*DIS Contributors review meals and entertainment that they have paid for during their own vacations. They only utilize discounts and offers if they are available to the general public, such as annual passholder discounts, Tables in Wonderland, or DVC membership discounts. They receive no additional compensation for dining experiences or events, so that they may give their honest opinions about price and value.
Before our last trip to Walt Disney World, we had never eaten at the Trail’s End Restaurant at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort. We had heard Pete Werner say good things about it, but we had never tried it. The restaurant was just too hard logistically to get to from everywhere else we had stayed at Disney. We didn’t want to give up that much time of our vacation to get there, eat, and get back to our resort or a park.
That all changed on our last trip! We stayed in a cabin at Fort Wilderness and rented a golf cart to get us around the campground. Now, we were just one relaxing golf cart ride away from the restaurant! So, we made reservations for both breakfast and dinner.
The Breakfast
Of the two meals we had at Trail’s End, the breakfast was my sons’ and husband’s favorite meal. It is served buffet style and includes almost everything you can think of for a down-home, hearty breakfast — cheese grits, biscuits with sausage gravy, breakfast hash, eggs Benedict, sausage, bacon, pastries, and of course, Mickey waffles. These were my favorite waffles ever at a Disney restaurant! Why? It wasn’t because of the waffles themselves but because of the special topping I found there. At Trail’s End, you can pour warm pecan praline syrup over your waffles. It was delicious! I would go back just for that special syrup. We also enjoyed the warm sticky buns.
The only negative to our breakfast was the really loud music that piped through the restaurant at one point. It was so loud you couldn’t even hear the person next to you. The waitress explained to us that they had been having technical problems with the music. Someone was called, and the problem was fixed rather quickly. Hopefully, there has been a permanent solution to that problem by now.
The Dinner
Dinner is also served buffet style and includes a wide array of choices — fried chicken, pork ribs, hand-carved meat, fish, peel-n-eat shrimp, mashed potatoes, corn, macaroni and cheese, pizza, a sundae bar, strawberry shortcake, and many more sides and desserts. My favorite was the strawberry shortcake and baked salmon served that night. The salmon was topped with a tasty corn relish. My family also enjoyed the rolls, which came with a variety of butters. We buttered them up! We found no negatives with our dinner experience.
The Restaurant
You don’t have to worry about whether or not to bring the kids to Trail’s End — it’s casual, western style makes everyone feel welcome. The front porch with its rocking chairs also makes any wait a nice time. I was actually glad that we had to wait a few minutes for breakfast! It gave me more time to soak up the ambiance and beauty of Fort Wilderness.
If you are staying at Fort Wilderness or the Wilderness Lodge, which is just a ferry boat ride away, I would definitely recommend dining at Trail’s End. If you are staying at another Disney destination, I would recommend only coming if you are at Walt Disney World for a longer stay as it takes some time to navigate the monorails and ferry boat rides to get to the restaurant. If you do have the time, however, it is a great place to dine and can be a good beginning and ending to your day!
