Tips for Halloween Golf Cart Parade

[limegreenmonorail]

I'll be staying at Fort Wilderness this weekend (first time during Halloween!). We plan to watch the golf cart parade on Sunday. Hoping for more info about it!

-Where does it start from? We want to try to catch it toward the beginning so we can leave in time to get to a dinner reservation.

-How early should we be to get good spots?

-We don't have camping chairs (staying in a cabin). Anywhere to watch from that has a bench or something, anything other than sitting on the ground? We have a golf cart rented, can we park that somewhere and sit on it to watch the parade? One member of our party is recovering from surgery and probably can't handle getting up from the ground very well yet.

Thanks all!

 

[bama_ed]

The golf cart parade starts at the hitch-unhitch area between the Outpost/check-in part of the Fort and the intersection of Fort Wilderness Trail and Big Pine Drive (the 4-way stop sign as you head towards the lake). The big field on one side will probably have overflow parking for cars and trailers but the OTHER side (right side of hitch-unhitch as headed to the lake) is generally where the carts gather and start forming up in lines on the grass.

FW Castmembers generally have a wagon at the front at 5pm (sometimes with Disney costumed characters in it) to lead off. If you want to leave early, I would suggest pulling off in the grass with your golf cart and watch it just before it gets to the 4-way stop at the start of the parade route. It will roll at walking speed down FW Trail in front of the Meadow Trading Post. The TP is about the only place you need to get to early if you want to watch it there. But there are people lined up on either side from the 1100/1200 loops down to the T near 100 where the parade ends and people either speed off back to their sites or pull off to the sides to watch the carts behind them.

The parade starts at 5pm but it's very casual. The year we were in it the parade started about 10 minutes late because the horse/wagon had not arrived yet. I checked the video from last year's parade and it was 18 minutes in length.

Lots of folks get VERY creative so it's always a great event to watch.

Bama Ed

 

[limegreenmonorail]

The golf cart parade starts at the hitch-unhitch area between the Outpost/check-in part of the Fort and the intersection of Fort Wilderness Trail and Big Pine Drive (the 4-way stop sign as you head towards the lake). The big field on one side will probably have overflow parking for cars and trailers but the OTHER side (right side of hitch-unhitch as headed to the lake) is generally where the carts gather and start forming up in lines on the grass.

FW Castmembers generally have a wagon at the front at 5pm (sometimes with Disney costumed characters in it) to lead off. If you want to leave early, I would suggest pulling off in the grass with your golf cart and watch it just before it gets to the 4-way stop at the start of the parade route. It will roll at walking speed down FW Trail in front of the Meadow Trading Post. The TP is about the only place you need to get to early if you want to watch it there. But there are people lined up on either side from the 1100/1200 loops down to the T near 100 where the parade ends and people either speed off back to their sites or pull off to the sides to watch the carts behind them.

The parade starts at 5pm but it's very casual. The year we were in it the parade started about 10 minutes late because the horse/wagon had not arrived yet. I checked the video from last year's parade and it was 18 minutes in length.

Lots of folks get VERY creative so it's always a great event to watch.

Bama Ed

Thanks for all the great detail! I really appreciate your help and can't wait to see the parade!

 

[nancipants]

We stayed in the cabins over July 4th weekend in 2021. We parked our golf cart along the side of the main road near that intersection bama ed mentioned above, and watched the parade that way.