Hello and welcome to my runDisney Princess Half Marathon Weekend 2025 trip report! I’m returning to the blow-by-blow diary format for this trip. Today we discuss Fort Wilderness in its capacity as a runDisney race weekend home base. Read all the posts in this report here. Onward!
Is any Disney resort a bad choice? Of course not! They all have their charms. It depends on what you’re looking for and also how you mean to spend your WDW vacation. Thus the question becomes not: should you stay at Fort Wilderness? But rather: should you stay at Fort Wilderness while participating in a runDisney race weekend?
Let’s find out!
For the detail-oriented, here’s Disney’s official Fort Wilderness page.
WHAT’S FORT WILDERNESS LIKE?
As with my similar runDisney breakdown of Old Key West, I won’t be performing a comprehensive review of Fort Wilderness in this post. (If you want that, Disney In Your Day has you covered!) However, I do want to provide a quick overview so that you can ground yourself in some context. Here we go!
Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground spans more than 700 acres of land, and despite its close proximity to the Magic Kingdom is arguably the most isolated accommodation on property.
The resort is, well, a campground first and foremost. They seem to serve more RV hookups than pitched tent camping, although I’ve never tried either. We stayed in the third option: the Cabins, small freestanding dwellings which as of last year are a Disney Vacation Club property.
If you’re a DVC owner or rent points, it’s a downright reasonable price for what you get. There are rack rates available, but the value proposition isn’t nearly as advantageous. It might still be a good fit, though, depending on your needs. Shall we take a look inside?
THE CABINS AT FORT WILDERNESS
We were assigned a cabin in the Dragonfly Meadow area. All the cabins are essentially the same aside from location and exterior color, so it doesn’t make a huge difference where you’re stationed provided you have your own transportation (more on that in a bit).
Each cabin is divided into three rooms. You enter into the kitchen and main living area, which comprise one space.
The kitchen is complete with all the comforts of home, including an oven, microwave, and full size refrigerator with a freezer. There’s also a kitchen table with seating for four.
The living area has a television, coffee table, and couch that pulls down into a Murphy bed that can sleep two.
Pass through the doorway and you’ll find the bedroom, which features a queen bed but ALSO – bunk beds! And no ordinary bunk beds either. They have little murals on the walls and mini camping lights, and the quilts are sewn together on two sides like an open sleeping bag. Adorable. I slept in the bottom bunk and loved it.
There are a handful of drawers under the bunk beds, as well as a full chest of drawers, closet, and television in this room. You can put your stuff on the bedside table between the queen and lower bunk, or the little shelf on the other side of the bed, but if you’re in the top bunk you’re kind of SOL.
On the opposite end of your cabin is an alcove with a sink and the door into the bathroom proper. Walk-in shower only here; no tub. If you feel the yen to iron or vacuum, you’ll find both in the bathroom closet.
Floor-to-ceiling windows in the main room and high windows in every room of the cabin ensure that the space gets tons of natural light, maybe the most of any resort. If you hate that, most have curtains (I don’t remember a curtain for the bathroom window but I could be misremembering).
Finally, your private deck patio includes an additional table and chairs for al fresco dining. You can even use the grill to cook outdoors if you like.
TRANSPORTATION
Transportation can be a bit tricky at Fort Wilderness. As mentioned above, the resort is huge. You thought Old Key West or Saratoga Springs was big? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Walking from one end of the resort to the other would take forever, and I say that as an enthusiastic employer of my own two feet.
Alas, in most cases, walking is not a viable option at Fort Wilderness. You’re gonna need to get some wheels. Those come in a few guises:
The internal bus system. There are different bus loops around the resort, traveling to different cabin and campsite areas as well as the Outpost (entrance and stables), the Meadow (main pool area, a gift shop), and Settlement (Pioneer Hall, Trail’s End and Crockett’s Tavern, another gift shop).
I didn’t personally use the internal bus system, but Erika did a couple times. While technically the busses run individual, color-marked routes, she says they told her the bus drivers could be pretty flexible. If you boarded and were alone, they’d likely be happy to take you straight where you need to go.
The external bus system. As you might imagine, the internal bus system never leaves the resort. To do that, you’ll need to get yourself to the Outpost, where the regular Disney bus system picks up. Here you’ll find busses to the parks and Disney Springs, as well as race/expo busses and outside transpo like Mears busses and ride shares.
Your own private chariot. You might assume I’m suggesting you bring or rent a car. And if you can or want to, go for it. But there is another option: golf cart rental! Pricing is variable but as of April 2025 it’s consistently under $100/day. You don’t need a golf cart, but if you’re there for a race weekend I HIGHLY recommend one over the internal bus system. More on that later.
Oh, and there’s a boat launch. It’s at the Settlement and goes to the Magic Kingdom. I think there’s also a boat between Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge sometimes, but I’d need to look into it further.
AMENITIES
Fort Wilderness is an interesting mix of value, moderate, and deluxe Disney resort features. The value is largely in the cost; the moderate in that there’s no fancy dining or deluxe level decor/bedding but there is a hot tub and slide; and deluxe in that some of what they do have is unique and coveted, such as the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue. Plus there are two gift shops, which I tend to think of as a deluxe thing?
There are also some amenities that only Fort Wilderness can offer. Tri Circle D Ranch is here, offering horse back riding, among other things. There also activities like wagon rides, walking trails, and archery, to name a few.
There IS a hot tub, and that is what matters. In fact, the internet informs me there are two, as there’s also a quiet pool we didn’t get around to visiting. Next time!
RUNNING DISNEY FROM FORT WILDERNESS: THE PROS
Now we get to the meat of it: how does staying at Fort Wilderness affect your runDisney race weekend?
One huge advantage of the cabins is the number of beds. Up to four people can all have their own bed, which is especially nice if you’re going to bed at different times. You could even cram six people in there are if you’re trying to save money and willing to therefore sacrifice a bit of space.
The full kitchen is also helpful for runners who prefer to carefully control their diet. You can cook anything here that you could cook at home. Even if you don’t plan to make your food, it’s nice to have plenty of fridge space and a proper freezer for ice, plus a microwave for leftovers. Sure, all resorts have microwaves in the food court, but who wants to stomp all the way over there?
Not that it necessarily matters, but FW also has a noticeably warm, friendly vibe. At one point a Cast Member dropped off a “good luck!” sign for us as we had mentioned we were there for the Princess Half at check in. Maybe other DVC resorts do this, but we didn’t get any signage when we stayed at Old Key West.
This is a relatively quiet resort. Between the massive size of the grounds and the individual cabin/campsite units, you’re probably subject to less foot traffic than any other resort on property. This is advantageous for runners with early bed times.
That being said, there’s no place in the World where you are completely safe from late-night noise, which is a solid segue to…
RUNNING DISNEY FROM FORT WILDERNESS: THE CONS
Since Fort Wilderness is so close to the Magic Kingdom, you can hear the Happily Ever After fireworks each night, whenever that may be during your stay.
But wait, there’s more! You’re also subject to the Electric Water Pageant’s music. Depending on how light a sleeper you are, this may wake you when it rocks up for the Fort Wilderness performance… and if you’re an even lighter sleeper, you may hear its performances at the Grand Floridian, Contemporary, Polynesian, and Wilderness Lodge. I was able to sleep through them all provided I was already asleep, but I know they kept Becky up one night.
Unlike in our Old Key West one-bedroom unit, the cabins do not have laundry machines. This is hardly a dealbreaker but I did kinda miss it. It would’ve been nice to clean our sweaty running clothes on the fly.
A SPECIAL NOTE ON RACE TRANSPO FOR RUNNERS
I cannot over-stress how clutch having a golf cart was. The internal bus system was running – we saw one – but I for one would hate having to factor that additional hurdle into my early morning race prep. Or I guess you could plan to walk, but that too could mean 30+ additional minutes depending on where your cabin was in relation to the Outpost. I personally would not feel comfortable staying at Fort Wilderness for a race weekend without a golf cart rental or car.
On a related note, if you’re planning on a lot of park days or otherwise spending a lot of time off property (dinner at Disney Springs, etc.) you’ll need to plan accordingly.
Additionally, this does mean that your entire race group needs to be ready to go at the same time on race morning. When we stayed at Old Key West, we staggered our departure times because some members of our party in later corrals didn’t want to stand around waiting. This won’t work as easily at Fort Wilderness. Unless the later group wants to roll the dice with the internal bus system, everybody’s gotta hit the golf cart together.
We also had a spotty experience with the race busses themselves. You can read the full story here, but the short version is that we shared a race bus with Wilderness Lodge and wound up sitting for a long time at both places. I’m not sure if this was an aberration specific to this particular race weekend or a Fort Wilderness standard operation. Next time, however, I’d hedge my bets and show up for our race bus even earlier than we did.
Getting back to the resort also takes longer on half marathon day because of road closures near Magic Kingdom. It wasn’t too bad this year, but it’ll still be a bit before you’re hitting the showers.
WOULD I STAY AT FORT WILDERNESS FOR A runDISNEY RACE AGAIN?
So would I stay at Fort Wilderness for a runDisney race weekend again? Not without a golf cart, I wouldn’t. With a golf cart? Absolutely! If you can use/rent DVC points, it’s a steal of a resort room. The vibes are relaxed and friendly, and the amenities are unique. You could easily fill your days with activities here without stepping foot in the parks.
In conclusion, I wish I were drinking a cocktail at Crockett’s Tavern right now. Toot toot!
Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Threads @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!