Just back from 7 days at Wilderness Lodge Villas

[Mooobooks]

A great week long trip over Halloween to the Wilderness Lodge Villas.
Beautiful weather: low 80s during the day, 60s at night. Rained only once.
Characters ALL OVER the place! My 21-month old daughter loved it and spent much quality time with Mickey and Winnie the Pooh. (Those of you who read the book "Danny and the Dinosaur" to your kids will want to take them to Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama in Animal Kingdom because the huge yellow brontosauras is a dead ringer for the dino in that book.)
Mission Space rocks!
Philharmagic was stupendous. People love it!
Lots of construction going on for Expedition Everest in the Animal Kingdom, Soarin' Over California at Epcot, and the stunt show at MGM-Disney. Alien Encounter is now closed for its transformation into the Stitch show, and Carousel of Progress and the great Timekeeper show are now open.
The downside: ants on the 4th floor of the Wilderness Lodge Villas. We had to call pest control several times but the little critters kept coming back.
I've never had a problem with the transportation at the Lodge before, but this time it really bugged us. The busses took forever to come, and on several occasions a bus driver took us back from a park out of kindness even though it wasn't his regular route. The boat service used to be great, but now it's lousy since there are no longer separate boats for the Lodge and Fort Wildnerness, and folks at both are inconvenienced by having to go to the other, turning a ten-minute trip into a half hour trip. Also, there are fewer boats in service than before.
The Happy Haunts event was expensive and pretty poor. The merchandise was great, but the event itself, the dinners, breakfast, etc., was poorly done--meager entertainment. The only interesting thing was the interview with X. Atencio, which was lovely to hear.
No line for merchandise pickup, though they could learn a few lessons from the folks in Anaheim: no one helps you inspect your merchandise and you must lug all of it to a completely different place to get it shipped, even if you paid for shipping in advance.
The final gift as you left the Magic Kingdom was a crappy red plastic cup with a logo printed on it--the worst parting gift I've ever seen.
Those minor inconveniences aside, it was a fun trip during a great season. Few lines and great weather.

 

[JimC]

Thanks. Did you catch the new Wishes fireworks? We thought they were the best Disney has ever done. Agree with you about Philharmagic.

We did not try Mission Space. Thought it might be too much disorientation with all that spinning. Did you notice any problems? Could you compare it to any other WDW rides?

COP was open for MNSSHP. Wish they would restore it to the original version and leave it open all the time.

Too bad about the boat/bus service at VWL, hope that is temporary. We hjave been to WL but not the villas yet. Hope to try them soon.

 

[lat]

Thanks for the report.

We too had problem one day at OKW 2 weeks ago (we were on the top floor in building 62). I debated to call the resort and decided to keep killing them. We moved everything on that counter and eventually they went away. It was amazing how many there were!!!

We also had problem with the boat at Wilderness Lodge on 10/18 Saturday. It was absolutely horrible both ways to and from MK. Not sure if it were just my luck but sounded like you had the same thing. It took us more than an hour to get to MK and same way going back to the lodge.

 

[Mooobooks]

The new Wishes fireworks show was not running every night--just a few times while we where there and our daughter is asleep by 7 pm, so we missed it. Others we have spoken to feel it is not as good as the Believe show in Anaheim, but definitely better than the prior show in WDW.
Mission Space was only disorienting for a moment--you felt a slight sideways movement for a nanosecond. It wasn't "rough," but I wouldn't say that it was a pleasurable experience. You don't come out grinning from ear to ear the way you do from Big Thunder Mountain, Tower of Terror, or Soarin' Over California (in Anaheim). It was an interesting ride, and one I'll do again.
If you're the slightest bit claustrophobic, AVOID IT. The cabin is TINY and the control panel and screen are very close to your face. As far as it making people sick, the rate is about 1%, which doesn't sound like much, but that means 1 in every 100 people barf. Considering that there are 160 people riding at any given moment when all four centrifuges are operating, the odds are that more than one of them is going to vomit. Can't recall another ride like that at any Disney park where dozens of people throw up every day.
That hasn't prevented the ride from having very long lines!
Regarding Carousel of Progress--it IS the original version (I'm assuming you mean the song). The song you hear now is what was used in the ride during both the World's Fair and its life afterward at Disneyland. The other song only appeared when the ride was moved to WDW--probably because they made extensive use of the original song "It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" in Horizons at Epcot. When Carousel was refurbished in the mid 1990s, they brought back the original song.

 

[JimC]

Thanks for the follow up. I guess we will avoid Mission Space, but it sure would be nice to get to see the preshow -- from what I have heard it is first rate.

If Believe was at DL this February, I prefer Wishes. If not then I can't wait to see the DL fireworks!

About COP, I was referring to the last scene where they tried to jump from the 1960s (original "today" version) to 1990s (current "today" version). It ruins the progression through the century, in my opinion. I had hoped they would find a way to add two scenes so the 1960s coud be restored and a 1980s and end of century could be added.

 

[melk]

Hi Mooobooks,
We just returned also from VWL. We were on the fourth floor but no ants for us. But we did notice the pest control truck outside parked near the buses and were commenting on what they might be there for!

I didn't do Mission Space but DH did and he was a little off for the rest of the day. I used the restroom near Mission Space and two people were vomiting (enough to make me say, no way!).
Glad you had a nice trip, we may have crossed paths and didn't know it (we were the ones at the pool with six little kids that people were trying to avoid .

 

[Mooobooks]

JimC, you're right about Carousel of Progress: I've also always thought that the last scene was too much of a jump. That's a problem inherent in the original design of the theater now that it's being used 40 years after the show was designed. There are simply not enough slices in the theater's pie to allow for the extra four decades!
And, as much as I love the show, the fact is that it has become dated. I have some great ideas how Disney could upgrade it, but that won't happen. Look for a ride of some sort in that building within the next 5 to 10 years.
Regarding the fireworks, yes--you saw Believe at Disneyland this past February. Glad to hear Wishes was great! I'm sure it will run for years and that we'll get to see it.
melk: our one daughter is a handful for us! Don't know how you do it with six! A tip of the hat to you ... and the trip must be expensive, too! Yikes!

 

[melk]

Moobooks,
Yikes, I didn't clarify. We have three of our own but we brought our two nephews and a niece (yes, we need our heads examined!)