First Time at Fort Wilderness Cabins (Second Day posted 21March)

[tkd lisa]

Welcome to my latest trip report!

Dates: 9-13 March 2026
Where: Cabins at Fort Wilderness using DVC points
People:

• Me, Lisa. Age 61, retired federal employee. I live in Tampa, am a DVC owner (SSR and HH), a long time Disney Annual Passholder.

• DM, my mom Helen, age 88, retired nurse. She lives two hours south of Tampa, and enjoys a more sedate Disney experience. She’s a heart patient, and uses either a scooter or a wheelchair because she can only walk about 25 yards without stopping.

• DS2, my son Casey, age 32, active duty navy sonarman, currently on a shore duty assignment in King’s Bay GA (just north of Jacksonville)

• DDIL, Casey’s wife Kay, age 35, stay at home mom who homeschools the kids and manages a challenging household. She (and my son) are former college program cast members.

• DGD, Ely, who turns 10 just after the trip. This was her birthday celebration. Ely was literally born at Celebration Hospital, and still loves Disney although she’s moved on from the characters. She’s into fantasy (dragons and mermaids are high on her lists) as well as Greek mythology, and loves theater.

• DGS Cayden, age 5. Cayden is autistic, and we are only able to do Disney with the use of Disability Assistance Support (DAS). He’s a super sweet kid, who really loves his Grammy (that’s me) and GiGi (my mom).

I’m going to break this into a trip report that covers the actual trip, and one that focuses on the DVC cabin elements. I’ll load the 2nd part into the DVC trip report page, since that seems to be mostly interesting to DVC members. Here's the link.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/5-days-at-fort-wilderness-cabins.3980127/
But all of the trip details are going to be here. Are you ready? Here goes!
Day 1, March 9th
Our initial day had DM and I driving over from Tampa early in the morning, while DS and his family were driving down from Georgia after he reported in for morning muster. For those not familiar with the military, their vacation (or leave) works a little differently. They get charged for the weekend days unless they report for muster Monday and Friday. Because they have a lot of short trips scheduled, DS is conserving leave, and since his family are NOT early risers, they agreed that he would go into work Monday morning, then leave after muster. He was also going to return Thursday night, leaving the rest of the family to return with me over the weekend. That meant that instead of 9 days of leave, he would only have to take 3.

DM and I were awake fairly early, and after a stop by Wawa for coffee and breakfast, we were on the road by 7:30. We did hit some traffic on I-4, which turned a 75 minute drive into a 2 hour drive. But we were at Fort Wilderness by 9:20, and dropped off our cooler bag with bell services before heading to Hollywood Studios. Once inside the park, we could tell it was going to be a crowded day because all the wait times were fairly long. So at 9:50, we chose to head to the first villians show of the day (10:30), since that was on our “must-do” list for this trip. I did get a few photopass shots while we were waiting, then we were seated in the very front with Mom’s wheelchair. DDIL and I texted while waiting on the show to start, and she said that they were still waiting for my son to be released from duty, and we agreed that due to the crowds, we would adjust to a different park for the day.



Mom and I really enjoyed the show, and got some good pictures since we were close. But the location was a bit TOO close to actually get the whole experience. Captain Hook won our show, and very energetically sang his victory song! Pics below.



Once done, DM and I decided to switch to Magic Kingdom, because their lines were fairly reasonable. So we drove back to Fort Wilderness, planning to park the car by the boat dock and transfer over by ferry boat. This was our first experience with Fort Wilderness transportation challenges (detailed further in the DVC trip report section). Let’s leave it by saying that there is no general parking anywhere in Fort Wilderness. You either park at your campsite/cabin or up at the very front and take resort internal transportation to all locations. Thankfully, we got the text saying our cabin was ready at 11:20, so we parked in front of 2701, our home for the week. We settled in, getting our cooler bag and grabbing a quick sandwich in the room. A few pictures of the room below.


We then went out to get the internal bus to the ferry boat, leaving the cabin at 12:45. By this time, DS’s family was on their way, and planned to go straight to the cabin on arrival. DDIL’s mom and brother (who live in Melbourne, about an hour from WDW) were at Animal Kingdom, so we planned to meet up with them later. Although the bus to ferry transfer seemed to take a long time, we were in MK by about 2pm, and headed straight to Small World, which was Mom’s choice. With Mom’s wheelchair, we enter this ride at the exit and transfer to the boat opposite the normal line. During our ride, we had a really cute family behind us. They were trying to guess what country all the dolls were from in each room. Once we got to the last all white room, the little girl just couldn’t figure it out, so I turned around and told her it was all of the countries, just wearing white to show that it really was a small world. She told her mom, who said “Oh, you are right! You’re so smart!” and the little girl giggled and said, “no, that lady told me!”

Once off small world, the parade crowds were building at 2:30. Mom didn’t want to see it, and asked to go to Country Bears Jamboree, so we wove our way along the pathway. For those people who grumble about being asked to keep a walkway clear, realize that weaving a wheelchair through a narrow path is super challenging! There was one family laying flat out on the sidewalk, with all of their souvenirs spread out who were particularly annoyed about being asked to make way!



The new Country Bears is a cute little show, with all the music Disney themed. We exited right as the parade was starting, and wove the rest of the way down the clear walkway to the Dole Whip stand across from Aladdin’s Carpets. This was the longest line I’ve ever seen for Dole Whip! It was doubled back, and ended at the cross over to FronteirLand, taking about 15 minutes to order. The family was at the cabin, so we headed out to meet them, getting on the boat at 3:40. Our return was faster and we were in the cabin by 4:10.

Up next: Dinner off-property followed by an evening at EPCOT including late EMH.

 

[tkd lisa]

March 9, part 2.
I left off with everyone back at the cabin, and everything unpacked. DM typically doesn’t go back out after our mid-day break, preferring to stay in and watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. So I fixed her a light dinner while DDIL coordinated with her family for our meet up. They prefer to eat off property, so we agreed to meet at Ford’s Garage off 192 for dinner. This location is in a new “neighborhood-style” shopping area, and when we checked in, they explained that due to the location we would be automatically charged a gratuity and service charge. Since everyone was hungry, and they had immediate seating, we went ahead and ate there. It was honestly just barely on the “okay” side. It took more than an hour and a half just to get a basic burger and fries meal, and the bill for 4 adults and 2 kids came to $100. Everyone there was experiencing the same questionable service, and we were treated to screaming children behind us for most of the meal.

Once finished, we headed back into the Disney bubble, with us heading back to EPCOT making it into the park shortly after 7pm. Tonight was late night EMH, so we planned to hit the minor rides before park closing, then focus on DGS’s favorite Test Track. Once inside DDIL pulled a DAS for Test Track, then we all rode Spaceship Earth. Afterward the kids played some of the games with their dad and Funcle (fun uncle). That’s when we saw that TT was down. Since our DAS wasn’t coming up for another 45 minutes, we decided not to say anything to DGS, instead head over to split into two groups. DS, DGD, and Funcle went over to ride Mission Space which was showing a 20 minute wait, while the rest of us rode Nemo. The plan was to meet up at Livin with the Land to ride together before hopefully heading to Test Track if it was back up.

After we met up, the Test Track DAS had converted to a “use anywhere” reservation, since it was nearly 8:45 and the park was closing. I split off from the group to watch the evening fireworks, and the rest used that pass to ride Soarin together. Since DAS is still available during EMH, DDIL pulled one for Frozen, and we all met up after the fireworks were finished. I grabbed this cute picture of the Moana flower and garden display, then we headed around World Showcase to Norway. DS and I sat out Frozen while the others used the DAS, and thankfully, TT came back up while we were waiting, so I grabbed a DAS for it!




Everyone rode the Mexico boat ride together on the way back around to the front of the park to ride TT. I sat this one out since I knew I'd be riding TT with DGS many times the rest of the week. We headed out of the park about 10:45. Back in the room and in bed by 11:30.



Up next, morning at Magic Kingdom.

 

[DLo]

Following along . Looking forward to reading more

 

[tkd lisa]

Mar 10, Plan for today: Morning at Magic Kingdom. Dinner in room, then either pool or park time.

We all slept in a bit, since the kids didn’t want to go directly to sleep, finally giving in around 1:30am. We ate breakfast in the cabin, and loaded up in the car to head to the Ticket and Transportation Center around 10. We decided this would be the best way, since it was a challenge to get to the boat dock. We split up because DGS wanted to ride the monorail, and it’s a challenge to push DM’s wheelchair up the ramp. DM and I took the ferry boat, and met up with the kids once we were inside the park. As we were on the ferry boat, I couldn't find my phone, so I texted the kids to tell them to use DM’s number for us. I assumed it had fallen out in the car, or that I might have left it in the cabin.

I just figured out I didn’t include the photopass pictures DM and I had taken at the MK entrance on Monday, so I’m adding them here.



Once inside MK, DDIL pulled a DAS for Tiana’s since it was a fairly warm day. I set DM up near the exit to wait for us (after a quick restroom stop). She held onto most of our things to avoid getting them soaked. It was a fun ride, with DGS and I riding in the front row per his request. We did get a bit wet, but not completely soaked. Once off the ride, we decided to get photopass shots since we were all wearing the matching outfits I had made. The photographer was really good, and enjoyed getting us all to pose for magic shots.



We decided to try to stop at the DVC lounge in Frontier Land to get some snacks and drinks. There was no wait, so we enjoyed the air-conditioning for a while. When DM and I had taken the boat from Ft Wilderness the previous day, I had seen a sign for wagon rides and carriage rides, and the price didn’t seem too bad ($10 pp for wagon rides, and $65 for the carriage ride). So I brought it up with DDIL as a possibility for DGD’s birthday. DGD was super excited about it. The wagon rides were only Fri-Sun, and we didn’t want to stay that long on Friday. But we were able to grab a reservation for the carriage ride on Wed. Evening. Plus we got a discount as DVC members, so it was less than $60 for the whole family. While we were doing that, the DVC cast member offered to take a birthday photo with DGD. She got a sign and personalized it for DGD, which was really nice. Edited to add the photos. And a bonus on with both grandkids.



DDIL had pulled a DAS for HM which was ready for use. DGS asked my mom to ride with him.



While they were riding, I headed off to relocate the stroller into Fantasy Land, since we were going to ride Small World next. While I was waiting on them to come out, I was sitting right behind the ice cream cart, and the CM handed me a mickey ice cream sandwich. He said “You might as well enjoy some ice cream while you wait!”. That was super nice, and unexpected, especially because that’s my favorite Disney ice cream treat. The family came out and finished off the last half of the ice cream, and we all headed over to ride It’s a Small World. Once we were done with that, DM was ready for a break in the room. She and I took the boat/bus back and left the car for the rest of the family. We grabbed lunch, and played canasta, while the others rode a few things in TomorrowLand.

On their way back to the cabin, the kids called Mom’s phone and said that they thought my phone was maybe lost because they didn’t see it anywhere, and when DDIL called it, the phone went straight to voicemail. I called it back, and they answered from my android auto, which meant the phone was somewhere in the car! Apparently, I had accidently set my DDIL’s number to blocked. She typically uses Facebook rather than calling, and her number uses an area code commonly used for SPAM, which must be why I did it! By the time they got back, DS had found my phone, which had slipped under the seat.

We cooked some chicken and veggies that I had brought with us for dinner, then changed into swimwear. We took the kids over to the nearby Wilderness Pool with the goal of swimming and doing laundry. We typically do laundry in our one-bedroom DVC rooms throughout the week, especially when we get hot and sweaty but since cabins don’t have washer/dryers we wanted to see how difficult it would be to use the communal units. We actually used DM’s wheelchair to transport the laundry basket so no one had to carry it, which worked out well. DDIL set the clothes up, while DS and I got the kids into the pool. Unfortunately, there were NO pool towels anywhere to be found. I think when they have a lifeguard on duty, they pass them out, but it was around 7pm, and no one was there. We all splashed around until the clothes were ready to move to the dryer, then headed back to warm up in the shower in the cabin. I went back to get the dried clothes, and we were all in bed (and thankfully everyone went right to sleep) around 10pm.

Up next:
Morning at Hollywood Studios, Birthday Lunch at T-Rex, Carriage Ride at Fort Wilderness, and Late EMH at Magic Kingdom. Whew, good thing we had a light day today!