Category — q. Reviews

(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

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

• Overview: The Cabins at Fort Wilderness
  • Photo Tour of a Fort Wilderness Cabin: Kitchen, Living Room and Dining Room
  • Photo Tour of a Fort Wilderness Cabin: Bath and Back Bedroom
• Overview: The Campsites at Fort Wilderness
  • Hints for Tent Camping at Fort Wilderness: Gear and Weather
  • Photo Tour of a Tent Campsite at Fort Wilderness
  • The Comfort Stations 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

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

(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

• Overview: The Cabins at Fort Wilderness
  • Photo Tour of a Fort Wilderness Cabin: Kitchen, Living Room and Dining Room
  • Photo Tour of a Fort Wilderness Cabin: Bath and Back Bedroom
• Overview: The Campsites at Fort Wilderness
  • Hints for Tent Camping at Fort Wilderness: Gear and Weather
  • Photo Tour of a Tent Campsite at Fort Wilderness
  • The Comfort Stations 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

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

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.

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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Currently scheduled though May 2016, Symphony in the Stars is a new fireworks show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios that debuted in December 2015.  It will be replaced by an even better show sometime this summer.

Currently playing four nights a week, it choreographs terrific fireworks to excerpts from the sublime John Williams Star Wars scores.

I rate it as not-to-be-missed.

I believe it increases the overall value of a visit to the Studios–a point of contention lately, although personally I think the impact of the recent closures there is wildly overstated.

There’s a million good spots to see it from (see Tom Bricker’s post here), but best is from the angle where you have the ticket tapstiles at your back, and the Great Movie ride in front of you.

More than most Disney World fireworks, there’s lots of great place to view it from outside the park. Above is the view from the walkway to the Studios just outside the BoardWalk Villas. But then you’ll miss the great music…

Above is where I watched it from inside the Studios…

..and below are my better shots of the fireworks (better, that is, compared to the ones I didn’t post!):

Have you seen the show? What did you think?

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Yesterday I published an updated version of my review of Disney’s Beach Club Resort, based on my most recent stays there in November and December.

The biggest difference is that the floor plan and photo tour now reflect the newly refurbed rooms.

These rooms were already quite livable, but the fixtures, fittings and coverings were pretty beat up.

The refurb has made all fresh, and also made some minor improvements in livability–e.g. centralizing the drawers more, and adding more power points.

I do think, as noted in the new review, that these rooms have lost some of their charm–although we did like the new Mickey and Minnie print enough for it to have made its way onto our Christmas Card, along with puppy Belle:

Most of the rest of the changes to the review were structural, although I did add some new photos.

More specifically,

The Beach Club overview page has some added content summarizing other pages in the review that makes it work better as one page introduction to the resort, so that many won’t need to delve any deeper into the review. I’ve been doing this with my updated reviews lately to help save people time.

The overview page has also of course the updated floor plan and a photo or two of the new rooms, plus a bit of a comparison to the old rooms.

The second page, a photo tour of a Beach Club room, now has all new images of a refurbed room.

The third page that summarizes Accommodations and Theming at the Beach Club is mostly the same as the old page, other than the obvious changes from the refurb.

Incidentally, for somewhat comic reasons I was “stuck” with an upgrade to a one-bedroom suite in November, and have not added photos from that trip to the Accommodations page yet, as I was already far enough behind on reporting on the refurb to the standard rooms that I wanted to get this new review out.

Most of those one bedroom suite photos will get added to the Accommodations page later–or perhaps I’ll do a photo tour of the suite…but here’s a couple to whet your appetite until then:

The sitting room in a one bedroom suite:

The couch side of the king bedroom in a one bedroom suite:

The bed side of the king bedroom in a one bedroom suite:

I’ve lately been separating out dining from the “Amenities” page–just as last year I separated out main pools–both for improved findability.

So there’s a new Dining at the Beach Club page, mostly similar to before, but with

–Updated reviews from the 2016 edition of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, and

–Some new Cape May Cafe images from my January 2015 dinner there with my dad and sister.  (The blurry but gleeful older guy delighted with the crab legs is my dad!)

The Amenities at the Beach Club page is pretty much the same, except it now excludes dining, and the page on Stormalong Bay, the Beach Club’s main pool is also pretty much unchanged.

The updated review of Disney’s Beach Club Resort begins here! Check it out, and let me know if it is helpful–and what you think of the new look of the rooms!!!

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

The Beach Club has two table service restaurants.

• Beaches and Cream is a wonderful burger and ice cream shop, but is far too small for the demand for it.
• The Cape May Cafe has at breakfast a buffet with Minnie and other characters, but not Mickey, and an above-average seafood buffet at dinner.

More table service dining is within walking distance at the Yacht Club and BoardWalk, but none has great kid or family appeal except breakfast at Trattoria al Forno.

Quick service dining is quite limited, with just small venues at the back of the Beach Club gift shop and at the main pool. Another trivial option quick service  is in the Yacht Club gift shop.

At one end of the Beach Club, on the way to the Yacht Club (part of the same massive interconnected building) is Cape May Cafe, a table service restaurant that does Mickey-less character breakfasts with Minnie, Goofy and Donald, and a seafood-focused buffet at night.

Goofy in the distance…

…and the review from our book, The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2019.

Above is a shot of part of the Cape May dinner buffet…

…the crab legs, not part of the buffet but rather sent straight from the kitchen on request…

…and the overall milieu.

There’s another table-service option, accessible from on the outdoor veranda walkway connecting the Beach Club and Yacht Club, Beaches and Cream.

Above is its review from our book, The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2019. Beaches and Cream will be closed for refurb in much of the second half of 2019, beginning in early August.

There are more table service dining options within walking distance at the Yacht Club and BoardWalk, none of any special appeal to kids except a character breakfast with Ariel, Eric, Rapunzel,and Flynn Rider at Trattoria al Forno.

In this gift shop is also what passes for the only counter-service inside the Beach Club–too small, too slow, too thin a menu.

On my last visit, the lunch/dinner menu had flatbreads, salads and soup both meals.

You can design your own flatbread based on what’s available.

Lunch in addition had a meatball sub, and dinner added to the sub ribs and chicken with sides.

Breakfast offerings are a little better–partly because a limited menu works better at breakfast.

But in general all three of the Epcot resorts have weak counter service options compared to the other DIsney World deluxe resorts.

I don’t know why.  Part is a consequence of design–there’s actually not much room on the ground floors of the Yacht and Beach Clubs, or on the second floor of the BoardWalk Inn, to even put such places.  But I suspect that the real reason is that most offerings on the BoardWalk itself, and almost all in Epcot’s World Showcase, are run by third parties, and Disney does not want to undercut their opportunity to sell meals…

At least the cold food section of the gift shop is better stocked than that of most other Disney World gift shops.

At the main pool shared by the Beach and Yacht Clubs, Stormalong Bay, the pool bar and grill, Hurricane Hanna’s, offers a different set of quick service options.

Here’s the menu, but you’ll probably find it more legible on Disney’s site here.

Waits can be long at Hurricane Hanna’s, but you at least there’s a ping-pong table!

Hurricane Hanna’s also has a refillable mug station.

More on all these options is on Disney World’s website here.

OTHER AMENITIES AT DISNEY’S BEACH CLUB RESORT

This review continues here!

PAGES IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S BEACH CLUB RESORT

• Overview and summary of Disney’s Beach Club Resort
• Theming and accommodations at the Beach Club
• A photo tour of a Beach Club room
• Dining at the Beach Club
• Amenities at the Beach Club
• Stormalong Bay, the Beach Club’s main pool

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 160+ stays in them

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!