Disney's WILDERNESS LODGE Information & Questions

[jamie123]

many thanks

I have a couple of pictures of the dormer balcony. The first one was taken while standing on the balcony and looking down the roof line. The second picture was taken while standing in the room and looking toward the balcony. There are two chairs and a small table on the balcony and the top edge is chest height. You have to stand to look out.

The studios will be scattered throughout the resort, but we did see many studios on the ground floor that were not attached to villas. As far as requests go, your room most likely will face either the main pool or the villas pool, so you might want to decide which one you'd like to have.

 

[VAfamily1998]

With all the construction, are they still doing the tours of the lodge? I stayed at WL back in early 2014 and remember taking the tour. I'm hoping my sons will be able to take the tour when we are there in August (it would be on a thursday morning.)
Thanks!

 

[Wood Nymph]

With all the construction, are they still doing the tours of the lodge? I stayed at WL back in early 2014 and remember taking the tour. I'm hoping my sons will be able to take the tour when we are there in August (it would be on a thursday morning.)
Thanks!

Yes, they are still doing the tours. In fact, we saw a tour group when we were there in March.

 

[rea59]

I see that construction is going. Does anyone know if rooms are being updated. We're staying in a deluxe club level room 8/28 through 8/31 and I'm wondering if we will be affected by the construction.
Thanks

 

[Wood Nymph]

I see that construction is going. Does anyone know if rooms are being updated. We're staying in a deluxe club level room 8/28 through 8/31 and I'm wondering if we will be affected by the construction.
Thanks

There hasn't been any announcement of a room refurbishment for the Wilderness Lodge rooms. They were last refurbished in 2012. I don't know how often they get refurbished. I had asked a CM back in January 2016 if they planned to refurbish the WL rooms to match the new DVC units in the south wing but the CM said that there weren't any plans to do that at that time. So who knows what will happen. Disney is very elusive when it comes to these things.

 

[VAfamily1998]

Does anyone have any recent experience with parking at WL?
I am heading down in August with my two teenagers to look at colleges in Florida, then spending a few days at WL. We will need a rental car for the college tour part--and I'm trying to decide if I should return the rental car before going to Disney, or just keep it. If we return the car early, the total cost is about $87. If we keep it the whole time, the total cost will be about $228.

In general I prefer to rely on Disney transportation instead of driving. The last college we visit before going to Disney is in Melbourne, FL--so it's about 1.5 hour drive from Disney. On our last day, we have a lunch reservation at Disney Springs, and then our flight leaves at 6 pm--so if we returned our rental car, we'd have to head all the way back from Disney springs to go to WL to catch the magical express...and it seems easier to be able to just go straight from Disney Springs to the airport, which is a "pro" in favor of keeping the rental car...

But I just worry about parking issues at the resorts that I've heard about. If it makes a difference, we'd probably arrive at WL around 5 or 6 pm on a Wednesday night.

 

[Wood Nymph]

But I just worry about parking issues at the resorts that I've heard about. If it makes a difference, we'd probably arrive at WL around 5 or 6 pm on a Wednesday night.

WL has restricted their parking lot so that only guests staying at the resort and those with valid ADR's will be able to stay there. I haven't heard of any problems parking here. The monorail resorts and Epcot resorts bear the brunt of the cheaters.

 

[VAfamily1998]

WL has restricted their parking lot so that only guests staying at the resort and those with valid ADR's will be able to stay there. I haven't heard of any problems parking here. The monorail resorts and Epcot resorts bear the brunt of the cheaters.

Great, thank you! I'm strongly leaning towards keeping the rental car now!

 

[KrazeeK120]

Does anyone have any recent experience with parking at WL?
I am heading down in August with my two teenagers to look at colleges in Florida, then spending a few days at WL. We will need a rental car for the college tour part--and I'm trying to decide if I should return the rental car before going to Disney, or just keep it. If we return the car early, the total cost is about $87. If we keep it the whole time, the total cost will be about $228.

In general I prefer to rely on Disney transportation instead of driving. The last college we visit before going to Disney is in Melbourne, FL--so it's about 1.5 hour drive from Disney. On our last day, we have a lunch reservation at Disney Springs, and then our flight leaves at 6 pm--so if we returned our rental car, we'd have to head all the way back from Disney springs to go to WL to catch the magical express...and it seems easier to be able to just go straight from Disney Springs to the airport, which is a "pro" in favor of keeping the rental car...

But I just worry about parking issues at the resorts that I've heard about. If it makes a difference, we'd probably arrive at WL around 5 or 6 pm on a Wednesday night.

We were there in May. There was a sign that only those staying at the resort or having an ADR were allowed to park there. We never had trouble getting a spot.

 

[roxymama]

Hi All,
I love catching up on the construction so thank you to all who post. I have a Mickey's Backyard BBQ logistics/transportation question.
We are staying at WL and booked the backyard BBQ Category 1 seating for Thur of Wine N Dine race weekend. Edited to add this is 11/2/17. I'm trying to figure out which transportation to Ft. Wilderness for dinner will be the best choice.

Morning - Magic Kingdom
Sometime after lunch - Go to Wide World of Sports for Race Expo packet pickup
Then either back to MK or chill at WL or go straight to Fort Wilderness

So what is best transportation to FW from those places? What's least stressful in your opinions?
From MK...is it bus or boat?
From WL...is it boat or walking?
From Wide World of Sports...already assuming we could hop on the race weekend bus to Fort Wilderness or hop in a cab.

Appreciate your help

 

[Wood Nymph]

Hi All,
I love catching up on the construction so thank you to all who post. I have a Mickey's Backyard BBQ logistics/transportation question.
We are staying at WL and booked the backyard BBQ Category 1 seating for Thur of Wine N Dine race weekend. Edited to add this is 11/2/17. I'm trying to figure out which transportation to Ft. Wilderness for dinner will be the best choice.

Morning - Magic Kingdom
Sometime after lunch - Go to Wide World of Sports for Race Expo packet pickup
Then either back to MK or chill at WL or go straight to Fort Wilderness

So what is best transportation to FW from those places? What's least stressful in your opinions?
From MK...is it bus or boat?
From WL...is it boat or walking?
From Wide World of Sports...already assuming we could hop on the race weekend bus to Fort Wilderness or hop in a cab.

Appreciate your help

The best transportation is from the WL lodge. The MK bus goes to the Settlement stop at FW during the dinner hours before it heads to MK. The Settlement stop is the one you want when going to the restaurants and Mickey's barbeque. You can walk from WL to the Settlement area. This is our favorite way to get the FW. The walk is about 20 minutes and you usually can see deer in the evening.

The other good way is to take the boat from MK, CR or WL directly to FW. The boat dock is very close to the restaurants.

The park buses and most likely the Wide World of Sports bus all stop at the bus depot, then you need to take an internal bus to get to the Settlement area.

 

[roxymama]

The best transportation is from the WL lodge. The MK bus goes to the Settlement stop at FW during the dinner hours before it heads to MK. The Settlement stop is the one you want when going to the restaurants and Mickey's barbeque. You can walk from WL to the Settlement area. This is our favorite way to get the FW. The walk is about 20 minutes and you usually can see deer in the evening.

The other good way is to take the boat from MK, CR or WL directly to FW. The boat dock is very close to the restaurants.

The park buses and most likely the Wide World of Sports bus all stop at the bus depot, then you need to take an internal bus to get to the Settlement area.

Thank you! This is very helpful. If the weather is nice I think walking from WL would be a great option.

So I think I'm gonna make our day...
PPO BOG Magic Kingdom
After lunch walk to Contemporary and take their bus to Wide World of Sports for race expo (we are familiar with this because stayed at BLT for a previous race weekend)
Bus back to Wilderness Lodge and hang out until time to walk to F.W.

Phew!!! I really wish we could just have our race packets at the hotel waiting for us, but alas!

 

[PolyRob]

There hasn't been any announcement of a room refurbishment for the Wilderness Lodge rooms. They were last refurbished in 2012. I don't know how often they get refurbished. I had asked a CM back in January 2016 if they planned to refurbish the WL rooms to match the new DVC units in the south wing but the CM said that there weren't any plans to do that at that time. So who knows what will happen. Disney is very elusive when it comes to these things.

I noticed they kept the doors the same in the CC model rooms as the standard lodge rooms. I assumed this meant they wanted it to look the same from the outside and had no intentions of touching the insides. The rooms did not seem too worn or anything yet. I could imagine them maybe updating the carpeting in the hallway for now. And then probably minor things like making the TVs bigger and removing the ceiling fan like Poly This is all conjecture.

 

[Starwind]

Does anyone have any recent experience with parking at WL?
I am heading down in August with my two teenagers to look at colleges in Florida, then spending a few days at WL. We will need a rental car for the college tour part--and I'm trying to decide if I should return the rental car before going to Disney, or just keep it. If we return the car early, the total cost is about $87. If we keep it the whole time, the total cost will be about $228.

In general I prefer to rely on Disney transportation instead of driving. The last college we visit before going to Disney is in Melbourne, FL--so it's about 1.5 hour drive from Disney. On our last day, we have a lunch reservation at Disney Springs, and then our flight leaves at 6 pm--so if we returned our rental car, we'd have to head all the way back from Disney springs to go to WL to catch the magical express...and it seems easier to be able to just go straight from Disney Springs to the airport, which is a "pro" in favor of keeping the rental car...

But I just worry about parking issues at the resorts that I've heard about. If it makes a difference, we'd probably arrive at WL around 5 or 6 pm on a Wednesday night.

My understanding is that for less than the difference in cost of the two rental lengths you could just get a Taxi or Uber from Disney Springs to take you to the airport; or a Taxi or Uber back to WL to catch Magical Express. There would also be the issue of your luggage.

SW

 

[goopysolelady]

Great, thank you! I'm strongly leaning towards keeping the rental car now!

My thought is fighting the traffic in returning the car at the airport. That was always an issue for us when we rented cars....and we ALWAYS managed to be in the wrong lane to reach the return area! IMO, nothing beats Magic Express.

 

[VAfamily1998]

My understanding is that for less than the difference in cost of the two rental lengths you could just get a Taxi or Uber from Disney Springs to take you to the airport; or a Taxi or Uber back to WL to catch Magical Express. There would also be the issue of your luggage.

SW

Thanks--yes, I did think about that too. We will have carry on luggage only, that we could leave with bell services at WL while we are at Disney Springs.

 

[VAfamily1998]

My thought is fighting the traffic in returning the car at the airport. That was always an issue for us when we rented cars....and we ALWAYS managed to be in the wrong lane to reach the return area! IMO, nothing beats Magic Express.

I agree with you on that! I think the Magical express is truly "part of the magic!"

 

[LMO429]

The best transportation is from the WL lodge. The MK bus goes to the Settlement stop at FW during the dinner hours before it heads to MK. The Settlement stop is the one you want when going to the restaurants and Mickey's barbeque. You can walk from WL to the Settlement area. This is our favorite way to get the FW. The walk is about 20 minutes and you usually can see deer in the evening.

The other good way is to take the boat from MK, CR or WL directly to FW. The boat dock is very close to the restaurants.

The park buses and most likely the Wide World of Sports bus all stop at the bus depot, then you need to take an internal bus to get to the Settlement area.

I have taken the bus from the WL to the Mk before during dinner time it did not stop somewhere else first...do you mean the bus stops at settlement first than WL then MK..Im just curious have not been to WL in a couple of years wondering if something changed???

 

[Wood Nymph]

I have taken the bus from the WL to the Mk before during dinner time it did not stop somewhere else first...do you mean the bus stops at settlement first than WL then MK..Im just curious have not been to WL in a couple of years wondering if something changed???

The first time we experienced the MK bus going to the Settlement bus stop at FW before going to the MK at dinnertime was during our January 2016 trip. Disney had changed the bus schedule for guests having dinner at Fort Wilderness. The old bus system would have resort buses come to the Settlement bus stop and then take the dinner guests back to their resorts from there. At some point, I don't know when, Disney changed the bus system so that they would have the bus take everyone from the Settlement stop to the bus depot at MK. The guests would catch their resort buses at the MK depot instead of the Settlement depot. That is why the WL bus now goes to FW before going to MK in the dinner hours. Or at least that is what I was told by the bus driver.

 

[Gryhndmom]

Does anyone have any recent experience with parking at WL?
I am heading down in August with my two teenagers to look at colleges in Florida, then spending a few days at WL. We will need a rental car for the college tour part--and I'm trying to decide if I should return the rental car before going to Disney, or just keep it. If we return the car early, the total cost is about $87. If we keep it the whole time, the total cost will be about $228.

In general I prefer to rely on Disney transportation instead of driving. The last college we visit before going to Disney is in Melbourne, FL--so it's about 1.5 hour drive from Disney. On our last day, we have a lunch reservation at Disney Springs, and then our flight leaves at 6 pm--so if we returned our rental car, we'd have to head all the way back from Disney springs to go to WL to catch the magical express...and it seems easier to be able to just go straight from Disney Springs to the airport, which is a "pro" in favor of keeping the rental car...

But I just worry about parking issues at the resorts that I've heard about. If it makes a difference, we'd probably arrive at WL around 5 or 6 pm on a Wednesday night.

I know you have gotten lots of responses to this so I will throw mine in too! We love having our rental car since we do make several off Disney property trips. Since we are Hertz gold we don't have any waiting in lines to get the car and although all the returns for Hertz have one drop off we have never spent more than five minutes returning the car...pretty easy! If our rooms are not ready the bell staff is more than happy to securely store your luggage so no problems . (We always lock our bags even when they are checked on the plane)

We are not magical express fans....the very few times we tried it seemed we were always waiting at least 45 minutes at the airport for the buss to fill with other passengers and the bus wasn't for just the hotel we were staying (shared with at least one other). And when it is time to go back to the airport....they will pick a time for you that can be really early meaning you could arrive at the airport far too early.