Here’s a fun fact that I’m sure you were DYING to know: The Wilderness Lodge is the first WDW Deluxe Resort I ever stayed at in my entire life. We were a family of Moderate dwellers, but one year my parents planned a trip around their wedding anniversary and decided to splurge on the Wilderness Lodge.
Like my boyfriend and I did back in January during Marathon Weekend, my parents also decided to defray the cost of the trip with a few nights at a Value Resort (All-Star Music; the non-All Star Value Resorts didn’t exist yet, for the record). However, I think we were at Wilderness for four or even five nights compared to my paltry three at the Contemporary a few months ago.
During our last day at WDW in January, I (literally) jogged (slowly, I had just run a marathon) over to Magic Kingdom in the morning for one last opening ceremony, rope drop, stroll down Main Street and visit to Starbucks the bakery. But Marcus didn’t have a park ticket, so I didn’t stay too long.
Plus they put a crane up next to the castle (overnight!) and it was depressing.
However, the mayor did greet me on my way out. He seemed a bit pervy, but then I’ve probably just lived in NYC too long.
I came out with a Starbucks beverage for Marcus and we randomly decided to take a boat to the Wilderness Lodge because he had never seen it, and it had been more than a decade since I’d been there. Marcus befriended a duck while we were waiting for the boat.
I had forgotten how woodsy it was by the boat dock when we got to our destination, and then it was a joy coming upon the geyser right away, even though we didn’t stick around to see it go off. It was starting to drizzle a bit.
Other thing I had forgotten about: the Wilderness Lodge’s glorious waterfall/pool area. Despite being positively IN LURVE with the Contemporary, it had one lackluster element: the pool. Even though I quite enjoyed the slide as well as the lack of people in it. But seriously, here is a brief glimpse of the Contemporary’s pool:
And here’s the pool at the Wilderness Lodge:
Many years earlier, I had been obsessed with the Wilderness Lodge’s pool. I’m pretty sure I swam there every day we stayed there. I know I’d do the same if I were to stay there again.
We walked up to the lobby, entered the building and I immediately walked over to find the “source” of the pool … the tiny little spring. God, I had been obsessed with that. It was still awesome. These are the Disney details that I had really freaked out over as a kid. Pools that started as lobby water features. Hidden Mickeys. Et cetera. I guess I still love that stuff.
The lobby area was bigger than I remembered and full of all that cabin-like, northwoodsy-yet-kinda-frontier-y, somewhat-appropriated-from-Native-American-culture-like-oh-god-maybe-this-isn’t-PC décor. Really cool details on every little thing, though — furniture, lamps and fireplaces.
We sat in rocking chairs in front of the fire and I texted some photos of the hotel to my mom. She responded and got kind of emotional, which was weird to me … my parents don’t exactly seem to be supportive of my Adult Disney Renaissance, even though we all visited WDW so frequently when I was growing up. But obviously this anniversary family trip had been special to her. It’s nice that we all have our favorite parts of the World.
