Just got back today from an 8 night stay at the lodge (May 17-25).
The WL is fantastic and we enjoyed every minute of our stay.
We had a block of 3 standard rooms booked at the AP rate of $124 and I faxed some requests in 4 days before our arrival. I requested:
- non-smoking rooms.
- 2 of the rooms connecting.
- North wing 4th floor or higher (best view possible) (I read here that this was the best spot for a standard room)
- all 3 rooms as close together as possible.
They gave us 3 non-smoking rooms together with 2 connecting. We were upgraded to courtyard view on the 4th floor of the south east wing. The room numbers were 4156, 58, 60.
The rooms overlooked the Wilderness Lodge Villa pool and the woods next to it. It was a great view and we were very happy with the rooms. It was very convenient for access to both pools and the boat dock but it was a pretty good hike to the elevators.
I enjoyed opening up the balcony door every morning to watch the sun rise and hear a virtual symphony of bird song. I am not certain but I think they were Mocking Birds in the woods that I was listening to. At night we would sit on the balcony and listen to the frogs croaking in the woods. No mosquitoes or any bugs bothered us on the balcony or anywhere on the grounds.
I was never bothered by any noises from other rooms and was never bothered by noise from outside.
There are so many good things to say about this resort I don't know where to begin. I loved the theme music they play, it really sets the mood and makes you feel you are at someplace special. I could even hear it from my balcony.
I spent at least a couple of hours just looking around and enjoying the amazing architecture and grounds.
I used all the pools, the hot tubs, the pool bar, rented water mice and used the boat transportation so if any one has any questions fire away. The only thing I didn't use was the buses.
The housekeeping was adequate but nothing special (no towel animals or anything like that) and I did tip most days.
The Whispering Canyon Cafe has great food and a really fun atmosphere. We also went to the Yachtsman at the Yacht club resort and I can honestly say that the steak was much better at the Whispering Canyon and $10 cheaper. I would not recomend the Yachtsman restaurant as the food was poor (and overpriced) and the theming was dull and the atmosphere stuffy.
The only negative thing I can say about the lodge is that the pool is too small. We toured around some of the other deluxes (CR, GF, Poly, BC, YC) and the pool at the WL lodge is obviously the smallest. I wonder why they made it so small compared to the others?
The WL is fantastic and we enjoyed every minute of our stay.
We had a block of 3 standard rooms booked at the AP rate of $124 and I faxed some requests in 4 days before our arrival. I requested:
- non-smoking rooms.
- 2 of the rooms connecting.
- North wing 4th floor or higher (best view possible) (I read here that this was the best spot for a standard room)
- all 3 rooms as close together as possible.
They gave us 3 non-smoking rooms together with 2 connecting. We were upgraded to courtyard view on the 4th floor of the south east wing. The room numbers were 4156, 58, 60.
The rooms overlooked the Wilderness Lodge Villa pool and the woods next to it. It was a great view and we were very happy with the rooms. It was very convenient for access to both pools and the boat dock but it was a pretty good hike to the elevators.
I enjoyed opening up the balcony door every morning to watch the sun rise and hear a virtual symphony of bird song. I am not certain but I think they were Mocking Birds in the woods that I was listening to. At night we would sit on the balcony and listen to the frogs croaking in the woods. No mosquitoes or any bugs bothered us on the balcony or anywhere on the grounds.
I was never bothered by any noises from other rooms and was never bothered by noise from outside.
There are so many good things to say about this resort I don't know where to begin. I loved the theme music they play, it really sets the mood and makes you feel you are at someplace special. I could even hear it from my balcony.
I spent at least a couple of hours just looking around and enjoying the amazing architecture and grounds.
I used all the pools, the hot tubs, the pool bar, rented water mice and used the boat transportation so if any one has any questions fire away. The only thing I didn't use was the buses.
The housekeeping was adequate but nothing special (no towel animals or anything like that) and I did tip most days.
The Whispering Canyon Cafe has great food and a really fun atmosphere. We also went to the Yachtsman at the Yacht club resort and I can honestly say that the steak was much better at the Whispering Canyon and $10 cheaper. I would not recomend the Yachtsman restaurant as the food was poor (and overpriced) and the theming was dull and the atmosphere stuffy.
The only negative thing I can say about the lodge is that the pool is too small. We toured around some of the other deluxes (CR, GF, Poly, BC, YC) and the pool at the WL lodge is obviously the smallest. I wonder why they made it so small compared to the others?
But it is surprising- all the pictures of it looks like it's a rather massive resort- but your description- esp. the mockingbird mention really made me want to plop myself in a rocking chair and soak in all the ambience you experienced. Glad you had a great trip!!
I guess you got lucky with the balcony. While we had a great view, we were eaten alive by those red, biting flies. We could hardly sit outside at all - at any time of day or night. And God forbid if we left the door open - we'd spend the next hour smashing flies on the walls with magazines (which housekeeping did not clean up!). On top of it all, we were eaten alive in our beds every night. We were sure to get all the flies before turning out the lights, but would always wake up covered in bites. After 4 nights, we stripped the beds ourselves so housekeeping would change the sheets. That seemed to improve the problem. As with you, no towel animals - even though we tipped well everyday and propped up our beanie babies with the tip on the bed.
