Family Vacation - Arrival at Disney - Our hotel check in story

After our swim with the manatees and a shower at the hotel we hit the road for Disney.   We were only 1 hour 15 minutes away.   It was a nice drive, but there was heavy traffic (and a young teenager who thought he owned the road because he was in a big, old, beatup pickup and gave me a friendly gesture).

We had reservations to stay at a "moderate resort", specifically Port Orleans French Quarter which is one of Disney's on property resorts.    I had called and made reservations for an ADA (barrier free) room adjoining another with two queens in each a few months before, and our reservation was confirmed and paid in full months before arrival.   

Well, this is a LONG story, but the Readers Digest version is:  they gave away our room, had no record (at the hotel level) of our ADA needs, and made us wait 4 hours until the could find us another ADA room.  The nice people at special requests had made notes each time I called and confirmed they had our reservation entered correctly.  I called 6 or more times because I was following my gut and wanting to have this trip go smoothly, thus felt the need to confirm weekly we were being assigned the right room!   In 2010 when we went to Disney, they goofed it up then, too and put us in three rooms (instead of two) but one of the rooms was around the corner in a different building.    The goal is to have the other Melissa and Linda to help with the kids and Ellie, so I get some true vacation.

When Eric the manager at Port Orleans told me we had no special requests noted, I called special requests directly and spoke to a nice man named Bartholomew (sp?) who confirmed I DID INDEED have an ADA adjoining room booked.  BTW, this all occured after being told by the reservations people that I had to pay the extra money to stay in a moderate as none of the value (cheaper) hotels had a room that suited our needs, they were all booked.

SO, Eric the manager magnamaously stated we were being placed at the Wilderness Lodge and that we wern't being charged the extra for the Deluxe resort.   (Better bet we wern't being charged!)   Linda's flight had arrived and we had more people to take to the new resort than the van would seat, so Eric gave us a voucher for a cab.   I thought it would be fun for the kids and Linda to take the cab, so as soon as we had a room key I sent her on her way to get situated at the Lodge.  

Linda and the kids taxi driver took them to the wrong resort.   He dropped them at the campground instead of the lodge.   Mike, Melissa, Ellie and I had time to finish "playing" with Eric and the reservation snafu, load up Ellie, drive to the other resort, unload Ellie and some luggage, and head to the room to find that Linda and the kids were nowhere to be found.   They ended up showing up 1/2 hour later and had quite an ordeal to share.    Needless to say, our first day at Disney was shot as now it was after 7pm (we got there at 2pm) and we were all frustrated and beat.

Each of the non-ADA rooms had a queen and a set of bunks.   The ADA room had a king.

Hotel Lobby

The lobby has a geyser type bubbler spring which then goes outdoors, down a waterfall, and into the pool.   Pretty cool.

Some of the waterfall rocks outdoors leading to the pool

There is a geyser at the lodge which overlooks Bay Lake.   You take the boardwalk path (above) to the boat landing where you can get a ferry to the Magic Kingdom.

The Wilderness Lodge was very nice.    Now that I have stayed in a value, moderate, and deluxe resort I can offically say  don't waste your money on the deluxe resort unless you need a room with 10 more square feet.    Every room at Disney has been clean, well maintained, comfy pillows and beds, and themed beautifully no matter what category it is in.