Tink Tested: Trail's End Breakfast

Location: The back of Fort Wilderness, (The Settlement area), next to Pioneer Hall
Parking/Transportation Situation: Park in the main parking lot and take an internal bus from the bus stop. (Busses are named by colors: Orange, Yellow and Purple. ALL busses go to the Settlement stop.) Boat from Magic Kingdom. Bus from Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney.

Meals Served: B, L, D

Characters/Entertainment: No characters, or live entertainment.
Type of Cuisine: Down home, country fare

Type of Menu: Buffet for breakfast and dinner. A la carte for lunch.

Pricing/Dining Plan: $/ 1 Table Service Point Per Person
Full Menu: Trail's End Breakfast

Atmosphere: Rustic mess hall

Dress Code: Theme park casual

Guests Who Would Enjoy This The Most: Families, anyone who likes a good deal on a great meal

Level of Difficulty of Getting a Reservation: Easy

Fun Stuff for Kids: While there's no real entertainment IN the restaurant, there is a small arcade attached to the back end. Just outside of the restaurant, in the outdoor waiting area, there are hoola hoops to keep the kiddos entertained. Oh, and just to the side of the building, there is a playground. And on the other side, a petting farm and stable, which is the home of pretty much all horses that appear on Disney property. (The Main Street Trolley horses, the Headless Horseman's horse, even Cinderella's ponies that pull her carriage.) Kids can ride a pony, for a small fee. If you've never been to Fort Wilderness, I HIGHLY recommend going there for a hang out. Lots to do and so much outdoor fun. I'll share more in an upcoming post.

Rating of Appeal to Kid-Diners: This is cool!!!

Stand out dishes: Chocolate Chip Mickey Waffles, Smoked Beef Hash, Fresh Baked Muffins, Pecan Caramel Sticky Buns
Best Use of Dining Plan Point: The only option at breakfast is the buffet, but generally speaking, any all-you-care-to-eat option is a good value on the Dining Plan. I will say, however, being a relatively low price point, you may want to pay cash for this one, and save your point for a more expensive meal.

Experience: I have been to Trail's End before. A lot. In fact, this review was more like, "Well, we're going to breakfast at Trail's End already. I may as well review it, too." What's with my obsession? Well, I consider Trail's End one of the "hidden gems" of Disney dining. I hate to share it with you and possibly ruin it for myself, but I do care deeply about each and every one of you, so, here goes...
     Many of you may have never even heard of Trail's End. It's a quiet, unassuming place, tucked deep into Fort Wilderness. It can be a bit of a pain in the butt to get to, since even if you drive to the campground, it will still require that you take an internal Disney bus through the 750 acre resort and campground, (which only allows cars in if you are staying on site), to get back to where the restaurant is located. It's only about a ten minute ride, and my kids, like many kids, think that riding the bus is super cool, so they never mind going. One of the easier ways to get there is to hop the boat from in front of The Magic Kingdom, since it takes you right to a dock located steps from Trail's End.
     So why make the effort to get to this out-of-the-way place? Because it's pretty frickin' sweet, that's why. Trail's End, perhaps because of it's elusive hiding spot, tends to be easy to get into. In fact, I have gotten in here on a holiday, with booking only an hour before we arrived. It offers a buffet breakfast and dinner. (Lunch is an a la carte menu.) Compared to other Disney buffets, Trail's End comes in an average of a full $10-15 less than others. That's almost half price! And the food.... oh, lordy. Variety with a capital "V". Let's get into it and I'll tell you more.
     So we booked our reservation on our way to Fort Wilderness. Since we had a late start to the morning, we booked one of the latest reservations, for 11:15am. (Breakfast seating closes at 11:30am.) We arrived at the campground at about 10:45am, and crossed the street from the parking lot, to the bus stop. We hopped on the first bus that came, since all of the internal busses go to The Settlement area eventually.
     Ten minutes later, when we got to our stop, we hopped off and moseyed on over to Trail's End, just a short distance from the bus stop. Normally, we take a few minutes to stop off at the petting farm and visit with the gorgeous white ponies, but since it was drizzling, we decided to pass on it today. Wet, stinky ponies don't seems as appealing to kids, for some reason. We checked in at Trail's End, and were told we would be sat soon. The kiddos have been to Trail's End so often, they knew exactly where the hoola hoops were, and each grabbed one. They had fun playing for a bit, and we were called in within ten minutes. 
     The inside of the restaurant is a rustic mish-mash of Davy Crockett portraits and antique-looking "wild west" artifacts. It feels like it may have been a mess hall in an old timey Western fort. Drinks are served in glass mason jars, and heavy, pewter plates are used for the buffet. Many dishes on the buffet are served right in iron skillets, all lending itself nicely to the theming.
     Our server greeted us, and said we could go to the buffet right away. When we mentioned K's egg allergy, he said to wait right where we were and that he needed to get the chef before we could get any food. (That is the general policy with Disney. For safety sake, they frequently will not put any food items on the table until the allergy has been addressed. This is smart to do, however, we have been to this buffet many times and knew what K could and could not have, so I broke the rules, (SHAME!), and got up to get a plate of fruit for him, while The Hubs waited at the table to speak with the chef and order egg-free Mickey Waffles for K. This buffet has plenty of tasty options. There's cold cereals and hot cereals, oatmeal and cream of wheat. There's fruit and yogurt, and deli meat and smoked salmon. There's potatoes, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, eggs benedict, biscuits and gravy..... all the basics. But there's also Chocolate Chip Mickey Waffles, French Toast Bread Pudding, BBQ Pulled Pork Eggs Benedict, Breakfast Pizza, and all sorts of other unique things. Oh, and did I mention that the muffins are so freshly baked that they are served IN their muffin pans? And the Caramelized Sticky Buns are SO ooey and gooey and hot out of the oven, that they are served in the skillet they are baked in??? Here's the evidence. WARNING: This image may induce drooling....

    Told ya. While D and I were up at the buffet, K's egg-free Mickey Waffles had arrived, along with a plate of about a pound of bacon, so he was alternating munching bacon, and dipping his whole arm in syrup when we got back. All of the food was really very good, but I can't even tell you how in love I am with the Smoked Beef Hash. It's a mix of diced potatoes, peppers and onions, and chunks of what I believe was beef brisket, all in some savory seasoning and it was delish. I think I had three servings. The Chocolate Chip Mickey Waffles were a unique find, and The Hubs said the Sticky Buns were as phenomenal as they looked and smelled. (I was too full to try.) D and K liked the cereal and yogurt, as always.

My plate of breakfast goodness.

Fresh baked muffins, along with croissants and Danish.

Bagels, donut holes and muffins, OH MY!

Cereal buffet

Mickey Waffles and French Toast Bread Pudding

Breakfast Potatoes and Chocolate Chip Mickey Waffles, next to a vat of syrup

Scrambled eggs and breakfast pizza

Regular Eggs Benedict and Pulled Pork Eggs Benedict

Biscuits, Gravy, Grits and Oatmeal

Sausage, Bacon, Smoked Beef Hash and Biscuits

     My only negative comment was something that really was our own fault. Many of the pans were either close to empty, or contained food items that were no longer at their freshest. This was at the very end of the breakfast seating, however, and since lunch is served a la carte only, the buffet gets completely taken down once the breakfast diners have left. I understand not wanting to waste food, and therefor, not continuing to make pans of food that will only sit and then get tossed, but for late diners, this can make the buffet not as appealing. I asked the server if they got this complaint a lot, and he said that his recommendation would be to NOT dine in the last hour or so of a buffet, as you're more likely to run into this situation. Of course, they were more than accommodating with making any buffet item we asked for more of right away, but I think it's the last time we will eat so close to closing time. I'd highly recommend that with a buffet, try and make your reservation seating time be more than one hour before the meal period ends! This will just help you have the best experience possible.

Uh-oh! No more salami or cheese. Yogurt parfaits were good though.

      We had no problem stuffing ourselves, though, and waddled out full. Since it was still raining, we couldn't let the kids play in the playground either, so we headed home to go for a swim instead. We already knew we were coming back to Trail's End in a week, since we had a reservation for dinner the following Sunday. I told ya, we like this place!

Tink's Tots Try It Out: According to D (6 yo girl) Do you like Trail's End, D?   "Yeah, I liked the scrambled eggs, and the bacon. I wanted to try the salmon, but I didn't get to."   Yeah, my bad. I forgot to take you back up to get some. I don't think you would have liked it though. It was raw.   "What? Raw? Then no."   Kinda figured. What else do you like about Trail's End?   "I like to play hoola hoop before we go in. And going to the park that's there, when it's not raining."    Sorry about that. I can only control so many things, ya know?   "I know. And I like..... I don't know what else. Going past the ponies, I guess."   Well, hopefully next time we can actually stop and see them.   "Yeah. If you can make it not rain."    I'll work on it.  

Tink's Tots Try It Out: According to K (2 yo boy)  Hey, Bud. Did you like Trail's End?   "Mamma! Mamma!"   What, K?   "Mamma!"   What?   "Teekle-teekle-teekle!" (Tickles/Scratches my leg)   You're so silly. Did you like Trail's End?    "Mamma!"   What?    "I'm see-lee!"   That you are, my friend. That you are.

Will we be back: Absolutely! Probably more frequently than to any other restaurant on Disney property. We are already scheduled to go back for dinner. Great deal, great meal!