Cabins at Disney's Fort Wilderness

[knokout1]

I was thinking about staying at the cabins this upcoming February to take advantage of the Florida Resident early 2016 rates. It would cost me about 230 a night, and I was thinking about staying for either 2 or 3 nights depending on a few factors.

It would be just me and my wife, and we are both passholders who live about an hour away so we have good exposure of the parks. The resort would definitely be an important part of the trip since we don't plan on spending most of our time at the parks.

The alternative to staying at this hotel would be staying at a value resort but spending a bit more at the parks. We would get a table service dinner at least once a night opposed to the usual quick service meals we do.

So are the cabins an experience that will be worth it? We'll definitely take advantage of cooking our own groceries to save a bit of money, and we'll probably drive to all the parks except Magic Kingdom so buses won't be an issue.

I also saw that we can rent golf carts for $60, is that something you have for the entire trip? And if I drive them up to the gift shops/shows, will I have somewhere to park them?

 

[JennSmith]

The golf carts are 60 a day. Other than that I have no answers for you since our first time at the cabins will be September 2016. But I look forward to watching your thread...279 days to go til we're in our cabin...woot woot!

 

[Tuvalu]

Just to clarify...the cabins are located at Ft. Wilderness (campground) NOT the Wilderness Lodge.

 

[knokout1]

Just to clarify...the cabins are located at Ft. Wilderness (campground) NOT the Wilderness Lodge.

My mistake, I corrected the title.

 

[LAKid53]

We stayed at the cabins in 2013, prior to the recent renovations. I was disappointed to see they got rid of the Murphy bed in the living room. The cabins are basically a single wide one bedroom trailer. The kitchen is spacious, but I was shocked to see as part of the renovation they removed the stove and now all you have is a 2 or 3 burner electric cooktop. And, of course, a microwave.

Not sure if they upgraded the bed in the bedroom as part of the reno. The bed when we stayed was a very short full sized bed; my daughter's BF at the time slept in the bed by himself because there isn't room for two adults. He had to sleep at an angle because the bed was too short… and he’s about 5’10”. The cabins are advertised to sleep 6 – 4 adults and 2 kids in the bunk beds in the bedroom. It would be cramped sleeping quarters for 4 adults.

They updated the single bathroom and hopefully installed more towel bars. When we stayed there were only two narrow ones. It was quite a pile of towels on the floor and hanging on the shower rod and door. Reminded me of my college dorm days.

I would advise renting the golf cart. There is an internal bus system that will take you to the main bus stop near the horse stables. But you may have a long wait for the bus to a park or Disney Springs. And the buses will stop at the Wilderness Lodge on their way to their final destination. Most people drive the golf carts to either the main bus stop or the boat dock; there’s a boat between Ft. Wilderness and the Wilderness Lodge and a boat that goes to the Magic Kingdom. You park tight at your cabin and there is room to also park the golf cart, with a charging plug – the carts are electric. Don’t wait to reserve one when you check in like we did, because there probably won’t be any available.

We enjoyed our stay. And four adults trying to schedule bathroom times reminded me of some of those sitcoms from the 60s, lol. The grounds are lovely, you really feel like you are camping in the woods. Quiet and peaceful. And a lot of guests decorate the outside of their cabin during the holidays. And one more thing, I believe there still is a grocery delivery service if you are unable to go get your own.

 

[R W B]

My fiancé and I are staying in the cabins for 9 days in February. My very first trip to wdw in 06 I stayed in the cabins and it was 4 adults and 2 children and I don't recall it being much of an issue. Since then I've stayed at many other resorts but this time my fiancé wanted to try the cabins so we are.

We definitely will be making use of the full kitchen, we have meals planned to cook for breakfast & dinner but we also have some ADRs too so we won't cook every night. Their is a charcoal grille out side that I will be using also. Like mentioned above the renovated cabins do not have an oven but not all cabins are renovated yet. We will be renting a golf cart for our stay, that's an extra $600 with tax. Renting a car is cheaper but I do remember driving around at night in the cart is kinda fun. Theirs plenty of parking at the main bus stop and the by the boats.

I say go ahead and try it if you've never done it. I know I like the feeling of the resort it self. We do plan on spending a lot of time there and not just in the parks this trip.

 

[DWFEVR]

We've been to the cabins twice this year - once non-renovated and the other renovated. Love the new layout of the renovated cabins. Yes, they got rid of the Murphy bed but you now (finally) have 6 large drawers you can use and a beautiful large HD television. They've also rearranged the furniture so you have way more space..new couch. I think they also replaced the kitchen table one that is a tad bit smaller. The kitchen, though it does only have a 2 burned stove, have a microwave/convection oven. I've never used a combo before but really enjoyed the convection oven part (just follow the directions on the door - very easy).

The bathroom has a new vanity area. There are 2 towel racks but they finally gave a hook to hang your towel on so you don't have to get out of the (new) tub/shower. Let me warn you though there is a drop off when you exit the shower. There's only 2 of us like yourselves so we never had an issue.

The bedroom stayed the same with the exception of new mattresses I think. The bed was fine but the person sleeping by the wall just has to practice getting out if the have to use the bathroom during the night.

We always rent a golf cart because it's fun to ride around in. We never had a horrible experience with the buses. It was easier just to drive the cart to the front instead of using the internal buses. True you may have to wait a while but they disembark closer to the entrances than you have to park. However, if you're going to the Kingdom take the boat - you avoid a lot of the lines.

Have a wonderful time.

 

[Schneewittchen]

I have an RV and we always stay at Fort Wilderness. I can't speak for the cabins, but from experience, if you are comfortable with a bicycle, you can skip the golf cart and save a bit of cash. The golf carts can be a menace.

There are good paved trails. And bike racks all over the place: settlement trading post, meadow trading post, outpost. You can hop on your bike and ride to the settlement and then take a boat to MK. You can boat to Contemporary and then take a monorail to EPCOT. And to get to other places, we always bike down to the Outpost to catch the buses.

My motto: Let the mouse drive.

 

[JamieLee18]

If you drive your cart to gift shops/shows, you can park pretty close. In most cases, you can park closer than the bus stop and definitely closer than anywhere you can drive your car. We get a cart every time, but we don't drive our own cars to the parks, we use WDW transportation. There's cart parking right near the main bus stop, so it makes using WDW transportation much more convenient. You also don't have to commit to your full length of stay, you could rent just a day or two. It's nice to cruise around the campgrounds to do some sight seeing.

For the other posters... how large are the new convection ovens? Large enough for a frozen pizza?

 

[SeanWM48]

cabins are the only place we stay when we go. check my trip report in my sig for some pictures from '14. we'll be back in '16 and really looking forward to the renovations. my only complaint was the bed size and apparently they upgraded to queens now

the carts are a blast. if you have it in your budget it, go for it. the bikes are a decent alternative mentioned above. when you get back off the boat from the park it's awesome being able to just hop into your cart and go back to your cabin instead of taking the resort bus.

keep in mind the privacy you get with a cabin too. no neighbors on the other side of the wall. big plus especially for couples without kids.

other advice:
eat at trail's end as much as possible especially for breakfast
check out the boats and other activities at the harbor
hoop-de-doo dinner a must

 

[R W B]

cabins are the only place we stay when we go. check my trip report in my sig for some pictures from '14. we'll be back in '16 and really looking forward to the renovations. my only complaint was the bed size and apparently they upgraded to queens now

the carts are a blast. if you have it in your budget it, go for it. the bikes are a decent alternative mentioned above. when you get back off the boat from the park it's awesome being able to just hop into your cart and go back to your cabin instead of taking the resort bus.

keep in mind the privacy you get with a cabin too. no neighbors on the other side of the wall. big plus especially for couples without kids.

other advice:
eat at trail's end as much as possible especially for breakfast
check out the boats and other activities at the harbor
hoop-de-doo dinner a must

Just a FYI, unfortunately they have not upgraded to queen size beds. I was on property a few weeks ago and we drove over to FW to to check things out because we have a week long stay in February booked there and we asked about the renovations and that was something specifically I did ask about and the CM at the check in said they didn't have any room to upgrade from a double to a queen. Plus a few others have posted places that have stayed in the new ones and also said the same.