Disney During COVID- Wilderness Lodge

Wilderness Lodge: This is my third and final stay on Walt Disney Property for a bit. You can check out my other articles about The Vero Beach Resort and The Animal Kingdom Lodge from a few weeks back.

Let me start by saying travel right now is a very personal decision to make. I currently live 2 hours from Orlando and was able to drive there in my own vehicle. I’m not here to encourage you to travel but to just give you an idea about what to expect if you are planning to visit Walt Disney World in the near future.

We visited over the 4th of July weekend. It was a little strange to be away from home on this holiday and have no fireworks but we still had a great time.

As with the other Disney resorts, lots of safety measures are in place. Check-in is mainly virtual, you can check-in via the app and head straight to your room when you arrive. The My Disney Experience app can be used to open your door as well. We stayed in a one-bedroom villa in the Copper Creek area. Wilderness Lodge DVC is comprised of two sections Boulder Ridge and Copper Creek.

The rooms have undergone extra cleaning precautions and are listed in an infographic in the room. Check out my previous posts for more details. We did request extra blankets on this trip and they were wrapped in a plastic bag and dropped in front of our door.

There were lots of socially distant activities to participate in here at the lodge. They had some fun things set up in the reunion station including some worksheets and two scavenger hunts. We completed one scavenger hunt and received a fourth of July button as a reward. The Lodge also always has two hidden Mickey hunts. One for the main area of the resort and the other specifically for Boulder Ridge. Again we received a button for our efforts.

Poolside activities were still happening as well as the movie under the stars. No boat rentals or other water sports were available.

Both pools were open with various hours during our stay. This was a big complaint from our stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge., the only open pool didn’t open until 11 am. Here the Boulder Ridge pool was open from 7 am-11 pm and the main pool with the water slide was open 11 am 9 pm. The pool chairs were all spaced out and masks were NOT required when on the pool deck. With both pools open it felt less crowded and easy to be spaced out from people.

Of note, this resort does not have a traditional pool bar. The quick take away food place next to Geyser Point was closed. You could mobile order from Roaring Fork or get take out from Geyser Point. The other dining restaurant at this resort is the Whispering Canyon Cafe and it was open. We did see lots of people with coolers at the pools. Geyser Point is a great spot to grab a drink or burger in a completely open-air restaurant.

I did use the gym on this trip. Every other machine was unplugged and “closed”. There were plenty of stations of wipes available to clean machines after use. Even the water cooler had individually wrapped disposable cups for use. There were only two other people in the gym when I was there so we had plenty of space to be socially distant.

The staff at Wilderness Lodge were super friendly and happy to have us. If felt pretty regular in that respect. They engaged in conversations with my kids from six feet away. When we looked lost during our Mickey hunt the Cast Members stopped to see what we were looking for. It was a wonderful escape and change of scenery, which honestly is what I love about Disney.

A lot of thought has been put into modifying the Disney experience in the time of COVID. As we slowly venture out I continue to have a glimmer of hope that this won’t last forever.