Wilderness lodge reviiew-
We stayed from Sunday 18th aug to Sunday 1st sept 2019 we arrived at 11am and although we had checked in online we went the desk to collect our magic bands ect, our room wasn’t ready so we left our bags with bell services and went to the pool had lunch and got a text at 2.35 with our room number.
Room-
We had booked a standard view room and requested via touring plans room 6046, high floor, open balcony and no connecting door and we received room 6044 all requests met.
The view looking out was amazing even if it did have the generators directly below which were slightly noisy when sat on the balcony but we weren't going to complain as what do you expect when you book a standard view
we spent far more evenings chilling on the balcony watching the fireworks rather than in the parks as the view was so fantastic.
The room itself is smaller than what we are used to at the yacht and beach club but we made it work, it does need modernising but was by far cleaner and in better condition than our beach club room in 2017. Our main housekeeper Pam was lovely and on the days she worked our room was always done by lunchtime and she left towel creations for our kids on several days and had fun with the kids soft toys on others.
Pools-
Being from England we tend to go to the parks early then chill by the pool in the afternoons before heading out again in the evening, we found the main copper creek pool far too busy and very difficult to get sun loungers at - so much preferred the boulder ridge pool, this pool and the new geyser point bar and grill are fantastic additions to the resort since our last stay in 2009.
Food and drink-
We had several lunches at geyser point and the service was really good on every occasion so I had no hesitation leaving a 20% tip or more.
We also ate at whispering canyon cafe which was ok but we are not a fan of the 1 point restaurants at Disney in general.
Roaring fork was great when we could use mobile order but not so good when you had to queue for breakfast pastries in the morning the servers on the tills are were ultra slow and they really need to provide more than 1 milk jug for tea as it was always empty with people using it for their cereal then staff taking forever to refill it!
We also had drinks in territory lounge and found the staff far more attentive and service better than when we visited crews cup at the yacht club.
Transport
As we had booked from the UK before the parking charges were introduced we had free parking which meant we kept our car for the duration of our holiday, the car park was never crowded which was a welcome relief after playing hunt the parking space at the Beach club on our last stay.
The boat to the magic kingdom and other resorts was a lovely way to chill out whilst getting you where you needed to be, but I did prefer the smaller boats as they are far more fun.
Busses this is what really let the resort down, the bus to Epcot is a complete joke stopping at fort wilderness and the busses to the parks were often standing room only in the afternoons (we would drive in the morning)
We ended up using Uber x a lot of the time and found the drivers safe and inexpensive my husband did treat us to a Minnie van on our last night as a surprise but I couldn’t justify the $22 plus tip to the GF on a regular basis.
Resort in general-
The Wilderness Lodge is a true resort in every sense of the word, the staff in the main are friendly and professional and the whole place is spotless, the manager and his staff should be very proud of themselves. We love the feel of the lobby and just taking a relaxing walk around the grounds and will definitely stay again for a short break when we are not doing the parks though for longer stays you can’t beat the Yacht and Beach clubs for their location so we will go back their but I really think the wilderness lodge manager should give them some training on how to run a resort!
