Escape to the 'Wilderness' at This Disney World Resort!

Escape from your Walt Disney World vacation at this awesome resort!  Wilderness Lodge is a "Raised on the Dis" favorite, with amazing theming, restaurants, pools and plenty of options when it comes to rooms.  Find out why Wilderness Lodge is a great option for your Walt Disney World vacation!

Follow us on Facebook:  www.Facebook.com/RaisedontheDis
Find us on Instagram:  www.Instagram.com/RaisedontheDis

If you love our podcast, leave us a review!  Feel free to ask a question and we'll answer it on our next episode.

"Raised on the Dis" Apple Podcasts link:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/raised-on-dis-one-familys-guide-to-successful-disney/id1570705572

"Raised on the Dis" Spotify link:  https://open.spotify.com/show/1r0mVrNwCUOUN8M61D7Ait

Transcript

Hey everybody and welcome to raised on the days this is episode number 18 I'm your host Nick and this is a LAN Hi everyone Hey everybody we went in a different direction with the open music today it's not a Disney movie Not to my knowledge anyway I don't know they've bought it so many companies that it might be a Disney movie at this point. But so his tombstone and it's a Western from the early 90s if you haven't seen it, go out and download it or buy it or read it or whatever you need to do. Kurt Russell Val Kilmer lots of great people in it Sam Elliot so it's a it's a Western that's based on the shootout at the OK Corral back in the 1880s but an awesome movie and the reason we picked it has a direct tie to our topic today which is Wilderness Lodge and zoning and I walked into Wilderness Lodge for the first time when we stayed there last year and this song was playing and I knew okay this is the place for me I like this place yeah I remember walking out of the like the general store in the lobby area and hearing hearing this song play and tombstone is my my favorite movie of all time and so yeah i agree i had the same thoughts that whenever I heard that I thought okay this is going to be a good day and that was even before we saw really anything else about the lobby we are about the hotel the resort we heard that song and that just put us in a good mood. So you know to summarize everything we're about to say why do we like Wilderness Lodge for me I really like Wilderness Lodge because it is a great way to stay in Florida without thinking that you're staying in Florida right? It really transports you to a different place. My sister and her husband stayed at wilderness campground at the wilderness cabins and they basically said the same thing like it didn't feel like they were in Disney World right and I definitely think that the campground and the lodge have similar vibes yeah i agree I'm I've never been to Fort wilderness but just based on things that I've seen and heard about it I agree with that and yeah whenever you you're going to Wilderness Lodge when you make like well the way we came into the area we made a right at that light and you kind of like kind of weave your way back in to this area and there are like large trees and and yeah then you finally see the the main building and it definitely looks like it could be seen out of out of the West somewhere. So it looks a lot like if anybody's traveled out west to Yellowstone It looks like a lot like the old faithful Lodge. And I guess it also looks a lot like some lodges in the Pacific Northwest as well but it definitely has a Western feel a lot of totem poles and a lot of you know motifs that are kind of based around the American West in the Pacific Northwest as well so really great theming This is another one that was designed by some really great Imagineers a lot of the same folks that were involved in Animal Kingdom lodge were involved in Wilderness Lodge and they came around the same time as far as being built so if you do like the American West if you like that feel this is definitely a place for you yeah and this you know speaking of Animal Kingdom you get kind of the same feel when you walk into the the main lobby at Wilderness Lodge it's another one of those very grand kind of lobbies I think they're probably five or six stories high and you can actually if you're up like in the hallway areas you can look down into the the lobby below so it really does remind me a lot of of what you see there the animal kingdom but of course set to a very, very different theme. And it looks again like a lot like the old faithful in and that hotel out in Yellowstone National Park. If anybody's been inside it it has the same kind of grand lobby with staircases that are kind of exposed and and going up to the ceiling where you basically have staircases that are right up against the roof so it looks a lot like the old faithful lodge definitely one of the main inspirations for Wilderness Lodge at Disney World and you like you know the the sense and stuff This one has probably the best sent you know i i wouldn't even say it's a you know a pine sand
it has a really unique smell that they pump in there but yeah, it's one of my favorite scents that's used at the hotel yeah it is really good and Do you remember I'm just like kind of thinking of the hotel Do you remember like the little like broke like the babbling yes Brook that kind of runs through a portion of the the lobby and there's like a little bridge and so I just remember the kids really like they liked you know standing there and sort of watching this little water feature. I don't know if it would be called a geyser because it doesn't erupt the hotel I think it's kind of like a bubbling spring. Yeah, that's so that's located in the hotel and one of the cool things about Wilderness Lodge is that little creek that comes into the hotel actually runs out and runs into the swimming room.
Yeah Oh cool, that's really cool and there's actually a waterfall outside of the lobby as well. And then you know one thing we were going to mention it during the amenities but it's just perfect to mention it now is there is actually a functioning geyser it's hard obviously artificial but it's it's located on the property interrupt set, you know certain intervals, so folks will be able to catch that they might be able to see it from their rooms, which is the next thing that we need to talk about the the rooms at Wilderness Lodge, and there are a lot of different rooms to talk about, because Wilderness Lodge is actually three separate resorts. So there is the actual Wilderness Lodge hotel, which is the hotel side of things that you can book on the Disney World website. And they have lots of different views that you can book there, you can get a courtyard view that has a view of the pool, you can get a Woods view, a standard view, which will have views of parking lots and different things that you know might be a little bit undesirable but the price matches and then there's a new one that actually was just added not long ago, you can get a view of Magic Kingdom fireworks, oh, that's a good one. That's pretty cool. I mean, obviously that is going to be one of your highest price points that's not cup club level, right, but that is an option. So that covers the hotel side and basically outside of the suites that you could get through the hotel, they're all the same size. But then in the same building in the main Lodge, you have copper Creek, yes, which is a Disney Vacation Club resort that is located on one wing of Wilderness Lodge. And so you'll get your standard DVC options here there is a studio that sleeps for and then one thing that does kind of make a difference between this resort and some other DVC resorts is your one bedroom is going to be around one bedroom size but it's only going to sleep for people so that is a change so if you're looking to stay here on DVC points or looking to book a DVC stay on the Disney website be aware if you have you know if you have a party of five you're going to have to stay in a two bedroom right which is where you can you can have you know a number of guests up to I believe it is nine people in a two bedroom so that of course you know obviously more points or more money more paying for that and then if you if you really want a great experience but want to pay for it as well you can get a grand Villa which you sleep up to I believe it's 12 or 13 people and again those are all in copper Creek a little fun fact on that they didn't do anything to the hotel structurally to create copper Creek they turn hotel rooms into those suites so yeah that is the reason why in a one bedroom you can only sleep for so then kind of just kind of you know some some funny things there. But next door is boulder rich so boulder Ridge was built as the DVC wing of Wilderness Lodge and you'll find basically the same options over there but a couple differences a studio at Boulder Ridge will sleep five that's a great thing for family of five trust us on that it is awesome. And then you will be able to sleep your standard number of people in a two bedroom suite and then grand villas as well and obviously one bedrooms to sleep five people so pretty standard over there at the DVC location at Boulder ridge. One cool thing about boulder Ridge is that has a really great lobby and you know we keep talking about the atmosphere and the vibe boulder Ridge has its own vibe going on. Yeah, I mean we didn't stay there but we did walk down to see boulder ridge and so it's it's separate from the main lodge or they at least have their like Nick said their own little lobby and you walk in and it's it almost kind of reminds me of like kidani village and animal kingdom, which kidani village was the DVC kind of side of Animal Kingdom Lodge. Because it's more it's kind of smaller, it's a little more intimate. But it had all those really cool little areas that you can go and like sit down like remember that one room we were in and there were was that the room with like the train? Yeah, it has a lot of railroad stuff. So the backstory of Boulder Ridge is it's all about railroads, which was a big passion of Walt Disney. He was a huge railroad enthusiast and you know how
how could you not think that he would be whenever all of the Disney parks are ringed by a railroad right he was he was very into trains and that is all about boulder ridge. What I like about boulder Ridge is even just being in there and exploring the the little that we did. There's lots of different nooks and crannies right or like sitting down and reading or like just kind of separating off with your own party and doing your own thing.
But definitely boulder Ridge is is a great option for folks that are DVC members or you know, can't take advantage.
Copper Creek with that four person limit on a studio or a one bedroom right and then there's one other part we need to talk about and that is the copper Creek cabins right yeah we've never really never say no we've never we've never even seen those I know we've looked them up on like YouTube and they look pretty awesome I've heard they're great but yeah that's probably not not going to happen So these would not be confused with the wilderness campground cabins which are different but are also a really great option for families right these ones Yeah, so they're there they're super duper expensive and points and money so yeah, we won't be trying those anytime soon. But they look beautiful Yeah, and they're right along like Bay Lake so you know the you can see them like the which we'll talk about the little boat the you can take the little personal boat you can take from Wilderness Lodge to animal kingdom, or I'm sorry to Magic Kingdom. But you can see them like right along right along the shoreline. So that's kind of cool, that would be a neat feature. But one other thing I wanted to mention about boulder Ridge just to kind of distinguish between that and copper Creek, Boulder Ridge has not been renovated. So just a heads up on that you know, like if you happen to see like the copper Creek rooms that are newly renovated, they're beautiful, and not, you know, speaking badly about boulder Ridge, but they're a little more dated. boulder Ridge is in need of a refurb and it's getting it soon it's getting it within the next couple years. So those rooms are going to be fully renovated.
And they're going to be awesome once they're done. So you know definitely if you'd like to stay a boulder Ridge just just kind of bide your time a little bit before they get renovated and this rooms are going to be awesome. And this resort is going to really be popular even more so than it is right now. It's already a super popular resort but once boulder Ridge gets renovated in the next couple years, this is going to really be a big deal at Disney World because it is a great resort. One of the reasons it is such a great resort I'm going to hop down to transportation here soling and you mentioned it so direct link to the Magic Kingdom right on the boats. Right so this is one of those resorts that I know I mentioned a couple episodes ago that are situated right along that bait Lake so along with Grand Floridian Polynesian and Fort wilderness and the contemporary Wilderness Lodge is very very close to Magic Kingdom even said that some rooms you can see fireworks at night from the from the park so so yeah very desirable especially for people that really when they you know when they go to Walt Disney World they're really heavily focused on magic because like you said it's going to be a little farther away from like Epcot and Hollywood studios and animal kingdom. But I mean it's it's so convenient to get to Magic Kingdom. Yeah, it really is. So I mean, a direct link to Magic Kingdom super easy to get over there. The other parks. I don't think there's anything bad about the transportation, it's buses, you have your own bus transportation. So that's going to take you to Epcot Hollywood studios and animal kingdom. I mean the same kind of cautionary tales about buses all over the place. I mean, you could either hit a bus right on or you could end up waiting 20 minutes. And you know I don't call out Disney a ton. But they are app could get a little bit better on estimating when buses are going to arrive. I mean most of the time whenever you go to a bus stop at your resort, there's there's no way to know when your buses coming. I mean once in a while you will get on your app, the buses going to arrive to go to Magic Kingdom or Epcot or Hollywood studios at this time, but not very often. So I mean that you just you know take everything into consideration with the buses so you're gonna have bus transportation, for three out of the four resorts plus Disney Springs in the water parks. So that's that's the reality there but the transportation is fine. The food here at Wilderness Lodge is really great. I will start with whispering Canyon cafe and this is a table service restaurant located right off the lobby. They have regular breakfast and in the mornings. You can get you know a lot of different breakfast platters. My sister Kelly and her husband Joe went there last week when they were there with their kids and said that they really liked it and were really impressed with it. The big draw here I think is dinner and that is an all you care to enjoy skillet experience. So here are the options only I'm going to want to quiz you see what see what you would prefer here and boy, traditional that is beef brisket. Maple AAA pork ribs, pulled pork citrus herb chicken western style sausage, smashed potatoes, buttered corn, and sauteed green beans. That's the traditional the land and sea salmon chicken spicy vegan sausage chard, portabella barbecue cauliflower roasted potatoes sauteed green beans and oven roasted care
And again a reminder, this is all in the same skillet. And then you've got the pig. Braised Pork belly Maple chipolte lay barbecued pork ribs, low smoked pulled pork mustard, barbecued piggy wings. Young, Western style sausage, smashed potatoes, buttered corn, sauteed, green beans, and then plant based. Do you want me to read that one? No. We have to read it anyway. Maple AAA BBQ jackfruit spicy sausage, mustard, glazed beefless tips, herb, brushed, trickin chicken, roasted potatoes and roasted carrots, sauteed green beans and charred peppers. The sausage and chicken are in quote marks so they're not raw. Yeah. So which one you go with? Oh, I don't know. Like I didn't like everything in it. Or I didn't like the sound of everything in every skillet. But there was something in each one that I was like, Oh yeah, I definitely eat that. So my initial reaction was probably the traditional but then I liked some of the barbecue stuff. You were saying. Hey, yeah, I'm going with the bag. Yeah, so yeah, so these are all you care to enjoy. So if you get done with one of these skill sets, you can order another one. They do have some alphacard options on the menu as well. But the main claim to fame here are the skillet. So this is whispering Canyon cafe. Reservations usually pretty easy to get there. I've been you know, kind of looking in doing research for this program, and it's pretty easy to get in there. Let's take a trip across the lodge down the hallway to Roaring Fork Roaring Fork is a quick service and this one was very limited when we were there. We were there right after the hotel opened after
Disney reopen due to the covid 19 pandemic. So let's take a look at lunch and dinner here and see if there's anything unique on the menu. Looking at the entrees here we have a lumberjack platter which is a lot of barbecue thanks a 10 hour smoke pulled pork sandwich that sounds really good. bacon cheeseburger that's pretty standard fare in a Disney menu Western chicken strips likewise. And cheeseburger and then there are also a house smoked turkey sandwich which I had last year it is very good and a tuna salad sandwich so and there's also some salads on the menu so looks like pretty good variety there a lot of the reviews for this location online are good. So definitely would recommend folks head down there and get some quick service a lot of
mobile ordering right now and you don't have to do that at Disney World but it's being really strongly encouraged. It's so convenient like I don't know I would rather just you know no I don't actually
actually do the mobile ordering that's something I you know I just have to tell you what we want but I mean I would rather just type it in you know put it in your phone and or on your app then then actually have to stand and you know my that my is just just from watching people stand in line at restaurants in Disney World over the last couple of trips that we've been there. Mobile ordering ordering is the way to go. Because the lines do not seem to move very quickly. You know they are prioritizing mobile ordering so most of the checkout locations are for mobile ordering if you're going to choose to stand in line you're probably going to wait for a little while here is a locations rolling in that I really would like to try in the future and this is an outdoor sit down location at Wilderness Lodge called geyser point Bar and Grill yeah it looks really good and I've seen you know some friends of ours on Facebook have gone here and and really talked highly of it. So this is really just kind of pub food where you can get teriyaki chicken wings, cheesy barbecue brisket, a bison cheeseburger smoked turkey sandwich looking here at the menu roasted salmon is an option so
kind of goes beyond pub food. You know you don't think about eating salmon at a pub but an handcrafted crab cake which would be very tempting for me because I love crab cakes. So that is geyser point again this is a sit down location but you the prices are going to be more affordable than they will be to eat at the table service location in the main lodge right it's not that all you can eat anytime you see all you can eat like they're usually awesome, like our liberty tree favorite and Magic Kingdom. But they are going to be a little more pricey. Yes. Yeah, if you are a family and you've got young kids, we will repeat our I think it's I mean I'm not not to give myself too much credit. There's only in too much credit but I really think it's good advice. If you've got kids that are little that aren't going to eat. Stay away from the all you can eat places all your hair to enjoy whatever euphemism Disney is used.
For these locations, right you want to steer clear of them because you're going to spend money and you're going to feel really bad afterwards because your kids are not going to eat a thing buyer's remorse and then you're going to try to eat it all yourself. Yeah you did that was bad.
So there's one more place here I want to highlight territory lounge This is this kind of Lounge at the inside Wilderness Lodge. And you can get just some little kind of bar food Chipotle, a glazed ribs, charcuterie a seasonal pipe homemade potato chips and then there's lots of different cocktails and stuff but we don't normally take advantage of that so you know definitely you know when you're traveling with kids a lot of times that that is not on your mind at all right you know you're you're working on making sure that everybody is happy and not not throwing a fit something that didn't make them happy I remember this the the remember those little campfire cupcakes so it wasn't a little cupcake it was a pretty decent sized cupcake but it was called campfire cupcake yeah it was beautiful yeah it was exclusive to wilderness yeah chocolate cake with I believe like marshmallow or or kind of icing inside like yeah it looked like yeah it was a chocolate cake chocolate icing and then the top of the the cupcake it looked like a little campfire they had like little tiny marshmallows and something to look like fire I don't know what the ice thing I'm assuming. But it was Yeah, it was really good. Yeah and so that is something that you can get done at Roaring Fork. They have lots of different you know snacks and stuff like that. And just a reminder dining plans not back yet it's supposed to return I believe by the end of the year but no no word on it. And you know this is kind of disconnected to the dining plan not being available but there is a location here that we won't go into great detail on but i think is on our wish list long term storybook dining at artists point which is Yeah, a place where you can go to do character dining with the Seven Dwarves Snow White and the evil queen, right? Yeah, I think villains are so cool. I think I don't know I just I just find them to be very fascinating. I would love to eventually like someday go to the little villain after party thing. I don't even have to have that anymore. But But yeah, this is not something that you know you you often run into a villain on a typical day at Disney and so yeah, that definitely sounds very interesting to me. Yeah. So this one is closed it has been since Disney reopened last year but
you know I was hoping against hope that it would have been open last year when we went but it hasn't map and even yet even though the the largest is fully back to normal. So we'll we'll wait to see what happens with that. But that was like a character meal that a lot of people really liked because there's not a lot of opportunities to see the dwarfs in the park and definitely not the evil queen. So right. That is that's a good opportunity. And you know, if you're going to Wilderness Lodge, keep an eye out for that coming back. If you've got kids, they really like that. Yeah. So let's talk about amenities real quick, obviously. So this is a this is a really beautiful resort. Yeah. You know, one amenity that I would talk about is that you know, we mentioned the nooks and crannies in Boulder ridge. There is there are cool places to sit and relax on every floor of Wilderness Lodge on all of those exposed staircases that run around the perimeter of the lobby. There are fun little places all over the place. Right here's another amenity that is kind of unique. You know, every resort has some kind of Christmas decoration. Wilderness Lodge is supposed to be the best and you know a combination of how they decorate it. And the the theming and all of the fireplaces. I know you know following folks online people love Wilderness Lodge at Christmas time. So if you're heading to Disney World at Christmas time, Wilderness Lodge should definitely be at the top of your list. Yeah, those that just I mean any of those decorations are just like beautiful It's like my dream job to get to be one of those like decorator people that get to go and decorate everything. And yeah, every you know every every resort every Park has its own specific kind of decorations. Kind of tailored to that theme. So yeah, I can imagine I've never seen it but I can imagine just based on you know, the theme of Wilderness Lodge that the decorations would be would be beautiful. And there are two poles here as well if you're going at Christmas time you're probably not taking advantage of them. But there is a copper Creek pool and also, you know, a quote unquote quiet pool over a boulder Ridge as well and everything that comes with those and I mean they're pretty standard for Disney World. I mean, we mentioned that the little fake Creek runs into the one pool. Yeah, and there is a water slide as well. The water slide you know if you do have kids that have been on the beach club, water slide or even boardwalk or Polynesian, this one's a little more
So this was our kids were really into it but that was before they found
they found out about the Polynesian waterslide which they're they're obsessed with now yeah but so this one's a little bit more tame but the pools really nice the copper Creek is pretty new and then if you're in to kind of backstory and stuff both resorts have backstory with with information that's spread across both of them so copper Creek and boulder ridge and Wilderness Lodge in general all have a backstory that you can learn about as well and there are some trails to that connect to the campground so that you can you can walk up in that direction if you'd like to run in the morning I mean we when we go to boardwalk we see people running all the time and you know know that people like to do that on vacation so this is a great place to do that
you know there's there's signs everywhere that say to watch out for snakes and alligators, so definitely do that. Yeah, and it's I mean, it's Wilderness Lodge i mean it's it's a more wooded, you know, area so so yeah, that would definitely be something that you may run into. Yeah. So that is going to do it for Wilderness Lodge. When we come back on our next episode, we are going to focus on what do you think is rolling and where should we go next? Um, Polynesian. Oh, Polynesia. See, yeah, one of the two. I don't know. It'll be a gametime decision. I'm leaning towards boardwalk, but that'll be like you said a gametime decision. So we're gonna keep rolling on on kind of our insights on these hotels because we know people are planning trips for the holidays and beyond. And, you know, everybody's waiting for the covid 19 pandemic to end so that we can get back to normal and right. Get back to vacationing the way that everybody likes to vacation. So right. In the meantime, you can follow us on facebook@facebook.com forward slash race on the days or on instagram@instagram.com forward slash raised on the days and then over on iTunes or Apple podcast Feel free to leave us a review you can ask us a question. We're happy to answer it on the air. But we really appreciate everybody spending a half hour with us here on raised on the does have a magical day and have a great big beautiful tomorrow.