For our big family trip, we were so fortunate to stay at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge! This is hands down my favorite resort during the Christmas holiday season. I LOVE THE LOBBY! The tree, the garland, the wood…it’s all just perfect! I stopped in for a half hour earlier in December when I was in the area, and literally just sat in this lobby and relaxed.
We were booked in a Nature View Room. This room features 2 queen beds. There is an option for a king bed Nature View Room also. These rooms were very recently renovated and I was super excited to check them out!
This is the view when opening the door to the room:
To the left was our closet area:
There was so much storage space in this closet.
To the right was the bathroom area:
The double sink and mirror were separate from the toilet and shower.
The shower had a rainshower type faucet, as well as a regular faucet.
Also near the closet area was the coffee station.
Underneath was the mini fridge, and to the left was the hair dryer, safe, and more shelves for storage.
View of the 2 queen beds:
Television, drawer storage, 2 chairs with nesting tables that can be moved around:
The view from our balcony:
Overall, I loved the room and my stay here! The location is great for Magic Kingdom, as it’s a quick boat ride away. I love the food options here, the lobby ambiance as I’ve said before, and the outside atmosphere. You forget you are at Disney and think you are at a National Park! I would definitely stay here again. I would love to get into a Copper Creek Cabin with our DVC points sometime!
Welcome to my latest Disney World trip report! This one was a girls only trip that included my mom, my two daughters, my sister-in-law, and my niece. We originally were supposed to take this vacation in May 2020, but we know what happened there…
We were arriving on Friday, and sis-in-law on Saturday.
Our drive to the Philadelphia Airport was quite eventful. Usually I take 76 to the Blue Route and for some reason Waze had other ideas. We went over the river and through the woods, and made it to our parking reservation right on time. We would have been late for sure if we would have gone our usual route! All I could see on those routes was red, red, red. We used Park N Jet on this trip. It was a Groupon and a great value. This is who we typically use so I wasn’t worried. The parking lot was PACKED! They were turning people away if they didn’t have a reservation.
We arrived at the airport around 3:30 p.m. and our flight was to leave at 5:12 p.m. Thankfully, security was a breeze with not too long of a wait. We had not even boarded our flight from Philadelphia, when I received this text. Our room was ready! (Be sure you do online check in in My Disney Experience and you can completely skip the front desk!)
Our flight was on Frontier, and it was packed full! It took forever to board and we actually got off the ground about a half hour late. However, we somehow arrived on time in Orlando, but then had to sit on the runway for 15 minutes. Just a reminder that Disney’s Magical Express no longer handles your luggage. You are responsible for getting it from Baggage Claim, then toting it with you to the Magical Express line. Sometimes this requires you to go from Terminal A to Terminal B.
This is a tradition pic! Every year, we have a picture of Devon trying to touch the sign, or running and jumping trying to touch the sign (down by the Magical Express). This year she didn’t have to jump!
I had been hearing and reading about realllllllly long wait times for Magical Express. This is due in part to less buses running, seating every other row, etc. I was super pleasantly surprised when we arrived and this was the line! THERE WAS NO LINE! This was about 9:00 p.m. on Friday night. I was fully prepared to call for an Uber/Lyft.
Look how empty!
I do want to say, my sis-in-law arrived on Saturday morning and the line was very long. They got a Lyft!
We boarded at 9:10 p.m.
As stated in my previous post from my trip in November, they are assigning seats. They are seating only every other row (at the time of this trip). We did tip the driver once we got off.
We arrived at Old Key West at 9:45 p.m. We were the first stop! They were going to 4 other resorts after our stop. The Bell Services desk is located right at the drop off outside of the lobby. We never even stepped foot inside the lobby!
We had placed an order with Dizzy Dolphin Delivery several weeks ahead of time and it was awaiting us at Bell Services. This resort is huge! Like 5 bus stops huge. So we were extremely thankful that one of the bellman drove us to our room in this golf cart! He also carried everything up to our room for us. We tipped him well!
We were in Room 2420, which was located on the second floor at the Peninsular Road area bus stop. I put in a request for this building because of it’s location. The bus stop at Peninsular Road is the first bus stop. I didn’t want to chance not having a seat by being directly at the Hospitality House. That is the last stop. We did experience passing by a few stops on a few different occasions with the driver letting them know they will have to catch the next bus.
The Deluxe Studios are about 390 square feet, with 2 queen beds. This is the only DVC resort studio that has 2 regular beds. (Not a sofa bed, not a pull down)
It features a table with two chairs and a tiny tv (this is my only complaint!) in the bedroom area.
Between the bedroom area and the bathroom is a little kitchenette area. Here you can find a microwave, toaster, fridge, coffee pot, sink, etc. Some paper products are provided in the room and are individually sealed. There’s also a roll of paper towels under the sink.
The bathroom is on the smaller side, so we just had to stagger our “get ready” times with four females in the room!
There’s a closet with extra bedding, a vacuum, safe, and ironing board.
I had mentioned we ordered from Dizzy Dolphin. I just wanted to mention that they were great! I received a text from them when the goodies were delivered to the resort. It stated very specifically where our items could be located by Bell Services. Everything was packaged with the greatest care and we were extremely pleased.
Besides the muffins pictured above, we also ordered Panera bagels and cream cheese,
these amazing trays from Publix, which come in various sizes, as well as a few other grocery type items.
We had these for breakfast, snacks in the room, and even packed some for snacks in the park. It was perfect for a later evening arrival. We were all starving!
Up next, our first park day…Disney’s Hollywood Studios!
Posted at 11:30 am by taryngirl, on February 15, 2021
11/15/2020
The time had finally come! We were making the move to Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort. This resort is so much fun! It’s inspired by 1950s and 1960s Florida beach resorts, with retro decor and theming all throughout. It features two pools, a lazy river, a bowling alley, and more!
We woke up leisurely at Boulder Ridge Villas, packed up, and headed to the lobby. The plan was to Mobile Order our breakfast, eat in the lobby, and then Lyft to Cabana Bay. One side note about Mobile Order at Wilderness Lodge…it took FOREVER! We waited and waited and there weren’t even that many people there. Anyway, I took at quick screenshot so I could remember how long it took to get from the Disney area to the Universal area because I hear the question asked a lot! The answer on this particular day…about 23 minutes. I also want to note, Lyft and Uber both service this area. You can compare pricing by pulling up each app. Lyft always seems to be cheaper!
We felt super safe, and the app makes it super easy. You can see everything right on the app, you pay, and can add your tip. Our total with tip was $25.32. I had a $6 credit Lyft gave me though, so we paid $19.32. Way cheaper than paying for shuttle transportation, which is generally $20-35 per person one way. Our driver was super Covid conscious. He wore a mask, and had this plastic divider up between the front and back seats. He also had hand sanitizer available.
We arrived around 10:30 a.m. and went into the lobby to check in and get our park tickets. We knew we were early, but they will hold your luggage so you can go to the park. We were lucky and our room was ready! We were given our keys and directed to another counter to get our park tickets. Universal is alittle bit different than Disney as far as tickets go.With Disney, your tickets are either mailed to you if you get ticket only, picked up at will-call (but you can still connect to your account with the confirmation number), or you use a MagicBand that you already have, and the tickets can still be connected to your account.If you have a package, the tickets are already included when you link your resort reservation to your My Disney Experience.
The check in area
At the ticket desk, we presented our email confirmations. They then printed out hard copy tickets for us to use to get into the parks. I highly suggest lanyards when traveling to Universal! You will need your room key and your park tickets, and they are easily accessible if you have a lanyard.
Map of Cabana Bay
Our room was in Building 6–The Americana. If I’m being honest, it was a hike with our luggage to get to our room! The resort is pretty big. We were booked in a standard level room.
Okay, but the retro toiletries!
The room was SUPER CUTE! And very clean. I loved all of the little retro touches…the colors, the toiletries!!, the clock! I thought the theming was great.
Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures 