This may be a mistake - but How To Get Into Ft. Wilderness for Halloween.
If you've wanted to get down there for Halloween, like my lovely bride has for a LONG time now, you know that trying to get ANY reservations down there when they first open up is a fool's errand. You just can't do it - whatever's open is quickly reserved.
And that's the trick - 'reserved'.
This year we'd managed to get scheduled in on 1 November. So we staged down there at one of the local campgrounds. My lovely bride wanted to see the way folks dressed up their sites for Halloween so we got a Hoop-De-Doo Review reservation and showed up way early to walk through as many loops as possible. (Highly recommended, BTW, it's a lot of fun.) We showed up at Wekiwa Springs State Park on the 28th, set up, and went to HDDR on the 29th.
Orlando's got some pretty nice and inexpensive campgrounds, our favorite is Bill Frederick at Turkey Lake, but because it wasn't available due to plumbing renovations we went to Wekiwa Springs State Park. The prices are remarkably low (especially compared to Disney or KOA prices) so they're our go-to for when we first get down there.
We got back from the Review - and my lovely bride checked to see if we could get in on the 30th. We couldn't - but we could reserve for the 31st.
Apparently some people cancel at the last minute - and we were the beneficiaries. Of course we had to forfeit our stay at Wekiwa Springs on the 31st and lose the money for it - but $30? Yeah, she hesitated maybe two seconds on that when faced with the chance to get into Ft. Wilderness for Halloween.
We reserved, rejoiced, went to Sea World the next day, then on the 31st we packed up, stopped and got about 30 lbs of candy and some Halloween decorations - and headed to Ft. Wilderness.
Now - was this a one-off sort of chance? Maybe, maybe not. There were THREE other empty slots in our loop when we arrived, and two weren't filled for Halloween Night. And we don't know what the other loops were like that night.
Lessons of the story:
1. Proximity REALLY helps. If we'd been home, getting ready to head to Ft. Wilderness and figuring to arrive on 1 November, we wouldn't have been in place to take advantage of the sudden opening. But we were in the area and could take advantage of it.
2. Constant checking of the Ft. Wilderness Reservations page is important. She was checking twice a day, and caught this one as it came open two days ahead.
So - what's the mistake?
Well, now you know how you can get in for Halloween - and we'll see how things go next year! Good luck!
