anything until it's time to make reservations.

Tater

I want to stay until I've seen it all and done it all!! That's why I can't afford it.

TC

Depending on the time of year, DW and I would love to make the trip. We could probably stay 4 to 5 nights. Pot luck dinner one evening would be great.

We have met groups at events before and had a lot of fun. We had a central meeting area set up for every couple of hours. You didn't have to make any of them if you did not wish. For others, it was a time to relate interesting/fun things we had done. Sometimes we would go in different groups to see shows or exhibitions some of us wanted to see. We may or may not stay together until a later group meeting. It was all very informal and worked quite well not having a tight schedule to try and follow. The only event everyone attended was a dinner the second night where everyone could put faces to names we had known for years.

If it happens, sign us up!

My wife has it all planned already for us, we will be there Oct28-Nov02 2012,IIRC. Me, my wife, 2 kids, 2 dogs, and a big ol' cat.

Scruffy and Tater wrote:Actually, TC, I have an idea. I'll find out more in January. Maybe some of you who might be interested could tell me what is affordable, how many nights you would or could stay, and how much you would want to interact with the Wildcat group (stop by to say hello when you see other Wildcatters at home, or pot luck dinner one night, things like that).

Opinions and suggestions are needed, and nobody is committed to anything until it's time to make reservations.

Tater

I think I should have added - What time of year, or what month would work best for you? Scruffy and I are pretty flexible, depending on health conditions. We don't want to go in summer, though.

Tater

We would be interested in a group camp at Disney. 3 or 4 days would be great. Keep us posted. Pot luck and a beverage social for another night would be fun.

No summer months for us either. July and August are definately out. Any other times will depend on my work schedule.

We've been there in July and August - definitely way too hot.

Everyone, FYI -

For 2011, the dates for the value season and pre-holiday season (least expensive) for sites at Fort Wilderness were:
Value - 1/2 to 2/17 and 8/7 to 11/17
The 2011 rates for the value season were:
Tent or pop-up (partial hook-ups - no sewer, short sites) - $46
Full hook-ups - $61
Preferred - $66
Premium - $76
Weekends about $3 higher

Pre-holiday - about $4 more than Value season per night for 11/18 to 12/15.

Regular season - about $20-$22 more than value per night for 5/1 - 8/6.

Peak season - About $30-$34 more than value across the board for 2/18 - 4/30

Holiday seasons - Depending on the holiday, anywhere from $37-$49 more than Value.

Rates will go up for 2012.

If we DO have a rally or get-together at Fort Wilderness, it would be nice if we could all be near each other. But, I realize we probably will all have our own preferences for price and location. Some people will want the preferred sites, but we find them to be too close and some are difficult to back into (there are no pull-throughs at Fort Wilderness). The full hook-ups are nice, but a long walk to the marina where the boat transportation takes us to the Magic Kingdom There are buses that make the rounds of the campground very frequently, with stops convenient to every loop, that will get you to the marina quickly. Scruffy and I like the Premium sites for their spaciousness and most are easy to get into.

We might be able to get some sites in loops 100 and 200 (preferred) and loop 400 (premium) - these would be relatively close together. I don't know if all 3 of these loops are pet friendly.

I'm still not committing to organizing a rally, but would like to get some ideas on how many of our members would be interested.

We will be at Fort Wilderness for 10-14 days beginning on Janury 24. We are tentatively planning on early May and again sometime in the fall (before Nov 2 when our annual passports expire). I could organize a rally for any of those times. I won't make reservations for anybody but ourselves. The travel agent we met on our last trip would probably be able to get us near each other.

Tater

Maybe they'd do a group rate and block out a section in one of the loops.

Early in the year won't work for us; the DW already has us committed to doing other things. And come summer, barring some other misfortune, I need to get back to the claims and get to digging again. So, that would put us into fall...probably after Sept. 10th until the middle of Nov. as the likeliest times to consider.

TC

We are really good for any dates. Probably sometime in late Sept or early Oct. would be nicer weather. Hopefully no late hurricanes:))

Fall would probably be the best time for us, too. Even though our APs expire on Nov 2, we don't have to leave then - it just means we don't go into the themeparks after Nov 2.

Late hurricanes usually aren't real powerful - usually.

Tater