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

[pixiepirate]

Originally Posted by EmmaMagsMom

We left yesterday and they weren't up at the lodge but the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios had them

Thanks EmmaMagsMom. Maybe the decorations will magically appear overnight this weekend. I will still get to the the Castle and Osborne ligths. First time for me for both of them.

[Smileybug]

Just can't wait. 16 days and counting.

[nyrebecca]

We leave for the Lodge on Saturday morning. yay! problem is.....I can't find my APs. They are in a box somewhere in this house!

On a lighter note, the move went well. Loving the new house....even if I am surrounded by boxes.

[DetTigsGal]

I don't think you physically need them, you can go to guest services and they will print out new. Check to make sure

[luvallprincesses]

Originally Posted by Smileybug

Just can't wait. 16 days and counting.

Yesterday was 16 days for us too!!

[Mousemommy1]

Originally Posted by nyrebecca

We leave for the Lodge on Saturday morning. yay! problem is.....I can't find my APs. They are in a box somewhere in this house!

On a lighter note, the move went well. Loving the new house....even if I am surrounded by boxes.

Originally Posted by luvallprincesses

Yesterday was 16 days for us too!!

Lucky!!!! Have great trips!!!

[WDWKOOK]

Originally Posted by dreamcruiser

Let the countdown begin..(hmmm, I need a ticker!)

I still don't see that ticker

Originally Posted by bowbat

Yes! Thanks for asking.

And I was hoping you'd say that about TE. Hoping we can even convince the kid to "hike" over there.

The walk over is great and only takes about 15 minutes. Lots of wildlife along the trail. As a compromise, you could take the boat or bus back. But, after a hearty meal, a nice stroll back to the Lodge is very relaxing and they can stop and see the horses, too.

Originally Posted by madgali2000

Hello KOOK. Just got back from 6 days in heaven(WL)!!!! Extremely sad, but thinking about next time!! We spend just about every afternoon for a couple of hours by the pool!! Music was not too loud !! Kids playing games with the pool staff was great!! Oh and I have never seen more attentive life guards !!! Loved everything about "my home" . Already missing it!!

So glad you had a great trip - you know it's great if you're sad to leave and can't wait to return.

Originally Posted by pixiepirate

Less than 24 hours now until we are on our way. Can anyone tell me if any of the Christmas decorations are up in the Lodge yet? I know it's early but I have my fingers crossed.

I hope the decorations will be up soon for you and I hope you had an uneventful trip down. Are you there yet?

Originally Posted by EmmaMagsMom

Just back from a great week at WL. We once again stayed on the club level. We had room 7043. It faced the courtyard and pool and had bunk beds for the girls. Just what we asked for . We enjoyed the lounge once again. We found many of the CM's friendly, though definitely the women were more than the male CM. we missed Kirk who is now in the lobby. Bonnie was great and really went above and beyond. The food offerings were plentiful each evening. I don't remember them having the tenderloin stew before but that was amazing. We also had the dining plan so found that we had way too much food every day.

Couple observations. This is our third year in a row going for Halloween. We found the lodge to be busier than usual. The pool was crazy some days. I have never seen it so crowded as it was last weekend. What always gets me are the people saving pool chairs. On Saturday there were a row of chairs with towels on them. We sat and watched and no one came. It was like being on a cruise. I don't remember this being an issue in years past. Our DD's loved the pool activities. The Halloween dance party on the beach was great. I thought the DJ was awesome!!!

We always enjoy our time. Now back to reality ugh

Welcome back! Reality is not fun.

Yes, Kirk has been working the concierge desk in the lobby for a while now and the CL manager is on a temporary assignment elsewhere for about 6 months.

According to the menus I have posted on the first page, on Fridays there is a black angus tenderloin stew. I agree, CL and the DDP, especially the DxDP, is a lot of food (and tips).

Originally Posted by ejrj

Talk to me about winter swimming. We will be there the first part of December. Are the pools warm enough? I realize the air will be chilly but is the water warm enough to compensate a little? I'm we live in the South and are (ok, I'm) a wimpy....and my wimpiness affects the kids as they are of an age that I need to swim with them!

We've been in the WL pool in late December and we much preferred the hot tub. DD was 12 at the time and thought it was much better in the hot tub than the pool, so she opted for the hot tub with me. But, getting out was brutal. Some days can be very warm in December and some are very chilly. On Christmas Day we went horseback riding and it was in the 70s. Other days it was lows in the 40s. Make sure you have really warm clothes to immediately put on as soon as you get out of the hot tub/pool. It's probably harder on the adults than the kids.

Notice the less populated pool, (kids don't mind waiting for the slide) and more populated hot tubs:

Originally Posted by Smileybug

Just can't wait. 16 days and counting.

Originally Posted by nyrebecca

We leave for the Lodge on Saturday morning. yay! problem is.....I can't find my APs. They are in a box somewhere in this house!

On a lighter note, the move went well. Loving the new house....even if I am surrounded by boxes.

Congrats on the new house! Do you still have power? Did you get lots of snow?

Originally Posted by luvallprincesses

Yesterday was 16 days for us too!!

[dreamcruiser]

KOOK, I don't know how to make a ticker!
I'd love for you to make me one.. We leave on Sunday, April 28, 2013.

[guarn3md]

Hey all - just back! We got into Reagan last night around 9pm to find a wonderful gift - dead battery!! Took AAA 45 mins to show up and jump the battery and we were on our way home. But I'm grateful we had AAA, especially at that time of night!!
Some thoughts from our trip...
I requested a courtyard view as close to Bay Lake as possible, hoping for one of elusive front facing CL rooms. It wasn't to be but we had a great location. We were in room 7051 and were farther down than last time.
I really feel like we did CL right this time. No dining plan and we didn't plan a bunch of dinner ADR's, we decided to do a few lunches this time. We took advantage of the CL offerings at dinner time and then when we went to the evening park we were able to pick up a snack or share something. I didn't feel as full at night. The evening foods were awesome this trip. We had the Angus Beef stew twice, Salmon stew once, different styles of chicken skewers (my son's favorite), bacon wrapped scallops one night and the best - pulled pork mini sandwiches with slaw and a really tasty BBQ sauce. I even got my son to try one, he loved it.
Somethings I noticed this time, compared to last time - it seemed like there were ALOT of families with LOTS of kids on the CL floor. Not a bad thing - but - why don't parents watch their kids?? One morning there were three little boys in the food area just open pouring the juices out of the containers! Really?? Pretty much every morning we were awaken by a family running through the halls, yelling! Disney is for all types of families - we have a son who is 11 and we are able to stay at the parks until close and then sleep in a little in the morning. Our son sleeps till 7:30/8:00, we are not rope drop people!! I don't understand why people don't understand that they are not the only ones in the hotel. It wouldn't have been a big deal if I happened one morning, but it happened every morning and it wasn't always the same family. AND parents were encouraging the behavior - yelling in the hall "I'm gonna get you! You can't beat me!" Which was followed by yelling, running, screaming...
Bonnie was awesome on the club floor. She must have been off our last two days because we didn't see her but I really appreciated her attentiveness and kindness.
We had an amazing housekeeper - Sam. She worked so hard and our room showed it. It was spotless everyday. She left really cute animal towels - a bunny, an elephant...
Speaking of housekeeping - interesting story. Sunday night we were sitting on the far side of the lounge, where the comfy chairs are, relaxing. I just happened to look up and there were a ton of cobwebs on the very tippy top windows of the lodge. I showed my husband and we just remarked how high those windows are and that it's probably hard to clean them. The next night, my husband was sitting out there in the same area around 11/11:30, reading - he's a night owl and he hears this whirring noise. He looks out towards the lobby and there is a guy, on a crane, coming up to the top of the lodge! He cleaned the windows and ALL of the exposed beams!!!
I got to run - planning meeting... will come back with more later.
To answer the question of the tree in the lobby - it must be going up soon. We saw them wheeling chairs out of the lobby yesterday morning and it the furniture looked a little sparse. I asked when we checked in last Friday (11/2) when the tree was going up and the CM told me it would probably be up by the end of the following week (11/9).
Debbie

[WDWKOOK]

Originally Posted by dreamcruiser

KOOK, I don't know how to make a ticker!
I'd love for you to make me one.. We leave on Sunday, April 28, 2013.

Ticker making is easy. There are two sites I like:

http://www.mickeypath.com


http://www.distickers.com/ticker/main.php

You can follow the directions on either of those sites, just remember to copy and paste the IMG code (starts and ends with IMG followed by http) into your signature block.

Here is one I made for you. If you'd like it, simply right click on your mouse to "copy the image address" and paste it into your signature by going into "quick links" at the top of the DIS page and choose "edit signature."



(I picked a Mickey slider since that's what I always choose, but there are many to choose from.)

[dreamcruiser]

Thanks, KOOK! I'm not sure I'll figure it out, but I'll try. I'll use yours to make things easy!

Edited to add..Sorry, I tried but I don't even know how to find "copy the image address"! Wish I was more savvy!

[WDWKOOK]

Originally Posted by guarn3md

Hey all - just back! We got into Reagan last night around 9pm to find a wonderful gift - dead battery!! Took AAA 45 mins to show up and jump the battery and we were on our way home. But I'm grateful we had AAA, especially at that time of night!!
Some thoughts from our trip...
I requested a courtyard view as close to Bay Lake as possible, hoping for one of elusive front facing CL rooms. It wasn't to be but we had a great location. We were in room 7051 and were farther down than last time.
I really feel like we did CL right this time. No dining plan and we didn't plan a bunch of dinner ADR's, we decided to do a few lunches this time. We took advantage of the CL offerings at dinner time and then when we went to the evening park we were able to pick up a snack or share something. I didn't feel as full at night. The evening foods were awesome this trip. We had the Angus Beef stew twice, Salmon stew once, different styles of chicken skewers (my son's favorite), bacon wrapped scallops one night and the best - pulled pork mini sandwiches with slaw and a really tasty BBQ sauce. I even got my son to try one, he loved it.
Somethings I noticed this time, compared to last time - it seemed like there were ALOT of families with LOTS of kids on the CL floor. Not a bad thing - but - why don't parents watch their kids?? One morning there were three little boys in the food area just open pouring the juices out of the containers! Really?? Pretty much every morning we were awaken by a family running through the halls, yelling! Disney is for all types of families - we have a son who is 11 and we are able to stay at the parks until close and then sleep in a little in the morning. Our son sleeps till 7:30/8:00, we are not rope drop people!! I don't understand why people don't understand that they are not the only ones in the hotel. It wouldn't have been a big deal if I happened one morning, but it happened every morning and it wasn't always the same family. AND parents were encouraging the behavior - yelling in the hall "I'm gonna get you! You can't beat me!" Which was followed by yelling, running, screaming...
Bonnie was awesome on the club floor. She must have been off our last two days because we didn't see her but I really appreciated her attentiveness and kindness.
We had an amazing housekeeper - Sam. She worked so hard and our room showed it. It was spotless everyday. She left really cute animal towels - a bunny, an elephant...
Speaking of housekeeping - interesting story. Sunday night we were sitting on the far side of the lounge, where the comfy chairs are, relaxing. I just happened to look up and there were a ton of cobwebs on the very tippy top windows of the lodge. I showed my husband and we just remarked how high those windows are and that it's probably hard to clean them. The next night, my husband was sitting out there in the same area around 11/11:30, reading - he's a night owl and he hears this whirring noise. He looks out towards the lobby and there is a guy, on a crane, coming up to the top of the lodge! He cleaned the windows and ALL of the exposed beams!!!
I got to run - planning meeting... will come back with more later.
To answer the question of the tree in the lobby - it must be going up soon. We saw them wheeling chairs out of the lobby yesterday morning and it the furniture looked a little sparse. I asked when we checked in last Friday (11/2) when the tree was going up and the CM told me it would probably be up by the end of the following week (11/9).
Debbie

Welcome back! Not a great greeting returning to a dead battery - ugh.

You and others are reporting high resort/pool crowds during the past week or two. I'm sorry you didn't get one of the two 'Bear Face' rooms. They are located in such a way that you wouldn't have really heard folks running up and down hallways yelling which is another reason they're so nice. It does ruin it for everyone when lounge behavior isn't monitored. But, if one of the parents was fooling around in the hallway along with the kids, it probably wouldn't have helped if they were 'monitoring' lounge behavior

Thanks for reporting on the decorations for those going soon. I love your cobweb story!

[WDWKOOK]

Originally Posted by dreamcruiser

Thanks, KOOK! I'm not sure I'll figure it out, but I'll try. I'll use yours to make things easy!

Edited to add..Sorry, I tried but I don't even know how to find "copy the image address"! Wish I was more savvy!

If your mouse doesn't have the option for you to 'right click' on the image and have a menu appear with 'copy image address' as an option, then either go to those two sites I posted or below is the actual image address for the ticker I made for you.

Just copy the address and paste it into your signature. You will need to add [IMG] at the front and [/IMG] to the end. Then you can 'preview your signature' and the ticker should appear.

Copy this and add [IMG] to the front and [/IMG] end:

http://www.mickeypath.com/id/1366700404.jpg

[dreamcruiser]

I must be an idiot! I did as you said, using the ticker you made for me, and it's not showing up!

Well, I just saw it but it's not in image form...

[WDWKOOK]

Originally Posted by dreamcruiser

I must be an idiot! I did as you said, using the ticker you made for me, and it's not showing up!

Well, I just saw it but it's not in image form...

Just noticed that I forgot to tell you to add a backslash to the last IMG only - the [/IMG] at the end.

Add / to the IMG at the end and it will look like this: [/IMG] and it should work better for you.