Trail's End

Happy Thanksgiving! What a coincidentally great day to post pictures of food. The first night of our Disney vacation, we arrived at the hotel, and then went to go get some dinner. Sounds simple, right? Yet this was going to be a memorable occasion.

Here's where we planned on eating. My friend heard this was a "hidden gem" of a place. Little did we know how much this little gem would be worth. Spoiler alert: priceless.

We started by taking the bus over to the Magic Kingdom, not to go to the Magic Kingdom, but to take the boat ride over to the Fort Wilderness resort. Next time we take this ride, I'm going to get really excited this sign says Trails End Restaurant.

Check out the cool ferry boat over there. Our boat was not so big.

Fort Wilderness "resort" is Disney's option for campers and glampers. Rather than hotel rooms they have cabins, and lots to park your own campers and tents and stuff. Did you not know they had this kind of thing? We didn't.

We thought it was cool thematically that the gift shop was called a Trading Post. We arrived a little early, so we had some time to check it out.

Saw this on the way over there. Hey, I'm a pony! Feed ME!!!

It was a little funny seeing regular grocery store items in this gift shop. I know it's for the campers and stuff. Now I have to wonder what do the Disney Cast Members eat? I guess we always thought they ate at the fancy restaurants, too.

Where are the crazy Disney rules for campfires? Also a little weird to see this as an option here.

There's the campers over there. It's like having Disney World in your back yard! Except you have to live in a camper. Sounds like a fair trade.

These vegetation curtain walls were a little silly. They are hiding golf cart parking on the other side. I guess it's better than a sloppy sea of carts over a wooden fence.

It's not quite time for our reservation, but we were a little hungry and they were able to seat us early. The food was smelling pretty good.

We just got ice cold refreshing Coca Colas to drink, but here are the cocktails if you are curious about that. It's always fun to check out the cocktail themes.

It's buffet style eating, so just get what you want. Here's some corn bread and a pile of baked potatoes. In the upper corner is the magical Beef Brisket you'll be hearing about in a bit.

There's fried chicken, baby back pork ribs, some kind of sausages... we sampled each of them and I'm not exaggerating to say every single one of them was amazing.

Side dishes over here. Mash taters and mac 'n cheese were both amazing, too. To be fair, we did not try the pasta but I bet it was equally good.

There's a full soft serve ice cream machine over there. So on top of all of the other tasty things here, they ALSO have ice cream.

Can I start gushing about the food? Those rolls over there were a level of tasty that seemed impossible. How could a simple roll be like, ten times, more tasty than any other roll? HOW?!! But it WAS.

Part of the wild west frontier theme involved these metal plates. They are quite solid and heavy. You'll be using plenty of these.

To quote any Street Fighter game "Round One... FIGHT!" We started off with the ribs and chicken, with mashed 'tatoes and mac 'n cheese. Everything was at 100% tasty level. Imagine the best fried chicken you've ever had. It was that. Those ribs were every bit as awesome as Dallas BBQ. It's hard to describe just how good this was.

If we were amazed enough by "round one", round two was about to obliterate us. First of all, that impossible roll. Sure it's just a simple roll, but it was soooo much better than you are thinking right now. The baked potato was also maximum-level tasty. Then... the Beef Brisket.

Trails End Beef Brisket. I can say without hesitation that this was the best thing I've ever eaten. EVER. I don't say that lightly. What a wonderfully unexpected thing to discover. Best taste ever. It brings tears to my eyes right now remembering the flavor and trying to adequately describe it to you, and knowing there are NO WORDS in existence to help me. The only thing I can say is that you must journey to the Trails End and try this yourself. Then you'll know. That's the only way you'll know.

 We had the coolest Waiter who carefully re-filled our sodas and constantly urged us to sit back and relax and continue to eat as much as we wanted. I was actually sad that I was so stuffed on brisket that I could not eat any more. If you still want to check out the ice cream, here are the toppings for them.

I did manage to have a little taste of the ice cream. It was not as good as the Old Country Buffet's "magical" ice cream, but pretty close. That's an impossible standard to live up to anyway. It, in no way, distracted from the shock of how amazing this meal was. 

 One last look before we go. The vacation had only begun yet already there is a great memory to cherish.

Even though this is the first time we've been here, the Trail's End has become a new Disney tradition, and every future visit to the park will include at least one planned meal here. Like a lame Disney movie, I feel the urge to sing a song to the full moon about how epic that experience was. It wasn't just a meal, it was something more.

So full we could barely move. Waiting on the dock on the journey back to the hotel. We considered eating ALL of our meals here. But that's a silly idea, right?

We got the front of the boat to ourselves, so of course I have to get a "King of The World!" picture. I'm such a dork.

On the ride back, the boat Captain pointed out the Wilderness Lodge resort over there. The lights around the pool and building make it so you can see the image of a bear head. You have to look carefully, but we saw it. That's Humphrey the Bear. I'm not sure you can see him in this picture, but this is where and when to look.