When Walt Disney World opened in 1971, one of the Vacation Kingdom of the World’s big drawing cards was the Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground.

For those who enjoyed “roughing” it during their family vacations, Fort Wilderness was the perfect option. Besides, the on-property hotel options in 1971 were limited: After Fort Wilderness, there was the Contemporary and the Polynesian … and that was it.

The lure for many guests was the fact that they could drive their recreational vehicles to the Fort Wilderness site, set up shop and spend their vacation among pine trees, meandering creeks and cozy campfires … with the Magic Kingdom just a short bus or boat ride away.

In 2024, the Disney Vacation Club joined the Fort Wilderness Campground fold with the introduction of its highly anticipated cabins.

Adding the cabins to DVC’s inventory was, shall we say, an interesting choice. For folks used to staying at some of DVC’s high-end properties (Bay Lake Tower, the Grand Floridian or the Animal Kingdom Lodge come to mind), the cabins take some getting used to.

First off, the area where the DVC cabins are being built is still very much a construction zone, meaning the sounds of nature will, for the foreseeable future, be overwhelmed by the noise generated from heavy equipment.

Then there’s the fact that the Fort Wilderness property is huge. Many of the amenities offered at the resort – the swimming pools, restaurants, gift shops and time-honored features like the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue or the Tri-Circle D Ranch – are not accessible by car.

Which means you either must walk, ride a bicycle, take one of the resort’s internal shuttle buses or rent a golf cart to get around.

And then there are the cabins themselves. They’re rustic in and out (love the rustic Disney-themed artwork) and they’re set in the woods. And I must admit, even though they gave us a map of the property, it took a while to get used to navigating the winding, woodsy roads and cart paths.

The DVC cabins accommodate up to six guests. There’s a queen-size bed (two adults) and a bunk bed (two children) in the bedroom and a couch in the small living room area that converts into a bed (two more guests), so, yes, that’s six people … but there’s just one bathroom in the cabin. And you thought the lines for park attractions were long …

To be fair, there is a sink located outside the bathroom for guests to wash up or brush their teeth.

 

Yes, the cabin does have a full kitchen with utensils, cookware, a stove, a microwave, a dish washer, a coffee maker and a large refrigerator … but that means that if you want to cook breakfast, lunch or dinner for your crew, you’ll have to figure out a way to bring in supplies. There’s a table in the kitchen that seats four.

We stayed at the Fort Wilderness DVC cabins in early November for three nights. We drove down from New Jersey with a large cooler stocked with food and beverages, which managed to stay cold during the trip … thanks, in part, to the purchase of a bag of ice at a Buc-ee’s rest stop in South Carolina.

Our son, his wife and their three children flew down, and since we had our car, I was able to pick them up at the airport.

On the first night at the cabin, our three grandkids stayed with us while our son and daughter-in-law luxuriated at the Polynesian Resort. After one night, the two youngest opted out of the cabin and joined their parents to enjoy all the Poly has to offer.

During our three days at Fort Wilderness, we did some fishing, swam in the main pool and took in the corny-but-fun campfire sing-along. We also sluiced for “rare” gems, but to do all this, we spent an inordinate amount of time driving back and forth in our rented golf cart.

Our cabin had a large deck with a table and chairs, but butting up against our cabin was a small makeshift pond, no doubt left over from past rainstorms, which was a favorite foraging spot for several native birds.

A few guests staying in nearby cabins brought their dogs along, and I must admit, it was nice to see some four-legged friends during our vacation.

We enjoyed our stay at the Fort Wilderness cabins, but it will likely be a one-and-done experience. It wasn’t until we transferred to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Jambo House for the remainder of our trip that I realized why.

We missed the amenities so prevalent at all the other DVC resorts. Jambo House has an incredibly beautiful, richly detailed lobby … overlook areas where you can get up-close to a variety of animals and birds … a wide selection of restaurants … an expansive pool area … and a large, themed gift shop, all within walking distance.

No golf cart required.

Chuck Schmidt is an award-winning journalist and retired Disney cast member who has covered all things Disney since 1984 in both print and on-line. He has authored or co-authored seven books on Disney, including his On the Disney Beat and Disney’s Dream Weavers for Theme Park Press. He has written a regular blog for AllEars.Net, called Still Goofy About Disney, since 2015.