mmstjohn
Two Little Pirates
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2007
- Messages
- 18
We just got home last night, so I'd better write down a trip report while everything is still fresh in my mind.
We took the plunge and got a Club Level room at Wilderness Lodge. My DH was skeptical about the additional cost, but we really like having the "Deluxe Suite" because it has two queen beds in the bedroom and then another queen pull-out sofa in the living room. We don't all wake up at the same time, so being able to close doors helps everyone have a more pleasant morning or nap time. The Deluxe Suite is now only available at the Concierge or "Club" Level, so we went for it.
When my DS3 woke up at 6am and DH and DS6 were still sleeping, I would get myself dressed and take him to the Concierge Lounge. They would have a big screen with Playhouse Disney on and coffee by 6am. At 7am they open up the kitchen and have cereals, milk, bagels, fruit, pastry, juices, and yogurt available. When DH and DS6 woke up, they'd get dressed and meet us in the lounge and have their breakfast. We never spent a dime on breakfast, we ate in the Concierge Lounge (7th floor) every day.
At 5pm every evening the Concierge Lounge opened up with wine, cheese, raw veggies, Smuckers PB&J sandwiches, roasted red pepper spread or baba ghanoush, bread, a hot dish and soup! My family is not a big eating family, and we made this our dinner every night but one that we were there! More room for ice cream, anyway.
After breakfast, I'd also put a few juice boxes, apples, bananas, and yogurts into my little cooler bag from the Concierge Lounge for the kids to have around lunchtime. Honestly, the Concierge Room was definitely worth the extra money for us - we saved so much on food and wine, and we were SUPER impressed by the folks who made all of our DRs for us.
Thanks to the Wilderness Lodge Itinerary Planners, we got all the DRs we could NOT get last year. We ate at Rainforest Cafe Animal Kingdom, we ate at the Sci Fi Dine-In Restaurant at MGM, and we ate at Whispering Canyon Cafe. All excellent. My DS3 loved playing at the Lincoln Log table at Whispering Canyon Cafe during the day; anytime he needed some quiet play we'd head down there.
If you get the Concierge Level room, you fill out a form with all the stuff you want to do. The Itinerary Planners at Wilderness Lodge make all your reservations, email your whole Itinerary to you, and if you have special requests or a special holiday they will do what they can to accomodate you. They were magical.
We had dinner one night at Tony's Restaurant, and I was V E R Y disappointed. I haven't been impressed by the food at the Magic Kingdom, in general. Purely institutional fare. Service, however, was great.
Other tips about the Wilderness Lodge - we loved staying on the 1st floor right by the pool. We'd step out the door (or right out our living room patio) to play at the playground on the beach - give your room key to the attendant at the boat house and he'll give you a bag full of sand toys. Also, rent a Surrey (two adults pedal, and there are seats for two kids) and ride a mile to the Campground to see the petting zoo, bigger playground, pony rides. It's fun! Since our kids are little, we don't do Park Hopper - we just go to the parks in the morning and then stay at the resort to play most evenings. The Lodge is so much fun, the pools and beach are awesome, and that way the kids don't burn out.
This trip I took the older one back to the park one night, and we got an in-room sitter one night and went by ourselves!
I highly recommend Kids Night Out - our sitter even brought a bagful of Legos, my kids' favorite thing in the world!
Another tip is that there are original "old timey" Mickey cartoons playing at the sitting area in the lobby all the time, so if you have an early riser or need to kill a little time between park visits, bring a snack and the kids have their own little tiny rocking chairs. We visited that area a few times, and my kids enjoyed the old cartoons.
All in all, we would definitely stay at the Wilderness Lodge again, and we would definitely spend the extra money for the Concierge Level room again - we feel that with our AAA discount and the money we saved on meals, it was a good value for us. We also loved that Concierge Level rooms come with an in-room DVD player, and you can rent any Disney movie at the gift shop counter for $5 per night.
Things that we wish we had not done: Dinner at Tony's Restaurant; Disney Quest (NOT for families with kids under 10, in my opinion); taken the bus. NEXT YEAR WE'LL RENT A CAR! I didn't mind the waits for the bus, but my DH was very frustrated by the long wait times and it almost ruined the trip for him. We also will NEVER go in September again, it was just too hot. Dangerously hot with little kids. It must have been close to 100 a couple of days. Next year we'll do November, I think, and just take my son out of school.
We love Disney and I'm sure it will only be a few months before I'm planning Disney 2008!!
We took the plunge and got a Club Level room at Wilderness Lodge. My DH was skeptical about the additional cost, but we really like having the "Deluxe Suite" because it has two queen beds in the bedroom and then another queen pull-out sofa in the living room. We don't all wake up at the same time, so being able to close doors helps everyone have a more pleasant morning or nap time. The Deluxe Suite is now only available at the Concierge or "Club" Level, so we went for it.
When my DS3 woke up at 6am and DH and DS6 were still sleeping, I would get myself dressed and take him to the Concierge Lounge. They would have a big screen with Playhouse Disney on and coffee by 6am. At 7am they open up the kitchen and have cereals, milk, bagels, fruit, pastry, juices, and yogurt available. When DH and DS6 woke up, they'd get dressed and meet us in the lounge and have their breakfast. We never spent a dime on breakfast, we ate in the Concierge Lounge (7th floor) every day.
At 5pm every evening the Concierge Lounge opened up with wine, cheese, raw veggies, Smuckers PB&J sandwiches, roasted red pepper spread or baba ghanoush, bread, a hot dish and soup! My family is not a big eating family, and we made this our dinner every night but one that we were there! More room for ice cream, anyway.
After breakfast, I'd also put a few juice boxes, apples, bananas, and yogurts into my little cooler bag from the Concierge Lounge for the kids to have around lunchtime. Honestly, the Concierge Room was definitely worth the extra money for us - we saved so much on food and wine, and we were SUPER impressed by the folks who made all of our DRs for us.
Thanks to the Wilderness Lodge Itinerary Planners, we got all the DRs we could NOT get last year. We ate at Rainforest Cafe Animal Kingdom, we ate at the Sci Fi Dine-In Restaurant at MGM, and we ate at Whispering Canyon Cafe. All excellent. My DS3 loved playing at the Lincoln Log table at Whispering Canyon Cafe during the day; anytime he needed some quiet play we'd head down there.
If you get the Concierge Level room, you fill out a form with all the stuff you want to do. The Itinerary Planners at Wilderness Lodge make all your reservations, email your whole Itinerary to you, and if you have special requests or a special holiday they will do what they can to accomodate you. They were magical.
We had dinner one night at Tony's Restaurant, and I was V E R Y disappointed. I haven't been impressed by the food at the Magic Kingdom, in general. Purely institutional fare. Service, however, was great.
Other tips about the Wilderness Lodge - we loved staying on the 1st floor right by the pool. We'd step out the door (or right out our living room patio) to play at the playground on the beach - give your room key to the attendant at the boat house and he'll give you a bag full of sand toys. Also, rent a Surrey (two adults pedal, and there are seats for two kids) and ride a mile to the Campground to see the petting zoo, bigger playground, pony rides. It's fun! Since our kids are little, we don't do Park Hopper - we just go to the parks in the morning and then stay at the resort to play most evenings. The Lodge is so much fun, the pools and beach are awesome, and that way the kids don't burn out.
This trip I took the older one back to the park one night, and we got an in-room sitter one night and went by ourselves!
I highly recommend Kids Night Out - our sitter even brought a bagful of Legos, my kids' favorite thing in the world!
Another tip is that there are original "old timey" Mickey cartoons playing at the sitting area in the lobby all the time, so if you have an early riser or need to kill a little time between park visits, bring a snack and the kids have their own little tiny rocking chairs. We visited that area a few times, and my kids enjoyed the old cartoons.
All in all, we would definitely stay at the Wilderness Lodge again, and we would definitely spend the extra money for the Concierge Level room again - we feel that with our AAA discount and the money we saved on meals, it was a good value for us. We also loved that Concierge Level rooms come with an in-room DVD player, and you can rent any Disney movie at the gift shop counter for $5 per night.
Things that we wish we had not done: Dinner at Tony's Restaurant; Disney Quest (NOT for families with kids under 10, in my opinion); taken the bus. NEXT YEAR WE'LL RENT A CAR! I didn't mind the waits for the bus, but my DH was very frustrated by the long wait times and it almost ruined the trip for him. We also will NEVER go in September again, it was just too hot. Dangerously hot with little kids. It must have been close to 100 a couple of days. Next year we'll do November, I think, and just take my son out of school.We love Disney and I'm sure it will only be a few months before I'm planning Disney 2008!!
