We are back from our trip to WDW. We had a great time of the lodge. Previously, we had stayed at Epcot area resorts, mostly the BC, for over twenty years, so this was a new experience for us. We loved having a real counter service option, something missing at BC/YC/BWI. We loved the pool, the view of MK, the lodge theme and especially the boats. We only took the bus back to the resort from MK once, and that was because we had just missed the boat. The boat is a lot closer to the main gate at MK than the buses are. We took boats to Ft Wilderness and the Contemporary, too. We had two dinner reservations, one at Poly and one at GF that we traveled to via the resort monorail. We really didn't like the resort monorail at all. One time it was packed full of people, standing room only, sitting at the CR for 15 minutes. Luckily, we weren't in that one. We were waiting for the next one and glad to find it empty.
We had been so spoiled by the fact that we seldom had to take a bus anywhere when we stayed at the BC that we really weren't too happy about all the bus rides we had to take this trip. In fact, we have been debating whether to go back to the BC in December. But finally decided to give the WL one more try.
It might be a lot easier without the big family group that included the crabby 3 year old and cranky DH.
Besides, the lodge will be beautiful in December. And we did like the easy ride to MK.
We had room number 6018. My daughter's room was 6010 and she had a great view of the castle. I think other people have posted pictures of the view from 6010. Next time we go I think I will request a normal balcony. The dormer balcony was only good for standing and looking at the view, not for sitting and enjoying a cup of coffee in the morning. We were seldom in our room at fireworks time, anyway.
I'll try to post pictures of our "towel animals" later. We had three days of them, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We thanked our maid and she was very happy to see how much we liked them. The weekend crew didn't leave any.
Now I need to get back to work.