Disney's WILDERNESS LODGE Information & Questions

[weesignlanguage]

Hey guys! We stayed at WL in May and had a very cruddy experience with the bell hop. The manager met my husband and they had a super conversation and we told him how much we loved the stay with the exception of the issue with bell hop. He told them we were coming back in November and the gentleman gave him his name and info and said when we are a few weeks away from the trip to contact him and he would make up for the bell hop issue. My husband insisted that wasn't necessary but he said please contact him. So, fast forward to today and we booked our trip for Nov. My husband digs in his wallet to give me the info and it's gone. Ugh! He thinks his name was Paul or Peter. He said he was a manager but I don't know if that would be for the resort or for the bell hop services or what. Anyway, the long story is to ask this: anyone here know who this guy might be and how we can get in touch with him as our trip approaches? We are booked at CL so not expecting an upgrade and really just want to let him know we did indeed come back and to say hi. Any help you guys can lend me is appreciated! Thank you!!

 

[WhoDatDisney]

Boy do I hate to be "that" person but, I hate the room. Absolute farthest room from the lounge. We are in room 2000. We cannot sit on the balcony because our knees hit the sliding door and you can only face in to the room. The balcony has a stone wall so can't see out at all if we could sit. We can't change until tomorrow because there is no availability and we leave on Saturday so there is no sense in moving. Hope things get better or this is a one and done for us.

Stayed in that exact same room last year for TG week

Only benefit was stairs are right there to get to boat

 

[dansdad]

Hey guys! We stayed at WL in May and had a very cruddy experience with the bell hop. The manager met my husband and they had a super conversation and we told him how much we loved the stay with the exception of the issue with bell hop. He told them we were coming back in November and the gentleman gave him his name and info and said when we are a few weeks away from the trip to contact him and he would make up for the bell hop issue. My husband insisted that wasn't necessary but he said please contact him. So, fast forward to today and we booked our trip for Nov. My husband digs in his wallet to give me the info and it's gone. Ugh! He thinks his name was Paul or Peter. He said he was a manager but I don't know if that would be for the resort or for the bell hop services or what. Anyway, the long story is to ask this: anyone here know who this guy might be and how we can get in touch with him as our trip approaches? We are booked at CL so not expecting an upgrade and really just want to let him know we did indeed come back and to say hi. Any help you guys can lend me is appreciated! Thank you!!

Since you're staying CL, I bet IPO could help you out.

 

[Jhaberlein]

I'm so excited I could just burst! I've been calling every day since early June and FINALLY got CL rooms!! Even more excited to have our non-park day at the resort!!

 

[izzylovesmickey]

I apologize for the overly dramatic post earlier. The room itself is nice. Location (other than the stairs!) Leaves a lot to be desired. We have an air conditioning unit that is humming really LOUDLY, and the bathroom fan is acting weird. Maintenance stopped by to fix a curtain rod and she couldn't believe how loud it was. Maybe the next person will have it fixed! Hoping we can sleep through it. Just disappointed because I wanted to love it as much as some of you. The first club CM we talked with was really nice but the one that give us our room not so much. We asked her if it was a way from the construction on the first floor and she said there was none. Also told me no rooms could see the fireworks. Now, we walked by the rooms with the walls up, and believe it or not, we could hear power saws, but I guess that's not construction. And gee, I could see lights from the fireworks out the small balcony so I know the rooms above us can see them better. Just didn't appreciate being treated like an idiot. We went back up to see if we could switch rooms, she did call but said there was nothing available. Her attitude screamed too bad, so sad. My husband mentioned that I saw the info on the construction on the Internet and her response was you can't believe everything on the internet. So I guess all of you have been lying, lol! Evening went better but it started out leaving a sour taste probably because our BC stay had been so great and had really friendly CMs. Hoping for a better day tomorrow!

 

[BMoreWishes]

We had a great CL stay earlier this year even though our room (a Deluxe room) was not on the CL itself. We were on the first floor, closest to the boat dock, which we found very convenient. FYI, there is an alcove on the CL that faces MK, where you get a great view of Wishes (I first learned about this from a nice club CM). Often, there would be a small group of 5-10 people to watch the fireworks from this spot. One night a couple relocated 2 chairs by the back elevator and had their own "front row" seats at the alcove windows. What I did on a couple of nights was just have some dessert/wine just before the CL food service ended, and would walk 30 seconds to that alcove and watch Wishes. Perfect end to the day.

 

[izzylovesmickey]

We had a great CL stay earlier this year even though our room (a Deluxe room) was not on the CL itself. We were on the first floor, closest to the boat dock, which we found very convenient. FYI, there is an alcove on the CL that faces MK, where you get a great view of Wishes (I first learned about this from a nice club CM). Often, there would be a small group of 5-10 people to watch the fireworks from this spot. One night a couple relocated 2 chairs by the back elevator and had their own "front row" seats at the alcove windows. What I did on a couple of nights was just have some dessert/wine just before the CL food service ended, and would walk 30 seconds to that alcove and watch Wishes. Perfect end to the day.

We knew we wouldn'the be on the Club floor. It's just a bunch of little things all added together that are making this less than magical and in a short amount to of time. I heard that blasted AC unit all night long. Otherwise the room is quiet until the boats start running. We prefer to come back to the room later and if there is a view if the fireworks to see what we can from the room. It's good to know we could go to theClub but frankly at the end of the day I don't feel like hiking all the way there then all the way back-we move at a good pace each day (probably do 8-9 miles and we move quickly through the parks) so by the end we're ready to sit down. Headed to the lounge soon to check out breakfast.

I should probably say if you are a family that spends lots of pool time, this would be a good location. If you go out the exit door and down the stairs you are almost right there. We aren't take a break from the parks people or start/end the day in the pool people so it isn't a draw for us.

 

[bridgetnett]

Hello! Me, DH and our two boys (11 and 8) will be staying in at WL for just one night (Oct 24th). We originally had two reservations at WL (to get the free dining for most of our stay) but moved due to construction, so now we'll have one day (Oct 24th) at WL to enjoy the feature pool and maybe a boat ride to Fort Wilderness and then all the rest of our trip will be at AKV. I'm excited to get at least one day at WL before moving to AKV since it is our favorite resort. Hoping the construction isn't too bad yet on the 24th!

-Bridget

 

[BMoreWishes]

Funny, I couldn't convince my wife or teenage kids to come up with me and watch Wishes from the CL alcove either! Oh well...

 

[Wood Nymph]

Hoping the construction isn't too bad yet on the 24th!

Well, since it's not supposed to start until Oct 26th, you should be alright.

 

[BrittyRo]

anyone have pictures of the current construction/ could tell me what construction is currently going on Thanks for the info!

 

[xlsm]

anyone have pictures of the current construction/ could tell me what construction is currently going on Thanks for the info!

Unless things have changed in the last three days, there aren't any real pictures of construction to show. In my post a page or two back, I did post a photo of the south wing first floor hallway completely sheetrocked (or something) over with a sign up about it, but the elevators were available to use. There is a small amount of scaffolding up toward the front of the resort, but you can't see it from everywhere.

Aside from whatever they're doing on the first floor, the large visible construction isn't scheduled to begin until October.

Hope that helps!!

*editing to add, things can change quickly, but as of three days ago, that's all there was

 

[BrittyRo]

Unless things have changed in the last three days, there aren't any real pictures of construction to show. In my post a page or two back, I did post a photo of the south wing first floor hallway completely sheetrocked (or something) over with a sign up about it, but the elevators were available to use. There is a small amount of scaffolding up toward the front of the resort, but you can't see it from everywhere.

Aside from whatever they're doing on the first floor, the large visible construction isn't scheduled to begin until October.

Hope that helps!!

*editing to add, things can change quickly, but as of three days ago, that's all there was

Thank you so very much for the information! I'm kind of a wreck trying to decide if we feel it is worth it to stay there in December (Standard view [which I already feel isn't worth the price] - woods view was unavailable on discount) when that massive construction is going on so I always have a million questions going through my head. So thank you again for tolerating my foolishness

 

[margot31]

I am kind of surprised with WL. With how many people are leaving for other resorts and rooms are opening up that other people who are willing to go into WL can't get in for the deals. I currently have a room reservation at POR which I am very excited about but my dream resort is WL for the christmas tree. I just called and didn't have any military rate or my UIC that I know I have couldn't be applied.

 

[xlsm]

Thank you so very much for the information! I'm kind of a wreck trying to decide if we feel it is worth it to stay there in December (Standard view [which I already feel isn't worth the price] - woods view was unavailable on discount) when that massive construction is going on so I always have a million questions going through my head. So thank you again for tolerating my foolishness

It's not foolishness! Your resort stay is going to be a big part of your vacation, particularly around the holidays.

One thing to think about is, it does seem that the majority of the work will be on the south side of the resort, where the villas pool is located, and along the beach area. I'm not sure how much impact it will have on the Lodge as a whole, aside from noise during the daytime hours. I'm sure the rooms and villas in the south wing will suffer some, but there's no way to know exactly what will happen.

We love the Lodge, but construction is never fun to deal with, especially when you don't know how it will affect your vacation, if at all.

I understand the worry, but please don't let it cloud the excitement for your upcoming trip.

You're going to Disney World!!

Have a great trip

 

[WDWKOOK]

We'll be staying at the WL for the first time in August. I was curious what veterans of the lodge use for transportation to the MK to make 8 am ADRs when the park opens at 9am? Bus, boat, or boat-->monorail. With so many options I figured this was a question for the veterans. Thanks in advance!

to the DIS and the WL/VWL thread! The TRANSPORTATION chapter has all the options which includes an early ADR bus that you could take or you can also take the Blue Flag boat to the CR next door and walk right to the MK. I would not recommend the monorail.

Update:

I just spoke with a CM at Wilderness Lodge using the number I received from the WDTC last week. She informed me that they all received an email dated 7/16 that they would probably receive phone calls regarding an email that was sent out to guests about the upcoming refurbishments and that the information in that email to guests was inaccurate. Work will not be starting until 10/2 and my stay should not be impacted at all.

FX!

She also mentioned that they do have a special "team" assigned to assist guests with issues regarding the refurb that will have much more detailed and up to date information but I didn't get that phone number.

My plan as of now is to spend this last week frantically trying to get what we need to pack and being excited about the trip. We'll expect that we are in a room that works for us and that we'll have a great week. Knowing that they will help me should the room we are assigned not work out, I'm going to leave it at that for now.

Thank you for updating everyone.

No noise is good news! We arrive in 12 days. Wahoo!

That made me laugh when I read it as "no noise is good noise."

Ooh - that sounds like so much fun!

My magic bands shipped - so in 27 days, we'll be checking into the WL!

Oops - that should have been bands. Magic hands sounds dirty...

Are they like Magic Fingers?

We have a reservation for Dec 11-16 at WL CL. Will the construction affect the club level rooms?

It would only affect your view if you are in a Woods View room in the South Wing because we believe the VWL pool area will be the first resort area of impact. It's possible some work might be occurring at that time over on the shore near the North Wing rooms, but we think that will start later. Your best view choice would be a Courtyard View room.

Just fyi, we were at WL from 7/12-7/17. Standard room, north side 4th floor above work area. Outside our balcony, to the right was scaffolding all around that section.the blinds were tilted up as we walked to the elevator to get to roaring forks to avoid sight of the scaffolding. On 7/13 we returned from breakfast to see workers and scaffolding going up right outside our balcony. You could reach out a touch someone. After much communication with the concierge, we were moved, but even they were surprised with the work. I was told that yes, the villas had an 18 month project just beginning and it would be noisy between 9-5.

Staff was very helpful, but I did not enjoy having to pack up again. If we decided to go back, it will not be for 2 years. There is something being worked on all over. It is a beautiful resort though.

Thank you for posting about your experience, @disneymom06.

we will be arriving 9.17 and departing 9.26- when i made FP+ rez- i saw that online check in was an option. we are currently booked for a courtyard room, is there an advantage to doing online check-in?

our travel agent kinda poofed, and fell off the face of the earth, so i doubt our room requests ever went through. if i check in online, will i be able to make the same requests? we plan on going back to the resort midday to take breaks during our trip. i sleep through everything but my other half is a lighter sleeper, so i'm concerned about the noise from construction. thanks for the help!

The advantage is that all your credit card info. is already inputed prior to arrival and that's really about it. Is there another TA within the agency who can confirm your requests? Wood Nymph mentioned that the OCI requests are posted in the thread - it's in the ROOM/RATES chapter.

Please remove me from the Log (Oct 25-29). We have moved to BC due to the construction. Just did not want to take a chance and stress over the next 3 months. I love the Lodge and will miss it. Thank you to the wonderful people who run this thread! I will definitely be monitoring the progress of WL!!

Have fun at SAB

Beautifully done thread.
We are planning our first WL stay this fall as DH has always wanted to stay here.

We just switched from BLT to WL woods view room for October 16-21 for the late fall discount (someday I will stay at BLT/CR which is my dream resort), but reading through the construction thread is a bit scary. I will be at an off-site conference during the day and DH and I will be going mostly to F&WF. DH will be hanging around WL during the day (no kids on this trip). As long as there aren't workers on his balcony he will be fine. I'm thinking we'll be ok and I want to request a North wing lobby room to maybe see Wishes and cut down on views of construction.?.

Thank you, @woodynjessiesmomma. That sounds like a good request, but the DVC construction won't begin till 10/26.

Thanks to Orbitz we moved from Pop to Wilderness Lodge! We're so excited for our first WL stay October 17-25. I'm really hoping they stick with the construction not starting until the 26th, but if it starts earlier we'll stick it out. Thanks WDWKOOK for putting together such a helpful thread.

You're welcome, @DEJ07 and welcome to the thread!

Just back last night from our stay on 7/13 - 7/21. We were in the South wing, 5th floor, room 5117, which is a bunk bed courtyard view (my requests were 5th floor, near elevator, lake view). The scaffolding, as others have mentioned, is up at the front of the resort, but we didn't feel it was that noticeable. This was the view from our room:

You could see the EWP in the evening, and as you can see, pretty morning views of the lake and pool area.

We used the first floor elevator when going back and forth from the pool, and the hallway is completely blocked off:

As for construction noise, it really must just be where you're located, because we heard nothing. Every now and then we'd hear something that sounded like people moving furniture, but that's it. No hammering, no jackhammering, no nothin' (except for loud guests in the hallway and the occasional toilet flush). On our next to last afternoon, we did receive a hanger on our door announcing potential noise beginning at 9am through 7pm in the evenings. I think I kept it, and I'll snap a picture and share it if I did. I'm really pretty sure it's in the bag of park maps and such that I kept. For reference, we were in the room off and on at all hours, because we take afternoon breaks, and had some later mornings.

**Editing to add the photo of the paper that was on our door:

The only issue we encountered was that I didn't get the "your room is ready" text that we were supposed to get, so upon our late arrival (close to 1am), the lobby was deserted and we had to wait for quite awhile before anyone came out of the office area behind the check-in desk to give us our room assignment.

After that, everything was golden, cast members were great and we enjoyed the coffee offerings in the morning at Territory Lounge, some great snacks and QS at Roaring Forks, a fabulous dinner at Artist Point, and a fun last morning breakfast at Whispering Canyon (which was held at Artist Point because floors were being waxed or something in the actual Whispering Canyon. While we were eating, it was the end of breakfast service and they had to drag everything back over there from AP. We felt bad for them!)

The pool wasn't very crowded (but the quiet pool was! We wanted to go over before it closes and it was PACKED full and much louder than the main pool...and the main pool had the DJ out and the party going on.) and we always found a chair. I think we were out there every day but one, maybe?

Overall, just another reminder of why we love the Lodge so much, and bit of a downer to think about how we'll be staying somewhere else next time while the DVC work is being done. We have never stayed anywhere else, and while it will be fun to branch out, our heart belongs to the Wilderness Lodge.

I'll have a full trip report starting soon on the TR board

Thank you for posting a little preview of your TR and photos, @xlsm. I'm going to post a couple of your photos to the WL DVC Expansion thread

 

[WDWKOOK]

Ive received a few emails to prompt me to do online check-in and I've read here that I should both do it and not do it for different reasons and I don't know which way to go.

I have already called and put in room requests. I'm wondering what are the cons are for doing online check-in if we've already called ahead to put requests on our reservation anyway?

The only issue would be if your OCI requests cancel out your called-in requests. Just verify that your requests don't conflict. The Room Assignor at WL sees both OCI and called-in requests on your reservation.

There is a difference between doing online check-in and making room requests online. You can do online check-in and NOT make any room requests. But you can't do online room requests without doing online check-in. If you call in a request and then later do online check-in AND make a room request on there, the online requests supposedly "bump" the ones that you called in. So if you have a specific request that you want, you should call it in but if you then do online check-in, don't make any requests.

The Room Assignor at WL sees both your OCI requests and your called-in requests when the reservation drops into their system about 7-10 days or so prior to arrival. The only issue for the RA is if requests conflict or cancel each other out, then they have difficulty understanding your requests.

Please can we be moved off the Wilderness Lodge log as we have been moved over to Disney's contemporary, thankyou for all your advice on the post x

See you next door at CR!

Hey there folks. I believe I am on the list for Dec 6th-13th. Not that it matters much, but I've added a day so it is now the 5th-13th.

With that new fall discount they offered I was able to upgrade from standard to woods view. The CM was under the impression that I would see less construction in a woods view compared to a courtyard view, so I went that route. I have a feeling that now that I have this promotional discount they won't offer any sort of credit due to the construction. They offered me a bungalow over at the Poly for about $300 more (for the entire trip), but apparently they have some closures over there as well... so it made no sense to pay more to move to a resort I didn't really want and still have to deal with closures.

At this point I think I'll be happy to stay at the lodge, and if construction or noise is out of hand when we are there, I'll handle it at the time rather than worry before then.

I'll update the Log. If you haven't already, check-out the WL DVC Expansion thread to see what others with similar discounts have been offered.

Hello!

Been a while since I have checked in here. Lots going on

We need a new reservation to the Lodger's Log
09/16 - 09/23

DH comes home from Afghanistan on Aug 15 and we will be doing another triple split stay.
First at YC (since the slide was down for maintenence when we were there in Jan and it was too cold and rainy to swim), then WL, then AKL-K using our DVC.

Totally love that our APs have gotten good use this past year!

YAY! I'll add your dates

Maybe the club level evening food options will cheer you up. We've never done club level but the food looks amazing. I'm hoping they deeply discount the CL rooms this winter so we can try it.

Great point! Cobbler is worth the trek from a Deluxe room

Hey guys! We stayed at WL in May and had a very cruddy experience with the bell hop. The manager met my husband and they had a super conversation and we told him how much we loved the stay with the exception of the issue with bell hop. He told them we were coming back in November and the gentleman gave him his name and info and said when we are a few weeks away from the trip to contact him and he would make up for the bell hop issue. My husband insisted that wasn't necessary but he said please contact him. So, fast forward to today and we booked our trip for Nov. My husband digs in his wallet to give me the info and it's gone. Ugh! He thinks his name was Paul or Peter. He said he was a manager but I don't know if that would be for the resort or for the bell hop services or what. Anyway, the long story is to ask this: anyone here know who this guy might be and how we can get in touch with him as our trip approaches? We are booked at CL so not expecting an upgrade and really just want to let him know we did indeed come back and to say hi. Any help you guys can lend me is appreciated! Thank you!!

Was this a CL manager or a resort manager? Those names don't ring a bell, but you can email the IPO, as @dansdad recommends, and they can try to see if there are any managers with that name. Email them what you posted here and they should be able to come up with someone. Possibly, the manager may have made a note of your last name and it's with his secretary, (right behind the lobby check-in). I don't know that your reservation would be in their system 3 weeks in advance though.

Since you're staying CL, I bet IPO could help you out.

I'm so excited I could just burst! I've been calling every day since early June and FINALLY got CL rooms!! Even more excited to have our non-park day at the resort!!

Yippee!! Your persistence paid off.

I apologize for the overly dramatic post earlier. The room itself is nice. Location (other than the stairs!) Leaves a lot to be desired. We have an air conditioning unit that is humming really LOUDLY, and the bathroom fan is acting weird. Maintenance stopped by to fix a curtain rod and she couldn't believe how loud it was. Maybe the next person will have it fixed! Hoping we can sleep through it. Just disappointed because I wanted to love it as much as some of you. The first club CM we talked with was really nice but the one that give us our room not so much. We asked her if it was a way from the construction on the first floor and she said there was none. Also told me no rooms could see the fireworks. Now, we walked by the rooms with the walls up, and believe it or not, we could hear power saws, but I guess that's not construction. And gee, I could see lights from the fireworks out the small balcony so I know the rooms above us can see them better. Just didn't appreciate being treated like an idiot. We went back up to see if we could switch rooms, she did call but said there was nothing available. Her attitude screamed too bad, so sad. My husband mentioned that I saw the info on the construction on the Internet and her response was you can't believe everything on the internet. So I guess all of you have been lying, lol! Evening went better but it started out leaving a sour taste probably because our BC stay had been so great and had really friendly CMs. Hoping for a better day tomorrow!

No apology needed. You might want to let the CL manager (should be Jackson, but may be someone else) know about your experience with the CM who was rude and the AC.

I am kind of surprised with WL. With how many people are leaving for other resorts and rooms are opening up that other people who are willing to go into WL can't get in for the deals. I currently have a room reservation at POR which I am very excited about but my dream resort is WL for the christmas tree. I just called and didn't have any military rate or my UIC that I know I have couldn't be applied.

I believe they've already removed rooms from the booking inventory so this may impact availablity. Are there rack rate rooms available for your dates?

 

[izzylovesmickey]

No apology needed. You might want to let the CL manager (should be Jackson, but may be someone else) know about your experience with the CM who was rude and the AC.

We got home late last night. I didn't get the chance to speak to anyone about the CM, but I am a former "hockey mom" and we always try to apply the 24 hour rule when emotions are a bit high, so I wanted to be sure I was calm and rational before I spoke to anyone. I will note it when we get our survey. I will say that the resort is impressive. Our room other than the ac unit, the bath fan and the refrig that quit the first night, was nice. Loved the size just not the location.We never got to the pool, but people seemed to be enjoying themselves when we walked by. We enjoyed the boat ride to MK . Glad we tried the resort but I think it is just not the place for us. I did have a front desk CM who was fantastic. We got back after the Club was closed for the night. I wanted to pay off the room with gift cards, get our boarding pass, etc. Nicholas was great, very nice and helpful. I asked for a late check out, knowing it might not be available, but he got that then kept asking if we needed anything else. I really want to give him some praise on the survey!

 

[izzylovesmickey]

I hope you like the WL. We love both BC and WL. Our favorite thing to do when staying at WL is to walk to FW. There are two trails, a crushed gravel path that goes along the lake and begins behind the marina building and a paved path that goes along an access road and begins near the bus stop. We've seen more deer along the paved path then the lake path. We enjoy checking out the horse stables when we are there. We usually eat either breakfast or dinner at Trail's End because the food is always good and the cost is lower than all of the other Disney buffet restaurants.

We never did walk the trails-it was soo hot, but we took the boat over and walked around. We checked out the stables. We did have breakfast at Trails End. Teena at BC told us to try it and it has been the best breakfast buffet we've had at Disney World.

Maybe the club level evening food options will cheer you up. We've never done club level but the food looks amazing. I'm hoping they deeply discount the CL rooms this winter so we can try it.

We did get up to try some of the Club food. We liked the chili but were disappointed that the chicken wings were chicken nuggets. The little kids up there while we were up there were really excited though! We did feel that BC had more options for food especially at breakfast, but I know BC has added more since we were there last summer. I liked the oatmeal in the morning and they had 2 types of muffins not just one. Never did get to try the cobbler and wish I had the chance but we had Narcoossee's one night and I really wanted the cheesecake!

 

[michael's mom]

Aaahhhhh! 30 hours until we head to the airport! I am so excited to FINALLY get to stay at WL!