Disney’s Wilderness Lodge is my favourite of all the Disney hotels in Florida. It has a prime location on the lagoon, brilliant transport to all parks, and looks incredible.
The resort is themed around U.S National Parks and the Pacific Northwest. It’s beautifully done and as impressive to me at age 44 as it was when I was ten years old and visited for the first time.
The resort is divided into three areas. The main building contains normal hotel rooms and Copper Creek Villas. Along the waterfront are some amazing cabins that sleep up to 12 adults, and a separate building is home to Disney Vacation Club’s Boulder Ridge.
Wilderness Lodge is big but doesn’t feel massive; it’s pretty easy to walk around, nothing feels too far away, and it doesn’t feel crowded even around the pool.
Guests staying at deluxe hotels get special early entry and extended-hours access to the parks. Times vary, so check the Disney app for up-to-date information. Our extended-hours trip to Magic Kingdom was a big highlight of our holiday. It’s a great perk!
Five reasons to stay at Wilderness Lodge
1. Unique theming
Wilderness Lodge is inspired by the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone Park and the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. It’s grand and impressive on an epic scale. Every corner of the main lobby is incredible, with towering totem poles and an 82ft fireplace. If you take the time to look around, you’ll see that the decorations all have meaning.
You can also find little nooks around the hotel with comfy rocking chairs and a fireplace to sit and relax or take in the atmosphere. The hotel has all the elegance and style you expect from Disney but feels a world away from the chaos of the parks.
2. Fantastic transport to the parks
Unlike the other deluxe resorts, Wilderness Lodge isn’t on the monorail line, but that does make it slightly cheaper than the Grand Floridian, Contemporary or the Polynesian.
While it is lovely to hop on the monorail to Epcot or Magic Kingdom, we’ve never had to wait long for a bus to any of the parks from Wilderness Lodge and the boats to Magic Kingdom are very frequent.
It has great food options
Wilderness Lodge has great restaurant options with everything from quick service to super fancy.
Roaring Fork
Roaring Fork is a quick-service restaurant great for snacks and cheaper meals. We found it to be reasonably priced and of good quality. The new mobile ordering system makes ordering a breeze, and there are plenty of tables indoors and outdoors.
Geyser Point
Geyser Point was new to us at our last visit. It’s located by the water, with great views of the Magic Kingdom fireworks and electrical parade in the evening.
You can either order quick-service food and take it away or sit semi undercover at the tables. The food was great, especially the bison burger, and for Disney, it was a decent price.
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Whispering Canyon Cafe is a table-service restaurant in the lodge’s lobby. It’s loud, funny, and great fun. Although we weren’t massively impressed with the food on our last visit, the experience was great!
Story Book Dining at Artist Point
Story Book Dining is a Snow White character dinner that gets great reviews from adults without kids and families. I really wanted to try it on our last visit, but the cost for two adults and four kids was too much for us. I do wish we’d splurged for it, as it seems like an amazing experience. If we’d had the dining plan, I would 100% have booked this meal.
3. Firework Views
Wilderness Lodge is in the perfect location for fantastic views of the Magic Kingdom fireworks. Guests with lakeview rooms can watch from their balcony, or you can head down the waterfront to watch.
Another benefit of a lagoon resort is the Electrical Water Pageant. This is proper old school and hasn’t changed since the nineties, but it is fun to watch and takes me right back to my childhood.
4. Great Pools
The pool area at Wilderness Lodge isn’t as fancy as some of the other hotels, but it’s a decent size, has a little slide and splash area, and never feels busy or crowded.
Hotel guests can collect towels from the pool, and lifejackets for kids are free to use as well. There’s also a quieter pool by the Boulder Ridge area resort guests can use.
5. Awesome room with a great view
Most rooms have been recently refurbished to a high standard. We’re a family of 6, so we stayed in a deluxe family room, which was a decent size with plenty of room for us all.
Wilderness Lodge offers movies under the stars and marshmallow toasting free of charge in the evenings. Guests can also take part in craft activities for an extra fee. Activities and times vary, so check the hotel noticeboards for current information.
Club Level at Wilderness Lodge
We’re a family of 6, which makes it very difficult to find hotel rooms that fit us all in. Wilderness Lodge has a few deluxe family rooms that come with Club Level access. This was perfect for us as it meant we could all fit in one room and had access to food and drink for most of the day, which, with four kids, saved a lot of money. If you’re a bigger family, I would absolutely recommend Club Level.
The standard Club Level rooms and the lounge are on the 7th floor. The bigger deluxe rooms are on the corner of the building by the boat dock, so there is a bit of a walk up to the lounge, but we didn’t find it an issue, and we were on the ground floor.
The lounge
The lounge itself is beautiful. There’s plenty of seating and tables and a small kids area with a TV. As it’s on the 7th floor, the view over the lobby is incredible. It’s a great place to relax before or after a visit to the parks.
In the evening you can stand on the balcony and watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks. Music is streamed in via speakers, so it feels very magical. Another big perk of Club Level.
The food
The food was great. Breakfast had the usual cereals, cakes, pastries, coffee, fruit, a selection of bread and bagels for toasting and two hot dishes that changed daily.
There wasn’t a lunch as such, but plenty of snacks, including cakes, freshly baked cookies, crisps, crackers and peanut butter and jelly Uncrustables in the fridge.
The menu called the evening selection hors d’oeurves with desserts a few hours later. You could definitely make it your evening meal, but we used it as a snack before going out and eating later.
Dessert included lots of cakes and a huge tub of ice cream. The selection was different each day, and the kids looked forward to going up there before bed.
Having access to food and drink made our holiday extra special and saved a lot of stress in planning where to get food for hungry kids.
Drinks
The drink selection was fantastic. The coffee machine offered the usual selection of coffees, and the fridge was always well stocked with soft drinks, flavoured milk, juice and a good selection of alcohol in the evening.
We ended up buying one meal in the parks/hotel each day instead of three, so Club Level definitely saved us a lot of money!
If you’re planning a trip to Disney World soon, don’t forget to read my top tips for planning a vacation to Disney and my ultimate guide to Genie +.
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