Just got back from the WL. I don't think we would stay there again

[vicki845]

We just back from a 10 day stay at the WL. The lodge is very nice but I didn't like several things.

1)We paid for a woods view and had a partial view of the service area.

2) We stood in room 4083. Even though we were on the 4th floor it was very noisy because of WCC.

3) The food at Roaring Forks and WCC was terrible. We ate at WCC twice. I thought maybe what we ordered was bad so we tried it again. No such luck! The kids wouldn't eat a thing. The muffins at RF was the only good thing that we ate that was good.

The beds are very comfy and so was the pillows. The CM were very friendly and helpful. Mousekeeping was great. The kids had a new animal towel everyday! Bus transportation was fine and so was the boat. I guess from reading the boards I expected more so I was disappointed. I think next trip we will try AKL.

 

[Tink415]

The things you disliked are understandable. If you stayed at WL again the experience might be totally different tho
I try not to let the view make or break a trip - but it certainly can change your perspective! I've had non-standard views that I thought "I paid extra for this" and some that I dream about because they were so beautiful And the food, I've found it changes over time and with my my mood!
Hope your next trip is better!

 

[Sammie]

Was the food spoiled, or unproperly cooked, or did just not appeal to you?

As to your room, did you ask to be moved and they were not able to move you?

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

I can answer about the food.... we were there last week also and having eaten at WCC many times my thoughts.... 2004 we loved it - did brekie once and dinner 2X - food was great. Oct 2006 we did dinner and it was ok but nothing to write home about.... last week we did dinner and everything everyone ordered was greasy to the point that you could see the grease on the plate and it was just unapetizing. The food quality has really declined to the point that we won't eat there again unless there are reports of some major improvements!!

We were in the villa's this time using our points but our first trip to the lodge we stayed in the wing to the MK side (if you kwim!!) and it was very quiet. I would not want to stay in those rooms near WCC.

 

[eliza61]

Sorry you were disappointed. Nothing wrong with not be bowled over by a resort. Hope the rest of your trip was great!

 

[bob6sims]

Sorry you had a disappointing trip
Try to think about all the good times you had while you were on holiday and the bad points will fade away. Try a different resort next time round, sometimes a change is the best thing all round

 

[mommytobug]

We are staying court yard view in November, what should I request to be away from WCC? I would hate to have a noisey room and dh would not be very happy! Any suggestions?

 

[KSBelle]

We are staying court yard view in November, what should I request to be away from WCC? I would hate to have a noisey room and dh would not be very happy! Any suggestions?

Courtyard view rooms should not be affected by WCC. Only rooms above that part of the lobby might get the noise from WCC.

vicki845---I've also had a Woods View room that was above the service area & just tried to look beyond it. Hope the rest of your trip was great!

 

[kimberh]

I hate that you did not like your stay. This is one of my favorite resorts. I have never had a woods view room. I have had courtyard view. They are wonderful. We are DVC members too so we are in the villas when not in the Lodge, very quiet over there.

 

[Mercy]

DH and I stayed here last year on our anniv. trip. WL is nice, but I was not bowled over by the resort either. We were given a courtyard room (those are the ones facing the pool?) on the first floor. The room was nice, and had a king size bed which we had requested and ended up waiting for.

The food was good, no complaints there. And the resort is very pretty. Not that we didn't like it, but will try other resorts in the future. This year for our anniv. trip we going to the YC! I think we like the Epcot resort area better, but that is just us.

 

[Nom]

Was the food spoiled, or unproperly cooked, or did just not appeal to you?

You should listen to the podcast review of WCC... it sounds like it has really gone downhill, with gristly, burnt ribs, etc. I wonder how long it will continue to be popular, if the food continues to be this bad.

OP, it must really stink for the main casual sit-down restaurant at your resort to be that terrible! I stayed at WL years ago and LOVED it... did you have the cupcakes at RF? I used to eat them for breakfast, they were so good... What were the food problems there? It was never gormet, but it was edible when we were there.

 

[lustergirl]

sorry your stay wasn't up to par. I have never stayed at WL but we have dined at WCC. I will say that their food is very hearty and rich in taste.

 

[fla4fun]

Sorry you didn't enjoy your WL experience. That's the great thing about Disney - there are so many choices that I'm sure there will be another resort you will enjoy. I love WL and really dislike AKL, for similar reasons in a lot of ways to why your WL experience didn't appeal to you (such as a side view of Hwy 192 in all of it's congested glory from a savannah view room). But there are a lot of people who love AKL and you may too.

I've noticed that a lot of the restaurants seem to get worse reviews during free dining (which seems odd in a way, since people usually like anything they get for free). I think it's the volume of guests that contributes to the decline in quality. They have to choose quality or quantity, and during free dining, quantity has to win. I've never had any complaint with any of the WL restaurants, other than I don't like the order set-up at Roaring Forks when it's really busy. But the food has always been fine.

One other question to the OP - if you didn't like your view, or the room was noisy, did you ask if another room was available to move to? It may be that there was very limited availability when you checked in, but a better room might have been available the next day (or even later the same day). The rooms farther down the hallways toward the lake are very peaceful and quiet and have nice views regardless of whether you have courtyard or woods views. I always request to be as far from the lobby as possible, so my room is quieter.

 

[ciera321]

Sorry you didn't care for WL, but everyone has their preferrences and luckily Disney has many different resorts to choose from. It is very disappointing to look forward to a vacation and then not be thrilled with the resort. We had a split stay WL/BC last August and we were really excited about BC. When we left we said we wished we'd stayed at WL for the whole time. I know some will think I'm crazy, but BC just wasn't worth the money for us!!! We're planning on trying Poly in July and hope we love it there...

 

[luvtheBuzz]

vicki845--I agree with you about WL. I was there for the last night of my trip in Aug. I had the same view as you, but I think I was on the fifth floor. The only thing I had requested for my room was a "quiet room". When we got up to it and saw it overlooked the lobby, I thought well, obviously no one read my request! It wasn't too bad, but I did put a pillow in front of the door to soften any noises from the lobby. And the view, was definitely not the picturesque view I was hoping for, but we were only there for one night. I think if we were going to be there for longer I definitely would have asked to be moved. I do still think that the WL has the most stunning lobby, but I'm glad we tried the hotel for just one night. I now know that I prefer the YC/BC resorts or the monorail resorts.

 

[marylizcat]

We have just come back from 2 weeks at WL and whilst we enjoyed it, we would not stay there again.

Roaring Forks is the smallest 'food court' ever, with a very limited choice of food, especially if you are there for 2 weeks. The seating area is crowded with all the tables pushed close together. If you order 4 burgers, they look at you like you ordered 50 and take as long to produce them. Mara at AKL is much much better. Also found cast members at RF rude and abrupt at times.

WCC was OK to eat at once for the experience, but you wouldn't want to eat there more than once per trip. Too noisy.

Position is too far from anything apart from MK, especially if you want to visit places outside WDW.

Our 6th visit to WDW and least favourite hotel so far! (But I admit it is lovely to look at!) Oh and not a single towel animal......

 

[grimley1968]

I am sorry it wasn't to your liking. What was wrong with Roaring Forks? It's hard to mess up the kind of food they serve there, so I'm curious specifically what was bad about it. We've usually been pleased with what we got there, but then it was usually dry cereal, soft drinks and milk.

We love WCC. Maybe it was off the week OP was there. We ate there for lunch in April (we were on our way from the cruise to the airport and made a detour), and it was really good. Granted, I only got a burger and some fries, but it was tasty, and they even had some of the antics then.

As for the room, I'm with other posters above: did you ask to be moved if the view wasn't satisfactory? We stayed at the Poly once in 2001 and asked to be moved not once, but twice, since we got put in two straight very moldy-smelling rooms. But the third one was just right. The Poly front desk CM's were very accommodating to us. I really think WL would be the same way, assuming they had other rooms available in that view category.

One note about "service area" views: It sounds like you were on the north side of the resort, since you apparently were directly over WCC. Those views, on the higher floors, are about the only ones at WL that have any chance at all of being able to see Wishes fireworks, or maybe a tip of the Cindy's Castle in MK. No other part of the resort would have that possibility, although they might have more woods and less service area to see.

So I actually requested this specific area of WL for our upcoming stay in October, hoping for a little of that magic, although I realize my chances are slim of getting it. If there's a service road below me and we get to see fireworks from our room at night, I think we can overlook the road. Also, this area of the resort happens to be fairly easy to get to the boat dock, the lobby, the buses, compared to many rooms in the south wing. Yes, it probably would be noiser than, say, along the actual wings of the resort, but that's the price to pay for being closer to the lobby and shorter walks to many conveniences. It's just a loud place until WCC closes for the night.

 

[vicki845]

I don't know why I can't reply to mutiple quotes. Anyway to answer some of your questions. We arrived around 8pm and had an adr for wcc at 8pm. I rushed to check in and dh went to wcc. By the time we got to our rooms I really couldn't see the service area. The kids were tired so I unpacked and put them to bed. In the am I went to the balcony, saw the view and was disappointed since we paid extra for the woodsview. By that time dh was in no mood to pack and move to another room.

The food at wcc was greasy and overcooked. The first night I had the skillet. It wasn't really good but the ribs was descent so the second time we went I thought I would get just ribs. It was terrible. I couldn't even eat it. It was dry greasy and way over done.

Roaring folks breakfast I didn't care for either. The eggs tased fake, the potatoes very greasy and the bacon fatty. I also had the chicken strips. They were dry and taseless. The kids didn't care for their chicken nuggets either. The blueberry and chocolate muffins were yummy. Th best thing they had as far as i'm concerned.

I didn't let the room nor the food ruin our vacation. We had a great time. I was disappointed with the room. I did request a quite room but our room was far from quite we weren't over wcc but opposite on it. It was very noisy even at 10 and 11pm. It didn't keep us or the kids up. They were asleep by 9 but I had to make the tv louder so we could hear it. Overall I though the WL was a beautiful resort but the noise from wcc and the food being bad I don't think I would return anytime soon. There are too many other resorts that I want to try.

 

[LoriZH]

Sorry you had a less than stellar stay, it's not so easy to dish out that kind of money and be disappointed and then walk away with the attitude that you can just try another resort another time. The money we pay for our stays at Disney we expect it to be wonderful and it's got to be a huge disappointment when it's not. I don't know why but I have absolutely no desire to stay at WL not even a little bit. I know people who do stay here absolutely love it and some will stay no where else. I am a CR fan and the same goes for that resort, some people stay there and refuse to go back, us on the other hand refuse to leave .

I'm hoping you had a great time at the parks and lots of Disney fun besides your resort!

 

[AKLRULZ]

Sorry to hear it. The Wilderness Lodge is one of our favorite resorts even though I do believe the main pool and Roaring Forks are way to small for a resort of this size.

Hope you enjoy AKL on your next visit!