Arriving at the Wilderness Lodge, take two.
It was as if all the trips back and forth to the car hadn't happened. It was like we had just arrived. A playground DO OVER! We had parked our empty car and were walking into this fabulous resort. It was like the first time all over again. Time to pause. Check things out a bit.
The Wilderness Lodge is elaborately themed. According to everything that I had read before arriving, the lodge is modeled after those that were built in the national parks, specifically the pacific northwest. It's been absolute years since I have been to that area of the country. So I can't comment on the authenticity of the reproduction.
I have spent recent years in Arizona, however, especially since my parents have lived in Scottsdale since 1995. The Wilderness Lodge would be right at home in Arizona. Which may BLOW your mind. Especially if you think of deserts and cactus when you think of AZ. Central AZ is teaming with pine trees. There is even a downhill ski resort there. I know. Crazy, huh?
If you are familiar with AZ. Think Pinetop. Or Strawberry. Or Prescott (pronounced Press-kit). This is the impression that I had walking through the lobby. As the dominant theme in the Lodge was not only cabin-like, on a grand scale, of course, but also significantly Southwest inspired.
In one corner of the lobby, a fireplace that seems to reach to the top of the lobby dominates. The hearth is as tall as most people. The layers and colors of the fireplace represent the layers seen in the Grand Canyon.
Throughout the lobby, there are different Native American headdresses displayed in glass cases.
There are two huge totem poles that stand guard, one on each side of the lobby. You can see one totem pole in the background of the pic above.
The rugs, furnishings, and fabrics had an overall impression of Native American inspiration. We really enjoyed looking at all the different carvings at the tops of the poles.
Even though there were tons of people around, the lobby itself had a muted feeling. There is so much air space that the sound of voices and activity just seemed to disperse.
We didn't study the lobby. We were more focused on getting the lay of the land so to speak. The pictures included here were taken on a different day at a different time. The quality of some of them is pretty poor, but the lobby is difficult to photograph especially when you have a point and shoot camera.
We headed into the gift shop.
I love seeing the resort specific merchandise. It's part of the fun of going to the different resorts for me. There were several funny t-shirts in here. One of my favorites was very simple. It said, Here Fishy Fishy on the front. I cracked up seeing it because DH and I say that exact same thing whenever we have gone fishing.
DS was having fun trying on the hats. He put on Mickey's Sorcerer hat and put on his best Sorcerer face.
We were THIRSTY. It's like it hit us all at once.
When is dinner?
In a couple hours.
Ok. I can make it. But I'm really thirsty.
So we headed on over to the Roaring Fork to get our refillable mugs. They were an included item in the deluxe dining plan.
It was on our way to the RF that I started to understand the lay of the land at the Lodge. It is on something of a hill.
The lobby is the ground floor at the lobby level. But as the land gets closer to the lake, it slopes down. Therefore, there is actually one floor that is LOWER than the lobby level. As you walk from the lobby to head to RF, you head down the north wing. You will pass Artist Point and go down a very long incline. The wing makes a jog to the left before it again heads toward the lake. It is in this "jog" that RF is located. It's like it is about half way down the north wing.
RF was BUSY at this time. People were everywhere. We went directly to the cashiers to get our mugs. Our first purchase on the DxDDP! The CM was great. He hunted and hunted for a cup with the third color lid. DH was bumming at the fact that there wasn't any Diet Dr. Pepper. That's his soda choice, when he drinks it. Oh no. I totally forgot to bring some for the room! Ah well.
DH will settle for Diet Coke. I was thrilled to see brewed iced tea. DS was pumped to have ice water! Which is FAR superior to bottled water, in his opinion. We filled our mugs and turned around to see a huge line at the cashiers. I'm not sure of the rules, but since we only had our mugs, we just walked out with our ice cold drinks.
It was time to head on back to the room.
We walked into the courtyard area from RF. We started to head up a flight of stairs, but were completely distracted by a furry creature in the landscape.
Momma! Momma you HAVE to take a picture!
I realized that DS hasn't seen a bunny in a long time. If ever, in the "wild." He was pretty excited. He really wanted me to get a picture. Did you get it?
I'm not sure.
Take another one.
And another one.
Did you get it?
Pretty all sure. Have you read Olivia? We LOVE Olivia. That little pig. We appreciate her personality. She would be at home in our family. Just the right amount of spunk and fun. Pretty all sure is a saying that we have adopted from Olivia Saves the Circus.
We decided to try to find an alternative route to our room. We turned away from the stairs and headed over the little bridge that is a walking path over the stream that begins in the lobby. The aforementioned sloping toward the lake enables the little stream to flow down in a beautiful cascade of water.
We were able to enter the south wing at its half way point. Ahh. Here are those elevators we had passed earlier. A quick trip to the fifth floor and on down what felt like a much shorter hallway and we were back to our room.
It was flopping time for my men.
It was unpacking time for me.
I am the packer.
I am the organizer.
I don't mind that the men stay out of my way and let me do this exactly like I think it should be done.
I have a HUGE suitcase that my parents gave me after the airlines became so stringent on their luggage rules. They actually had two of these things and now, would likely, rarely be able to use them for air travel. So they kept one and gave one to us. No joke. I fit ALL our clothes for the WEEK into this one suitcase.
I was HIGHLY disappointed in the storage space of the room. I didn't think that we had overpacked. I was having a hard time finding drawers enough for everything. There were two small drawers in the furniture piece that hid the fridge. There were three very wide, but not too deep drawers in the furniture piece for the tv. I would have hung more clothes up, but there weren't very many hangers.
There was, however, plenty of storage in the sink area of the bathroom.
Before flopping in front of the novelty of cable television (we have a converter box at home), DH DID take care of what HE really cared about. ALL the beer we brought was in that fridge in a heartbeat!
Didn't want to unpack the coolers, huh?
Oops.
No big. (Don't you love KP?)
It didn't take too long to settle the room.
During this trip, we ended up watching a lot of international soccer. There was a tournament going on in South Africa during our stay. And we watched a lot of some new Disney channel. I can't remember what we zoned out on at this time, but it just felt nice to do a bunch of nothing.
"I suppose we should get ready for dinner." I announced.
"You wanna change?" DH asked.
I packed stuff to change into for dinner.
Yeah, but do you WANT to change?
Not really. But it's our anniversary deal tonight. The cake, etc.
Well, if it's YOUR celebration, shouldn't you do what YOU want?
DH had a point there. And with that, we decided that we would just go to dinner in our traveling clothes.
I was totally proud of myself. It was a great plan to just eat at the resort on our traveling day. We've been to WDW three times now. The first time, we ate at the resort on our travel day. The second, we planned to eat at another resort, but ended up eating at our own resort instead. I don't think that I will ever plan major travel on an arrival travel day.
We headed on down to Whispering Canyon Cafe for our 5:20 ADR.
I just love the detail at WL. The beavers in the elevator were too cute.
I even liked the light fixtures.
Here is the view of the lobby and the restaurant from the fifth floor where the elevators are.
The elevators at WL are fast. There was very little wait. We were good and hungry and ready for some grub! Yee-haw!
A link to my review of our dining at Whispering Canyon Cafe is in the trip report in my signature, if you haven't already read it.
I can't imagine how some people would think a nice quiet end of the hall is a bad place to be- but it worked out for you!
But looking at how close our door was to the doors next door... The suites are the two OUTSIDE fours. We were one of the inside doors.
I'm not sure how many times I have to go to WDW before I would be more excited about relaxing like that as opposed to going to the parks or DOING something!
Especially knowing that we had a whole week in front of us!
Quick. Turn it off. Turn it OFF! It got my heart racing! DS was totally unaffected, of course.
Ahhhhh.
Maybe it was the leftover feeling from the road trip. The road just FELT like you should be able to speed right along.
Instead, I started chattering on about how I was looking forward to seeing Animal Kingdom Lodge again. 
I know. Right.
Happy Father's Day! His gift was a folding picture frame. The kind that holds two 5 x 7 pictures with hinges between so it can stand up by itself. It was for DH's desk at work. This is our traditional Father's Day gift. 
I can't imagine our family without them.
My little girl would be copping an attitude BIG time. You want me to touch my paw on what?!? I can only imagine! Oh my!
