BREAKING : Fort Wilderness Cabins to Become DVC Properties

Exactly.  I posted the other floor plan and photo because there are much better floorplans available now.  The whole tiny house movement gave new life to the park model industry for campgrounds in my opinion.  I was really hoping Disney would decide to do something different with their floorplan than basically repeat the current 1990s layout.  From the photos released of the plans for the new cabins, that does not seem to be the case. 

Back in 2016, Disney sold some of the older cabins.  Here's an interesting read from that time about buying these for $20,000. www.orlandoweekly.com/arts/you-can-now-purchase-the-log-cabins-from-disneys-fort-wilderness-campground-for-20000-2515233.

Just a cursory google search shows modern, log cabin look park models available around $60,000.  lancasterlogcabins.com/park-model-cabins/#adirondack. Here's a look at that particular cabin's two bedroom floorplan, just to show something easily available at that price point. 




About a year or so ago, I did a deeper dive as we were trying to include a few of these cabins in the first phase of Standing Pines Resort.  For a bit, I got excited about the possibility of buying some of the FW cabins and having a section of our new campground with these pieces of Disney history.  But when I started looking at alternatives, there are better options on the market.  While I would have loved to own a bit of FW, that just didn't make sense once we really researched other options.  Interestingly, our final choice will depend on budget.  DH may well build some of these tiny homes on wheels for our campground instead of buying retail.  If it works that way, we will incorporate some of the characters developed for our campground in these for theming.  But that's getting off topic for DVC at Fort Wilderness. 

Back to my main point: it seems odd to me that Disney is choosing to repeat what I think is a dated floorplan design with the new DVC cabins at Fort Wilderness.  There are simply so many other possibilities on the regular retail market for these park models that it would have been easy to order a variety of cabins equivalent to studio, 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom villas to follow the more typical DVC model for room types. Theming these with Disney art, soft goods and a few other touches would have been relatively easy.  I think it is possible this kind of an approach would have appealed to a larger potential audience.  Then, it combines the appeal of parking by the front door of your own Disney cabin with the convenience of a boat ride to the Magic Kingdom and the joy of all the activities of FW in different sized accommodations with different point requirements for different kinds of vacations over the years.  

It disappoints me that DVC seems to missing the opportunity here.  I would love the opportunity to pitch a different plan to whatever team is actually putting this together! 

Cheaper than a 1BR in terms of points - whoaaaa - that would make them _very_ popular me thinks.

That is surprisingly good news. I still think different floorplans would be better. But given a choice between GF studio and FW cabin at the same nightly point cost, I'd pick cabin every single time.

We were solid about not buying any more DVC points. But if these FW cabins really wind up being low point options, with a low annual maintenance fees - we may have to revisit that decision after all.

I’m completely shocked at the low point values. Cheaper than the AK 1-bedroom values? I suppose they need something to get people to bite, and this might be it. It’s a complete reversal from the ongoing point inflation.

Well we know where I’d be. Hell, give me a chair in the Grand Floridian lobby and I’ll be just fine.

That said, low points would indeed greatly enhance the chances of me staying in a cabin.

Don't get me wrong, this is not the worst place in the world. It's just a bunch of little things together that made us wound up disliking the resort. We did use the walkway to Magic Kingdom, but I felt far more exposed there for lack of better word than I do even on the walkway to DHS from BWV. It was not an enjoyable walk to me and I would usually really like walking. That left us with either monorail or boat to Magic Kingdom and I felt the location of the standard Villas was just not convenient. Again we don't mind walking, but it felt far too disjointed to us. I appreciated the covered walkway to the main building, but if it was windy and rainy it still wasn't great. I also enjoy the lobby, but sometimes I feel like it is just too impersonal and always on show there. Because so many people are there just to visit or dine. I feel similarly about the second floor of the Polynesian, but not the entire lobby.

Resort monorails are iffy at times and using that to get to Epcot was awful. We did walk to the TTC most of the time. And with the walkway closed right now I would be rather grumpy trying to get to Epcot and back. I felt the time it took to go to get food was just pretty long. That's even comparing it to some other bigger resorts. We are not a huge fan of the theme there either. I probably am incredibly biased against there since my favorite place is the Polynesian. I felt myself comparing it to that everyday, multiple times a day. I think the resort studios are better located. But they lack amenities that we use.

I'm sure it doesn't sound really bad. I just would prefer to be at BLT and definitely the Polynesian over this one. I don't feel the points are worth it to me to stay. However, if you ask me about the Polynesian, I'm more than happy to pay the points I do. I am looking forward to the walkway reopening and I'm very glad that walkway was open when we stayed last summer otherwise I think I would have been even more annoyed. I do like visiting I realized, but just not staying.