Put On Your Sunday Clothes, There's Disney World Out There! - Wilderness Lodge

[FantasiaMagic]

Thank you! Ooh do you have these ones? I love these ones!

Yup! That's them! It a shame though, I don't find them to be the most comfortable shoes in the world. Like I would love to wear them to the parks, but I think that would end up being a bad decision.
But my mission this summer is to slowly but surely break them in so I can wear them. I want to bring them the next time I'm in WDW, maybe wear them to Disney Springs!

 

[FantasiaMagic]

I want to post, but I don't want one update at the bottom of this page and one at the top of the next so...





(it must be someone's birthday, right?!)

Katie you are too funny!

Since it's not birthday, this made me think of Alice in Wonderland, the very unhappy birthday song

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Day 1
Saturday 20th January 2018
Part 1 – Think of all the joy you’ll find when you leave the world behind!


Good morning!
Good moooorning!
Sunbeams will soon smile through!

We’re going to Disney today!
AHHH!

Our alarm went off at 7am but we snoozed until 7:45.
To finally get Jamie up I played this song in his ear.

The internet is a wonderful thing
But it did the trick!

We got up and got ready…

…and we left the room by 8:30am!

We checked our bags and got our boarding passes, then we zoomed straight through security using the fast track thingy we’d bought last night.
It was well worth it because the regular line was huge.
Our first fastpass success of the trip

When we reached terminal 2 we went straight over to Frankie and Benny’s for breakfast!
With a long flight ahead of us, and a big pizza each last night, we said we didn’t want to stuff ourselves too full.
…So this is what we ordered…

Then we walked around some shops and eventually took a seat near our gate.

We were flying Premium Economy which has priority boarding, so we were on the plane by about 10:30, YAY.
I had pre-booked our usual seats in the back-right corner of the premium cabin.

Because I’m such an eager beaver I obviously boarded the plane first, meaning I got the window seat

It’s never too early for free champagne!

My view for the next few hours
Eeek I love flying.

The look on this man’s face weirds me out.

He looks like he wrote the TV instructions.

Soon we were preparing for take off!

Here we gooooooo!

Off to Neverland!

In the video above, as we began speeding along the runway, a load of water from the air conditioning system poured onto my chair and shoulder
Even though I was still holding my camera at the window, I was mopping up the water and shoving a blanket underneath to catch it, and I was so preoccupied I didn’t even realise that we’d left the ground!
Maybe that water was a little gift from God to distract me from my mild anxiety of take-off!

The menu for today’s flight:

I drank Amarula, played Sudoku, and watched Cars 3!

For my meal I had the tomato and mozzarella tortellini and Jamie had the chicken tikka, even though we were still full from our big breakfast!

We got mini bottles of wine with lunch which we didn’t want right now, so I put them in my bag to drink at the hotel

I haven’t ever flown on a Saturday before, it was noticeably busier than a weekday and there wasn’t much room to stand up and stretch our legs.

Also there was a child who kept running past us, and his dad was running after him.
I know it must be really hard to have a child on an 8-hour flight, but I would really rather adults didn’t run on planes!
Sometimes I missed the little kid running past, and just saw a man running up to the front of the plane and it was quite disconcerting!


Anyway here’s a lollipop.

Time to Orlando: 3 hours, 49 minutes:

Afternoon tea!

Sat in front of Jamie and I was a couple, probably in their early 30s.
Then next to them across the aisle was their daughter Lola, and grandma and grandpa.
Then behind Lola and the grandparents (across the aisle from us) were two people called Donna and Paul.
Lola was about seven years old and had Down syndrome, and OMG she was absolutely amazing and precious.
She just wanted to be friends with everyone.
She sat in a spare seat with Donna and Paul for hours just chatting away (Donna was GREAT with her).
And she LOVED me and Jamie.
She kept going,
“Katie? I love you! I like your hair!”
Omg she was fantastic and adorable.
For the second half of the flight we didn’t watch any films or anything, we just chatted to these people in our little circle the whole time.
It was great, we’ve never made friends on a flight before!

Before we knew it we began to descend!

(You can hear Lola in this video )

WOOO USA! USA! USA!

We landed at 4pm and within minutes the doors were opened and we were let off the plane!
We said goodbye to Lola and her family, and Donna and Paul.
Lola and co. were staying at Art of Animation for a week, then going on a Disney Cruise!
As we said goodbye, Lola showed me the sign language for “you and me together forever”.

Our cabin departed the plane first, and the security line was non-existent so we breezed right through!
We got through passport control, customs, baggage claim, the fake-orail and across the airport to the Magical Express in under 50 minutes!
I always set aside like 2 hours for all of this so that was great!

We went straight through the empty DME line and onto…

A MEARS BUS.

But then I remembered WE’RE GOING TO DISNEY!

So I got over that disappointment pretty quickly.
At least I could take a picture of the real bus parked next to us.

First stop: Disney’s Wilderness Lodge!
a.k.a. HOME for the next 2 weeks!

Let’s go!



Welcome to Walt Disney World!
Where Dreams Come True!

There was a lot of construction around the Magic Kingdom at this time!

MONORAIL

At 5:30pm we pulled into the Wilderness Lodge!
Our driver slowed right down at the entrance, because we were being welcomed by 3 deer!
You can kinda see one of them near the road in the blurry picture below!

Disney theming guys.
They even employ deer greeters.

WE ARE HERE!

I only had my phone on me to take photos at this time, but look how beautiful!!!

Click for next post!
​

 

[pkondz]

If I had to choose between all of my Disney clothes and Hymie, I'm not sure...
Oh God that was mean I'm obviously kidding

Are you sure? (that you were kidding? )

That picture is on the train ride through the Peak District! It's a HUGE national park (I just Wikied it, it's 555 square miles) that's literally a 5 minute drive from us now! (To say we love our new house is an understatement!!!)

Very nice!

Yes I think you might be correct. Not as bad as pineapple on pizza though

Sorry. One Canadian invention that I'm not particularly proud of.

Other than Ross thinking it tasted like feet? Do tell...!

Well... on one take, David Schwimmer was laughing so hard that he spat a full mouthful back onto the plate. Matt LeBlanc didn't see that and started to eat what was on the plate for a second take....


ew... gross.

 

[TheLittleKatie]

Day 1
Saturday 20th January 2018
Part 2 – The Wilderness Lodge, room 4001!


Time to check in!
So here’s a fun story to start this trip off with a bang.
I really wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge this trip, but their ‘standard view’ (cheapest) rooms were all booked up.
So I booked a more expensive courtyard/pool view room, even though I don’t particularly care about having that view.
It’s probably noisy, and I wasn’t, like, excited to look at the pool or anything.
But I just really wanted to stay here.

Well, we check in, and there’s a problem with our pool view room.
So the cast member apologetically offered us a ‘woods view’ room, and a refund of the difference.
Errrm YES PLEASE.


I was genuinely happy with this, and eagerly asked how much the difference was that we would be refunded.

“$453”

I was thrilled!!

We were told our room was number 4001 so we set off to find it!
Turns out it was here, where the yellow asterisk is:

It was the furthest room away from the lobby, but when we walked in we instantly LOVED it!

Our view was incredible!
I’ve just BEEN PAID $453 for a BETTER view!!
We could see the lagoon, the boat dock, and the boats going back and forth between the Magic Kingdom, The Contemporary, and Fort Wilderness.

It was SO nice and peaceful and it felt so secluded all the way back here.
The distance from the lobby didn’t bother us at all during the entire trip.

I know I’m enthusiastic about most things, but we honestly LOVED this room.
Looking back at the photos now makes me feel all warm and happy.


We had a little window to the side of our balcony:

Eeek it’s all so pretty!!

I found these critters in the shower

Bathroom area:

After settling in we went out to explore!

Our room was one of four rooms right on the end of the building.
There are stairs next to these four rooms here:

Which bring you out HERE:

And from the same spot turned to the right - through those trees is the boat dock!

We were so close to Magic Kingdom transportation and that made me so happy!


We wandered down the path where the new cabins are, just to be nosey.

We felt like imposters so we soon turned back

The room on with the light on on the fourth floor, second from the right is our room!

Then we walked over to Geyser Point to check that out!
It was fairly new at this point.
They had the NBA on the TVs which Jamie likes, so he thought it looked like a cool place!

Then we wandered around the two pools, and went to Roaring Fork to get our refillable mugs!

We were excited to discover that the Disney dining plan (which we had for ‘free’!) had removed the dessert from the quick service meals, and added it onto the snack credits!
This was great news, because a MANDATORY dessert every lunchtime is too much for us, so we would definitely take double-snack credits instead!
So we ended up with 56 snacks in total for the trip!
Two snacks for two people for 14 days!
Watch out, Festival of the Arts!
We’re coming!

I got a purple mug, and Jamie got blue, and we filled them with Diet Coke.

We looked in the Mercantile, which is huge and has lots of great Wilderness Lodge-specific merchandise!

There’s even a FIREPLACE in there.
It’s so lodgey I love it.

Then we had a quick look in Territory Lounge, and went back to reception to ask for a microwave for our room.
(Jamie sometimes has a problem with his eyelid and has an eye mask to do heat compressions on it.)
The cast members were great and happy to help, and they said they’d send one right up to our room
We found the perfect spot for it:

And moved our coffee machine over to the table

Then we unpacked and chilled for a while!

At 8pm the geyser started erupting pretty loudly so I went out to film it… and well…

WE WERE PAID $453 FOR THIS VIEW.

Unbelievable!
They were playing the music outside too!


I cannot believe that we’ve been able to see fireworks at 4 out of the 5 deluxe resorts we’ve stayed at, and of those we’ve only paid for that view once (Polynesian theme park view)!

We decided not to watch the fireworks from our room tonight though, because Happily Ever After was brand new to us, having just debuted in May 2017!
We wanted the first time we watch it to be in front of the castle, and that’s just what we planned to do tomorrow night

We were very tired after our long travel day.
I showered and got into bed by 9pm.
That’s 2am UK time, after a 7am start

We ordered our lunch online (you’ll never guess where ) and watched Rockets vs Golden State on TV.

And soon we fell asleep, in the comfiest bed in the world!!
I was loving the Wilderness Lodge so much already!

Goodnight!


Click for next post!
​

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

To finally get Jamie up I played this song in his ear.



The internet is a wonderful thing
But it did the trick!

OMG

Sometimes I missed the little kid running past, and just saw a man running up to the front of the plane and it was quite disconcerting!

That would be quite...interesting.

We got through passport control, customs, baggage claim, the fake-orail and across the airport to the Magical Express in under 50 minutes!

That is seriously impressive!

First stop: Disney’s Wilderness Lodge!
a.k.a. HOME for the next 2 weeks!

Our view was incredible!
I’ve just BEEN PAID $453 for a BETTER view!!
We could see the lagoon, the boat dock, and the boats going back and forth between the Magic Kingdom, The Contemporary, and Fort Wilderness.

Don't you just love pixie dust???

So we ended up with 56 snacks in total for the trip!

Oh my.

 

[pkondz]

We’re going to Disney today!
AHHH!

Sheesh. The least you could do is be a bit excited about it.

…and we left the room by 8:30am!

... for our 9pm flight.... but WE COULDN'T WAIT ANY LONGER!!!!!

Our first fastpass success of the trip

Can anyone do that? Or only UK residents?

With a long flight ahead of us, and a big pizza each last night, we said we didn’t want to stuff ourselves too full.
…So this is what we ordered…

Sure. Makes sense. If you'd been hungry, there'd be a lot more bacon and sausage.

I had pre-booked our usual seats in the back-right corner of the premium cabin.

You know you travel frequently when you have favourite seats.

Because I’m such an eager beaver I obviously boarded the plane first, meaning I got the window seat

Wait.... I thought you had bre-booked the seats? Or do you mean you were in front of Hymie?

It’s never too early for free champagne!

Champagne and OJ would've been better in the morning.... but I wouldn't have complained.

My view for the next few hours
Eeek I love flying.

You stared at a big black dot for hours??

​

But I hardly know you, Mr. Screen.

Don't forget to wave as you go by my place.

In the video above, as we began speeding along the runway, a load of water from the air conditioning system poured onto my chair and shoulder

Uh.... that's not supposed to happen.

I can't figure it out. A340 or B747?

For my meal I had the tomato and mozzarella tortellini and Jamie had the chicken tikka, even though we were still full from our big breakfast!

But.... it's free!!

Also there was a child who kept running past us, and his dad was running after him.
I know it must be really hard to have a child on an 8-hour flight, but I would really rather adults didn’t run on planes!
Sometimes I missed the little kid running past, and just saw a man running up to the front of the plane and it was quite disconcerting!

No kidding! I once had a woman run by with a flight attendant in hot pursuit.

She kept going,
“Katie? I love you! I like your hair!”

Awwwww....

As we said goodbye, Lola showed me the sign language for “you and me together forever”.

Stawp!

We got through passport control, customs, baggage claim, the fake-orail and across the airport to the Magical Express in under 50 minutes!

Not bad!

We went straight through the empty DME line and onto…

A MEARS BUS.

This is unconscionable!

At least I could take a picture of the real bus parked next to us.

You could've just lied to us and said that was your bus. We'd never know.

Our driver slowed right down at the entrance, because we were being welcomed by 3 deer!

From the live action movie version of Bambi they're filming.


And I see some things never change.
So pleased to post between your updates again.

 

[iheartbelle87]

Loving your updates!

It’s never too early for free champagne!

Amen!

In the video above, as we began speeding along the runway, a load of water from the air conditioning system poured onto my chair and shoulder

NOO!

We got through passport control, customs, baggage claim, the fake-orail and across the airport to the Magical Express in under 50 minutes!

WOW! Great timing!!

Our driver slowed right down at the entrance, because we were being welcomed by 3 deer!
You can kinda see one of them near the road in the blurry picture below!

Awww <3

Well, we check in, and there’s a problem with our pool view room.
So the cast member apologetically offered us a ‘woods view’ room, and a refund of the difference.
Errrm YES PLEASE.

So glad this worked out for you!!

 

[FantasiaMagic]

YAY! I love hearing about travel day - I'm always super excited traveling to Orlando, so reading about yother people's travels brings back those nice memories of being excited for my own trip!

When we reached terminal 2 we went straight over to Frankie and Benny’s for breakfast!
With a long flight ahead of us, and a big pizza each last night, we said we didn’t want to stuff ourselves too full.
…So this is what we ordered…

Wow! That is a lot of food! Looks very yummy though. Is Frankie and Benny's a chain in the UK?

He looks like he wrote the TV instructions.

In the video above, as we began speeding along the runway, a load of water from the air conditioning system poured onto my chair and shoulder

Oh no, glad it only fell on your shoulder and not you head/face

I drank Amarula, played Sudoku, and watched Cars 3!

What did you think of Cars 3? I saw it in theaters last summer when it came out. I thought it was a nice upgrade from the second film, which really was a flop. I also thought it was a nice way to end the trilogy and tie everything together!

We got mini bottles of wine with lunch which we didn’t want right now, so I put them in my bag to drink at the hotel

Those are SO cute!

Loving those mugs!

Sat in front of Jamie and I was a couple, probably in their early 30s.
Then next to them across the aisle was their daughter Lola, and grandma and grandpa.
Then behind Lola and the grandparents (across the aisle from us) were two people called Donna and Paul.
Lola was about seven years old and had Down syndrome, and OMG she was absolutely amazing and precious.
She just wanted to be friends with everyone.
She sat in a spare seat with Donna and Paul for hours just chatting away (Donna was GREAT with her).
And she LOVED me and Jamie.
She kept going,
“Katie? I love you! I like your hair!”
Omg she was fantastic and adorable.
For the second half of the flight we didn’t watch any films or anything, we just chatted to these people in our little circle the whole time.
It was great, we’ve never made friends on a flight before!

(You can hear Lola in this video )

This is so sweet! That is so nice you met some nice people on the plane - must have made the rest of your flight fly by! And Lola sounds precious. I also love the name Lola, so that just makes it even more cute hearing about this

There was a lot of construction around the Magic Kingdom at this time!

Oh MY GOSH yes! When I was in WDW last summer, I felt like everywhere you turned, you saw more and more construction, especially MK and HS, since they were still working on Toy Story Land, as well as SW Land.

I only had my phone on me to take photos at this time, but look how beautiful!!!

Yes it's such a pretty resort! When I have been there for ADRs at WCC, we would sit by the fireplace or in the nice comfy chairs in the lobby. Very relaxing!

Obviously I would be upset if we had to go from a Magic Kingdom view room to a pool view room or whatever.
But I was genuinely happy with this, and eagerly asked how much the difference was that we would be refunded.

“$453”

This is amazing! Especially since you were actually getting what you wanted!

Our view was incredible!
I’ve just BEEN PAID $453 for a BETTER view!!
We could see the lagoon, the boat dock, and the boats going back and forth between the Magic Kingdom, The Contemporary, and Fort Wilderness.

I found these critters in the shower

We wandered down the path where the new cabins are, just to be nosey.

We looked in the Mercantile, which is huge and has lots of great Wilderness Lodge-specific merchandise!

I love their giftshop. Well, I tend to love all WDW gift shops, but I really do like this one, especially with really cute statue of Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the Bear outside

​

OMG This is Awesome!!!!! I would be crying too!

We ordered our lunch online (you’ll never guess where )

Hmm... I bet its NOT a turkey sandwich from BOG!


So excited to read more!

 

[pkondz]

So here’s a fun story to start this trip off with a bang.
I really wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge this trip, but their ‘standard view’ (cheapest) rooms were all booked up.
So I booked a more expensive courtyard/pool view room, even though I don’t particularly care about having that view.
It’s probably noisy, and I wasn’t, like, excited to look at the pool or anything.
But I just really wanted to stay here.

Well, we check in, and there’s a problem with our pool view room.
So the cast member apologetically offered us a ‘woods view’ room, and a refund of the difference.
Errrm YES PLEASE.

Moral of the story. Always book what you don't want so you get what you want.

how much the difference was that we would be refunded.

“$453”

Score! Nice!

Turns out it was here, where the yellow asterisk is:

I like the location! I saw what it was close to even before you posted all the photos.

Our view was incredible!

Gorgeous!

It was SO nice and peaceful and it felt so secluded all the way back here.

Looks amazing. Really does!

We had a little window to the side of our balcony:

I've never seen that before! Lucky!

I found these critters in the shower

Usually something you don't want to come out of your mouth.

We felt like imposters so we soon turned back

The room on with the light on on the fourth floor, second from the right is our room!

Didn't your mother ever tell you to turn the lights out when you leave???

Then we walked over to Geyser Point to check that out!

Dang. At work so can't see the videos. I'll have a peek tomorrow.

This was great news, because a MANDATORY dessert every lunchtime is too much for us, so we would definitely take double-snack credits instead!

And I've seen what you guys do with snack credits.

Two snacks for two people for 14 days!
Watch out, Festival of the Arts!

and went back to reception to ask for a microwave for our room.

Had no idea you could do that! Good to know.

WE WERE PAID $453 FOR THIS VIEW.

That’s 2am UK time, after a 7am start

Sounds like a typical pkondz day.

 

[bluejasmine]

Omg 2 weeks!! What a beautiful view!!!

 

[LISAMWDW]

Omg, so glad your back doing another trip report!! You and Jamie are so cute and my favorite Dis couple!


Can't wait to hear more! Congrats on your new home! So exciting!

After staying at most of the deluxe resorts, which one is your favorite?

 

[buteraa]

Great trip report so far. I love Wilderness Lodge!

 

[SweetSerenity]

Wow! What fortune! You got a better view and a refund? That's wonderful! Wilderness Lodge is so beautiful. I am so glad to see all of your pictures. In September 2017 we were supposed to finally stay there, but we had to cancel due to the hurricane. We are going back November 2018, but WL had no rooms available. I am so very sad and disappointed. We're staying at AKL, which is a lovely resort, but I'll miss out on staying at WL.

Can't wait to read more.

 

[jacksdadcan]

I think WL is my favourite resort (well, favourite of the favourites), love the photos!

 

[Greg Lembrich]

Enjoying your TR. Looking forward to your trips to the parks!

 

[luvmychaos]

We stayed at Boulder Ridge on our last trip(Nov ‘17), on the 4th floor as well. I started videoing as soon as we entered the lobby(it’s always been our fave but 1st time staying there) and all my kids did was whisper that it was too “high class” for us . By the time we got to the room, however, I was full on sobbing. It faced the lagoon, like dead center, in the longer building,with the most lovely balcony(we only booked woods view) So pretty much the video is me crying like a baby

Darn you, Disney feels!!!

 

[FrozenOne16]

That view is incredible! I am excited for the next time we visit - we always do the dining plan and feel like the dessert at the quick service is too much, so I am excited about more snack credits! Especially during an Epcot event!

 

[Sailormoon2]

That view is absolutely phenomenal!! Seems like such a peaceful little corner of the world, so removed from all the Disney-ness, but in a good way! I too can not believe you got a refund for essentially an upgrade! Total pixie dust!! And then to be able to see the fireworks, WOW!! You two, really have the best luck. I think WL looks so comfy and inviting, and I may stay there at some point, but I always worry that it is so far out of the action, so I'm really interested to see how your travels plan out. Of course this from someone who love AKL, I better you end up being closer to the park then that is. LOL!

 

[ALEXandFAB]

At 8pm the geyser started erupting pretty loudly so I went out to film it… and well…

Oh, my goodness Katie! What wonderful luck

We ordered our lunch online (you’ll never guess where )

Hmmmmm Does it rhyme with Flea Flour Fest?