New Segway tour at Fort Wilderness

[SoaringEpcot]

I was just wondering if anyone has done the Segway tour at Fort Wilderness yet. Does anyone know where the tour goes or the cost?

I purchased the Epcot Seway tour for my parents for our trip in December, they are so excited.

Only 14 mores days until we arrive.

[medic9016]

I read a blog about it on another website. It was very positive. I think I will give it a try during our trip next Sept.

[ibrowse17]

Seems like it would be a fun thing to do. I will be looking into that for our next FW stay. DW would love to try a Segway

[Tink's Friend]

My son and I did the Wilderness Back Trail Adventure Segway tour yesterday. The cost is $85 per person. If you have an annual pass it's $72.25. I think there's a AAA discount, too, but I'm not sure. The tours are 2 hours long. (In case of inclement weather, you do the first hour (the training session) but don't hit the trails, and they refund half of the cost of the tour.) Everyone who participates in the tour gets a pin, but they don't have them in stock yet, so we gave them our addresses, and they're supposed to mail them to us when they come in.

At this point, the tour is offered only at 8:30 and 11:00 on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays . You need to arrive 15 minutes before the scheduled time so that you can complete the paperwork. The tours start and end at the pavilion where they hold Mickey's Backyard Barbecue (just past Trails End Restaurant).The tours are limited to 10 persons each. There were 9 people in my group, with 2 instructors. This was a good ratio of instructor to student, and things went pretty quickly.

We started out by signing a waiver saying that if things went wrong Disney wouldn't be responsible. After that reassuring moment, we watched a brief video about safety, and then the instructors explained the controls on the Segway. They use the Segway X2 Personal Tranporters, which have larger tires than the ones that they use in the parks (better for trail riding), for the Fort Wilderness tours. The X2's can do 12.5 miles per hour, but Disney doesn't allow any Segways to go over 9 mph. These particular Segways were set so that we couldn't go over 6 mph. Riders are supposed to weigh between 100 and 250 pounds, but they don't weigh you. According to the instructors, if you weigh less than 100 pounds, there's a good chance that the Segway won't respond properly to your movements. And if you're over 250, then you're over the limits for the machine, but apparently there's some wiggle room on that since I've seen people on the tours who were definitely over the limit. Also, you must be at least 16 years old; and if you're under 18, you must have an adult with you. IDs are required if there's any question about your age.

Then it was on to the hands-on training. They started out by having us get used to standing on the Segway. Then we went forward a little, turned, and kept doing this over and over for a few minutes. Once we were able to go forward and stop pretty well, they took us over to the traffic cones and had us slalom between the cones on level ground. Then we learned how to go uphill and downhill and practiced that for a little while. I didn't look at my watch, but I'd guess that the training portion took about 30 to 45 minutes, including the video.

Then we hit the trails (single file) with one instructor at the front and one at the back. We headed out and went around the 100-loop, then we started on the backwoods trails. Some were paved, and some weren't. Most of the trails were shaded, so it kept down the heat. We went along the beach, and we stopped (staying on our Segways) and the instructors used our cameras to take photos of us with Space Mountain in the background. As we went along, the instructors pointed out various plants that we passed. We stopped at the Fort Wilderness stables for a break, to walk around for a few minutes. I didn't realize how shaky my legs were (from the bouncing and vibration) until I tried to stand on terra firma again! LOL I don't do a lot of walking, and it really showed. The break was definitely a good idea. We hit the trails again after walking around in the stables and looking at the horses. We headed over to Wilderness Lodge and then hit some trails that go between WL and FW. One of the trails ended pretty close to the old River Country.

One warning though: If you have back problems or knee problems, you might want to think twice about doing a Segway tour. If you're not sure whether you should do it or not, go to Innoventions in Epcot (I think it was Innoventions West, but I'm not sure), and do the little try-out of the Segway. They'll teach you how to balance, go forward, and turn on the Segway. My husband tried this, and it hurt his knees, so he knew that the tour would be too much for him.

I definitely enjoyed the tour. I used muscles that I'd forgotten that I even had, but after a few minutes of practice, it was really easy to guide the Segway. It was loads of fun, and I think that it was well worth the money.

Suzanne Q
Bristol, TN

[disneydeb]

Thanks for all the wonderful information! Sound like lots of fun!

[SoaringEpcot]

Suszanne that was a wonderful review, do you do that professionally? When I booked the Epcot Segway tour I did not know about the one at Fort Wilderness. My parents probably would have liked going on the trails.

[Tink's Friend]

Thanks, Justin. Nah, I'm not a reviewer. My mom was an English major, though, so . . . .

If you really think that your parents would prefer the Wilderness Tour, you might try calling the tours reservations people and see if they'd let you change. The Epcot tours tend to book up way in advance, but I was able to get our reservations on Saturday for the Tuesday Wilderness tour, and there was still one opening in our tour this week. So you never know; they might let you switch. On the other hand, I hear that the Epcot tour is nice, too. I'm waiting to do that one with my daughter.

Suzanne Q
Bristol, TN