Disney's Fort Wilderness

February 13, 2008

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February 13, 2008

Disney's Fort Wilderness

This is truly a one of a kind camping experience for your family. While not your typical camping trip, it can’t be beat for location to the Walt Disney World Resorts.

There are 3 different types of campsites at this time. Standard (water and electric), Full hook up, and Preferred (FHU plus cable). The prices vary at different times of the year and the best way to get a quote is to call (407)939-6244. This campground books up quickly, especially for holidays. If you want to go during a holiday you will want start calling 500 days out. They release the sites in stages and it may take awhile to get all of the dates you want. For our next trip, I started calling 500 days out and it took about 6 weeks to piece together my trip.

There are many amenities at Fort Wilderness that are built into the campsite price.

~ The campfire program. This is offered every evening. Come up and roast marshmallows over two group campfires. (bring your own supplies or they are sold there). Sing along to some traditional Americana music and then stick around afterwards for the evening movie shown over a big screen (Always a Disney movie). There are benches with backs and plenty of bleachers. You may want to bring a cushion to sit on or a blanket to wrap up in.

~ You can see the evening fireworks from the Magic Kingdom at the Fort Wilderness beach. There is also an Electric Water Parade that goes by every evening. You can find out the times for these at check in.

~ There are daily scheduled activities for the kids, and big kids too. Dodgeball, kickball, swimming games, bingo, etc.

~ There are two pools and scattered play areas throughout the campground.

At the Bike Barn you can rent a golf cart, bikes, kayaks and canoes. I would recommend the golf cart for at least one day so you can go “looping” and check out all of the campsites. Especially over the holidays when they are all decorated.

Free Transportation to the Parks is a big benefit to staying at Fort Wilderness. You can take a boat to The Magic Kingdom, take the boat and then a monorail to get to Epcot, and then there are buses for Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios(formerly MGM) and Downtown Disney. You may have to wait a little bit for a bus, but at least you won’t have to worry about driving yourself to each park.

There is a sit down restaurant on-site, Trail’s End. It is buffet style and a bargain price compared to other Disney restaurants. Next door is Crockett’s Tavern, a great place to grab an adult beverage. There is also the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review dinner show. Cheesy jokes and music, very good backyard style food and fun for the whole family. You will need reservations.

Fort Wilderness also has cabins available for those traveling without their RVs. They sleep up to 6 and have a kitchen and full bathroom. You can view the floor plans in the link at the end of this article.

There are two stores on-site for souvenirs and food staples. There are also grocery stores and convenience marts within a 10 minute drive. If you want to explore some of the “other” theme parks in the area, Sea World is a 20 minute drive and Universal Studios isn’t much farther than that.

In order to provide balance, I do feel the need to mention a few “cons”.

1- Most of the camp sites are narrow. As with most older campgrounds, the Fort was not designed with big rigs in mind. The loop roads can be hard to maneuver.

2-You are also not allowed to have a campfire at your site. If weather conditions permit, you can use your own fully enclosed fire pit but I wouldn’t count on that as there seems to be burn bans more often that not.

3- The cost. Let’s face it, WDW is not cheap, even if you are camping. Depending on how far you have to drive or pull your RV you may even end up spending more money that if you flew and stayed at a value resort. But then again you wouldn’t be able to sleep in your own bed or make a nice breakfast before going off into the parks.

Overall I would say Fort Wilderness is one of the nicest campgrounds we have been to. It is very clean, well run, has fully paved roads, recycling containers and even a new dog park. Here are some links with even more information.

Disney Fort Wilderness Resort Campgrounds

AllEars.net Fort Wilderness Campground Fact Sheet

For dining reservations you can call (407)WDW-DINE

Happy Camping,

Shannone