Help us decide: POFQ or WL?

[Kata]

Funny you should ask about these 2 resorts. I stayed onsite for the 1st time in 2005. My 1st resort stay was at POFQ and while I thought it was a lovely resort and seems to be very popular but I had some noise issues and ended up calling to see if any other resorts were available for the next 2 nights that I could switch to. I was able to upgrade to WL and all I can say is I feel in love. I was so sorry that my 2 nights there were very busy and I didn't have enough time to really enjoy the resort.When I go back to WDW in 12/2007 I am staying 3 nights at WL,POLY, and AKL. I stayed at all 3 of them in 2005 and loved them all. I do know that you can have noise issues even at deluxe resorts though,I stayed at BWI and listened to the man in the next room snore all night long and I could hear childre screaming as I walked through the halls. I guess alot has to do with the people in the rooms around you.Enjoy whichever resort you choose!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PrincessTigerLily]

Yes, it would be within our budget to try the WL, and from all the comments, it is becoming quite interesting! I think we are leaning toward WL at this point.

 

[bonnielynn]

I love the Wilderness Lodge and would be staying there this year if we weren't bringing all the kids (7)...

Have a great time!!

 

[PrincessTigerLily]

After DH read this thread he is leaning toward POFQ, and I slightly towards WL. How bad is the transportation at WL? What specifically about it is bad? And how loud is the resort in general? As loud as AKL? Cause that was loud!

 

[m-i-c-cakeywhy]

I know one is a moderate and one is a deluxe, but which do you like best? We were very happy with our stay at POFQ, is it worth it to do WL? Is it that much better to make up for the difference in price? WL would be the only deluxe we would consider.
Thanks!

For me, half the fun and excitement of disney is the resort....I love POR, but given an opportunity to experience something new....that's where I'd go. Especially if its WL. My goal is to try every resort. I will definately stay there some day...It looks beautiful and has a boat ride to mk.

 

[Maukey]

My family and I have been trying to decide between the WL and POFQ for the last couple of days. Today we've decided that the WL will be our very first WDW Resort. I've just seen too many Moderate people on here get converted to Deluxe because of the WL, so I say skip the process and just go with the WL!

 

[Fionasmommy]

We've stayed at, and really enjoyed, both. Of them, WL has that je ne sais pas - that special magic. The lobby is amazing, the rooms are beautiful, the proximity to the MK adds to the overall magic, and I found both the bus and boat transportation to be even better at WL than POFQ - and I thought POFQ's buses were great!

When we were at WL, it seemed like everything just fell into place. Our room was perfect - everything I had wanted, the boat or bus always seemed to arrive just as we walked up, we got to be flag family, we got lots of towel animals, when we were at a park late at night and tiredly stumbling out to the bus stop it was always one of the first stops and there wasn't a huge line... All the little things seemed to keep going our way, which really made it more magical.

 

[Dchef]

We went the Last time at the end of January. I didn't find an issue with the transportation at all. The boat ride was great! I think we did have to wait, but only once in our 8 days and it took a bit to get the right boat--The buses weren't any different than the other resorts. You are always going to have different opinions about how it went...everybody has a story.

If you can afford the WL, I wouldn't pass it up for anything and I certainly wouldn't let transportation stand in the way of any place I wanted to stay. After our trip a few years back at the WL, we vowed that we would never want to stay off-site because the transportation and getting around was too convient staying at Disney!

I don't think you will be disappointed, having said that though I am not sure you can bee 100% completely satisfied anywhere. There will always be an issue with something and definitely if you are looking for something to be wrong--we didn't find this at the WL.
Good Luck

 

[tink_n_pooh]

I vote for POFQ. IMHO WL should not be considered a delux. There was no magic. We stayed concierge this past January when the holiday decorations were up. Should have been pretty magical right? Nope.

I was really disappointed in WL and I really doubt we would ever stay there again. If it were free, sure, but not for that price.

 

[tiggrsbride]

After DH read this thread he is leaning toward POFQ, and I slightly towards WL. How bad is the transportation at WL? What specifically about it is bad? And how loud is the resort in general? As loud as AKL? Cause that was loud!

We stayed at WL and loved it! Since we are doing a longer stay this year, budget dicates a Moderate. If money wasn't an issue, WL would be high on the list (behind Poly). We loved everything about WL.

Bus transportation (in '05) was fine for pick ups, but we always shared with another resort, either the GF, the Poly or FW, depending on where we were going. WL was the first pick up, so getting a seat wasn't a problem, but it seemed to take awhile to get to our destination. POFQ has the same issue with sharing. The boat from WL to MK was quick and fantastic!

We did not have any problems with excessive loudness. The hotel has inside corridors. There is noise in hallways. The issue is not specific to WL. It really depends on the neighbors that share your space. I haven't stayed at AK, so I can't compare.

Whatever you decide, I am sure you will have a great trip!

 

[srgibbs]

I just cannot resist adding my 2 cents to this. We have been the past 2 Sept's with our next trip Sept15-23rd. We have stayed at POR and POFQ with our next stay at POFQ again. We could afford to stay at WL just fine and I told myself if we get free dining we will do WL this time as it looks wonderful. Well free dining comes and when I call first thing on the first morning I could get standard at WL and find myself still booking POFQ to save close to $500. I just decided we are at the parks most of the time and I just cannot justify paying extra when the kids really don't care and transpo is just fine at POFQ. I decided to book a dinner at WCC and we can walk around WL while we are there. If we all just love it we may consider for when the kids are a little older. Yesterday I was able to book Southwest tickets for all of us to fly instead of drive for about 500 for the 4 of us round trip. I thought well we can fly vs drive for the price we would have paid to stay at WL. Again I'm just very tight with our money as I grew up in a home were we didn't have much and I just cannot seem to get past that. Whatever you decide works best for your family have a great time but remember if you are happy at POFQ and don't spend much time in your room you can always use that money for something else.

 

[PrincessTigerLily]

I would find it exciting to try somewhere new. Transportation is the most important issue for us. DS2 is a real wiggleworm, and it is near impossible to get him to contain himself, making transportation the most stressful times of our vacations. Hearing that the boats to MK are quick is very encouraging. Would anyone be able to say how long it takes on the boat?

 

[Doc CW]

It takes about 7-10 minutes.

 

[TripTime]

I have stayed at Riverside but never French Quarter and really liked it. Like you , on our upcoming trip in Jan. we couldn't decide between the POFQ nad WL. After many hours of research we decided to split the stay between the two of them to get the experience of both.Maybe you should try this.