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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

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

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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE CREATION OF MUPPET*VISION 3D AT DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

By Jim Korkis

Mark Eades is a former Imagineer who worked on Muppet*Vision 3-D. He shared these stories with me in 2010.

“Bill Prady, a Henson writer, was tasked with organizing the ideas into a story and after several meetings the first storyline came out. It was essentially an introduction to Bean Bunny and all the other Muppets had cameos.

(NOTE: Bean Bunny first appeared in 1986 as the star of the TV special The Tale of the Bunny Picnic. In 1989, Bean joined the cast of The Jim Henson Hour.)

“We all pointed out how theme park attractions based on existing characters usually worked better where there was some familiarity with their universe. Star Tours worked because it still had all those familiar Star Wars universe items in it.

“We suggested that the same thing was needed for this attraction, in particular because it had a stage and a proscenium just like in the Muppet Show—as Henson became more intrigued with breaking down that fourth wall, the ideas of having characters in the theater evolved and the story evolved.

(c) Disney

“Jim Henson was very involved with the project. He was genuinely interested in doing theme park attractions. His natural curiosity and openness and receptiveness to new ideas made him a perfect fit to work with at Imagineering. It was a two year process from concept to finished production.

“The entire project was done in California, except for the actual installation. The film was shot almost entirely on Stage 3 at the Disney Studios, the same stage that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) was filmed on. We needed the water tank for Miss Piggy’s musical number.

“The Miss Piggy number was the first sequence filmed. It took several days. Then we moved over to the other side of the stage for the Muppet Labs sequences, both the hallway and the Honeydew set. Then we went outside to the old Town Square from Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) for the brick wall blowing up shot and the last shot when Kermit comes in on the fire truck ladder.

“Then we moved back to the other side of stage 3 where the Miss Piggy set was which was now black for the entire patriotic finale which was done against a black backdrop.

“The film had been completed way under budget, and after a test showing with everyone we knew we needed to tweak a few things. The middle of the film kind of fell flat. So the plan was that everyone would come back after a few weeks off and we would get together to figure it out.

“I was on vacation as a tourist in Washington D.C. with my family when the word came that Jim had died.

“We came home the next day. About a month later we got together to figure things out with the Henson creative team including Frank Oz, Bill Prady and others. We storyboarded some new scenes, including a slightly different bit about Bean Bunny running away, and scheduled a re-shoot.

“Frank Oz directed the new scenes and we did a temporary mix up at Skywalker Ranch. Another test showing and the film was signed off. Then, the Henson family asked that everyone involved from their side walk away and we had to finish the film, including all the Waldo CGI, much of which was added as a result of the new stuff, without them, including all the performers.

“It was an example of the kinds of attractions Disney could and should be doing. We at Imagineering and Theme Park Productions were extremely proud of it.”

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim. The location of Muppet*Vision 3D in the park makes me wonder if the Star Wars plans for Hollywood Studios mean it will be going away…

Come back next Friday for even more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, and The Vault of Walt: Volume 4, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: FEBRUARY 13 TO FEBRUARY 21, 2016

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

The same stuff is in the graphic, but organized by park, not by topic. For more on February 2016 at Walt Disney World, click here.

Note that typos happen, and schedules change! If something seems odd, or if you want to double check, use the calendar links near the bottom to get the latest official Disney World scoop.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/13-2/21/2016

The Magic Kingdom will be open 8a-1a 2/13, 8a-12Mn 2/14, a9-12MN 2/15, 9a-11p 2/16, 9a-10p 2/17 through 2/19, 9a-11p 2/20, and 9a-10p 2/21

Epcot will be open from 8a-9p 2/13 and 2/14, and 9a-9p 2/15 through 2/21

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open 8a-8.30p 2/13 and 2/14, 9a-9p 2/15, 9a-8p 2/16, 9a-8.30p 2/17, 9a-8p 2/18, and 9a-8.30p 2/19 through 2/12

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open 8a-8p 2/13 and 2/14, 9a-8p 2/15 through 2/17, 9a-7p 2/18, 9a-6.30p 2/19, and 8a-6.30p 2/20 and 2/12

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/13-2/21/2016

Saturday 2/13 Morning:  Animal Kingdom  Evening: none

Sunday 2/14 Morning:  Hollywood Studios  Evening: None

Monday 2/15 Morning: Animal Kingdom  Evening: none

Tuesday 2/16 Morning: none Evening:  Epcot

Wednesday 2/17 Morning:  none  Evening:  Magic Kingdom

Thursday 2/18 Morning: Epcot Evening: none

Friday 2/19 Morning:  Magic Kingdom Evening: Hollywood Studios

Saturday 2/20 Morning: Animal Kingdom  Evening: none

Sunday 2/21  Morning: Hollywood Studios Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/13-2/21/2016

The Magic Kingdom:

• Afternoon Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3p every day
• Evening Main Street Electrical Parade: 9 and 11p 2/13 and 2/14; 8 and 10p 2/15 through 2/17; 7 and 9p 2/18 and 2/19; 9 and 11p 2/20; 8 and 10p 2/21

FIREWORKS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/13-2/21/2016

Wishes at the Magic Kingdom: 10p 2/13 and 2/14; 9p 2/15 through 2/17; 8p 2/18 and 2/19; 10p 2/20; 9p 2/21

IllumiNations at Epcot: 9p every night

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 7 and 9p 2/13 through 2/15; 7p 2/16; 7 and 9p 2/17; 7p 2/18 7 and 9p 2/19 through 2/21

Symphony in the Stars at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every night

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/13-2/21/2016

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

LONG RANGE WEATHER FORECAST FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/13-2/21/2016

See this for forecasts.

DISCLAIMER

Everything is subject to change and typos! Check the Disney Calendars for updates and official schedules. These calendars can be found by clicking the following links:

• Magic Kingdom Calendar
• Hollywood Studios Calendar
• Animal Kingdom Calendar
• Epcot Calendar

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Most years, I recommend arriving in Walt Disney World either two or three of the first three Saturdays after Thanksgiving.

In 2022 I recommend the first two weeks after Thanksgiving–the weeks beginning 11/26 and 12/3/2022.  See this for all of the weeks of 2022 ranked in order.

There’s two basic choices for when to go to Walt Disney World.

• You can go to Disney World when it’s convenient for your family, and simply accept the specific circumstances that you will find at that time—crowds, wait times, price levels, weather, special events, and the odds of rides being closed for refurb.
• Or you can pick the specific circumstances that best suit you, and go to Disney World during one of the periods that best displays them.

If you follow the first approach, you likely will find high crowds and long waits, as the most convenient time to go is when the kids are out of school, so what works best for you will also work best for hundreds of thousands of other people.

If you follow the second approach, and pick the circumstances that are best for you, then you weigh several key variables, and target your dates based on which among them are most important to you.

If you are a first-time visitor, I’ve already weighed the weeks of the year on your behalf based on crowds, prices, ride closures, the peak of the hurricane season, and special events.

You can find my 2022 week rankings here.

First-timers who may never return should also consider if their kids are old enough to get the best out of Disney World.

If you are a returning visitor—or a first timer who wants to figure this out for yourself—the key circumstances to keep in mind follow.

CROWDS AND WHEN TO GO TO DISNEY WORLD

Crowds. Disney World is never not crowded, but some dates are much worse, and some much better, than others.

Disney World is at its most crowded when tens of millions of US schoolkids are out of school—the summer, Thanksgiving week, the weeks of Christmas and New Years, the week of President’s Day, and the spring break weeks from early March through the week after Easter.

Historically the least crowded times to visit are in September after Labor Day and the period in January and early February from after Martin Luther King Day until the Thursday before Presidents Day.

My 2022 Disney World crowd calendar forecasts crowd levels for every week of the year.

My calendars predict low (green), moderate (black) and high crowd (red) weeks.

Curiously, every year I get flamed a few times because some people interpret my “low crowds” as meaning “no crowds.” For these calendars, that’s as wrong as thinking that a “low-priced” car is free, or that a forecast for “low temperatures” tomorrow means 459.67 degrees below zero, or that a “low bridge” is one that sits on the roadway below it.

“Low crowds” in my calendars means “lower than other possible dates.” It doesn’t mean no crowds, nor even crowds as low as you—or I—wish they were!

PRICES AND WHEN TO GO TO DISNEY WORLD

Hotel Prices. Disney hotel prices can be twice as expensive some times of the year as others.

They vary to a complex schedule that can include different prices for weekdays/weekends/short holiday weekends, and longer periods different prices based on of higher and lower willingness to pay.

Some will tell you that they are least expensive during the low crowd periods, and most expensive during the high crowd periods.

This is not entirely true—you can find both lower priced high crowd periods, and higher priced low crowd periods. Some months with mostly similar crowd levels will see four or more different price changes!

You can find the 2022 Disney World hotel price seasons here.

Ticket Prices.  Beginning in late 2018, Disney World began charging different prices for tickets at different times of the year.  The upshot is that you will pay more for more popular dates, and less for other dates.

You can see a color-coded calendar of the 2022 Disney World ticket prices here.

Disney World usually offers deals covering all but the most crowded weeks of the year.

Among these, the most popular and valuable has been free dining, which is often available for much of September and selected dates later in the year. This deal did not return in 2021, and may  not return in 2022 either.

You can find any current Disney World deals open to the general public here.

WEATHER AND WHEN TO GO TO DISNEY WORLD

Weather. Despite the image people have of Florida as having year-round sunshine and warmth, there’s actually a couple of weather points to keep in mind.

First, winter weather can be much cooler, and much more variable, than people expect.

Second, the summer—especially later June through September—reliably combines brutal heat with brutal humidity with daily thunderstorms.

Third, the peak of the hurricane season is from later August through earlier October.

The weather you find best will depend on your preferences, but to me the ideal weather in Orlando is in later April and mid-later October—easily warm enough for the pool, but not so hot and humid that I don’t want to leave my room.

There’s more on Disney Word weather beginning here.

SPECIAL EVENTS AND WHEN TO GO TO DISNEY WORLD

Special Events. Both major and minor special events dot the Disney World calendar.

None but perhaps the Christmas season celebrations and Halloween parties matter much to most first time visitors, but many returning visitors pick their dates to map to one of the major special events:

The spring Flower and Garden Festival

The fall Food and Wine Festival

The fall Halloween parties

The November and December Christmas parties and other Christmas celebrations

The winter Festival of the Arts

RIDE CLOSURES AND WHEN TO GO TO DISNEY WORLD

Ride Closures. Disney World closes rides for refurbishment and renewal at any time of the year, and longer refurbishments can last 6 months or more.

That said, rides are most predictably closed from early January through mid-February.

There’s more on ride closures at Disney World here.

Hope this helps–and if not, check out the links, or ask me a question in the comment form below!

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John Tishman, who built the expansion at the Polynesian that is now its Disney Vacation Club offering, the Hilton in Disney Springs, and Epcot, died on Saturday.

Tishman also once sued Michael Eisner, then CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and the company itself under the RICO statute (thereby probably blowing his chance to ever be named as a “Disney Legend“) to enforce rights he had acquired to build a convention hotel in return for agreeing to build Epcot.

Disney’s settlement of this suit led to what we now know as the Swan and Dolphin, which he also built.

Tuesday of last week I had more than 12 hours of travel to get from Monterrey Mexico (where I was helping one of my clients with the quarterly meeting of its worldwide team, as part of my day job as a strategist) back to home in Cleveland.

I wasn’t in the mood to spend all that time working, so I dug deeply into my archived Kindle books.

I started with James Stewart’s classic DisneyWar, which I re-read every five years or so, it’s so much fun. (On re-reads I do skip the Katzenberg fight and the whole Ovitz chapter–remember them?)

That reminded me how much I had enjoyed Tishman’s autobiography Building Tall: My Life and the Invention of Construction Management, which in turn reminded me of how much fun Alan Lapidus’s biography Everything by Design: My Life as an Architect was. (Lapidus was the hotel architect at the Hilton and Swan and Dolphin.)

So on my Tuesday travels I re-read all of these, with Tishman being a central figure in one and a key figure in the two others. It was a fun and interesting Disney World day, and it’s sad to see it bookended by Tishman’s death.

On a side note, anyone who claims expertise on hotels–which I kinda do–needs to read Lapidus’s book, as he was the premiere hotel architect of his generation.

Moreover, in another interesting coincidence, Lapidus worked a lot with Donald Trump, and has a number of interesting things to say about him that I’d simply glossed over the first time I read his autobiography–as they didn’t matter then.

On the re-read last Tuesday, I learned a lot about Trump that is not covered by today’s press, and, somewhat to my astonishment, came away from Lapidus’s stories with a certain measured degree of admiration for Trump.

Now I still can’t imagine voting for the dude…but I also would never have guessed as I sorted through my Kindle offerings last week how much the past is still present…and how quickly the present becomes the past…so RIP, John Tishman.

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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.

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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