We just got back from our 1st ever trip to WDW yesterday. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. Here's a rundown of our stay, what I learned, and what I hope will help other 1st timers.
Here's the details. We booked through Disney Travel back in September for a week's stay for myself, my wife and our 4 kids (ages 6 through 14). We flew United from Boise, ID and used ME and onsite transportation. We also booked the dining plan. We stayed in a Jr. Suite (AKA a "deluxe" room) which included club-level access.
So, my 1st piece of advice, especially if you're flying out of a smaller airport is to allow plenty of flexibility in your travel plans, especially when traveling this time of year. Our original plans were to fly out on the morning of Friday, Jan. 16th, and return the evening of Friday, Jan. 23rd. But, due to fog at our airport, the 1st leg of our flight was delayed about 45 minutes, which would have caused us to miss our connecting flight through Chicago, so United canceled our flight, forcing us to rebook for the next day. As you can imagine, this kicked off a chain reaction of missed dining reservations, etc.. Also, we wanted to preserve our 7 day trip. So, we were able to change our departure date.
Hint: if you find yourself faced with this problem, have the airline book all changes to the flights (departing and returning) at the moment your flight gets canceled. Only the airline can do that without incurring rebooking fees. Also, Disney travel won't make any extensions to a trip until you have the air portion taken care of first.
Another hint: when traveling, have your airline phone number, disney travel, your resort and Disney dining phone numbers handy, such as in your cell phone.
United wasn't that pleasant to deal with, and they changed our return flight to a 6:46 a.m. flight out of Orlando
Luckily, things worked out better on the Disney end. The wilderness Lodge was able to find us two connecting rooms for the 7th day, and did a great job of helping us move from our suite to the two rooms (in fact, they even upgraded the two rooms to 7th floor club level rooms with an MK view at no extra charge!).
So, we finally arrive in Orlando with what I thought was plenty of time to get to the WL, check in and catch a boat over to our 1st dining reservation, 7:15 dinner at the Hoop-dee-doo. But, we wound up cutting it very close. Again, continuing with the theme of allowing for plenty of extra time between events
Turns out, the WL shares the Magical Express bus route with the Contemporary, Polynesian, and Grand Floridian. We were 3rd on the drop off list. But, once we arrived at the WL, Andre from the concierge desk met us in the lobby, we dropped off our carry on bags at the concierge desk, he took us to our room, got us settled in, and when bell services delivered our carry on bags, he met us in the lobby and had a van waiting to drive us to the Ft. Wilderness campground on the service roads so we arrived just in time to get our tickets and walk right in!
I've seen quite a few threads here with people asking if getting a concierge/club level room is worth the extra cost. For us, it was. Not only do you get access to the concierge lounge, the extra services really made a difference, especially for 1st timers like us. They handled all of our dining reservations, and really went out of their way to make sure things were taken care of. I think we would have spent a LOT more time doing these things ourselves instead of enjoying our time.
The concierge room was great, too. We had breakfast every day there. There was plenty of food in the morning, with bagels, toast, mini-muffins, fresh fruit, orange, apply and cranberry juice, coffee, tea, and fresh oatmeal. While not a full breakfast, it was more than enough to get us started for the day.
In the evening, they always had at least one hot dish out, including fresh chicken noodle soup, beef stroganoff, a sausage dish, etc... For you beer drinkers out there, they had Miller Lite, Heineken, Bud, Bud Lite and my personal Favorite, Bass!
The room was great, a bit tight, but certainly enough room for the 6 of us. We spent our 1st 6 nights in room 5000, with a great lake view, and a decent view of the MK from the secondary balcony. It was a very quiet room, too. We took the stairs down for easy access to the pool and boat dock, but it was a bit of a hike to the lobby and bus stop. For our last night, they moved us to connecting rooms on the 7th floor, also very nice and a great view of the castle at the MK.
Transportation was really nice. For trips to the Magic Kingdom, we took the boat, which as fast and convenient. We also took the boat to the Contemporary, then hopped the monorail to Epcot. The only downside we encountered was due to the unseasonably cold weather we encountered. the boat ride was really cold! One day the high-temp didn't even crack 50 degrees, and there was quite a bit of wind, that made a trip in an open boat very cold.
Apart from that, though, boat, bus and monorail more than met our transportation needs. I've heard people say having a car is much easier, but I can't imagine how. Boats and buses drop you off at the front entrance of a park, you don't have to find a parking space, deal with traffic in and out of the parking lots, a bus is never more that a few minutes wait, and at the end of a long day at the parks, I was exhausted and couldn't imagine having to summon the energy to drive back to our resort. Letting someone else do the driving was great. One of the drivers mentioned that there are around 1200 bus drivers that work for Disney and at any given time during park hours, 500 are working. For us, Disney transportation was great (as long as you give yourself enough time to get to a reservation, etc...).
finally, one thing I'd recommend for those with a lot of traveling is to set aside your 1st day as a flex day. After a busy day of travel, don't try to tackle too much at once. Use the time to get yourself oriented, relax, and maybe hit a park with no expectations other than to check things out and take in the sites.
I hope this info helps, and if anyone has specific questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Here's the details. We booked through Disney Travel back in September for a week's stay for myself, my wife and our 4 kids (ages 6 through 14). We flew United from Boise, ID and used ME and onsite transportation. We also booked the dining plan. We stayed in a Jr. Suite (AKA a "deluxe" room) which included club-level access.
So, my 1st piece of advice, especially if you're flying out of a smaller airport is to allow plenty of flexibility in your travel plans, especially when traveling this time of year. Our original plans were to fly out on the morning of Friday, Jan. 16th, and return the evening of Friday, Jan. 23rd. But, due to fog at our airport, the 1st leg of our flight was delayed about 45 minutes, which would have caused us to miss our connecting flight through Chicago, so United canceled our flight, forcing us to rebook for the next day. As you can imagine, this kicked off a chain reaction of missed dining reservations, etc.. Also, we wanted to preserve our 7 day trip. So, we were able to change our departure date.
Hint: if you find yourself faced with this problem, have the airline book all changes to the flights (departing and returning) at the moment your flight gets canceled. Only the airline can do that without incurring rebooking fees. Also, Disney travel won't make any extensions to a trip until you have the air portion taken care of first.
Another hint: when traveling, have your airline phone number, disney travel, your resort and Disney dining phone numbers handy, such as in your cell phone.
United wasn't that pleasant to deal with, and they changed our return flight to a 6:46 a.m. flight out of Orlando
Luckily, things worked out better on the Disney end. The wilderness Lodge was able to find us two connecting rooms for the 7th day, and did a great job of helping us move from our suite to the two rooms (in fact, they even upgraded the two rooms to 7th floor club level rooms with an MK view at no extra charge!).
So, we finally arrive in Orlando with what I thought was plenty of time to get to the WL, check in and catch a boat over to our 1st dining reservation, 7:15 dinner at the Hoop-dee-doo. But, we wound up cutting it very close. Again, continuing with the theme of allowing for plenty of extra time between events
Turns out, the WL shares the Magical Express bus route with the Contemporary, Polynesian, and Grand Floridian. We were 3rd on the drop off list. But, once we arrived at the WL, Andre from the concierge desk met us in the lobby, we dropped off our carry on bags at the concierge desk, he took us to our room, got us settled in, and when bell services delivered our carry on bags, he met us in the lobby and had a van waiting to drive us to the Ft. Wilderness campground on the service roads so we arrived just in time to get our tickets and walk right in! I've seen quite a few threads here with people asking if getting a concierge/club level room is worth the extra cost. For us, it was. Not only do you get access to the concierge lounge, the extra services really made a difference, especially for 1st timers like us. They handled all of our dining reservations, and really went out of their way to make sure things were taken care of. I think we would have spent a LOT more time doing these things ourselves instead of enjoying our time.
The concierge room was great, too. We had breakfast every day there. There was plenty of food in the morning, with bagels, toast, mini-muffins, fresh fruit, orange, apply and cranberry juice, coffee, tea, and fresh oatmeal. While not a full breakfast, it was more than enough to get us started for the day.
In the evening, they always had at least one hot dish out, including fresh chicken noodle soup, beef stroganoff, a sausage dish, etc... For you beer drinkers out there, they had Miller Lite, Heineken, Bud, Bud Lite and my personal Favorite, Bass!
The room was great, a bit tight, but certainly enough room for the 6 of us. We spent our 1st 6 nights in room 5000, with a great lake view, and a decent view of the MK from the secondary balcony. It was a very quiet room, too. We took the stairs down for easy access to the pool and boat dock, but it was a bit of a hike to the lobby and bus stop. For our last night, they moved us to connecting rooms on the 7th floor, also very nice and a great view of the castle at the MK.
Transportation was really nice. For trips to the Magic Kingdom, we took the boat, which as fast and convenient. We also took the boat to the Contemporary, then hopped the monorail to Epcot. The only downside we encountered was due to the unseasonably cold weather we encountered. the boat ride was really cold! One day the high-temp didn't even crack 50 degrees, and there was quite a bit of wind, that made a trip in an open boat very cold.
Apart from that, though, boat, bus and monorail more than met our transportation needs. I've heard people say having a car is much easier, but I can't imagine how. Boats and buses drop you off at the front entrance of a park, you don't have to find a parking space, deal with traffic in and out of the parking lots, a bus is never more that a few minutes wait, and at the end of a long day at the parks, I was exhausted and couldn't imagine having to summon the energy to drive back to our resort. Letting someone else do the driving was great. One of the drivers mentioned that there are around 1200 bus drivers that work for Disney and at any given time during park hours, 500 are working. For us, Disney transportation was great (as long as you give yourself enough time to get to a reservation, etc...).
finally, one thing I'd recommend for those with a lot of traveling is to set aside your 1st day as a flex day. After a busy day of travel, don't try to tackle too much at once. Use the time to get yourself oriented, relax, and maybe hit a park with no expectations other than to check things out and take in the sites.
I hope this info helps, and if anyone has specific questions, don't hesitate to ask.
... any thoughts which you thinks would be easier.
Very informative and entertaining. Infotainment, as it was called in Adventurer's Club. 
Not a pretty sight. 
Please share any photos of the WL you may have with us at the thread below.
