Trip Report (10/28 - 11/2) VWL DVC Member Trip

[bfrosty]

Trip Report: 10/28 - 11/2
Disney's Wilderness Lodge Villas/MNSSHP

Hello all -
I wanted to tell you about our recent trip to the Dis. We are back from our first DVC trip to the VWL.

1st Day - Arrive about 12pm
Checkin, was interesting. One of the first questions was "Would you like to downgrade to a studio?" Well, this is our first time and we would like the 1br we booked 11months ago. She said, "Fine". I believe she later told me that they had overbooked. A downgrade? I've never heard of that.
Anyway, we purchased dining plan and park tickets and headed to our room (1553), which was on the ground floor and was very clean and not a lot of noise, facing the woods. We kept the blinds closed the entire time, since they were powerwashing. The room was great and bigger than I imagined it would be. All of the amenities were there and all was clean and no bad smells. The PARK - MGM Studios. We arrived about 2pm and had a 3:50pm resi at SciFi (Food was great, service was average). The park was at medium capacity. We did "Little Mermaid", "Narnia", "Muppets3d", "HISTK Playground", "StarTours", "Movie Ride", "RNR". Fantasmic was standing room only at 7pm and we didn't stick around till 9:30pm for the last show. Back to our lodge.

2nd Day - Magic Kingdom (11-midnight)
Crowds we average and most waits were 5-20min. We rode/did 26 different rides that day. We had a lot of fun. A family from school was there and we all rode a few rides together. Oh! It had been about 25yrs since I rode Space Mountain and my son and I took it for a spin (10min wait). I really do like that ride, I can now see pretty much where the car is going 80% of the time. It is very enjoyable now, but I was scared to death when I was 10. =))

3rd Day - Animal Kingdom and MNSSHP at night.
Crowds were average and wait times were 5-20min. We only did the 3D bug film in the tree, boneyard, nemo and pizzafari for lunch...headed back to the lodge and napped for MNSSHP. Arrived at 6:45pm for MNSSHP and met our friends by the castle. Mostly we rode rides and it was rainy this night. Ride wait times were not even 5min for any ride. We collected candy at about 3 sites and they only gave us 3-4 pieces each. By 11pm, they were shoveling candy in our bags. We end up with about 12lbs of chocolate/hard candy that night. Plus, we got free facepainting that typically costs $15 during the normal daytime hours. We left about 11lbs of candy for our mousekeeping people. (It's probably in their breakroom) They did the 8:30pm parade, but we waited until 10:30pm parade and because of the rain, the horseman did not ride, but the parade went on about 10:50pm. We rode POTC 4X, BUZZ 4X, SpaceMountain 3X, HauntedMansion, and a ton others. Actually, wishes had started and we just boarded Dumbo. We took Dumbo to the top and watched a spectacular fireworks display. It was awesome.

4th day - Epcot 10am - 8:30pm
Okay, did Princess lunch in Norway at Askerus. It was very good and the lady sat us at the first table where the characters first entered the dining area. WooHoo!!! It was so cool to be first in line. It took me forever to eat lunch because I was taking some many pictures. We had Aurora, Jasmine, Cinderella, Ariel, and Belle. Wait times for rides we 5-20min max. I did the beer tasting at America (Sam Adams, 4 select beers to taste, about 15min demo) They also had a pear exhibit and Oklahoma was celebrating 100yrs in the Union. Dinner was at Coral Reef. We were on the dining plan and it was very nice, we had a seat on the second level and could see most of the tank. We rode all the favorites and skipped out before fireworks and the mad dash to the busses.

5th day - Epcot 12pm - 7pm
Arrive for my Wife/Son Aqua Tour (Snuba) at "The Seas". My daugther and I rode the "Universe of Energy w/Ellen", Disney Chase Visa Card character greet, Innoventions East/West. We proceeded to Germany for dinner at 5pm. The show was great the Sylvia was awesome as our waitress. She and many others have been there for 25yrs and the band guys were the same since at least 1993. We love this place.

6th day - MK 12pm - 4pm (ME was at 4:35pm for flight back home)
Our DS(8) did the "Disney Cooking Adventure" @ The Grand Floridian. He made cookies and served them to us and guest in the hotel lobby. It was great ($30). We proceeded to end our trip at MK by riding the Monorail to the park. First, Belle's Storybook time, BuzzLiteBeer, Space Mountain, Ate at Pinnochio's Haus, thru the castle, onto POTC and finally the parade at 3pm.

DME - was a bit late (10min) and we boarded the bus to the airport, stopped at the Poly to pick up a few peoples and to the airport we went. The transportation to and fro was above average.

Our favorite moments:
The Hot Tub at the lodge after all day in the parks.
Crystal Palace has made my #1 buffet list, #2 Chef Mickey's, #3 Donald's Breakfastsaurus.
DDP is awesome
AquaTour for Wife and DS was awesome.
Weather on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was unbelievably nice, warm and breezy.
Flight back home (6 bulkhead seats for us and two kids) <- Awesome!!!
The Disney Chase Visa Character greet.
Great Bus Service and Boat service.
Bought New Olympus Digital Camera for trip. (7mp, Shockproof to 5', Waterproof to 10', freezeproof to 14F and Sand/Dust proof)
---Can you drop your Canon EOS and it still work from 5'?--- =))


Our Not-So-Great Moments:
Would you like to downgrade? First DVC visit. Unbelievable.
The Coincierge (Personality of a Wet Noodle)
Weather for MNSSHP on Tuesday night (Very Rainy)

Please feel free to ask questions, I typed this kinda fast...dinner bell is ringing.

I'll try to post pix soon.

Thank you everyone for your advice and helpful hints, tips and tricks. It added the icing to our trip.

Bfrosty and Family.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Our visit overlapped yours 10/27 to 11-2!...we had a studio and 2 bedroom, not any questions about changing.

Most of our family arrived at MCO around 11 on Sunday, and were at VWL before 1 PM...I was impressed. I had checked in for the 2 bedroom around 8 that morning and we got one ready! I like to arrive a day before them, so I do have a room if we need one.

Our DGC are young, 2, 3 and 4, so we only did MK and one day at AK, and I agree that the ride lines were very small...and we did lots. When the kids can go on Dumbo, and Aladin's carpets time after time...with little between wait, everyone is happy! Our 4 year old loved Splash and Big Thunder Mountain RR...Everest was too high, she decided against that one!

Another year, I did the Seas Aqua Tour and I loved that...I expect to do it again.

Bobbi

 

[bsusanmb]

Do you want to downgrade??? What the heck is that??? Unbelievable. I hate having to check in at WL for our DVC VWL...they are not very friendly at all.

 

[jennymouse]

We were there at the same time as you, mostly for the F&W (no kids this trip) but did MNSSHP the same night as you. We just by chance watched the 1st parade and was glad because we didn't know if the 2nd one would go on or not. We left after Hallowishes. I can picture you all on Dumbo watching Hallowishes in the rain!lol

 

[DISNEY FIX]

Thanks for the trip report we are on our way to the lodge in 20 days!!!!!!!!! This must have been the worst luck for the MNSSHP ours got poured on too, Sept. 14th. Downgrade , I just got done reading about how somebods guest got upgraded and points were returned to his account! I wonder if it is true, and if they would of given you all the points back if you bartered with them???
Please lie to me and say they had new pullout beds. Did you have a room request?
Thanks
Chris

 

[wildernessDad]

I don't know. Some people may want to downgrade due to the difference in points. Maybe they thought that they were doing you a service by asking.

 

[LisaS]

Do you want to downgrade??? What the heck is that??? Unbelievable. I hate having to check in at WL for our DVC VWL...they are not very friendly at all.

I have only stayed at VWL twice but both times I got one of the best front desk CMs I've ever had. One in particular went out of her way to track me down in the lobby one evening when she thought I might have misunderstood something she told me. I was really impressed that she cared so much that she left her post to search the lobby to find me! The guy who checked us in back in May was really friendly and very funny. I've never had so much fun checking in!

I hope you have better luck in the future and get one of these two CMs because they were both great! Either one of them will restore your faith in the WL/VWL front desk staff.

 

[50 years Too!]

Frosty, you should have said "no, but you can comp me an UPGRADE to a 2 bed if that will help".

Deb

 

[mamatojon]

I have only stayed at VWL twice but both times I got one of the best front desk CMs I've ever had. One in particular went out of her way to track me down in the lobby one evening when she thought I might have misunderstood something she told me. I was really impressed that she cared so much that she left her post to search the lobby to find me! The guy who checked us in back in May was really friendly and very funny. I've never had so much fun checking in!

I hope you have better luck in the future and get one of these two CMs because they were both great! Either one of them will restore your faith in the WL/VWL front desk staff.

I had a really great experience with the WL check in CMs also. On our second stay there we had the nicest CM who told us the meaning of our nephew's name in her home country (Phillipines) - she told him that only very lucky people are named his name, that he must be very fortunate and will have luck in his life. It made his day! He is given a hard time often because his name is very uncommon (his parents didn't know it was a Filipino name, they just liked the sound of it).

So far I haven't had any memorable bad experiences with CMs at WDW. Some are less than enthusiatic, but usually most go above and beyond.

 

[byoung]

Love your report.

 

[Cyndibear]

Downgrade?? Incredible!! Never heard of that one!! Glad you had a great time though. We never really had a horrible experience at check in at VWL it just always seems to take forever.

Cyndi