Something is happening near the pool!!!

[shoreline99]

Thanks for the info!

 

[Tri-circle-D]

To assist those of you who will be visiting the Wilderness Lodge pool, here is an aerial photo of it:

I have marked some highlights on here for you, as follows:

The Green star is the pool bar. This is a nice full liquor bar, with bar stools, a TV, and everything. I am almost certain that there are restrooms in this building.

The Blue star is the kiddie pool/hot tub area. The larger pool in this area is the kiddie pool. The two smaller ones are hot tubs (yes, they have two hot tubs). When the WL first opened, one of these was a cold tub-with ice cold water in it a European thing?), but guests didn't like that so much, so now they are both hot tubs.

The Orange star is the geyser area. If you have never seen this, you are in for a treat. At regular intervals, a geyser erupts right here. Like at Yellowstone. A very nicely done effect.

The Purple star is the pool slide. It is built in to some faux rocks. Again, very nicely done.

The buildings that you see on either side of the pool area are the main wings for the hotel. The hotel lobby is out of the photo, but would be located toward the bottom of the photo if included.

Towels are provided at the Wilderness Lodge pool, so you may want to scratch those off your list of things to carry over from the Fort.

While it is disappointing that the Fort pool is taking longer than it should, look at the bright side. You have permission to pool hop! That is rare! So make the most of it, and have a great time!

TCD

 

[rimmer]

Nice ariel shot You wouldn't happen to have one of those of the trail would you?

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Since I am one of the hill Skoggins from the Fort, I wont need to know where the bathrooms are

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Nice ariel shot You wouldn't happen to have one of those of the trail would you?

Yes, of course.

Here is an overview of the trail area. You can't see the trail in this photo, except near the end toward WL, where it veers from the road just a bit. In this photo, the green star signifies where the trail begins, and the red, the approximate area of the pool. The paved trail itself stops a distance from the pool, which I will show you in another photo. As Shan-man has already noted, there is a sand trail that veers off from the paved trail about 3/4 of the way to WL, and that trail goes toward the lake, and goes back to the WL bike rental and beach area, which is where the pool is. I have ridden this on a bike, and it is doable, but maybe not for little kids.

As far as distance, notice that I left the legend down at the bottom right of the photo. You also may want to look at the distance from the Ft. Wilderness marina to say the Meadow Trading Post. To me, it looks like this distance is comparable to the distance that you would travel on the trail. Not bad. I know that my kids did it on bikes way back when they still had training wheels, so it is not too far. It is a nice ride/walk, but it is not a short distance. Again, you can take a bus or boat as well.

Here is a close-up shot of where the trail begins at the Fort:

The yellow star is the Settlement bus stop. The green star is the beginning of the trail. The pink star is the Tri-Circle-D horse barn. You can see the pony ride area in this photo too. This is where you start on the trail.

Here is a close-up shot of where the paved trail ends at WL. The red star marks the circle where the paved trail stops. From here, you would travel across the cross walk that you see, and up the side walk. This is where the WL bus stops are. You can head back here, along the outside of the building, and reach the pool area.

Now you know how to get there, and where stuff is when you get there, so go have fun!

TCD

 

[rimmer]

Thank you very much for the ariels Back in January my dh and I walked a little ways on an unpaved trail from WL bike rental and crossed a road over to the paved trail (near some gate arms, it was really confusing and the pic you showed is not where we crossed. Now that I have seen these pics I atleast know which trail is the right trail. I was wondering since the dirt trail ends at a fence that has a sign that says for cast members only. It's not real hard to get me confused Thanks

 

[justkeepswimmin]

We are here at the cabins (checked in yesterday). This is our 1st time at the Fort and we just love it! Pool is definitely looking a month away from opening .

From the 2100 loop, does anyone know the easiest route to the wilderness lodge pool? Could we drive our golf cart part of the way?

Thanks!

 

[Shan-man]

Yes, there is Golf Cart parking basically across the street from the Settlement Depot bus stop. TCD's aerials above should get you from there to the trail.

This is the route of the trail. The full length of the yellow line is .99 mile. That takes you from the Settlement Depot to the doors of the Wilderness Lodge.

 

[hopeisb4u]

okay everyone. So it dawned on me today.... Wait a second....if there is no pool, then are they not doing all the activities for the kids?! HOLD UP!!!! so ...I called 'em back today. (by the way it took me 3 phone calls before someone could answer my questions & even then, i think they forgot to take a charm class on customer service )

here is the scoop :

they will still be having all the activities they usually do at the pool, but it will be by the 'bike barn'.

WL pool is open for us 24 hours. Granted the busses and boats will stop, but if you want to go swimming after that...and don't want to take the trail...guess what!!! they said all you have to do is go to the front at the fort and someone will drive you over to the pool.

hey...who knew disney would provide designated drivers! I think that is grrrrrreat!

oh...and again ~ don't forget your bike locks at WL. hmmmmmmm

 

[ynottony99]

Another from the archive. Don't think I posted it. Or did I. Oh well....

 

[DaveInTN]

Another from the archive. Don't think I posted it. Or did I. Oh well....

So it looks like the pool has always had the raised lip, or "curb", as Shan noted in TCD's 3/13 photo thread, and they have retained that. Never noticed it before...

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Yes, there is Golf Cart parking basically across the street from the Settlement Depot bus stop. TCD's aerials above should get you from there to the trail.

This is the route of the trail. The full length of the yellow line is .99 mile. That takes you from the Settlement Depot to the doors of the Wilderness Lodge.

Shan-man- GREAT job on the map! I am surprised that it is almost exactly a mile, it seems shorter than that to me.

For those interested, here is a photo of the Settlement Bus Stop area with some annotations. The golf cart parking area here is as far as you are legally allowed to go with a golf cart toward Wilderness Lodge. From here, you can catch a bus that will take you non-stop to Wilderness Lodge. I have done this many times, and have never waited more than 15 minutes for the bus. As I said, once the bus gets there, it is a straight shot to the Lodge.

The alternative to the bus is the boat. You catch that down at the Marina, where there is also golf cart parking. The boat will take you to a dock right behind the pool, so you will have less of a walk to the pool if that is where you are heading. The boats also come about every 15 minutes or so.

As some of you may know, I am in favor of "bending" rules where possible, but I do not recommend driving your cart to WL. Once you get there, you will have to park your cart somewhere, and it would be very easy for you to be caught. When you rent carts from the Fort, they very clearly tell you that they will confiscate your cart with no refund if you violate the rules. You are required to sign a contract confirming this. I would not risk losing your cart when the bus ride is quite convenient.

One more point. It used to be "legal" to drive carts to WL. This was just changed a few years back. You would leave your cart at the small loop at the end of the paved path, and walk to the Lodge from there. It would be reasonable for Fort management to allow golf carts to drive to WL during this limited period of time that the main pool is closed. I suggest that you ask for permission. When I am at the Fort in a few weeks, I intend to do just that. Who knows, maybe they will allow it? Especially if enough people ask.

TCD

 

[Marshall Family]

OK, I just got off the phone with a CM at the fort, and they have assured me that due tot he extensioon in the renovation of the pool, they will allow carts to travel to the WL pool and she also stated that there will be designated golf cart parking at the end of the trail, and then a walk to the pool, she also quite clearly stated there will be no inconvenience to those taking golf carts there???? whatever that means, I repeated my self at least 3 times to be assured of this, I suggest on TCD's advice we all start phoning to make sure that we all hear the same thing, we are arriving March 29th for 12 nights. for those who do no want here is the number 1-407-824-2900. Hope to hear form some of you soon.
Chris

 

[Doggmeat]

maybe get it in writing from someone when you get there, my grandma use to get verbal stuff from cm's in the past, then have it turned around on her when we were there. only happened to her twice before she got it in writing when she checked in. just my 2 cents in cya-ing

 

[rimmer]

maybe get it in writing from someone when you get there, my grandma use to get verbal stuff from cm's in the past, then have it turned around on her when we were there. only happened to her twice before she got it in writing when she checked in. just my 2 cents in cya-ing

Getting it in writing would be a good idea, because I called the bike barn and they said absolutly not, there will be no exceptions to their contract. You have to park the cart and ride bus or boat. If you attempt to drive over you will lose your cart.

 

[dwluvsdh]

We rode our bikes on the concrete path to Wilderness Lodge a few times. My 6 year old made it with no problems (it was actually the path we taught him to ride his bike w/o training wheels). My 3 year old made it there with his bike with training wheels but couldn't make the trip back. I think if we would have stopped and took a break at the Lodge (like swim for awhile) he would have had no problem to make it back. I tried the dirt path with my 6 year old and that was a catastrophe! It really is a great trail to ride over! We are going to be there last week in March and that is how we plan to get over to the pool. Can't wait

 

[one sweet world]

We did it once, our dd was at the villas and we walked back after dark.
We didnt plan on it so all we had with us was our camera. Man, I have never taken sooooo many pics of nothing! Everytime I heard a sound-FLASH! If there was something there the camera flash scared it away!

 

[ynottony99]

We did it once, our dd was at the villas and we walked back after dark.
We didnt plan on it so all we had with us was our camera. Man, I have never taken sooooo many pics of nothing! Everytime I heard a sound-FLASH! If there was something there the camera flash scared it away!

 

[hopeisb4u]

OK, I just got off the phone with a CM at the fort, and they have assured me that due tot he extensioon in the renovation of the pool, they will allow carts to travel to the WL pool and she also stated that there will be designated golf cart parking at the end of the trail, and then a walk to the pool, she also quite clearly stated there will be no inconvenience to those taking golf carts there????

I called the bike barn and they said absolutly not, there will be no exceptions to their contract. You have to park the cart and ride bus or boat. If you attempt to drive over you will lose your cart.

I think the conflict of information may be rented carts vs carts that are owned by campers, It'll be interesting to see though!

 

[2goofycampers]

The conflict is very likely as usual the CM'c are miss/non informed and just say what ever comes to the top of their heads.