The full budget for The Cabins at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort reveals the areas most responsible for the high annual dues total.
Current Disney Vacation Club owners can now purchase an interest in the Fort Wilderness Cabins. However, the 2024 projected annual dues of $12.15 per point may give buyers pause.
The full operating budget, detailed below, comes in at a hefty $8.9095 per point. The member obligation is reduced slightly thanks to projectsions for Breakage Income, Late Fees and Pet Fees totaling $.3485 per point. Members are responsible for the remaining $8.5610 in operating costs plus $1.6121 for Capital Reserves and $1.9811 for ad valorem taxes. These three figures total the $12.1542 for 2024 dues on 76 vacation homes.
The chart below compares the per-point cost of annual dues for several categories between The Cabins at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort and three other destinations. These 5 line items represent the most obvious ares where the Cabins cost more to operate and maintain than several peers.
| Annual Dues Comparison | ||||
| FTW Cabin | Beach Club | Grand Floridian | Saratoga Springs | |
| Admin & Front Desk | $1.0630 | $.7706 | $.8174 | $.6675 |
| Housekeeping | 3.0683 | 1.7067 | 1.4662 | 1.8571 |
| Transportation | 1.9092 | .3617 | .6334 | .9329 |
| Capital Reserves | 1.6121 | 1.4442 | .8954 | 1.4079 |
| Ad Valorem Taxes | 1.9811 | 1.5994 | 2.0172 | 1.3853 |
| Total Above | 9.6337 | 5.8826 | 5.8296 | 6.2507 |
Owners of the Cabins will pay $3.7511 more for these line items than owners at Disney's Beach Club Villas. In comparison to The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort, the cabins have a premium of $3.8041. And cabin owners will pay $3.3883 per point more than owners of Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort for just these 5 items.
It is not immediately clear if the dog-friendly nature of these resorts play a role in the high housekeeping costs. Owners are receiving a credit of $.0458 per point in expectation of the pet fees which will be collected over the course of the year. However, on a per-point basis, the $3.0683 cabin owners will pay for housekeeping services is double the cost of some other DVC destinations including the Grand Floridian.
It's worth noting that Disney Vacation Club does have a recent track record of over-estimating dues in early years of new destinations. For both Disney's Riviera Resort and Copper Creek Villas & Cabins, dues increases for the first 4-5 years averaged less than 1%. Similarly low increases for The Cabins at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort would allow others to catch up in the coming years. However there is no way to accurately predict how the dues will change beyond 2024.
