WL Studio Villas?

[S. Paridon]

Everyone,
My family and I have stayed at the Wilderness Lodge 5 times now, and absolutely love it. We are going back to WDW this May and more than likely will go back to the Lodge. However, I noticed that it is actually cheaper to get a Studio Villa room at the Lodge for our time frame through a rental service. We have never stayed at the Villas. My question is, who has stayed in a Villa studio? How did you like it? Does it have the same ambiance as the Lodge? Is it suitable for two small (5 yrs and 2yrs) children? Thanks all.

 

[ABQ]

I can only speak of the ambiance, in my opinion, it very much has it. However, you can find it to be a very long walk to the bus, hotel services, boat, etc... IF you are given a room way down to the east end of the villa building. That is the one and only drawback in my opinion.

 

[PhilharMagician]

WL Villas will have a queen bed and a queen sleeper sofa. My daughter has always slept on the sleeper sofa without any issues. The main difference to me would be the kitchenette which had the microwave and the separate location from the main lodge. It is close, but you do have to exit outside and there is a covered walkway connecting the two. The Villa's are definitely much quieter than the main WL resort. One recommendation I would make is that you do not get a room all the way at the end of the hallway on the right since it is above the dumpsters. I would request a water side room. Beside the room location issue we had above the dumpster, we really enjoyed our stay.

Hope this helps.

 

[PhilharMagician]

I can only speak of the ambiance, in my opinion, it very much has it. However, you can find it to be a very long walk to the bus, hotel services, boat, etc... IF you are given a room way down to the east end of the villa building. That is the one and only drawback in my opinion.

Just a note, the bus stop is actually closer for the Villa's than the main resort since the bus stop is right in front of the villas entrance. The walk to hotel services and the boat dock are definitely further for the villa guests.

 

[ABQ]

True, @PhilharMagician is on the money with that. I guess it depends on where you room is in the main hotel, but for the most part, I would agree that the villas are closer. This also leads to a bit more noise from the busses. I can't tell you how loud those beeps are when the bus kneels down or opens the ramp for a wheelchair, but it seems loud late at night or first thing in the AM.

 

[harryk]

Sandy and I are DVC members - we always rent a studio AT VWL for each of or twice per year vacations...

A studio has a queen bed, and a sleeper sofa. There is a MINIMAL kitchen area, bathroom with ONE sink. Facility age is a little greater than the lodge proper. Room cleaning occurs on day 3, and day 7 - so folks don't show up to make your bed every day .

We LOVE the Villas... they tend to be just a little quieter than the Lodge, but are RIGHT next door. The entire WL is at your disposal, EXACTLY as it would be if you were in the Lodge Proper. The one kicker you may find... the 5 & 2 year old may be sharing a sleeper sofa bed. If that's OK? You are Golden .

Stayed in a villa before purchasing into DVC (VWL). The room had daily maintenance by housekeeping since we were guests of the hotel. Only DVC members get the limited housekeeping. You just have to make sure that housekeeping knows that you are regular hotel guests and not DVC members.