Non-resort Guest Parking at Fort Wilderness

[Tigger Trainer]

Can anyone, including non-resort guests, park at Fort Wilderness?

 

[CarolynFH]

The parking lot is at the entrance area, at bottom right and called The Outpost on the map https://www.wdwinfo.com/maps/FWMap.pdf. Guests who have reservations for Hoop Dee Doo Revue or activities such as horseback riding can park there and then take the internal bus to the relevant location. I think that guests can park without reservations if they want to visit, except for times like Halloween and Christmas when parking is more restricted.

 

[HopperFan]

THIS^ Even when we would visit our family that was camping there we were not permitted to drive to their site. We had to park at Outpost.

 

[supercarrie]

The parking lot is at the entrance area, at bottom right and called The Outpost on the map https://www.wdwinfo.com/maps/FWMap.pdf. Guests who have reservations for Hoop Dee Doo Revue or activities such as horseback riding can park there and then take the internal bus to the relevant location. I think that guests can park without reservations if they want to visit, except for times like Halloween and Christmas when parking is more restricted.

My parents visited us two weeks ago (they were on the cabin resort reservation and we also had a Hoop De Doo reservation that night). Upon providing their magic band, for some reason, only the Hoop De Doo reservation pulled up at first, and they were told they were "too early" at ~2pm for the 6pm reservation and needed to come back later. The security CM was not going to let them park that early. Once they told them they were actually on the cabin reservation, and they verified that, they were allowed in, but at least on this day, they were not letting non-resort guests without reservations in to park in the front lot.

I also found it odd the Hoop de Doo reservation flagged before the resort reservation (you'd think it would be the reverse!)

Perhaps it was due to spring break, but they had definitely tightened things up and you definitely needed to be a guest or have a reservation to park that day - and be within a reasonable time of the reservation. I'm glad I added them, even though they were not actually sleeping in the cabin with us.

They had to park in the Outpost as we already had one car and a golf cart at our cabin site.

On another note, a cabin across from us attempted to park four cars in front of it. After a couple hours, I saw Disney security do a loop on their golf cart, notice it, and within ~30 mins or so, saw three of the four drivers leave. They are policing it, and I'm glad they did, as the extra cars had actually parked partially on the loop road, taking up about 1/3 of the lane.

 

[DANAW]

We tried to get in a few months ago to rent bikes, and we were turned away at the gate.

 

[reddog21]

It's my understanding you can't park at any resort without a reservation of some kind anymore.

 

[Pyxie]

It's my understanding you can't park at any resort without a reservation of some kind anymore.

This isn't necessarily true. It really depends on the resort. Resorts that are in the MK or Epcot areas tend to be more strict to keep people from parking there for free and going to the parks. Ft. Wilderness is in the MK area and is very popular during certain holidays so they are extra strict at times.

I know that, for example, POFQ will typically let you park if you just tell the guard you are stopping in for beignets. But it isn't really close to any park and the only real transportation advantage it has is to DS which has free parking anyway.

 

[reddog21]

This isn't necessarily true. It really depends on the resort. Resorts that are in the MK or Epcot areas tend to be more strict to keep people from parking there for free and going to the parks. Ft. Wilderness is in the MK area and is very popular during certain holidays so they are extra strict at times.

I know that, for example, POFQ will typically let you park if you just tell the guard you are stopping in for beignets. But it isn't really close to any park and the only real transportation advantage it has is to DS which has free parking anyway.

I believe its up the the guard on duty at the time, I got turned away for asking the exact same question.

I would just assume you can't and if you get turned away by the security guard don't give him/her a hard time there just doing there job.

 

[wdw_dine_junkie]

You could take the boat from MK to visit easily