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

[TooBoyz4us]

Originally posted by julybride
How funny. Last night at dinner I mentioned the "D" word to DH after giving him a break from all my planning. He just laughed and said "Here we go again".

The same thing happens here julybride.....just today my DH called on his way home from work.I must have answered the phone in a funny way because he asked me what was wrong.I said,"Oh nothing, I was just going over these PS's again and think I may want to make a change".He simply said, "Oh Lord !!!" BUT,when he came home he patiently sat down and looked at the new menus I had printed.Then together we made changes to our itinerary that is up on the dry erase board.Yes, you read that right..........we have a huge dry erase board up in the computer room and our disney itinerary is written all over it,LOL!

As an added bonus, as I've been searching for info, I've found some very nice people.

And I agree with you!! I too have met some very wonderful and special people here on the DIS. I have even mentioned some of you to my friends and family as if I know you personally

 

[Tig-girl]

TooBoyz- I'm so glad you have read the part about "the new menus you had printed out" ! I do the same thing and my family is convinced that I might be "Obsessive Compulsive"! Ha Ha! They are probably right, but I have to plan these trips down to the last detail, the last minute, the last penny! I'm just awful. Not that I'm fanatical and not flexible, because heaven knows things can change when you are there, and you can't make the PS you had at Boma for instance, and DSs decide they'd rather do Chef Mickey's...........I "allow" for those changes, but I just like to be prepared, and at least know menus, prices, etc. Just happy there are more like me. And by the way, I tried to go the whole day without mentioning THE TRIP, but I didn't quite make it! Had to bring it up in the car when DH and I were on our way to the hardware store! Oh well........

 

[Peylog]

My family and I went May 1-9 to WL, and we checked in at 10:30am and received a free upgrade from Standard to Courtyard. I was so suprised to get to check in so early, it honestly made the trip feel longer. Have a great trip

Peylog

 

[Peylog]

Another year almost till we go again, But planning is the best part ! I hope it flies by. Peylog

 

[Tig-girl]

Ah, don't feel too bad Peylog, a year just flies by! We were supposed to be going back in a year, then 18 mos, and now it will be 2 years since our last trip! But here we go again, and it's going to be here before I know it. So don't fret, just make yourself a really big countdown calendar for the fridge like I do!

 

[babybunrab]

OK-I've decided to both attempt to check in early and make a PS at WCC. This ought to work well (assuming we get the 5:35 flight. If not, I'll cancel the PS). My counter seems to be going faster these days...I can hardly stand the wait!

Thanks for the information, Pey-log! How nice for you to get an upgrade AND and early check-in.

Tig-girl-Just noticed your counter--Happy Anniversary and have fun on the Cape! I hope you get beautiful weather!

...And just so everyone knows, in my real, non-Disney life I don't use this many exclamation points!!!

 

[julybride]

MAGESTIC

Didn't mean to DH bash. He is a gem. And, he is secretly amused at my "Disney obsession".
P.S. Your info (along with AspiringCindy) on the first page of this thread is more helpful than any of the guidebooks. Thank you!

campinggal

Hello! We are in Danville. It is a very small town in the southeast corner of the state.


Now for the first of many questions

Has anyone tried the children's programs at WL. We will probably have at least one off day and was curious about the arts and crafts in particular. DS will be 4 when we go on vacation and loves arts and crafts.

Also, has anyone done the fireside story telling? I have this image of DS and DD looking adorable in their pj's listenting to a story by the beautiful fireplace. Do the little ones enjoy this or is it more for the parents memory books? I really want this trip to be (mostly) about the kids.

 

[babybunrab]

Julybride-

DS went to the Cub's Den at WL a couple of years ago and enjoyed it a great deal. There were things to climb, movies to watch and CMS helped direct them in arts and crafts. (DS wasn't into arts and crafts at the time, and the CMs there didn't push them into doing things they didn't want to, but I did see other children participating in arts and crafts). There seemed to be a good range of interesting materials--not just coloring sheets. The CM's seemed to be interested in the kids, not just hanging out and chatting among themselves. At $8.00 an hour, it's not cheap, but it is quality childcare.

Hey, that means I have been in WL before! I thought I hadn't until just now. I wonder how I could have forgotten something as wonderful as being inside WL?

 

[AspiringCindy]

Julybride: We have also tried the Cub's Den a number of times and always are happy with the care! They played computer games, colored, watched videos as well as active games! The Cms gave us a beeper to have easy contact with us! The last time we used the Cub's Den, they also brought in live animals for demonstration...but this has since been discontinued due to the closing of Discovery Island! Oh yeah, they also gave them a choice of 3 items for dinner!

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

I'm back,

Wow, what a trip we had such a MAGICAL time.

Humphrey's Nose is going to need soom new paint and varnish I rubbed it every time I passed by and made a wish for our dear Roy's speedy recovery, and improved health. We did go to Trails End last night and I had some Chile and corn bread just for him...

Corky also managed to have some of that disgusting Bread pudding with strawberry's and a cream sauce, it was all I could do to keep from picking up the plate and licking it clean.

The Dis meet was great fun and yes... Magestic Fred is a great guy and loads of fun any of you that are lucky enough to be going to the New Jersey Dis Meet are going to have a wonderful time.

I met quite a few Dis'ers Magistic (Fred), dizneykid (Jeanne & her DH Marcel) Chip 'n Dale Express (Tyler), BostonAnnual, ALDISNEYFAN (Marqueta), & dlstc (Diana she invited me to join her family on their Wishes Cruise Friday night May 21)

Yesterday, May 28th The Wilderness Lodge celebrated it's 10th anniversary. It was a great party that lasted most of the day, with great events scheduled. I'll just add there was a Cake prepared by the pastry Chefs from the Grand Floridian. (28 lbs of chocolate) Have photo's Will try and get a report together and will post when I have gotten some rest going to WDW is hard work.

 

[Tig-girl]

Babybunrab- thanks for the good wishes! I sure hope the weather is nice also, but if it's not, I'm going to make the best of it! Thanks again!
Magic-it sounds like you had a wonderful time at the anniversary part and I can't wait to see the pictures of the cake! Sorry I missed that one.
And good evening everyone!

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

O'Siyo! Hello! Welcome to Disney's Wilderness Lodge! Thank you for joining us as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Disney's Wilderness Lodge. Our celebration will be held in our beautiful lobby on Friday, May 28, 2004

The day's events:
11:00 AM Welcome and introduction by the General Manager, Brian Britton.
11:05 AM Cultural presentation by Black Wolf
11:45 AM The role of women in Native American culture, tools, plants and regaila by Quicksilver
12:30 PM Traditional dances
12:45 PM Flute melodies
1:00 PM Telling of stories by Black Wolf
1:20 PM Drums and traditional dances by Black Wolf, Onna Dondee Donna Dawa Dondee, Quicksilver, Little Hawk, and Kathryn Pring
1:45 PM Flute melodies
2:00 PM Cultural presentation by Quicksilver
2:00 PM Wildlife animals from Disney's Animal Kingdom
2:30 Guest speakers
3:00 PM Blessing to the Four Directions, Black Wolf
Followed by more dancing and a special finale' to a wonderful day.

It was a great day to be at the Lodge, the presentions where wounderful...All current and some past CM's gathered around the balcony railings overlooking the main lobby, they where acknowledged and given credit for the success of The Wilderness Lodge. After all the presentations the lobby was showered with confetti in the shapes of leaves in fall colors it was festive and beautiful.

There was a Specialty cake courtesty of Chef Erich Herbitscheck and the Bakery staff of Disney's Grand Floridian. (Kristine Farmer & Richard Roman)

I spoke with Chef Richard Roman, and he said they started on the cake 2 1/2 weeks ago starting with the logs. They used 250 lbs. of sugar, 50 lbs. of flour, 28 lbs. of chocolate and 150 eggs. It weighed approximatley 350 lbs. and measured 4'X4'X4'

Following are some photo's I took of the cake and Chef Richard as well as some of the other events:

All guest and Cast Members then enjoyed the cake served with lemonade.

 

[ADisneygirl]

Wow MAGICinMYHEART! That was some cake! It was done beautifully. I wish our trip to the Lodge had been during their 10th year anniversary. Do you think there will be any more cakes being made in July when we go?? hahahaha......



Thanks for the great pictures and all your informative posts.

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

Saturday May 22, 2004 Wilderness Lodge DIS Meet

I am not sure why but I was a little nervous I guess just meeting someone that you feel you know but you don’t? Anyway I’m there in the Lobby and I realize I may be the only one that shows up…What will I do for two hours until my family meets me? Deep breath calm down I love the lodge it will still be great to explore all by myself if need be.

I look up, here comes Majestic it would be hard to miss Fred, we start talking just like two old friends then Dizsneykid Jeanne and her husband Marcel arrived. We pulled up some rockers and started chatting away. (Mostly about our Dear Roy FloridaCat and how we all wished he could have joined us) Next trip Roy.
After a few minutes another fan of WL shows up ALDISNEYFAN Marqueta, yes we are chatting away and welcoming Miss Marqueta to the group but looking everywhere for Tinkerbelle739, Ironz and floridafam

After visiting with each other Fred called upstairs and arranges for us to take a tour of the 7th Floor Concierge. Marqueta has to rejoin her family and says good-by for now. One of the Concierge CM’s Daisy comes down to the lobby and escorts us to the 7th floor. We where met by the Guest Service Manager over Concierge Mark Newman, he was very nice and we received a warm welcome. After introducing us to the other CM’s on duty Mark gave us a tour of the area and went into detail of all the upcoming changes to the 7th floor at The Wilderness Lodge. Mark has already started plans for two new lounges to be added to existing dead space areas on the floor. The designers have come up with some beautiful ideas, Mark also has several plans to update the Lodges offering by possible adding all the Jr. Suites access to concierge as well as all or parts of the sixth floor for guest who prefer the open balconies. We where shown one on the Deluxe Honeymoon Suites it was much larger then standard room and it has a beautiful bath area.

The information Mark was sharing was very interesting but the time was past my arranged meet time for my niece and nephew so I had to leave but told everyone I would wait down stairs until they had completed their tour. (Where they did meet up with floridafam.)

My niece and nephew ran into a problem with the bus so they where in fact a few minutes late but arrived before I started worrying. Then the group arrived back down to the Lobby and Marqueta also rejoined us. We all had our cameras so we started snapping away.

While Fred has posted the two photo’s around Humphrey that we took for Roy, I took a few while we where upstairs I’ll share.

View from 7th Floor toward Bay Lake

Majestic/Fred

Fred & Mark Newman

Jeanne & Marcel

As we all said our good-bys our thoughts where all with Roy and hopes of another meet soon with him as the ring-leader.

 

[babybunrab]

Sounds like you all had a great time! Isn't it nice that Fred was able to get you all the tour of the 7th floor. I also liked the pictures of people--nice to have faces to go with the names.

Well, I was in Home Depot yesterday, so wandered by the Disney paint display to pick up my lime green mickeys. DH asked what I was planning to paint that color!! So, if you see a short woman with a tall nine year old boy and her mickeys on her fanny pack at WL in July, that's me!

Almost 40 days until I'm in the Lodge...

 

[MICKEY'S DREAMERS]

MAGIC IN MY HEART: thank you so much for pics and report !!!



It was like being there !!!!
You all must have had GREAT FUN !!!!!!!


I and DH would like so much to get a chance for a DISmeeting
while we'll be at the lodge next August :
will anyone be staying at "our" lodge 31 July - 13 August ?


It will add even some more MAGIC ... if we could share Humphrey with some DIS friends !

Can't wait to go there !!!!

Laura

 

[AspiringCindy]

Originally posted by MICKEY'S DREAMERS

I and DH would like so much to get a chance for a DISmeeting
while we'll be at the lodge next August :
will anyone be staying at "our" lodge 31 July - 13 August ?


It will add even some more MAGIC ... if we could share Humphrey with some DIS friends !

Can't wait to go there !!!!

Laura

We will be at WDW Aug. 10-19. Unfortunately, we are not staying at WL this time...but the Poly is close enough that we can attend a Dis Meet!

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

Hi everyone I have been trying to catch up on my reading and found a few questions that haven't been answered yet so I'll try.

Originally posted by CAP56
We will be staying at WL for the first time for 12 nights starting June 14th.My questions are:
1. Where are the "bunk bed" rooms located? (we reserved a woods view)
2. Does WL have rooms with trundle beds?
3. Would you recomend the "bunk bed" rooms?

CAPS56
1.)I know your question about the bunk beds was answered, (Located through out the Lodge all room types)
2.) The Lodge doesn't have trundle beds.
3.)The bunk beds do offer some extra floor space in the rooms.

Originally posted by Tig-girl
Good Evening All!
I wonder if anyone remembers or knows where I can find, the Christmas decoration schedule for The Lodge? I remember seeing it last year, and I don't know if it changes from year to year or not. Anyone have any idea?
Tig-girl
One of our DIS'ers suzannews, works at WCC she posted that when she was leaving work Nov 12, 2003 that the tree was going up...When we arrived November 14th all of WDW had the Christmas decorations up.

Originally posted by MICKEY'S DREAMERS
I read on "Passporter" (Resort comparisons table, pg 27) that Turndown service is available upon request.
What does that mean?
1) Is turndown available also for non-concierge guests? (we have a woods-view room)
2) Is there an additional charge if we require turndown?
3) Would you suggest to extra-tip our mousekeeper?
Thank you so much
Laura


Laura,
1.)Turndown service is available for all guest, if you are not staying Concierge and would like it just notify Housekeeping (Mousekeeping) and they will provide this service.
2.) While there isn't an additional charge you should leave a small gratuity. (a dollor or two a night for turn-down service)
3.) I know tipping Mousekeeping is not required while staying on WDW property. I always make up the Mousekeeping envelopes and leave about $5.00 a day for our CM.

Originally posted by MICKEY'S DREAMERS
I and DH would like so much to get a chance for a DISmeeting
while we'll be at the lodge next August :
will anyone be staying at "our" lodge 31 July - 13 August ?Laura

Laura,
In Majestic's signature under his photo there is a line that says:Who's going when YOU are going? CLICK HERE to find out! Just click on the link and you can find out who will be at WDW the same time as you. Actually you have signed up your dates there I was just counting how many DIS'ers would be there and saw your trip posted...if you would like to meet some people you could PM them and try and pick a date and location...It is great fun. AspiringCindy has posted she will be there.

 

[Peylog]

WL / Cubs Den: Crafts with parents is daily from 2:30 - 4:30pm
My son 4 yrs old and my daughter 6 yrs old loved it, they made a peacock hat, at that time there was one attendant in there and only 2 other children with parents. They also stayed one night there during the week for about 3 hrs, 10.00 per hour per child, and the kids picked from a few different menu choices, We received a beeper and were on our way. We didn't even want to do this they begged us to. Also they loved the Neverland Club at the Polynesian Resort, same price, same menu choices, awesome set up. Well just a little bit of info from one mom to another, very safe, very clean and they were very nice. This was the 1st time we have ever left our children with strangers. And we all lived to tell about it. Peylog

 

[julybride]

Thank you. I was really interested in the parent/child crafting. I'm glad to hear that your children liked it. I will put that on my list. DS has a weekly craft class at pre-school and never wants to miss it. I even had to arrange the mornings he will attend this summer around "crafty critters".

We probably won't do evening(Cubs Den) this trip. DS will be 4, but DD will only be 17 mos. I have only heard good reports about these programs and would probably consider them on another trip when the "babies" are older.

Have a good day.