Staying at the Fort for Thanksgiving or Christmas

lsenquiz

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 4, 2005
We just purchased a travel trailer so our future Disney trips will be at Fort Wilderness. We would love to see the holiday lights. Because we have school age children our trips are limited to times that school is out. I went in today and tried to book an RV site for either Thanksgiving or Christmas 2018 and there was nothing available. How far in advance do you have to book to stay at the Fort during Thanksgiving or Christmas?
 
For this Thanksgiving 2017, I booked in Dec 19, 2016. I think on most holiday you have to book at least 6 or 8 months a head of time. I've already booked for Easter 2018 on Aug 30, 2017 . I've learned that you need to book right away if you think you want to stay at the fort around a holiday time. I think your problem is that you can't book more than a year out online. You should call and book for your stay.
 
For this Thanksgiving 2017, I booked in Dec 19, 2016. I think on most holiday you have to book at least 6 or 8 months a head of time. I've already booked for Easter 2018 on Aug 30, 2017 . I've learned that you need to book right away if you think you want to stay at the fort around a holiday time. I think your problem is that you can't book more than a year out online. You should call and book for your stay.
Sadly I did call because I though the same thing as you and they confirmed that there is no availability for Thanksgiving or Christmas 2018. I tried to book for 2019 but they said that was not available yet. They did tell me to keep checking each month to see if anything opens up.
 
Sadly I did call because I though the same thing as you and they confirmed that there is no availability for Thanksgiving or Christmas 2018. I tried to book for 2019 but they said that was not available yet. They did tell me to keep checking each month to see if anything opens up.
As people have said here before, check every day and perhaps multiple times a day. Good luck, hope you get a site :D
 


We found this out the hard way when we tried to get for Thanksgiving of 2016. We ended up booking in July of 2016 for Thanksgiving week of this year! I basically called the day the bookings opened up as we knew we wanted a premium site. It's kind of strange to book so far in advance, but now we can't wait for our first trip to the Fort in just 37 days!!
 
Lisa,

Christmas to New Years, Thanksgiving week, and Halloween week are the three holiday periods that I would recommend people make a reservation as soon as possible if you think you want to visit the Fort/WDW during those times (meaning a year in advance at a minimum). You can make a reservation 500 days in advance of your check-out day (in other words, your entire stay must fit inside the 500 day window). You can do that by calling or on-line but the on-line is only available around June for the following year so I would recommend using whatever method gives you the earliest chance to book.

Over the decades WDW has added THOUSANDS of hotel rooms but only about 15 net sites for campers and RV's. So demand has outstripped supply which basic economic theory says will results in higher prices (yes that's true). More baby boomers have retired and taken up the rv/camping lifestyle and you still have young families camping with their kids.

You can try to pick up days a few at a time by constantly checking and taking what you can get (at the same site level) and get them merged into one reservation later on. People here have had success with that if they start trying early and often enough.

Good luck!

Bama Ed

PS - the alternative is to book an rv site off property at Tropical Palms, Lake Louisa, Kissimmee KOA, etc. There are lots of choices along Hwy 192.
 
We booked in July for Thanksgiving 2018.

However, we went Thanksgiving 2016 and were able to piece a reservation together with a few nights each on two reservations. I can't remember when we started looking for that though, I think spring or summer 2016. So it can be done but I spent a lot of time stalking the website for availability.
 


I started trying to reserve Christmas 2017 sites back in December 2016 and could find only a few days available online. I contacted a TA (first time ever) and she said "no problem". Ever few weeks, I'd get an email where she had "found" another day and after several months we had TWO week long reservations for Christmas.

The key is persistence. So many people, me included, book "maybe vacations" that they cancel as the time gets closer.

Good luck!
 
I also booked this past July for Thanksgiving 2018. Keep checking back for cancellations.
 
I agree with the others, just keep trying. Call & check online. Eventually you will hopefully be able to piece the days together.

We didn't plan our trip for this Thanksgiving until this past March when my Dad bought an RV and offered it to us to use. I've had 5 days booked since April, except for Weds/Thurs of Thanksgiving week. Just yesterday I was able to add in Wednesday--a phone call was the lucky method. I'm hopeful that we will be able to add Thanksgiving day and not have to move into town.

If you're a night owl, I've been told that at midnight is when some of the rooms/spots will open up as the system updates cancellations then. I try several times throughout the day to see if I can get lucky.
 
Lisa, still reading this thread? I have 10 nights resv from Nov 16-Nov 26 2018. Cant give them to you, but we can coordinate a cancel time together to increase your chance of picking them up. These are for premium campsites. Let me know.
 
Sadly I did call because I though the same thing as you and they confirmed that there is no availability for Thanksgiving or Christmas 2018. I tried to book for 2019 but they said that was not available yet. They did tell me to keep checking each month to see if anything opens up.

Lisa, still reading this thread? I have 10 nights resv from Nov 16-Nov 26 2018. Cant give them to you, but we can coordinate a cancel time together to increase your chance of picking them up. These are for premium campsites. Let me know.
 
How far in advance do you have to book to stay at the Fort during Thanksgiving or Christmas?

1) Book 499 days in advance.
2) Halloween, Christmas and New Years at The Fort are the toughest ressies to get on Disney property.
3) If you can't get the ressie, keep trying and look for a cancellation.
. . . go online or call in the lase evening, when people are home from work and would call to cancel
. . . go online or call mid-afternoon
. . . trying for a ressie early in the day is -usually* not productive
 
It seems like campsites are a hot item all year. It’s on our list to do for one of our visits, but everytime we check they are full.
 

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