Petting Zoo Gone?

[DISNEYBOUND406]

I JUST HEARD THAT THE PETTING ZOO IS NO MORE?? DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THIS IS TRUE?? AND , IF SO, WHY??

 

[2buzzboys]

If your talking about Ft Wilderness petting zoo I heard that was gone too. I am pretty sure I read this on an all ears email. Here is the # if you wanted to call:
Ft. Wilderness is at 4510 N. Ft. Wilderness Dr. Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-1000. Phone is: 407-824-2900; Fax is: 407-824-3508.

 

[mrsgus06]

The petting zoo has been transformed into a pony stable. They did keep a few of the goats and the pigs. All the other animals are gone.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Yeah, the petting zoo as many of us remember it, is gone. It fell victim to our litigious society, like most petting zoos around the country. It's a little disturbing to me, to see the direction FW is heading. The petting zoo is gone, the swamp trail is closed, no River Country, not even any peacocks anymore, not to mention the new politically correct logo, no more goofy bars, no deli at the meadows, no more steam train. Well, at least the soda is self serve at Trail's End for refillable mugs now.

 

[DISNEYBOUND406]

No More Peacocks...how Did They Manage That???? And Why???

 

[LegoMom3]

Yeah, the petting zoo as many of us remember it, is gone. It fell victim to our litigious society, like most petting zoos around the country. It's a little disturbing to me, to see the direction FW is heading. The petting zoo is gone, the swamp trail is closed, no River Country, not even any peacocks anymore, not to mention the new politically correct logo, no more goofy bars, no deli at the meadows, no more steam train. Well, at least the soda is self serve at Trail's End for refillable mugs now.

Ok, granted it's been 9 years since I last stayed at FW, but this is all coming as a shock to me! I had heard about the petting zoo - not too much of a surprise after the e-coli scares in other places. Also River Country - very disappointing but I guess the other two water parks held more allure.

But what happened with the swamp trail?? Why is that closed? And the logo...I'm guessing they took away Mickey's gun? FW is going to lose its flavor altogether if they keep this up!

 

[ftwildernessguy]

The musket is gone, the swamp trail was starting to deteriorate - all that wooden walkway, and I guess alot of guests complained about the peacocks being a nuisance, so they trapped them and relocated them to AK. The white one held out pretty long - I have probably one of the last pictures of him in his "natural" habitat of FW when he was the lone peacock, evading all the FW trappers, before he was finally outwitted.

 

[John VN]

.... FW is going to lose its flavor altogether if they keep this up!

We first started to go to FW in early '80s. Was there 2 weeks ago and will be back this weekend and again in Jan. and Feb. and ....

They can take everything away but for us just being on WDW property and especially at FW the feeling is quite unique compared to other campgrounds.
Just driving onto WDW property puts us in a special frame of mind that can't compare to anything else.

John

 

[4theloveofdisney]

So does this mean no more pony rides as well??

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Pony rides remain intact.

 

[DURANFAN2]

As a native Floridian, my family has been going to FW since it opened (1971/72ish) (3 generations) at this point. I think my mom said the 300 loop was like $8 a night and the trailors back then were around $50.
We went for our annual Oct/Nov trip and we noticed the beautiful Peacocks missings. So some old grouches didn't like them? Well they're probably the same new rude type of guests that have been showing up at the campgrounds... you know the ones! LOL That one peacock in particular use to live down there near the bus stop. Come to think of it they did that to the ducks that use to roam the park several years back.
The petting farm has been down sizing for years. I remember as a little girl going on the old pony rides down there. I can understand why they had to coral up some of the animals like the goats, they can be kind of mean but still it probably boils down to law suits and the costs of keeping the place up.
I kind of agree it was time to close River Country that park was out dated and dangerous. I know for a fact that there were lots of injuries way back when before people got law suit crazy.
Yeah the swamp trail has been rotting for years. DOes anyone remember there use to be an old fashioned truck that use to go around in the mornings at FT W and sell stuff like fruit and breads?
Theres been SO many great things stripped out of disney over the last decade from the movie theatre at the contemporary to the unique shops at the disney village. I was hoping that Roy Disney stockholder thing would set things straight but I guess thats all over with now.

 

[wildernessfamily]

Hey ftwildernessguy if you have the picture of the white peacock we would love to see it, could you post it? AH ! to remember the old stuff, but don't they realize some of the old stuff is what made the "magic"??? I guess I am just missing some of the old stuff. Lots of good memories there.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

I will check my digital archives when I have a chance.

 

[spoon full of sugar]

The last sign with Mickey holding a musket is gone? I wanted to point that out as a last icon to ds this trip, now that he's old enough to understand the relevance of what the pc crowd is doing to our country, and they even beat me to that . Walt must be rolling.

 

[Zurealsoon]

no more steam train. .

Thanks for the memory. I rode that train more than 20 years ago on my first trip to WDW.

 

[DURANFAN2]

They PC'd Mickey holding a musket, YET they sell toy guns at all the parks?

 

[ftwildernessguy]

The last sign with Mickey holding a musket is gone? I wanted to point that out as a last icon to ds this trip, now that he's old enough to understand the relevance of what the pc crowd is doing to our country, and they even beat me to that . Walt must be rolling.

There are still a couple of places on FW where you can see small icons with the musket. I believe one is on the Marina sign and another used to be over at the petting zoo sign. All merchandise has the new logo and the sign at the entrance is totally different.

 

[tim5055]

There are still a couple of places on FW where you can see small icons with the musket. I believe one is on the Marina sign and another used to be over at the petting zoo sign. All merchandise has the new logo and the sign at the entrance is totally different.

As of my last visit the marina sign did stil have the musket.

Check out the bottom of my FW page (link below) to see a photo of it.