The Fort Wilderness Cabins at Walt Disney World
Let’s face it, when you have a larger family, a room at Pop Century stops working for you fairly quickly. My family of my wife and I, a 10-year-old boy, and 5-year-old girl is nearing the point where we will no longer be able to fit in a Value room. Our options are about to be limited to two rooms at a Value Resort or one of the larger accommodations. So, I have begun to look harder at the Fort Wilderness Cabins, remembering a trip we took there a few years ago.
The Cabins are one of two options available for guests at Fort Wilderness, with campsites for tents and RVs as the other. For my family, the Cabins came in handy when we were looking for a way to take my parents with us and fit everyone in a room as cheaply as possible. Since six people can sleep comfortably in the Cabins, that was an easy choice.
You read that right, six people can sleep in the Cabins at one time, with a fold down bed in the wall of the living room, a double bed, and two bunk beds in the only bedroom. The beds are comfortable if not the best design ever. They feature a rustic design with “branches” as the bed frames in the bedroom. Mattresses compare favorably to the Value resorts, but are not quite on the level of the Moderates, although they are close. The one downside of having six people in a Cabin? There’s only one bathroom!
That one issue can cost some time, but a time saver is the fact that if you have a car you can drive directly to the doorstep of your Cabin. How many times have you trudged across the parking lot of your resort after a long day at the parks? In the Cabins, that is not a concern. The proximity to the Magic Kingdom makes it very easy to get to and from the original park for a midday break.
While the price of the Fort Wilderness Cabins can be rather high, topping $300 a night at certain times of the year, they can save you money. In addition to the parking and the ability to fit six people into one room, there is also a kitchen where you can make your own meals. Furthermore, each cabin has a grill outside, where guests can fix meals cooked to order by the head chef of the family. When my family stayed there, we were able to have 4 of the 9 meals we ate on property in the Cabin for a fraction of the price we would have paid in the parks.
The on-site amenities at Fort Wilderness are fantastic. You have access to Trail’s End Restaurant, one of the best dining values on property. Then there is the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue dinner show, which is expensive but also one of the best dinner shows you will ever see. Then there’s the campfire sing along, pool, carriage rides, horseback riding, and so much more! The drawback to that? The transportation is a bit of a mess. Buses take you from your Cabin to the restaurants and any of the recreation areas, but the system is a bit slow and can be hard to understand for first time guests. It’s not a bad system, and probably the best that could be done in this type of resort, but it’s definitely not ideal for guests who want to hurry around.
If you are one of those guests, I advise you not to stay at the Fort Wilderness Cabins. This is not the resort for commando touring or accomplishing every attraction in the parks. Instead, when my family visited, we found ourselves spending time enjoying the resort amenities, eating in the cabin, and taking a leisurely touring strategy. If you have a larger family and you are looking for a little more relaxation on your trip, then give the Cabins a try.
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We are staying in the cabins later this year, and will be driving down. Our question is, is there parking for vehicles at the boat launch? And which loop is the most convenient for people who want to drive to the parks for the most part? Thanks!
vehicles are politely discouraged -if not outright prohibited- from driving within the park (not driving between cabins/campsite and outside FW) There is parking for the golf carts at the boat launch, but if you stay in loop 2100, it is only around a 5-10 min walk. If you want to drive to the parks, might stay closer to the entrance – say 2700 or 2800 – but that might save about a minute, tops.
I will be in a Cabin in Aug for 13 nights. Can this cabin really accommodate 4 adults and 2 kids comfortably? Double beds… aren’t people sleeping one on top of the other?
The bed w/ me and wife was decent – and kids loved the bunks. The pull down Murphy bed looked good (though we didn’t sleep in it). Single bath/shower would probably be the biggest hurdle, but can work w/ planning. We saw another cabin had a tent set up on their cabin site,, with kids rotating out each night to sleep – they must have had 10 people there! On site recreation/atmosphere and ability to quickly drive to parks/resteraunts were more than worth those trade offs for us. Have a great time!
Ft wilderness is the PERFECT place for commando touring. Especially if you’re the type that only uses the room to sleep (and you have a large enough party to justify the cost).
This is because of the aforementioned ability to just drive right to the cabin. Getting to magic kingdom and to other areas in fort wilderness by bus is a little slow (but not actually all that bad). But you can rent a golf cart too. It’s fun and IMO doesn’t justify its cost in any sense.
Another awesome timesaver at fort wilderness is bicycles. If you’re a fast cyclist, bring your bike or bikes for the whole family and you’ll totally be zipping all around.
But that’s my big tip for ft wilderness: have a bike or ECV or golf cart. (I’ve even seen a a whole family on those redneck coolers that are also little scooters. That was a sight.)
(Little ones love bike seats and we also have a bike attachment that our 5 year old uses that converts a bike into a bicycle built for 2.) And bike trailers work really excellently as a way to ferry supplies to the pool or back from the tradin posts.
I rigged up a huge garden wagon (about 4 times the size of a little red wagon or playschool wagon) as a bike trailer. It is a monster. And we can use it as a little pallet / bed for the kids at the outdoor movie campfire sing along.
Fort wilderness isn’t for everyone. But there are a lot of benefits there that people don’t even realize. It’s not a giant trailer park. (Well okay, it is. But at least it’s a disney trailer park.)
Love the cabins!
The Murphy bed is actually comfortable for an adult.
The smaller pool by the cabins and the laundry room there are usually deserted.
Garden Grocer delivers, Kid’s Nite Out visits.
Golf cart is part of the experience. Great fun to ride around during MNSSHP and MVMCP and look at over the top campsite decorations.
I stayed there recently and found it to be a fun experience. Kind of fun to come “home” and stretch out. Loved having cereal on the little porch. And Mousekeeping tends to be on towel animal overload. However, I would suspect where you are on the loop will make or break your trip. If you are close to the main road the walk to the bus and the boat to the Magic Kingdom was wonderful. If you are way back on the loop the walk will kill you. And you cannot cross through the middle of the loops since much of this is reclaimed swampland.
I would stay there again. Especially if I was in a bigger group.
We are currently staying in the cabins. It was the perfect option for us with our 4 kids. We are close to everything but have plenty of room. We had groceries delivered to have breakfast in the cabin each morning and then set out for the day. We had planned to rent a golf cart to use around the resort but we ended up with a cabin just down from the bus stop so we have used that instead. It has been a wonderful experience so far and not having to worry about disturbing or being disturbed by our neighbors makes it truly a vacation.
All the WDW resorts are a terrible value. Stay off site.
Curious as to why you would be interested in reading anything “Disney” to post a negative comment. We have learned the hard way to stay on Disney property. We would never stay anywhere but on site now. Most hotels outside are way sub-par and still not always cheap.
I am sorry you feel that way. I think that staying in a Disney resort, even just one time, for a few days, is a very cool experience.
We’ve stayed at the cabins twice in the past few years. A family of three plus mother-in-law, we found that there was ample space and lots of opportunity for enjoying our time together. The beds are not comfortable for the more picky types (me), but the spacious bathroom, a full kitchen with table & chairs AND a grill for smores are definite pluses.
We loved Hoop De Doo, enjoyed the campfire singalong and smores (didn’t stay for movies) and have tested only one pool (our visits were during cooler times). Parking in front of the cabin is so nice at the end of the day, and walking about the roads and trails is pleasant too. The cabins are awesome!
We stayed in the cabins in 2009 when my husband, 2 kids and I took my best friend to Disney. She didn’t want to stay in a room by herself, so the cabin was the logical choice. She took the bed in the living room while DH and I and the kids had the bedroom. 1 bathroom didn’t cause any problems, it was just something we had to plan around. We didn’t cook any big meals, but it was nice to have a full fridge for water and snacks. My kids loved the atmosphere of Ft Wilderness and we would love to go back again! Easily our favorite resort so far!
Thank you for this blog post. I have thought about this resort for future stays when grandparents come along but have been hesitant because of the transportation issues. Like the idea of having a living room for when the kids go to bed early and the kitchen to save $$$ on meals. We would probably drive down anyway and then rent a golf cart. Last trip we stayed at the WL and I loved the bunk beds, theming, and the boat to MK so this is a great option, especially with the additional family members.
I will second the golf-cart comment. You can get around quickly and they’re tons of fun! Off-site companies can save you some $$, too.
Also, in addition to the full kitchen, THEY DO THE DISHES FOR YOU! Just leave your dirty dishes in the sink and come back in the evening to a clean dishwasher!
Do you know the name of an off-site rental place for the golf carts? How much was the savings compared to WDW?
best blog/options I saw on the topic …
http://www.fortfiends.net/_/info/golf-cart-rentals-disney-fort-wilderness-and-r100
We stayed at one of the cabins in 2002 when we made our first family trip to WDW. There were only 3 of us: my husband, our 4 yeard old son and me, but the cabin worked out great. (I had not visited WDW since 1971, its inaugural year and my husband had not been since the early 80s.) Our son loved the sense of adventure of staying in a “log cabin” and we enjoyed the many amenities of Fort Wildernness. We also liked being able to have breakfast in the cabin – a money and time saver. We had a car so it was very easy to get to the parks and other resorts for meals. Maybe my very fond memories of the FW cabin are due in part to my great nostalgia of that first magical trip to WDW with a Disney-loving 4 year old, but I am guessing that I would still enjoy staying in one of the cabins.
Love the cabins myself. Breakfast in the cabins is a huge money-saver alone. Add in a few dinners, and you’re really saving a lot.
One thing to note – you can rent a golf cart to cruise around Fort Wilderness. This is a great way to get to the boat launch for the Magic Kingdom and also explore the resort, and it’s a lot of fun. Not cheap, but it means you don’t have to deal with the internal bus system.
I think if you have a car and a golf cart, the cabins are pretty good for “commando-style” touring. Not as good as the Polynesian, but a lot cheaper. Cart to boat for Magic Kingdom is relatively quick and fun. And as you mentioned, with a car, you don’t have to trudge to a parking lot, so for the other parks, it’s pretty much door-to-door when you go at rope-drop.