She's Raising The Bar, a June 2025 Copper Creek Trip Report

[GrandCalifornian]

Are you guys ready? Today is a big day.

It's a day we've been waiting for for just about a year now, especially for the last week or so.

Our 2025 trip report kicks off right now!

Yes! We get to share the fun we had and all that we did (and ate) during our June 2025 six night trip to Disney World.

For those of you just joining in, we'll start by introducing ourselves. I'm Paul, a 45 year old Dad, Mechanical Engineer, Elevator Mechanic, Car Guy, and lover of all things Wilderness Lodge. I will write my contributions in blue.


My favorite park is Epcot, ride is Test Track (although it was still down for this trip, so Guardians had to fill in...), and my favorite character is Tow Mater. As far as WDW trip planning goes, the big thing about me is I really enjoy Wilderness Lodge. It is my favorite place anywhere, and one of my favorite things to do on vacation is get up early and take pictures around the resort before ohter peope are up and about. I'll be sharing some of these at the begining of each day in the report.

I’m Melissa, I write my contributions in Orange. I do lots of officey type things for our family elevator company. My favorite rides are the People Mover and Living with the Land.


I really enjoy our Disney vacations because we get to unplug from real life for a minute. I also enjoy not having to cook or clean for a week. We still do laundry but it’s really nice to not have bags full of dirty clothes when we get home.

Here's Allison, our now 15 year old daughter who is the "she" in our trip reports and a life-long lover of all things Disney.


She helps us plan the trips now and throws in her opinion every chance she can. She finished up her freshman year of high school the week before we left for the trip. We are really savoring these last few trips before she’s off to college. It’s pretty crazy how close that is.

Yes, it is coming up super quickly, and far too quickly for us. This really hit home for me this trip, especially later in the trip when we started considering what to do for next year. We all love doing this, and there aren't an unlimited number of opportunities for us all to go together, so we want to keep doing this as much as we can, but we'll get to that later...

I love the subtle foreshadowing.

This guy is Marshall. He’s been coming to Disney every year for his whole life. He loves pin trading and all of the different transportation types.


He is my little buddy and loves anything that goes, especially if it is remote control. He is already nine now, so this is his last trip before becoming a Disney Adult as far as park tickets and dining is concerned.

Our kids are big now.


Which makes Disney even more fun. They have opinions and input as to what we do, but they can take care of themselves and this year for the first time each carry their own stuff all day in the parks. No giant backpack for us!

That leads into the "where" for this trip, which was Copper Creek Villas at Wilderness Lodge.



We have been DVC owners here since it opened in 2017, and really do just love it here. We got to stay in a 1 bedroom villa this time, just like we did for this similar week the last two years.

This was our 13th trip to Disney World as a family, plus our Honeymoon trip to Wilderness Lodge in 2007. This also means that on this trip we reached the milestone of our 100th night at Wilderness Lodge.

That’s a whole lotta nights.

The "when" of the trip was June 3-9th, 2025. We chose this week because it is right after our daughter gets out of school, and it includes our anniversary, so we got to celebrate our 18th anniversary at the same spot that we honeymooned at.

June is HOT, not the most ideal time to be in Florida but we’d rather be at Disney than at home no matter the weather.

We had a great time and can't wait to tell you all about it.

Are you guys ready to relive this trip with us? We can’t wait to share all the fun we had.


The report starts now!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Table of Contents:
Introduction
LA to Orlando


Prior Reports:

She's free before she's three, touring the world with a toddler: September 2012 Trip Report
She turned 3, but the DDP's Free, a WL Bounceback PTR: September 2013
She's a Princess, a Superhero, and a Rockstar -a September 2013 Trip Report
She's Turning Five at Disney World - a September 2014 PTR
She's Five at Riverside - September 2014 Trip Report
She's Going to Show Him The World - September 2016 PTR
She's a Big Sister and an Expedition Leader: A September 2016 TR
She's Sleeping on the Top Bunk: An August 2017 WL TR with a Party of 10
She's Staying DVC, a September 2018 PTR
She's On Top of The World, a September 2018 TR at Copper Creek Villas and Cabins
She's Going Back to Back, a September 2019 and February 2020 PTR
She Dodged a Hurricane, Skipped School, and Adopted a Porg, A September 2019 TR
She's a Disney Adult and Feeling Artsy, a February 2020 TR
She's Masking Up and Taking on The World, a Jan 2021 PTR
She's Collecting Castles and Staying at Copper Creek, a Jan 2021 TR
She's Surprised to be back to Disney World, a May 2021 Yacht Club Girl's Trip
She's Adding all the Extras, a January 2022 BCV / WL Split Stay Trip Report
She's Saying Aloha, an April 2022 Oahu and Aulani Trip Report
She's Camping at Coral Pink, a Summer 2022 Utah Camping Trip Report
She's Making a June Trip, a June 2023 PTR
She's Packing It All In, a June 2023 WL Trip Report
She's Having Deja Vu and Going Back to WDW, a June 2024 PTR
She's Headed to High School, a June 2024 WL Trip Report
She's Gonna Party, a June 2025 Copper Creek PTR

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Yay!!!

 

[Wood Nymph]

100 nights at the Wilderness Lodge is a very fun accomplishment. I can't wait to hear about this trip.

 

[GGOOFY1]

Looking forward to hearing about your trip! I was following along with the PTR!

 

[EpcotFan59]

Subbing in! Wilderness Lodge is a dream resort, can't wait to see all the photos!

 

[rdkeim]

Yay - following!

 

[Noreen411]

Looking forward to reading all about it

 

[Counting Stars]

Love your trip reports- you have a wonderful family tradition!

 

[VAtink]

Joining in! We were at the WL at the same time as you and I kept seeing your posts on the WL thread with all the pictures, so every time I saw someone around taking pictures of the lodge and the landscape, especially if they had a DSLR (which were shockingly many people!), I wondered if it was you!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Joining in! We were at the WL at the same time as you and I kept seeing your posts on the WL thread with all the pictures, so every time I saw someone around taking pictures of the lodge and the landscape, especially if they had a DSLR (which were shockingly many people!), I wondered if it was you!

Was it early morning when you saw them?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Yay!!!

Welcome, you are first once again!

100 nights at the Wilderness Lodge is a very fun accomplishment. I can't wait to hear about this trip.

Thanks, were are so fortunate to get to spend so much time at a resort we love so much. We can't wait to share it.

Looking forward to hearing about your trip! I was following along with the PTR!

Welcome, thanks for hopping on over.

Subbing in! Wilderness Lodge is a dream resort, can't wait to see all the photos!

We really do love it. We'll share a bunch of photos soon.

Yay - following!

Welcome, thanks for joining in once again.

Looking forward to reading all about it

We can't wait to share it all.

Love your trip reports- you have a wonderful family tradition!

Aww thanks, we have an activity that we all enjoy, and we have been fortunate enough to get to do it every year.

Joining in! We were at the WL at the same time as you and I kept seeing your posts on the WL thread with all the pictures, so every time I saw someone around taking pictures of the lodge and the landscape, especially if they had a DSLR (which were shockingly many people!), I wondered if it was you!

Lol that's great. I too saw some other photographers running around in the morning, and wondered if people thought they were the ones posting the pictures. I usually went out about 6 AM this trip, which isn't crazy early but there's only so much you can do before sunrise. I do enjoy getting the pictures without people in them. It's great you were there at the same time, we had a wonderful week.

Was it early morning when you saw them?

Now I know I could have been being watched.. I saw at least two other guys with DSLRs out taking pictures, particularly at sunrise. I just tried to stay out of their way and out of their shots.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Our travel day started with a 3:30 AM alarm. With the unknown length commute to LAX in weekday traffic, we wanted to make sure we were on the road by 5AM, and we had to get the house ready for housesitters by changing the bedding before we left.


There are few things that I’ll get up that early for but Disney happens to be one of them.


We got the luggage all loaded in our Expedition, and had plenty of room. This trip we nested an extra carry on in one of our checked bags, so we would have extra room to bring stuff home. That worked out really well.


The goal was to not have to make a last minute luggage purchase like last year. You’ll just have to stick around to see if we accomplished that goal.

Oooh, cliffhanger... We made it out of the house by 4:56 AM and were just ahead of the worst of the traffic the whole way, and we arrived at the Chick Fil A by LAX at 6:40 AM.


We drove through and ate it in the car before heading to the airport about 7:10.


Chick Fil A makes a great breakfast biscuit if you’ve never had one I highly recommend. My love for these grew during track season this year.


With our bellies full we popped over to the airport, more like crawled through traffic but we were on vacation so rose colored glasses right?



We did have a secret weapon for LAX though, and it worked great again this year. We had pre-reserved valet parking, which is worth every penny at LAX. It costs about half as much as just arriving and self parking in the terminal, and the best part is that you drop your car as close to the checkin desk as possiboe in the parking structure. It is so blissfully simple. We dropped the car off by 7:25 and were on our way to the terminal.


We waved goodbye to Helen (that’s her name, an ode to Mrs. Incredible) and went to find the elevator to take us up to ticketing. The valet parking entrance at LAX is on the arrivals level so we had to go upstairs.

This year we were flying United, because that was the best deal we could get on First Class tickets. Our family Christmas present for everybody this year was the plane tickets, and getting to upgrade to First Class was something we all looked forward to. It makes the travel days much more relaxing, and gives us meals to enjoy on the planes. We made our way to checkin, and unlike with American last year we still had to start at a Kiosk.


Upgrading our airline tickets definitely shifted the outlook of the flight from dreading the travel to actually looking forward to it.

I will say at risk of sounding a bit pretentious that American had a superior check in experience to United. We also had no problem getting paper boarding passes with American where they weren’t available at all with United.

Our trip through TSA was quick and easy, with no issues. We were through security and in our terminal by 7:45. We walked down to our gate, which was at the end, and most of the seats were full from other departing flights. Ours wasn't scheduled to board until about 9:20, but we found a couple of seats and then ALlie and I took off in search of Starbucks.


This was one of the parts of the trip she really looked forward to.


We scouted out the Starbucks location on this side of the airport before we came to make sure we were going to be able to make this happen. Otherwise we might have a teenage meltdown. This got the trip off on the right foot.

We had to walk over to Terminal 6, but it was less than 10 minutes and we had plenty of time. Allie was happy, so we all were happy. Then Marshall wanted to go for a walk too, and we went towards Terminal 8 because it has more big windows where you can watch the planes. We could see our gate from across the terminal.


We also stopped to admire a piece of artwork created from electrical wires and plugs. Marshall got a kick out of it.


Allie and I hung out and kept our seats. Seats were in high demand, it was a very busy terminal.

Before long they got ready to board our plane, and we got up and merged right in with the group getting on right at 9:20. It was quick and easy. We had seats in the second and third row on the same side of the plane. This one had good sized overhead bins and large in seat entertainment screens.


The flight attendants came through the cabin with our pre departure beverage options of water, orange juice, or champagne. Allie and I chose water.


Marshall got an orange juice and I had water as well. We took off on time, and soon after they brought the first beverage service and some nuts, which were quite good.


Meal service followed not too long after. Paul and I had swapped seats vs what was on the manifest so our meal choices were off based on our seats. The flight attendants handled it just fine though. Allie and I both ordered the manicotti with Alfredo sauce.


It came with a roll, side salad, and dessert.

The manicotti was quite good, super cheesy with plenty of Alfredo sauce. I used the dinner roll to sop up the extra sauce.

I went with the beef melt sandwich, which was quite good and more flavorful than I expected.


Marshall got the chicken dish, which looked plain in pictures and in person, but he actually loved it and it had good flavor.


Can we talk about this dessert?


I figured that was coming. It was...Unique...

It was super confusing.

They titled it a Red Velvet Banana Pudding.

I'd call it a cup of fluffy stuff with squishy chocolatey bits in it.


Nothing too offensive to me, but odd overall. Marshall and I both finished ours, but the girls gave up sooner.

I wasn’t sure what to expect but it wasn’t what I expected. Allie and I both were intrigued with the flavor at first but about half way through we decided we didn’t like it at all.

The rest of the flight went quite well, and we landed early at 5:40 Orlando time.
Marshall saw a rainbow outside the window of the plane.


Despite buying the wifi on the plane we didn't get a room location text until right after we landed. We'll share that and the rest of our arrival day fun in the next update.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Were there any choices on the side items, or were they fixed according to each entree?

 

[VAtink]

Was it early morning when you saw them?

I saw a bunch in the early morning, and a handful in the early evening as well. The area around the waterfall seemed like a hot spot for pictures, our room looked down on it and more often then not we saw someone down there snapping pictures! (I don't blame them, this resort is gorgeous!)

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Were there any choices on the side items, or were they fixed according to each entree?

Unfortunately the sides were fixed based on the entree, and I didn’t mention the potatoes with my sandwich weren’t great, but the mashed potatoes with the chicken were really good. Sometimes they wound up making a change, and you just get what shows up ( more subtle foreshadowing…)

I saw a bunch in the early morning, and a handful in the early evening as well. The area around the waterfall seemed like a hot spot for pictures, our room looked down on it and more often than not we saw someone down there snapping pictures! (I don't blame them, this resort is gorgeous!)

It is hard not to take pictures when walking around the resort. There’s something about that waterfall that just needs to be photographed.

 

[alohamom]

Following along and looking forward to reading all about it.