Fort Drum Service Plaza

Only restaurants open at 8pm on a holiday weekend was Dunkin Donuts and Wendy’s. Seriously? No toilet paper in the ladies room and it was a mess. Rude attendants that didn’t even care. Too busy having their personal conversations to bother helping.

The Fort Drum plaza has come a long way in recent years. It was actually remodeled and is now one of the nicest service plazas I’ve ever been to.
Getting to Fort Drum is fairly straightforward considering it’s basically right off the highway, but getting INSIDE the plaza is an exercise in patience since you’ll basically be facing off against everyone in the entire state of Florida for a parking spot.
Once you get a spot, you head into the shiny gates of the Fort Drum Service Plaza. The floors glisten. Everything looks brand new and exciting.
Truthfully, this plaza is designed pretty well. There’s basically one big open area for seating and a bunch of stores/​quick restaurants like Dunkin Donuts, Wendy’s and a quick little convenience store if you need a regular drink or a snack for the road.
The bathrooms are generally very clean, which is a refreshing sight to see while on the road.
All in all, a really nice road trip pitstop!

My first impression of this plaza was great, as most of the road side plazas so far off of the turnpike were pretty run down. This plaza looked very nice, it was also quite noticeable in size. I also admired the lights looked like stars!
When we walked inside, however, we noticed that almost every restaurant inside was closed, all but a small Dunkin Donuts. Because of this, of course, there was a massive line at this restaurant. This was very surprising due to the fact that one, it was a rest stop, and two, it was only 11 PM. The turnpike is a very busy road, so this place was naturally, and I’m sure it always is, packed. If there’s a rest stop on a busy commute area, wouldn’t it be open all the time, or at least past midnight? People on road trips late at night coming for a late night snack break will be disappointed to find this out.
Next up is the restrooms. These were very clean, however there was a very nasty smell. I had no idea where it was coming from (and it couldn’t be from a person because I was the only one in there) and it smelled very bad. It was very confusing because it was a clean restroom, but it was strong.
Now that I’ve got the bad out of the way, I’ll talk about the good. There was a nice little shop at the front where you could get typical snacks and drinks (Planter’s, Slim Jim, etc.) and it was very clean. There was also a large and cool kids zone, and lots of vending machines.
So all in all, I definitely liked my visit, it was a well kept and organized rest stop, but I wouldn’t recommend it to people that are driving late at night. However, if it’s the day time, come right here! There’s a nice variety of things to do that’ll keep you interested, and because of its location on the way to Disney World, the kids zone will likely be a nice distraction from them getting bored.

Clean, modern, plenty of parking. Many food, drink and gift options. Gas station too. Located in middle of highway so no need to get off at exit. Very large and cram bathrooms. Highly recommend.

This has to be the cleanest most organized rest stop I have ever been to. Not compartmentalized, food outlets located around the perimeter with a common seating area centrally located. More parking than most south Florida rest stops.
Nice selection /​variety and better quality foods

Clean, modern, ample and updated. Not a bad place to stop for some Dunkin Donuts, caffeine fix and a bathroom break. They offer a small area for kids with TV’s and smaller tables/​chairs, a fenced in doggie doo area, a convenience store, and a few other places to grab a quick bite.

One of the nicest rest stops along the Florida Turnpike with plenty of restaurants to choose from and a large convenient store that sells just about anything you could think of.
The bathrooms are spacious and clean considering the amount of traffic it sees. I’ve never had to wait in line even though it’s always busy.
Beware at the Dunkin Donuts however, they seem to always have long lines and they’re not the most friendly people to work with.

Love the improvements the state is doing with these rest areas /​stops, seems to have been recently renovated.
Bathrooms are clean with attendants frequently monitoring them.
Beside your little tourist type store you have a few lunch — dinner options to choose from.

This is a great rest stop because of two things:
1. It’s been remodeled recently.
2. It’s clean.
Lots of pedestrian traffic slows you down when you’re in a hurry to park, presumably because you’re about to pee your pants, but that’s understandable.
The bathrooms are so clean. Every time I stop here I’m impressed with that.
Lots of places to stop and fill up on in terms of food and snacks. And across the way is the Shell gas station.
At this stop in a few minutes you can be in and out and back on your journey.

Wow. A human-​made oasis on the never-​ending toll road.
This is a pretty amazing rest stop, comparatively speaking. There’s a little bit of everything here, just like a mall, and a mall food court all in one building. But, I suppose that’s not surprising since you’re on the toll road and unless you’re in the mood to pay even more tolls, stopping here means you don’t have to do that. There’s a price to be paid for convenience. Just like overpriced popcorn in a movie theatre, you’ll get overpriced food here, too.
The weird thing that caught my eye at this stop, were the garbage cans in the parking lot. Yeah. I know. I like that there are garbage cans on the walkways about every five or six cars. That makes it easy to throw away all the food wrappers from the food you bought inside the building or the junk that’s been filling up the back seat of your car, or the plastic clamshell packaging from whatever electronic thing you bought and the bloody towels used to staunch the blood flow from cutting yourself on said hard plastic clamshell cases. They think of everything here.
Take a chance. Stretch your legs. Use the facility. Buy some food. Buy some junk. Walk the mall. See the sights. Empty the trash. Get back on the road.