Disney's WILDERNESS LODGE Information & Questions

[mrsap]

I thought I read that awhile ago too. I will upload the pics I took later if i can figure out how. Maybe part of the problem is I came from the cruise ship that is pristine. But even so, the room was well below my August stay in POFQ. Def not worth $400+ a night. Hopefully they will refurbish soon because we really like the grounds.

Copper Creek Villas is the newest WL DVC section and just opened this past April (and is within WL). BRV is separate from the main building and is a DVC property as well. Sorry you didn’t have a good experience. Could have just been the room you had?
I stayed at WL (main building) 2 years ago (and 3 times over the past 5 years) and didn’t find it to be anywhere near the level you mentioned, (and I’ve stayed during construction!), however, I’ve never stayed at BRV. Definitely try the main building before you say never again, the Lodge is absolutely beautiful!!

 

[Cayaco]

Is WL the only Deluxe not having a character greeting on Halloween?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Copper Creek Villas is the newest WL DVC section and just opened this past April (and is within WL). BRV is separate from the main building and is a DVC property as well. Sorry you didn’t have a good experience. Could have just been the room you had?
I stayed at WL (main building) 2 years ago (and 3 times over the past 5 years) and didn’t find it to be anywhere near the level you mentioned, (and I’ve stayed during construction!), however, I’ve never stayed at BRV. Definitely try the main building before you say never again, the Lodge is absolutely beautiful!!

We def plan to give it another try!

 

[danikoski]

I am home from a quick one night, post cruise stay. We were WL newbies but wdw vets. Here are my thoughts:

Booked on chase ultimate rewards portal so the room was "free." That was nice.

Booked BRV deluxe studio, as they called it, because that was all that avail for "free."

We were there by 10ish coming from the cruise and got the room ready text by noon. That was great!

I loved having the couch in lieu of a 2nd bed. There were 5 of us so it gave us extra space during the day. My 2 sons shared the sleeper sofa and the baby was in her pack n play.

We loved the grounds. We are generally yc/BC people, but having the trees and lake to look at made it feel secluded which we really liked.
The pool was lacking for my toddler because the splash area was down Saturday, but was back up and running sunday. The kids enjoyed the big slide even though it is no storm along bay. An aggravating thing was that Sunday I was at the pool with the kids alone. The boys couldn't come in the splash pad since they are too tall and the baby couldn't do much in the big pool. So that was a bit of a dilemma. Not sure how to rectify it.

We saw no pool servers. The drink station and food isn't very convenient to the pool.

The food at that outdoor covered bar area is excellent. We had wings and loaded waffle fries. We also had the crispy chicken sandwich from the quick serve there. They also will make crispy tenders for the kids, even though it isn't on the menu. Those are delicious too. Problem with the area is it stays busy and there isn't near enough seating.

Now our room...uugghh. I don't know if it is customary for dvc buildings to not be up to the standards of the resort buildings, but I was not impressed at all. I won't stay at WL again until the rooms are renovated. Or are the main building rooms better? Our room was awful. I felt dirty the whole time. The couch seemed like it came from goodwill. Stains on carpet. Fruit flies (maybe?) in the bathroom. The plaster walls and dark colors I am sure didn't help matters. Made it feel dirtier than it probably was. Pillows were lumpy. It was bad. I would have been super mad if I were stuck there more than 1 night and/or I had paid actual $400 cash for it. The door knobs in the bathroom didn't even match each other. And the hallways felt like a horror movie scene. Ha! Hopefully a refurb is on the way or maybe the main building is different, because we really like the outside areas.

Bus service was terrible, but what else is new? Haha.

So those are my thoughts. I booked it fairly last minute and didn't research at all since it was such a short stay. So I went in just expecting a nice resort stay and a fresh room. I got half of that.

BRV was renovated in about 2013-2014, I believe. I have a suspicion they don't always up keep the DVC rooms quite as well as the hotel rooms. At any rate, I'm guessing they will at least do a soft goods refurbishment next year at BRV.
As for the main Lodge, if you want fresh, new rooms Copper Creek Villas in the South Wing is brand new, completely redone. The North Wing rooms are hotel rooms, and were refurbished in 2013ish, I believe. It was mainly soft goods and fresh paint, so they are due for a major overhaul. I'm sad about that because I fear the cool head boards will be no more, but the furniture really is starting to show wear and tear.

 

[ArielSRL]

They also will make crispy tenders for the kids, even though it isn't on the menu.

Good to know. We were there in June and I didn't know this. I got my boys the cheeseburger but I think they would've preferred crispy tenders.

Now our room...uugghh. I don't know if it is customary for dvc buildings to not be up to the standards of the resort buildings, but I was not impressed at all. I won't stay at WL again until the rooms are renovated. Or are the main building rooms better? Our room was awful. I felt dirty the whole time. The couch seemed like it came from goodwill. Stains on carpet. Fruit flies (maybe?) in the bathroom. The plaster walls and dark colors I am sure didn't help matters. Made it feel dirtier than it probably was. Pillows were lumpy. It was bad. I would have been super mad if I were stuck there more than 1 night and/or I had paid actual $400 cash for it. The door knobs in the bathroom didn't even match each other. And the hallways felt like a horror movie scene. Ha! Hopefully a refurb is on the way or maybe the main building is different, because we really like the outside areas.

Very interesting. We were just there in June and we did not feel this way at all. Could've possibly been just your particular room but that would seem odd. We had no stains, no fruit flies or bugs, I think all the knobs matched. I don't prefer the "darkness" to the room, as I much prefer light and airy and bright but that didn't necessarily make me think less of the room. As a matter of fact, we enjoyed it so much, we bought resale DVC there as soon as we got home from our trip.

But, to each their own, right?

 

[KrazeeK120]

Wow that's terrible. Should WL be downgraded to a moderate? Rooms covered in stains and filled with bugs doesn't sound too appealing.

Worst deluxe on property it sound like.

I don't know about DVC, but I stayed in the actual Lodge in May and it was fantastic. No issues with the room whatsoever. I've stayed in 4 deluxe so far (YC, BWI, CR, and WL) and WL was my favorite.

 

[RPM1214]

I don't know about DVC, but I stayed in the actual Lodge in May and it was fantastic. No issues with the room whatsoever. I've stayed in 4 deluxe so far (YC, BWI, CR, and WL) and WL was my favorite.

I'm glad to hear--We just booked our first visit here for the summer and I started panicking we made a bad choice after reading some accounts!!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I'm glad to hear--We just booked our first visit here for the summer and I started panicking we made a bad choice after reading some accounts!!

We first visited WL on our honeymoon and fell in love. We have since been back many times, and stayed in all different view categories in the main building. We love it so much that we purchased DVC at Copper Creek Villas during our trip in August.
As I've said many times, WL has a great quiet rural feel despite being just a short boat ride from the Magic Kingdom. We love the views of Bay Lake, and the boat transportation options to Fort Wilderness and the Contemporary. We also really appreciate that the entire resort is under one roof, which can be great in rainy weather and is something that few other resorts (Deluxe or otherwise) have.
Are you staying in a villa (either Boulder Ridge or Copper Creek) or in the main Wilderness Lodge hotel? Either way you should have a great time. Feel free to ask questions here, you'll find plenty of helpful people who love WL as well.

 

[IanDLBZF from MCMagic]

Very interesting. We were just there in June and we did not feel this way at all. Could've possibly been just your particular room but that would seem odd. We had no stains, no fruit flies or bugs, I think all the knobs matched. I don't prefer the "darkness" to the room, as I much prefer light and airy and bright but that didn't necessarily make me think less of the room. As a matter of fact, we enjoyed it so much, we bought resale DVC there as soon as we got home from our trip.

@disneymagicgirl what room No. were you?

 

[Gehrig1B]

We recently stayed in a studio in Boulder Ridge and had none of the issues mentioned by disneymagicgirl. In fact we are booked to return for New Years Eve.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

@disneymagicgirl what room No. were you?

Hmmnnn...it was way at the end of hall. Only one more past ours. Overlooked a laundry pick up facility area. Maybe 2650 or 2560 or 2605 or something.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Hmmnnn...it was way at the end of hall. Only one more past ours. Overlooked a laundry pick up facility area. Maybe 2650 or 2560 or 2605 or something.

Found a map...was 2560

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Here are the only 2 pics I took.

The horror movie hallway thing is a joke...but really that is what it reminded me of. Hahaha. Would be a great haunted mansion themed hotel!

The other one is the mismatching door knobs. Is it a big deal? No. Should a $400+ room look like that? No. We travel a ton, and no other chain could get away with that in that price range.

I didn't take pics of the bugs, stained/pilling sofa, or stained carpet. Since it was just one night I figured we could suck it up. Had it been multiple nights I would've asked to move.

We will try the main lodge in the future. I just looked at pics of the rooms there.

 

[Roxyfire]

View attachment 277827 View attachment 277828

Here are the only 2 pics I took.

The horror movie hallway thing is a joke...but really that is what it reminded me of. Hahaha. Would be a great haunted mansion themed hotel!

The other one is the mismatching door knobs. Is it a big deal? No. Should a $400+ room look like that? No. We travel a ton, and no other chain could get away with that in that price range.

I didn't take pics of the bugs, stained/pilling sofa, or stained carpet. Since it was just one night I figured we could suck it up. Had it been multiple nights I would've asked to move.

We will try the main lodge in the future. I just looked at pics of the rooms there.

I'm not excusing it, but I think that might be the symptom of being a DVC room. They get cleaned less frequently overall and used harder than the other rooms. Most of that really wouldn't hit my radar, but the fruit flies would really bother me. Especially if it was because a previous guest was not courteous enough to dispose of their food or notify housekeeping when the bugs showed up. When they book these DVC rooms you'd think they would take extra time for a more thorough cleaning, thereby ensuring you'll continue to see the "value" in the higher rate. But with one night, perhaps someone just got lazy.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I'm not excusing it, but I think that might be the symptom of being a DVC room. They get cleaned less frequently overall and used harder than the other rooms. Most of that really wouldn't hit my radar, but the fruit flies would really bother me. Especially if it was because a previous guest was not courteous enough to dispose of their food or notify housekeeping when the bugs showed up. When they book these DVC rooms you'd think they would take extra time for a more thorough cleaning, thereby ensuring you'll continue to see the "value" in the higher rate. But with one night, perhaps someone just got lazy.

Yeah, my initial thought was regarding it being dvc as well. No worries, will try it again.

ETA: I also was thinking that not replacing the door handle might mean a major refurb coming. That maybe this was a quick fix to get thru til they replace everything.

 

[LoveMMC]

Excuse me for asking a maybe over asked question. We have never stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. I'm wondering about the bunk beds. Hard to get a bunk bed room? Able to request it? My daughter thought that would be awesome.

 

[Gryhndmom]

Excuse me for asking a maybe over asked question. We have never stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. I'm wondering about the bunk beds. Hard to get a bunk bed room? Able to request it? My daughter thought that would be awesome.

For our stay last week we requested two queen beds since there would be two adults and our request was honored. I know I was told when I made the request they could not guarantee it but would try hard to meet the request.

 

[Disneytam]

Thanks. This is going to sound more negative than I mean it but is it “good” pool service or Disney’s sometimes lame / inconsistent / one person serving the entire pool and it takes forever pool service? I have bad memories from my Poly trip last weekend where it literally took FOREVER for our server to bring us anything. I’ve always been so unimpressed with Disney’s poolside service that I wonder why Disney even bothers?

Sorry for the rant. Just fresh on my mind.

This is just another example of how Universal does it so much better than Disney. The pool service was wonderful when we stayed at the PFB hotel at Universal last year. The bartenders were covering two pools but they always seemed to know when our drinks were getting low and brought them right to pool side for us. It was a very relaxing afternoon to be sure.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Excuse me for asking a maybe over asked question. We have never stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. I'm wondering about the bunk beds. Hard to get a bunk bed room? Able to request it? My daughter thought that would be awesome.

Did you book a standard view room? There are some bunk beds in the standard view category that are available by request.Call central reservations and have the request added to your reservation. They will try to honor it but no guarantees.

 

[LoveMMC]

We are thinking about a standard view room. Debating between Poly or Wilderness. I like trying a new resort. My daughter loved the bonus bed at Riverside and was excited by the bunks. When we make the reservation, we will put the request in. But won't expect it.