Who remembers . . . . . . . . ?

[auntie]

The Wilderness Homes (before the Wilderness Cabins)?

I remember when they had travel trailers in the sites to stay in. It was before the Wilderness Homes. It had to be in the 70's because i was a teenager.

We stayed in the Wilderness homes....back in 93 or 94.
We have friends who stayed in them when they were located closer to the Meadow Trading Post area...maybe the 1500 loop or so. They were able to easily walk to the pool and trading post from their loop. This was in the l980's. She told us about the trams also....but they weren't in use when we went. Wish they still were.

 

[stillh2o]

I remember
1.the old FW Rail Road
2. swimming in the lake
3. River country
4. When there where only loops 100-900
5. Driving Golf Carts and having Fires on the beach where WL now sits
6. The Trams in the winter time cooled...........................
7. Dodging the crowds in front of pioneer Hall on our Golf cart
8. David and Sam who Played live Enterainment at TE Every night
9. When TE had Really good "make your own pizza" every Friday night
10. Getting to the Bike Barn at 4am to get in line to wait for a Golf Cart
11. The Marshmallow Marsh
12. The horse back ride was not in the front, But was behind 1400 loop
13. Mickey with a Musket
14. When you could see the lawn mower tree
Those where the days

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

Do you remember taking a boat to the Polynesian so you could swim in the pool, since there was no pool at FW?

I do. We used to do that all the time. We used to go to the Contemporary Resort to swim also. The pool at Contemporary was a different one than what is there now. It was a big square one. You could pool hop and they would supply the towels.

We used to ride on the tram around and around the campground. Over and Over. LOL!

Wern't the busses brown and orange like the trams were?

 

[ynottony99]

Wow this is a great thread. Keep um coming!!!

 

[HappyDznyCamper]

Do you remember taking a boat to the Polynesian so you could swim in the pool, since there was no pool at FW?

I do. We used to do that all the time. We used to go to the Contemporary Resort to swim also. The pool at Contemporary was a different one than what is there now. It was a big square one. You could pool hop and they would supply the towels.

We used to ride on the tram around and around the campground. Over and Over. LOL!

Wern't the busses brown and orange like the trams were?

Yep, pool hoping was allowed and the Poly had the only slide in town, we never went to the Contemporary much, it was dull w/oa slide .

When the weather was bad they would replace the tram with on orange flag bus.

Any one remember the blue flag bus that went to TTC from FW.

 

[donaldduck1967]

I remember
1.the old FW Rail Road
2. swimming in the lake
3. River country
4. When there where only loops 100-900
5. Driving Golf Carts and having Fires on the beach where WL now sits
6. The Trams in the winter time cooled...........................
7. Dodging the crowds in front of pioneer Hall on our Golf cart
8. David and Sam who Played live Enterainment at TE Every night
9. When TE had Really good "make your own pizza" every Friday night
10. Getting to the Bike Barn at 4am to get in line to wait for a Golf Cart
11. The Marshmallow Marsh
12. The horse back ride was not in the front, But was behind 1400 loop
13. Mickey with a Musket
14. When you could see the lawn mower tree
Those where the days

I remember all that except I remember "Make your own pizza" every night after 9:00pm.

 

[Live4FW]

I remember the train but it was when my HS friends and I went to River Country for the day in 82/83.

I also went to discovery island on one of those trips.

My first camping trip I remember taking a walk on the board walk.

More recently - I fondly remember the "true" petting zoo and the peacocks.

 

[CottontailCurl]

CC- I like your user name too. Isn't it the name of the 1500 loop?

TCD

Yes!! I wondered who would be the DISer who would figure me out, I knew it wouldn't take long with the Fort Wilderness experts around here

Cottontailcurl is our favorite loop, we've spent most of our Disney days there and my daughter has adopted the bunnies who live on the loop. She gives them some of her baby carrots each morning before we leave for the parks and has been able to get a bunny as close as a couple feet from her, she'll put the carrot down and it will come forward to get it. Isn't it nice that Disney puts Peter Cottontail and his family on CottontailCurl?

 

[CottontailCurl]

Our family took bike rides and pinicked in the open spaces of the current Wilderness Lodge. It was beautiful. They had all these bushes that were formed into animals (kind of like topiaries but you could climb on them). We have tons of pictures of us on top of a buffalo, next to the dragon and all kinds like that. Those were the days. That is when vacationing at Disney was simple and relaxing.

I loved it!

Do you have pictures of the open spaces and topiaries and view across to the Cont. and MK? I would have loved to been there to see that. How far back to I have to go in my time travels to see this path that goes all the way to across from the Contemporary and ride the train through Fort Wilderness? Oh, NineEye...

 

[Colson39]

Going to the Poly to swim!! Yes!! We ALWAYS used to do that, as another poster mentioned, it was better than the Contemporary pool (although we used to go to that one as well) because it had that wicked slide. Remember walking up the steps into the cave? And standing in the pool under the "waterfalls"?

I do have one claim to fame when it comes to the Ft. Wilderness pools however. Actually, my brother and I share it.

We were the first people ever in the pool next to the Meadow Trading Post (near where you can rent the golf carts). I don't remember exactly what year that pool opened, but it must have been in the late 80's or early 90's, but that's just a guess.

All I know is that the "Official Opening" of the pool was the day we were there, and my brother and I showed up about 15 minutes before it opened that morning (if I remember correctly, it was pretty early in the morning, and was pretty cold outside). There was no one else there, and my brother and I both jumped into the pool at the same time so that neither of us could claim that we were in first.

So that's our claim to fame, we were the first two people ever in the Meadow Trading Post pool....lol. Not much of a claim, but hey, it's something

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Great job everybody!

Some of you go waaaaaay back!

I never saw the travel trailers, but my DW remembers staying in one as a child. I had no idea that they were in the 500 loop. I seem to remember that there was a Terry trail, but did not realize that it was where Buffalo Bend is now. Interesting.

I never knew that the Bike Barn was anywhere other than where it is now. So, where exactly was this by the 300 loop? Somewhere around where the playground is now?

Here is another for you guys:

Does anyone remember the horse drawn ice cream wagon? This was something that we only saw twice. It was only about 4 or 5 years ago. This was a small cart pulled by a single horse, and the driver took it around the loops. You could buy a Mickey Bar right at your site! BTW- both times we saw this (on two separate trips) it was the same horse pulling the wagon- her name was Molly (same as DW).

TCD

 

[HappyDznyCamper]

The bike barn was just about where the playground is now, a little farther back off the road. Not only did the have the ice cream cart, but once upon a time there was also one that went around in the AM with coffee and Entemans pastry for sale.

Who remembers when the Trading posts had real deli counters and also sold soft serve ice cream.

 

[Tri-circle-D]

The bike barn was just about where the playground is now, a little farther back off the road. Not only did the have the ice cream cart, but once upon a time there was also one that went around in the AM with coffee and Entemans pastry for sale.

Who remembers when the Trading posts had real deli counters and also sold soft serve ice cream.

Maggie- You aren't yanking our chains here are you? These things sound so great! (too good to be true).. Some of these things could be huge money makers for Disney now, I wonder why they don't try some of these ideas now. I know things slowed down for a few years, but it seems like FW is always packed now. My kids would be all over soft serve ice cream at the trading post, and Coffee delivery would be wonderful!

TCD

 

[susancl]

1. The 25th Anniversary Golf Cart?
I don't remember this, but we never rented a cart.

2. Minnie Moo?
Yes

3. The Wilderness Homes (before the Wilderness Cabins)?
Yes

4. When you could drive your golf cart to Wilderness Lodge?
Again, never rented a cart.

5. When there was no Wilderness Lodge?
Yes

6. Discovery Island?
Yes

Yes on Trams too!

Here are mine:
Swimming in the lake?

Pool-hopping? (no flames please - it was really allowed!)

Train through FW?

Make your own pizza at Trails End?

 

[susancl]

Anyone remember the FW (internal) bus driver who would tell jokes? He was so funny, even at 2am! He looked like Rex Trailer.

 

[HappyDznyCamper]

Nope, not yanking any chains. My mom and dad fondly remember the coffee cart, though I only vaugely remember it. But it was a sad day for me and my DS and DB when we could no longer get ice cream on our way back to the camper after spending the day at the beach.
As for the bus driver, FW has always had the best. One time, just after they started replacing the old brown busses with newer ones, a driver thought we(DS, DB and two cousins, all under 15) needed to be drop off right at our site, it was 2 am and he was the last bus. He tried taking that nice new 40 ft bus through the 900 loop, it was quite a site . No we weren't in any trouble and not upto no good, we had been at the arcade at the Contemporary and were very expirenced Disney guests at that point so our parents had no problem with us walking back if we missed the bus to the site.

 

[DogDawg]

Someone once told me that "Wilderness" branded trailers (by Fleetwood) were originally named after or as a tie-in to Fort Wilderness. Were these the trailers that were rented at FW?

Also, the Leprechaun (sp) Class C is long gone from the Settlement. Had that display been there for a long time? TIA

 

[susancl]

Someone once told me that "Wilderness" branded trailers (by Fleetwood) were originally named after or as a tie-in to Fort Wilderness. Were these the trailers that were rented at FW?

Also, the Leprechaun (sp) Class C is long gone from the Settlement. Had that display been there for a long time? TIA

They did have Fleetwood trailers, so maybe.

 

[OK GRUMPY]

I do remember some of this stuff!! I think I'm learning more than I remember.. I think some of these things gone by would be really awesome if they resurfaced.

 

[Love That Stitch]

Do you have pictures of the open spaces and topiaries and view across to the Cont. and MK? I would have loved to been there to see that. How far back to I have to go in my time travels to see this path that goes all the way to across from the Contemporary and ride the train through Fort Wilderness? Oh, NineEye...

I do. We have lots of pics from long ago. However, I don't have any of them scanned into the computer. It is a project we are working on. The large topiaries were really neat. We would literally spend all day riding around, having a picnic and, of course, taking pictures.

We always thought it was cool that we could go to an open space and look at the Cont. and see the monorail really clearly.

This was back in the 80's (around '82 '83) and at Disney there was not much to do but MK, EPCOT and Marketplace (DTD). No water parks and not a whole lot of hotels to go and see. It was a different "world" than we know it today.

I will try and get some pics and let you know where I have them posted.