Wilderness Lodge Questions

[sbkline]

I was initially booked for 10 nights at Carribbean Beach, but with this new discount released on Monday, I had the opportunity to upgrade to the Wilderness Lodge for only $506 more than CBR was going to cost me. That's been one of my dream resorts to stay at, so needless to say, I'm very excited. I had some questions, though.

I read in the Unofficial Guide that "most" rooms have a balcony. I requested the cheapest level of room, so do those rooms all not have a balcony? Or do some have one and some not? Is it just hit or miss then on whether I get a room with a balcony? What about the rooms in the main building where the lobby is? Are those rooms all automatically "preferred" rooms, since they are in the main building?

We like to do surrey bike rides. Does WL offer that, or do we have to go to Ft Wilderness?

We have gone to WL before to hop the boat to Ft Wilderness, but what about going to the Magic Kigndom? Does the boat go directly from WL to MK? Or does it stop at the other resorts first? What about when we visit the monorail resorts for supper? We plan to eat a meal at each of the monorail resorts at some point. Do boats go directly from WL to the resorts, or do they just go to the Magic Kingdom, and then hop the monorail to the resorts?

That's all the questions I can think of for now. I'll post any others as I think about them.

 

[sbkline]

Okay, my bad on the amount of floors. I guess that's what happens when you just skim through something instead of taking the time to read it. :lol: As I was skimming through the Unofficial Guide section about the Wilderness Lodge, it said it has an 8 story central building and the other two wings have 7 stories each. That's where I got the 8 story idea from, although that does beg the question of whether there are rooms on the 8th floor of that building, and if they are general rooms, or conceirge...or staff only rooms, for that matter, such as office space, maintenance storage, etc. Or is that floor blocked off because of a tragic murder years ago, and the ghosts of the dearly departed still roam the hallways? :ROFLOL:

Another question, what is the square footage of those rooms? For some reason, the Unofficial Guide gives the square footage of the rooms for alot of the resorts, but I didn't see it for WL. Is it the same as those at Animal Kingdom Lodge? I think it says that rooms at AKL are 344 square feet, and rooms at the moderates are 314 square feet.

One other question, how do we know which rooms have bunk beds and which have two queen beds? One wing is bunk bed rooms while the other is queen rooms? Floors 1-3 are bunk bed rooms and rooms 3-6 are queen rooms (or vice versa), rooms on the right side of the hallway are bunks and rooms on the left are two queens, etc? Is it just randomly assigned, or are they supposed to ask you which one you want?

 

[devoy1701]

Okay, my bad on the amount of floors. I guess that's what happens when you just skim through something instead of taking the time to read it. :lol: As I was skimming through the Unofficial Guide section about the Wilderness Lodge, it said it has an 8 story central building and the other two wings have 7 stories each. That's where I got the 8 story idea from, although that does beg the question of whether there are rooms on the 8th floor of that building, and if they are general rooms, or conceirge...or staff only rooms, for that matter, such as office space, maintenance storage, etc. Or is that floor blocked off because of a tragic murder years ago, and the ghosts of the dearly departed still roam the hallways? :ROFLOL:

Another question, what is the square footage of those rooms? For some reason, the Unofficial Guide gives the square footage of the rooms for alot of the resorts, but I didn't see it for WL. Is it the same as those at Animal Kingdom Lodge? I think it says that rooms at AKL are 344 square feet, and rooms at the moderates are 314 square feet.

One other question, how do we know which rooms have bunk beds and which have two queen beds? One wing is bunk bed rooms while the other is queen rooms? Floors 1-3 are bunk bed rooms and rooms 3-6 are queen rooms (or vice versa), rooms on the right side of the hallway are bunks and rooms on the left are two queens, etc? Is it just randomly assigned, or are they supposed to ask you which one you want?

there are no rooms on the 8th floor. the only thing up there is the "alice in wonderland" hallway that leads to the stairway that leads to the roof access (you can see the stairway from inside the lobby...it looks like a stairway to nowhere). I'm not sure what the exact square footage is of the rooms, only that they are the smallest of the Deluxe resorts, but bigger than moderates. For your next question, the room layout is not based on floors, as they have Bunkbed rooms, queen rooms, and King rooms for each room catagory (standard, woods, courtyard, concierge).

 

[lentesta]

I have a measured drawing of the WL rooms somewhere, with actual room dimensions down to the inch. LMK if I need to find that.

Len

 

[lilclerk]

From allears.net:

Most of the rooms are approximately 340 sq.feet.

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[bigorangeandy]

The ground floor rooms have patios while the rest have balconies. We had a room with a patio in October 2009, and we were on the second floor. The way the building is built is that the wings toward the pool are a floor lower than the main lobby. So getting a second floor room my have have a patio. I really liked the balconies in one of our prior trips, nothing like getting up in the morning and siting outside and drinking my morning coffee on the balcony. Wilderness Lodge is really special, lots to do even if your not high up.

 

[bgraham34]

Staying anywhere in the resort is Magical, you really get the sense that Disney World is 1000 miles away. It really is our home away from home.

 

[scottnj1966]

I have stayed at the Wilderness Lodge numerous times.
Each time was awesome. I live in Florida so the themeing and landscape gives me the illusion we are far away.

The lobby of this resort is the heart of this place. The upbeat fun BBQ to the trip downstream to the pool, with a geyser and a waterfall around it.

A short boat ride to the MK instead of a bus is always a plus.
You are also not far from Fort Wilderness. A small petting zoo, and you have access to horsback riding, biking, hiking, hayrides, and of course the hoop dee do revue.

Just next door is the Winderness Villa's. Drop in to see a few of Walt's train's in the lobby. They also have a very nice "quiet pool".

http://www.bigfloridacountry.com/wildernesslodge.htm

Whereever you end up, enjoy yourselves. It is always a lot of fun.

 

[rlm919]

Just got back- stayed in room 6030 and spoiled now because of it. 6th floor, castle/fireworks view overlooking a pond. Excellent mousekeeper (priscilla), 5 steps from the elevator and once off the elevator seconds from food, shopping and the pool.

Beautiful resort and loved every second we were there.

 

[marypoppins68]

My mom paid for me and my sister to spend one night at the Wilderness Lodge at Christmas. She got a discounted rate on the "cheapest" view available, which was a woods view. We were on the 6th floor, right over Whispering Canyon. We could hear the noise from the restaurant, when it was open, and our view was directly over the parking lot behind the kitchen. However, when it came time for the Magic Kingdom fireworks, we were high enough and on the right side of the building to watch the fireworks from our balcony. It therefore became the best room ever! :sohappy:

As others have said, the boats on the left side of the dock go directly to the Magic Kingdom. They run pretty regularly. Boats on the right side run to Contemporary and Fort Wilderness. Depending on how the boats are running, sometimes they go to Contemporary first, sometimes Fort Wilderness first. But if you stay on you'll get to where you want to go.

From the beach you can watch the Electrical Water pagent every night. The lobby can tell you what time it'll be. It runs every night. You can also walk on a path to Fort Wilderness.

At the pool they play trivia games and have fun things for the kids. there's also a geyser that erupts every hour/half hour, I think.

Have a great time!

 

[LeafsFanNL]

I'd steer people away from the Standard Rooms. We stayed in one last April on the Sixth floor which had a MK view. There wasn't anything wrong with the room and we saw Wishes pretty well every night. I didn't mind viewing the service area, but the smells and the noise was bad. When the balcony doors were open we would get the smell from the WCC smoke house. We would have smelt like bacon had we left them open. There was also a constant humming noise from what I guess was AC machinery. Essentially, we did not use the balcony. Get a woods view.

 

[marypoppins68]

I'd steer people away from the Standard Rooms. We stayed in one last April on the Sixth floor which had a MK view. There wasn't anything wrong with the room and we saw Wishes pretty well every night. I didn't mind viewing the service area, but the smells and the noise was bad. When the balcony doors were open we would get the smell from the WCC smoke house. We would have smelt like bacon had we left them open. There was also a constant humming noise from what I guess was AC machinery. Essentially, we did not use the balcony. Get a woods view.

Your view sounds like mine, and our room was a "woods" view. Woods view pretty much means you're not facing the pool or lake. And we did see the woods, on the other side of the service area. lol. But, I guess it depends on how much time you plan on spending in your room and what's important to you.

 

[Hobbes130]

We stayed at the Villas in October and had a wonderful time, the boat service is excellent and it is much nicer to travel by boat than bus. The buses got on my nerves a bit to be honest because they had to stop at so many other resorts on route to the parks so it took ages. We are DVC members with a home resort of Animal Kingdom so we are used to long bus rides!! We figured it would be nice to try another resort and we were excited to get in WLV, we thought being so close to everything would make travel quicker but our journeys were as long as if we had stayed at AKV because of the multiple stops. Not a problem but it just surprised us.

One thing you have to do is request to be flag family for the day. We did this and it was such a treat, you get to go up to the 8th floor and through the "Alice in Wonderland" hallway and staircase to the roof. Ranger Joe took care of us and he made the whole experience so magical, he met us in the lobby, grabbed a photopass guy and took us up to the 8th floor. He told us loads of interesting facts about the resort then we raised the flags. The photopass guy did a photo shoot for us and the views of the world were amazing!! After we raised the flag we got to have breakfast on the 7th floor in concierge which was a real treat. It was so much fun and if they have a space you must do this. Just ask at check in.

The resort is wonderful, great pools, amazing lobby, movies on the beach this resort has it all. You will love your stay here (as long as you don't mind the traveling!!)

 

[heartodisney]

We stayed at the Villas in October and had a wonderful time, the boat service is excellent and it is much nicer to travel by boat than bus. The buses got on my nerves a bit to be honest because they had to stop at so many other resorts on route to the parks so it took ages. We are DVC members with a home resort of Animal Kingdom so we are used to long bus rides!! We figured it would be nice to try another resort and we were excited to get in WLV, we thought being so close to everything would make travel quicker but our journeys were as long as if we had stayed at AKV because of the multiple stops. Not a problem but it just surprised us.

One thing you have to do is request to be flag family for the day. We did this and it was such a treat, you get to go up to the 8th floor and through the "Alice in Wonderland" hallway and staircase to the roof. Ranger Joe took care of us and he made the whole experience so magical, he met us in the lobby, grabbed a photopass guy and took us up to the 8th floor. He told us loads of interesting facts about the resort then we raised the flags. The photopass guy did a photo shoot for us and the views of the world were amazing!! After we raised the flag we got to have breakfast on the 7th floor in concierge which was a real treat. It was so much fun and if they have a space you must do this. Just ask at check in.

The resort is wonderful, great pools, amazing lobby, movies on the beach this resort has it all. You will love your stay here (as long as you don't mind the traveling!!)

Thank you for sharing this...this is something I have read and very few others have shared....I will "sign up" our family and hope we will be able to do this! :wave:

 

[sbkline]

So in regards to travel time to the parks, obviously we can take the boat straight to the Magic Kingdom. But what about getting to Epcot? In light of the several stops that the previous poster just mentioned, would it be quicker to take the boat to the MK and then hop the monorail to Epcot? Or would it be quicker to take the bus? I know that the answer could be affected by factors, such as if the boat is right there waiting for you as you walk up to the dock, vs seeing the boat pull away right as you walk up, or if you have to wait 15 minutes for the ECV to get loaded onto the bus, etc. But as a general rule, should I expect the bus to be quicker getting to Epcot, or the boat/monorail?

 

[sbkline]

I thought of another question recently. Do the rooms at the Deluxe Resorts (specifically the Wilderness Lodge in this case) have a refrigerator with a freezer compartment? I know the moderates just have a regular fridge with no freezer, but I was hoping that perhaps a freezer compartment would be amoung the extra ammeneties of a Deluxe Resort. We always load up a couple coolers with drinks and snacks for the way down. In the one cooler, we put the drinks, and anything else that might be better cold, along with some blue ice packs to keep it cold. The other cooler is just for stuff that doesn't necessarily need to be cold: Twinkies, pudding cups, etc. Anyway, the drinks stay cool enough on the way down, then stay in the fridge while we are there, but by the time we check out, the ice packs are thawed and we have nothing to keep the remaining drinks cold for the trip home.

Before we started staying on property, we used to just pinch the pennnies and stay at a Super 8 Motel in Kissimmee for around 40 bucks a night, and even the fridges there had a small freezer compartment. So I find it odd that such a small ammenity is missing from the Disney Resort. :shrug:

 

[LeafsFanNL]

So in regards to travel time to the parks, obviously we can take the boat straight to the Magic Kingdom. But what about getting to Epcot? In light of the several stops that the previous poster just mentioned, would it be quicker to take the boat to the MK and then hop the monorail to Epcot? Or would it be quicker to take the bus? I know that the answer could be affected by factors, such as if the boat is right there waiting for you as you walk up to the dock, vs seeing the boat pull away right as you walk up, or if you have to wait 15 minutes for the ECV to get loaded onto the bus, etc. But as a general rule, should I expect the bus to be quicker getting to Epcot, or the boat/monorail?

Bus is superior, but will stop at FW. Your boat trip will require you to jump on the express/resort monorail, then switch to the Epcot Monorail.

Bus should be quicker in most circumstances.

 

[LeafsFanNL]

I thought of another question recently. Do the rooms at the Deluxe Resorts (specifically the Wilderness Lodge in this case) have a refrigerator with a freezer compartment? I know the moderates just have a regular fridge with no freezer, but I was hoping that perhaps a freezer compartment would be amoung the extra ammeneties of a Deluxe Resort. We always load up a couple coolers with drinks and snacks for the way down. In the one cooler, we put the drinks, and anything else that might be better cold, along with some blue ice packs to keep it cold. The other cooler is just for stuff that doesn't necessarily need to be cold: Twinkies, pudding cups, etc. Anyway, the drinks stay cool enough on the way down, then stay in the fridge while we are there, but by the time we check out, the ice packs are thawed and we have nothing to keep the remaining drinks cold for the trip home.

Before we started staying on property, we used to just pinch the pennnies and stay at a Super 8 Motel in Kissimmee for around 40 bucks a night, and even the fridges there had a small freezer compartment. So I find it odd that such a small ammenity is missing from the Disney Resort. :shrug:

My recollection is that they do, but I am not sure.

 

[Roger321]

Wilderness Lodge Boats

If you haven't already received your answer, back when we stayed there in September 2010 there were two boats. One would run from the WL to Wilderness Campground to Contemporary and back. The other would run from WL directly to and from the Magic Kingdom. If you want to get to a monorail resort I'd take the boat to the Contemporary and hop on the monorail from there. Oh, by the way the ride to the MK took 10 minutes and was wonderful. Have a magical stay.

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

I thought of another question recently. Do the rooms at the Deluxe Resorts (specifically the Wilderness Lodge in this case) have a refrigerator with a freezer compartment? I know the moderates just have a regular fridge with no freezer, but I was hoping that perhaps a freezer compartment would be amoung the extra ammeneties of a Deluxe Resort. We always load up a couple coolers with drinks and snacks for the way down. In the one cooler, we put the drinks, and anything else that might be better cold, along with some blue ice packs to keep it cold. The other cooler is just for stuff that doesn't necessarily need to be cold: Twinkies, pudding cups, etc. Anyway, the drinks stay cool enough on the way down, then stay in the fridge while we are there, but by the time we check out, the ice packs are thawed and we have nothing to keep the remaining drinks cold for the trip home.

Before we started staying on property, we used to just pinch the pennnies and stay at a Super 8 Motel in Kissimmee for around 40 bucks a night, and even the fridges there had a small freezer compartment. So I find it odd that such a small ammenity is missing from the Disney Resort. :shrug:

No freezer from what I saw when I was at the Contemporary in January....

Pam

Please always remember to use an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner when booking your next Disney vacation such as Kingdom Konsultant Travel.

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

Also keep in mind that if the weather is severe they will not run the boats and will instead bus you back and forth to the MK.

Pam

Please always remember to use an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner when booking your next Disney vacation such as Kingdom Konsultant Travel.