The Wilderness Lodge and Villas FAQ (Part 7) Simbas and Tiggers and Humphreys OH MY!

[KteaRN]

I would LOVE some (or all) of this information!! We will be there 2 weeks from today, with our 2 little ones, 4 & 5, and was wondering about both things you mentioned!

If you have a scanner you could scan them in and post them as pictures or email them!

Thanks, and glad you had such a great time!

 

[JordanBailey22]

We just got home yesterday from 8 days at WL. It was our first time here and it was amazing! We were in room #6062. Only request we had was high floor. We were directly over the service area. From the balcony, if you looked right there was a pond, if you looked down and left dumpsters, and straight ahead I could see the castle and monorail through the trees, so we just didnt look down! Before we went I had posted that I was worried we would be hearing beep beep beep in the early morning hours. Well, we didnt! YAY! I had taken a fan for noise so that might have helped. We did hear them a few days during the day but it was faint and not annoying. We had an awesome view of Wishes every night, that in itself was worth it! Our only complaint was the bus transportation. It was hit or miss. We waited at times for 45 minutes on a bus and then the way they share with GF and FW it would take forever to get to the parks. We are rope drop people and it did make that difficult. We ended up only making 2 rope drops, the others we were late for due to bus wait times and travel times. We would get to bus stop earlier just to have to wait longer, ha! We didn't let the bus issue spoil our trip though, it just gave us more time to slow down and enjoy the little things. We really liked the boat to MK.
Our mousekeeper did leave the boys some fun towel animals. We got an angel, a dog, a butterfly and then she made a "pool" with towels and a blue trash bag and put their stuffed animals on it. The boys loved that one the most!
It was ALOT more crowded on the weekends than I remember from our previous May trips. During the week it was perfect but the weekends we had to be sure to use fastpasses. Lots of groups, school groups, bands and stuff. We encountered several RUDE adults this trip. It is amazing how some peoples manners go out the window when they get to Disney! Our next trip we are going to try to go in October or November. May is our favorite time but with the boys in school and the oldest starting end of grade testing we need to find a different time of year to avoid that. We are sad it is over, but we will be back soon enough!! Half the fun is in the planning, right?!?

 

[princessallegra]

Two questions:

Our Disney rep, when I booked, requested a king bed for our room since we're on our honeymoon. I've heard that the only king beds are on the first floor - is that true? View doesn't really matter (we booked standard) but I'd like to know if a king bed restricts where we might be.

Second, is the refill station for the DxDP mugs open 24/7?

Hi! As far as I know, all the king bed rooms are indeed on the first floor. They double as handicap accessible rooms. On our stay there in 2005 we requested and were given a king room. We had to take an elevator DOWN and it was definitely not what I was looking for. We called the front desk, and went right back and got assigned another room. We would rather have the two queens than one king on the ground floor.

As far as Roaring Forks (the QS where you refill mugs), I'm pretty sure they close at a certain time, like 11 pm maybe? 10 pm? Not sure on that, someone else here will know for sure.

 

[newrygirl]

We are booked for our first stay in August at the WL I am sooo excited, we are in a woods view room, do any of these rooms have the solid balcony, I really would like to not have a solid balcony so do I need to put in a request for that, I am one of those people who don't really care where I am in a hotel bit like to be able to sit on my balcony and see out. DO any of the woods view have the solid balcony?

 

[britfish]

We just got home yesterday from 8 days at WL. It was our first time here and it was amazing! We were in room #6062. Only request we had was high floor. We were directly over the service area. From the balcony, if you looked right there was a pond, if you looked down and left dumpsters, and straight ahead I could see the castle and monorail through the trees, so we just didnt look down! Before we went I had posted that I was worried we would be hearing beep beep beep in the early morning hours. Well, we didnt! YAY! I had taken a fan for noise so that might have helped. We did hear them a few days during the day but it was faint and not annoying. We had an awesome view of Wishes every night, that in itself was worth it! Our only complaint was the bus transportation. It was hit or miss. We waited at times for 45 minutes on a bus and then the way they share with GF and FW it would take forever to get to the parks. We are rope drop people and it did make that difficult. We ended up only making 2 rope drops, the others we were late for due to bus wait times and travel times. We would get to bus stop earlier just to have to wait longer, ha! We didn't let the bus issue spoil our trip though, it just gave us more time to slow down and enjoy the little things. We really liked the boat to MK.
Our mousekeeper did leave the boys some fun towel animals. We got an angel, a dog, a butterfly and then she made a "pool" with towels and a blue trash bag and put their stuffed animals on it. The boys loved that one the most!
It was ALOT more crowded on the weekends than I remember from our previous May trips. During the week it was perfect but the weekends we had to be sure to use fastpasses. Lots of groups, school groups, bands and stuff. We encountered several RUDE adults this trip. It is amazing how some peoples manners go out the window when they get to Disney! Our next trip we are going to try to go in October or November. May is our favorite time but with the boys in school and the oldest starting end of grade testing we need to find a different time of year to avoid that. We are sad it is over, but we will be back soon enough!! Half the fun is in the planning, right?!?

I am so glad you had such a good time and a great room! Thanks for letting me know, I was waiting to make a room request to see how yours turned out and now I think I will request high floor like you did. Thanks again for the review!

 

[loveDmouse]

We have a courtyard view booked and I requested Inner Courtyard View off lobby because of this thread. When I double check what they have listed they have Inner Courtyard View near lobby.

Is that ok or should I make sure they specifically put off lobby? Didn't know what difference it made if any.


THANKS!!!!!

Can't wait for our first stay at the Wilderness Lodge.

 

[BlueFairy]

We have a courtyard view booked and I requested Inner Courtyard View off lobby because of this thread. When I double check what they have listed they have Inner Courtyard View near lobby.

Is that ok or should I make sure they specifically put off lobby? Didn't know what difference it made if any.


THANKS!!!!!

Can't wait for our first stay at the Wilderness Lodge.

Hmmm. Well, I would just say "lobby room" if you want your door to open right onto the lobby atrium. However, This will make it less likely that you get your request. There are only a few lobby rooms with a courtyard view. "Inner Courtyard" either "near" or "off" the lobby could be a much wider range of rooms, but would still be very nice IMO, just without opening directly into the lobby area. Keep in mind that the lobby rooms will be noisier. In either case your balcony view would be of the courtyard, walkways, brook, and possibly waterfall.

 

[loveDmouse]

Hmmm. Well, I would just say "lobby room" if you want your door to open right onto the lobby atrium. However, This will make it less likely that you get your request. There are only a few lobby rooms with a courtyard view. "Inner Courtyard" either "near" or "off" the lobby could be a much wider range of rooms, but would still be very nice IMO, just without opening directly into the lobby area. Keep in mind that the lobby rooms will be noisier. In either case your balcony view would be of the courtyard, walkways, brook, and possibly waterfall.

Thanks for your opinion. You have a good point about the noise. I think I will just ask for inner courtyard view high floor. The first page of this thread when it talked about the room locations the off lobby were in the "bear face" and I thought that would be a great spot but probably not very easy to get. Thanks again!

 

[BlueFairy]

Thanks for your opinion. You have a good point about the noise. I think I will just ask for inner courtyard view high floor. The first page of this thread when it talked about the room locations the off lobby were in the "bear face" and I thought that would be a great spot but probably not very easy to get. Thanks again!

I think they would be great, too. We asked for the standard view lobby rooms last week. Those are similarly few in number. We ended up with a great room, but it was in the north wing, not in or near the lobby. I would ask for "near lobby" or upper courtyard to be able to walk through the lobby on the way to elevators, and also be closer to those elevators. Not such a long walk and less noise from the pool area than the lower courtyard.

 

[loveDmouse]

I think they would be great, too. We asked for the standard view lobby rooms last week. Those are similarly few in number. We ended up with a great room, but it was in the north wing, not in or near the lobby. I would ask for "near lobby" or upper courtyard to be able to walk through the lobby on the way to elevators, and also be closer to those elevators. Not such a long walk and less noise from the pool area than the lower courtyard.

I am not sure what to ask for. I am making myself nuts!
I read over the thread again regarding the room location and have decided to try inner courtyard northwing high floor. I really want a view of the lake and not to be on the ground level.

Is it really noisey off the lobby?

Why can't I just make up my mind and stop second guessing! UGH!!!!

 

[BippityBoo]

I too have a quesiton about lobby rooms! We booked with a Woods View this December, but we want to be off of the lobby this time. Is that possible? I heard only Standard rooms can be off of the lobby. We got put over the restaurant loading area last time. We had a great view of Wishes from a Standard room, so that was very lucky BUT the noise was horrible.

We were drawn to the lobby rooms last time, so we would like to try it out this go round. The noise in our last room STARTED at 1am. I am assuming that the noise in the lobby dies down much earlier than that

 

[BlueFairy]

I am not sure what to ask for. I am making myself nuts!
I read over the thread again regarding the room location and have decided to try inner courtyard northwing high floor. I really want a view of the lake and not to be on the ground level.

Is it really noisey off the lobby?

Why can't I just make up my mind and stop second guessing! UGH!!!!

I too have a quesiton about lobby rooms! We booked with a Woods View this December, but we want to be off of the lobby this time. Is that possible? I heard only Standard rooms can be off of the lobby. We got put over the restaurant loading area last time. We had a great view of Wishes from a Standard room, so that was very lucky BUT the noise was horrible.

We were drawn to the lobby rooms last time, so we would like to try it out this go round. The noise in our last room STARTED at 1am. I am assuming that the noise in the lobby dies down much earlier than that

In either scenario I think the noise is what you make of it. We didn't have a lobby room, but early evening was the only time I really noticed the lobby being really loud. It's mostly the noise from the WCC. We did have a room over the service court, and while I did hear trucks and beeping, we were prepared for the possibility and took a white noise machine. When that was on at night we did not hear the activity below. 2 years ago we had a connecting room in the south courtyard wing. The noise of the children next door and the kids running in the hall was far worse than I imagine the lobby noise to be or what we experienced over the service court.
In short, take some white noise and you won't have to worry. Ask for the view that you want. I think in the future, at least at WL, I will probably not make a room request and avoid any disappointment.
To speak to the woods view, the map on page 1 shows many over the lobby. The reality of standard view is that many have something nice (like the lobby or Wishes), but you are getting the "cheap" room because it has some negatives. Almost all are over the service area as best I can tell.

 

[loveDmouse]

Thanks BlueFairy! Maybe I should just request inner courtyard and high floor and not worry so much over the location and let it ride????

I really am tired of making myself nuts. I just can't help myself.

One thing I know for sure, I can't wait until November and our stay at Wilderness Lodge!

 

[Little Lulu]

Hey! I'm back, too! And what a fabulous time we had at WL CL!!!!

First of all, we were NOT greeted at the front, but directed to go inside right to the bellstand desk, where the CL shares with the bell services. Okkkkk....

But, the cheery CL CM greeted us and said that they have been waiting for us since I had put a request for a "king bed with full bath"! Wait, didn't remember that one, but let's see where this one leads us. LOL
We go upstairs to the 7th floor, so nice, and they say that since the few king rooms on the 7th floor have HC roll-in showers, they are going to put us in the perfect king room. Mel, I just love her, said, she thought long and hard about this because they usually do not do this, but they asked if we wanted to see the room. Sure. They took us down to the 5th floor, we got out of the elevators went two rooms down the hall, and voila! Room #5075!!!!!!!!!!
The coveted KING BEAR FACE ROOM facing it ALL!!!!!!!!
It was closer to the lounge than the 7th floor rooms!!!!

I will post pics here and on the WL pic thread ASAP. Need to do alot of stuff first, anyways we got turn down, they came in and remade the bad with appropriate linens and triple sheeted them, and gave us our robes.
Didn't take them long to recreate our own shangrila! The room was immaculate except for the smeared sliding glass door, which they cleaned on the spot. I requested a new comforter, new blanket, extra pillows, all of them were brought within 15 minutes of out request.

Our housekeeping was stellar for most of the trip, turn-down was late a couple of times, but that wasn't a big deal to us. She asked if was wanted the chocolates, and DH waved her on, saying no thank you, but thank you.

The club level, I do not know why the WL CL gets a bad rap. This CL gets a big from me. The service and hospitality from their CMs were excellent. Anything we wanted we got. No kidding.
The breakfast offerings were like the all the other WDW CLs and mid-day offerings, too. Only exception is the afternoon tea at the GF CLs.
But, this CL follows the theming of the hotel, it is a rustic lodge in the mountains and the evening offering were OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD.

It seems that within this last year, the ARTIST POINT has aquired one of California Grill's top chef's, Chef Mat, and we ended up eating THREE times during our stay! Forget Narcoossee's! The Point is where it's at!
FINE DINING at it's BEST!!
And the evening offerings at the WL CL were made at the Artist Point, need I say more?

The pool was so nice after a brutal day at Epcot. I'm sure Blue Fairy and JordanBailey can concure the heat wave we had last week. Not normal for the first week of May. Even the locals weren't ready for it.
We enjoyed watching all the kiddos being entertained by the MANY pool gamed they offered by the pool. Wow!
Just seeing the magic and the happiness in their eyes made our trip magical!

Room service was excellent, also. I wanted an eggs benedict, the traditional one. Not the one with brisket on the bottom, as on the WCC menu, which by the way, you can order ANYTHING from theirs and the APs menus as well as the Private Dining Menu. The CM said no problem. And within 25 minutes, DH and I got a wonderful breakfast and I got a fabulous plate of PERFECT egg benedict! Morning Chef Patrick knows his stuff!

Also, the bounce back was not in the rooms, make SURE you dial #8844 from your phone in your room before you leave to snag a DISCOUNT up to 45% off your next stay!
We got 40% off our GF RPC room for Oct and we are excited! So worth it since I haven't got a coveted pin code and I want a specific room level.

That's all I can think of at this moment! So glad to back, but I'm sure the back-from-disney-blues will set in a week!


Just an extra note: we loved it so much, we canceled the Swan and stayed at the WL CL the rest of the stay!

 

[BlueFairy]

The coveted KING BEAR FACE ROOM facing it ALL!!!!!!!!

Oooh, sounds like you were the lucky recipient of that magic we're all looking for. Your room was on my detour to the lobby so I could soak in the ambiance. I probably passed you at least once during the trip. Post a family photo with those pics!

It seems that within this last year, the ARTIST POINT has aquired one of California Grill's top chef's, Chef Mat, and we ended up eating THREE times during our stay! Forget Narcoossee's! The Point is where it's at!
FINE DINING at it's BEST!!

Sounds like we should have tried AP while we were there. We've had bad meals in the past and gave up. Glad it is better.

The pool was so nice after a brutal day at Epcot. I'm sure Blue Fairy and JordanBailey can concure the heat wave we had last week. Not normal for the first week of May. Even the locals weren't ready for it.
We enjoyed watching all the kiddos being entertained by the MANY pool gamed they offered by the pool. Wow!
Just seeing the magic and the happiness in their eyes made our trip magical!

Oh my yes! It was brutal, especially Epcot on Tuesday. But the whole week really. We ended up spending every afternoon at the pool rather than evenings in the parks. Did you see the beach ball going around the pool one day? I swear my DD hasn't giggled that much in a LONG time. So much fun!

Room service was excellent, also. I wanted an eggs benedict, the traditional one. Not the one with brisket on the bottom, as on the WCC menu, which by the way, you can order ANYTHING from theirs and the APs menus as well as the Private Dining Menu.

I noticed that menu. I think the entire menu being available must be new. Also, there is a menu of snacks and beverages that they will bring to stock your fridge as well. Expensive, but a nice option.

Also, the bounce back was not in the rooms, make SURE you dial #8844 from your phone in your room before you leave to snag a DISCOUNT up to 45% off your next stay!

Yes, it wasn't in our room either. But it is in your e-mail. 40% for deluxe. As well as photopass discounts. So everyone should check your email before you check out.

 

[JordanBailey22]

LittleLuLu,

Sounds like you had an AMAZING time with an AMAZING room! We aren't able to get our email from anywhere but our home computer so we missed out on the bounce back. My dh did go to the front desk and asked a girl about it because we are used to getting the paper in our room. She said she had never heard of that before We won't be going back until Oct/Nov of 2011 so I don't know if it would have stretched that far out anyway.

And, yes, it was SOOO hot!! Two of the days we were at the water parks and we were glad of it! The other days we just pushed through and drank alot. We only went to the WL pool in the late evening, but it was still hot then too! We loved WL, not sure if that is where we will stay next time. We have a list of hotels we would like to try out eventually!

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Hi everyone! I just booked my first stay at WL this morning. I used my 40% off pin that I received months ago (and almost forgot about). I booked woods view with bunk beds. They didn't have much left with the pin, but who cares, we get to stay at WL!

Okay, now that I have that out of my system. Does anyone know the locations of these rooms or have any photos they would like to share? This would really make my day.

I can't wait to tell DH what I've done!

 

[BlueFairy]

LittleLuLu,

Sounds like you had an AMAZING time with an AMAZING room! We aren't able to get our email from anywhere but our home computer so we missed out on the bounce back. My dh did go to the front desk and asked a girl about it because we are used to getting the paper in our room. She said she had never heard of that before We won't be going back until Oct/Nov of 2011 so I don't know if it would have stretched that far out anyway.

The offer via email was for dates through the end of 2010.

 

[Little Lulu]

Yes, we did get sprinkled with lots of Disney magic on this last trip, Blue Fairy!

Here's some pics of our view! Room #5075 King Bear Face Room!
Out onto the lake and the pool......

Looking down from our room...

From the balcony into our room....

Also, wanted to add the boats were great, never had to wait and we enjoyed them and used them alot!
Now, the buses. Eh. We waited 45 min one morning for an Epcot bus! From then on, it was cabs for us, no big deal as we are taxi people. Just wanted to see what the bus thing was all about.

DH already misses the WL. Wants to go back.....soon.
We've stayed at them all, and this is HIS favorite resort of them all.

 

[JordanBailey22]

Also, wanted to add the boats were great, never had to wait and we enjoyed them and used them alot!
Now, the buses. Eh. We waited 45 min one morning for an Epcot bus! From then on, it was cabs for us, no big deal as we are taxi people. Just wanted to see what the bus thing was all about.

I hear you on the bus issue! We also waited one morning on the Epcot bus for 45 min. It was Wed morning, May 5. If we stay here again we will have to do the cabs too because that was crazy!