(CLOSED) Disney's WILDERNESS LODGE and VILLAS INFORMATION THREAD ~11/13 - 6/14~

[pigletto]

2 weeks!!! 2 weeks from today I will be at WL and lucky sign- the characters visits are going on that evening still. We were hoping this would be the case but had not seen the post yet. How fun to have this the day we arrive..actually right around the time we will get all settled in.

I am sorry I can't seem to find the post mentioning that. Where did you see it?

 

[Tinkerbellsmomma]

Here is a picture of the 2014 bounce back offer in the Be Our Guest booklet in our packet. You have to look for it in the folder with all the other information.

This is for 2014? What is breakdown of discounts to resorts?

 

[Wood Nymph]

This is for 2014? What is breakdown of discounts to resorts?

Yes, it is the 2014 discounts. I edited my earlier post to include all the information on the bounce back.

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=50228159&postcount=220

 

[mystery222184]

So we got back for our 8 day stay last night. Besides the suspected food poisoning our last day/night, we had a great time.

I was honestly a bit worried about how the Lodge would stack up against the GF and Poly, especially being off the monorail, but everything was great. The decorations and music in the background were perfect. I love the setup on the 7th floor and there was always ample seating. The Lodge may be my new favorite resort!

Besides a few bus/boat delays which we expected, the transportation was fine. We were in a honeymoon suite and loved the room. The CM's were great on the 7th floor and were more than willing to help out. They actually had ordered a few cases of Tusker beer for a guest as he requested it after having at the AKL. So once they checked out, they offered the rest to us and others throughout the day

Despite some questionable reviews we wanted to try an Epcot resort when we come for F&W next year so we booked the YC for the first 3 nights. However, we had such a fantastic time at the Lodge that we made it a split stay and will be returning October 28th - November 1st for the final 4 nights of the trip!

Already counting down the days!

 

[Wood Nymph]

I completely forgot to post the dates for our return trip to WL. Kook, would you add us to the Lodger's Log for Oct 22 - 27, 2014. We are really looking forward to another WL trip.

We really had a great time at the WL last week. We hardly went on any rides but found plenty of things to do. We watched a show at the castle for the first time ever, and DH asked if this was something new. I told them they have been having them all along, you just never wanted to watch them before.

The WL lobby was really busy, especially on the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving. There were a lot of people all dressed up in their holiday best, getting their pictures taken for Christmas. Here is a picture with the Photopass photographers set up for the night.

There were similar trees at AKL and GF, with PP photographers set up at those resorts.

We found a very quiet place to hang out in the villas. I became fascinated by this fireplace. The mantel is crooked. The wood has warped and it twists, something that you can hardly see in this picture, but is obvious if you look at it from the side. If you look closely at the mortar under the mantle, you'll see that it is thicker on the right side.

The fire screen is very unique.

We never made it to the MK in time to catch the opening show. We missed the boat by one minute, and then the next boat took forever. We'll have to add that to our "To Do" list for our Oct trip.

Wednesday was a really nice day. DH was getting a cold, so we didn't rush or hurry anywhere. I had gluten-free Mickey waffles from Roaring Forks, crossing another "to do" off my list. Then we took the boat to MK so that we could finish our Christmas shopping. We went on a couple of rides then headed over to the GF to check out the gingerbread house. The gingerbread house is very pretty but I thought that the chocolate-gingerbread carousel at the Beach Club was more amazing.

We walked over to the Polynesian to have pork nachos at Captain Cooks. The nachos were delicious and big enough for the two of us to share. Along with our refillable mug, we had a really inexpensive lunch. We took the monorail from there to the CR, hitting all three monorail resorts that morning. This time we got lucky and were able to catch the boat to the WL from CR right away.

I went swimming at the Hidden Springs pool while DH took a nap. His cold was getting worse and he needed to rest. Later that afternoon we walked over to Fort Wilderness for dinner. It was dusk and the deer were out. We saw a small herd that had two young deer. The food was good at Trails End and they had apple cobbler that night. My favorite, though, was the fried chicken - yum.

Thursday was check out day. We had early lunch fastpasses for Be Our Guest before we headed to the airport. It was our second time at BOG for lunch. I had made the reservation a few days earlier, I even pre-ordered the meal. But when we got to the podium the reservation wasn't there. The computers were acting up and one of the CM's couldn't even get a signal. He said it was just spinning. The other CM took down my MB serial number and let us in, anyway. Then it was back to the WL to catch the ME. It was a lovely trip.

 

[Grace&Carolinesmom]

Wood Nymph Thank you so much for the lovely review and all the pics. It was very interesting to see the view pics from that area of the resort as well as the detailed description of your experience of that location. It sounds very nice. Most reviews here seem to be of the other woods views on the north side over the otter pond. Thanks again for sharing

 

[bluecastle]

Snow day here and how do I spend it? Catching up on my favorite DIS thread, of course! Thank you all, especially woodnymph, for sharing your planning, trip reports, and photos. I almost feel like I just spent the past hour right there with you! I am also copying and pasting to my WDW notes- especially the FP+ info. Thanks again!!

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

dot

 

[WDWKOOK]

Hi - I just asked to be added to the log, for September, a few days ago but we are changing resorts. My husband loved the BCR on our last stay and can't bring himself to try a new resort. He loves the short walk to Epcot and is afraid he'll be disappointed with another. So, unless we change our minds again (which is possible!) you can take us off for now. Maybe next time we'll get to try the WL! Hope everyone has a great stay!

Thanks

There's always a split stay. Have a fun time at BC.

2 weeks!!! 2 weeks from today I will be at WL and lucky sign- the characters visits are going on that evening still. We were hoping this would be the case but had not seen the post yet. How fun to have this the day we arrive..actually right around the time we will get all settled in.

Just spent two nights in room 7185 (honeymoon suite) in celebration of our 50 th anniversary. Lodge is beautiful, cl cma were great but just did not have the Disney "feel" as with our five previous visits! Maybe we've just gotten too old! While the cl lounge is nice we did not feel like it was worth the additional money. I'll be happy to answer any questions! Btw, we had a great view of MK fireworks from our strange balcony!

Congratulations on your 50th anniversary! That's a BIG one and I wish you many, many more.

We arrived at WL yesterday. We like our room on the 3rd floor courtyard view and the staff has been fantastic!

Enjoy the rest of your stay!

We got back from WL last Thursday night. I had full day of work, a day of errands, and now I have finally gotten my room view pictures ready to post.

We were in room 3104. The room was above the Cub's Den, the third room from the left, half hidden by the roof, the one with the open curtain in this picture. This is right next to the walkway to the buses and the villas.

Here is a picture of the balcony. When I saw that we had an enclosed balcony, I was initially really disappointed because we had an enclosed balcony on our last trip and I really wanted an open one this time. But then I really liked it after all. It is bigger and not as deep as a dormer balcony, so that was good.

This is the view looking straight out of the room. As you can see, we were right over the Cub's Den. That is the play area. We never heard any noise from there, but then we kept the balcony door shut. We had a view of the villas building.

Here is the view looking to the right. That is the walkway to the buses and villas. People can be very loud when they are walking to and from the buses, but if we kept the door closed we didn't hear them. We didn't hear the buses, either.

This is the view to the right. We were on the south side of the resort and that is the south wing of the WL. You can see that we were right above a roof.

This was the view I had when sitting on the bed. One of the reasons I liked this room was because no one could see me when I was on the bed. And really no one could see us at all unless they happened to be standing on their balcony at the villas. In fact, the first picture is taken from ground level and there isn't any way to see in the room from there, either.

We had some cute towel animals. Our lodgekeeper was Devora and she loved making towel animals.

The room was located on the third floor and we were right across from the ice machine, which we never heard, and the staircase down to the second floor, which is the lobby level. It was really quick and easy to get to the lobby from our room. The room was about as close to the Mercantile and exit to the buses as you can get. It was a very quiet room. We only heard the people above us one time. It was a great location.

Thank you for your thorough TR with photos. I'm going to post a link on the first page to your review and photos

Yes, it is the 2014 discounts. I edited my earlier post to include all the information on the bounce back.

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=50228159&postcount=220

Thank you for posting the BB details. I'm also going to post a link on the first page

So we got back for our 8 day stay last night. Besides the suspected food poisoning our last day/night, we had a great time.

I was honestly a bit worried about how the Lodge would stack up against the GF and Poly, especially being off the monorail, but everything was great. The decorations and music in the background were perfect. I love the setup on the 7th floor and there was always ample seating. The Lodge may be my new favorite resort!

Besides a few bus/boat delays which we expected, the transportation was fine. We were in a honeymoon suite and loved the room. The CM's were great on the 7th floor and were more than willing to help out. They actually had ordered a few cases of Tusker beer for a guest as he requested it after having at the AKL. So once they checked out, they offered the rest to us and others throughout the day

Despite some questionable reviews we wanted to try an Epcot resort when we come for F&W next year so we booked the YC for the first 3 nights. However, we had such a fantastic time at the Lodge that we made it a split stay and will be returning October 28th - November 1st for the final 4 nights of the trip!

Already counting down the days!

Sounds like a great vacation, other than being sick your last night. It's so warm and cozy up on the 7th floor and the Lodge is so inviting. I'll post your BB dates to the Lodgers' Log.

I completely forgot to post the dates for our return trip to WL. Kook, would you add us to the Lodger's Log for Oct 22 - 27, 2014. We are really looking forward to another WL trip.

We really had a great time at the WL last week. We hardly went on any rides but found plenty of things to do. We watched a show at the castle for the first time ever, and DH asked if this was something new. I told them they have been having them all along, you just never wanted to watch them before.

The WL lobby was really busy, especially on the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving. There were a lot of people all dressed up in their holiday best, getting their pictures taken for Christmas. Here is a picture with the Photopass photographers set up for the night.

There were similar trees at AKL and GF, with PP photographers set up at those resorts.

We found a very quiet place to hang out in the villas. I became fascinated by this fireplace. The mantel is crooked. The wood has warped and it twists, something that you can hardly see in this picture, but is obvious if you look at it from the side. If you look closely at the mortar under the mantle, you'll see that it is thicker on the right side.

The fire screen is very unique.

We never made it to the MK in time to catch the opening show. We missed the boat by one minute, and then the next boat took forever. We'll have to add that to our "To Do" list for our Oct trip.

Wednesday was a really nice day. DH was getting a cold, so we didn't rush or hurry anywhere. I had gluten-free Mickey waffles from Roaring Forks, crossing another "to do" off my list. Then we took the boat to MK so that we could finish our Christmas shopping. We went on a couple of rides then headed over to the GF to check out the gingerbread house. The gingerbread house is very pretty but I thought that the chocolate-gingerbread carousel at the Beach Club was more amazing.

We walked over to the Polynesian to have pork nachos at Captain Cooks. The nachos were delicious and big enough for the two of us to share. Along with our refillable mug, we had a really inexpensive lunch. We took the monorail from there to the CR, hitting all three monorail resorts that morning. This time we got lucky and were able to catch the boat to the WL from CR right away.

I went swimming at the Hidden Springs pool while DH took a nap. His cold was getting worse and he needed to rest. Later that afternoon we walked over to Fort Wilderness for dinner. It was dusk and the deer were out. We saw a small herd that had two young deer. The food was good at Trails End and they had apple cobbler that night. My favorite, though, was the fried chicken - yum.

Thursday was check out day. We had early lunch fastpasses for Be Our Guest before we headed to the airport. It was our second time at BOG for lunch. I had made the reservation a few days earlier, I even pre-ordered the meal. But when we got to the podium the reservation wasn't there. The computers were acting up and one of the CM's couldn't even get a signal. He said it was just spinning. The other CM took down my MB serial number and let us in, anyway. Then it was back to the WL to catch the ME. It was a lovely trip.

Regarding the VWL crooked mantel: On the Lodge tour, Jack explains that the villa's decor is comprised of a missed-matched style of furniture and fabrics because the early settlers brought their own materials with them from the East which mixed-in with the materials of the West. The mantel is crooked to represent a more novice/amateurish and imperfect style of woodcraft that might have been seen in local homes.

I like your more relaxed vacation-style. Thank you again for another great recap of your stay with photos and I'll add you to the LL.

Wood Nymph Thank you so much for the lovely review and all the pics. It was very interesting to see the view pics from that area of the resort as well as the detailed description of your experience of that location. It sounds very nice. Most reviews here seem to be of the other woods views on the north side over the otter pond. Thanks again for sharing

Good point about how nice it is to read about a Woods View room in the South Wing.

Snow day here and how do I spend it? Catching up on my favorite DIS thread, of course! Thank you all, especially woodnymph, for sharing your planning, trip reports, and photos. I almost feel like I just spent the past hour right there with you! I am also copying and pasting to my WDW notes- especially the FP+ info. Thanks again!!

"Snow" day here, too, but mostly icy. More snow is due tomorrow though and I see that my weather widget is reporting 82 now in WDW

 

[WDWKOOK]

I am sorry I can't seem to find the post mentioning that. Where did you see it?

I hope they aren't thinking of this flyer I posted a few days ago

It shows the 22nd as the last day for the characters, but the flyer is from 2010 so I don't think the dates would be exactly the same this year.

 

[NicoleLarson]

Does anyone have any info on a special dinner at WCC on New Years Day? Our reservations say "New Years Day Dinner" and allears mentioned that there is a special dinner that day but I can't find anything specific on it. I thought that I would ask here first and then try the restaurant board. I just want to make sure we didn't sign up for a $50 (+) prix fixe dinner. Also do you think my DVC discount will work for this meal?

 

[WDWKOOK]

Does anyone have any info on a special dinner at WCC on New Years Day? Our reservations say "New Years Day Dinner" and allears mentioned that there is a special dinner that day but I can't find anything specific on it. I thought that I would ask here first and then try the restaurant board. I just want to make sure we didn't sign up for a $50 (+) prix fixe dinner. Also do you think my DVC discount will work for this meal?

You haven't registered for a prix fixe meal because you would have most likely been charged in advance and only the two TS credit restaurants offer them. For example, there is a (very expensive) NYE meal at CA Grill that requires pre-payment, but on Christmas Day there isn't a different menu, that I'm aware of, (someone please correct me if I'm wrong about that.)

Some of the TS restaurants offer special (read: generic) meals on holidays. We were actually disappointed that in 2010 we ate at WCC on Christmas Day and the usual menu wasn't offered and instead it was more like a Thanksgiving-type meal.

You won't be able to use any discounts for dining. Discounts, such as TiW, AP and DVC are blacked-out in December on Christmas Eve and Day and NYE and Day. We have CA Grill booked Christmas Day and I am really going to miss our TiW 20% discount

 

[LB1122]

The flyer I saw was 2010...sorry
BUT...I contacted the IPO and asked about character visit schedule and was told they would be on the 22nd 4:30-8ish..not sure if this is the only day..Santa is comung on the 24

 

[rebeccam31]

Could you add us to the 2014 roster? We will be staying club level from November 30 to December 8. Thank you.

It will be our first time staying at the Wilderness Lodge (we only set foot in it for the first time last week!).

 

[pmaurer74]

We have an ADR at the GF at 8am.... do all the MK buses stop at the GF before going to MK? I thought I remembered them doing that. Would you suggest that or taking the ferry to MK then the ferry to GF or bus to MK/monorail to GF?

 

[WDWKOOK]

We have an ADR at the GF at 8am.... do all the MK buses stop at the GF before going to MK? I thought I remembered them doing that. Would you suggest that or taking the ferry to MK then the ferry to GF or bus to MK/monorail to GF?

The MK is always non-stop and never stops at another resort except during early ADR hours. At 6:30, there is a MK/MK Resort Area Early ADR bus you can take to the GF which I would recommend. The AK/TL/DHS/DTD/BB buses also stop first at GF, but make sure to tell the bus driver when you get on.

For more information, HERE is the first page section on transportation option/times.

 

[WDWKOOK]

The flyer I saw was 2010...sorry
BUT...I contacted the IPO and asked about character visit schedule and was told they would be on the 22nd 4:30-8ish..not sure if this is the only day..Santa is comung on the 24

I wonder which characters will appear? Thank you for posting the 12/22 times! I'll have to make a point of looking out for them in the evening.

Could you add us to the 2014 roster? We will be staying club level from November 30 to December 8. Thank you.

It will be our first time staying at the Wilderness Lodge (we only set foot in it for the first time last week!).

You will just love The Old Faithful Club! Congratulations! Make sure you have at least one resort day to explore the resort and grounds and take the free Lodge tour.

 

[pmaurer74]

The MK is always non-stop and never stops at another resort except during early ADR hours. At 6:30, there is a MK/MK Resort Area Early ADR bus you can take to the GF which I would recommend. The AK/TL/DHS/DTD/BB buses also stop first at GF, but make sure to tell the bus driver when you get on.

For more information, HERE is the first page section on transportation option/times.

Thanks!

 

[nimbuscat]

After the week I have had (sick kid, crappy weather, husband out of town, overwhelmed with work and school)...I need my Disney trip to HURRY UP ALREADY!!! Actually, if I can just make it to the 24th, I'll be good...whew!

 

[crazy4wdw]

Allearsnet has a new YouTube video posted of the Christmas decorations at the Lodge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvjPmAclriQ&feature=youtu.be

Looking forward to seeing them in 2014!