Disney Day 1: Arrival to the Wilderness Lodge

WARNING: This post is long and photo heavy!

On September 5 we got up at 3am and were out the door by 4. We did our traditional stop for breakfast in Whiteville and then I promptly fell asleep. Boring looooong drive later we are arriving in Orlando right on schedule so we decided to stop at the Disney outlet on I-4 and see if there were any good deals (there were).

However what we thought would be a 5 minute detour ended up a 10mph 45 minute trip through the one road with every school in Orlando on it. Did I mention that it was the end of the school day when we were there? EVERY school had let out at the same time and there were children EVERYWHERE! They were just moseying down the middle of the street!!  Will got super excited when a bunch of what looked like elementary school students looked like they were starting their own version of Fight Club. But alas one of the dozens of crossing guards intervened and we were stuck without entertainment. I am still upset with myself for not taking any pictures, but I was too busy watching what was going out outside our car. I tell you it was unlike anything I had ever seen.

OK so after the outlet store we decided to head on over to Disney. I also didn't take any photos of the entry way this trip so you will have to make due with one from 2010. It still looks the same. Promise.

Arriving to the Wilderness Lodge was the most amazing thing ever! If you ever get a chance to stay there I highly recommend it! The Wilderness Lodge has the cutest Guardhouse ever!

All of the guards were very nice, and it was interesting to see that inside the house was a very homey area for them to work. They had their own microwave, coffeemaker and a water cooler. Just a random musing on my part. It's hard not to be nosy at Disney!

When you arrive at the Wilderness Lodge you feel like you are not in Florida, but you are in the middle of a National Park. You cannot see anything that would suggest that you are in the swamplands of the Southern United States.

 When we arrived at the entrance to the resort we were greeted by a cast member who took us to the check-in desk. We were in room 7127, which is to what I understand one of the greatest rooms on that floor. Only one other standard room has the view that we had. What view you may be asking? This one!

Would you be suprised that we never even used that pool once? Ugh, it's definitely one of my biggest regrets of the trip. Every time we would come back from the park specifically to swim AT THE POOL, I would be changing into my swimsuit and Will would be: "Don't bother it's raining now. They cleared the pool." Seriously, every time. Aaaand here's our view to the left:

Not much to look at here, but you can see the other side of the lodge. The lodge itself is so absolutely massive. I wish we had more time to just explore. The first thing we did after unpacking was head to the lounge for some snacks. I had a coffee and a magic bar. The coffee was good but I just didn't like the magic bar. Will had a Coke and some gummy bears. I swear he is just a big kid.

It was still somewhat early (about 5:30) so we decided to hop on the boat and ride over to the Magic Kingdom. The Wilderness Lodge makes it so easy to get there!

OK y'all seeing as how this post is super long I will end it here and take up tomorrow with our first trip to the Magic Kingdom of this trip!

See Ya Real Soon!