Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
| Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground | |
|---|---|
| Park | Walt Disney World Resort |
| Land / area | Magic Kingdom Resort Area |
| Type | Campground resort |
| Opened | November 19, 1971 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Operating |
Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground is a camping resort in the Magic Kingdom Resort Area of the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. Opened on November 19, 1971, less than two months after the resort itself, it is one of Walt Disney World's original places to stay. The resort occupies about 750 acres of pine and cypress woodland on the shore of Bay Lake and offers a combination of tent and recreational-vehicle campsites and freestanding cabins, making it the only Walt Disney World resort at which guests camp in their own equipment.
History
Fort Wilderness opened with 232 campsites arranged in six loops, together with the Settlement Trading Post, a landing for boats across Bay Lake to the Magic Kingdom, and the Tri-Circle-D Ranch, established in part to house horses working in the park's parades. A short-lived internal railway, the Fort Wilderness Railroad, carried guests around the campground from 1973 until 1980, when it was removed; some of its track and water tower remained visible for years afterwards.
The resort grew steadily through the 1970s and 1980s. Pioneer Hall, its entertainment and dining building at the Settlement, opened in 1974 along with the dinner show that still plays there. A 1985 expansion added seven loops and more than 360 further campsites. The resort's neighbour on Bay Lake, the Disney's River Country water park, operated from 1976 until 2001.
Accommodation beyond campsites began as trailer-style "wilderness homes"; from 1997 these were progressively replaced by log-cabin-style units. In July 2024 the cabins were replaced in turn by new units and reopened as The Cabins at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort, a Disney Vacation Club property, while the campsites continued to be booked as a separate category.
Layout and accommodation
The resort is organised into three areas. The Outpost, at the entrance, contains check-in and the main bus stops. The Meadow, in the middle, holds the Meadow Trading Post, the main pool complex and the campfire amphitheatre. The Settlement, on Bay Lake, contains Pioneer Hall, the marina and beach, and the Tri-Circle-D Ranch. Many guests travel internally by bus, bicycle or rented golf cart.
Campsites are arranged in numbered loops and come in four grades, from sites intended for tents and pop-up campers to premium sites able to take recreational vehicles of 45 feet (14 m) or more; sites allow up to ten guests. In total the resort has roughly 800 campsites. The cabins, grouped in their own loops at the southern end of the resort, are one-bedroom units sleeping up to six adults, with a full kitchen, bathroom and an outdoor deck.
Dining and entertainment
Pioneer Hall hosts the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue, a Wild West-themed dinner show performed since 1974 and among the longest-running dinner shows in the United States. The same building complex houses Trail's End Restaurant, the resort's main table-service and takeaway dining location, and the takeaway P&J's Southern Takeout. A second former dinner offering, Mickey's Backyard BBQ, closed in 2018.
Each evening the resort holds a campfire programme in its outdoor amphitheatre, with a sing-along led by a cast member alongside the characters Chip and Dale, fire pits for toasting marshmallows, and an outdoor film screening afterwards. The Electrical Water Pageant passes the resort's beach nightly on Bay Lake, and fireworks from the Magic Kingdom can be seen from the shore.
Recreation
The Tri-Circle-D Ranch stables the draft horses that pull vehicles on Main Street, U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom, along with ponies used for rides and carriage work; its breeds include Clydesdales, Belgians and Percherons. Guests can take guided trail rides, pony rides for small children, and wagon and carriage rides, and the ranch houses the Dragon Calliope, a horse-drawn calliope bought by Walt Disney in the 1950s.
Other recreation includes two swimming pools, canoe, kayak and bicycle hire, fishing on Bay Lake, archery instruction, and an exercise trail of about 2.3 miles (3.7 km) running towards Disney's Wilderness Lodge, the separate resort hotel nearby, with which Fort Wilderness is sometimes confused.