How far of a drive from Campground to parks?

[kellyrae8]

We will be going to Ft. Wilderness in either Nov. or Feb. and was figuring we would take the boat the the MK ( if I am remembering what I am reading from everyone ) (I am a newbie) and will probably drive to the other parks.
But I was wondering how far are the other parks from the campgrounds?
10 minutes away? 20 minutes away??
any suggestions you can give a newbie?

also, are campfires allowed at each individual site as well?? we love to make our own campfire at night!
Thanks,
Kelly

 

[my3princes]

Campfires are not allowed at individual campsites. The only fires are at the Sing a long. We have always used Disney buses rather than driving to the other parks, but the bus ride seems less than 20 min. Hope this helps.

 

[rapriebe]

You definately want to drive to the other parks. By the time you wait for an internal bus to take you to one of the outposts and then wait from another bus to take to you the other parks, it can take forever. Especially when some of the buses make other stops on the way to the parks. Then when you want to return to FW at the end of a long day and you are tired, who wants to do the same process in reverse plus if it's late at night, you might have to wait for a second bus because the line is so long and the first bus fills up. It seems like the drive is about 10 minutes but I've never really timed it. The Animal Kingdom drive is probably the longest. I'll check when I'm there next week.

 

[duranfan]

well you do have your grill at the campsite so you can have a reasonable 'fire' in it . You just can't create a bonfire type one on the site like mentioned above.
RE: transportation. Just depends on what time of day. IF you have a golf cart to go to one of the main bus terminals sometimes transportation can be OK. Early morning and evening will be PRETTY busy.
I would love to know the genius who plans some of these bus routes. They can literally make a 5 minute trip into a 30 minute tour.

 

[John VN]

In another thread someone asked how many times have you visited WDW. Just called to make reservations and they said, "you have stayed with us 102 times as of Oct. last year is that still correct"? I replied that since Oct. we have stayed at FW in Nov., Dec. and Jan. so guess it is now 105 times.

The reason I mention this is that we have had enough experience with transportation to give a personal report with the use of both car and bus.

Our experience is that "Your own car is faster virtually all the time". Will admit that some times we have gotten to loop bus stop and the internal bus arrives within 30 seconds (very rare) and then when we get dropped off the park bus is waiting just for us , (very, very rare) and the trip goes rather quickly, however, this is often not our case. We have waited 15 to 20 minutes for the internal and then another 15 to 20 for the park bus and if we were going to AK the ride would be about another 15 to 20 minutes. Just add it all up. To MK you can also have a long trip but the boat cruise is worth it.

As far as fires, I have seen people put almost the complete bag of MatchLight charcoal in the grill and it is most definitely a huge fire.

To sum it up, if you don't want to drive then take the busses but be prepared for a possible lengthy trip. No matter what your choice ENJOY.

John

 

[VAN]

We saw someone last year with a huge fire in their grill ... The flames were so high, I was afraid the trees were going to start on fire!!! The campground area is a drained swamp and the water-loving trees that still exist are quite dry.

The grills are meant for cooking, not for a campfire.

 

[alicenwonder99]

We stayed in the cabins the first week of January. Using Disney transportation to get to MK is so LOOOOONG. I timed it one day and it took 1 hour from the time we walked out of our cabin until we got off the boat at MK. I asked the CM on the boat and he said it is a 35 minute boat ride (they stop at WL on the way to MK to pick up those guests). Getting to the other parks doesn't take as long. But to get there the fastest, it's better to drive your car.

HTH

Mary

 

[DisnophileJen]

MK by car is fairly close (the closest park to FW) - maybe 10 minutes. AK takes a good 20 mins to the parking lot. Epcot and MGM, seems like 15-20 mins. I may be off on these, but this is what I remember. We used both our car and disney transportation. We like to have our car for switching parks at night (after MK closed early, we'd drive over to Epcot, etc..). We did take the boat a lot to MK from FW, but pretty much drove to the other parks. good luck!