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Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2004
- Messages
- 356
While we’ve been DVC members (just wife & me) since 2004, this was our first visit during a big holiday. Our daughter (age 26) lives in Orlando and we had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving week in a 1 bedroom @ VWL.
The usual routine of rides and attractions was replaced by a relaxing holiday visit featuring the many hotel amenities, people-watching in the parks and lots of pictures. And rather than vising my daughter’s house for Thanksgiving, my wife decided to cook Thanksgiving dinner in our villa and invite our daughter & her fiancee to our place instead - it was a great idea and lots of fun decorating and preparing Thanksgiving. After her perfectly cooked meal, we spent the rest of the day with Disney World as our backyard - it was quite a refreshing difference from staring at relatives all day long!!!!
It was also interesting to observe the valet parking lot which is always in clear view at VWL. While the regular parking lot was PACKED all week and it was difficult find a spot, the valet lot was deserted - it was always less than half full and usually only 20% to 25% occupied. It was fascinating to see how few people used valet parking now that there a $14/day fee for DVC members also.
And while the parks were very busy, they did not even begin to resemble the unbearable, crushing, horrifying mobs that some of the “alarmist” threads on this site lead you to believe.
And believe it or not, we had a peaceful, relaxing breakfast at Whispering Canyon on the morning of our departure - but that’s because we were prepared! I feel so sorry for the wait staff who are forced to sacrifice their dignity in exchange for management's very poor, sad attempt at humor or entertainment. While I understand that these loud and boring "antics" represents management's unfortunate attempt at "theming," my wife are the ones who got the last laugh - we brought our own ketchup!
I hope the photos bring you to some fond memories - long live Wilderness Lodge!
Best wishes,
Dave
The usual routine of rides and attractions was replaced by a relaxing holiday visit featuring the many hotel amenities, people-watching in the parks and lots of pictures. And rather than vising my daughter’s house for Thanksgiving, my wife decided to cook Thanksgiving dinner in our villa and invite our daughter & her fiancee to our place instead - it was a great idea and lots of fun decorating and preparing Thanksgiving. After her perfectly cooked meal, we spent the rest of the day with Disney World as our backyard - it was quite a refreshing difference from staring at relatives all day long!!!!
It was also interesting to observe the valet parking lot which is always in clear view at VWL. While the regular parking lot was PACKED all week and it was difficult find a spot, the valet lot was deserted - it was always less than half full and usually only 20% to 25% occupied. It was fascinating to see how few people used valet parking now that there a $14/day fee for DVC members also.
And while the parks were very busy, they did not even begin to resemble the unbearable, crushing, horrifying mobs that some of the “alarmist” threads on this site lead you to believe.
And believe it or not, we had a peaceful, relaxing breakfast at Whispering Canyon on the morning of our departure - but that’s because we were prepared! I feel so sorry for the wait staff who are forced to sacrifice their dignity in exchange for management's very poor, sad attempt at humor or entertainment. While I understand that these loud and boring "antics" represents management's unfortunate attempt at "theming," my wife are the ones who got the last laugh - we brought our own ketchup!
I hope the photos bring you to some fond memories - long live Wilderness Lodge!
Best wishes,
Dave
Perfect. 
What fun. 
