by Pixie Dusted Diva
Located at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground you will find Trail’s End Restaurant, which serves breakfast and dinner buffet style. Lunch is served a la carte style. Overall, you will find comfort food for a great value here. However, it is off the beaten path here at Disney, that’s why I am considering it a hidden gem. The general theme is southern BBQ, with your favorite BBQ favorites served such as fried chicken, cornbread and BBQ spare ribs, along with a variety of salads and delicious desserts! The theming of the restaurants make your feel as if you are in a rustic log cabin. We’ve dined at a majority of the buffets at Walt Disney World as we enjoy meals which will fill us up for a majority of the day, but this was our first time at Trail’s End. Let’s face it dining at Disney can be very expensive, so you might as well get your money’s worth!
Getting There
One of the reasons we have avoided eating here is I have heard it is very difficult to get to the actual restaurant. Since we had a car on this trip, I figured that would be helpful, but having a car did not help. The parking lot for the resort was at the same location as where the Disney buses would bring you from a theme park or Disney Springs. The restaurant is located at the Settlement of the resort, and in order to get to the Settlement, you must take one of three internal buses that travels around the resort. When we first arrived at the resort, we told the security Cast Member we were there to eat at Trail’s End, and he instructed us where to park. After that we were completely lost. Luckily, we found a Cast Member in the parking lot who instructed us to take an internal shuttle to the restaurant.
Therefore, once you arrive at the resort you should allow an additional 30 minutes to travel to the Settlement. This would be the same if you were arriving for Mickey’s Backyard BBQ or the Hoop Dee Doo Revue. If you are traveling from the Magic Kingdom your best option would be to take the boat, as it arrives at the Settlement directly. There is also a boat directly from the Contemporary Resort and the Wilderness Lodge. After you are done with dinner, there was a bus directly to the Magic Kingdom from the Settlement so you did not have to take the internal bus and then transfer, which was nice or the boat back is an option as well.
Delicious Eats
Where do I begin with the food?? It was absolutely delicious! The soup bar consists daily of chili and a soup of the day. Our soup of the day was chicken noodle. For entrees, you will find peel and-eat shrimp, smoked pork ribs, barbecue pulled pork, friend chicken, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, pizza, hand-carved roasted meats and vegetables. We loved the baked potato bar too! The menu can be found here. For those staying at the resort a take out window is also available with a separate menu. 
After you filled up on the delicious entrée choices, make sure you save room for dessert as there are a variety of goodies to choose from. The kids went straight to the ice cream station with a variety of toppings. I enjoyed the apple cobbler, but there is plenty more including banana bread budding, chocolate cake and s’more bars.
Feel like a margarita, mojiti or mai tai? Specialty cocktails, wine and beer are available for purchase from Crockett’s Taverns which adjoins the restaurant.
Keep in mind; if you have an infant (anyone under 3 in your party) they are able to eat at any Disney buffet for free. This helps save money for sure! Most buffets will even let you order a juice or milk as well for the infant.
Dinner for an adult will range between $24.99-$26.62 and for a child between $13.99 – $15.90 depending on the season. Dinner is served Sunday – Thursday 4:30 – 9:30 p.m. and Friday – Saturday 4:30 – 10 p.m.
Trail’s End Restaurant participates in the Disney Dining plan, however it is an excellent option if you are paying out of pocket. It also accepts dining discounts such 20% for the Tables in Wonderland and 10% for Disney Vacation Club Members, Annual Passholders and Disney Visa Cardholde
rs by presenting your affiliation cards.
If you are celebrating a special occasion make sure you note it on your dining reservations or mention it to the hostess when you check in. We were celebrating my daughter’s birthday this trip and she was wearing her birthday pin at dinner. Our server brought out a delicious strawberry shortcake dessert, which we enjoyed. It was a nice treat from Mickey’s cupcakes she had received at other Disney restaurants during the week.
I would highly recommend adding Trail’s End Restaurant to y
our list of Disney restaurants for your next trip. If you need help planning your next Disney trip, we recommend using Patricia with All for Dreams Travel, the Official Travel Agent here at Tips from the Disney Diva.
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This is a great place to eat. Our whole family loved it.