Trail’s End Restaurant at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground has been reimagined as a quick-service restaurant with casual seating. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this venue was a buffet experience, reopening in 2021 as a family-style outlet like many other buffet restaurants at the time. Then, at the beginning of 2023, it was officially announced that the restaurant would be closing for a refurbishment and complete transformation of its style of eatery.
Reimagined Trail’s End Restaurant
The exterior of the restaurant is unchanged. It’s part of Pioneer Hall in the Settlement area of Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground.
Indoors, guests can dine in or grab pre-packaged hot and cold foods to go.
For a full photo and video tour of the reopened Trail’s End Restaurant, click here.
Family-Size Smokehouse Pizza – $20.99
House-smoked Brisket, Sausage, and Pepperoni
This pizza is better than most counter service options on property; it has a thick, doughy crust, the cheese is nicely distributed, and the marinara sauce is surprisingly good quality.
Cooks were actually buttering the top crust too, which is a nice touch. The toppings were well cooked, providing a smokey flavor. We would have it again in a pinch, but wouldn’t necessarily crave it. It’s a really good fast food pizza but does not hold up to a real pizzeria.
Chili – $4.79
This chili was abysmal. It’s quite a disgrace, given how good the chili was at the old version of Trail’s End. The dish has zero seasoning, it’s overly watery, and the beef quality is that of pre-cooked taco meat. It is the blandest, most forgettable, most poorly executed dish we’ve ever eaten at a Disney theme park, and it’s somewhat of an embarrassment.
Strawberry Shortcake – $5.99
This shortcake is a partially faithful recreation of the dish from Hoop-Dee-Doo, just not quite as fresh. The cake was still fresh enough, soft and moist, combined with a sea of strawberry sauce filled with chunks of the fruit.
The whipped cream adds the right amount of sweetness to it as well.
Will you be visiting Trail’s End soon? What do you think of the revised format and menu? Let us know in the comments.
Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground is unique amongst the Walt Disney World Resort Hotel offerings, mostly because it isn’t actually a hotel. You won’t find any standard rooms here, but rather cozy cabins, RV hookups, and tent camping sites. It opened in 1971 as one of the original lodging offerings at Walt Disney World, after Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.
Check out a tour of a Fort Wilderness Cabin here — but be advised that most will be redesigned as part of a Disney Vacation Club makeover next year.
The resort is split into three areas: the Outpost, Meadow, and Settlement. The Outpost is where reception is for check-in and other guest services. It’s also where you will check in if you book a Tri Circle D Ranch Trail Ride.
The Meadow has a gift shop, the Meadow Trading Post, which also sells camping necessities and basic groceries. You can rent bikes and other recreation equipment here. It’s also the site of the Meadow Snack Bar, tennis courts, the Daniel Boone Wilderness Arcade, and the campfire.
At night, Chip ‘n Dale’s Campfire Sing-a-long invites guests to join in some country tunes around the campfire. A movie plays after on most nights, weather permitting.
There are two pools on site: the Meadow Swimmin’ Pool, which features a waterslide and water play area, and the quiet Wilderness Swimmin’ Pool.
Over at the Settlement, you’ll find the main Tri-Circle-D Ranch, where you can visit some of the horses that work around Walt Disney World. Another gift shop, Settlement Trading Post, is located here. Guests can also head to the docks to take a boat to Magic Kingdom.
Pioneer Hall, home of Trail’s End Restaurant, also houses Crockett’s Tavern, Davy Crockett’s Wilderness Arcade, and Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue — a fan favorite dinner show.
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