Walt Disney World - Fort Wilderness Campgrounds

We've been vacationing at Walt Disney World for over 15 years and we decided it was time to experience the Fort Wilderness Campgrounds. We read many postings before our trip regarding Fort Wilderness and the only thing that worried us was the transportation. We didn't know how far our cabin would be from the internal bus stop, so we made sure everyone had good walking shoes prior to our trip. On July 14, 2010, we arrived at Fort Wilderness Campgrounds during the early morning hours; 6:00 am and to our surprise our cabin was ready. We rented (via pre-order) a golf cart for the day. We got to our cabin and loved it! It was like staying in a 1-bedroom house. We were in Loop 2600, which was within easy walking distance to the bus stop. We used the cart to drive around the campground and quickly realized that it's huge! It's 700+ acres of wilderness, cabins, RV and campgrounds, laundry facilities, 2 swimming pools, playgrounds, and more. As for wildlife, we saw lizards, frogs, squirrels and we heard lots of bugs chirping at night. We spent so much time at the Disney parks that we missed out on many campground activities.

• If you've been to the Disney parks on several occasions and would like to do something different, this might be the place for you and your family. You could enjoy the parks in the morning and relax or have fun at the campgrounds during the late afternoon and evenings. There's horseback riding, kayaking, fishing, swimming pools, and more.
• If you're spending a lot of time at the campgrounds, you might want to rent the golf cart for the bulk of your stay. It's about $65/day so it's quite expensive and it only seats four adults. However, if you enjoy walking, then the internal bus system should be good enough for you.
• If you have elderly members in your party or really young children, you might want to stay at another Disney resort, unless you plan on renting a golf cart everyday to minimize walking. The location of your cabin or camp site plays a big role in the amount of walking that you'll do getting to and from the internal bus stop. Once you get to the bus stop, the transportation is really not bad except for the fact that you have to get on an internal bus that takes you to either the Settlement Depot or the Marina. You get off the internal bus and wait for an external bus or a boat, which takes you to your final destination. I think overall we waited about 5 minutes at internal bus stops and anywhere from 0-20 minutes at the external bus stops. Again, it's a pretty good transportation system; however, if you were staying at another Disney resort, you would only have one external bus to deal with.
• If you're looking for quick meal service then you might want to stay at another Disney resort. Fort Wilderness is set up for camping so there is no Food Court. You can get snack items or pizza but it's basically "take out" food (no breakfast items). You can also dine at their buffet; the food is good but takes longer to eat since it's a sit-down meal and it is rather costly (2 table service meals if you're on the dining plan). Or you can buy groceries at the Disney store, but you pay a premium price for everything. You can order groceries on-line and pay a delivery fee or if you have a car, you could drive to a supermarket to buy groceries (best option).

Primarily, we stayed at the campgrounds for an outdoor adventure vacation and to have a larger room during our Disney vacation. We knew we could stay at various resorts and rent a suite, but we're glad we experienced this campground-side of Disney.