Welcome Pete!
As far as "rotation", you're correct. Many military campgrounds may have different areas for you to stay in:
- FHU - A site with Water/Electric/Sewer
- Partial - May only have electric or only water.
- Dry - Dry camping - no hookups at all.
Depending on the "rotation" policy, if the FHU sites are full, you may be able to go into a Partial or Dry site and wait until an opening in the FHU area becomes available. How long someone can stay in FHU also varies by installation. So it's possible to be in a DRY site for a week or more, then rotate to a FHU site and stay there for a couple weeks or up to a couple months (depends on installation). When your time is up in the FHU site, you would either need to leave, or rotate back to a Partial or DRY site and go to the bottom of the waiting list again.
Many people appreciate the military campground with a fair rotation policy. It gives many more people a chance at getting a FHU site, rather than letting a few take up the FHU sites for 6 months. The best locations post the waiting list, so you can get a good idea of how long you'll need to wait before getting a FHU site. When they don't post the waiting list, there can be accusations of "favoritism".
You'll almost always find an available spot at most of the military campgrounds in Florida (a few don't have a rotation). However, your site may be a DRY site before you can rotate into a FHU site.
Almost all military campgrounds have showers. You just may need to walk further or drive to them at the larger campgrounds.
My tip in using military campgrounds - be flexible. In over 6 years, I've visited over 120 different military campgrounds and have only been turned away twice, due to them being full. There's real nice ones and there's dumps. Some are very affordable and others are very expensive. This website will help you plan ahead.
Safe Travels!
