momof2disprincesses
I love my INCREDIBLE family!!!
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2005
- Messages
- 1,640
The date is Saturday, Aug. 27 and we are pulling up to the front gate of Disney's Wilderness Lodge after 8 long months of planning and researching.
We drive up to the CM at the front gate and we say we are checking in. He asks our name and says "Welcome home" and presents us with a parking pass with our name on it.
The tears start. My kids are teasing me because I'm crying about a hotel, but it is all so magical to me
We then pull up and bell services quickly welcomes us and unloads our car. DH goes to park and I walk into the most beautiful lobby I've ever seen. Again, more tears - I just can't help it.
We walk up to the front desk and are waited on immediately (the last time we stayed at a Disney resort, CBR in 2002, we waited over an hour in line to check in). This is a good sign to me right away.
We are taken care of by Cora, a very sweet and wonderful CM who is about to make my magical day even better.
She informs me that we've been double upgraded from a standard view room to a courtyard view and our request for bunk beds has been honored. She also tells me Happy Birthday as my DH secretly called a few nights before we checked in to let them know we'd be celebrating my birthday. See why I call him Prince Charming
She gives me more information and our Key to the World cards and we're on our way to the room. It is room 3025, in the north wing. We take the super speedy elevators (is it just me or do those things zoom
). Our room is only 5 doors from the elevator - a perfect location. I look over the room, it is wonderful and then I step out onto that beautiful balcony. I'm on cloud 9 
!!
We always had neighbors on both sides of us (saw them coming and going), but we never heard a peep. I loved how quiet and peaceful this resort is!
The rooms here are on the dark side, but during the day there is plenty of light and at night, there are several lamps. I especially love the one over the main bed, it had 3 dimer settings so you could have as much or as little light as you desired. But I also loved how dark the rooms could get. We chose to sleep in 2 mornings of our 9 day trip and on those mornings, it was pitch black in our room until noon! Woo Hoo
I also loved that there are 2 sinks OUTSIDE the bathroom. We designated one for the kids and one for us. We also requested a fridge and that was placed under the sinks. I also loved that the sink area was recessed and away from the sleeping area. It was private enough for changing and we didn't disturb the kids when we got up before them. My DH and I were able to get completely ready before waking them, which was great!
I usually have 2 major pet peeves about hotels. One is terrible water pressure and the other is sheets that don't stay on the beds. Well, WL has great water pressure and the shower was nice, big and relaxing. It also has a light right inside the shower and a massaging shower head
I solved problem #2 because I had asked you on these boards before we went if WL used fitted sheets as most hotels don't. You all told me they don't, so we brought our own. We brought a queen size fitted sheet, a top sheet and our own pillowcases. I left a note for Mousekeeping on day 1 to let them know we'd like the bed made up with our own sheets kept on and our request was honored with no issues. Actually our dark green sheets fit well with the room's decor.
That was another thing we loved - our Mousekeeper Maria was an angel! Not only did she make up the room beautifully daily, we had towel animals almost daily too.
I know this is important to many people. It really wasn't to us, but I have to admit, we loved coming "home" every day to see what was new. We had a hidden mickey once (DD9 loved that one the best), a heart, a bunny, a bird, and an adorable owl. She even put a glass inside our bunny and that's where our toothbrushes lived for the week. It was SO cute!!
Our girls had made "mousekeeping" tip envelopes before we left and so we gave Maria $4 daily in homemade envelopes taped to the mirror. We spoke with her on our check out day and she said she appreciated that.
Our room location was so ideal. It was close to everything! We were steps from the elevator and right downstairs was the laundry room (which we used twice) and right down the hall from that was Roaring Fork. We bought the refillable mugs on our first day and it was so convenient to fill them.
We also were right near the door to go to the pool. And from our balcony, we could see the pool and it was nice to know if it was crowded or not or even open (they closed it several times when thunderstorms were overhead).
The pool area was so nice. The pool is big and very warm. We saw a family of ducks swimming one afternoon in the pool. The lifeguards protect them and ask guests to leave them alone. We saw this same duck family time and time again during our stay. They were so cute! We also saw several bunnies.
We used the "quiet" pool near the villas once. It was us and only one other family. That was nice too!
We enjoyed the geyser erupting, the electric light parade, the gift shop, watching folks at WCC, the ceiling fan in the room, the central a/c unit (not a room a/c unit), full-length mirror on back of bathroom door, balcony for hanging wet towels and suits, etc. I think I loved absolutely everything
I also really enjoyed how everything was in one building. No need to go outside if bad weather. It is also SO MUCH smaller than CBR. When we stayed at CBR, we never saw the main pool area because you had to take a bus to get there!
We did request to be a flag family when we checked in. The only date available was our check out day, 9 days later! We took it and it was the most awesome experience. Bruce from the concierge desk took us up. It was absolutely breath-taking up there. You could literally see all 4 parks and most hotels. He offered a wealth of information about WDW and WL. We learned so much and it was completely fascinating to talk with him.
Again the tears flowed when we got to have this once in a lifetime experience and it was so cool later to take a picture of the flags we put up.
I will never forget our wonderful experience at WL. We are now hooked and we will be back. After all, WL is now "home" for our family and we can't wait to hear "Welcome Home" again
We drive up to the CM at the front gate and we say we are checking in. He asks our name and says "Welcome home" and presents us with a parking pass with our name on it.
The tears start. My kids are teasing me because I'm crying about a hotel, but it is all so magical to me
We then pull up and bell services quickly welcomes us and unloads our car. DH goes to park and I walk into the most beautiful lobby I've ever seen. Again, more tears - I just can't help it.
We walk up to the front desk and are waited on immediately (the last time we stayed at a Disney resort, CBR in 2002, we waited over an hour in line to check in). This is a good sign to me right away.
We are taken care of by Cora, a very sweet and wonderful CM who is about to make my magical day even better.
She informs me that we've been double upgraded from a standard view room to a courtyard view and our request for bunk beds has been honored. She also tells me Happy Birthday as my DH secretly called a few nights before we checked in to let them know we'd be celebrating my birthday. See why I call him Prince Charming
She gives me more information and our Key to the World cards and we're on our way to the room. It is room 3025, in the north wing. We take the super speedy elevators (is it just me or do those things zoom
). Our room is only 5 doors from the elevator - a perfect location. I look over the room, it is wonderful and then I step out onto that beautiful balcony. I'm on cloud 9 !!We always had neighbors on both sides of us (saw them coming and going), but we never heard a peep. I loved how quiet and peaceful this resort is!
The rooms here are on the dark side, but during the day there is plenty of light and at night, there are several lamps. I especially love the one over the main bed, it had 3 dimer settings so you could have as much or as little light as you desired. But I also loved how dark the rooms could get. We chose to sleep in 2 mornings of our 9 day trip and on those mornings, it was pitch black in our room until noon! Woo Hoo
I also loved that there are 2 sinks OUTSIDE the bathroom. We designated one for the kids and one for us. We also requested a fridge and that was placed under the sinks. I also loved that the sink area was recessed and away from the sleeping area. It was private enough for changing and we didn't disturb the kids when we got up before them. My DH and I were able to get completely ready before waking them, which was great!
I usually have 2 major pet peeves about hotels. One is terrible water pressure and the other is sheets that don't stay on the beds. Well, WL has great water pressure and the shower was nice, big and relaxing. It also has a light right inside the shower and a massaging shower head
I solved problem #2 because I had asked you on these boards before we went if WL used fitted sheets as most hotels don't. You all told me they don't, so we brought our own. We brought a queen size fitted sheet, a top sheet and our own pillowcases. I left a note for Mousekeeping on day 1 to let them know we'd like the bed made up with our own sheets kept on and our request was honored with no issues. Actually our dark green sheets fit well with the room's decor.
That was another thing we loved - our Mousekeeper Maria was an angel! Not only did she make up the room beautifully daily, we had towel animals almost daily too.
I know this is important to many people. It really wasn't to us, but I have to admit, we loved coming "home" every day to see what was new. We had a hidden mickey once (DD9 loved that one the best), a heart, a bunny, a bird, and an adorable owl. She even put a glass inside our bunny and that's where our toothbrushes lived for the week. It was SO cute!!
Our girls had made "mousekeeping" tip envelopes before we left and so we gave Maria $4 daily in homemade envelopes taped to the mirror. We spoke with her on our check out day and she said she appreciated that.
Our room location was so ideal. It was close to everything! We were steps from the elevator and right downstairs was the laundry room (which we used twice) and right down the hall from that was Roaring Fork. We bought the refillable mugs on our first day and it was so convenient to fill them.
We also were right near the door to go to the pool. And from our balcony, we could see the pool and it was nice to know if it was crowded or not or even open (they closed it several times when thunderstorms were overhead).
The pool area was so nice. The pool is big and very warm. We saw a family of ducks swimming one afternoon in the pool. The lifeguards protect them and ask guests to leave them alone. We saw this same duck family time and time again during our stay. They were so cute! We also saw several bunnies.
We used the "quiet" pool near the villas once. It was us and only one other family. That was nice too!
We enjoyed the geyser erupting, the electric light parade, the gift shop, watching folks at WCC, the ceiling fan in the room, the central a/c unit (not a room a/c unit), full-length mirror on back of bathroom door, balcony for hanging wet towels and suits, etc. I think I loved absolutely everything
I also really enjoyed how everything was in one building. No need to go outside if bad weather. It is also SO MUCH smaller than CBR. When we stayed at CBR, we never saw the main pool area because you had to take a bus to get there!
We did request to be a flag family when we checked in. The only date available was our check out day, 9 days later! We took it and it was the most awesome experience. Bruce from the concierge desk took us up. It was absolutely breath-taking up there. You could literally see all 4 parks and most hotels. He offered a wealth of information about WDW and WL. We learned so much and it was completely fascinating to talk with him.
Again the tears flowed when we got to have this once in a lifetime experience and it was so cool later to take a picture of the flags we put up.
I will never forget our wonderful experience at WL. We are now hooked and we will be back. After all, WL is now "home" for our family and we can't wait to hear "Welcome Home" again
"Happy Birthday!!" 
