Resort review- Wilderness Lodge

My sister and I are DVC owners, so usually we are staying in DVC accommodations. We also tend to get at least a 1 bedroom so we can have separate sleeping areas as I watch TV before bed and my sister doesn’t. This is not to say we haven’t shared a hotel room as adults (we managed just fine last year sharing a tiny hotel room in Paris for 4 nights/5 days), but our preference is to each have our own space. Just before my Mom passed away at the end of July, I had worked it out with my sister for me to take a solo trip to WDW over Labor Day weekend and she would stay close by to be available for any problems Mom may have. After Mom passed, I asked Cheryl if she wanted to join me as I knew both of us just needed a break after everything that had happened with our Mom since the beginning of the year. There wasn’t anything available for DVC, but a quick email to Debbie at Magical Journeys and we had a Wilderness Lodge courtyard view room at the AP rate! Woods view was our first choice but we booked it with Debbie keeping her eyes open for a Woods view to open up at the AP rate. Four days before we arrived, an AP rate for Woods view opened up and Debbie snatched it up for us. Another example of why you should use Magical Journeys to book your WDW/Disneyland/Disney Cruise/Universal vacations! They will keep looking for a better deal up to the very last minute!

We were assigned a room on the third floor. We looked out onto the woods by the Villas and we had a view of the Villas pool. We were at the end of the hall right by a stairwell. You could exit from the stairs either to path to the Villas pool from one door or you could use the door on the other side and be right at Trout Pass Bar. We used this door quite often to go to the either pool, the pool bar or the boat to the MK. The room was decent size with adequate storage. Would have liked the vanity counter space to be a bit larger as two adult women bring a lot of toiletries and hair appliances ! Found the mattresses to be very comfortable and slept well.

The pool areas are great, but the Villas pool area does need to be expanded. Oh, and while it is picturesque to have the pine trees encircling the Villas pool, it is not fun when the pine needle keep falling on you! I wished they had made the main pool area bigger during its refurbishment, but it stayed the same size.
Transportation was a definite issue for us. We normally rent a car when we go to WDW as we would come from Tampa. Buses arrived at the resort in a reasonable amount of time (within 15 minutes) but just seem to be so slow. My sister actually said to me that she thought that when the driver saw her get on the bus he must have thought “Oh, Cheryl just got on the bus. Time to drive at least 10 miles below the speed limit” ! The ride was especially long when we were on a bus that shared with Fort Wilderness. This just reaffirmed that we should always rent a car when we go to WDW.

Overall, we liked our stay at Wilderness Lodge and I am glad we got to stay there before the DVC expansion work started. I realized, though, that DVC has spoiled me. I will be back to stay there in the DVC building but not until the expansion is completed (late 2016/2017).