Fort Wilderness Cabins Golf Cart Rental | Was it Worth it?

Last Updated on June 15, 2023 by Suzy McCullough

I had read that if you are staying in a cabin and want to get around Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground easily then you need to hire a golf cart. Not only that but pre-booking is essential as they could all be hired out. We didn’t have a hire car at this stage of our holiday and my husband isn’t the biggest fan of walking on a hot day. So as soon as we could I hired a cart for the duration of our stay.

Disney Golf Cart Rental Cost

It currently costs $63-79 a day to hire a cart. This runs from pick up from 1 pm until the next day. However, you must have it dropped off at 11 am on the day of departure. So for our 3-night stay, we hired a cart for a total of three days (not four).

The golf cart hire is in a separate location to check-in. It is outside and just next door, however, you can’t collect your cart key at the same time as checking in. We laughed when we got out there as there were so many carts sitting waiting there to be hired. We needn’t have panicked trying to book one. Although I can imagine that during the summer they rent out fast.

Who can drive? Disney Golf Cart Rental

You have to have a driving licence to drive a cart. Kids are not allowed to sit on your lap and they have a massive sheet of rules and regulations. No drink driving, you must only park in designated areas, karts must give way to larger vehicles (fine if there’s ever anywhere to pull over/not being taken up by a massive RV!) and you must never overtake buses, especially when parked etc etc.

Be prepared to get lost! Signs at Fort Wilderness Campground are few and far between. We got incredibly lost the first time and didn’t leave the cabin without the map until at least the 4th trip out. Once you get your bearings it’s not so bad however it’s finding them in the first place that’s the problem.

They are incredibly handy. We loved driving ours around. You can park right next to all the main facilities such as the shop, pool, boat launch and restaurants. A lot of these places have no parking spaces for cars.

We did struggle on some days to park down at the boat launch. If you arrive late the spaces are soon gone. There is another larger place to park not far away though.

We broke down!

Watch out for battery issues. Ours broke down on us on the first day, what a trauma! I’ve driven golf carts in the past for my parents around 18-hole golf courses. I noticed that our battery level was dropping fast. By the time we’d driven around for approx. 10 minutes the battery had gone down to halfway. This was not normal.

We had parked over by the main pool and my husband and son had gone to buy supplies from the shop. I went to get the cart and drive it over to the shop so we didn’t have to walk far with the bags. I noticed that the battery had gone down a bit more but headed out thinking I’d make it.

The battery took a massive nose dive and hit empty really quickly. I was literally driving at 1mph! It eventually broke down just a few yards from the shop and some lovely people helped me push it over to a walkway. What a nightmare and an embarrassment. Luckily they replaced our cart and we had no problems after that.

We did, however, have it on to charge as much as possible however we did do an awful lot of driving one day and the battery level never dropped.

See Prices and Reviews for Fort Wilderness Cabins at Disney World

How many people can a Fort Wilderness Golf Cart carry?

They recommend that 1 golf cart can carry up to 4 adults. 2 in the front and 2 in the back. We saw quite a few carts with 4 adults and then 2-3 children sat on their knees. There isn’t much room for bags. They do provide a few compartments however they weren’t clean enough for handbags only a couple of shopping bags.

So was it worth hiring a Golf Cart at Fort Wilderness Cabins?

For us, even after breaking down, it was completely worth it. If we had used the courtesy buses that run around the site I think we would have found ourselves wasting a lot of time travelling about and walking! It can be a distance from your cabin to a bus stop, especially if you are at the far end of a loop.

The buses do stop in all the major places and there are plenty of them running. So if you are on a tight budget you could make do without one. Driving is not encouraged so please don’t assume you can drive everywhere instead as you won’t often find a car park where you want one.

It was incredibly convenient and a lot of fun!

Read all about our Cabin and stay at Fort Wilderness over here – Disney World Fort Wilderness Cabins, Photos of Our Cabin, Review

---