The public areas of the hotel are good, great pool and magnificent lobby.

The bedrooms let the hotel down and are not what you would expect from what Disney calls a "Luxury resort". For a start the rooms are small and cramped. There was no bedside table on my side of the bed and I had to drag over one of the chairs to use. The rooms are little better than a motel.

The bathroom is also small and cramped and the toiletries are nothing great. Service in the hotel wasn't particularly great either.

If you want to stop on Disney property then this hotel is probably an okay choice, but you will get a much better standard of accomodation for your money if you go off-site.

My family and I stayed at the Wilderness Lodge for 3 nights beginning Sept 29, 2004. This hotel is magnificent. Our accomodations were rescheduled due to Hurricane Jeanne. Our room had plenty of space for 3 adults and one child. The bathrooms were clean, towels neat, bed tidy. We had a woods view which was awesome. We felt as if we were in the Western part of the US. We had a private balcony, double sink, hair dryer, color tv and two chairs and table to relax in the room. The lobby was breathtaking! The totem polls, plenty of sitting areas and the bubbling brook/stream from inside the lobby which dumps into the pool is beautiful. I will be back with my family! This was my first stay inside the theme park and I will never stay outside the Disney resorts again! The maids were timely and the bell & concierge staff was friendly and helpful with questions about getting transportation to and from the hotel. The ferry boat ride was fabulous during the day. The night ferry boat ride was spectacular because the captain stopped for all of us to enjoy the fire works! Disney ROCKS!

We stayed in this lodge for one week in August and had a great time. It was our first trip to Mickey's world so before going I poured over this web site and books to decide where to stay. Despite what previous reviewers have said about their favorite hotels, WDW uses formulas, they are basically very similar. The key to happiness in Mickey's world is to remember that all of the hotels are illusions-the Grand Floridian is a pretend upscale hotel, the Wilderness lodge is a pretend woodsy lodge, etc-so there are not huge differences across the hotels within category-base the decision on where you (or your kids) think it would be most fun to pretend to be-tropics, africa, etc. None, for instance, are as upscale as you might expect given the cost-none triple sheet, for instance-- if you want the real upscale hotel simulated by the Grand Floridian you should try the JW Marriott a few miles away-For theme-ing though, the onsite hotels are great-- the Wilderness, Animal, Polynesian, etc. . We stayed for half the trip here and half off site. We visited almost all the on site hotels. On site advantages include wonderfully themed lobbies (rooms tend to be ho hum) earlier openings to the parks, free delivery service of purchases to the hotel, easy mobility between parks and hotels (none of the buses. boats, monorails take much time), high kid-friendliness, wonderful pools. Also, if you purchase a plastic drink cup at the start of your visit in the hotel, you can have free (soft drinks/coffee/cocoa) refills (at your particular lodge-not others) for the duration. On the minus side, the WDW is designed to ensure that all your money stays with Disney-you are sort of trapped-staff do not happily inform you about resources/stores/services outside WDW (bring your own liquor). And, if you are used to the JW or Ritz, this is not that. At the Wilderness, the food selection was limited and, except for the cafe, was hardy. We found that the delux hotels tended to have a cafe, an expensive restaurant and a more relaxed restaurant specializing in food matched to theme one price "all you can eat" sort of fare (not great if you tend to split entres, as we do). The pool was wonderful but we also pool hopped (not endorsed by WDW) and found some of the others to be even better. Some of the moderately priced hotels (not deluxe) had better food selection and food courts-better for small eaters. Another key is to BARTER ALWAYS-when you make the reservation and once you arrive (do you have anything nicer for that price?)-even later if you want to move up (we'd like to move to the court yard pool view?). Look at a guide book for hints about the best rooms in a given hotel. When you arrive, ask if they can move you up (or over) Depending upon who you get and how patient they are, you can end up with a highly desirable view at a lower price. We ended up with a nice view but, in reality, we only looked at the view a few times the entire week-how much was that worth? Also, try to book tickets before you go-once you are on property they've gottha and discounts are scarce.-unless you are computer equipped.

I notice that some folks complain about long waits for boat rides to the Park. I suggest taking the boat to the Contempary 1st from the Wilderness Lodge, then catch the mono to the Magic Kingdom. Come on, you're in Disney! We never had problems with a long wait this way. This hotel is fabulous, our kids loved it. If you think the rooms are too small, you have not been out and about enough. Spend a day at the Magic Kingdom or Epcot and you will welcome the cozy and cool room, with bunk beds for the kids. The kids will pass out before their heads hit the pillow, and mom and dad can catch up on some zzzz's or watch a little TV before pulling the shades for an afternoon slumber; dark and cool, with the soft sounds of your little ones purring away. Don't you just love Disney!