Wow, I'm not surprised you had to create a new thread while we were away having fun! We didn't have a computer with us so I'm not caught up yet but thought I'd try to post here and keep up from this point. Photos will come later but I concentrated on grandson and don't really have significant lodge photos to add to your collection. An 8 year old kept this 68 year old much more active than her arthritic body is used to! Thank heavens for leftover pain pills from orthopedic surgery
We arrived home last night following our 1 week stay at Disneys Wilderness Lodge. Here is just a quick recap of our trip taken November 14 21, 2013.
We flew into MCO and took the Magical Express. From stepping off the plane to arrival at WL took around 80 minutes. ME dropped off passengers at the Poly and GF before WL. Check-in went smoothly with no lines. We had booked Woods View with bunk beds. I requested 5th floor, North Wing, Wishes view. We were given room 4020 which is in North Wing and it had a fairly good view of Wishes through the trees. I had also asked for special cleaning due to allergies. In February we had asked for special cleaning at Port Orleans Riverside and that room was spotless. This was not the case at WL. The major dirt was the floor of the closet that had been completely missed. I discovered that as I dropped DHs navy pants while I was trying to clip them onto a hanger and they fell to the floor and were instantly covered in dust and long hair. Other than that, the room was fine and DGS enjoyed having the top bunk to sleep in and the lower bunk to spread some of his stuff on. We still found him taking over our bed to play on at various points, lol.
Our Magic Bands worked perfectly for everything; room entry, charges & most importantly FP+. We were all issued KTTW cards at check-in and I pulled some regular FPs with those.
Crowds were low, as expected, during our week. Toy Story Midway Mania was the only Fast Pass attraction that had no passes left for the day by around 10 am so Im glad we were able to book FP+ for that one especially. We were able to pull extra FPs for Soarin as late as 3:30 pm with a return time of 6:20 7:20 pm. We had FP+ for Soarin between 10 11 am and could have pulled extra FPs then but they were for a time wed be in World Showcase. Our other FP+ in EP were TT & MS in the afternoon but their stand-by waits were only 10 15 minutes when we used our FP+. So MS was another attraction we did twice in a row.
Magic Kingdom was the park we visited twice, while AK, EP & DHS were each done once. The only rope drop we made was day 1 for the MK. Therefore, FP+ worked especially nice for us. On Big Thunder Mountain DGS learned that he did not like big roller coasters screaming that he wanted to get off only ¼ of the way through the ride. So I knew then to use
MDE to change experiences in place of Space Mountain and that he could skip the single rider lines for RNRC and Dinosaur which we didnt plan on doing ourselves. Splash Mountain was such a hit that we did it 4 times! Surprisingly, the stand-by wait was only 10 minutes when we were there.
We only had one mostly rainy day which was Saturday, the 16th. We did Animal Kingdom that day and shortened our itinerary there due to the hassle of being in and out of our ponchos. Im glad we got to see FOTLK, a favorite show of mine, since it will be on hiatus prior to its move to new location when DH & I return in February. Also, the animals on Kilimanjaro Safaris were all out and about in the rain including the male lion and two lionesses. We also saw the zebras while on KS this time. We abandoned our plans for our favorite CS (Flame Tree BBQ) due to the rain but walked in and were seated at Yak & Yeti which still had plenty of space at 11:30 am. They were full by the time we finished our lunch. Not knowing if the Jingle Jangle Parade would go on due to the rain we left the park around 3 pm and grandson got a lot of homework done once we got back to our room.
Special Magical experience thanks to staff at WL: Travis checked us in and I inquired about rooftop Wishes viewing. He did some checking and set that up for us for Nov. 15th which was a
MVMCP night with the larger fireworks show. We reported to the Concierge Desk at 9:15 pm and Samuel took us up to the 7th floor. From there we walked through a door and up the stairs to the 7 1/2th floor. The next door leads outside and you walk up several more steps outdoors to a small section of rooftop. We were the only ones up there with Samuel who said this is his favorite part of working at WL. Seeing all of Magic Kingdom lit up and watching the fireworks from here was truly beautiful. Of course, you also can see the CR and if you turn around 180 degrees you can see Spaceship Earth in the far distance.
Pixie Dusted in DHS by a CM near Star Tours who gave DGS a FP for up to 3 guests for one more trip on Star Tours any time that day. This was after we had gone stand-by once and used our FP+ for a second consecutive ride.
Pixie dusted a second time by WL when we requested late check out on our departure day since we did not have to be ready for ME to MCO until 1 pm. We were given an extra hour to noon. We just made that. DGS got his extra 75 minutes in the pool in the morning and showered in our room after. We took our roll aboards into RF to grab our lunches and then had just enough time for Photo Pass shots in front of the WL Christmas tree.
Lifetime memories continued as we were in the jet way to board our flight home and the captain passed by us. I mentioned to him that this trip had been the first one for our grandson to remember because his only other flights were when he was a year old. The captain then spoke to Jason and told him to take a left turn when he stepped on the plane and come to visit him to see how he flew the plane. J. was invited to sit in the co-pilots seat, I was surprised how much time the captain took talking with him & showing him how the controls work etc. Such a kind gesture of that fine gentleman.
I'll try to keep up with this new thread to answer any questions.
. Now, if we can just get you to book something so I can add you to the LL
.
to the DIS and the WL/VWL thread, smtowngrl!
