Hi everyone - Just back from the Lodge and wanted to post a few observations good & bad.
Regarding renovations - I believe they are on. There was a lot of management in the halls with blueprints and making chalk marks on walls while we were there. At check-in we were told there would be workers on premises and to notify the front desk if they interferred with our stay.
Good: Beautiful rooms - 4161, 4163, 4159. We loved the view of the pool, geyser, and lake. Loved the lodge and will not go anywhere else. Also, was very impressed with the cleanliness and upkeep. Also they were repainting all of the rocks, the workers were very quiet and unobtrusive.
Reservations/Check-in agents were awesome and helped me 3 days in a row when Magical Express could not figure out when we were leaving. (We were always leaving on the 30th, but received a ME envelope on our door every morning of our stay for leaving the following morning).
Mousekeeping (lady named Qun): Qun was excellent. We met her in person twice. She left towel animals every single day and arranged my children's animals in cute themes. Left us extra towels without being asked for our kids and left us a cute thank you note for the last day of our stay. Lovely Lady!
The trails, theming, atmosphere were beautiful and relaxing. Loved the walk to the boat launch and the trails. The pool was nice and we loved the games the lifeguards played in the pool with the kids every afternoon at 3:00.
BAD: The buses were awful! We waited 40 minutes for a bus to downtown disney (took a taxi back). We waited 45 minutes at MK one night for a bus back to the hotel (they had a problem with the water launch and it wasn't running - you would think they would add an extra bus-this was 2 hours before closing) Our last night - driver Bill from EPCOT was downright rude and horrible, yelling at my dd10 once for stepping over the yellow line-not her fault she was pushed by the lady behind her and bus wasn't moving yet.
We had dinner at Artists Point on Friday 10/28 and it was a 3 1/2 hour experience. They only had 2 servers on duty and no busers. Our poor server Kimberly was so overseated and stressed. Food was wonderful, but the dining experience was bad.
Also, Roaring Forks is a bit of a disappointment. This is just way too small for the resort. We waited in huge lines every day for just breakfast. They either need to expand or make another CS restaurant in the lodge.
Airline check-in on our last day refused to check the luggage of part of our party because we were 6 minutes past the 3 hour window despite the fact that we had all been standing in line for 20 minutes and the bellman had actually brought our luggage down to them 45 minutes before hand. I understand the need for rules but this is a bit extreme.
WORST: Blonde, long-haired lady with glasses at the Mercantile that refused to sell us a bottle of alcohol and lectured us because drinking was bad. Also, man at mercantile who lectured us about buying candy for our children because it would rot my children's teeth. I was shocked by both of these events!
We did talk to management about our experiences and they went out of their way to try to please us (they actually called 3 days in a row). They were aware of the lady's viewpoints, but did not realize she was refusing to sell things - we weren't the only ones to complain about her. They offered to comp the rest of our stay and food, but we declined. I didn't want anything free, just want them to fix the problems. I can understand about being understaffed and taking a long time to serve - don't expect it from a signature restaurant, but do understand. However, to be lectured by a CM about what I buy is absolutely inexcusable.
I hope not to upset anyone, these were just my observations. I am an absolute Disney addict and have been going for over 30 years, but every year my experiences with cast members are causing me concern. There are still those wonderful cast members that try to make your trip extra special, but then there are the others that really bring you down. It just seems that we run into more and more unhappy CM's and less of the magical ones that actually enjoy their job. Hoping that the IGER era will return things to the vision that Walt had!
aw: 
