Wilderness Lodge Holiday

My husband and I spent three nights at Wilderness Lodge recently.

Day 1 - December 10, 2018 - Arrival Day

We arrived at Wilderness Lodge around 9:30 am. We had already received a message that our room was not ready so we parked the car and went into the resort for some breakfast. We thought about going to Roaring Forks but they didn't list a breakfast sandwich on the menu and I'm not a big fan of scrambled eggs so we went over to Whispering Canyon. They said it would take about 1/2 hour to be seated and it took almost exactly that.

While waiting for breakfast, we wandered around the lobby to see the holiday decorations. We had our picture taken in front of the tree. We also wandered through the gift shop. Once seated, we had our breakfast - eggs benedict for me and an omelet for my husband.

The weather is unusually cold for this time of year. We'll be lucky to get to 60 degrees on this day so we are dressed warmly. With breakfast complete, we head over to the Magic Kingdom by boat. No-one is rushing to sit outside on this day.

The park seems more crowded than we've seen it in quite some time - even more crowded than it had been at the height of the summer vacation season. We have a fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain so head directly there. With that ride completed, it is almost time for our Peter Pan fastpass so we head in that direction. We notice the Liberty Square Riverboat is back at its dock - finally!! However, it is still not in operation. A number of cast members are standing on the lower part of the dock with some pointing to various locations on the boat - seems to be some sort of inspection. Haunted Mansion is "temporarily" down and has been for some time already. We stand nearby for a little bit to see if it reopens. It does not so we move on to take our ride on Peter Pan. As we exit, we note the scrim is finally down around the carousel. I would have taken a ride on it but the line was quite long. We think about going into Philharmagic but notice that a large tour group is getting on line there - plus the line is extending out of the building. Instead, we walk over to the peoplemover. While there is a line, it moves quickly so it doesn't take too long to get on board. The lines for most rides are hovering around the one hour mark - I think It's a Small World was listed at 50 minutes at that point. We still had one more fastpass - for Winnie the Pooh - but that won't be for another hour or so. Given the crowd levels, we opt to leave the Magic Kingdom and have a more relaxed afternoon.

We board the monorail and exit at the first stop - the Contemporary. We go over to the Outer Rim and have drinks there. We haven't stopped at this location for quite some time. We wander around to see the holiday decorations at this location. This year, the gingerbread exhibit is over by the outdoor fireworks viewing area. It's back to the monorail. This time, we exit at the Polynesian. This location seems rather sparsely decorated to me. I remember years ago when they put decorations all along the beams on the second floor but this doesn't happen any more. Our next stop is the Grand Floridian. We have our picture taken in front of the tree here. For the first time ever, we decide to buy some gingerbread goodies from the lobby gingerbread house so we join the long line there. While in line, we are informed they are out of a couple of their usual offerings. I think it takes us about 1/2 to 3/4 hour to get to the front of the line to make our purchases. We head upstairs and order drinks at Mizner's. We are getting ready to return to Wilderness Lodge when we are notified that our room is now ready. We take the monorail back to the Contemporary and then pick up a boat from there to Wilderness Lodge.

Back at our car, we collect our belongings and make the trek to our room and it is certainly a trek. The room we have been assigned in the vacation club villas is at the very end of the hall - about as far away as you can get and remain in the building. I'm now glad we will not be wanting to sit out on our balcony due to the cold weather - we have a view overlooking an array of dirty laundry bins and the large trash bins. I was concerned we would be awoken every morning by backup beepers as service vehicles backed into the space but, fortunately, that did not happen.

Once we settle our things in the room, we put on more layers to protect against the temperatures that will be dipping into the 40s and head out to the bus stop where we board a bus to Disney Springs. We haven't eaten anything since breakfast and we are quite hungry. We try Chef Art Smith's but the wait here is an hour long and there is no room at the bar so we heave over to Maria and Enzo's where we are seated immediately. I have ravioli and my husband, eggplant parm. We are both quite pleased with our choices.

Thus fortified, we head over to Disney's Trail of Trees - our purpose for visiting Disney Springs this evening. As always, we enjoy seeing all of the themed, decorated trees. This year, we see there is a Haunted Mansion themed tree as well as a Star Wars tree. I'm glad we will not be stopping to visit with Santa as the wait is an hour long!! After enjoying the snow and the trees, we make a quick stop into the Disney store. I already know what I want to purchase.

With our purchase in hand, we return to the bus stop and, fortunately, have only a short wait before we are deposited at Wilderness Lodge.