d. Where to Stay at Walt Disney World - 25/75

For the first page of this review of Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort, click here.

ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S ALL-STAR SPORTS RESORT

Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort is one of 5 value resorts at Walt Disney World:

Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort, opened in April 1994
Disney’s All-Star Music Resort, opened in November 1994
Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort, opened in January 1999
Disney’s Pop Century Resort, opened in December 2003
Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, opened in May 2012

Each of these five has four-person standard rooms, and for standard rooms, for most families Art of Animation is the best choice, followed by Pop Century. All-Star Sports is the fourth best choice.

Art of Animation rooms are the most expensive, and next Pop Century. The All-Stars all have the same, lowest pricing. While prices vary tremendously over the year, on average the All-Stars are around $40 less per night than Pop Century, and $80 less per night than Art of Animation.

Four person room sizes are similar across all five value resorts. Art of Animation has the best theming, and All-Stars Sports and Music the weakest (unless your family particularly resonates with the depicted themes at these two).

Until recently, all four person value resort standard rooms offered two full beds (the beds at Sports are shown above), but now, rooms at Pop Century, All-Star Movies and All-Star Music offer queen beds. All-Star Sports rooms have begun a similar refurb to queen beds. As they emerge between now and mid-2023, refurbed rooms will look like these.

Above is the floor plan of a full-bed room at All-Star Sports. There’s a full photo tour of a room at All-Star Sports beginning here. There are also a few king bed rooms here–I believe they are all in accessible rooms–but king bed rooms are not a separately bookable class, though you can call and request one.

There’s two price classes of rooms here–preferred rooms and standard rooms. Preferred rooms are closer to the main pool and the central services in and bus stop outside Stadium Hall.

THE THEMED AREAS AT DISNEY’S ALL-STAR SPORTS RESORT

Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort officially celebrates “the fun and excitement of sports–including baseball, basketball, football, surfing and tennis…Guest rooms are divided into 5 pairs of 3-story buildings—each bright, whimsical pair is themed after one of the featured sports.”

All-Star Sports has 1920 rooms in ten identical three-story buildings, all with elevators. These buildings are in five areas, each themed around a different sport.

Buildings 1 and 6, called “Surf’s Up” (surfing), are grouped around the main Surfboard Bay pool, and very close to Stadium Hall.

Buildings 7 and 10, “Touchdown” (American football), are grouped around a playground designed to look like a football field, and close to Stadium Hall.

Buildings 8 and 9, “Homerun Hotel” (baseball), are grouped around a second pool, the Grand Slam pool, that is designed to look like a ball field (the pool is the infield) and far from Stadium Hall.

Buildings 2 and 3, “Hoops Hotel” (basketball), are quieter than those above, but more distant than the first two from Stadium Hall–most rooms in building 2 are closer than those in building 3.

Buildings 4 and 5, “Center Court” (tennis), like Hoops Hotel, are quieter than the first three areas, and like it, further than the first two. Building 5 is mostly closer to Stadium Hall than building 4. The area between buildings has Donald and the boys playing on a tennis court.

All-Star Sports (and the other values) are often dinged for being “too large and spread-out.”

This is an inaccurate criticism, as each of the values fits into a much smaller footprint than any of the three larger moderates, leading to much less walking than at the moderates.

Among the values, Sport’s strength for first time visitors is a slightly higher degree of convenience than the other two All-Stars, as buses stop at Sports first both on the way in and the way back from the parks, and its theming, which will work great for kids interested in the sports it highlights.

Its negatives compared to the other values include full beds, thin Disney theming (All-Star Movies and Pop Century are both better with this, and Art of Animation much better) and more raucous kids. See this for more on distinctions among the values.

A PHOTO TOUR OF A STANDARD ROOM AT DISNEY’S ALL-STAR SPORTS RESORT

This review continues here.

MATERIAL IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S ALL-STAR SPORTS RESORT

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Disney World’s 2016 resort hotel prices came out on Monday, and I’ve devoted my spare time to studying them ever since. The upshot?

Major increases in value and moderate prices from later August 2016 through most of October from a shift in price seasons. Significantly higher prices across the year at Art of Animation Little Mermaid rooms and Finding Nemo family suites, and at Port Orleans French Quarter and Port Orleans Riverside.
Major increases—10% to more than 15%–in many deluxe resort room types in 2016, although some show little increase and others show increases more in the 4-8% range.

Analyzing Disney resort price changes is difficult—there’s more than 20 hotels, many differently-priced room and view types within them, seven to nine different price seasons over the course of the year, additional weekend and holiday upcharges, and more.

As a result, unless you have a LOT of time on your hands you need to sample, and that’s what I’ve done. In general I sample the lowest-priced rooms at most of the resorts (with some exceptions that are noted below) and analyze:

Season price increases across all the major Disney World price seasons—e.g. “Regular” season prices for 2016 compared to 2015
Changes in the dates covered by price seasons that have an impact on price levels—there’s a lot of that in 2016
Changes in the relative price levels of hotels in a single price class—there’s some of that in 2016

DISNEY WORLD VALUE RESORTS PRICING IN 2016

Price season structure changes

In a major change, 2016 price seasons for later August through the end of October have changed, from the old “Value 2” to “Fall” in later August and earlier September, and from “Fall” to “Regular” from mid-September to almost the end of October.

In both cases the switch is from a lower-priced season to a higher priced season. When combined with general season price increases, example effects include:

In the first part of the period, with the shift from “Value 2” to “Fall”: for standard rooms, compared to same dates in 2015, Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation are up 13%, Pop Century is up 6%, and the All-Stars are up 7%.
In the later part of the period, later September and most of October 2016 (excluding holiday weekends), with the shift from “Fall” to “Regular,” compared to same dates in 2015: standard Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation are up 17%, Pop Century is up 15%, and the All-Stars are up 16%.

Earlier in the year, two short periods are now “Regular” that used to be “Value” or “Value 2”—February 7 through February 10, and August 14 through August 18.

Price level changes

The basic pattern among value resort standard rooms of Art of Animation Little Mermaid rooms being most expensive and the All-Stars being least expensive continues in 2016.

Art of Animation rooms show the highest price increases among these standard rooms in 2016, and the All-Stars the lowest, extending this gap, and putting Little Mermaid rooms shockingly close to standard moderate room prices some dates.

The three Family Suite areas at Art of Animation—Finding Nemo, Cars, and Lion King—have had the same prices. In 2016, Finding Nemo suites are more expensive than the other two, which are priced the same.

Season price increases

Most price seasons the All-Stars standard rooms show no changes vs 2015—considering inflation, that’s in effect a price cut. The exceptions are the Value and Regular Seasons, which have 3-5% increases. Family Suites at Music are unchanged in some major seasons and go up 1 or 2% in others.

Pop Century standard rooms have no price increases for the Summer or Fall seasons in 2016, and increases of 2-4% in the other seasons, with the Value season seeing the highest increase.

Little Mermaid rooms are up across the board 3-5% in the major seasons (a little less in the shorter Easter and Holiday seasons). Value, Fall and Regular show around 5% increases.

Art of Animation suites at Cars and Lion King are up 1 to 3% most seasons (Peak is unchanged). Nemo Suites are up 4 to 7% in the major seasons, with the Value season seeing the highest increase.

DISNEY WORLD MODERATE RESORTS PRICING IN 2016

Price season structure

The moderates see the same price season structure changes in 2016 as the value resorts do—short new Regular periods in February and early August that replace old Value or Value 2 seasons, and the major swap of Fall for Value 2 in later August and early September, and Regular for Fall in later September and most of October.

The effect from later August through most of October is that Caribbean Beach standard rooms are up 7-8%, and Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter standard rooms up 12%.

Price level changes

Until 2016, Caribbean Beach, Port Orleans French Quarter, and Port Orleans Riverside standard rooms had the same prices, while Coronado Springs has tracked them some nights and other nights was $3-5 more.

In a major change, in 2016 Riverside and French Quarter are now the most expensive moderates.

More specifically, in 2016 for standard rooms Caribbean Beach is now generally the least expensive option, then at on average 2% more is Coronado Springs, then at on average about 4.5% more (or 2.5% more than Coronado Springs) are the two Port Orleans Resorts, Riverside and French Quarter.

Season price increases

Caribbean Beach shows 1-3% increases across most price seasons, with Peak a little less and Value showing the highest increase. Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter show increases of 5-8%, with the highest increase being in Value season.

DISNEY WORLD DELUXE RESORTS PRICING IN 2016

Price season structure

The deluxe resorts run to a different price season calendar than the values and moderates, especially mid-July through October, and show little difference to this schedule in 2016, especially compared to the major changes at the values and moderates from mid-August through most of October.

The only significant changes I saw were two new instances of Regular season, both in effect price increases. February 7 to 10 is now Regular instead of Value, and November 4-12 is now Regular instead of Fall.

Price level changes

There’s a bewildering plethora of price points at the deluxes—many view options, some with “Club” service options as well. I only sampled the full set of price changes in seventeen deluxe room types, and based on that saw only one material change among the overall resort price standings.

The Grand Floridian is still the most expensive, and standard rooms at the Wilderness Lodge are still the least expensive.

However, traditionally Animal Kingdom Lodge standard rooms have been very close to the prices of standard Wilderness Lodge rooms, but in 2016 Wilderness Lodge standard rooms see hardly any increases, while Animal Kingdom Lodge standard rooms are up 7-12% in all the major seasons except Fall. So more daylight is emerging between the two Lodges whose cheapest rooms used to be near-equivalent in price.

Season price increases

As noted, standard Wilderness Lodge rooms see no price changes among most of the major price reasons—after inflation, a price cut. The exception is Value 2, which is 6% higher. Courtyard view rooms at the Lodge show no to small increases in many seasons, but prices are up 10% in the Value, Value 2, and Summer seasons. Woods view rooms at the Lodge show 10%+ increases in many major seasons–Value, Value 2, Regular, and Summer.

Animal Kingdom Lodge standard room prices are up only a bit in a few seasons, including Fall, but up 7-12% in many major seasons, including Value, Value 2, Regular, and Summer. Savanna view room prices show large increases across all seasons, from 9 to 17%, with the two Value seasons seeing the largest increases.

Beach Club standard rooms are up from just a bit to 6% in the major seasons, with the biggest increase in Value 2. Garden view rooms at the Beach Club are up 5-7% in the major seasons, with the highest increase in the value season.

Yacht Club standard rooms have the same prices as those at the Beach Club, so too are up from just a bit to 6% in the major seasons, with the biggest increase in Value 2. Garden view rooms at the Yacht Club are a little cheaper than their Beach Club equivalents, and are up around 7% in all the major seasons.

BoardWalk Inn standard rooms show price increases of 4-7%, with the highest increases among the major seasons in the two Value seasons. Water view rooms at the Boardwalk Inn are up 4% in all seasons except Value 2, which sees a 6% increase.

Polynesian standard rooms show increases of 3% to 8% in the major seasons, with the Regular season seeing the largest increase. Lagoon view rooms are up 1-2% in most major seasons, but up 5-6% in the Regular 2 and Value 2 seasons.

At the Contemporary Resort, both Bay Lake view and Magic Kingdom view tower rooms show a consistent 7% increase across the seasons.

Grand Floridian standard rooms have increases of 10 to 12% in the major seasons. Lagoon view rooms here see much lower increases, 3-7% in most major seasons, but just 1% in the Regular season.

MORE ON THE DISNEY WORLD RESORTS

I’ve stayed in more than 100 different Disney World rooms, suites, villas, and such. Reviews resulting from these stays are linked to here.

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

THE SETTLEMENT AREA AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

In the Settlement at the very north end of Fort Wilderness, you’ll find a shop, Pioneer Hall, where the wonderful Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue is found, and also the restaurant Trail’s End, a bar, a takeout dining venue, and other amenities.

CONSTRUCTION IN THE SETTLEMENT AREA AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

The under-construction new Disney Vacation Club resort, Reflections, has taken out the western area of the Settlement.

Gone–at least for now–are Mickey’s Backyard Barbecue, the blacksmith shop, and the pony rides. Instead you get construction walls.

Gone at my last visit, but soon to re-open, is the Tri-Circle D Ranch, where Disney’s draft horses are stabled.

That’s the new stable peeking above the construction wall.

DINING IN THE SETTLEMENT AREA AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

Fort Wilderness is really built for people who cook most of their on-resort meals in their cabin or campsite, not for dining in its facilities, but Trail’s End (and its bar, Crockett’s Tavern) is easy to get into.

In contrast, the storied Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue can sell out months ahead, so you typically can’t just show up at it and dine.

Here’s the reviews of each of these dining venues from our book from our book, The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2020

A full review of Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue is here.

You can find the current menu for Trail’s End here.

Crockett’s Tavern (above) serves both drinks and appetizers. The current menu is here.

A final, simpler option is P & J’s Southern Takeout. The menu for P & J’s is here.

OTHER AMENITIES IN THE SETTLEMENT AREA AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

Also in the Settlement area is another shop, thinner on food and much thinner on camping gear than the other Fort Wilderness shop at the Meadow.

…and various horse-drawn rides.

There’s also at times a bit of an opportunity to wound yourself woodworking and drinking.

Beyond all this at the very northern end of the Settlement is a lovely beach, Clementine Beach.

This beach used to be largely to the west, but that’s gone to Reflections.

The beach now stretches to the east, towards the old Marshmallow Marsh.

In this area you’ll also find a marina.

…and a dock where you catch one of the two boat routes that operate from here–one to the Magic Kingdom, and the other to the two other resorts on Bay Lake, the Wilderness Lodge and the Contemporary Resort. The Magic Kingdom boat takes 12-15 minutes, and operates every 10-20 minutes.

For those aiming to get to the Magic Kingdom before rope drop, usually the best strategy is to take the boat to the Contemporary and walk from there, as the Magic Kingdom boat often does not begin operating until 30 minutes before open.

(Transportation to the other parks is via the Outpost.)

THE POOLS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

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OVERVIEW: DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT FOR FIRST-TIME VISITORS

Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground has three types of accommodations:

1. Air-conditioned, fully-outfitted cabins with full kitchens (but, after their recent renovation, slightly limited ovens) that sleep six.

2. Group campsites, which I’ll review if I can ever get my scout troop to make the 2200 mile round-trip drive to Walt Disney World.

3. Family campsites for both tents and RVs that can be booked for up to ten people.

I’ve stayed at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort ten times–six times in the cabins, four times in the campsites, most recently in March 2020.

This review is based on those stays, and includes not only this summary page but also more pages with more detail:

TOPICS COVERED IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS

Fort Wilderness has a number of positives.

It is likely the best family campground in America, and the only one within Walt Disney World itself.
In addition to being a Walt Disney World resort with all the benefits that such brings, it contains a wide range of activities from trail rides to a petting zoo to campfire programs and movies.
The main pool has a slide, kids play area and light theming.
Up to ten people can stay in a Fort Wilderness campsite (only 6 in a cabin) and even more in one of the group campsites.
It has fun family dining.
It’s inspired some really sound fan sites, especially this forum.

However, for first-timers it brings many negatives as well. As a result, while wonderful for returning visitors who like to camp and for RV owners, Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort is at the bottom of the list of recommended resorts for typical first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.

You can have a wonderful visit at any Walt Disney World resort. To help with making great choices quickly, resorts are ranked on this site for first time visitors based first on their kid appeal, and then on their convenience.

On this basis Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort is the lowest-ranked resort for first time family visitors.

Kid Appeal. The wilderness and backwoodsy theming of this resort, while charming, is so subtle that it will miss most kids entirely.

Convenience. Sites and cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort are remarkably inconvenient compared to the other Walt Disney World resorts.

While often thought of as out of the way, the resort is actually located just across Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon from the Magic Kingdom. Its inconvenience comes not from its location but rather from the internal bus system that the sprawling resort uses.

To get to any theme park, two transportation actions are required—an internal bus, walk, or golf-cart ride to the appropriate transfer point, and then an external bus or boat to the park itself. This can easily add half an hour or more to daily transportation times—adding up to a lost afternoon or so over the course of an eight-night visit.

Moreover, simply getting around the seven hundred acre resort–getting to the pool, the shops, the playgrounds–can be a chore. Even if you have a car, you are discouraged from using it in the campground itself, both officially and by the lack of parking spaces in places you might want to go. There’s less than a dozen car parking spots near the Meadow area–and that’s about it in the resort proper.

That is, you can use your car to drive to a theme park, but not to drive from your campsite to one of the campground’s two stores, its dining facilities, beach, pools or boat docks.

Golf carts are OK to use in traveling around Fort Wilderness resort itself. Some families bring their own, or rent them–for on the order of $65 a day–at the campground. Other families bring or rent bikes.

All these options moderate the convenience issues, but not enough to move Fort Wilderness up in my rankings.

CONSTRUCTION IN THE SETTLEMENT AREA AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

The under-construction new Disney Vacation Club resort, Reflections, has taken out the western area of the Settlement in the far northern area of Fort Wilderness.

Gone–at least for now–are Mickey’s Backyard Barbecue, the blacksmith shop, and the pony rides. Instead you get construction walls.

Gone at my last visit, but soon to re-open, is the Tri-Circle D Ranch, where Disney’s draft horses are stabled.

The beach has moved from the western side of the Settlement’s Bay Lake shoreline to the eastern side.

ACCOMMODATIONS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

The two fundamental accommodation types at Fort Wilderness–campsites and cabins–are profoundly different and suited for very different types of travelers.

The campsites are suited for RV owners, or for those who both know how to tent-camp and have a strong gear set including a lot of sand-stakes and guy lines
The Cabins require no camping gear at all–only a willingness to put up with the poor convenience and relative lack of kid appeal of Fort Wilderness as a way to get accommodations for six and a full kitchen

All these options are in loops–the campsites largely in the northern area of Fort Wilderness and more convenient to most of its amenities, and the cabins mostly in the more distant southern part.

OVERVIEW OF CAMPSITES AT FORT WILDERNESS

Campsites are in loops 100-2100, and while all allow one rig or tent plus a second tent (and hold ten people) there are profound differences among them. I’ll come back to this in more detail later in this review, but here’s the key points:

Some loops are optimized for tent camping and have small asphalt areas and large sand tent pads–loops 1500 and 2000. Disney used to call these “Partial Hook Up” sites, and is now more commonly calling them “Tent or Pop-Up Sites.” You can book them for tent camping or for a pop-up or camper van.
Some loops have asphalt optimized for big rigs and (essentially) no tent pads–loops 400-1400. These sites have longer and wider asphalt, and enhanced shoulder curves to help with the back-in (all Fort Wilderness RV sites are back-in). You can add a tent too, but it is very likely to be on the asphalt, have no staking ground, and limited guying options. So don’t. Disney sells two types of these, “Premium Meadow” loops (600, 800, 900, 1000, and 1400), near the amenities of the Meadow area, and “Premium” loops (400, 500, 700, 1100, 1200, and 1300.)
Some loops combine good sized asphalt with a medium tent pad, and are best for those planning both an RV and a tent, or an RV smaller than the largest sizes. Disney sells these under two names: the “Preferred” loops 100-300 near dining and Magic Kingdom boat transport, and loops 1600-1900, which Disney calls “Full Hook-Up.” In addition, Loop 2100 is also classed as a Full Hook-Up site, but these commonly have a much smaller tent pad than all the other Full Hook Up sites. There’s more on Loop 2100 here.

All campsites come with a picnic table, barbecue grill, water and electricity, and available internet service. Full Hook Up, Premium, and Preferred sites add sewer and cable.

In picking loops, besides their rigs and gear, campers should also consider location–especially if they aren’t bringing or renting a golf cart.

Three location points are worth noting for campers. See the annotated map.

1. Closeness to the Settlement, at the far north end of Fort Wilderness circled in red on the map, where all dining but the Meadow pool snack bar is located, and where you’ll find many amenities, the beach, and the boat dock for transport to the Magic Kingdom and (via another boat) to the Contemporary Resort and Wilderness Lodge. The preferred loops and some of the premium loops are near here.

2. Closeness to the Meadow, circled in yellow on the map, where you’ll find almost all the rest of the amenities, including the main pool and evening sing-along and character meet ‘n’ greet, watercraft and bike rental, and movies. Some of all loop types except preferred are near the Meadow. Several premium loops–specifically 400-800 and 1400–are nicely centered between the Meadow and the Settlement.

3. Closeness to the dog park, marked in brown on the map. In a change in late 2017, Fort Wilderness changed from some camping loops being pet friendly to all loops, including cabin loops, being pet friendly. The closest loops to the dog park are preferred loop 300, and premium loops 400 and 500. If your pets are good campers–our main dog the largely useless yellow lab Rory, and our emergency back-up puppy, golden Belle (shown), bark too much for camping–you’ll want one of these.

There’s much more on the campsites later in this review.

OVERVIEW OF CABINS AT FORT WILDERNESS

The Cabins are in loops 2200 to 2800, and are distinctive accommodations that really have nothing to do with camping but are in the same resort and share in all of its amenities.

The cabins were last refurbed in 2016. In that refurb the former full-sized Murphy bed was replaced with a queen sized sofa bed, the kitchen was simplified to just two burners and a combined microwave/convection oven, and the full bed in the back bedroom was being changed to a queen. A photo tour of the refurbed cabins begins here, and a 60 Minutes style investigation into their new ovens is here.

Little standalone structures, Cabins sleep six in a back bedroom and the living room, and come with a full kitchen although the oven is a little limited. Classed by Disney as “moderate” resorts, they are the least expensive way to get a near-full kitchen on property.

Here’s the floor plan of refurbed cabins:

Unlike the campsites, all cabin loops have the same amenities and pricing. They are in the southwest part of Fort Wilderness, and hence far from the Settlement and, in most loops, also not close to the main pool and other amenities at the Meadow–though there’s a small pool between loops 2500 and 2700. Loop 2200 is closest to the Meadow.

There’s much more on the Cabins later in this review.

DINING, POOLS, AMENITIES AND SUCH AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

Fort Wilderness has as wide a range of amenities as you’ll find at any Disney resort except for fine dining.

Dining at Fort Wilderness includes the storied Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue, and the under-rated Trail’s End, with breakfast and dinner buffet. Food is also offered to go via P & J’s Southern Takeout. There’s also a bar, Crockett’s Tavern.

All these are at the far northern end of the resort, the Settlement. Sandwiches are also available at the Meadow pool snack bar. There’s more on these dining options later in this review.

Amenities at Fort Wilderness cover both campground-style activities and traditional Disney resort offerings, meaning it has more going on than any other Disney resort. Options range from archery to kayaking to sing-alongs and movies under the stars. More on all these is later in this review.

Fort Wilderness has two pools. The main pool is in the Meadow area, and there is a small pool that’s a shorter walk from most cabins between loops 2500 and 2700. The last page of this review has more on these pools.

BEST PLACES TO STAY AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

There’s much disagreement on the best loops at Fort Wilderness, partly because people use the resort in different ways.

For campsite loops,

If your campsite trip is focused on dining, the Magic Kingdom, or beaches and water sports, then one of the preferred loops 100-300 near the Settlement is best–though tent campers will find themselves in a sea of rumbling RVs.
If your campsite trip is balanced across many parks, and you expect to spend a lot of time at the pool and using other Fort amenities, then a centered loop near the Meadow area is best–this includes almost all the premium loops except 1100 and 1200, tent and pop up loop 1500, and full hook-up loop 1600.

The online check-in form for the campsites lets you directly request a loop, and describe certain features of your rig.

The Cabin loops aren’t really near anything useful, but 2200 is closest to the Meadow area.

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 A TENT CAMPSITE AT FORT WILDERNESS

Fort Wilderness’s tent campsites in loops 1500 and 2000 have a driveway big enough to fit a car, golf cart and a pop-up trailer, and a sand tent pad big enough for a couple of tents and a couple of dining flies.

You are allowed to place a car, a golf cart, one camping vehicle or tent, and one additional tent; sites can be booked for as many as ten people. I saw several families sharing a campsite with two tents and hitting the ten person max.

Some more campsite photos from loop 1500:

Tent campers need more gear than tents. At minimum they need shelter from the sun and rain, but you’ll see many families with tents and coolers only.

A small family tent, a backpacking tent, and a cooler.

An un-guyed tent, a cooler, and a radio I learned to hate (headphones, people!!).

A tent and a cooler.

So I’m gonna take you through my campsite and gear from my April 2015 visit (my seventh stay at Fort Wilderness, and fourth time tent camping there), as a way to illustrate some key points about what to bring and how to lay everything out.

LAYING OUT YOUR FORT WILDERNESS CAMPSITE

Your campsite will have a driveway, large tent pad, three fixed points–the charcoal grill, the power stand, and the water point–and one movable object, the picnic table.

Most will find plenty of room on the tent pad, but the largest groups–those with, for example, two very large tents and two large flies, one for dining and one for cooking and lounging–can find some space by moving the picnic table and its associated fly to the driveway. (This is often also a good move even with smaller gear sets in the full hook-up sites, as they have smaller tent pads.)

If you have enough room just on the tent pad for everything, the first step is figuring out where to set your tent and where to put the dining area. As you can see in the photos above, most families set their dining area and flies at the front of the space, and their tents at the back. This has the effect of putting the more open and “social” space in the more public loop area of the camping loop, and the more closed and private space away from the loop roadways.

Well, I’d advise the opposite, for the simple reason that the charcoal grill is almost always at the back corner of the site. If you plan to use the grill, place your tent as far away from it as you can, and you’ll have both a simpler “kitchen” set-up and a safer tent. The added plus is that your tent now serves as a bit of a view block, enhancing the coziness of your dining/kitchen/lounge area.

Here’s the layout of my site, taken from the back by the grill. When I took the shot, I hadn’t yet set up our chairs–they went in the space between the grill and the fly:

The other layout point to consider is the use of the fixed stuff around your campsite for guy lines.

As noted earlier in this review, weather in Florida means you need lots of guys, and standard stakes like those shown above won’t hold up in the sand tent pads in weather.

The best staking option for guys is twist-in sand stakes like that shown at the right above (available here; 15 inch screwdriver to use to turn them in not included).

But even better is just fixing your guys to the permanent objects around your campsite–trees, the grill, and the power point. These are much more stable than any stake, and save the effort of drilling in the sand stakes.

Note how for this corner of my fly I was able to use a tree and the grill for guying, and thus avoided any staking.

Five of my six fly poles (the four corner poles, and one of the two ridge poles) were fixed to something permanent, saving the effort of driving sand stakes.

So as you lay out your gear, look out for ways that by just shifting it a few feet, trees and other permanent features become more and less available for guying.

Some trees do double duty. This one is guying both a fly corner and a tent corner.

I travel with 24 top-notch guy lines that I made with Kelty TripTease Lightline with traditional metal line tensioners at one end and bowlines tied at the other end, and another 30 or so older guys with no reflectivity and less useful plastic tensioners for lower-performance uses.

If you can comfortably move around your campsite without tripping, then you don’t have enough guys lines out. While check-out time is 11a, if you have the proper number of lines you’ll need to start undoing your guys a day or so before to be ready by then.

COOKING AND EATING AT FORT WILDERNESS

Our kitchen set-up is the standard way we camp when it’s just me and my wife. We use the left side of the long two-level metal table at the back left of the image for food prep and clean up (there’s a sink at the right of this side, and the clean-up gear is on the ground under the table) and the lower right side for our chuck box.

I don’t think this table model is made anymore, but something similar is here. I saw a camper with a table/sink like this that also had a hookup for the water hose you’ll find at all Fort Wilderness campsites! So jealous…

Our chuck box is 15 years old and is so rusted I hold it together with a bungee cord. We’ve outfitted it with everything needed to prep, cook, serve and eat with the exception of wineglasses and big coffee mugs. Most of what’s in it either came with it or is a kitchen cast-off, except I do have good knives in it. It’s always fully packed and ready to go so I don’t need to raid the kitchen or worry about forgetting stuff when we camp.

I can’t find equivalents at a reasonable price–this one is $250 and doesn’t even come with the pots, pans, bowls, cups, and utensils that ours came with–so when ours finally rusts into uselessness my sons and I will build a new one out of marine plywood.

One the ground at the back right there’s a wheeled 60 quart cooler, a separate small collapsible drink cooler with a grab-through pocket, and a water cooler.

Hint: fill and ice your water cooler before you start setting up camp. I didn’t, it was 90 degrees with 80% humidity, and if my sister and brother-in-law hadn’t ambled by from their condo for a visit with water bottles, I mighta had heatstroke…

On the table itself there’s a standard two burner stove, a camp coffee maker, a cute tablecloth, and a battery powered lantern. (Propane, gas, or electric lanterns work fine too.)

If the boys had also been on this trip, the second cooler would be larger, and we would have brought another collapsible table and moved the stove to it, so that we’d have more room at the picnic table.

At the back corner of the campsite is the barbecue grill.

The height of the grill is adjustable above the fire by a friction fit, and the handles are designed to dissipate heat. But I always have fire gloves packed in my gear bag, so I used those instead.

I’ve also found that grills of this design don’t have enough airflow, so I usually pour the charcoal onto the top of the grill of a disposable little grill, to get air underneath. I forgot my charcoal chimney, so got match-light charcoal instead of the better-tasting regular charcoal.

I travel with three tarps and tons of poles, so normally would have had the food prep and dish-washing area covered with another fly, which if I was lucky in my layout would serve as a sun/rain protection rig as well. (The third fly is if I need more weather protection…plus how can having three tarps be wrong??) On this trip it rained so much that we just did prep at the kitchen table.

Speaking of rain…let’s talk tents.

TENTS AND SLEEPING AT FOR WILDERNESS

I noted earlier in this review that with storms common at Fort Wilderness, there’s real value to having a high-mesh tent with a full-coverage rainfly.

Here’s my tent with its fly rolled up. Note that a third of it is almost all mesh, and the other two thirds have top to bottom mesh on the sides (warm air rises, and is replaced with cooler air from the bottom of the mesh) and full mesh on the top.

Here it is with the fly, before I guyed it out.

A full coverage fly on a mesh tent is finicky, in that it’s more complicated to roll the fly up during good weather and get it down when you are expecting rain than it is to just zip and unzip the windows you’ll find in a traditional family tent.

But it is much dryer, and much more comfortable to sleep in during rain, than a traditional family camping tent.

See the traditional tent above. Its rainfly covers only the roof, so is of help only when a light rain is coming straight down. That never happens in Florida, so what you do instead is zip up all the windows.

All those windows, even when zipped, provide a bunch more points for potential rain penetration, and more to the point, zipping them up means you have lost all airflow. So the tent gets warmer and more humid, and more humid and warmer. Water condenses inside and drips on you.

There are better ways to sleep. The simplest and cheapest is to supplement your typical family camping tent with a big blue tarp pitched above it. See the image below:

Now this particular blue tarp install isn’t right. The blue tarp needs to be twice as long and twice as wide to provide enough rain shelter that some windows can be open for airflow.

Moreover, it should be pitched with a ridgeline, not as a lean-to, as otherwise water will collect in the middle of the tarp until the lines fail from its weight and all that water is dumped into the tent’s open windows…

Best, though, is a mesh body/full coverage fly tent like mine.

Because every site has electricity at Fort Wilderness, bring some extension cords and both electric and battery powered fans.

Have a fan blowing in at one end, another blowing out at the other end, and hang the battery-powered fan in the peak of the tent to promote hot air exiting, and you can conquer any weather.

Sadly, while there’s tons of little tents of this design aimed at backpackers, there’s very few big enough to function as a family tent. Coleman used to have such a model, but I haven’t seen it in a while. The REI Kingdom 8 (my tent) and Kingdom 6 fit the bill, but are very expensive. I got mine as my main Christmas present or we would not have paid so much for a tent. If you have alternatives, note them in the comment form below!!

Another gear point to consider if you have room in your tent is bringing cots. Cots are more comfortable than sleeping on the ground in general, and the added airflow underneath can be cooler.

We happened to have a queen sized cot designed for and sold with an air mattress, so we brought it this trip. We also brought a collapsible shelf unit that my parents got for camping decades ago.

So here’s what the interior of our tent looked like, overall…

…closer on the bed side…

…and closer on the cabinet side.

We also brought pillows, a comforter, and sheets for the bed.

The point is that while you can sleep on the ground in a sleeping bag, you don’t have to. Take anything that will make you more comfortable that you can fit in your car!

The shelf unit folds up to the tiny wooden thing on the right of the blue and white cooler, and below is how small the cot is when folded up:

THE COMFORT STATIONS AT DISNEY’S FORT WILDERNESS RESORT

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THE COMFORT STATIONS AT FORT WILDERNESS

At Fort Wilderness’s 15 comfort stations you’ll find bathrooms, laundry rooms, ice machines, and resort information and notices.

They are generally air conditioned–though on my last visit, the air conditioning in the men’s side of the comfort station between loops 1500 and 1600 wasn’t working, although that in the laundry room was going strong.

Of the fifteen comfort stations, one is by the quiet pool in the Cabins area, and one serves the group campsite Creekside Meadow (it’s accessible from loop 2000 as well). The other 13 are scattered among the 20 camping loops at Fort Wilderness.

Simple math will tell you not every loop has its own comfort station, so you will sometimes see people saying things like “Don’t stay in Loop 1000, it doesn’t have a comfort station.” Such comments are largely silly, as there is a very close comfort station in loop 900.

If you do the math for campsites per comfort station including shared comfort stations, you get 13 loops with about 60 campsites per comfort station. Anomalies are loops 400 to 800, with over 110 sites among them per comfort station, loop 1100 with about 25 sites for its station, and loop 2000, with two (or three if you count Creekside Meadow) comfort stations for its ~70 campsites.

The only point of concern here is loops 400-800 with just two comfort stations serving ~235 campsites, but these are premium campsites intended for honking big Class As and fifth wheels, all of which have their own baths, many nicer than mine at home.

So unless you are tent camping in a premium loop–which you should not be doing–don’t let the presence or absence of comfort stations in a loop much affect your loop choices.

The comfort stations are cute little buildings with a lot of helpful notices on their outside walls. Examples are above and below.

Items covered include menus for the dining options at Fort Wilderness, movie and other activity schedules, and various rules–e.g. about what kind of portable fire-pits can be used.

Outside you”ll also find a coin-operated ice machine.

It turns out that my drink cooler is the perfect size for getting a load of ice.

In the center inside is a laundry room with washers and dryers.

Cold drinks and various laundry supplies are also available here. Right now, it’s all quarters–there’s a change machine–but laundry rooms at Fort Wilderness are expected to move to a mix of quarters and credit cards soon.

On either side of the laundry room are the restrooms. They are clean, bright, well-appointed, have plenty of hot water, and for most but not for me are air-conditioned. You need your MagicBand to access them late at night.

Sinks and toilets are on one side…

…and the other side has showers.

Each shower area has an outer dressing area and an inner shower area, and one of them has extra accessibility features.

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