We are coming to the end of our coverage on our familymoon to Walt Disney World. We covered the parks, Downtown Disney and the famous Chef Mickey’s. All that is left is where did we lie our heads at night? Let me introduce you to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.
We arrived pretty late at night, in fact it was past the kids bedtime. Our shuttle from the airport dropped us off right at the check in building. We were greeted by smiling faces and our check in process went pretty darn smooth. We got our magic bands, set up our pins, got our resort map and then they called for the campground shuttle to take us to our cabin. Yes I said shuttle. The Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground is massive. So massive that it has it’s own bus system.
6 Reasons to Stay at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
- Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground is in the Magic Kingdom area of Walt Disney World. If you have young kids this is the park you will probably spend most of your time at. Staying in the Magic Kingdom area means less time spent travelling to get to the Magic Kingdom.
- The Magic Kingdom is a short boat ride from the Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. Boats leave about every 15 minutes. So if you miss your boat the wait isn’t long and there is lots to do in the area while you wait for the next boat.
- Privacy and young kid friendly. We chose Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground because of the cabins. This way we really did have a home away from home. We could make breakfast in the kitchen each morning. Kids could go to bed while adults could stay up a bit longer and mommy could sleep in for a bit in the mornings.
- Activities galore! There is so much to do at Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground that you could stay there and never leave the resort. Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground is home of the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. It is also the only place you can make smores by the campfire and sing camp songs with Chip and Dale. Let’s not forget the nature trails, horseback riding, boat rentals etc. The list of activities at Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground is endless.
- Only place you can camp. If you prefer to be one with nature bring a tent or your RV. Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground has lots of space you can rent for your stay.
- Seasonal activities. Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground is afterall a campground. We spent Halloween at Magic Kingdom but we could have stayed at the resort and went trick-o-treating through the campground area. Almost everyone had their camping area decorated for Halloween.
Not us. Photo courtesy of wdwnews.com
Mousekeeping
Walt Disney World does not have housekeeping. They have mousekeeping. Magical beings that come into your room while you are away to clean your mess and maybe leave you little surprises. Sadly this is where I have to give Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground to giant thumbs down. We had nothing but nightmares with mousekeeping our entire stay starting on our arrival.
On our arrival there was still food in the fridge from previous guests. Carpets weren’t vacuumed. Stuff was left on the counters. We called and complained. The next day on our return the previous guests food was gone but so was some of ours. Dishes were not cleaned and still sitting in the sink and beds were not made. At this point I went to the desk to complained. The manager comped me one night stay and promised things would be different and he would talk to the staff.
Day 3 we arrived back to our cabin to find out what everyone raves about Mousekeeping for. Our cabin was spotless and we found some new friends havnging out in our cabin with the stuffies the kids brought on the trip. I was so relieved to see things turning around where it comes to mousekeeping.
That didn’t last long though. The next 2 days were awful once again. We even found dustbunnies under the kitchen table. I called the front desk and demanded a manager come down to our room to see the state of it. He apologized and comped us another nights stay. The next morning the manager from mousekeeping came to our room and promised us the cabin would be cleaned top to bottom including the carpets being washed. We came back that night to find his promise kept. But then everything went back to crap again. At this point I emailed my travel agent and just started cleaning myself each night.
I will say upon my arrival home Disney followed up with me on my stay and I was comped a third nights stay that was refunded to my credit card. However I am to this day still VERY disappointed with the mousekepping at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. Being the mom and planner of this vacation coming back to the cabin was suppoed to be my retreat each night. It was anything but since I had to deal with complaining and cleaning ourselves while demanding garbage pick up and fresh towels.
Overall Thoughts on Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
I wish mousekeeping wasn’t so atrocious. Everything about Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground is amazing and I love that there is so much to do without even leaving the resort. Would I stay there again, I honestly don’t know. I loved the convenience of having an entire cabin to ourselves and having a kitchen but I am still left with a bitter taste about mousekeeping. I do know everyone raves about mousekeeping so maybe I just got to be that really unlucky small percentage.
I would like to stay there again and give it another try however our boys will be older once we can afford to go back and at $360 a night there are many more budget friendly places to stay at Walt Disney World. This was our one and only trip where we were not thinking of the budget since it was our familymoon.
Have you stayed on Disney property? Where did you stay?