Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Review
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge is one of the most peaceful resorts on Disney property that we’ve ever stayed at. Nestled on the shorts of Bay Lake, the resort emulates National Park Lodges from the early 1900s.
Upon arrival you will enter into one of the most majestic lobbies on Disney property. This seven story lobby is absolutely stunning, with hand carved wood animals flanking the main support columns, beautiful wood flooring with Native American symbolism, and massive “wood” trusses spanning the ceiling of the space. Even though the lobby can get hectic at times, especially with Whispering Canyon open to it, it retains a sense calmness with the rich wood tones, dimmer lighting, and some ridiculously comfortable furniture.
On our most recent trip we decided to stay club level at the Lodge. This is one of our favorite club levels, the calming atmosphere continues up to that floor and the club lounge, and we personally find the food offered to be some of the best, especially for the dessert and cordial service.
Before we get into the club level information, let’s talk a bit about the resort itself.
The Resort:
The resort houses 560 rooms in the Lodge, however if you add in the rooms at Boulder Ridge and the cabins there are over 700 rooms at this site! One thing to note, the southern wing of the Lodge was converted to DVC rooms, which there are 220. You can book at either the hotel side or the DVC side, both can be booked directly on the Disney website, or other reputable sites.
The Wilderness Lodge was modeled after early 1900s National Park Lodges, while over at Boulder Ridge that building was modeled after late 1800 railroad hotels. The theming at both is impressive. We took the Arts and Architecture tour that is offered at the Wilderness Lodge and we learned so much about the theming of both, and it truly is amazing how much detail went into creating these buildings. We will be posting a blog about that tour with some additional information in a bit, but we do highly recommend it, it is completely free and is offered daily at 9 AM. How often can you find great tours at Disney that are actually free?!
The Rooms:
The rooms are pretty standard for a Disney resort, maybe a bit smaller than other deluxe resorts. They do have the barn door that separates the sink area from the rest of the room, which we think is one of the best additions to Disney hotel rooms, it makes it so much easier to get ready with a bit of privacy! The Disney theming is subdued in these rooms, with some characters popping up in the wallpaper, but nothing too ostentatious.
One my favorite aspects of the rooms at the Wilderness Lodge is how incredibly quiet they are. I thought we just had super quiet neighbors, but then one day while walking in the hallway back to our room we heard a baby wailing in the room next to ours, so fully expected to hear that once in our room, but once the door closed it was completely silent. It was very impressive, especially considering at many of the other resorts the walls seem paper thin and you can hear your neighbors talking even at low volumes.
Views vary from the woods, to the lake, to the pool, and even a fireworks view!
Resort View at the Wilderness Lodge
One thing that differs at the Wilderness Lodge from other deluxe resorts is the lack of suite options. There is one suite, the Yosemite Suite, but that is it. There are deluxe rooms though that will sleep up to 6 people, but when we do larger family trips we prefer to be in two bedroom suites, which unless you get lucky and can snag the Yosemite Suite, you’re out of luck at the Wildness Lodge.
The Grounds:
The grounds of the Lodge are some of the most amazingly landscaped areas we’ve seen on Disney property. It really is a stunningly beautiful resort.
There are two pools, the main pool at Wilderness Lodge, and then a short walk away, the pool at Boulder Ridge. Both hotel and DVC guests staying there are welcome to use both. The pool at Boulder Ridge does require you to scan your room key to get in, but the main pool does not. I do have to note, the main pool can be pretty crazy, we found it very difficult to ever find chairs there and with the activities going on it is also quite loud. Most days we found ourselves over at the Boulder Ridge pool, which was much calmer and we never had an issue finding chairs, plus it has a zero entry which we really like. Do know however that there are no lifeguards at the Boulder Ridge pool.
Transportation:
Transportation to the parks is fine, not our favorite, and is frankly the reason this is not one of our go-to places to stay when we have park heavy trips. The boat to the Magic Kingdom is fantastic, however for all other parks you have to take a bus, ride share, drive, or Minnie Van. Yes, you could take a boat to the Magic Kingdom, then monorail from the Magic Kingdom to the Transportation and Ticket Center and then hop on the Epcot monorail, but the bus would in theory be much faster. Unlike other deluxe resorts were you have more transportation options to more parks, this resort is rather limited.
There is a boat that starts running at 3:00PM that will also take you to the Contemporary and Fort Wilderness, so that is a nice option if you want to grab dinner at either of those locations.
Dining:
The dining at the Wilderness Lodge is some of our favorites. Geyser Point Bar and Grill is one of our absolute favorite places to grab a meal on Disney property. The bison burger there is amazing, and they have many other options that are delicious. Some of our favorites, other than the bison burger, include the crispy chicken sandwich, and the multigrain salad with salmon (which had the most perfectly cooked piece of salmon we’ve ever had!). A nice thing about Geyser Point is that they offer a to-go option on top of the sit down dining. Just note recently they changed it so you must do a mobile order, you can no longer walk up to the window to place an order. The food does take a bit longer here than at other quick service windows, but that is simply because this food is made to order so is fresh and worth the wait!
Bison Cheeseburger at Geyser Point
The other quick service at the Lodge is Roaring Fork, here you will find a good selection of food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oh, and don’t forget the bear claws served there, they are a staple of the Wilderness Lodge!
For table service dining they have Whispering Canyon, Artist Point, and of course Geyser Point (which is more of a lounge, but has a great selection of food so I’m including that here). At Artist Point you can meet the characters from Snow White. Whispering Canyon is known for their skillet meals, and rather rowdy atmosphere (ask for ketchup…or not), and then Geyser Point is a standard lounge with a bar, tvs, and a great view out over the lake.
There also is the Territory Lounge where you can get drinks and some bar food.
Club Level:
The club level at Wilderness Lodge is one of our favorites. It is by far the calmest one we’ve experienced, I even commented to the cast member who was giving me the club tour that I felt like I had to whisper when I was on the 7th floor, it was just so quiet! She had to laugh and admitted that yes, this was a pretty quiet resort.
Speaking of the tour, this is the only club level we’ve stayed at where they actually gave us a tour when we arrived! Upon arriving the front desk sends a club level cast member down to fetch you and take you upstairs. There they will show you various spots for viewing the fireworks, some balconies that we could use, the food service area, and a quick instruction on how to use the fancy coffee machine. They even have a handheld sign with The Old Faithful club you can get a picture with! We really enjoyed this extra touch. They also offer a welcome drink of a geyser grog mimosa!
Like other club levels, they have four meal services, this one also starts a coffee service at 6:30, which some other club levels do but not all. Breakfast starts at 7:00 and was fairly standard for club level offerings, usually there was an egg dish, sausage or bacon, and then some days they had breakfast potatoes others they had crepes. They also have a bunch of standard breakfast fare with a selection of fruit, oatmeal, bagels, english muffins, etc.
The afternoon snack service is pretty basic, which is typical for club levels these days. They had some crudité, chips, fruit, and some days they had pastries out as well.
The hors d’oeuvres service was very good, they had both hot and cold options each night. The cold options usually included a salad and then a cold meat dish, then the hot dishes varied with options such as salmon and ribs. I will note, the salmon they have there is amazing!
Also during the hors d’oeuvres service they have self pour wines. You can get wine, beer, and certain liquors throughout the day before the hors d’oeuvres service, you just need to ask a cast member to get it for you.
The dessert and cordial service is where this club level really stands out. On top of the standard small cupcakes and other desserts, here they have a warm cobbler and vanilla ice cream to pair with it! They also have toppings to make your own sundae! They also leave the wines out for desserts on top of bringing out the cordials (other clubs take the wines away and only have the cordials out).
Conclusion:
The Wilderness Lodge is one of our favorite resorts on property. We love the theming, the resort is gorgeous, and we especially love how calm it is over there. It’s a wonderful little respite from the hustle and bustle of the rest of Disney World.
That being said, we don’t like staying here on trips where we have a lot of park time planned since the transportation options aren’t as good as other resorts on property. However, for more laid back trips where we plan to spend more time at the resort, this is the perfect place for us.
Beyond the beauty and the relaxing nature of the resort, we also love all the food options here, with one of our favorite restaurants on property being Geyser Point. On our last trip we ate there almost every single day!
The Wilderness Lodge also offers some really cool and unique activities. They have a daily free tour of the Lodge and Boulder Ridge which I 100% recommend, it’s really interesting and you learn a lot about the various theming elements in the resort. They also offer various art activities, with the signature activity being Tasteful Artistry where you can make your own wood tray or key holder. The art activities do cost money, but are really fun and a unique thing to do on resort days.
Overall this is a great place to stay and we do recommend it, especially for a more laid back trip!
