WLV Mini Report

[Bostonfamily]

My family and I just returned from four days at VWL. Although the lodge was impressive and the rooms quite nice, I was somewhat troubled by the pools. From around 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, they were PACKED! At one point, we were unable to find any available chairs at the main pool and the pool itself was too jammed to allow our three children (two five year olds and a three year old) to feel safe. We moved to the "quiet" pool near the villas and found that to be only marginally better. After dinner, the numbers decreased but there were still more people than I would have imagined. For comparison purposes, we had also spend the first three nights our our trip in the Beach Club and the pools there, including SAB, were significantly less crowded, even in the afternoon.
As stated earlier, the room (two bedroom) was fine. We did have to call housekeeping to fix the kitchen faucet as well as one of the shower faucets. The view was nothing special.

Would I return? Only to use the slide which my two older kids loved - and then only at non-peak times. My home resort is OKW. Much preferred, but no slide!

(I will say that we rented bikes on our last day and discovered the petting farm which was only a very short distance away. We could/would have walked there had we known about it earlier. It is great for young kids and a super activity if you are looking to kill an hour or so)

 

[Cap]

Did the management do anything to reduce the crowds at the pools, such as asking to see IDs, removing towels from chairs that were "reserved" several hours earlier, etc?

Cap

 

[DVCKaren]

Thanks for the report.

 

[Bostonfamily]

No, management did nothing to improve upon the crowds. It may simply be a case of there not being sufficient pool space given the number of rooms between the main hotel and the villas.

 

[ohioMickey]

We were at WDW staying at OKW last week. On Friday we pool-hopped to Wilderness Lodge from noon until 3pm and did not find it crowded at all. There were plenty of chairs and we were the only ones in the quiet pool for about thirty minutes!

Incidentally, we did call ahead to make sure the pool wasn't at capacity and they said "come on over."

I am not saying the pool wasn't crowded when bostonfamily tried to swim, just letting everyone know that at least last friday afternoon it wasnt bad at all. Of course there was a bit of smoke in the air from the fires so maybe that chased some people away from the pool on Friday making it less crowded when we went.

We also pool-hopped to SAB.....WOW!!!!!!

 

[Tony-NJ]

We were there a couple of weeks ago - I would have to agree that the main pool can get very crowded. Although we absolutely loved the villa's and the lodge. And will definately stay there again. They have the chairs literally on top of one another, so I can't see where they would be able to add more. Something they need to look inro. I could not imagine it in the summer.

 

[christiansmom]

We are currently at the VWL, (checked in on Sunday) and the only day we have experienced crowds at the pool was on Sunday. Yesterday morning, we just about had the main pool to ourselves. We started off at about 10:30a in the villas pool and there were only two other people there. We were at the main pool till about 1PM. So sorry to hear that you had such crowds for your entire trip.

 

[Olaf]

I was wondering if anyone, who has experienced the crowded pools, has ever approached a hotel cast member about doing a card check? It seems to me to be a no brainer. As a guest, I sure wouldn't mind showing my card to clear out the illegal pool hoppers.

Just my two cents.