Does Anyone Dislike the WL??

[tiggersmom2]

I would stay at the WL again if I got a REALLY low rate - that is the only way. I did NOT like the crowded pool, I did NOT like the small rooms and I HATED the transportation. Don't get me wrong I like the Wilderness Lodge, but I don't consider it a Deluxe. I consider it a moderate at best.

 

[Jordan's MOM]

No the WL was not perfect, but no resort is. Being that, we really LOVE the place. it is more laid back and goes at a slower pace than many resorts. We had great service, transportatin and an awsome room. We had two very rude CM's on check-out, but I would not let then bother me. I just repeated what I needed them to do for me and let thier attitude be thier problem not mine. We had fogotten our winter coats and had packed our room key in our luggage that had already been taken down by bell service. There was also this terriific villa salesman that gave DS candy canes everytime we went down stairs, our great maid that left us towel animals EVERY day, the wonderful CM that helped us straighten out a PS, the funny servers at WCC, the great families we met at the pool and countless others. We are repeat guest.

Jordan's mom

 

[Sammie]

Originally posted by Cookie55
Ok, let me start by saying that I loved the WL overall and can't wait to stay there again HOWEVER...
after reading the posts to this thread I wish to respond to one issue in particular, i.e. the RUDENESS of some of the CMs!! We stayed there this past February and I have never had as negative an experience as I had upon check-in. Let me start by saying that I am aware that room requests are exactly that, requests and not guaranteed in any way. However, I decided since I had arrived in Orlando and was staying at the HRH for the first few nights I would go over to the Lodge and see if I could add a request. (I had planned to fax the resort but did not realize until it was too late that they do not accept faxes any longer.) The front desk CM was very nice and went back to her supervisor to ask how best to accomodate me. She told me to pick up a house phone in the lobby and ask for my request to be added to my ressie. I did this and once again spoke to an extremely helpful CM who took down all of my info and promised me that every effort would be made to satisfy my requests. Fast foward to my check-in--this is where the RUDENESS kicked in big-time! During the process I asked the CM if she could see my requests. She told me that there was nothing there! Imagine my shock as I had been so happy with the fine CMs I had interacted with previously. I asked her is she was sure and she said that there was absolutely nothing noted. She asked me what I had requested and I told her...MK side, as high a floor as possible. She then told me that there wasn't anything like that available..all she had was third floor next to the parking lot or fourth floor on the villa side. Needless to say I was very disappointed and quite disillusioned. As a last ditch attempt I mentioned some specific room numbers that I had gleaned from the DIS. I prefaced my statement with the acknowledgment that this was the first time I had stayed here but that I was aware of some specfic rooms that would make my family very happy. She immediately snapped at me "How do you know room numbers if you have never stayed here?" I was taken aback by her rudeness but managed a response that I had done some research on the internet. She gave me a look of utter digust and then proceeded to reiterate the only two rooms available (which by the way, would not be ready until 4:00.) Oh yeah I should probably point out that this was at 8:30 AM. I had stopped there on my way to the MK as I was aware that I was more likely to get my requests met the earlier I checked in. (Also before someone asks I had paid for a woods view so I was not asking for an upgrade.) Given no other alternatives I said I would take the room on the MK side and proceeded to enjoy my magical gathering breakfast at Tony's Town Square. When I returned to the lodge that nite I felt compelled to find out how my requests could have been "lost." When I approached the front desk and started to explain to the CM what had happened she interrupted me and asked "Were your requests?"...and repeated verbatim what I had requested! All of my requests were there afterall!!! I asked to speak to a manager and she assured me that she would look into it. She offered to pay our valet charge but we had self-parked so that was no help. I pointed out that I had been point blank lied to and she agreed that was unacceptable.

Don't get me wrong I had a great time and as I said at the start I can't wait to stay there again, however I think you would agree that we all expect Disney CMs to be honest when dealing with the public!

Sorry this was so long but I feel better to have gotten this off my chest..THANKS!!

The CM should never have been rude to you. No excuse for that. But information is downloaded into the computer system at various times of the day. It is possible the info was not there at 8:30am, but was there when you returned later. Also not sure why being there at 8:30am when checkin is after 3pm would increase your chance of getting your requests. Requests are never a gaurantee regardless of what time you check in. They can only give you what is available. Some days there is just not much to pick from.

Also just a little hint from friends that work for Disney. Stating you got your room number info from the Intenet does not endear anyone to them. The Internet has become a living @#$% for them at times. Again this is no excuse for rudeness but just a little info from the other side.

 

[WoodysRoundup]

Okay, is anyone else bothered by ANOTHER post regarding roaches in the room at WL? That sounds like a HUGE problem to me. I hope Disney is doing something about this! I can understand a moth, spider, etc. here and there. But seeing roaches means there are A LOT more there that you don't see!

 

[W21981Brick]

Wow! I stayed at WL 1996 w/ my DH when it was fairly new and we just loved everything about it. Since '96 we have stayed at values and mods and loved them too. This May we will be taking our son(4 yrs old) and couldn't think of a better hotel theme(that we enjoyed) and location to MK than WL. After reading this I'm afraid!...No roaches please!

 

[Planogirl]

Originally posted by WoodysRoundup
Okay, is anyone else bothered by ANOTHER post regarding roaches in the room at WL? That sounds like a HUGE problem to me. I hope Disney is doing something about this! I can understand a moth, spider, etc. here and there. But seeing roaches means there are A LOT more there that you don't see!

These sound like the big outdoor roaches that you find all over Florida. We also get them in coastal areas of Texas and with the woods all around WL, I imagine that they get quite a few. You could however run into these things at any of the resorts.

 

[Tinkerbelle'sMOM]

Ah, true BUT we vacation to Florida 2-3x per year and in all the places we have stayed, including Universal and Disney, I have never seen palmetto bug, roach, what ever you call it in any of the resorts. I don't know why it seems they like the WL, but they do LOL

There was one year we had sand fleas at the Poly...we had sandbags in front of our ground level door to keep them out...I insisted we be moved to higher ground

 

[Wef]

We just got back from 1 night stay at AKL and 3 nights at WL...and I have to say that AKL was MUCH MUCH better. I wish we had spent our entire stay there. Before our trip, I had been really looking forward to WL, but it disappointed me somehow. I think it looks a lot more grand in pictures. The CM's were great, the beds were comfortable, but in the end, it just felt like a hotel not a resort. Both the lobby and the pool areas were always loud and crowded--great for families, I suppose, but not very relaxing. AKL, on the other hand, was spectacular!

 

[Cookie55]

Originally posted by Sammie
The CM should never have been rude to you. No excuse for that. But information is downloaded into the computer system at various times of the day. It is possible the info was not there at 8:30am, but was there when you returned later. Also not sure why being there at 8:30am when checkin is after 3pm would increase your chance of getting your requests. Requests are never a gaurantee regardless of what time you check in. They can only give you what is available. Some days there is just not much to pick from.

Also just a little hint from friends that work for Disney. Stating you got your room number info from the Intenet does not endear anyone to them. The Internet has become a living @#$% for them at times. Again this is no excuse for rudeness but just a little info from the other side.

Hi Sammie!
Thanks for the info but both the second CM and the manager indicated to me that the info would have been there that morning. I understand what you are saying with respect to the info being downloaded but if there was a possibility of using that as an "excuse" it baffles me why the CM or certainly the manager would not have used it. I started my conversation with both stating that I just wanted to understand why the info wasn't there. It seems to me that when asked that question they easily could have told me that the info might not have been downloaded yet if that was the case.

As for my belief that my chances were better the earlier I checked in, I was just following the advice of MANY people on these boards who always say that the earlier you check in the greater your odds are of having special requests met. (I was told that neither room would be available to move into until later in the afternoon.) Also with respect to saying that I had learned of the room number from the Internet that was in response to a direct question "If you have never stayed here how do you know a room number?" I appreciate your advice with respect to the Internet but I had two choices--the truth or lie.

 

[MagicPrincess]

we just returned from the WL yesterday and we really enjoyed our stay. I too would have to say I wish that it had the monorail come through the resort. the busses and boats weren't bad- but we did have to wait longer on Saturday (I'm sure it was because the parks were busier that day and night!)

I don't think we would stay concierge again. It was nice, and the food offerings were wonderful, but we just didn't really utilize the concierge all that much.
The one thing I WAS dissappointed with was when I was pre-planning and was in contact with the itinerary planners, they assured me I would have no problem getting dining PS's last minute. Having a toddler- I had NO CLUE what her schedule would be once we got down there. I made a few before we left, but did not have dinner PS's for 3 of the nights we were there. I tried to make a couple of PS's and they said there was nothing available- AT ALL. That was a little discouraging- thought they might have "a little" pull- but I guess not. One concierge CM offered no other alternative- which upset me. Not the way I wanted to start my day! We ended up eating at different places, and everything was fine. Whispering Canyon and Artist Point were wonderful! I highly recommend eating at both places!

The pools were really nice and the water was really warm!
The CM's really nice to us, and mousekeeping did a good job.
The room was always clean, and when we utilized turndown service, they provided us with fresh towels, took our trash, and left us chocolates (DD loved that!).
All in all- a very nice resort- breathtaking lobby and views!

 

[WoodysRoundup]

I thought about the palmetto bugs also but they are HUGE and I don't think the poster's DH would have been able to capture TWO palmetto bugs in the hotel room drinking glass. That leads me to think they were indeed regular roaches...Ack!!!!!

 

[clutter]

We stayed there in Dec '02 for 2 nights, after HIFS. All three of people in our party preferred HIFS (four, counting my dd, who was only 3!). Since then, I've stayed at a LOT of the different resorts. I just don't have a desire to stay there again. Nothing wrong with it, it IS beautiful. I thought the rooms were dark and small, I didn't like taking the boat to mk in the fog at night. Just different tastes for everyone. I'd go back to AKL, CR wing, ASMo, ASmu, CBR in a heartbeat over WL simply because I liked them better.

 

[Preppy]

We were there for spring break last week. I thought it was a mixed bag. The CM's were fine. Our room was cleaned early every day. If you put the "ready for service" sign out they will get to your room. The things that we were dissappointed in were room size, view and pool size and transportation.

The rooms are small. We booked a woods view room and overlooked the Cubs Den facility and bus depot. I complained but they were booked and could not change our rooms for a couple of days. By that point forget it who wants to repack. The pool was too small for the crowd. There were times when there were no chairs. Only one day did they do a resort id check and asked people to leave if they did not have the proper id. They check for room key ids. My ds and dd loved the slide. We tried to sit on the side of the pool where we could get a great view of the slide. The pool bar was nice and the service was great. As for the food options at the resort I found them limiting. Roaring Forks is way to small and a very limited menu. There was a morning that we waited in line for 15 min to buy milk. The WC was fine but after one day of their entertainment you will have enough. My ds thought it was too loud. My biggest complaint was the transportation. I will grant you that it was very crowded but it could be improved. The boat service to MK was fair at beat. They should also offer direct bus service. The buses go from your resort then to GF then to the park so it takes extra time.

I am not sure that I would stay there again. My first choice is YC or BWI. It was fine for the money but I do not thing thay should put this resort in the Deluxe category.

 

[myronlynn]

Hey everyone,

We also stayed at the Wilderness Lodge in May 2001. Hated it!!! The pool was a big disappointment, too small. The slide was nothing to write home about. The food was so so. The boat was nice. The buses terrible. The only thing that was nice was the view from our room, which was the lake and being able to see the water light parade. I would never stay there again. In my opinion, that is just not a deluxe hotel.


P.S. The rooms are small!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MagicPrincess]

I was also there last week- and at times the busses were kinda slow. I agree, there should be direct service to the parks for a deluxe hotel. Our last night we arrived at the boat dock at 7 pm to go to the MK. by the time we finally got to the park, it was 8:05 and Spectromagic had just started.
That was TOO long to wait and to get there!

BUT...
I have to add- we had a WONDERFUL and MAGICAL time at the WL and the parks!!!

 

[MandaPerry]

We stayed at the Wl the fist week of dec 1999. We got there early around 9am we checked in and we were told the room would be ready around 10am.Yes an early check in we were going to store our things and go to a park but we will wait the hour for the room. Flash to 1pm still no room fine we know there is never a guarantee for early check in we will just go to a park like we planed. Flash to 4pm still no room we are now sitting in this really pretty really noisy and crowed lobbey.We get in our room around 430 and man are we dissapointed. The rooms are very small!!!!!!! We got the otter pond view (trying not to laugh) The only thing we saw in the pond was trash. The boat to Mk took forever and the buses we sooooo slow.We had a package that was a christmas present for my brother shipped back to the room when we went to the store after they called us to pick up we were told they were to busy to look for the package and to come back later. Ok. We go to the parks and come back about five hours later and decide since brother is sleeping its a good time to get package.They informed us someone had already picked it up.No there are only three people that could have and all three were right there try again. It took three days and a long talk with a manager to get pkg. We never will understand why Wl is a deluxe resort we just don't see it. Wl is a nice place to visit but not to stay