d. Where to Stay at Walt Disney World - 20/75

“I’ve long said that Dave has the absolute best Disney resort room information I have found!” –Didi Marie, DIStherapy

In my late April trip, I checked out the status of ongoing or recently completed work at Fort Wilderness (the Cabins in Loop 2100) the Wilderness Lodge (refurb status), the Polynesian Village (the new Oasis pool) and Port Orleans French Quarter (the new kids water play area).

I also stayed in a standard room at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge (my fourth stay here), and in both a Studio and a One Bedroom Villa at newly-refurbed the Jambo House Villas there (fifth stay in the Jambo House Villas).

Major updates to the review of the Animal Kingdom Lodge and the review of Jambo House Villas came out a couple of weeks ago, and I also since added minor updates to the reviews of the Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian, Cabins at Fort Wilderness, and Port Orleans French Quarter.

I am thus at one of those rare moments where all of my hotel reviews are up to date, and I thought to step back a bit and reflect.

Over the course of this visit, the total number of Disney World-owned different accommodations I have stayed in and published about crossed more than 125.

This matters because universally the weakest part of most Disney World guidebooks and websites is their material on where to stay, and that’s what I am trying to avoid.

One person staying repeatedly in all the rooms and in all their major variants (e.g. at Port Orleans Riverside standard rooms, five-person rooms, and Royal rooms) is the only way to develop a complete, consistent, up to date and accurate picture of the hotel options and their strong and weak points.

Reading and copying other people’s experiences just won’t cut it, and those whose approach depends on this routinely publish howlers and generally get too many things wrong. I can think of one site (whose owner has very little actual Disney World experience) that that claimed that Fort Wilderness is a monorail resort, and that the Contemporary is one of the least expensive deluxe resorts!

(If my site, The Unofficial Guide, TouringPlans.com, The easy Guide, and easyWDW.com didn’t exist, copying would be even more inaccurate.)

Even having your own team of reviewers doesn’t always work well, as they can’t compare across their own direct experiences the way a single reviewer can, leading them to miss comparative floor plan nuances or even major differences. There’s more than a few major sites and books that still claim that the Animal Kingdom Lodge and Wilderness Lodge rooms have the same floor plan. They are similar…but not the same (the coffeemakers and connecting doors are swapped).

Consistently good and up to date material on the Disney hotel options is sadly rare, partly because it takes major, multi-year commitments of time, attention and money.

Luckily, I have been able to create the time, Adderall helps with the attention thing, and you, because of your support of the book, your patronage of the site’s the various sponsors (like Kelly B and The Official Ticket Center), and your interest in the ads on this site, create the money that in turn I spend trying to keep this hotel material great and up to date.

I’ve now stayed in and reviewed 126 different Disney-owned accommodations at Disney World, plus even more non-Disney options.

This includes

25 value resort rooms and family suites, with my most highly recommended value resorts Art of Animation and Pop Century in the lead with 6 and 8 stays respectively
32 rooms at the moderates, led by 9 in Port Orleans Riverside and 8 at my top-ranked Caribbean Beach
31 stays at the deluxe resorts, led by 7 at the Contemporary and 4 at the top ranked Polynesian
34 different DVC rooms, mostly Two Bedrooms Villas–the best to review, as they show features of One Bedroom Villas and Studios as well–but where they were not bookable, a One Bedroom and a Studio, led by top ranked (but currently refurb-marred) Villas at the Wilderness Lodge with 6 stays
Stays at 4 campsites at Fort Wilderness (my 5 stays in the Cabins are counted among the moderates.)

In the last 16 months—that is, in 2015, and in 2016 so far—I’ve stayed in 19 different Disney World-owned spaces (and 6 more non-Disney but on-property spaces, like the Swan and Shades of Green).

Most of these stays were driven by major or minor refurbs (for example stays at the Polynesian Studios, BoardWalk Villas, Jambo House Villas, Caribbean Beach, Beach Club, Fort Wilderness Cabins), and the rest came about either because it had been a couple of years since I’d stayed, lousy photos, or both.

What’s next?

Well, there are more refurbs expected this year—at the Beach Club Villas, Kidani Village, the Yacht Club, Coronado Springs, and the Swan among others.
Some of my pictures could be better—standard rooms at the Polynesian, for example
And every year another group of places moves on to the list of rooms I just haven’t been to in a couple of years, like Saratoga Springs and All-Star Sports.

So, as always lots, to keep up with….Plus I also do requests!

For links to reviews of all the hotels, see this, and for more on where to stay at Disney World, start here.

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For the first page of this review of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, click here

DINING AT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge has some of the more interesting dining among the Disney deluxe resorts. There’s two table service restaurants–one family-friendly, the other sophisticated–at Jambo House, a third fun table service option at nearby Kidani Village, and a strong quick service at Jambo.

Moreover, as Disney’s Animal Kingdom shifts to being a park reliably open late, dinner there becomes an option as well, at least for those with park hoppers. A short bus ride away, the Animal Kingdom includes Rainforest Cafe, Yak and Yeti, Tucker House, and the new Tiffins. All but the Rainforest Cafe require park entry.

All dining in Jambo House is on the first floor. From the main lobby (on the third floor) , take either the elevator or the stairs.

The stairs will take you past the Victoria Falls Lounge–one of the best Disney World bars.

Keep going and you’ll find the main dining area, with family-friendly Boma on one side. Here’s the review of Boma from our book, The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2019:

Next to Boma is the more sophisticated–and expensive–Jiko.

The Jiko review from our book, The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2019:

Kidani Village is Jambo House’s sister DVC resort.

Kidani is a longish walk or short shuttle ride away from Jambo House. Its restaurant Sanaa is well worth a visit…

….especially for the bread service.

Back at Jambo house’s first level, outside and down the walkway to the left you’ll find one of Disney World’s best resort counter-service locales, The Mara.

Like the other venues here, The Mara combines African-inspired and less exotic offerings as well. (Click the menu to enlarge it.)

African stew, anyone?

Hot food is ordered through one line, which can get long. You’ll get a pager, pay, and return to pick it up when the pager goes off.

The large dining area will fill during common meal hours.

There’s more seats outside, right next to the pool.

THE UZIMA POOL AT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE

This review continues here.

TOPICS IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE

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I’ve just updated most of the material in my review of the BoardWalk Villas, based on my late January stay in its newly-refurbed spaces—my sixth stay at the BoardWalk Villas since I started this site.

More than 50 new photos show…

…The refurbed Studios, which now sleep five, the fifth on a fold-down bed that dismisses the table (photo at top of page)

…and the refurbed One Bedroom Villas, where most of the changes are cosmetic, and generally pretty successful.

(At the BoardWalk Inn, all Two Bedroom Villas simply combine a One Bedroom and a Studio.)

In addition all the floor plans are updated!

This updated review now has five pages:

Check out the updated review of Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, starting here.

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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, click here.)

THE BATH AND BACK BEDROOM IN THE CABINS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

This page continues the photo tour of a Cabins at Fort Wilderness that began on this page that covers the kitchen, living room, and dining area.

THE BACK HALL AND BATH IN THE CABINS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

On the other side of the kitchen there’s a hall leading to the bath and back bedroom (see the floor plan at the top of the page).

On the right you will see what used to be a half closet, with mechanicals below. This was locked on my visit in March 2020, and that, the absence of the old hot water heater on the back outside wall, and the much better hot water supply in the Cabin, together make me think that a replacement hot water system is in here now.

On the right is the bath.

The toilet is in the back…

…with a tub shower combo on the other side.

Tub toiletries are on the back wall.

The shower head is lesser than what you will find in more recently renovated rooms at Disney World–even in value resorts.

The bath is adequately sized, but unlike those at the other Disney World moderate resorts, is not divided into two spaces, and also has only one sink, not the two you’ll find at the other moderates.

While it does have a nice set of drawers, the lack of a divided bath and second sink makes it less handy for even four-person families than the baths at the other moderates. (The second sink in the kitchen is some help on this matter.)

The hair dryer and a bit more storage.

In the past, the biggest issue with the bath in the Cabins at Fort Wilderness was not enough hot water. This, however, is much improved, and I no longer view hot water supply as a negative to these cabins.

THE BACK BEDROOM IN THE CABINS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

The back bedroom has one queen sized bed, and a couple of bunk beds.

The queen bed has one side tight against the wall, meaning that if two are sleeping here, one has to exit over the other, or via the foot of the bed.

There’s space under the bed where smaller suitcases might fit.

The bunk beds have mattresses 66 inches long by 39 inches wide, but, because of the railings, sleep shorter than that.

Note the small bedside table…

…with two available drawers between the beds.

Other storage in this room is along the entry wall–note the small TV.

Under the TV you’ll find four smallish-drawers…

…and next to the TV you’ll find a small closet, with a safe in the back.

The safe is quite large–my book is 6 inches by nine inches.

Above the safe, on a shelf above the closet rod, are more linens.

Left of the closet, what looks like another cabinet is actually an enclosure around utilities. The counter-top is usable, and on the short wall above it there’s a mirror. There’s also another mirror behind the door from the hall.

An oddity to these back bedrooms that always troubles me a bit is the second door to the porch you’ll find in this space.

This door–in this outside view, the door on the left–is secured by a deadbolt, which makes it easy to leave unlocked. If kids are in this bedroom, and the hall door to the bedroom is closed, there’s some potential for the kids to get outside without the parents knowing…

Overall, I love these cabins. But they have an awkward bath set up for large families, this egress issue, and the kitchen is not quite as fully configured as it could be.

REVIEW: THE CAMPSITES AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

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(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

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Correction: as an alert reader pointed out to me, these ovens max out at 450, not 425 as I had mistakenly thought!

The Cabins at Fort Wilderness are almost through a refurb that includes a fundamental change to the old kitchen–replacement of the old “real” oven and separate microwave with a combined microwave/convection oven.

I’d noted the overall changes to these cabins and what’s happening in the kitchen after my December stay in a refurbed cabin, and have published a full photo tour of a refurbed cabin here.

But that visit didn’t leave enough spare Cabin time to put the oven through its paces, so I stayed in a refurbed cabin longer on my January visit to Disney World–my fifth stay in one of these cute little cabins.

Disney has noted that the oven has a “limited cooking/baking capacity compared to a traditional oven.”

To find these limits, I put the oven through a number of tests–roast beef, cheesy potatoes, pizza, cornbread, and cinnamon buns–and here’s the short version of my results:

It won’t go hotter than 450 degrees, so no broiler, and recipes that need 475 will take longer and may brown more slowly than you want
There’s only 6 inches of space between the top of the rack and the top of the oven, so no tall food (The inside dimensions are 21 by 14 inches–it’s plenty long and wide, just short.)
Everything I baked–full report in the rest of this post–took 15% to 50% longer than I expected
The controls are a little tricky at first–more microwavish than ovenly

THE NEW OVEN AT THE CABINS AT FORT WILDERNESS

The old kitchen had a range with a full oven below and four burners on top, and microwave–see below.

Old Kitchen The Cabins at Fort Wilderness

The new kitchen moves the sink out of the corner, drops two of the four burners, drops the full oven, and replaces the microwave and full oven with a combined unit, above the two burners.

Kitchen Refurbed Cabin at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort from yourfirstvisit.net

New Kitchen The Cabins at Fort Wilderness

The first thing you should know is that new kitchen or old, the tools the Cabin provides you with are limited.

There’s two pieces of ovenware–in the upper right of the image above–a covered dish and a rectangular pan.

That’s probably enough for most families, but for my tests–so that I didn’t have to keep cleaning between them–I bought two more items, the 8×8 glass and the 9×14 metal pans that you can see in the photo at the top of the page and in various images below.

(The Cabins come with a measuring cup, but I did not remember that, so I bought another one.)

The prep implements are a little thin, and are shown in the drawer above. You get six steak knives but no other knives, a bottle opener, can opener, corkscrew, and a plastic spoon and plastic slotted spatula. That’s it.

There’s one green oven mitt in the drawer above, and I used the towel also in the drawer for two-handed grabs.

The first step in using the oven is removing the orange plastic-ware at the bottom that supports the base glass microwave platter. I removed both to be safe, and my wife is astonished that I remembered to remove either…

Next you find the oven rack, at the right bottom of the cabinet just below the stove…

…and put it into the oven.

The oven is 21 inches long by 14 inches wide. That’s big enough for almost anything–a standard pizza is about 11 inches in diameter–but there’s only six inches of clearance between the rack and the top of the oven, so you can’t cook any tall food.

Working the oven controls is a little tricky, and I did not get comfortable with them until late in the test. The instructions are quite clear–it’s just that the steps don’t tie to usual oven workflows, and more to microwave workflows.

Here’s what you do:

1. Press the convection/bake button

2. Press the button that ties to your temperature goal. This is not as simple as entering the three numbers. Rather, each number is assigned a temperature, and you press the one number that fits that temp:

Although you can’t see it in my lousy photo, temps max out at on “0” at 450, so no broiling, and foods that are meant to cook at 475 or higher will take longer and/or brown differently than you expect.

3. Press start

4. The oven will ding when it has pre-heated. You open the oven, stick your glop in, then press start again.

Everything took longer than I expected… which cost me a FastPass+.

First up was a three pound roast, which turned out just fine but should have taken around an hour at 375 but rather took 90 minutes. (I bought the instant read thermometer–there’s no thermometer supplied by the cabin.)

While the roast was cooking I mixed up the cornbread…

….and ended up cooking it about 25% longer than the package instructions. The body of the cornbread was done before the top had browned to my liking, so it tended up a little dry. (Note that that’s one of the pans I bought, not a Cabin-supplied pan.)

To test the cornbread done-ness with a toothpick, you have to shut the whole system down, and then re-start all of steps 1 through 4 again.

That is, unlike an old-fashioned oven, you can’t open the door while it stays at the temperature you’ve set–you have to shut everything down to open the door, and then restart everything if your stuff needs to cook longer.

A minor note–the cornbread recipe required melted butter, but since the roast was occupying the microwave, I had to melt it on the stove. I hadn’t melted butter on a stove for decades…

Next up was a standard frozen pizza, which took 25% longer than the package directions but turned out fine.

The cheesy potatoes took about 25% longer than expected. They weren’t as browned as I like them to be, but I was unwilling to let them cook longer as I didn’t want to dry them out.

The cinnamon rolls took about 15% longer than the package directions…

…but turned out fine (my pan, not a Cabin pan).

Frankly, I would rather Disney had left the old layout alone, and simply changed to new versions of the old appliances.

That way you could still broil and cook at 475, and roast tall food like chickens or turkeys, and would still have four burners.

But the new layout is much less cluttered, especially around the sink, and I think the two burners and less capable oven will fulfill the cooking requirements of 95%+ of families staying here.

(By the way, I did leave a mess for Mousekeeping, but tried to make up for it…)

Have you used one of these ovens? Did it work for your needs?

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Category — d. Where to Stay at Walt Disney World

125 Different Rooms

Dining at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge

DINING AT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE

THE UZIMA POOL AT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE

TOPICS IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

Updated Review of Disney’s BoardWalk Villas

Photo Tour of the Bath and Back Bedroom of a Cabin at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort

THE BATH AND BACK BEDROOM IN THE CABINS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

THE BACK HALL AND BATH IN THE CABINS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

THE BACK BEDROOM IN THE CABINS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

REVIEW: THE CAMPSITES AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

TOPICS COVERED IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

Photo Tour of a the Living/Dining/Kitchen Space in a Cabin at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort

PHOTO TOUR OF THE LIVING/DINING/KITCHEN AREA OF A CABIN AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

THE DINING/LIVING/SOFA BED SPACE IN THE CABINS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

THE KITCHEN IN THE CABINS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

THE BATH AND BACK BEDROOM OF A CABIN AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

TOPICS COVERED IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

The New Oven in The Cabins at Fort Wilderness

THE NEW OVEN AT THE CABINS AT FORT WILDERNESS

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