(CLOSED) Disney's WILDERNESS LODGE and VILLAS Information Thread ~2012~

[mhconley]

I just added two days to our December trip.

We'll be in the WL for 4 nights beginning Monday, December 10 to take advantage of free dining. I got a Florida resident discount rate and added Saturday & Sunday, December 8 & 9 at Pop. (no tickets, just room) We've never stayed anywhere but deluxe and I wanted to check out a value resort - plus it was the same price (within a couple of $) as the Clarion Suites Maingate I had booked for those days.

81 days to Pop and 83 when we move over to WL. Can't wait to see the lodge decked out for the holidays.

Martin

[GrandCalifornian]

Originally Posted by mhconley

I just added two days to our December trip.

We'll be in the WL for 4 nights beginning Monday, December 10 to take advantage of free dining. I got a Florida resident discount rate and added Saturday & Sunday, December 8 & 9 at Pop. (no tickets, just room) We've never stayed anywhere but deluxe and I wanted to check out a value resort - plus it was the same price (within a couple of $) as the Clarion Suites Maingate I had booked for those days.

81 days to Pop and 83 when we move over to WL. Can't wait to see the lodge decked out for the holidays.

Martin

Sounds like a nice trip. We went over and visited Pop for dinner one night and enjoyed looking around. We recommend the tie dye cheesecake. We are trying to figure out our plan for our next stay, and we are considering a split and we'd like to have WL on the second part of it so we save the best for last.

[rotlex]

Originally Posted by GrandCalifornian

Sounds like a nice trip. We went over and visited Pop for dinner one night and enjoyed looking around. We recommend the tie dye cheesecake. We are trying to figure out our plan for our next stay, and we are considering a split and we'd like to have WL on the second part of it so we save the best for last.

LOL, funny to hear someone mention doing this. We stop at POP every trip on our last day just to get a piece of that cheesecake. . We never stay there anymore as the beds are getting to small for us and the kids; but it holds some great memories!

[rotlex]

Originally Posted by pepe of ohio

We were ardent WL people for over 10+ trips and we strayed to POFQ for our last trip.... First time there..

It is a nice resort and all but it ain't the Lodge....we're back to where we enjoy ourselves . I must say after 47 trips to WDW and mostly all deluxe, no more resort roaming, we've done all except the Boardwalk and have no interest in staying there and with a trip thrown in to OKW we really missed the Lodge.... Just on location alone we love it....

The location is, other than the beauty of the place and the service we recieved, my top reason for wanting to go back. I even preferred it over the monorail resorts. All the convenience of them, love the dock and boats, without the cost and overly busy feeling. Perfect in every way IMHO.

[WDWKOOK]

Originally Posted by ejrj

Question:

We have an 8:05 breakfast adr in MK. What time would you plan to be down at the boat doc? I do want to have time to enjoy the walk down Main.

Thank you!

(84 days

I would plan on leaving your room for the dock by 0705.

Originally Posted by stpats317

Just wanted to pop in and say hi. We are 67 days out from our first stay at WL. This has long been on my bucket list and our 27th anniversary seemed the perfect occasion. Now my worry is that we will be forever spoiled and never want to go back to our old favorite POR.

VERY excited - it can't get here soon enough

Happy 27th!! Yes, you're going to find it hard to go back to a Moderate, but it might not be so bad if you do a split and leave WL for last

Originally Posted by GrandCalifornian

We didn't get any confirmation on the changes, but had a wonderful breakfast at WCC. After having meals at both WCC and Trail's End at FW, TE is my favorite. The ribs there are the best I have had, and the variety of a quality buffet is hard to beat. I am sure WCC will still be good too, but it does seem they are emphasizing the "experience" there more than the food. My shy two year old actually cried during the dinner festivities, but loved our breakfast waitress "M.T." more than any other Disney employee we saw all trip. I'd say if you now only want to do WCC once, TE is a great alternative for variety and only a short boat ride away.

We checked out today after a wonderfully perfect stay. Our solution to going home depression was upgrading to Premier Passports. A golden ticket is a happy thing, and it actually saved money on our home annual passes for Disneyland. Besides, we will be back!



I will post more and do a real trip report once we make it home. Right now we are waiting out a thunderstorm in Orlando.

MT Wallet is a hoot and she has been there many years. She has sarcasm down to a T - love it! (Did she do any 'pole' dancing for you?)

Welcome back home and thanks again for updating us with photos and mini reports throughout your stay. Those Premier Passports sure are beautiful - have fun using them. Are you far from DL?

Originally Posted by ready2vacation

I do have another general question - if we are able to do our quick (no-kids) trip, it will just be 3 nights at WL. Is it silly to pay extra for club level for a Friday morning to Monday afternoon trip? We haven't stayed CL before, and I'd like to try it that trip to help decide for our longer trip in Nov, but on the other hand I keep thinking about the $ we'd save skipping it. Just curious what others do.

Thanks!

You only pay per night, so whether you stay one night or ten, it's the same on a per night basis. You can always spend less money on any vacation and you can always spend more. If it is within your budget, I would recommend trying CL. Your short stay would be a perfect way to see if you value it enough for a future, longer stay. But, I think you might just love the Old Faithful Club

Originally Posted by stpats317

Nov 23-29 - First stay at WL.

Yippee for booking your first stay at WL! I'll put that in the Lodgers' Log.

Originally Posted by Minnie

We just added on 3 days to our trip this fall - 3 days at the BC for SAB and so that DH who has never stayed anywhere other than the WL can hopefully enjoy something new and then 7 days at the WL for a week of peace - absolute relaxation hits me when I hear welcome home. There is just no place like it anywhere in the world.

Perfect - you saved the best for last. You'll be hearing WELCOME HOME! very soon

Originally Posted by midge3426

When I get my photos uploaded, I will choose a few nice frames of the lodge. I took approximately 1300 of WDW.

1300 will be just fine, thank you!

Originally Posted by marymac123

Hi everyone. We arrived yesterday and it is a bit busier now, at the parks and WL. TP says that it goes to an overall 1 today so we will see?.. Randi and Mike are great as usual, a lot of new CMs but they are nice too. We had a tiny blip at check in- we were given bunk bed on south side and I dont know, I hated it over there-inner corner, dark & gloomy. I think 7120?? The room was a bit dirty, hair clumps by vanity and huge dust bunnies on furniture. That was weird cause we have never had that before and only stay WL, never had a bad stay. Randi got us over to the north side and everything is much better. The new tile floor is a bit dirty with bobbipins and hair but Randi said it would be taken care today while we are out. I am starrting fresh today...WL is our home away from home.

KOOK, they are starting a little construction on the Northside next week up here on CL. They are putting "trays" in the ceilings to raise them into the new moldings that they just did in the ceilings. They want depth,if that makes sense? So, we may have to move the last couple days for all of it to begin.Hopefully we won,t have to.
Also,there is some construction going on in the parking lot exit, not sure what yet. DH usually comes back with all the details.

Randy always comes through! So glad you're happy now with your room location, but I'm a little dismayed to hear about the cleanliness issues. Randy was a housekeeping manager at one time, so I know he'll make everything right for you.

TheLodgeLady mentioned they were going to do some ceiling enhancements. I hope you're not disrupted too much by the remodeling.

Keep us posted and have a great time!

Originally Posted by CaliKT

So excited! Our flights from Newark to Orlando were originally set to depart at 2:30 pm, getting into MCO at 5:00 pm. There were a number of reasons we chose this instead of leaving that number, and since we originally planned to travel the following morning, we basically looked at it as adding an extra night to our vacation. We knew it wouldn't be a huge park day, but we thought it would be fun to go see the Osborne lights or something.

After we purchased the tickets, however, our flight times changed twice, so now we were leaving at 4:44 pm and getting into MCO at 7:15. Adding in time for the ME, we figured it was a completely lost day and were bummed we'd be getting in so late. Well, DH, airline schmoozer extraordinaire after a decade of being a road warrior, got them to change our flights to one departing at 8:45 a.m. FOR NO CHANGE FEE. We get into MCO around 11 a.m., and now we REALLY have an extra park day for our trip! Wheee! We'll be at WL that much sooner!

That is soooo much better

Originally Posted by StEpHandMiKe<3Disney

August2010 has me a bit worried about the standard view now I hope a little pixie dust comes our way. We have stayed above WCC before and it was awful. I dealt with it last time but I think I would try to move if we got a room over there again, even if it means paying for an upgrade. Crossing fingers.

Have you thought about upgrading now to a Woods View to assure you won't be disappointed?

Originally Posted by pas130

I couldn't believe that in the 24 hours since I lasted posted here how far behind I had gotten. I admire how you keep up so well with your resort changers' thread and you even stopped by here today to help out - you're fantabulistic

Originally Posted by goofynut41

I cant figure it out... But I know nothing about computers...
I have been tring to get a ticker for a long time, I can make it but dont know how to get it to my page...

After you copy the link, make sure that it has IMG at the front and back. The ticker text should look something like this, but with [IMG] at the front and [/IMG] at the end:

http://distickers.com/ticker/tickers...15gfxlv4tt.png

Originally Posted by Kathymford

I thought I would pay it forward with a few pictures (head nod to GrandCalifornian)

My DBF has been playing with a new app on his iPad and sent me this one.



He's getting some really great shots!

Thank you for posting your DBF's lovely photos!

Originally Posted by LuvGoldens

We are here and it's as beautiful as I remember!!! We arrived at 10:30 am and they said they had a room available (w/bunkbeds) on the 6th floor if we were ok with an enclosed balcony and we said sure. All of my room requests were met, high floor, south wing, pool and Bay Lake view. Here are a couple pics from our balcony.

We are going to MNSSHP tonight, should be fun!

You're just to the right and one floor down from our favorite room. Have fun at MNSSHP tonight - I know we'd all love to see more photos

Originally Posted by TaraPA

LuvGoldens or anyone else there now - can you confirm that WCC has changed the menu, effective tomorrow (9/19)? We have a lunch ADR there for skillets in 4 weeks, and may have to re-think since this is no longer going to be offered for lunch.

Even though we switched to POR for our October trip, I'm still longing for WL! Plotting for January!!!

I'll post here as soon as I find an updated menu or hopefully someone who is there now will confirm the changes after tomorrow.

Originally Posted by jackemail

After being away from WDW for a while (caring for an ill parent), I have finally booked a couple of nights at WL for June ( before moving over to Boardwalk Inn). I have stayed at WL many times but, on the strength of Kook's raves, finally booked a deluxe club room. I have a long countdown, but am just happy to finally be able to go back "home".

Beautiful photos, LuvGoldens!

WOW! Congratulations, jackemail. The Deluxe room should be wonderful. Unlike BWI, none of them are on the CL floor, did you make any requests? Have you stayed CL at WL before?

Originally Posted by rotlex

You guys are killing me. We had a 10 night stay at the WL last year and absolutely loved it. Just came back from a 10 night stay at Riverside for this years trip, and couldn't stop thinking about how much more enjoyable it would have been to be "back at the lodge again", LOL.

We are booked on a bounce back at French Quarter for 10 nights next August with free dining, and I'm already thinking about changing those reservations to the WL. I booked FQ as it's saving me roughly 1K that I thought I didn't need to spend. Looking at these pics, and my own from last year, I'm now saying to myself "You know, your getting free food AND we drive down rather than fly. Heck, that extra 1K for the room is nothing".

I hate the fact that we stayed there last year and enjoyed it that much. We were upgraded to a woods view room, north side I believe, upper level where we could see the castle and such. It was a fantastic trip. (Even got to be the flag family). I used to be one of those people that said it just a room, I go for the parks, but after having stayed there, then back to a mod, I really, really want to upgrade already.

Wish me luck.........

I know you miss it, but have you thought about a split POFQ/WL? Do you need to look at more POFQ photos to get yourself excited and remind yourself what you'll do with the $1,000 savings? I'm being way too pragmatic here - you need to book WL!

Originally Posted by pepe of ohio

We were ardent WL people for over 10+ trips and we strayed to POFQ for our last trip.... First time there..

It is a nice resort and all but it ain't the Lodge....we're back to where we enjoy ourselves . I must say after 47 trips to WDW and mostly all deluxe, no more resort roaming, we've done all except the Boardwalk and have no interest in staying there and with a trip thrown in to OKW we really missed the Lodge.... Just on location alone we love it....

Stray? You were mearly testing the resort waters and found them to be a little too chilly over at POFQ. The water is just perfect at WL. When I'm not at the CR/BLT or WL, I really miss seeing Bay Lake everyday - I LOVE Bay Lake.

Originally Posted by goofy4prez

I'm with you. I have only stayed at one other resort, the YC, and while we were there we kept saying how much more we liked the WL.

I lasted one night at YC/CL and had to switch the next day and come back over to Bay Lake where all is right with the World.

Originally Posted by mhconley

I just added two days to our December trip.

We'll be in the WL for 4 nights beginning Monday, December 10 to take advantage of free dining. I got a Florida resident discount rate and added Saturday & Sunday, December 8 & 9 at Pop. (no tickets, just room) We've never stayed anywhere but deluxe and I wanted to check out a value resort - plus it was the same price (within a couple of $) as the Clarion Suites Maingate I had booked for those days.

81 days to Pop and 83 when we move over to WL. Can't wait to see the lodge decked out for the holidays.

Martin

Adding more days is awesome! Happy planning!

[GrandCalifornian]

Originally Posted by WDWKOOK

MT Wallet is a hoot and she has been there many years. She has sarcasm down to a T - love it! (Did she do any 'pole' dancing for you?)

Welcome back home and thanks again for updating us with photos and mini reports throughout your stay. Those Premier Passports sure are beautiful - have fun using them. Are you far from DL?

No pole dancing, but she was a hoot. She and DD had fun laughing at the rest of us.

We live less than an hour from DL, and I work even closer than that so we frequently go in the evenings for dinner and people watching. It was a common date location for us, is where I proposed, and where we were married at the Grand Californian Hotel. Our DD has been going there since she was seven weeks old. She did great during the 10 days at WDW since she has had so much practice.

A big part of the excitement of the passes though is knowing that we will be back to WDW, and the WL in particular. We booked a bounce back to reserve the free dining, and if we time it right we can start that just after the current passes expire, then upgrade them again. We are looking at a possible AKL split stay in the Villas leading up to WL, and with the passes it could be a lower cost way to spend time there, but I would miss seeing Bay Lake as well. Oh so many options

[WDWKOOK]

AllEars confirms WCC menu changes:


Starting this week, Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge will be changing its menus. The most notable change is that the famous "all you care to eat" skillet will no longer be available at lunch. At dinner, the skillet will become a "platter", that will include your choice of three of five meats offered (choose from ribs, chicken, sliced beef, fish, smoked sausage) plus four side dishes (mixed vegetables, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and baked beans). If you order platter "refills," you can choose any of the meats even if they were not one of the original three that you chose. Cornbread will still be included, but salad is not. A dessert sampler will also be included with dinner. (The platter is NOT offered at lunchtime.)

[R2-JD]

Originally Posted by WDWKOOK

AllEars confirms WCC menu changes:


Starting this week, Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge will be changing its menus. The most notable change is that the famous "all you care to eat" skillet will no longer be available at lunch. At dinner, the skillet will become a "platter", that will include your choice of three of five meats offered (choose from ribs, chicken, sliced beef, fish, smoked sausage) plus four side dishes (mixed vegetables, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and baked beans). If you order platter "refills," you can choose any of the meats even if they were not one of the original three that you chose. Cornbread will still be included, but salad is not. A dessert sampler will also be included with dinner. (The platter is NOT offered at lunchtime.)

Originally Posted by TaraPA

LuvGoldens or anyone else there now - can you confirm that WCC has changed the menu, effective tomorrow (9/19)? We have a lunch ADR there for skillets in 4 weeks, and may have to re-think since this is no longer going to be offered for lunch.

Even though we switched to POR for our October trip, I'm still longing for WL! Plotting for January!!!

Good morning! Luvgoldens DH here. Sorry we didn't post last night, got in late from our first MNSSHP (loved it!!!).

As Kook confirmed above, yes WCC has removed the lunch skillet from the menu. I just went down to the restaurant to ask and talked to a CM. She kept telling me to fill in a comment card.

Here is a pic of the lunch menu:

I will take a better pic of the menu when our camera is done recharging.

JD

[ChrisAlli]

I'm curious as to the charges for the "Platter" now...adult and child prices and if there is a kids menu?

[happy2012]

I don't really wanna read this entire thread so forgive me if it has been asked....
Is the Milkshake & smoothies still included? I like the idea of fish. But I wish there was still a salad.

[TaraPA]

Thanks for getting the scoop & for posting the new menu pic! Great work!!


We changed our lunch ADR to a breakfast ADR....we'll try breakfast at WCC!

[PamelaKay]

I love all the photos everyone has posted recently. Makes me so excited for our trip to get here at the end of October.

[Kathymford]

We just checked out of VWL. Bittersweet; glad the trip isn't over, but this really is a lovely resort. DBF says that SO FAR it's his favorite to photograph. Now on to BWV!!

[goofynut41]

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[goofynut41]

Originally Posted by goofynut41

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I give up