We will be staying at a FW cabin for the first time in Feb. I'm wondering about the transportation. I've only ever stayed at the contemporary. Is it a long walk to the buses? A long wait? What would be the easiest place to eat dinner on our first night after traveling all day and not getting to FL unitl 5:00pm. I am not too keen on the dining options at FW. Thanks
Although I am not familiar with FW ( we have never stayed; we did eat at HDDR and then take a wagon ride last week), you can take the boat from FW over to MK and then pick up the monorail and eat at any of the monorail resorts.
You could eat at Trails End right next to HDR plus they have takeout also, alot of people like the Getty up and Go chicken bucket. Plus as said you could take a boat over to the Contemporay or Wilderness Lodge is another option.
We like Trail's End a lot. They also have food to go like pizza. Easy for the arrival day, when energy may be flagging due to travel. But the monorail resorts and Wilderness Lodge are a quick boat ride away. Lots of options there.
Check out WL. Whispering Canyon is good & fun but raucous. If you have the budget, do Artist Point. It's not only the best food I've had at WDW but some of the best food I've had PERIOD! I HATE salmon & was never a cobbler fan but I tried my wife's salmon & it was AMAZING & the cobbler was (on the house because it was our honeymoon and...) delicious! I've been craving it since! I had the swordfish which was almost as great. Only thing we didn't like was the cannoli. And the place was so relaxed yet "fancy." A highly underrated restaurant.
If you look at a map of FW you will see there are tons of bus stop buildings. The buses stop going both directions so maybe 20mins top but if you don't mind a quick ride around the wait is even less. Basically the area is a circle with a line through it. One bus for each 1/3 part. The buses (sort of) all start at Pioneer Hall and all terminate at the outpost (where you check in). One bus goes up the center line is where you will find the Meadows Trading post (movies, pool, golf cart rental, archery classes so on), the other two go on either side of the circle. It is a big area but the ride from one end to the other is 15-20mins tops. Extremely easy to get around FW. You can actually walk from one side to the other in 45min (I can walk from Meadows to Pioneer Hall in 15min)... Tons of places you can eat. A 10min bus ride to Pioneer Hall, a 10min bus and 20min boat ride to the Contemporary or Wilderness Lodge. If you want to go over to the Grand Floridian or Polynesian then add a 15-20min monorail ride on top of the time to the Contemporary. That is the thing nice about staying inside, you are 45min for anything that is in the monorail resort area. Since you are driving (I assume) you can also drive out to one of the two local golden corrals (the one across from the entrance to Celebration is our fav). Not much more then 15min away. Also could run out to walmart and get some frozen pizza or something already cooked to warm up. Walmart is about 20min away up vineland rd. Make sure to take a day and rent a golf cart and just spin around the loops. Some of the campers really decorate big time. Not sure if they will have their Christmas decorations up yet but you might find it interesting. More then you asked, my bus descriptions are generic as well as my times but accurate enough to start the process. Have a great time, fort wilderness is awesome.
