Filling a bucket list item by camping with our travel trailer at Fort Wilderness next week. We are excited about the whole thing, but understand that transportation to and fron is not great.
So my question is about best transportation options. Here are the details.
-of course, don’t know where exactly our campsite will be.
-we love to rope drop. Will the ferry get us to MK in time, and when should we be at the dock?
-for the other parks, what are the best options? We can detach our truck, I somewhat think that just jumping in the truck and driving to the other parks may be best, even though we love staying on property specifically because we don’t have to do that.
Can you get to the other parks for rope drop from FW or is that next to impossible?
-or, an Uber? Does Minnie Van still work? Would they get us to, say, AK in time for rope drop?
The other component is we have our dog. He’s awesome and doesn’t mind being in the trailer, but we will return for a walk/break every day around mid-day, then we’ll head back to the parks for the evening. So just about any transportation/time issue ends up being compounded at that time–if, say, we leave AK, take our break, then want to go to Epcot for the evening. That sort of thing.
I would definitely drive to all the parks except MK if you have to return mid-day. Buses don’t run as often in the middle of the day so it may become a big chunk of time to wait for the bus, take interior bus, visit dog, and wait for two more buses to get back. And then you can control when you arrive to rope drop. For MK, the boat is probably more efficient but I can’t answer the part about rope dropping MK from FW.
The boat arrives in time so take that. Will you have a golf cart? If so, taking buses to the other parks isn’t a huge deal and they do get you there on time. They run just like any other bus. If you don’t have a golf cart, I would drive to the other parks for sure.
We also love to rope drop and have stayed at Ft Wilderness twice and used Disney transportation nearly exclusively. The only time we didn’t was for extremely early surfing lessons at Typhoon Lagoon, like at 6 am. Otherwise we left the truck parked at the site and used Disney gas.
We did bring bikes and used them to get around the campground unless it was raining and then we ponchoed up and used the internal bus.
We always leave a park to return to our resort for a rest. The time we felt the wait was too long for a bus leaving a park was when we were leaving a mini-golf place. From one of the main four parks we’ve felt the busses have been fine.
Your mileage may vary
We always try to be at the bus stop 90 minutes before the earliest opening.
We almost always leave the park by 11:30.
Our typical plan is to leave about 4 to head to another park in the evening. Unless we really want to watch the fireworks/night show we leave a park slightly before it starts.
We camped there a few years ago. On our MK day we had very early reservations at CRT, so earlier than the boat to MK. We took the boat to the Contemporary (same dock) and walked to MK from there.
I don’t know what the times are like now but you’ll have a boat.
We had bikes with us and rode our bikes to the dock from the camper so we didn’t have to deal with the campground buses.
Absolutely. You need to call to do so - and do it in advance as they do sell out. Honestly, I wouldn’t do FW without one. We rented last year and it was $65/day which definitely does add to your expenses but worth it.