The NEW WL FAQ (Part 5) Simbas and Tiggers and Humphreys OH MY! Part 2

[morepsi1]

I'm back from a wonderful trip to the World. We had a great time and the WL is everything that we expected. We stayed in a Courtyard View in room 4043 which had a view of the pool area. We had to look over the balcony a bit to see Ol Faithful. We had absolutely no problems with noise. When you shut the balcony door, all outdoor noise goes away. I was a little surprised at how far away the parking lot was. That was probably our only complaint about the WL. We like having our car with us, but didn't like the long hike to the parking lot. I am looking forward to our next trip which will probably be late 2009 or early 2010.

 

[Troop o' Goofs]

As I was driving to work today, I kept thinking that at that same exact time, two weeks from today, I would be on my way to WDW and it has helped me get through rough days at work.

*Cheers* to the 2 week countdown!

 

[branv]

I was wondering if someone can give me some idea of how the parking is set up?

When I looked at a satellite image of the WL, I noticed if you're viewing the parking area from the hotel, at first it appears to be one main parking area. But on zooming in, I noticed the center area is gated. Is that Valet? Is regular guest parking to the right and left of this?

I also did one informal measurement using the map key, and OMG, the furthest parking spot is anywhere from 2-3 football field lengths away from the front door. No bueno after a long day in the park...hmmm, maybe valet is looking more affordable after all

 

[momtoccc]

As I was driving to work today, I kept thinking that at that same exact time, two weeks from today, I would be on my way to WDW and it has helped me get through rough days at work.

*Cheers* to the 2 week countdown!

I'll join you on the 2 week countdown - 2 weeks from tomorrow for us

 

[momtoccc]

I was wondering if someone can give me some idea of how the parking is set up?

When I looked at a satellite image of the WL, I noticed if you're viewing the parking area from the hotel, at first it appears to be one main parking area. But on zooming in, I noticed the center area is gated. Is that Valet? Is regular guest parking to the right and left of this?

I also did one informal measurement using the map key, and OMG, the furthest parking spot is anywhere from 2-3 football field lengths away from the front door. No bueno after a long day in the park...hmmm, maybe valet is looking more affordable after all

We are going to have a car also...didn't know we would be hiking to our car every day... how much is valet? Is it really that far??

 

[momtoccc]

Does anyone know if the "build your own yogurt parfait" at Roaring Forks is a snack credit? It costs $3.79 according to AllEars menus.

THanks

 

[DJEd]

We are going to have a car also...didn't know we would be hiking to our car every day... how much is valet? Is it really that far??

Valet is $10 per day (from what I have read here) - and is good at all the resorts (so if you valet at WL, but have a meal at GF, you can Valet there for free). At least that is how I understand it.

I plan on using Valet at WL when we are there in three weeks.

Ed

 

[momtoccc]

Valet is $10 per day (from what I have read here) - and is good at all the resorts (so if you valet at WL, but have a meal at GF, you can Valet there for free). At least that is how I understand it.

I plan on using Valet at WL when we are there in three weeks.

Ed

Do you pay once a day regardless if you come and go mulitple times? That is good to know about Valet at other resorts - we do have an ADR at GF.

 

[morepsi1]

I was wondering if someone can give me some idea of how the parking is set up?

When I looked at a satellite image of the WL, I noticed if you're viewing the parking area from the hotel, at first it appears to be one main parking area. But on zooming in, I noticed the center area is gated. Is that Valet? Is regular guest parking to the right and left of this?

I also did one informal measurement using the map key, and OMG, the furthest parking spot is anywhere from 2-3 football field lengths away from the front door. No bueno after a long day in the park...hmmm, maybe valet is looking more affordable after all

I just got back from a trip to WL so maybe I can help. The only parking that is not valet is in front of the check in area. If you have your back to the check in area, public parking is to the right. There are only 5-6 rows for this. The valet parking is to the left of that. There is another large parking lot to the right (again back to the check in area) of the public parking area, but it is reserved for service vehicles and cast members only. The times that we did use our vehicle, we didn't have any trouble finding a parking space back at the lodge, however, several times, we did have to park way down the lot. We noticed that several of the vehicles that had parking spaces the closest to the lodge didn't seem to move at all. Looks like they drove down to Disney then used Disney transportation

 

[Cindy's Mom]

I just got back from a trip to WL so maybe I can help. The only parking that is not valet is in front of the check in area. If you have your back to the check in area, public parking is to the right. There are only 5-6 rows for this. The valet parking is to the left of that. There is another large parking lot to the right (again back to the check in area) of the public parking area, but it is reserved for service vehicles and cast members only. The times that we did use our vehicle, we didn't have any trouble finding a parking space back at the lodge, however, several times, we did have to park way down the lot. We noticed that several of the vehicles that had parking spaces the closest to the lodge didn't seem to move at all. Looks like they drove down to Disney then used Disney transportation

Why the ? Are they supposed to park far away. I don't recall any signs saying that you had to move your car within a certain time frame.

 

[DJEd]

Do you pay once a day regardless if you come and go mulitple times? That is good to know about Valet at other resorts - we do have an ADR at GF.

From what I understand, once per day regardless of how many times you come and go.

Ed

 

[momtoccc]

From what I understand, once per day regardless of how many times you come and go.

Ed

Thanks for the info - we may want to use this too!

 

[tanyaandallie]

Thanks for all the info on the buses! Looks like getting to MK will be a breeze. We will likely take the bus since it is fastest!

Does anyone know if the times listed in the unofficial guide are accurate on times to the other parks? The chart says (I think) that it takes 20 minutes in your car to get to Epcot or 39 minutes by Disney transport. Each park it looks like it takes twice as long to get there by Disney transport. True? It sounds like for the other parks it might be easiest to rent a car.

 

[4-for-Disney]

OMG 3 weeks..I am freaking out! I can't wait!

 

[hahmood]

we are staying at WL club level in March & I wanted to add an extra day but having troub le getting a room. Does anyone know if we have to go to a different resort, say AKL, do we need to get a taxi for our luggage or is there a way to do it to the other resort through Disney?

 

[orangekid13]

I'm in the early stages of planning a trip for June and I have a few questions
What's the best deal out? AAA? I don't have AAA but last time we went my mom signed up for it just to get the discount and still saved money... then got an better deal by getting an annual pass. (the AAA membership cost was still absorbed.)

We're already going on my airline miles I got from visiting my dad almost every month for 5 years flying seattle/san jose round trip, which is the only reason I'm even considering staying at WL, but I'm still going to deal hunt.

I know how good of hunting guides all you DISers are, if Cheney had you that rich guy would never have been shot in the face.

How soon do I need to make reservations to make sure I can stay there? I'm going with a friend of mine and we're both in college (but different ones) so we have to pick dates around that and other stuff, which is why we haven't decided yet. We're going for a standard view, we're not gonna just be hanging around the room much so why bother paying for something we're not going to use.

 

[Colleen27]

Does anyone know if the times listed in the unofficial guide are accurate on times to the other parks? The chart says (I think) that it takes 20 minutes in your car to get to Epcot or 39 minutes by Disney transport. Each park it looks like it takes twice as long to get there by Disney transport. True? It sounds like for the other parks it might be easiest to rent a car.

We haven't stayed at WL yet, but in our stays at other resorts we've found the UG advice to be extremely pessimistic. Maybe we've just been lucky, but we've never encountered significant enough delays on Disney transportation to make us consider renting a car.

 

[JPN4265]

Why the ? Are they supposed to park far away. I don't recall any signs saying that you had to move your car within a certain time frame.

Good question. If you drive to Disney World are you required to move your car every day so the people that don't use the bus service can park closer to the lodge?

 

[burberryplaid]

Thanks for all the info on the buses! Looks like getting to MK will be a breeze. We will likely take the bus since it is fastest!

Does anyone know if the times listed in the unofficial guide are accurate on times to the other parks? The chart says (I think) that it takes 20 minutes in your car to get to Epcot or 39 minutes by Disney transport. Each park it looks like it takes twice as long to get there by Disney transport. True? It sounds like for the other parks it might be easiest to rent a car.

I agree with Colleen. While I love the UG and found most of the information to be helpful, i can say we did not encounter any of the wait times the book suggests. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus, or 15 minutes for a boat. We were always where we wanted to be within 30 minutes of getting on the boat/bus (and most of the times less). The longest ride we took was to Downtown Disney, and that took maybe 20-25 minutes..it didn't seem long at all.

The other advantage in my opinion is, if you're parking yourself, you may be very far from the entrance to the park. I know they have transportation via tram or ferry to parking, but that takes time too..so are you really saving much time doing that?

 

[DJEd]

Thanks for all the info on the buses! Looks like getting to MK will be a breeze. We will likely take the bus since it is fastest!

Does anyone know if the times listed in the unofficial guide are accurate on times to the other parks? The chart says (I think) that it takes 20 minutes in your car to get to Epcot or 39 minutes by Disney transport. Each park it looks like it takes twice as long to get there by Disney transport. True? It sounds like for the other parks it might be easiest to rent a car.

When we stayed at CBR two years ago, we tried both methods of transportation. When we caught a bus reasonably quick (within 10 minutes or so), the buses worked great and took less than the times in the books to get to the parks. The exception was coming home from MK at closing. That was generally a no win situation - either wait 3 or 4 busses back to the resort (generally 30 to 40 minutes holding tired/sleeping kids - then walk to the room) - or wait 30 to 40 minutes (holding tired/sleepy kids) to get a ferry or monorail to the TTC then drive to the resort.

We mainly used the car if we had any ADR's when we weren't in the park (ie - dinner in Epcot but we were hanging out at the pool prior).

For this trip at WL (19 days away!), we plan to use transportation as much as possible - and planned our days so that we are generally in the park (or a monorail ride away, MK to GF as an example) from where we have ADRs that day/night.

However, for $100 (total for 8 days) for a full size car at Alamo for the week we are going (about $30 less for a compact!) it is worth it for us to have a car as a hedge against any transportation issues, as well as for our day at SeaWorld.

I wanted to try ME this go 'round, but $100 is too good to turn down.

I'll post a report upon my return.

Ed