Wilderness Lodge Trip

[disneymomof1]

My family and I just returned from our first stay at the WL. We were there 11/24-12/2 and it was heaven. We arrived at the resort at 10:00am, check in was smooth, they had a first floor courtyard view room available, but I wanted an upper floor so we waited. Room was not available until a little after 3:00 in the afternoon. We headed over to Magic Kingdom, wow was it crowded. All of our previous trips have been in Sept and Oct and no where near a holiday but never the less we went on, 2 hour wait for Pirates and 85 minute wait for Winnie the Pooh and Space Mountain. We decided just to walk around until our reservation at Crystal Palace at 4:00. We returned to the Lodge, how beautiful at night with the christmas lights and tree. The lodge was everything we had hoped it would be and more. Rooms were always clean, we had towel animals three of our days there. The weather was incredible, warm, sunny, a few showers here and there and of course the night of our MVMCP tickets there was a downpour and we had to buy some ponchos. Oh well, it was warm and rainy and not cold. My daughter 3.5 years old and a great time. The transportation at the lodge was adequate. The magic kingdom bus was up and running but we usually used the boat for transport to MK. All other buses were good, at least there aren't a lot of stops, when we went to Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney the bus picked up at Grand Floridian but that was the only bus that made an extra stop. We found transportation to be easy. We did go to Universal Studios one day, we took a cab and that worked out well, it was $36 each way for a family of four, not to bad. There was no one at Universal Studios, we made it through both parks in one day. It was very nice, we had a great time. During the middle of the week the crowds dwindled, thankfully. Then we could get to all the rides we had not been able to do. Loved Expedition Everest, very cool. We were there early, got on first and then fast passed for later in the day. As always we had a great time. Loved all of our interactions with disney cast members. Not a sour puss to be found all week. We did not see any year of a million dreams cast members but we did see the dream fast passes on some people. I guess we just weren't lucky this trip, although just being at Disney is reward enough. My family loves it so much, I am already thinking about the next trip, maybe in October for MNSSHP.

 

[scrap4u]

Nice report. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us. Any details on MVMCP other then the rain?

 

[disneymomof1]

The night of the Christmas Party it rained very hard, we were waiting for the 8:15 parade and it was delayed due to the rain. It was also shortened, I saw pictures of the parade online and we did not see half of the floats in the pictures. The crowd was pretty light but my daughter was falling asleep in her stroller and we left by 9:30. We enjoyed very short lines for all of our favorite rides and I really enjoyed walking down main street. But with the rain there was no snow on main street. Leaving at 9:30 allowed us to view the fireworks from the boat back to the wilderness lodge, I think we had the best view of the fireworks. I would definitely like to attend another christmas party in the future. We also went to see the Osborne Christmas Lights at MGM and that was fantastic, loved the synchronization of the lights and music.

 

[scrap4u]

The night of the Christmas Party it rained very hard, we were waiting for the 8:15 parade and it was delayed due to the rain. It was also shortened, I saw pictures of the parade online and we did not see half of the floats in the pictures. The crowd was pretty light but my daughter was falling asleep in her stroller and we left by 9:30. We enjoyed very short lines for all of our favorite rides and I really enjoyed walking down main street. But with the rain there was no snow on main street. Leaving at 9:30 allowed us to view the fireworks from the boat back to the wilderness lodge, I think we had the best view of the fireworks. I would definitely like to attend another christmas party in the future. We also went to see the Osborne Christmas Lights at MGM and that was fantastic, loved the synchronization of the lights and music.

Sorry about the rain! It rained quite a bit when we attended MNSSHP on 9/15. But it did finally clear up in time for the 2nd parade and Hallowishes. We have to visit one year during the holidays!

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I have read that Disney does not require folks that have NOT purchased passes to leave the park during MVMCP. On the evening that you were at MVMCP did you notice if there were folks in the park without wristbands?

I am planning a family trip to WL during December and am curious about how MVMCP is handled.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

Sounds like a nice time was had by all! Thanks for sharing!