There And Back Again- Part 6- WL Photos and MK at night

[WDW Poly Princess]

"Traveling is like falling in love; the world is made new"- Jan Myrdal


When we left off, I was about ready to hop the boat from MK to the Wilderness Lodge.

Ahh, “Wilderness Lodge”. I get happy just saying it. Anyone who has been there can close their eyes and be right there in that amazing lobby. I did a little research on National Park Lodges, and it’s amazing how authentic the WL is.

(I got this photo via Google Images, so I'm not sure who to credit for it.) This lodge reminds me so much of WL! The carpet, the sitting areas, the stuff in glass boxes, the huge wooden beams!

My first stop was the gift shop, since it was only about 1:45, so I didn’t think my room would be ready yet. I picked up a few postcards, some band-aids for my poor toes (How could I forget band-aids?), some milk, a couple of postcard stamps, and a CUTE brown WL t-shirt with the bears on it. (The milk goes with the brownie I would pick up at Roaring Fork on the way to my room. I am w WL Brownie addict!)

I checked in, and ended up with room , which is on the first floor. At first, I hated the idea of a first floor room! One of my favorite things to do at WDW is sit out on my balcony and relax, so the whole idea of no balcony was not up my alley! However, once I reached the room, I found out that I had the cutest little patio EVER! As much as I love requesting certain room locations, there’s something to be said for leaving it up to chance, because you find great new locations sometimes!

And the coolest aspect of my patio? If I stepped outside, I could easily see the Otter pond!

Looking back at the lodge from outside my door

This little stairway and door was right next to my room, on the side opposite from the pond. That sign says “Exit only, no reentry.” I meant to go up a floor and figure out where it came from , but never did!

This tree down was a reminder that the hurricanes had been through here so recently. Most of the WDW area was cleaned up by now, but some parts in between the parks were full of trees like this.

The awesome free postcards that come with the room

My friend Katie was supposed to be meeting me in the WL lobby at 5:30, so I had just enough time for a 45 minute nap. Ahhh, sleep!

Refreshed from my nap, I went down to the lobby to meet Katie. “I’ll meet you by the fireplace”, I had told her. “Where’s the fireplace?” “Oh, don’t worry. You can’t miss it.” Gotta love WDW for easy-to-spot landmarks!

I had to show Katie my awesome patio, so we went down the hall to my room, (From the lobby, go down the hallway past Rolling Fork, turn right past the laundry room, and go to the end of the hall. Voila!) We went outside to see the pond, and the otters were in there swimming around! I heard voices, and drew the conclusion that either the otters had learned to speak, or we weren’t the only ones watching them. Looking up, there were about 10 people out on different balconies watching them! Score one for having a first floor room, and being able to just walk out there!

Katie and I hopped the boat to MK, with plans to hit a couple of rides before Spectromagic and Wishes. Buzz Lightyear said 10 minute wait, but it was more like 20. I didn’t write down who won, so let’s just assume it was me, shall we? We checked out our ride photo after, and we both looked so serious! Well, we were defending the galaxy! I wish they had Photopass for ride photos, I’d probably end up buying a few when I get home!

We wanted to ride Pooh, but it had a 20 minute wait, and we were worried we wouldn’t make it out in time, so we did the Haunted Mansion instead. Afterwards, we found a spot to sit on the fence in Frontierland to watch the parade from. It was so funny to watch the people who were set on getting out of the park before the parade- every few seconds someone would rush by with a super-serious expression on their face.

Spectro was lots of fun as always- Chernabog (The villian guy that comes out of the volcano- I have no idea what movie he’s from) was our favorite, especially since Prince Charming wasn’t there tonight! Apparently Cinderella had heard about our diabolical plans to kidnap him and make him build us castles. Curses, foiled again!

We had some time between Spectro and Wishes, so we went back to Pooh, which now had a shorter line. I FINALLY managed to see Toad handing over the deed! Fifty thousandth time’s the charm! The Heffalump and Woozle part is always my favorite. There’s just no way whoever came up with the concept wasn’t on drugs. You could take a photo of your child on that part of the ride and label it “Baby’s First Acid Trip.” Or, um, maybe not. Still, freaky!

We went over to the Teacups to watch Wishes, since that was always a good place for the old fireworks, but it just didn’t work so well for Wishes. They seem to shoot them off from two different places now, so we looked like we were watching a tennis match looking back and forth between the two spots in the sky. We tried to make it around to the front of the castle to watch from there, but gave up and just watched from the steps of Starlight Ray’s.

Katie and I are usually both huge camera hogs, but we didn’t take a single picture all night at MK! Crazy!

We checked the Main St. Expo Hall for characters on our way out, but there were none to be found, so we just went out to join the long line for the WL boat. Katie went back home, and I went to Roaring Forks to find FOOD! (Pepperoni pizza, another brownie, and milk. Have I mentioned I could live off of WL brownies?) I called my mom for a while while I ate, and then ran outside just in time to catch the Electrical Water Pagent on the lake. (Shorter than it used to be! I think some of the floats were damaged in the hurricane?)

I still had plenty of energy, so I decided to go out and do some resort exploring and photo taking. This is when I realized that I forgot to bring a purse with me on my trip! So, times like now when I was just going to wander around and really only needed my camera and notebook, I had to either carry them in my backpack, or just carry them. Luckily, tomorrow is Epcot day, so I should be able to find a cute purse somewhere in the World Showcase!

The Lodge is beautiful all year, and I love the Christmas decorations! Here are a few photos from my wandering around:

The walkway to the busses:

Pal Mickey was in the gift shop’s window display- Here he is for anyone who hasn’t seen him!

I also noticed that the WL has new teepee lights since I was last there! The smaller lights used to look a lot like the huge ones in the lobby (see above), but now they’re polka-dot!

If you’re not too exhausted at the end of the day, I highly recommend taking some time to just explore your resort. I already know that the sofa by the 4th floor fireplace is my favorite spot inside the lodge, but wandering around tonight, I found a few other really nice places to hang out, and a water fountain where I could refill my water bottles for free instead of spending $2 on new water every time! Of course, true to Disney style, despite all of my wanderings, there’s still a lot of the Lodge I’m yet to see!

And so my first real day in WDW came to a close. The first day here is always SO exhausting- it feels like a week! By 11:30pm, I was ready to drop! I actually spent several minutes sitting in my favorite spot on the 4th floor, just trying to get up enough energy to walk back to my room (I’m pretty sure at least a minute of that time was even spent debating just sleeping there on the sofa.), and thinking that it’s hard for life to get any better than this. I’d love to have someone to share it with, but I’m learning that I really enjoy my own company, too.


Coming up tomorrow: Hidden Treasures of the World Showcase Tour!

Edited because I'm an idiot and actually typed "/omg" instead of "/img" in one of the image tags.

 

[G00fyDad]

Thanks. Those are beautiful!

 

[LauraAnn630]

Great report! We loved the pictures too! Is the Trail End Buffet in FW?

 

[SqueakyMouse]

Great trip report! I can't wait to read more.