Just back from five nights at WL

[crystalb]

Yes, great resort!
Two adults -- $109 a night postcard rate -- standard room.
We checked in Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. Left this Labor Day morning.
I requested non-smoking, higher floor the better, and corner room. Rec'd all but corner room. Had a great location! Much better than anticipated. I expected a room overlooking a parking lot or service area.
We were on the 6th floor, overlooking the overlook , pool/spa, geyser, lake area. Very nice. That was the highest floor in that section. Just a few doors away from the second set of elevators, on the wing fartherest from MK. (Wing to your right, facing the lodge.)
We had one of the private balaconies where you have to stand to look over. Liked it very much. No complaints at all. Very private!!
Very good service all the way around -- including very sweet and nice towel animals.
Great transportation.
Ate at Artist Point and grabbed a few baked items. AP was very good, but not a favorite. Probably wouldn't make a point to return. (A Been There Done That WDW Eatery)
We did have a hard time using our cell phones in the room. (Due to metal roof?) DH saw other guests hanging their phones over their balconies while trying to use them.
Questions?

Ohhh--- And they assigned us to a handicap room. At check-in the CM told me we had a roll in shower. I asked if that was a handicap room. She replied Yes.
Not that I was upset, I was just curious why. She said they tried to book couples into rooms with King beds.
I asked if they were heavily booked for the weekend and was told yes.

 

[*Fantasia*]

Welcome back...glad to hear you liked your stay at WL. Did you take the boat to MK? How long did it take you there? How long is the wait for the boat? Is the boat always full? Thanks. I'm just a little worried about the transportation. I sometimes hear that it is not good. Thanks.

 

[crystalb]

Transportation was great for us. The only time it was a slow process was going to DTD (twice). But I haven't stayed at any WDW resort where this was not the case.

There is almost always a boat coming and going from the WL boat dock.
We took the full route and one night just rode it for the heck of it during MK fireworks. (Great view!) And the electric pagent was right in front of us at MK too.
From the dock to MK seems only 5 minutes. I am sure it is more, but we were there very soon. It doesn't seem any longer a ride than a monorail ride from the Poly to MK.
The drivers were very good in letting guests know that the next boat may get guests to their destination faster.
A boat often stops at the campgrounds. One time the next boat was coming from the campgrounds and picked us up.
The ride to the Cont is very short. That probably is 5 minutes tops.
Labor Day was busy and the boats always had a seating place. I don't recall anyone ever being left on the dock because the boat was too full.
It beats the heck out of the bus service.
The busses ran fine. The lodge guests were always dropped off first. The bus to DTD from WL stopped at the campgrounds for a pick up.

 

[MassMom94]

I was at the WL from 8/23 - 8/30. The wait for the boat from the WL to MK was never more than 10 minutes, usually less. It holds a lot more people than you'd think (a CM on the boat said 120) and I never saw a person left behind at the WL dock. The only time it seemed a little crowded was departing around 7:30 for EMH. (It was probably crowded later in the AM as well, but we never went to MK in the morning except for EMH.) The boat usually stopped at FW going and/or coming, except in the morning when it was express to the MK.

As far as the wait from the MK to the WL, only once were there so many people that we had to wait for another boat. That was after the fireworks.

The boat to the Contemporary takes literally less than 2 minutes if you don't stop at FW first.

WL shares busses with FW or the GF, depending on where you're headed. I never waited long to board a bus, and didn't mind the GF stop, but the stop at FW got tiresome after awhile. You take a rather convoluted drive around the parking lot there, and the route you take to Epcot seems a lot longer than if you drove yourself from the WL. (This from looking at a map.)

Overall, we thought the transportation was ok. If you will mostly be visiting the MK, you'll be fine.

 

[sandbar]

Did you like your room with the king bed and roll in shower? When I made my ressie they asked if I'd prefer a king bed and I said "yes" not knowing these were the handicapped rooms. Since this is a very special trip for us, I'd love to know what you really thought of your room.

 

[Terk-1]

Is it faster to take the boat to & from the Contemporary to grab the monorail to EPCOT?

 

[MassMom94]

Originally posted by Terk-1
Is it faster to take the boat to & from the Contemporary to grab the monorail to EPCOT?

It could be, but I doubt it. This is because you have to make three connections - first the boat to the Contemporary, then the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) where you have to change to the Epcot monorail. (If you stay on the monorail you get on at the Contemporary, you'll go to the MK.) And sometimes the boat to the Contemporary stops at FW.

If you take the bus, you only stop once at FW. I never had to wait long for an Epcot bus, but the trip sometimes took 30 minutes with the FW stop.

Ruth Ann

 

[Luv2Roam]

Honestly, we were more than pleased with our room. We were not expecting much and it was great. (Not expecting much only because of our nightly room rate.)
There was another guest walking down the hall with his family. I almost asked him if he got the postcard rate too after he made a comment to his wife. He said -- For what we are paying I am surprised to have a bed.
I would have a hard time even thinking of anything to complain about. An ironing board and iron were in the closet. The closet is pretty roomy, for a hotel stay. I called mousekeeping shortly after we arrived and asked for a coffeemaker. She asked if we needed coffee, creamer, etc. I said yes and told her we would be leaving soon for dinner.
We returned to the room after the meal at AP and the coffeemaker and all were there. We were given enough for our entire stay.
DH used the ironing board the next day. When we returned late afternoon, mousekeeping had even stored it away for us.
All the CM's were very friendly and cordial.
We have stayed at CSR, POR and the AS'. The AS CM's are great. The WL CM's were a step up. VERY cordial and helpful.
The bathroom/shower area was nice and roomy. I like the walk in shower. DH didn't miss having a bathtub since he could use the hot tubs. Otherwise he may not have liked the shower area as much.
The ONLY downside, which is MINOR, is we were expecting a nicer and more well stocked bakery area for a deluxe resort. CSR and POR have much nicer and larger bakery areas. But we managed to choke down what they had. But their bakery is limited to donuts, and the other run of the mill breakfast pastries, cookies, brownies. Nothing like what CSR or POR bakery stocks.
I don't know if non-handicap rooms include king beds or not.
The noise level was not bad in the room. You could hear tiolets flushing. But it wasn't loud and lingering. A few times we heard kids running down the halls. WL was very full over the weekend and still fairly quiet.
We had a great time. But I can honestly say I have walked away from an AS with just as great of a trip. The really nice perks were the hot tub and the location to MK. The rest was just icing on the cake. A nice room view is always appreciated. But we aren't in our room that often anyway.
It was nice because it was so hot to return for an hour mid afternoon, have a cookie and coffee while DH soaked in the hottub. First time ever for us.

 

[Terk-1]

Is it faster to take the boat to & from the Contemporary to grab the monorail to EPCOT?

 

[cfewell]

okay silly question time LOL

Do they still provide Shampoo and conditioner in the rooms?

 

[sandbar]

I thought I read somewhere that a high percentage of the rooms that have king beds are handicapped. But then again, I could be wrong... . That helps to know you enjoyed your room just as it was. As you can see, we are heading into the homestretch! We've never been to the WL before and have been looking forward to staying there.

 

[PatriciaH]

We just got back from WL on Sunday night. We checked in Thursday the 28th and stayed 3 nights. We were one of the lucky ones to get an AP rate when they were released for a few hours the end of July. We were able to get into our room at 2:45pm but we checked in at 11am. We paid the $109 + tax as well and they upgraded us to a beautiful courtyard view! We were also on the 6th floor, non-smoking, king bed room (not handicapped it had a tub.) We were facing the bay and the pool-it was beautiful. We had the regular railing. The pool was great and it never seemed too crowded even over the holiday weekend.

The boats are great. They are not super fast but a nice cool ride. It was neat to pass Discovery Island and River Country. We did go to Contemporary one day for parasailing and then took the monorail to Epcot. It was nice to have that option.

 

[karebear1]

Sounds to me like you were a victim of an upgrade crystalb! Good for you! WL is a beautiful resort and very calming to the nerves isn't it? Congrats on your good luck and happy to hear you enjoyed WL!

 

[crystalb]

I wondered if it was an upgrade.....
I really expecting to be a room over the service area!

Shampoo, soap nad shower cap. No hair conditioner. Yes for a blow dryer though.

We did get to Epcot a variety of ways.
We were hopping a lot on transportation this trip. That I guess could be considered a downside. At other resorts we stay, we take a bus, period.

Here it was by boat, then monorail. Or boat and switch boats. Or bus. Or.... whatever.

Choices, which is good. But can be a pain switching all the time too.

We never waited long for anything, except busses to DTD. (And then it wasn't bad. Just longer than the other transportation waits.)

Once we were in MK and wanted to go to World of Sports. Boat to TTC. Bus to MGM. Switch busses to WoS....

Just seems like this trip we did a lot of changing to get from one place to another. No wait was long. But when you add 5 - 10 minutes at each leg and the traveling time, it can be a longer on-site ride than anticipated.
There were ties I thought we would have LOTS of EXTRA time for a PS. And end up having maybe 5 - 10 minutes extra.
We park hopped a lot and even returned to the resort a few times mid afternoon. So we used transportation a lot more than normal for us.

And for which is faster. Sometimes we just chose whatever boat was there and happened to be going our way. The boats were so frequent at WL that waiting and traveling to MK or Cont was not an issue. Seems like every 5 minutes a boat was available.

 

[NJFabFour]

We were also there all last week 8/24 - 8/31 ( you can get detailed info in my trip reports on the trip reports board). We only used the boat transportation to MK and found it very convenient UNTIL Saturday night. This was a VERY busy weekend (I think the capacity of the Lodge tripled as of Friday night/Saturday!). We waited at the WL over 35 minutes for a boat, then still had to pick up at Ft. Wild. Not sure why it took so long. Overall, it took an hour to get to MK! (This was the only night for Spectromagic, the reason we were going, and thus probably a big factor in the huge crowds headed over that evening.) For every other park, we used our own transportation and found it to be quick and easy (no waiting!).

Our room was upgraded from standard to woodsview on the South Wing facing villas, fifth floor. It was nice and quiet and a rather convenient location. I can't believe all the people who got upgrades to courtyard! Wow! We really wanted bunk beds so were happy to get those.

Mousekeeping did NOT leave a magical impression on us! No towel animals or displays with DD's and DS's toys. In fact, there were crumbs left on the table on more than one occasion. See Day One of my reports for the first impression left as they attempted to throw away my DS's doll!

See www.wdwig.com for a description of an organization that is collecting the Mickey soaps/shampoos for kids with cancer. I stowed ours away each day to take plenty home to donate.

Overall, we enjoyed the Lodge very much. However, we would be interested in trying another resort the next trip just to experience something different.

 

[FloridaCat]

I invite all WL Lovers to come over to WL FAQ. Kimmar and her merry band of WL VETS would be happy to get to know you and share the excitement of staying at the Great Lodge.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=378045&perpage=15&highlight= Kimmar067&pagenumber=1

 

[crystalb]

Our mousekeeper was Evelyn and she did a fantastic job in the towel animal dept. (I did tip a few bucks each day. Not sure if that really made a difference or not.)
One day was no towel animals, but she had created a fancy toothbrush holder along with a glass cover in the bathroom area.
The next day she made the cutest little creature that was sitting on the bed reading USA Today with my reading glasses. The little *thing* eyes were star stickers.
Next day she made a tightly round up cat with a long tail.
The following day was an elaborate lampshade cover creature!
She did a super job.
And any mousekeeper we met in the hall was SO nice. They were singing or humming and actually acted very happy to be there too. They were very chipper and ready to work!
I have to say the staff was VERY nice all the way around. We have had great service at AS. (Better than CSR and POR.) And WL beat AS hands down.
Another little item -- weekdays you will find a USA Today laying outside your door.
We didn't have a Do Not Disturb sign. We wondered if they knew a room was ready to be cleaned if the newspaper was picked up. Of course that would only work Monday - Friday.
Almost like clockwork the mousekeepers would roll in around 8:30 each morning.
We sometimes returned mid to late afternoon and our room was always done by then.
Overall just a great experience.

The only thing we noticed is they must not clean the elevators often. There were some animal crackers on the floor for at least three days that we knew of.

 

[cfewell]

Thanks for all the great information.... we are going to be first timers at WL this year and are VERY EXCITED!!!!

Counting down the days!

 

[FloridaCat]

FYI: You mentioned you are first time WLers, but your countdown clock says Fort Wilderness. They are two seperate resorts, make sure you check in the right one.

 

[Cindy B]

Originally posted by crystalb
Our mousekeeper was Evelyn and she did a fantastic job in the towel animal dept.

We just got back, and Evelyn was our mousekeeper as well...

She arranged my kids plush (and one was from Universal as well... SHHHH!!!!) and did some elaborate things..

One day my sons Air Force Teddy Bear had my sons sunglasses on, the next day my daughters rag doll was being held by the bear, when the MIB alien was scaring them. The following day, all three of them were in a towel canoe. The next day Evelyn made a rope from the bunkbeds and all the animals were attached and socerer mickey plush was tries to conjure them up..

The last day the Figaro plush was taking a group picture (with my kids disposable camera) with all the other animals.