Fort Wilderness Campground - First Visit Coming in December

[Cowboy Steve]

Howdy folks!

Visiting Disney World has been a tradition for our family since 1972. When I was a young boy we camped outside Disney, but never had a chance to camp at Disney itself. For something different, me and the little lady have decided to try a more relaxed vacation in the bubble and are renting a camper for this year's trip. We have been to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review a couple times, and did a trail ride (in a misty rain). We have horses and have a horse trailer with a small living quarters, and have spent some time camping with our horses. But it is way too small for a 12 day round trip to Florida and Disney! So thus the camper rental. I think we are going to bring our own golf cart ($55/day cart rentals is a little steep for something that will sit around for most of the day), and our little papillon Henry. Having Henry with us will force us to take a break in the middle of the day so we can return to the trailer and let him out.

So... any advice for first time Fort Wilderness camping? We are so excited to camp at Disney... don't know how we will make it through the next 180 days (got all my dinner reservations in this morning). Some things I'm interested in: Is there golf cart parking at the bus stop to the parks? Does it fill in fast? Boat or bus to MK? Are we better off driving to the parks or using the Disney transportation? How is the dog park, and does anyone have any pictures of it? Do they allow contained camp fires (can't find anything on Disney's site)? Anything you think we need to know would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Best regards!

Cowboy Steve

 

[cedardad]

Hi Steve,
We are also going to camp at Fort Wilderness for the first time too. I found a lot of great info on the other DIS forum with an entire section about camping at Disney. I've also viewed tons of Youtube videos on Fort Wilderness to get a better feel of the place. This will be a great Disney adventure that we have always talked about doing and finally will before the kids get too old! Spring Break prices are crazy and I never thought we would pay $150 per night to camp, but it's only money and it's Disney!!

 

[hbnwa]

Howdy folks!

Visiting Disney World has been a tradition for our family since 1972. When I was a young boy we camped outside Disney, but never had a chance to camp at Disney itself. For something different, me and the little lady have decided to try a more relaxed vacation in the bubble and are renting a camper for this year's trip. We have been to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review a couple times, and did a trail ride (in a misty rain). We have horses and have a horse trailer with a small living quarters, and have spent some time camping with our horses. But it is way too small for a 12 day round trip to Florida and Disney! So thus the camper rental. I think we are going to bring our own golf cart ($55/day cart rentals is a little steep for something that will sit around for most of the day), and our little papillon Henry. Having Henry with us will force us to take a break in the middle of the day so we can return to the trailer and let him out.

So... any advice for first time Fort Wilderness camping? We are so excited to camp at Disney... don't know how we will make it through the next 180 days (got all my dinner reservations in this morning). Some things I'm interested in: Is there golf cart parking at the bus stop to the parks? Does it fill in fast? Boat or bus to MK? Are we better off driving to the parks or using the Disney transportation? How is the dog park, and does anyone have any pictures of it? Do they allow contained camp fires (can't find anything on Disney's site)? Anything you think we need to know would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Best regards!

Cowboy Steve

Hello Steve,

My family and I love the Fort and have gone several times. Most recently this last July.

As far as golf carts. There is parking at the front main bus depot (the outpost) and parking at the marina (the settlement). There is also golf cart parking in the back in front of Trails End Restaurant. It does seem to get crowded but I’m sure that depends on the season and how crowded the Fort is. We don’t typically use golf carts. We like having the freedom of choosing transportation options by not having to worry where we have to go to get the cart.
To get to MK you need to use the boat. There is no bus transportation at the outpost (main bus depot) to MK. There is a bus in the early evening that goes MK to Wilderness Lodge to Fort to MK. I believe it starts running at 4 or 5 pm. The boat does run regularly and is about 20 minutes between boats. When leaving the MK in the evening especially near closing or after take the bus. The boats do get uncomfortably full at the night time rush and typically the Lodge and the Fort are sharing 1 boat. To get to the other parks the buses are typically pretty good. I know a lot of that is luck of the draw and timing in general. I would recommend during construction to take the bus to HS. We would sometime take our vehicle to AK and Springs due to the distance.
I would recommend learning all you can about Disney transportation. At the Fort there are 3 internal bus lines – Purple, Yellow, and Orange. Both Yellow and Orange have stops near the Meadows (Gift shop, swimming, quick service). All buses go to the Outpost and the Settlement. There is also a bus that goes from internal to the Lodge and then back again until they switch it out with the MK route. You can google Disney Fort Wilderness Map and see how the loops are laid out.
What we like to do is request a loop nearer the marina – 400 loop or the 700 loop (higher number). 400 loop has easy backins for pretty much all sites. 700 has a mixture of difficulty. By using the Settlement depot as our main bus stop we can use any of the buses to get up front to the Outpost and then catch park buses and also when we get back we can take any bus back to the Settlement. It is also an easy walk to the marina to catch the Boat to MK or the friendship boats. There are 2 friendship boats that run in Bay lake. They both start at Contemporary and then 1 heads off to the Lodge and the other to the Fort, and then the Lodge boat to the Fort and the Fort boat to the Lodge and back to the Contemporary.
We’ve gone to the Contemporary and used the monorail to get to Epcot, We’ve left a park and saw that the Lodge’s bus was there and jump on that bus and take the boat or the internal bus. There’s been times we’ve left MK and walked to Contemporary to take a boat back to the Fort.
The dog park is very spacious and is near the 500 loop. There are two dog park fenced areas. I don’t have any pictures since my dog isn’t a fan of dog parks. The larger one has trees and some picnic tables and agility equipment. There was also water bowls for the dogs. There is plenty of room for even large dogs to exercise.
One campfires – they have very specific guidelines and you have to bring your own. The sites have a picnic table and a grill. The campfires have to be fully enclosed and off the ground to be approved. There is a nightly campfire at the Meadows that has musical entertainment and Chip and Dale. They then play the evening movie.
I hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[MMFanCipher]

We love camping at Fort Wilderness. Lots of Fort Wilderness Information at www.fortfiends.net too.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Howdy folks!

Visiting Disney World has been a tradition for our family since 1972. When I was a young boy we camped outside Disney, but never had a chance to camp at Disney itself. For something different, me and the little lady have decided to try a more relaxed vacation in the bubble and are renting a camper for this year's trip. We have been to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review a couple times, and did a trail ride (in a misty rain). We have horses and have a horse trailer with a small living quarters, and have spent some time camping with our horses. But it is way too small for a 12 day round trip to Florida and Disney! So thus the camper rental. I think we are going to bring our own golf cart ($55/day cart rentals is a little steep for something that will sit around for most of the day), and our little papillon Henry. Having Henry with us will force us to take a break in the middle of the day so we can return to the trailer and let him out.

So... any advice for first time Fort Wilderness camping? We are so excited to camp at Disney... don't know how we will make it through the next 180 days (got all my dinner reservations in this morning). Some things I'm interested in: Is there golf cart parking at the bus stop to the parks? Does it fill in fast? Boat or bus to MK? Are we better off driving to the parks or using the Disney transportation? How is the dog park, and does anyone have any pictures of it? Do they allow contained camp fires (can't find anything on Disney's site)? Anything you think we need to know would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Best regards!

Cowboy Steve

I suspect some with disagree with me, but at Fort Wilderness I think it's important to have a car OR a golf cart. I don't think it's necessary to have both.