Tri-Circle-D Ranch at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground Opens to Resort Guests – Photos & Video (& New P&J’s Southern Takeout Procedures)

Hi everyone –

We stayed on property for a night last week, and during an afternoon we went over to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground to check out the new Tri-Circle-D Ranch barn as well as pick up lunch at P&J’s Southern Takeout. I am sharing both in this article. Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort is one of my favorite resorts on property, and there are changes (just as everywhere) due to COVID-19 but it was nice to be back. The new barn is beautiful with more space for the horses.

First, our video tour of the barn.

The new Tri-Circle-D Ranch is close to the former one at the Settlement. The hours for Tri-Circle-D Ranch are currently 10am – 5pm. As of this writing, the resorts aren’t officially open for visitors who are not staying on property. That will eventually change, but everything is fluid due to the pandemic.

Everywhere around property, there are health and safety reminders. We’ve been seeing these for over a month at Disney Springs as well as at other parks in the area. Masks, social distance and hand washing are important to keep everyone safe (masks are mandatory).

The new barn is twice the size of the previous one and more modern. There are not only 10 more stalls for the horses, but each stall is larger as well.

One of the horses looks outside.

The new barn entrance is really impressive.

There is a hidden Mickey above the name.

Phil had his head outside of his stall. It sounds like the Cast Members do get to spend a fair bit of time with each horse.

Here is a look down this side of the barn.

There are new automatic water stations for the horses.

Phil is a Clydesdale and the signs tell about their feedings and other information.

Elsa was heading out of her stall.

Elsa is Violet’s mom, and Violet is below – at the time I took this, she was 5 weeks old.

Violet is very sweet and she gets to run around with Elsa in the pastures.

There is information on feeding for Elsa and Violet. Violet was born May 21st.

This area is for Cast only.

Phil is across from the 1907 Dragon Calliope, which is an iconic and historic calliope that was in the former barn but also in tv shows and films. Walt Disney purchased it in the 1950s for the Mickey Mouse Club Circus at Disneyland.

You can hear music by pressing the button – we have it in our video above.

Here is a look at the beautiful calliope.

There are some fun details.

The Walt Disney Company is noted on the side.

Also back is the small museum that is filled with photo memories and other items.

There is a model of the calliope, which was in the museum when it was at the other barn.

Walt Disney loved horses.

Photos include horses at Fort Wilderness, the Magic Kingdom and as part of Disney Fairytale Weddings.

There are models of horses.

We then headed to P& J’s Southern Takeout. Years ago it was Trails End to Go. And this is the only way you are getting Trail’s End type food right now because Trail’s End is not currently open otherwise.

Here is another health and safety reminder.

There are arrows through Trail’s End to show how to enter and exit. We entered the wrong way, not realizing there is a new entrance (the normal entrance for Trail’s End is being used for P&J’s).

While waiting for food, we stood behind the line.

We picked up chicken, ribs, baked beans, mashed potatoes and extra cornbread. As we are not dining inside restaurants right now, there are not a lot of options at the resorts currently and this is one of my favorite counter locations at Walt Disney World.

We didn’t do much else except walk over to Clementine’s Beach since it was such a hot day. There were guests staying on property – not a lot yet since the resort had just opened a few days earlier, but I expect that to be changing each day now. It was really great to be back at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground.