My TR in photos

[Aussie Wendy]

Enjoyed your review-has the visit inspired your son to read HP? Glad you had a good time and not too much motion sickness to trouble you.

 

[Tashinwdw]

Enjoyed your review-has the visit inspired your son to read HP? Glad you had a good time and not too much motion sickness to trouble you.

No it did not, he even has cousins that are HP fans but that still has not persuaded him. The only books he will read are 'Diary of a whimpy kid' series. I guess he is reading something so I should not complain.

 

[Tashinwdw]

I apologise in advance, I am probably going to rave on a bit and show heaps of photos in regard to this one day.

We arrived at 8am, we went straight in for processing. They took our photos and printed out cards that hung around our neck for ID, we got 2 each because we were doing the underwater sea adventure as well.

Once that was complete they ushered us to breakfast. There was a good range of fresh fruit, cereals and hot selections. I enjoyed scrambled eggs and a croissant. After breakfast we were taken by a staff member to get our wet suits - if you are just doing the dolphin you can use a vest but as we were doing the dive we had to have a full suit on. Once we were dressed in them we got our snorkel gear and shown to our cabana. (as I knew I would want lots of photos I got the elite package as is was only a little more for that than the photo package alone, so this included extras)

Our Cabana was only a few steps away from the reef lagoon, so it was perfect. sorry about the quality of some of the photos, some were taken with my sons camera and it kept fogging up.




It was really hard to believe that you were surrounded by a built up area, it really felt like you were on an island.


Food and snacks are available as part of the day so there is no extra charge for them. There is the main meal area where they serve breakfast and lunch but throughout the park there are little snack counters. We also had snacks and cold drinks provided at our cabana. We did find that we were so busy in the water that we did not really use them. I think the kids had a packet of chips each and got a few drinks but that was all.


Is the Cabana worth it? As I mentioned we got it at a cheaper price as a deal. I dont think I would pay the full price for one. It was good to have a locker there but there are lockers stations around the park so you can always sit near them. There was also plenty of chairs and hammocks around the place, but we found that we were in the water 99% of the time and didnt really use the cabana.





I will continue in another post.

 

[minneylovesmicky]

WOW looks amazing, sounds like you are having a blast

 

[dabecs]

Looks so beautiful and peaceful

 

[Aussie Wendy]

It sounded amazing when I looked into it - loving seeing actual pics from a fellow Aussie. Have to be a next time venture for us though. Looking forward to more!

 

[Tashinwdw]

My experience with snorkelling is limited to typhoon lagoon which lasts for about 1 minute. I did really enjoy that and wanted to do more so after our last trip I got the gear and went into the ocean and tried it out. Well every time I put it in my mouth I started to gag. This put a damper on my attempts but still wanted to do it. Well as soon as we got settled into our cabana we had the gear on and I was in, I did have a bit of an uncomfortable feeling but it soon went as soon as my head was under the water. I loved it, we stayed in the reef lagoon until it was time to go to our underwater adventure. I dont have many photos of our snorkelling, as my dh had the go pro and its mostly video.

We had to do a safety brief prior to the underwater adventure, my DS10 freaked as soon as he went under but we were able to convince him to give it another go and he loved it. None of us wanted it to end.


We have a guide that talks to us by a writing board explaining different sea creatures we came across. We were able to hold them.

They tickled your hands
The great thing about here was that the fish did not shy away from you, in fact it was like you were not even there, they came up so close. It is the weirdest feeling when you are walking around, I felt like I was one of those astronauts walking on the moon.





near the end he feeds the fish up and down where we were all standing and it is a feeding frenzy, fish are so thick on you cannot see anything but fish in front of you. It was really amazing.


After that finished we were back in snorkelling until our Dolphin experience started.

 

[Tashinwdw]

It was time for our dolphin experience and we had another safety briefing. This was an amazing experience, we all learnt something about dolphins, we all kissed a dolphin and got our photos taken doing that as well as the dolphin posing for an individual and then family photos. During this time the presenter is giving us information and the dolphin was demonstrating different natural behaviours to us.



After the individual photos were taken with the dolphin another one came out and we all got to do individual swims with him. It was so much fun, he didnt go fast but you sure could feel the strength of him doing the pace we did.


As we had the elite package the dophin bought over a buoy to DS10 in which he did not want to part with it, so we got extra photos with the dolphin for that.


We were all on such a high from the morning and couldnt wait to get back in the lagoon, we thought we better stop for lunch which I regret as it took forever, the whole time I was waiting I kept thinking I could be in the water, this is such a waste of time. But I couldnt go as I was holding the table while everyone else went through the buffet to get lunch. I was not thrilled with the lunch menu or maybe it was what the kids and DH had picked. We quickly ate so that we could continue with our adventures.

As we were at that side of the park we decided to go to the aviary. The birds were not that active and I have heard they are more so in the morning. I am sure they had already had heaps of visitors feeding them that day. The kids at least all got to experience feeding at least one bird by hand which was still good.






After leaving the Aveiry we realised there was a whole section we had not even gotten to yet, the fresh water oasis with views of otters and marmasets, the wind away river and serenity bay, we only had time for a quick dip as DH wanted to get more footage of the grand reef. We had noticed dark clouds gathering and knew that with the past few weeks experience, a storm would be soon. So we decided to collect our photos before the crowd. On our way back to try and get more footage of the grand reef, we were met by the kids who had stayed at the fresh water oasis - they had been told to get out as lightning had been spotted. After a few minutes we heard the call, everyone was to leave the water and seek shelter. We were packing up all our stuff at the cabana to ensure it was all undercover when we were told we had to go to the locker area as our cabana was not sufficient coverage. We decided to just pack everything and go and get changed. The clouds were very dark and looked like they would hang around for a while. This was about 3.45pm. by the time we got changed and left it was about 4.30pm. The park closes at 5pm and at the time we left there was still not the ok to get back in the water, I dont think they opened it again that day as it was still storming when we left for WDW at 5.30pm.

 

[dabecs]

Wow - the dolphin experience looks amazing!

Love the family photo

 

[Tashinwdw]

We loved the wilderness lodge, we stayed in a 2 bedroom villa.

Good Points -
You feel like you are surrounded by nature and nothing else exists.
Friendly staff as usual
The theming is amazing and there was not a time that I walked around inside or outside that I wasnt awe struck by it all.
DH spent many hours just sitting in the lobby drinking coffee and people watching.
The spring from the lobby - though noisy was mesmerising to stand and watch.
loved that it was a nice ferry ride to MK
buses ran regularly so never had to wait long
Although partly closed, the beach had a great view of the water pageant each night.
Whispering Canyon was great, we had an enjoyable meal there for Fathers Day, there was something on the menu for us all to choose from and be happy about. (not always possible with 4 fussy eaters), our budget did not allow us to eat there often.
General store had a good range of products, not only souvenir items but also groceries (as we prepared a few of our meals in the villa kitchen)

Not so Good points
DH did notice a few things about the room that needed repairs or cleaning (me I was just glad to be there)
the pool was closed, it was all still running and full so the first night there we could see that it would have been a spectacular pool and we would have loved to be able to use it. After the first day they started to put wooden walls up around it, it was rather noisy but we only heard it when we were walking to the ferry. It also meant that the geyser was not working which is a shame.
We didnt think there was a huge range of food options, Only 3 restaurants and having a family of 6 two of the restaurants were out of our budget to eat at regularly - we tried roaring fork the first night, the food was horrible, we never ate there again.

The good definitely outweighed the bad and would recommend this resort to anyone. We didnt want to leave, there was so much more on offer around the resort that we just didnt get time to do.

Our villa

 

[Tashinwdw]

 

[Tashinwdw]

 

[zanzibar138]

Great to hear more about Discovery Cove. I still don't think it's really my thing (not a big fan of water, oceans or snorkelling ), but it looks amazing! It would be nice if there was an option for people who were interested in seeing the animals, but not swimming. Did you get any photos of the otters? I'm interested to hear more about that side of the park!

Wilderness Lodge looks so amazing, and would definitely be my first pick for a WDW trip It's a bit sad that the pool was closed for your trip. Were you able to swim somewhere else?

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Loving your updates.

Wilderness Lodge is so pretty. It reminds me of Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone which is also homely and charming.

Have the furnishings of the villas recently been updated? They look a bit different to images I remember looking at in the past.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Looks like an amazing day at Discovery Cove - really wish the budget had stretched to it for us this time round. I like the snorkelling gear - much easier to use than a normal snorkel-wonder how long it is til they bring something like that onto the Barrier Reef (if they haven't already, its been some years since our last trip up there).

Love Wilderness Lodge - it was where we stayed our first visit to WDW and was an amazing introduction. We were there December and it turned quite cold that year so didn't get to try the pool itself out in the end but it was great to look at anyway.

 

[Tashinwdw]

It would be nice if there was an option for people who were interested in seeing the animals, but not swimming. Did you get any photos of the otters? I'm interested to hear more about that side of the park!

It's a bit sad that the pool was closed for your trip. Were you able to swim somewhere else?

I honestly only had about 20 minutes at that side of the park, we wish we could have stayed longer and it is definitely on our to do list again next time we are there. You can get entry without the dolphin swim and the undersea adventure which costs less but it is still pricey. I didnt have my camera with me when we went and saw the otters, DH had it and he had walked back to the other logoon while the kids and I were checking out that part of the park. I do know that the better view of the otters was from in the water, the viewing area on the walkway was only good if they were in that area at the time.

Loving your updates.

Wilderness Lodge is so pretty. It reminds me of Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone which is also homely and charming.

Have the furnishings of the villas recently been updated? They look a bit different to images I remember looking at in the past.

I think they have updated all the villas and still working on standard rooms. atm.

Looks like an amazing day at Discovery Cove - really wish the budget had stretched to it for us this time round. I like the snorkelling gear - much easier to use than a normal snorkel-wonder how long it is til they bring something like that onto the Barrier Reef (if they haven't already, its been some years since our last trip up there).

Love Wilderness Lodge - it was where we stayed our first visit to WDW and was an amazing introduction. We were there December and it turned quite cold that year so didn't get to try the pool itself out in the end but it was great to look at anyway.

It looked beautiful, DH wants to stay there again next time but I want to do Animal Kingdom lodge. Decisions, decisions

 

[Tashinwdw]

Another success story with this resort, we loved it. A CM showed us some rooms so that we could choose the view we wanted. I had in my head a view of MK so that I could see the fireworks. In the end we picked a view of the lake and the pool. It just looked so much nicer. It was so convenient to be able to walk back and forth from magic kingdom. DH has put it on the must stay here again list. We also found these 2 bedroom villas to be the biggest we have stayed in.

 

[lffam]

Love the report. Great experience with the Dolphins.

The villas at WL look great also but the Bay Lake Villa WOW! That looked amazing. Did you book those on DVC?

 

[PrincessInOz]

What great experiences. Looks like you and the family had a lot of fun!

 

[Tashinwdw]

Love the report. Great experience with the Dolphins.

The villas at WL look great also but the Bay Lake Villa WOW! That looked amazing. Did you book those on DVC?

We used our own points from DVC for Wilderness and Boardwalk but we rented BLT from a couple on the DISboards. We are so glad that we did, it was such an easy process and we loved it there. It was so spacious and loved everything about it. I dont think we could pick one negative thing.