Transportation to and from Fort Wilderness

[familytravelplanner]

After reading several complaints about transportation to and from FW, I am starting to get nervous about relying on Disney's transportation system. I am not sure when the complaints were actually encountered. I would like to hear from someone who has stayed in FW lately (Feb 2003) - maybe most of these problems have been resolved. This is my family's first trip to WDW (May 2003) and I have spent untold hours gathering information that will hopefully make our trip flow as smoothly as possible. Any tips are appreciated!!

 

[stacy6552]

I highly reccommend you rent a car. I haven't stayed there, but I understand that this resorts one and only draw back is the transportation....

from your cabin you would walk to the bus stop which would take you to the lobby. from there you either take a boat over to MK, and grab a bus or monorail to another resort. Or you get on another bus to the transportation and ticket center and get on a bus to the other parks. fairly complicated.

but if you rent a car youve got no worries. parking is free to all reorts guests.

 

[songbert]

You'll be on vacation - so just relax and go with the flow

I've heard that the transportation has gotten much better, and we'll be relying on what they provide on our July trip.

We've used Disney Transportation on 3 previous trips, and honestly have no complaints - when I'm on vacation, I'm only too happy to let someone else do the driving (a 1290 mile drive to get there makes me want a week away from the wheel )

Have a great trip whatever you do

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

Fort Wilderness receives the same level of bus service that any other resort receives...

Because FW is large and spread out, we have Internal busses that run along routes to take you to the different areas throughout the complex. Internal busses run every 10 minutes.

Theme park busses service two areas within FW. The Fort Wilderness Outpost Depot services Downtown Disney, Typhoon Lagoon, Epcot, Disney's Animal Kingdom, and Blizzard Beach. Busses run every 15 minutes.

The Settlement Depot has busses that run to the Disney-MGM Studios, Wilderness Lodge, and the Transportation & Ticket Center. There is also a boat that goes to the Magic Kingdom.

During MOD, Fort Wilderness does NOT share its theme park busses with any other resort. Post 11am, busses are shared with Wilderness Lodge, however, it really doesn't add much time to the travel time because everything is on the way. (Note: DAK busses remain FW ONLY throughout the day)

 

[drusba]

When reviewing things about FW transport, you need to watch for when the person was there. System was very poor until last year when sharing started with WL for direct trips to parks and then it was improved again recently so that you are often avoiding even the WL sharing. Nevertheless, you always need to take two transports to get from your cabin to a park -- you take an internal bus to an outpost and then another bus from there (or boat to MK). Except for MK any trip is quicker by car which you can park right at your cabin. Note though that FW, for some reason, has always seemed to have the largest group of entertaining drivers for those internal busses who keep the ride interesting and part of the enjoyment is to ride with them.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

Originally posted by drusba
Note though that FW, for some reason, has always seemed to have the largest group of entertaining drivers for those internal busses who keep the ride interesting and part of the enjoyment is to ride with them.

One of the reasons you'll find that... Most of our drivers hate driving in the woods, and avoid it... however, there are a bunch that LOVE driving in there, and those are the ones that know everything about FW and keep everyone entertained. They love thier job, and it shows.

 

[familytravelplanner]

Thanks so much for the tips! The amount of information available is so overwhelming for a Disney neophyte - I tend to forget this is supposed to be fun and relaxing - not like cramming for finals!!Thanks again for the info!!

 

[campingcorgi]

Last was 'home' in November, and we found the changes to the bus system to be great! We never had much of a wait for a bus(except one morning to MGM). You can also avoid needing to use the internal bus by riding bikes or renting a golf cart. If you can't, though, don't sweat it. Just hop the bus going in the direction you want to go and have a super time!!