The New (Part 4) WL FAQ Thread...Just the Facts M'am!

[corky805]

Originally posted by Peylog
I have another question , more like I need suggestions. We have our children scheduled for the Neverland Club for a Sunday night starting at 5pm. What should my husband and I do with our free time, there is so much to choose from. I don't really want to do something that I could normally do with the kids. Should we go to the Boardwalk or Pleasure Island and if so where at those locations? I thought maybe a cruise, but we can do that anytime. Anyone have any great suggestions. Also if your child has been to the Neverland Club or Cubs Den, please let me know what you thought or have heard. TIA Peylog

My son loved the cub's den...he didn't want to leave!
We spent our time having some dinner together and then we spent some quality time relaxing in the hot tub....and just being in the moment and enjoying the lodge without running around like crazy. It was great! One of my best memories of the lodge!

 

[TooBoyz4us]

Okay Lodge fans,
I just spent some time reading the "Why do you dislike WL" thread. Now I am bummed

Don't ask me why I spent time reading that. I already know that we are going to love the Lodge. Afterall, it is my dream resort, and my DH let me choose our resort this time, so it is going to be FANTASTIC right?

Some of the points that seem to be brought up repeatedly
in that thread are
*The pools,*The transportation,*The room size.

Now, we can use the villas quiet pool as well as the WL main pool right? My kids are just happy to get wet--they will not care where.
We've had transportation go both ways really.......at CBR it was hit or miss. And almost always crowded
At CSR we had truly awesome transportation.A few times we had the bus entirely to ourselves!!!!!!
But either way, we are at Disney !

And room size....well, our room at CBR was definitely larger than our room at CSR.And I have heard that WL rooms compare to the CBR size, so things should be fine.

Okay, now its time for all you Lodgers to RAVE,RAVE,RAVE about WL and put my fears to rest okay?
And I promise, scouts honor , I will stay away from any negative WL posts from now on.

 

[MagicPrincess]

tooboys4us-

we really did love the WL. I really don't know what people expect regarding room size! I thought it was fine- and it wasn't really dark at all! In fact the sun came through our patio door and the room was nice and bright! I really liked the bathroom area- double sinks separate from the toilet/tub/shower.

the pool was crowded- and there were no chairs when we went LATE in the day- but it wasn't THAT bad! I thought the water felt so nice- and the setting was very pretty.

On average it took us about 1/2 an hour to get from one park to another. The last night it took us over an hour for some reason- I guess it was just VERY busy that night. I still feel a Deluxe resort should have direct transportation without ANY stops!

Concierge was "nice". I guess not really for us. It was nice and convenient having breakfast, snacks, wine/cheese/appetizers, desserts, etc... but otherwise, we didn't feel any special treatment. Maybe they were just too busy or something???

The restaurants were wonderful. You must go to Artist Point. We didn't plan on going there- but made it there our last night, and I was so glad we did. It was a fabulous meal- upscale yet casual. My husband and I both had the chef menu- soup/salad/entree and dessert. It was very good!

I'm sure you'll have a wonderful stay at the WL.
we did!!!

 

[jcemom]

I know what you mean TooBoyz4us!

Room size I'm not concerned about as we stayed at AKL and the rooms are the same size--we had no problems there!

The transportation I'm a bit concerned about though!

 

[Tinkerbelle739]

I originally posted my questions at Humphreys Home and they referred me here.

We have a planned trip to WL Oct 31-Nov 6. My 80 year old grandparents are now coming with us. They are both disabled (grandmother recovering from broken hip and grandfather diagnosed with terminal liver/pancrease cancer) and will need motorized scooters to get around.

Where are the wheelchair accesible rooms and are they connected rooms? I currently have a woods view ressie which I guess I will have to change to accomodate a connecting room reservation.

Has anyone used the motorized scooters at the resort? Was this covenient? Can you go everywhere and is transportation accomodating?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wishing everyone a "magical" day!

 

[corky805]

Originally posted by TooBoyz4us
Okay Lodge fans,
I just spent some time reading the "Why do you dislike WL" thread. Now I am bummed

Don't ask me why I spent time reading that. I already know that we are going to love the Lodge. Afterall, it is my dream resort, and my DH let me choose our resort this time, so it is going to be FANTASTIC right?

Some of the points that seem to be brought up repeatedly
in that thread are
*The pools,*The transportation,*The room size.

Now, we can use the villas quiet pool as well as the WL main pool right? My kids are just happy to get wet--they will not care where.
We've had transportation go both ways really.......at CBR it was hit or miss. And almost always crowded
At CSR we had truly awesome transportation.A few times we had the bus entirely to ourselves!!!!!!
But either way, we are at Disney !

And room size....well, our room at CBR was definitely larger than our room at CSR.And I have heard that WL rooms compare to the CBR size, so things should be fine.

Okay, now its time for all you Lodgers to RAVE,RAVE,RAVE about WL and put my fears to rest okay?
And I promise, scouts honor , I will stay away from any negative WL posts from now on.

HOLY COW!!! Stay away from those threads

I have in the past heard these complaints.....I take almost no stock in them. IMO, some are always going to complain about room size....it was fine for me and DH and DS. We had no problems with it. I'm not sure what the complaint is with the pools...we found both of them to be great. Now they are not Storm Along Bay.....but they don't claim to be either.....maybe in Peak season they get a little full....but I think that is everywhere.

As far as transportation....I am a little annoyed (which is of course my problem and I will deal with it )at the constant complaints..... We had no transportation problems at all on our stay at WL. And I know others will concur. Now we never took a bus, so if that is what you are concerned about I can tell you that I have heard complaints about bus trans. from everywhere at one time or another. I certainly don't think it is any bigger of a problem at WL than any where else. I stayed at All-Stars years ago and waited forever for a bus. We never waited for more than 5 minutes for the boats on our trip....IMO you can't beat that.
Some people have expectations that are well let's say elevated....which can never be met.

I think you will love the Lodge and I hope you have a fabulous trip and prove all the naysayers wrong....

 

[Majestic]

Coming from me, a person who USED to believe in having a rental car, I would say that I have never had a problem with transportation at the Lodge. It's pretty close to everything.

If you only look at buses for transport that may be a problem. If you don't like to walk much then it may be a problem.

Look at it my way:

1) You have buses that come once every 10 to 15 minutes from what I recall. I have never had to wait much more than 5 minutes.

2) You can take the boat to the Magic Kingdom for the day or hop on the monorail to go to MK resort hotels or the TTC to go to Epcot.

3) You can hop on the boat to the Contemporary then hope the monorail to go to MK resort hotels or the TTC to go to Epcot.

If you combine these options, transportation is fantastic and if you think about it, there are more options here than at most resorts.

Right???

Originally posted by jcemom
The transportation I'm a bit concerned about though!

 

[jcemom]

Yep! I'm not giving it another thought! Now that I consider it, I read many reviews that said AKL transportation was a problem and that it was too far away from everything, yet we loved it and had no problem at all. I don't need to be anywhere in 10 minutes, I'm going to enjoy myself and if it takes 30 minutes to get somewhere, no big deal! lol

Besides, don't the other deluxe resorts (AKL excluded) share buses also?

 

[MagicPrincess]

as far as transportation goes...
we were at Disney during Spring Break- so it was much more crowded, and it took longer for busses/boats/monorails.
It wasn't that bad- just the last night.
Don't worry!!!

(1/2 hour including wait time for the tranportation)

 

[Majestic]

Yup. When we were there in January of this year, the bus was shared between WL, The Polynesian, and GF. Still wasn't bad when we used the buses.

Why rush! You're on vacation right? Enjoy it!

As was said in Ferris Buellers' Day Off, ""Life goes by pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around, you might miss it."

Originally posted by jcemom
Yep! I'm not giving it another thought! Now that I consider it, I read many reviews that said AKL transportation was a problem and that it was too far away from everything, yet we loved it and had no problem at all. I don't need to be anywhere in 10 minutes, I'm going to enjoy myself and if it takes 30 minutes to get somewhere, no big deal! lol

Besides, don't the other deluxe resorts (AKL excluded) share buses also?

 

[Kimberle]

Originally posted by TooBoyz4us
Okay Lodge fans,
I just spent some time reading the "Why do you dislike WL" thread. Now I am bummed

Don't ask me why I spent time reading that. I already know that we are going to love the Lodge. Afterall, it is my dream resort, and my DH let me choose our resort this time, so it is going to be FANTASTIC right?

Some of the points that seem to be brought up repeatedly
in that thread are
*The pools,*The transportation,*The room size.

Now, we can use the villas quiet pool as well as the WL main pool right? My kids are just happy to get wet--they will not care where.
We've had transportation go both ways really.......at CBR it was hit or miss. And almost always crowded
At CSR we had truly awesome transportation.A few times we had the bus entirely to ourselves!!!!!!
But either way, we are at Disney !

And room size....well, our room at CBR was definitely larger than our room at CSR.And I have heard that WL rooms compare to the CBR size, so things should be fine.

Okay, now its time for all you Lodgers to RAVE,RAVE,RAVE about WL and put my fears to rest okay?
And I promise, scouts honor , I will stay away from any negative WL posts from now on.

I agree w/ Corky! Take everything you read (both good & bad) with a proper grain of salt!! When someone posts "always" or "never" *I* pretty much disregard their post. (Unless they've stayed "there" for the entire time the resort was open, how can you know that xxx "always" or "never" happens?

When I hear "overly" good or bad things about any resort (etc), I first look at when the poster stayed at the resort. On that particular thread, you'll notice that several people stayed in the 1990's. Well, in the "hotel world" even a year or two can have a very big impact on a resort (both good or bad).

If you read the various travel publications, you'll note that WL has been pretty consistantly ranked above all (or nearly all) other WDW resorts, including the Poly, AKL, and GF.

During our stay 6 months ago, the transporation was terrific! We didn't wait longer than 5-10 minutes for a boat or bus. I found the transporation better than during our CR stay.

So, please don't get "scared off" for staying at WL. It's a wonderful resort. That's not to say that people haven't had problems. But no matter where you stay, even the Poly, people are going to have problems.

When you've been reading these brds for a while, you get to "know" which posters are really trying to help you plan a nice vacation (for you, as opposied to them) and who are trying to "defend" their "turf".

Every one has different tastes. And it's perfectly "OK" for people to like 1 resort and dislike another. The world would be a pretty boring place if we all had the same taste!!

(I just want to clarify, I'm speaking in very general terms, I'm not "focusing" on any particular post or thread.)

 

[MagicPrincess]

yep, we were in no hurry- but you'd be amazed how some people push and shove. And some people have no regard for little ones- just shovin' away. Amazing!

 

[AspiringCindy]

According to my travel industry guide(which I shouldn't have!), CBR & CSR have typical room sizes of 315 Square feet. WL has room sizes of 340 Square feet!...and if you request bunks, it will even seem like more than 340 Square feet!
On the pool issue, I love the pool, the slide, the hot tubs and the sound of the waterfalls as you float in the water!!!! I have never found the pool to be too crowded or too small! Transportation is not too bad! We have gotten boats and buses within minutes...but never have had to wait longer than 10-15 minutes!
In all honesty, even if the pool was too crowded, the room was too small and the transportation was too slow...I would still stay at WL as my first choice resort! Nothing can replace the feeling I get as I enter that glorious lobby and hear that familiar music!! Trust us...YOU WILL LOVE THE LODGE!

Originally posted by TooBoyz4us
Okay Lodge fans,
I just spent some time reading the "Why do you dislike WL" thread. Now I am bummed

Don't ask me why I spent time reading that. I already know that we are going to love the Lodge. Afterall, it is my dream resort, and my DH let me choose our resort this time, so it is going to be FANTASTIC right?

Some of the points that seem to be brought up repeatedly
in that thread are
*The pools,*The transportation,*The room size.

Now, we can use the villas quiet pool as well as the WL main pool right? My kids are just happy to get wet--they will not care where.
We've had transportation go both ways really.......at CBR it was hit or miss. And almost always crowded
At CSR we had truly awesome transportation.A few times we had the bus entirely to ourselves!!!!!!
But either way, we are at Disney !

And room size....well, our room at CBR was definitely larger than our room at CSR.And I have heard that WL rooms compare to the CBR size, so things should be fine.

Okay, now its time for all you Lodgers to RAVE,RAVE,RAVE about WL and put my fears to rest okay?
And I promise, scouts honor , I will stay away from any negative WL posts from now on.

 

[AspiringCindy]

On our last trip, we had a party member that did rent one of the motorized scooters! She was in a regular room(not handicap accessible). I vaguely remember the hotel charging the battery every night! You might want to PM Kimmar(HughJackmanNMe) for further info!(it was her mother-in-law)

Originally posted by Tinkerbelle739
I originally posted my questions at Humphreys Home and they referred me here.

We have a planned trip to WL Oct 31-Nov 6. My 80 year old grandparents are now coming with us. They are both disabled (grandmother recovering from broken hip and grandfather diagnosed with terminal liver/pancrease cancer) and will need motorized scooters to get around.

Where are the wheelchair accesible rooms and are they connected rooms? I currently have a woods view ressie which I guess I will have to change to accomodate a connecting room reservation.

Has anyone used the motorized scooters at the resort? Was this covenient? Can you go everywhere and is transportation accomodating?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wishing everyone a "magical" day!

 

[jcemom]

Originally posted by AspiringCindy
Trust us...YOU WILL LOVE THE LODGE!

I know I will! I was having some momentary doubts due to that "who doesn't like it" thread, lol, but I've gotten over it. I can't wait to go! I just wish it weren't so far away! To me, all of the pictures convey a warm, homey, comfortable feeling, and that is exactly what I'm looking for!

 

[TooBoyz4us]

Originally posted by AspiringCindy
Trust us...YOU WILL LOVE THE LODGE!

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!!
I knew I could count on you regular Lodgers to brighten my day.

Fred,
The points you brought up about all the different options of transportation, are the exact ones that initially made us decide to book WL over AKL.
I had forgotten that when I was reading all the negative reports.....thanks for reminding me.

And as I mentioned (and that you can see below) our past two visits to WDW resorts have been at moderates, with nothing but bus transport available to us.

I KNOW we will be in hog heaven with the boat and monorail from CR options !!!

~Chris

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

Originally posted by Tinkerbelle739
Where are the wheelchair accesible rooms and are they connected rooms? I currently have a woods view ressie which I guess I will have to change to accomodate a connecting room reservation.
Has anyone used the motorized scooters at the resort? Was this covenient? Can you go everywhere and is transportation accomodating?

Tinkerbelle
ACCESSIBLE ROOMS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS:
Most are located on the 1st Floor Villa side. There are also some on the North side 1st floor. There is 1 located on the 6th floor(lobby room) above Whispering Canyon. All accessible rooms at WL are King Beds, so if your party is larger than 2, a 2nd room is added at no additional cost(if booked through the special needs dept.)*About 37 Lodge rooms with King beds double as the barrier-free (handicap-accessible) rooms and have a large shower with no tub.

As for the ECV wheelchairs many people rent them for the week from an outside company. Check out the disABILITIES Forum for additional information. All WDW Resorts make sure that any Special Needs Guest are I given top priority.

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

Originally posted by TooBoyz4us
Okay Lodge fans,
I just spent some time reading the "Why do you dislike WL" thread. Now I am bummed
Some of the points that seem to be brought up repeatedly
in that thread are
*The pools,*The transportation,*The room size.
Now, we can use the villas quiet pool as well as the WL main pool right?
And room size....well, our room at CBR was definitely larger than our room at CSR.And I have heard that WL rooms compare to the CBR size, so things should be fine.

TooBoyz4us,
The OP of that thread wanted to know any negative things that anyone had experienced at WL because let's face it most of us on this thread love the Lodge and tend to see the positive. BUT and there is always a but...everything that was posted on that thread is true because the posters said "it happened," so yes it probably did...After posting that statement I can also say that everything that was said could have been said about every Resort at WDW and any resort or hotel/motel anywhere. Because it comes down to service and events that can't be controlled 100%.

I have stayed in almost every WDW Resort and have also had bad experinces but most are great...so if I run into lemons I know where to find the lemonade. (Enchanted Grove Lemonade slushes. hosted by Minute Maid.

 

[Badger Brent]

We will have a Key's to the Kingdom tour on a Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. How would YOU try to get over to MK by the 8:15 a.m. check-in time? We want to be over there around 7:50 or so to cover ourselves. Would you do the boat to the MK docks? The boats to the Contemp. and walk over. Or bus to the TTC and monorail or boat over? Thanks for all replies!!

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

Badger Brent,

If the weather is good I think I would catch the small Launch that runs to The Contemporary Blue Flag then walk over. If weather isn't too great I would take the WL bus to TTC when Resort Monorail over to MK.

Have a Great Trip.