Getting a Ride at Fort Wilderness - Fort Wilderness Lives Up to the HYPE

After watching an episode with Long Long Honeymoon on Fort Wilderness, my husband said, “I want to go there.”

We are late bloomers to Rving so it was late in the season when I first tried to find a site. The website for reservations at Fort Wilderness was cumbersome at best. I tried a variety of dates and combinations, nothing worked. Then, one lucky day in early October (2021), I decided to try again. I tried for the week after Thanksgiving and mid-week, and it worked - I found three consecutive nights, one of the days selected just happened to be my birthday.

The levels of Campsites are:
1. Premium Meadow and Premium - good for large RVs
2. Preferred
3. Full Hook-Up
4. Tent or pop-ups

I selected a full hook-up site.

This helpful website breaks down in detail the various levels, the loops within each level, and then the sites within the loops. Someone suggested I download the App - FWSites which provides you details for each loop then breaks down each site in a loop - size, hook-up availability, difficulty in backing in, right or left side, and a photo. The App comes in real handy at check-in. When they tell you what site is available, you can quickly look it up on the App and say yes or no. I made a list of possible sites in the four loops that fit the Full Hook-up level based on difficulty and size before we got there.

When you get to Fort Wilderness, there is a guard shack to make sure you are on a list, they then direct you to the check-in booths - stay in your vehicle. Check-in was easy and Disney-friendly.

The loops tend to be a little tight with a narrow road, and people tend to spread out. We were warned ahead of time about this. You can ask for help backing in if you feel you need it. We watched some, who were more experienced than us, and they had to make several attempts. We had a relatively easy back-in site but still made several attempts to get it, mainly due to the narrow road.

Since we were there only for a few days, we opted not to visit any Disney theme parks. We decided to enjoy Fort Wilderness and relax. The campground offers so much so if you only have a couple of days, there is a lot to enjoy. We watched fireworks from the beach by the marina. Food trucks provided dinner on our first night. They were there on Tuesday and Wednesday from 5:30 to 8:30. We didn’t try it, but they have trail rides throughout the day with their horses from the Double D Ranch (you have to sign up.) They have a large swimming pool. There are restaurants at Settlement Camp (by the marina) and a few Outpost stores throughout the park with Disney souvenirs or if you need a few groceries.

Disney Transportation
We did not unhitch and decided to make use of Disney’s transportation.

You are not allowed to use a personal vehicle to drive around Fort Wilderness, so to enjoy the wonders of the campground, you have a few options:

1. Walk - It is a large park, but it is walkable. From the full hook-up sites (loops 1600-1900), it is about a 2 1/2 mile walk to the marina to catch the bus. The Meadows (where the swimming pool, playground, and a few other actives are located) is a short jaunt.
2. Bikes - If you don’t have a bike visit the Bike Barn, where they rent bikes and canoes/kayaks. There are quite a few trails to enjoy amongst the 750 acres of Pine and Cypress forest.
3. Golf Carts - I have never seen so many golf carts. You can rent them from the park and other sources or bring your own. There are so many golf carts whipping around you need to be aware of the golf cart traffic, so be careful walking around the park.
4. Bus - Disney Transportation provides buses within the campground, so if you don’t want to walk, or don’t have a bike or golf cart, just catch a bus. There are bus stops located conveniently throughout the park. And they run about every 20 minutes.
5. Hitch a Ride - this is not a legitimate form of transportation, but we often had people offer us a ride when they saw us walking, so you never know when a friendly RVer will stop and give you a lift.

How big is Disney World?
Walt Disney World in Central Florida covers 43 square miles of land. Within this massive plot of land is 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, more than 25+ hotels & resorts, a large shopping district known as Disney Springs, 4 golf courses, a massive private transportation network, and more!

Disneyland is roughly 500 acres. That means you can fit about 51 Disneylands inside of Disney World.
Florida Adventures

Disney’s Transportation Network consists of:

1. Disney Buses - the third largest fleet of buses in the state of Florida. With over 400 buses, the environmentally-friendly network of buses works tiredly to get visitors from one Disney location to the next. The main bus hub at Fort Wilderness is at the Outposts (by the entrance), you can catch a bus to any of Disney’s theme parks.

2. Monorail - A fun way to go from the Magic Kingdom to Epcot. For information on the Monorail and where it goes visit Disney’s website.

3. Boats/Ferrys - Much of Disney’s property is located next to the water, so Disney has a large fleet of  750 or more boats and ferries providing transportation for visitors. From Fort Wilderness, you can catch the ferry to the Magic Kingdom.

4. The Skyliner - An Innovative Twist on Flight
Discover Disney Skyliner, an incredible way to travel around Walt Disney World Resort!
Glide across the sky and add an extra dash of pixie dust to your day. This grand, state-of-the-art gondola system conveniently connects Disney's Hollywood Studios and International Gateway at Epcot to the following Resort hotels: Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, Disney's Art of Animation Resort, Disney's Pop Century Resort, and Disney's Riviera Resort.

Learn more about Disney World's Transportation

For my birthday, we decided to spend some time at Disney’s Boardwalk. To get there was an adventure in itself. We utilized most of the Disney Transportation Network. Because their network of transportation is quite massive, Disney thankfully has a great staff of people who are more than willing to guide you to your next location.

Suggestion - we asked how to get from Fort Wilderness to the Boardwalk and received a variety of instructions, so we broke up the trip by destinations, when we arrived at the next destination, we would ask a Cast Member how to get to the next one.

Our day started at Fort Wilderness
1. Caught the bus outside our loop to Settlement Camp
2. The Ferry to the Magic Kingdom. Even if you don’t plan on visiting the theme park, the ferry ride was a beautiful trip.
3. The monorail to Epcot.
4. The bus to the Boardwalk
To return to Fort Wilderness
1. We wanted to try the Skyliner, so we took it from the Boardwalk to its first stop, which was the Caribbean resort hotels.
2. Caught a bus at the resort to the Magic Kingdom. This was a long bus ride and quite crowded, FYI.
3. Once we were back at the Magic Kingdom, we caught the ferry back to Fort Wilderness.
4. The last ride we caught a bus at Settlement Camp inside Fort Wilderness to our loop.

We did not visit any of the theme parks or their rides, but we did enjoy the rides on the various forms of Disney Transportation. The best part - all of the rides were enjoyable and FREE!!!