It will be interesting to see how many sites on October 30 or 31st suddenly become available when the people that booked every possible option for Halloween 400+ days ago, try to drop the days they really didn't want and find out it's all or nothing.
I read it all the time on other groups. "I'm only going for a week, but I booked October 9th-November 5th to make sure I get the days I want. A few weeks out, I'll just call and drop the days on the ends that I don't want."
j
Here right now and have been here since the 30th, Halloween was packed but had a handful of empty sites that we saw. Not a huge amount but there was definitely open sites....HOWEVER....they were not able to be booked. They were kept open because people had already checked in and were on their way OR we left open to move people in case there was an issue with their site.
I had a handful of reservations to deal with, so I was at the front desk a long time and heard a lot of conversations going on, including someone wanting to extend and someone wanting to move sites and someone wanting a second site because the one next to theirs was empty and since they had 3 golf carts, they wanted it for golf cart parking and to put a tent on! LOL.
Just commenting here to confirm this is still the case- you cannot merge consecutive bookings at this time. I started planning a 14-day trip about a month ago for the crazy busy time around Christmas/New year's, and had to piece the campsite bookings together a few days here and there until I had completed the stay that I wanted. (all Full hookup basic sites) Finally bought park tickets a few days ago and called to merge the Fort bookings, but was not allowed. It is so frustrating in combination with Park Reservations because I really don't want to be worried about moving the camper on days we are going to the theme parks- rope drop is hard enough without unhooking/relocating to the parking lot. Then of course park reservations affect dining reservations... I can't finalize anything. Appreciate all the advice on here- I'll try modifying from both sides of each booking for now.
The good thing is that once you arrive with your list of confirmation numbers and information, the front desk can help you merge them and link them all together so that you can stay in the same site. They do require that you have to 'check-in' each check-in day, but each time I did they always looked at me like I was nuts and then sent me on my merry way, but even then they told me to keep doing it. LOL!
The magicbands only had an issue with 1 reservation so far but all in all it's been easy since we checked in.
I think ed hit it with they must be in the same catagory. If you have diffrent categories you might be out of luck.
Nope, it's beneficial and easier for them BUT even on 'sold out' nights they ask you which category you prefer to stay in and then they will check if anyone has in particular requested an actual site number and work around that. I had FHU, Premium and even a few Meadows Premium booked and I told them I would take whatever would not require me to move for all of my 6 reservations and this included Halloween and Thanksgiving etc. I told them I don't care about any refunds if it's FHU and that I would pay the difference if it was Meadows but they found us a spot in the clover and I noticed the difference refunded anyway.
I am not going to say that it's guaranteed for anyone, just giving my experience. I told them I didn't mind moving, I just asked if it was possible. I think if you are nice and don't demand and are willing to agree with whatever happens, they will work with you as much as possible.
Obviously I do not think anyone would begrudge your "single family of ten/ 2 adults and 8 minor children" a campsite at Fort Wilderness.... I also think it's fair to say that MOST of the people who have 10 or more at their campsites are not the proud parents of 8 children. The problems arise when multiple families or other large groups squeeze into one campsite to save money. It might work for them but perhaps NOT for their camping neighbors. They simply do not consider the impact of their actions on those around them (extra noise, vehicles, visual congestion, wait times at comfort stations, etc.)
We've had many new neighbors, not many stay as long as we are here for, but on a few occasions we've had sites surrounding us with 10+ people on them (camper plus multiple tents, 3 tents and a van, huge RV and a tent...etc.) and they have all been fine and quite friendly (definitely no one enforcing any rules about what can be on a site) and one thing that I did notice was that the dogs left in their RVs all day are worse than any group of 10+, especially those howlers, barkers and yappy types. Now THAT is annoying.
All in all it seems to just be the same as always, depends on who you get for who will do what, just standing at the check in desk there was so much drama with many different resolutions going on. During the storm was even more interesting to see what was happening and how it was being handled for different people.