Review of Trails End Restaurant – Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
On Thursday July 17, 2008, we arrived by boat from the Wilderness Lodge for an afternoon visit to the Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.
It was about 1:00pm and we were getting hungry and decided to stop in at the Trails End Restaurant for lunch. This was our first visit to the Trails End Restaurant.
After walking from the dock we came up on a group of rustic buildings joined together and could see a wide wrap-around porch filled with rocking chairs. The rocking chairs looked very inviting and I was almost looking forward to trying one out but was hoping we wouldn’t have to wait too long.
The restaurant is located in the Pioneer Hall which is also home to the Davie Crockett’s Wilderness Arcade and Crockett’s Tavern.
I went inside to check in with the hostess and as we did not have a reservation, I was expecting at least a short wait, but they seated us right away. Our cheery server appeared right away to take our drink orders, one sweet tea, one unsweetened tea, and a coke. He then explained the buffet and we were ready to go. The lunch buffet included a sandwich and salad bar, one soup (that day it was New England clam chowder), chili, fried chicken, and pulled BBQ pork. The kids section had the typical mac-n-cheese, pizza, and fried fish. There was a separate station with bread, rolls, cornbread and cookies. For desert there was a self serve ice cream machine (more on this in a minute), chocolate pudding on the salad bar, and hot apple cobbler.
We sampled just about everything between the three of us. We enjoyed the fried chicken (my daughter’s favorite) and the pulled pork the most. I have to say that I also enjoyed making my own salad for a change. My husband said the fried fish was good as well. The chili was hearty and tasty. The New England clam chowder tasted like it came out of a can. The sweet tea was also a treat.
When it was time for desert, my husband and I went up first. My husband and another gentleman got the hot apple cobbler and headed to the ice cream machine for some vanilla ice cream. Yum! However, to their dismay, when they got to the ice cream machine, they were told the restaurant was out of vanilla ice cream and they won’t be getting anymore that day! Needless to say, disappointment was at hand. My husband did take some of the chocolate but said that it just wasn’t the same. I tried the cobbler without ice cream. It was good but could have at least used some whipped cream. My daughter’s desert was a cookie which she enjoyed.
Being the only restaurant open for lunch at the Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, you really don’t have much of an option. We did, though, have a decent lunch in an air conditioned restaurant, important when it’s 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity. The price was not bad, $12.99 for adults and $8.99 for children, considering that our drinks were included. Not worth using a sit down restaurant credit for if you are on the Disney Dining Plan. Would we go back? Sure if that’s where we happened to be and we were hungry. Would we seek out an opportunity to go back, probably not.
I understand from another article that the lunch buffet will no longer have the hot entrees. If this is true, that would be a shame. We found the hot entrees to be the highlight of our lunch at the Trails End Restaurant.
Cuisine: American
Location: Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
Food Ordered: Buffet
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