Monday, June 8, 2009

Finally Here! Fort Wilderness Campground

We finally made it to Fort Wilderness Campground here in Walt Disney World. We drove in this morning around 11:00 am. Disney announces where the fun begins with this banner that stretches across their entry road to the whole park. Once through the main entry, we made our way to the campground's Reception Outpost.
We were assigned Loop #400, which is in a great location near the marina and Settlement Trading Post. Fort Wilderness has 28 "loops" for RV and tent camping and some with the Wilderness Cabins for rent. We got to site #408 in our loop and backed our motorhome into the nice, wide spot. Disney has been renovating the camping loops to accommodate today's larger rigs. They are very nice now with plenty of room for slide-out rooms and to extend your patio awning if you want to do so. This is our motorhome parked at site #408. Dogs are allowed in almost all of the camping loops now. Several years ago there were only 3 or 4 loops that were "dog friendly". So many folks travel with dogs and cats now that the tide has shifted and the majority of loops are pet friendly. They charge an additional $5.00 per day, per animal which is fairly steep. However, we would never leave our fur baby anywhere else....so we just pay the price and keep her with us.



This is the view of our camping loop and our rig is at the right of the photo.

There are about 30 campsites in our loop.



This is a look at the beach on Bay Lake. There are some designated swimming areas on the lake, plus there are 2 very large swimming pools here in the campground. There are also watercraft rentals for guests, including these small SeaRacers in the foreground of this photo.





Disney provides several modes of transportation and this boat is one type. These boats will pick you up at the marina dock and take you to the Wilderness Lodge or the Contemporary Hotel. When our family arrives next week they will stay at the Contemporary Hotel. Plus, there is another larger boat that will take you directly to the Magic Kingdom when you want to go there.






This is one of two trading posts. This one is by the marina and is the Settlement Trading Post. Inside you can buy limited types of grocery items, gifts, souvenirs, hats, T-shirts, toys, candy, magazines and newspapers.






This large building is also by the marina area. It is Pioneer Hall and the Trail's End Restaurant. There is also Crockett's Tavern and an arcade with games. In Pioneer Hall you can see the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue (dinner included). It is a great show for the whole family. We've seen it twice over the years and do not intend to see it again this time. Been there...done that...don't want to repeat it.







This is one of the Wilderness Cabins you can rent if you don't want to go to a hotel on property or if you want to be able to fix a few of your own meals during your stay. Each cabin has a fully outfitted kitchen, dinette area, living room with large TV, a nice big bathroom, and a bedroom that will sleep 4 people. In the living room there is also a pull-down bed, Murphy bed style; at least there used to be when we stayed at the cabins a couple of times. There is full housekeeping service with the cabins for your convenience. They are really nice, especially for a larger family.





We've stayed at a luxury resort, a value resort, a Wilderness Cabin, and in the Fort Wilderness campground on various vacations here at W.D.W. We totally prefer the campground with our own rolling hotel as our home. It's the only way to travel for us.


NOTE: The vacation package plan we purchased for this trip included the Disney Dining Plan. That plan allows you 1 Quick Service meal per day, 1 Full Service meal per day, and 1 "snack" purchase per day. The cost was $39.99 per day, per person. All Disney meals are what I would consider expensive here at the resorts or at the theme parks, so we are giving the meal plan a try. We are going to keep track of what the meals would cost us if we didn't have the meal plan and then average it out at the end of our trip to see how it comes out. Our dinner tonight at BOMA, which is a buffet restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, would have cost $70.27 for the 2 of us, without gratuity. I'll let you know how it all works out at the end of the trip (July 3rd).









No comments: