lightbikes

That is a great question. You already hit on some good ones:   Log benches and trash cans etc.  The themeing at the Fort isn't what it used to be.
How many years has TCD been photo-stalking the elusive Covered Wagon?  LOL!
And you're also right about the pool, as we discussed above it's needed a real update for awhile. And the Trails would be a nice thing to repair, I really miss the elevated walkways over the lake and thru the swamp.  Instead of repairing them didn't they remove the walkways altogether awhile ago?
I forgot about the petting zoo and the breakfast cart.
As to what else would help the "feel", I guess at the risk of getting yelled at again for being negative and unrealistic I'll just say it:

The Fort would feel a LOT better with fewer people, fewer cars,  and fewer golf carts.....
 
 

You are correct, as an old-timer, it seems as if each year something else is stripped away and, despite fewer and fewer amenities, the price continues to rise.  You summed it up perfectly  " we are paying more and getting less than what we used to" and it grates.  

I really appreciate the condescension, especially when you skip over the actual point I was making to fixate on the Lazy River. 
I apologize if my post doesn't make sense to you, let me try again:
Yes, FW had a Water Park. With a TON of water features and play areas, including a LAZY RIVER.  Right there!  Right inside the Fort.  You could walk to it from your campsite.
When that closed it was a loss to every family camped at FW even if they didn't go to RC.
I don't give a you-know-what which resort has a Lazy River in 2016. I do care about what the Fort used to have and doesn't anymore.
So forget I said Lazy River, how about ANY new water feature that would compare to one of the resorts? How about a new pool or two?
You skipped right over my point about Disney going to all the trouble of rebuilding the existing pool but not adding one bit of extra capacity to it.
And lastly you also ignored my question which gets to the heart of the matter:  Given the choice, which FW would you rather take your kids to:  2016? or 1970's?
 
And for reference, here are a list of features lost when River Country closed: 
Upstream Plunge, a kidney shaped clean-water pool. Slippery Slide Falls, two water slides that emptied into Upstream Plunge. Kiddie Cove, a kids zone with two large water slides and a cove. This area was targeted toward preteens. Barrel Bridge, a bumpy bridge with barrels under it, similar to the one at Tom Sawyer Island. White Water Rapids, a 330-foot (100 m) long inner tube river. Bay Cove, a half-acre (2,000 m²) sand-bottom lake which featured a tire swing, boom swing, rope climb, and T-bar drop. Boom Swing Cable Ride Tire Swing Whoop 'n' Holler Hollow, two water slides, 260 ft (79 m) and 160 ft (49 m) long, that emptied into Bay Cove. Bay Bridge Indian Springs, a very small splash zone with fountains spraying kids. This area was mainly designed for guests under age 8. Cypress Point Nature Trail, a trail among trees beside Bay Lake.

It's the "old timers" that are the most vocal about the current sad state of the Fort.  The campers that have been around since the good old days and have seen all the amenities and uniqueness slowly stripped away.
The newer campers love the Fort because they don't know what they missed.
The Fort is a great campground.  Is it expensive for a place to drop a camper or pitch a tent? Yes it is, but as others have stated it's not too overpriced because some other highly rated sites nickel and dime you to death.
The old timers still love the Fort but to us, we are paying more and getting less than what we used to,
Disney treats the Fort like a red headed step child or a necessary nuisance.
People would be a lot happier if they did give us some perks, added amenities, and enforced the current rules fairly across the board.
It's hard to stomach paying as much as a value resort and not get the same amenities as they do.
Personally, I would love to see the trams come back in addition to the internal busses.  They could run them in-between the bus runs so everyone didn't have too wait so long.  Who knows, it might cut down on all of the carts flying around. Then that way if the busses are still running, they would still be ADA compliant.

I agree with you.  Heck, it would help if they would at least enforce the 10 person per site rule, which they don't even do.
TCD

I've been saying that same thing for awhile now. The 10 per site rule makes the Fort the best bargain on property *IF* you have 10 (or more) people to split the price.  No other CG allows that many on one site fee.
If they reduced that to a more reasonable number, then charged extra for more people or required getting another site, I believe you would see many of those groups moving to one of the value resorts instead.... AND you would mostly solve the Phantom Site problem too.
 
 

If you don't like it, there are plenty of big obnoxious groups from south Florida that will gladly rent your site.  What does Disney care about enforcing some stupid rules?  As long as you pay, you can do pretty much whatever you want.
TCD

We had dinner there last night (Monday) and the server we had indicated that as far as they all were aware there were no plans to take ADR's.  Apparently a number of the guests have indicate they really like being able to walk in and have a nice meal as opposed to planning months in advance.  Which for me is a real plus because often we don't know what we want to eat until the last minute,

Not so fast.
All of Disney World is not man-made.
Bay Lake existed before Disney came along.
In fact, it was the beauty of Bay Lake and the surrounding wilderness that drew Walt to the area when he surveyed it from his private airplane.
And, the men who made the initial plans to build Fort Wilderness endeavored to preserve that wilderness.
That was a point of pride in the early days, as can be seen from this old Fort Wilderness check-in packet:


 
Please read what is written there.
Do you see that part in the second paragraph where it says "that development would be undertaken only if the area's natural beauty cold be effectively preserved."
Read the third paragraph.  Even today, you can see evidence of the care taken to not destroy the wilderness at the Fort- there are cabin decks that were built around trees.  There are roads that were designed and paved to allow trees that were there first to stay.
Now, take a look at this old Fort Wilderness brochure:

Look at the third paragraph, where they boast how "centuries-old cypress trees stand beside tall pines and flowering bay trees."  That is not just fluff- it's true, and most of those old cypress trees were along the banks of Bay Lake.  A lot of them are still there.  But the ones that were preserved when they built the Villas at Wilderness Lodge are now gone.  Those centuries-old cypress trees and tall pines are what they just clear cut.
In case you are still laboring under the misconception that "all of Disney is man made," please take a look at these old photos, which come from the State of Florida archives, showing a group which included Roy Disney inspecting the property that the Disney Corporate entities had purchased.  These show how the property looked before any development, back in 1967:

You see that guy with the glasses and dark sweater standing in the boat?  That's Roy Disney.  You see that big old lake in the background?  That's Bay Lake.  You see all those trees?   Those are the centuries-old cypress trees and tall pines. Those were all left alone when Walt Disney World was developed, and the entire shoreline was left natural.  Up until a few weeks ago.
Here's another photo taken at the same time- if you are at all familiar with Bay Lake, you will recognize the lone cypress tree that we all know as the "Shoe Tree" standing there in the lake:

Everything you see in that photo was left alone when they built Disney World.
But now, a pretty big stretch of the natural shoreline right behind that lone cypress tree has been clear cut so they can build 26 bungalows that only very rich people can afford.
If you don't think that's a big deal and a complete departure from the philosophy the company has followed for the past 50 years, then I don't know what to say other than you're wrong.  But,  the sad thing is that your opinion will probably sit well with the majority of people these days-seriously- who cares about trees and nature and stuff?  They can just bring some new trees in there from the tree farm.  I'll race you to the bungalow!
TCD

We had dinner there last night (Monday) and the server we had indicated that as far as they all were aware there were no plans to take ADR's.  Apparently a number of the guests have indicate they really like being able to walk in and have a nice meal as opposed to planning months in advance.  Which for me is a real plus because often we don't know what we want to eat until the last minute,

Geez.
What is everyone complaining about?
At the MK, they have erected these beautiful eggshell white canvas party tents, and they have lush potted plants to add to the aesthetic.
Also, as you can see, the MK security was still being provided by the meticulously costumed and always professional and friendly CSC Event Security folks as of yesterday, January 31, 2016:



TCD

Good Grief.
 
What probably happened here is the guy's scanner stopped working, so he was just bluffing.  Other CM's can't be bothered to even do that, so they just wave everyone with a MB through.
 
When Twin #1 worked in Adventureland attractions last year, she was supposed to use one of those hand-held scanners to confirm that guests were resort guests during evening EMH's.  But, the scanner malfunctioned all the time, and could only be re-set by a manager, who didn't like being bothered about that.  So, the CM's pretended to scan MB's, or didn't even bother.
 
So, let's review-
 
They spent 2 Billion dollars to force this My Magic business on guests.  But, the technology doesn't work well in the field.  And cheaters know this.  How much parking revenue are they losing because of this?  Maybe not as much as you think, since they just jacked up the parking rates again.  They can't lose.
 
TCD

I like how you think! 

Can they program them to knock iPads to the ground?

We ate here last week - we had a spread of the appetizers and they were all yummy - as TCD said expensive, but it's Disney.  Will definitely go again, hopefully within the next week to ten days.  
 
WE asked one of the managers when they were going to go to ADRs and she said not until the new year.  So everyone is good until then for walk-ins.

I like that - we could say "going drinking at DrinkingTheSprings"  -or "meet me at DrinkingTheSprings" -  it has a good lilt to it - and it sounds vaguely healthy, as opposed to not.

The Pale — Wild Ocean Shrimp and Clams with Corn and Potatoes in a Raglan IPA, Lemon, and Herb Broth
 
 
 
That looks delicious !  We're going to have to check out the new menu at Christmas when we're down.
 
 
BTW I'm on the side of Life is Short Eat Dessert First. 

It would greatly improve the show to have Elsa arrested for vandalism and have Cinderella press charges.

What!?
 
Phil Holmes is leaving the MK?
 
Does that mean his portrait is going to be taken down in the gift shop in New Fantasyland?
 
And are we going to get a spinner ride like Aladdin's Flying Carpets at DHS?
 
Woo Hoo!
 
TCD

I'm so sorry for coming into this so late, but dam!
This trip report is the one I've been destined to discover, I just sort of accidentally clicked on "click HERE to read it", and dam! All the wasted years.
I doo want to offer one thing, instead of using the despised word "amazing", I actually refer to the word they from the movie "The Bench Warmers", that word is "amazazing".
The Troll is saying all the things we're really thinking, but not uttering. We love disney deep down, maybe it's because we're from the 20th century, and have enough nostalgia still in our nostalgia tanks that it somehow overcomes the 21st century WDW issues. We all made fun of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea ride, but when our kids first rode it, it was AMAZAZING to them. And when they closed it, then demolished it, it was so awful & sad.
Props to The Troll for being the Troll. You are a funny mfr!

"Men must be in dress shoes and collared shirts"
 
Who the heck packs dress shoes to go to Disney?

Well that lets us out for sure!!  We'll have to eat somewhere else !!!  Thank goodness there's still Raglan Road and Paradisio 

A song is running through my head -
 
"Don't it always seem to go 
you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
Pave Paradise
Put up a parking lot"
 
Joni Mitchell "Big Yellow Taxi" 

I don't get it either -
 
but they get away with it - and I think it's because at the end of the day they've got us (and/or our kids) hooked on "the idea of Disney" - the ephemeral, nostalgic, vague, goodness, trust in others,  we all so desperately want to believe exists somewhere - we still believe in pixiedust.  
 
And nobody capitalizes on that better then Disney. 

Now the golf cart rental will come with airplane style safety instructions....