Using DDP at Fort Wilderness Resort

[TeddiBarra]

Well I am so very excited as we finally got our room ressies sorted out for my family's first trip to WDW! We will be staying at Cabins at Fort Wildnerness 5 nights, then at the Villas at AKL Kidani.

I do not know for certain if we will be doing the DDP but I am hoping so/leaning towards doing it (it may be three months or so before I know if the discount we're hoping to see is offered or not during our stay) but I was researching on allears menus today and I am trying to sort out breakfast and dinner options.

Can someone who has used DDP at Fort Wildnerness help me with your experiences? The Quick Service places are "Trail's End to GO" and "Meadows". The QS lunch option is clear enough to me, but I don't get how it all works at Trails End to Go. They show for example "large pizzas" on the menu. Can those be ordered with QS, or are those maybe 2 QS credits? There is also a 10 piece chicken that shows up as about $23 bucks, so it doesn't make sense that could be ordered on QS either. Again, can 2 or more QS credits be used? Or are those items not usable on the QS credits at all?

Then there's breakfast with two options "cinnamon roll" and "muffin" neither costing more than $3.4 or so. So... if you ordered a $3 muffin is that a SNACK or is that a "meal"? I wish there were better options!

 

[PictureJumpr]

Can't answer for sure on some of your questions, but I would say that you may be better off not planning to eat all that often at your resort, and explore the menus for locations in the parks and elsewhere as other options.

We rarely eat at our resort, regardless of where we are staying. A late dinner after a park day, maybe, or perhaps an evening when we are planning to spend some time in the pool, but that's about it.

You're going to have a full kitchen, so it may be more convenient to plan on a grocery order to stock your kitchen for breakfast than to try to get to the QS locations. We generally do this even when staying in resorts without kitchens/fridges - pop tarts, cereal, fruit, milk/juice, granola for room breakfasts and use the credits for lunches and dinners. We stayed in a cabin two years ago, and by the time we got up and dressed and ready to roll, we went right on to the parks. We had breakfast at Trail's End once, and an early dinner at the Meadows once, but that was about it for eating at the resort other than stuff we had stocked in the room.

As for the pizza/chicken meal question, I do know that other resorts will give you a large pizza with two drinks and two desserts for 2 CS credits when you order and pick up your pizza at the counter (pizza delivery to your room requires 2 TS credits). Not so sure that would work for the fried chicken dinner, though.

In general, a muffin or pastry by itself will 'cost' one snack credit. In many locations, this could be combined with fruit and juice or milk for a CS breakfast of sorts, but again I'd rather eat a muffin and juice in the room and use that credit for other meals.

 

[TeddiBarra]

You're going to have a full kitchen, so it may be more convenient to plan on a grocery order to stock your kitchen for breakfast than to try to get to the QS locations. We generally do this even when staying in resorts without kitchens/fridges - pop tarts, cereal, fruit, milk/juice, granola for room breakfasts and use the credits for lunches and dinners. We stayed in a cabin two years ago, and by the time we got up and dressed and ready to roll, we went right on to the parks. We had breakfast at Trail's End once, and an early dinner at the Meadows once, but that was about it for eating at the resort other than stuff we had stocked in the room.

We don't at this time plan on having a car the whole time we are at the Cabins (plan on taking Magical in the night we arrive). What is the easiest way to deal with groceries? I heard that the stores there are pretty pricey BUT it may not be too terrible if it's like you mentioned- milk, OJ, bananas, cereal, just something to fill us til we get out and about. Can you place orders ahead of time via the resort directly or do you use outside grocers ?

I think we'd like to do the breakfast buffet once, and we are going to do Hoop Dee Doo, but I need to get dinner sorted for when we arrive (probably about 7:30ish on a Monday night).

 

[deakam]

A short boat ride from Fort Wilderness is the Wilderness Lodge. They have a decent breakfast menu. My daughter,24, and I split the big platter breakfast every day of our stay. She ate the pancakes. I ate the eggs. You can also just go to the parks and have a decent breakfast for a couple of snack credits on the dining plans.

The cinnamon roll at the Mainstreet Bakery in the Magic Kingdom is wonderful. Starring Rolls at Hollywood Studios has some serious baked goods. We are doing the breakfast at Tusker House for the first time in September. I hear it is very good.

As far as groceries...www.gardengrocer.com....they deliver to your resort. They are quite a bit higher than my home store but everything down there is higher. There is a minimum amount you need to spend and there is a delivery fee. It is suggested, and very strongly, that you place your order several months in advance. We have ordered 24 packs of bottled water and soda, because we are Pepsi drinkers and Disney is a coke company.
We also use them because it breaks my heart to pay $2.00 for a bottle of water.

 

[PictureJumpr]

Yes, Garden Grocer as suggested is the easiest. As PP mentioned, pricing may (or may not, depending on prices where you live) give you sticker shock, but we usually manage to have a case of water, a weeks' worth of breakfast stuff, and some crackers/granola bars/miscellaneous things (like beer) delivered to the resort for around $75 including fees and tip.

For arrival dinner, we usually hit Downtown Disney. Wolfgang Puck Express has kind of become our default arrival night dinner (it's a CS - and the food is very good). If you are arriving at the resort around 7:30 and don't want to wait until 8 to eat, though, you might follow the PP's advice and head over to the Wilderness Lodge - their QS has pretty good burgers. Or order some hot dogs and marshmallows from the grocers and take them over to the campfire movie?

 

[TeddiBarra]

Thanks for the suggestions. When you say "short ride" to Wilderness Lodge, how long is that? And can they hold our bags at check in if we wanted to check in and eat first? Are the trails end buffets pretty decent?

 

[PictureJumpr]

Trails End buffet is standard. Not excellent, not horrible.

The boat ride to Wilderness Lodge only takes a few minutes, once the boat leaves the dock.

I have not ever asked Fort Wilderness to hold luggage, but I am sure it wouldn't be a problem. If you're using Magic Express from the airport, you'll only have your carryons with you anyway - your checked bags won't make it back to the resort for a few hours after you get there and check in.

 

[madge]

unless something has changed since our trip last October, you can't use the DDP on most of the items at the Trails to Go window. (like chicken, pizza, etc)

 

[TeddiBarra]

unless something has changed since our trip last October, you can't use the DDP on most of the items at the Trails to Go window. (like chicken, pizza, etc)

Ok. That's good to know ahead of time. Like I said we don't know for sure yet what discounts we will or won't be available, esp when it comes to Dining plans. I've got a target $price and if we can get that or less, it MAY make more sense to upgrade to the DDP. I don't want to eat a lot of meals at the resort, but I do want a couple of our days at the Cabins to be very casual NOT going to the parks at all type of days where we can do some of the fun things at the resort. I'm getting the idea that it will be harder (kind of) to use quick service meals at cabins for the days we are not going to the parks, which is something else to factor in weighing the DDP/ Deluxe DDP.

As far as meals I know I'd like to do at FW: arrival monday night- dinner buffet @ Trails End, sleep in next morning, do breakfast buffet Tuesday at Trails End, pick up golf cart... spend whole day just at the resort. Probably do Hoop Dee Doo Review that night. All other meals I'm open to and researching. It's good to know what's easy to get to from FW. Having never been to WDW the transit/getting to/from is the hardest part to understand. I didn't realize when you use Magical you didn't get your luggage .... yep despite my months of research I'm still definitely a noob at this!

Any more suggestions/tips/feedback very welcome.

 

[PictureJumpr]

Having never been to WDW the transit/getting to/from is the hardest part to understand. I didn't realize when you use Magical you didn't get your luggage ....

Transportation can boggle even an experienced WDW person, but once you learn it it's fairly easy to manage. Fort Wilderness is a little more complex because it is one of the resorts with an internal route, but that only adds a step to some of your options and should not be too hard to figure out.

As for Magical Express, just pack anything you may need for your first few hours in your carryons - for example, if you're leaving home/travelling in jeans but will want shorts on arrival, pack a pair in your carryon. Once you get off the plane, stop at the restroom as needed, and head straight for the Magic Express desk to get on the bus. They'll take your information, confirm your return flight information, and you'll head for the buses. Your checked bags will be routed to ME at the airport and will arrive in your room at some point in the couple of hours after you check in. You do not have to be in the room at the time, they'll just drop them inside the door (don't forget them - I've had more than one travelmate stumble over our bags when we get back to the room in the dark after dinner )

Hoop de Doo is a lot of fun, and certainly easy for y'all to get to. The food is good, and veryveryvery filling... just make sure you have room for dessert by the end

 

[madge]

Ok. That's good to know ahead of time. Like I said we don't know for sure yet what discounts we will or won't be available, esp when it comes to Dining plans. I've got a target $price and if we can get that or less, it MAY make more sense to upgrade to the DDP. I don't want to eat a lot of meals at the resort, but I do want a couple of our days at the Cabins to be very casual NOT going to the parks at all type of days where we can do some of the fun things at the resort. I'm getting the idea that it will be harder (kind of) to use quick service meals at cabins for the days we are not going to the parks, which is something else to factor in weighing the DDP/ Deluxe DDP.

As far as meals I know I'd like to do at FW: arrival monday night- dinner buffet @ Trails End, sleep in next morning, do breakfast buffet Tuesday at Trails End, pick up golf cart... spend whole day just at the resort. Probably do Hoop Dee Doo Review that night. All other meals I'm open to and researching. It's good to know what's easy to get to from FW. Having never been to WDW the transit/getting to/from is the hardest part to understand. I didn't realize when you use Magical you didn't get your luggage .... yep despite my months of research I'm still definitely a noob at this!

Any more suggestions/tips/feedback very welcome.

They have a food window at the main pool -- you can use QSDP meals there. BUT. It's only open 10-5 and it's a pretty limited menu. Snacks are easy to come by -- they have several choices at both of the campground stores, and you can use the credits at the campfire every evening.

Getting around the campground is much easier when you have a cart. It's fun, too Definitely plan on a day of just hanging out. There are activities going on all day at the pool ... you can see the horse barn, rent watermice, loop around all the campsite areas (some are decorated very fancy), and at night, there's the campfire, electric water pageant, fireworks from the beach.