Review: Trail’s End new quick serve location at Fort Wilderness

Earlier this year, Trail’s End Restaurant closed as a table service option at Disney’s Fort Wilderness; however, the dining location recently reopened as a quick service dining location. Trail’s End opens at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast and closes at 9:45 p.m. each evening.

The breakfast menu includes many standard options, including egg entrées, breakfast sandwiches, and of course, Mickey-shaped waffles. The lunch and dinner menu offers some familiar Walt Disney World quick service entrées and a few items that fit the Fort Wilderness motif.

Journey to Trail’s End Restaurant

Guests staying at Fort Wilderness can easily dine at Trail’s End; however, guests staying elsewhere will need to take Disney transportation or drive to the front of Fort Wilderness. From there, guests will use Fort Wilderness internal bus transportation to the Settlement area to reach Trail’s End.

Guests who are not staying at Fort Wilderness may not drive their vehicles through the campground to where Trail’s End is located.

Ordering at Trail’s End

When diners enter Trail’s End, they will see the pizza station and an ice cream area on the left side. On the far wall, guests will find bottled beverages and other items being kept cool, and to the right of those coolers, are entrees and sides that can be picked up from the warming area.

We understand the thinking about having some items in the warning containers for guests to grab; however, we were a bit concerned about how long items would be kept in the warming area.

The check-out to pay also serves as the location to order the main warm entrees, which are prepared in the kitchen and brought to your table when ready.

After ordering, diners receive a number to help Cast Members find you to serve your entrée. During our visit, we received our orders in a reasonable amount of time.

The take-out system also looked busy on the day we visited and we saw at least 20 to-go orders being placed for pickup during our meal.

New Pizza Station

As part of the newly-designed quick service location, a new station sells pizza by the slice or an entire pizza pie.

Based on the pricing, ordering an entire pizza is the best deal as a super-slice (one-fourth of a pizza) ranges from $8.79 to $9.79, while a whole eight-slice family-size pizza costs between $18.99 and $20.99. As a result, we ordered a family-size vegetable pizza for $19.99.

We enjoyed the vegetarian pizza. The crust provides a good base without being too “bready,” and this pizza tasted far better than standard Disney “puffy” pizza. For those who enjoy the table service pizza at Walt Disney World, the Trail’s End version fails to match that style of pizza; however, it’s still a step up in terms of quick service pizza at the resort.

Barbecued Pulled Pork Sandwich – $10.79

The menu description for the Barbecued Pulled Pork Sandwich reads, “Fresh Brioche Bun with our 10-hour Smoked Pulled Pork and Barbecue Sauce topped with Creamy Slaw served with French Fries.” We found this to be a reasonable value.

Though the bun lacks an apparent brioche flavor, the pork tasted good, though we would have preferred more sauce as the pork tasted a bit dry. Still, this is quick service dining, not signature dining and we found no real complaints about this entrée.

Barbecued Ribs Half-Slab Meal – $15.49

The Barbecued Rib Half-Slab Meal is an individual meal (Trail’s End Restaurant also sells family-sized meals that serve two to four people).

The biggest strength of this entrée is the portion size, as even the individual entrée could be shared between two people. The ribs are placed on top of the macaroni and cheese, so we happily discovered more mac and cheese than we expected. The food quality is also above average. The ribs, though over-boiled, had plenty of meat and the other components round out this entrée nicely.

We also ordered an individual chili and cornbread. The cornbread tasted like the one served at Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue nearby, and the chili had good flavor, but we would have preferred a fresher variety.

Overall Impressions

We didn’t try all Trail’s End menu items during our visit; however, diners can also choose burgers, fried chicken, or the Disney quick service theme park standard chicken nuggets. In addition to barbecued ribs, additional family-sized meals include an eight-piece fried chicken or the ribs and a four-piece chicken meal.

Though we respect the feeling of loss by those missing the table service version of Trail’s End, we had a pleasant meal and would dine here again if we stayed at Fort Wilderness. This is also a nice “non-park day” place to dine. Sure, we would appreciated not having to visit the bathrooms next door, but you can’t have everything when experiencing a place based on a fort and camping.

Have you visited Trail’s End since it reopened as a quick service? Let us know how your experience went.