Photo Tour of a the Living/Dining/Kitchen Space in a Cabin at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
By Dave Shute
(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, click here.)
PHOTO TOUR OF THE LIVING/DINING/KITCHEN AREA OF A CABIN AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT
The Cabins at Fort Wilderness were refurbed in 2016. Besides changes to color schemes, the key features of the refurb were:
- The full sized Murphy bed in the living room is replaced with a queen sized-sofa bed
- The kitchen is simplified, losing two of the old four burners, and seeing the old separate oven and microwave converted into a single combined object that based on my tests largely works fine as an oven but can’t broil and won’t deliver oven heat greater than 450 degrees, and
- The old full bed in the back bedroom is changed to a queen.
Since the refurb, the picnic table has been converted to an unsightly metal, and the hot water situation has been much improved.
The first thing to note on approaching The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort is that you can park right outside…
…and that your cabin comes with its own grill. Nothing else at Disney World offers both these amenities except the Treehouse Villas.
The cabin includes an outdoor deck, quite large, with a picnic table that seats six.
THE DINING/LIVING/SOFA BED SPACE IN THE CABINS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT
When you enter your Cabin, the kitchen–which I’ll come back to later on this page–is dead ahead, and it shares space with the combined living and dining area at the right.
The dining table includes three full-sized chairs and a bench, and easily seats five, and six if three can fit along the bench.
It has these fun lights above…
…and this image of the old Fort Wilderness railroad behind it.
Across the room from the dining table is a couch that seats two or three…
…and folds out into a queen-sized bed. I measured the cushion as 5 inches deep, and slept on this sofa bed just fine. The queen sofa-bed fits the room much better than the old full Murphy bed ever did…and of course a queen is better than a full.
But compared to the old layout, it does come at the cost of a younger child sleeping on the couch, and as Julie notes here, these mattresses have compressed over the years.
When the sofa bed is unfolded, things get cramped around the foot of the bed.
Note that in front of the couch there’s a padded object that can serve as either a footstool or a seat.
Across from the couch is this easy chair that replaces what used to be a darling set of kid-sized table and chairs.
The back wall replaces what used to be a Murphy bed with a TV above and storage below.
The TV has a 54″ diagonal.
These cabins used to suffer from not having enough storage space for the six people they hold.
The conversion of the lower part of the old Murphy bed slot into six drawers of storage totally fixes that.
The storage cabinets on either side remain, with one holding linens…
…and the one on the right containing electronic gear.
THE KITCHEN IN THE CABINS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT
The main door of the Cabins at Fort Wilderness opens directly into the kitchen.
This kitchen has some limits, but is largely functional for prepping, cooking, and serving meals.
The main limits are having just a two burner stove…
…and a combined microwave-convection oven that can’t broil or even go above 450 degrees…
…but is otherwise fully functional as a microwave, and largely functional as an oven. A full report on this new oven in the Cabins at Fort Wilderness is here.
There’s also a refrigerator…
…a coffee pot–note also the cutting board behind it….
…and at the other side of the sink, a toaster. Not shown is the dishwasher which is below the toaster. Note the dish-washing supplies to the left of the toaster.
Besides having these appliances, the kitchen comes supplied with the basics you need to prep, cook, and serve meals for a family of six:
…Eating utensils. Steak knives are at the back left, and at the back right a bottle-opener and corkscrew.
…Cooking and serving implements, including metal ones you can use on the outdoor grill.
…although tools are limited–no knives other than steak knives, a plastic spatula and spoon, can opener, bottle opener, and corkscrew.
…Bake-ware, coffee cups, and drinking mugs
…Plates and bowls.
…Pots, pans, a colander, and tools to make the microwave function as an oven.
…A pitcher, with a measuring cup above.
Besides the exciting cleaning supplies we’ve already seen, there’s more, plus some hot pads, in a drawer.
There’s also several open cabinets and drawers you can use for storage…
…and it would be easy to create more by consolidating some of the other gear.
You can stock your fridge from one of the two stores at Fort Wilderness (this photo shows all the brands of my childhood), by calling in an order, and having the campsite staff deliver it; or, least expensively, by driving to one of the many grocery stores within 20-30 minutes or so of the Cabins.
Counter space here is thin–you really need to use the dining table to prepare any substantive recipe. But overall it is a largely adequate kitchen, if you plan your meals to use at most two burners, and expect to be able to use a microwave, or an oven, but not both at the same time.
THE BATH AND BACK BEDROOM OF A CABIN AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT
This review continues here!
TOPICS COVERED IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS
- Overview of Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
- Amenities at Fort Wilderness: The Outpost and The Meadow
- Amenities at Fort Wilderness: The Settlement
- The Pools at Fort Wilderness
OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD
- Where to stay–the Basics
- Where first-timers should stay
- Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 150+ stays in them
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7 comments
We are a family that have reservations for three cabins for the week of April 20 to 27 We have made our checking in on line. We requested to be together. Noting on this website that certain loops have been refurbished. Is it possible to request the newer cabins in your report?
Carol, you can request specific loops when you do on-line check in. Pick based on the refurb calendar.
Questions are above
Dave, thanks for a great website and book. Do you have a loop recommendation for a family looking for a quiet or private location? We’re renting a golf cart so transportation is not an issue.
Hi Caitlin and thanks! All the cabins are pretty quiet and about equally private. The shortest loops have the least auto traffic. Those are 2200-2500, especially 2500–although 2500 can suffer a bit from pool noise.
Dave, you need to go back and check the measurement on the sofa bed again. We just stayed in the cabins for a week and a half and the mattress was no where close to 5 inches thick. We have been staying in the cabins for 25 years and were disappointed to see the murphy bed disappear. The murphy bed was much easier to set in place. There is absolutely no room in the living area once you take the cushions off of the sofa. You also lose that space for someone (perhaps a child) to curl up in there with you. When our children were small we would give them the bedroom because we could stay up later and watch tv or get up earlier and not wake them. I agree with all of your other comments on the refurbishments!
Thanks Julie–the mattresses do compress over time, so I’m not surprised to hear that. I’ll include a link to your comment in the text!
I totally agree with you that the old layout worked better here. Interestingly, Disney in its more recent refurbs/construction has been moving away from sofa beds and towards murphy beds, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens to the cabins in their next refurb!
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