So back to renting a car. Many years ago, we had one of our typical checklists and made a point of staying at every WDW resort. There were three properties that we never included on our list - Swan and Dolphin, because they aren't owned by Disney, and Fort Wilderness because it is not a hotel, but rather campsites and small cabins. Fast forward to this year when we were planning out these monthly trips and we decided we wanted to stay at eleven different resorts over the course of the trips. We found a pretty good deal on the Fort Wilderness cabins and decided to finally stay there.
Big mistake. HUGE.
We did not like it whatsoever. I am struggling to come up with anything positive to say about it. Pretty much as soon as we checked in, we were discussing switching resorts. Fort Wilderness could not be less our vibe. We rented the car thinking we'd be able to explore and drive around the resort, but no! Cars aren't allowed to drive around the resort - the only vehicles on the roads of the resort are the Disney buses and rented golf carts. Completely absurd because it takes forever to get anywhere on the buses. Maybe this works for families who are spending a week camping, but for us, absolutely not.
We ended up going to the front desk around dinner time and the most awesome cast member helped us! I got the feeling we were far from the first people to be disappointed by Fort Wilderness, because as soon as we started talking, he was like, "This place is just not your thing, right?!?" Honestly, it could not be further from "our thing." He started explaining all of our options and even offered to switch us to a different resort that night, although we opted to stay for one night just so we can say we've spent a night there. He was incredibly helpful and knowledgeable! Since I do want to find something good to say, I thought our cabin was pretty cute. But for the price, even at the discounted rate we found, it is not at all worth it, especially given the limitations of the rest of the resort.
So the morning of our second day, we moved over to Art of Animation, which we love! It is by no means the fanciest resort, but its theming is fabulous and it's got the Skyliner, which makes it so convenient. The cast member the night before had arranged everything for us so we were able to get checked in quickly and get over to the parks!
Here are pics I took over the course of the trip. The weather was really nice - hot, but not sweltering, and there was no rain until we were on the plane waiting to come home!
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| they brought this back for the 100 year celebration and when I say I was overcome with emotion, I mean I sobbed the entire time #memories |
I realized something when I returned to school on Tuesday (Monday had been a holiday) about how weird it is to be in two different schools. Since the last time I'd been to school number two (the week of September 11), I'd been to WDW twice! Once with my best friends and once with C!
Despite a not great "resort" experience at Fort Wilderness (still not considering it an actual resort!), we had such a wonderful trip! We did two new things at DHS - Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway and the Wonderful World of Animation projection show - and both completely surpassed whatever modest expectations we had! They were both so good!
Having these weekend trips to look forward to has done wonders for me on those very hard days when I'm missing my mom or feeling out of place in this new job. While there are so many places we want to see in the world, and we certainly won't do this monthly-trip-to-WDW thing every year, I'm so glad we're doing it this year!
Happy Tails to you!
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