Wilderness Construction Lodge - How bad is it?

[nderh2o]

I am trying to donate some points that are expiring at the end of March to Give Kids the World. I figured 2 nights in a studio room (Fri and Sat) would be pretty good. However, the pickings have been slim on availability - I know, why did I wait this long? Anyway, I did book some single nights but stayed away from Wilderness Lodge due to the construction reports. Can anyone that has been there recently give an honest opinion on if this location should really be avoided? Are the boats still running to/from MK?

Thanks.

 

[disneynutz]

Boats are running. The WL rooms that are being converted have the hallways blocked off, you will see some workers coming and going. On both sides of the lodge earth moving is happening down by the water and between the villas and water. New DVC pool, 25 lake side cabins, and some other buildings are going to be built.

VWL is available for a reason, people are booking somewhere else.

On another note, BWV, Jambo, and BCV are currently being refurbished. BLT and Kidani are scheduled to start later this year.

DVC poor management has all of this happening at once.

Bill

 

[BillPA]

DVC poor management has all of this happening at once.

I think you give them more credit than they deserve, there is no sign of any management, things just happen.

 

[sleepydog25]

I am trying to donate some points that are expiring at the end of March to Give Kids the World. I figured 2 nights in a studio room (Fri and Sat) would be pretty good. However, the pickings have been slim on availability - I know, why did I wait this long? Anyway, I did book some single nights but stayed away from Wilderness Lodge due to the construction reports. Can anyone that has been there recently give an honest opinion on if this location should really be avoided? Are the boats still running to/from MK?

Thanks.

VWL is my home resort, and we just spent a week there for the Princess Half Marathon. Despite the construction, VWL (and, of course, the main Lodge) is fully operational and still lovely. The boats are running; the restaurants are open; the music is playing; the smells are, well, smelling good; and the main pool with kids' splash area, is taking swimmers one and all. The construction noise is limited to 8-5 on weekdays (no weekend work going on), and that's prime park time for most people. For studios on the lake side, it's quite easy now to see EWP from your balcony; for those on the bus side, it remains a quiet respite. The paved trail to FW is also open, though the bike rental (and boat) are currently down at WL. I'd heard they would still rent bikes, but we didn't see any evidence of this. I believe FW does, however. All in all, the Lodge and the Villas still retain their magic, even if in the long run I still believe some of the serenity and "wilderness" of the Lodge will be lost.

P.S. They're giving pins away in their way of apologizing for construction. They're cute and will be in the room when you check in. Any kid I know would be thrilled to get these.

 

[spencerbomar]

DVC side is definitely impacted.
As they did at Poly, DVC is adding cabins at Wilderness as they added Bungalows at the Poly. I suspect they had to redo the pool area to accommodate this as far as room, but the quiet pool needed to be updated as well- kill two birds with one stone.
Face it, there will always be additions/updates to every property at Disney. Complain about that or complain about how worn/dated the properties are. You can't have it both ways. They always do these projects in a low season. They close at least one of the water parks in Jan/Feb both for updating and for the lack of demand during those months.

The work-out room guy had a sheet showing where you could go to take advantage of each of the areas/activities being impacted by construction. I'm sure the front desk has that as well.

 

[Fsudisney]

We rode bikes over from the fort this morning and the entire east side wing of the lodge rooms are blocked off for construction. Are they converting essentially half of the hotel rooms to DVC? That seems a little much, I would expect that would also. Hike prices for the hotel up due to less demand

 

[sleepydog25]

We rode bikes over from the fort this morning and the entire east side wing of the lodge rooms are blocked off for construction. Are they converting essentially half of the hotel rooms to DVC? That seems a little much, I would expect that would also. Hike prices for the hotel up due to less demand

Though Disney hasn't officially said anything as yet, yes, it appears the entire south wing (the section of the main Lodge closest to the Villas) will become DVC suites. Again, there has been no official word of which I'm aware, but given the extent of the renovation in them (walls, sheetrock being ripped out at the very least), I'd guess that wing will be part of VWL II. A guide with whom I spoke three weeks ago also offered that DVC had learned its lesson about only offering studios and suggested there would be 1 & 2 BR suites. Just supposition and rumor at this point.

 

[DenLo]

I heard only half of the south wing will be DVC villas. It could be that rooms facing the DVC pool will DVC and the other side cash rooms.

 

[Lakegirl]

I am trying to donate some points that are expiring at the end of March to Give Kids the World. I figured 2 nights in a studio room (Fri and Sat) would be pretty good. However, the pickings have been slim on availability - I know, why did I wait this long? Anyway, I did book some single nights but stayed away from Wilderness Lodge due to the construction reports. Can anyone that has been there recently give an honest opinion on if this location should really be avoided? Are the boats still running to/from MK?

Thanks.

What a great idea how do you go about doing this?

 

[BWV Dreamin]

VWL is my home resort, and we just spent a week there for the Princess Half Marathon. Despite the construction, VWL (and, of course, the main Lodge) is fully operational and still lovely. The boats are running; the restaurants are open; the music is playing; the smells are, well, smelling good; and the main pool with kids' splash area, is taking swimmers one and all. The construction noise is limited to 8-5 on weekdays (no weekend work going on), and that's prime park time for most people. For studios on the lake side, it's quite easy now to see EWP from your balcony; for those on the bus side, it remains a quiet respite. The paved trail to FW is also open, though the bike rental (and boat) are currently down at WL. I'd heard they would still rent bikes, but we didn't see any evidence of this. I believe FW does, however. All in all, the Lodge and the Villas still retain their magic, even if in the long run I still believe some of the serenity and "wilderness" of the Lodge will be lost.

P.S. They're giving pins away in their way of apologizing for construction. They're cute and will be in the room when you check in. Any kid I know would be thrilled to get these.

Would you suggest the bus side of the villas now instead of lake view ? I do want quiet but don't know how much privacy is left on the lakeside.

 

[sleepydog25]

Would you suggest the bus side of the villas now instead of lake view ? I do want quiet but don't know how much privacy is left on the lakeside.

I suppose this is a personal preference. We didn't find the construction noise very intrusive, especially since we were gone during the day most of the time. However, even when we were in the room during the day, the noise was minimal as long as we had the balcony doors closed. Once out on the balcony, certainly the noise level increased, but even then we could easily carry on a conversation, have a drink, and even read a book without much bother. To be fair, we were on the 5th floor, and that might have had something to do with it. Further, there was no construction on either weekend day. While I'm the first to bemoan the loss of "wilderness" from the WL, I will admit our view of the lake was excellent given so many trees are missing. You could watch the entirety of the EWP from our balcony--it's much louder than the construction noise, too.
On the other side of the coin, if you want a better chance of quiet conditions, I'd say the bus side request would be your choice. Of course, you will catch the occasional revving bus engine on that side, but those aren't constant though they do go on longer in terms of operating hours (the work site was strictly an 8-5 window).

In the end, it's all what you want out of a room there. If you'd rather ignore the construction, then ask for bus side. If a little construction hubbub wouldn't be too much of a nuisance, and you want a pretty good view of the lake, I'd request lake view. I will add that our room was near the elevator, thus overlooking where most of the construction work was happening. The rooms farther down the hallway would have been that much more removed from the construction noise. Now, once the cabins start going up, all bets are off. Hope this helps!

 

[disneyobessed]

What are the chances of the converted rooms on the lodge side being completed by August?

 

[DenLo]

What are the chances of the converted rooms on the lodge side being completed by August?

Even if they are completed it doesn't mean they can be booked by members. DVC has to follow Florida's Timeshare laws before they can offer the rooms for sale. DVD can't declare the rooms until they meet those timeshare laws. And members cannot book undeclared rooms.

So I would say it is very slim that those rooms would be available for August stays.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

What was it with Poly? They went on sale in Mid-January and opened sometime in March or was it April? It was fast once they started selling and didn't have all buildings completed. Not saying the the lodge rooms will be bookable for Aug but if they moved right along with construction and had their ducks in a row for a filing I wouldnt call it completely impossible, just highly unlikely. They didn't exactly follow what was previously the norm for PVB.

 

[wdrl]

Here is an abridged timeline for the Poly:

7/29/2013 -- Disney Resorts files a permit application for a rehabilitation project at the Polynesian Resort.

9/17/2013 -- Disney Vacation Development announces the Polynesian DVC. Construction is suppose to commence September 2013 with completion in 2015.

06/02/2014 - DVD files an application for license for the Poly DVC with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

06/17/2014 - Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation approves license for the Poly DVC. Calls for 162 timeshare weeks.

01/07/2015 - Disney announces PVB sales will begin on January 12, 2015. Prices and point chart are not released.

01/07/2015 - Walt Disney Parks & Resorts files Master Declaration for PVB. Declares 10 Bungalows and 142 studios for the DVC inventory. There are still 10 Bungalows and 218 Studios undeclared.

01/8/2015 - Point chart and price leaked. Price is $160/point with no apparent incentives.

01/12/2015 - Sales begin for PVB to existing DVC Members. Sales to new members will not begin until 2/09/2015.

01/13/2015 - Polynesian owners can begin making reservations on February 11, 2015 subject to the 11-month priority window. New DVC PVB members can book starting 2/18/2015. Owners of other DVC properties can begin booking PVB on February 25, 2015 for dates 7 months prior to arrival.

02/09/2015 - Price increases from $160 to $165 per point.

04/01/2015 - Polynesian Villas & Bungalows open


Disney did not start construction at Wilderness until October 2015. If the new resort follows a timeline similar to that of PVB, then sales would not commence sales until February 2017, and the first phase would open in May 2017.

However, we don't have enough information to make educated guesses as to when VWL2 might welcome its first guest. If I recall correctly, AKV-Jambo House took only 9 months to convert the hotel rooms to DVC villas, so anything is possible.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

So I think Aug would be 9 months construction mark on the main lodge rooms!? Or Sept anyway. If comparing to the Jambo conversion.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We were there March 14 to 17. We had a one bedroom villa with a lovely view of the woods. Spent every day at the pool. Hardly heard th construction noise. It seemed fine. We took the boat over to contemporary to take the my rail to the grand Floridian. It was great.

 

[sleepydog25]

So I think Aug would be 9 months construction mark on the main lodge rooms!? Or Sept anyway. If comparing to the Jambo conversion.

Depends on when they really started on the room conversion. When we were there in early Jan, there seemed to be little to no work being done on the south wing, though it was obvious they were closed. Six weeks later, however, they were ripping out the drywall. It's going to be a long process.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Reality of construction projects is that "how bad" it is can vary week to week, so anecdotal data from one person may not apply even two weeks later.