Disney World Florida - Ft. Wilderness advice

Bears Den wrote:
Make your reservations early. Go while the kids are in school, other than that have a great time. I would recommend you get a preferred site as they are larger and our preference is the 1100/1200 or 1300 loops.They are near the front of the campground and the first ones you come to after check in.

Agree with this except the loops for the Preferred sites are 100, 200 and 300. Loops 100 and 200 are not pet loops, but 300 is. He may mean the Premium lots, which are closer to where you check in. The preferred lots (my favorite) are near the Settlement portion of the campground and close to the boats and the restaurants.

The area is great and there is a lot to do just in the campground. The pool is excellent, and the nightly campfire and movie is really nice. Plenty of great fishing, either with a guide ($), or just fish along the bank. We stayed there last month and a 10 year old girl caught a 9 pound bass.

My wife works at Disney, and the campground is so nice, we'll just go there sometimes for the day to just walk around, talk to people, and check out the different campers.

Don't miss breakfast at Trails End Restaurant, at the Settlement, which is where the boats dock to take you to the Magic Kingdom or the Contemporary/Wilderness Lodge. It is an all you can eat breakfast that is outstanding. Ask for a server named Ken.

Lunch at the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge can be a blast if you go along with the crazy servers. There is a really nice paved hiking trail bewtween the Wilderness Lodge and the Campground; lots of deer along the way.

You won't go wrong there. Also, if you run into issues, there is a Camping World a few miles away.

Lots of good info here:

Fortfiends.net

TECMike wrote:
My bride and I will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary during the spring of 2013.

You're late. ;)

Figure out the least crowded times in the Spring and make reservations then.

We loved the "meal plan". We did the plan with one "counter service" meal, one "table service" mean, and one snack per day. Those meals and snacks can be combined (you can use two table service "credits" to go to a nicer restaurant, or use the meal credits for part of a meal and just pay cash for the rest, however you want to do it). We made our own breakfast in the TT and then ate out the rest of the day.

We rarely got to the Magic Kingdom at "rope drop", right at the beginning of the day. Why, when you are staying for a week? We would just show up at Fort Wilderness' ferry dock (YES! You go to Magic Kingdom by boat! Awesome) sometime around 9 or 10am... no line to wait in, and walk right into Magic Kingdom or where ever you want to go. Disney has rotating "magic hours" at the various parks, where a park will be open late, so don't worry - you will have plenty to do to make you exhausted without having to get up early in the morning.

Golf carts - Fort Wilderness is a BIG campground. The bus service is excellent and constant (especially during less crowded times), but sometimes it is fun to have a cart. We rented a cart for one day, and spent that day "looping" - driving all over the campground, which is organized in loops - and doing activities in or near the campground. You can arrange for a cart rental from businesses outside the park at close to 1/2 the cost, but I don't know how that works (at least you could, I don't know if Disney still allows that).

Definitely make a reservation at the Hoop-De-Do-Review at the campground. It is a dinner show, and a heck of a lot of fun.

The bathrooms and showers at Fort Wilderness (FW) were basically spotless. It was nice sometimes to take a nice long shower in them.

As to the parks - Hollywood Studios is really good. The Stunt Show is worth going to, along with most other shows. The Sci Fi Theater is fun to have a meal at - it is setup like a drive in movie theater playing clips from old black and white sci fi movies.

Animal Kingdom is good, especially if you take the time to explore it. I was not impressed with the "safari adventure". There are trails all over the place that go to various animal enclosures with park people (Cast Members) there to tell about what you are seeing.

There are a TON of shows and events going on all the time at Disney. Take some time to find out what is happening while you are there. We used Disboards forums a lot for our trip planning, and also asked questions on these forums.

You will not be able to see all that Disney World has to offer in a week. Have fun, and don't over do it! After your first trip, you will have better ideas on what to do on future trips.

Also - ASK, ASK, ASK. If you have any questions, any need, any problem... find a Disney person and ASK. I was just amazed at the level of customer service. A couple times we had issues that I thought would be a problem, but we just asked the closest Disney person and it was taken care of. I think "I don't know" is stricken from the Disney dictionary, you won't hear that from people there.

LarryJM wrote:
Ditto and we already have our reservations for 10 Dec 2014 to 1 Feb 2015

WOW! You will be at Disney for 7 1/2 weeks! I bet you get to see everything twice!

We took our bicycles with us. We biked to the bus station to get to the park, instead of using the shuttles to the bus station. Never started the truck in 5 days.

We brought a golf cart. That is an amazing campground but it is HUGE. They do let you rent carts down there. I would budget extra money to rent one. Even if you are an avid bike rider it can be a bit much to ride your bike back to the camper late at night.

Try to get a premium site. Very very nice.

Also, be mindful of snakes.....I will leave that suggestion at that.

Spring is fine as long as it is not too late or after school is out. We stayed in October 2011 and the crowds were moderate. I have been there during the vacation seasons and I will never do that again. Fort Wilderness itself is beautiful and probably the best full hookup park we will ever stay at.

Bears Den wrote:
Make your reservations early. Go while the kids are in school, other than that have a great time. I would recommend you get a preferred site as they are larger and our preference is the 1100/1200 or 1300 loops.They are near the front of the campground and the first ones you come to after check in.

Ditto and we already have our reservations for 10 Dec 2014 to 1 Feb 2015 (you can make them arund 500 days ahead of when your last day will be) and when you make reservations you can request a type of loop or a specific loop. This next trip will be our 17th to DW and FW sinc 1984 and before last time we always tried and stay in one of the full hook up sites with 1600 being our favorite, but now are a convert to the premium with 1400 being our favorite now. We started making reservations for this next trip back in Aug and because of the 500 day limit had to increase our time over the next couple of months and had to make additional reservations since one can't be longer than 30 days.

We found the best times were Oct to early Dec and Jan/Feb. If you have the time Xmas is great, but the crowds can be obscene during certain times. If going in Jan check when the Marathon is on and try not to go the week before or after marathon weekend since the crowds on certain days can be heavy.

Larry

Make your reservations early. Go while the kids are in school, other than that have a great time. I would recommend you get a preferred site as they are larger and our preference is the 1100/1200 or 1300 loops.They are near the front of the campground and the first ones you come to after check in.