Chapter 37
Into the Woods

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The second resort of our stay was the Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, and we were very excited to move in!

Our bags had been transferred by Disney sometime during the day, and our room was ready when we arrived to check in.

Since check-in for both the regular resort and the DVC resort were in the lobby of the main Wilderness Lodge, we got to check out all the impressive decor.

We looked in to the gift shop before making our way down the walkway toward our room, and we wanted pretty much all of the resort-specific merchandise we could see.

Next, we walked to the Villas portion of the resort (a short stroll).

The lobby of the DVC resort is really pretty as well.

Here’s its birdhouse centerpiece

We went upstairs to our floor.

The only downside of our room location was that it was incredibly far from the lobby, way at the end of one of the hallways. And every time we passed through that hall, the air conditioning was blasting so hard that it made the corridor easily 20 degrees colder than any other part of the resort. We would find ourselves running through the hall whenever we left the room, just to get out of the arctic zone.

Here was our room.

Compared to Bay Lake Tower, there’s no denying that the rooms here looked a little dated. The resort has since undergone some major refurbishments (including a name change to the Boulder Ridge Villas at Wilderness Lodge to separate it from the new Copper Creek section), but when we stayed there, it was clear that it hadn’t been updated much since opening in 2000.

Still, the room was homey, clean, and comfortable, and it was certainly spacious compared to your average hotel room.

Here was the kitchenette.

I always like Disney’s headboards.

After sitting around in our room for a few minutes, we decided to head out and explore the resort. Here’s the hallway of death again.

The elevator door artwork is such a fun touch.

This is a map of our side of the resort, and I appreciated the theming of it to resemble a real lodge.

We went back across the walkway to the main hotel building. Here is the famous fireplace in the Wilderness Lodge lobby.

The ceilings are so high and make the resort feel very grand. Since staying here, we have taken two trips to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and poked around the lodges there that this architecture is based on. Disney did a great job emulating the style of those originals!

We found seats in the lobby and took a load off.

The bridge over the little creek running through the lobby is one of my favorite quaint touches.

We were pretty content just taking it easy tonight.

There are lots of nods to the railroad history of the U.S. in different places around this resort.

I loved the carved totems scattered around the lobby as well. They reminded me of Alaska.

Outside, the resort was very peaceful. All the water features do a great job of making it feel woodsy.

The pool at the main resort was already closed for the night, but the DVC pool still had people in it.

We walked back to our side of the resort.

Inside our lobby, the Carolwood Pacific room pays homage to Walt’s backyard train, and it even has a few cars to look at.

There were several nooks and crannies around this lobby where we could relax for a bit. Near the trains, the movie Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day was playing on the oversized screen, and several people were camped out to watch it.

Our fireplace may not have been as grand as the one in the main lodge, but it was also well-themed and relaxing to sit by.

Here’s just some more of the lobby furniture.

We liked the animals carved into some of the logs holding up the lodge.

Here’s another of those fun elevator doors.

Before turning in for the night, I think we went to our pool. There wasn’t a hot tub on this side of the resort, but the pool itself was kept quite warm. Since this pool didn’t have a lifeguard on duty, it also seemed to have much less strict of hours, and there was no one to kick us out when it was supposed to be closing for the night.

We went back to our room and hit the hay, excited by the prospect of several nights at this resort and the fact that we would have more theme park exploring ahead of us tomorrow!

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