Day 20: Ain't Nothin' Like the Great Outdoors

  Orlando, Florida, United States
Wednesday, August 9, 2006

05 - Wilderness Lodge

Today I woke up at 9:30 and had cereal for breakfast. When I got up mom and dad were again sitting out by the pool, so when I was done with breakfast I sat in the living room and watched TV for a while. When mom and dad came back in, mom went to get ready in her bathroom while I got ready in mine, and by the time I was done showering and getting dressed, both mom and dad were done and ready to go. Our plans for today were to explore the Wilderness Lodge during the day since it was the only deluxe resort that we hadn't yet visited and then head back to Universal Studios at night. Mike wasn't at all interested in walking around the Wilderness Lodge (what else is new?) so mom woke him up and he got ready before we left for the resort at 12:15.

08 - Wilderness Lodge

Dad wanted to head over to EB Games to pick up the game that he had ordered the day before, but I wanted to make it to the Wilderness Lodge by 1:00. The Wilderness Lodge has a geyser near the pool that erupts every hour on the hour and I really wanted to see it. If we didn't make it to the resort by 1:00 we would have to wait around until 2:00, which none of us wanted to do. We decided to head over to the Wilderness Lodge first to make sure that we made it by 1:00, and then we would drive over to EB Games. We made it to the Wilderness Lodge by 12:35, which I thought was cutting it close since we had no idea where the geyser was. We parked and headed inside, stopping to take a picture of two bird topiaries by the front of the parking lot. We headed into the lobby and wow... the lobby here is HUGE! I had never before seen a lobby so big. I had seen countless pictures and heard from other people many, many times that the lobby here is amazing, but none of the hype did it justice. I'm not into the wilderness theme of the lodge but I really loved the lobby. It just took my breath away.

13 - Wilderness Lodge

We walked around the lobby for a while, stopping in the gift shop to look around. First I had to take a picture by the big Disney totem pole, though! The gift shop featured a lot of wilderness and nature themed items which none of us are really into. I loved how the gift shops in each Disney resort really correlated to the theme, offering not only Disney souvenirs but also souvenirs that dealt with the theme of the hotel. Very cool. Mom took her time looking around while dad and I went out the side entrance of the store to look at a map of the grounds. We saw that the geyser was all the way in the back of the resort and not knowing how big the grounds of the resort were, we found mom and left out of the back entrance. As soon as we went outside we were by the pool. It was cool that the pool was so close to the lobby but it made the grounds seem kind of cramped. No problem, though, we just walked on by and made our way to the back of the resort. No more than two minutes later, we were standing by the geyser. Needless to say, the grounds of the Wilderness Lodge aren't very extensive. The geyser wasn't set to go off for another ten minutes so after taking some pictures we decided to walk through a small trail to the boat dock. It was a nice walk and it was more like a marsh than anything, with lots of allergy and wooden planks floating around.

25 - Wilderness Lodge

At 12:55 we made our way back to the site of the geyser and it was really, really hot out. No biggie, we would just see the geyser and leave. We waited and waited and waited. 1:00 came and went, and at ten-after we were still just standing around with a handful of other people. I didn't want to leave since I knew that as soon as we left the thing would go off! Mom got frustrated and hot and left, saying that we should meet her in the lobby. I wasn't leaving! Finally, a good twenty-minutes off schedule, the geyser went off. It took a few minutes for the thing to build up power but it was soon squirting water a good fifty feet in the air. I'll admit it was slightly anticlimactic, but it was still cool and something I had wanted to see. After a few minutes of watching the geyser dad and I made our way back to the lobby, stopping only to take a picture of the babbling brook and waterfall in front of the resort. It was really pretty. When we got inside mom was nowhere to be seen. We looked all over for her but we just couldn't find her. We looked in the gift shop before walking around the lobby, and then I tried calling her cell phone. The first few attempts were unsuccessful since the reception in the lobby was bad, but I finally got through to her and found out that she was in a different part of the lobby.

44 - Wilderness Lodge

Mom met dad and I in the back of the lobby and we took a few pictures. I took a picture of dad in a big rocking chair, and of mom and dad on the small bridge that leads across the stream that starts in the lobby and ends all the way out in the courtyard by the pool. The sun was reflecting off the windows, though, so you can only see an outline of mom and dad in the picture. It still came out pretty cool. Mom wanted to get coffee so we decided to make our way over to Roaring Forks, the Wilderness Lodge food court. On the way we got stopped by the Disney Vacation Club representative who had seen my Brooklyn College shirt. He asked if we were from Brooklyn and when we said yes he asked if we knew his friends "Freddy Four Fingers" and "Willy Whacked." Haha, very funny. This guy had the STRONGEST Brooklyn accent ever so we were surprised to fine out that he was from all the way up in Rochester, New York. He said that he and his wife had moved down to Florida a few years ago and he loved it, but his wife wanted to move back to New York. He said he'd never leave Florida, though, so he hoped she had fun when she moved back on her own, haha! He was a really fun guy! This guy kept us in the area for a good twenty minutes. He just wouldn't stop talking! He told us about how he used to drive down to Florida from New York but that he didn't have the patience to do it anymore, and he told us that he didn't know why he was overweight... he has eaten twenty Subway sandwiches like Jared had told him but he hadn't lost a pound. Haha! He was actually really funny and he kept calling me, "Brooklyn." He was a great guy and we were happy to have met him.

54 - Wilderness Lodge

We eventually continued on our way and found Roaring Forks. Mom and dad were only going to get coffee but we saw that they had HUGE brownies and we wanted to try one. We picked out two coffees, bottled water, a brownie and three Mickey head-shaped bendy straws. We ate at a table in the back of the small food court and the brownie was good. It was more like chocolate cake than a brownie, but it was still good. When we were done eating we made our way back to the main part of the lobby, stopping to go to the bathroom up a big ramp by the Artist Point restaurant. When mom and I got out dad was sitting in the next door closed and completely empty lounge, so I had to get a picture!

56 - Wilderness Lodge

On our way back to the lobby we were again stopped by the guy at the Disney Vacation Club desk. He was giving some kids a sticker each when he called "Brooklyn! Come over here!" I went over to him and he gave me a whole roll of stickers, all of which featured Minnie and Mickey at the different Disney Vacation Club resorts! They were so cute! I thanked him and said it was great to meet him, and mom, dad and I headed out of the resort. We first stopped to take a few more pictures in the lobby, specifically of mom and dad in front of the HUGE five-story tall fireplace and of the lobby itself. I didn't fall in love with the Wilderness Lodge as much as I loved Port Orleans Riverside and the Polynesian Resort but it was definitely gorgeous. I'm not really into the whole wilderness theme but if I'm ever at Disney during the holiday season I wouldn't consider staying anywhere else. It really reminded me of the huge ski lodges and resorts in upstate New York and I can't imagine how magical it would be to cuddle up on the big wooden rocking chairs in front of the huge fireplace on a chilly December night, surrounded by Christmas decorations. Perfection!

64 - Wilderness Lodge

We left Disney property and headed all the way down Route 192 to EB Games. Dad ran in to pick up the game he had ordered the day before and we were back at the house by 3:00. Mike wasn't feeling well at the time. He kept getting dizzy and said that the room was spinning. I told him that it was probably due to the fact that he had been going to sleep really, really late but he said that he was getting enough sleep. I know that I get dizzy when I'm exhausted as it had happened on the first day of our trip both this year and last year. We spent the afternoon lounging around the house, relaxing and just hanging out. Mike laid on the couch and watched TV since he still wasn't feeling well. We decided to head out for dinner at 5:30. We wanted to go to Margaritaville one more time before we left so we drove over to Universal Studios. We parked and made our way over to CityWalk, keeping to the left as we headed towards Margaritaville right next to Islands of Adventure.

79 - Hanging Out in the House

We didn't have a priority seating so we were worried about having a long wait but we were seated right away. As usual we were told the name of our female waitress but the waiter actually turned out to be a guy; a very cute one at that. Every single time we've eaten at Margaritaville we've been given the name of a waiter who wasn't actually our waiter. It was pretty funny! We ordered our food and it arrived in no time. We got the Volcano Nachos to start since they're the best nachos ever and we can't eat at Margaritaville without getting the nachos. This time our plate of nachos was even bigger than it had been the week before! I wish I had taken a picture but I didn't. Mom and I shared the conch fritter appetizer since they had been so good the week before and the Caribbean Chicken Salad. The Caribbean Chicken Salad consisted of mixed greens tossed with mangoes, sugared pecans, tomatoes, cucumbers and Herbano-mango ranch dressing topped with grilled chicken. This was the best salad EVER! The salad dressing was to die for, and the mixture of the tangy mangoes and sweet pecans was amazing. It was absolutely delicious! This time we didn't really like the conch fritters, though, since they were really spicy. They were good but they actually hurt going down. Dad got a pulled pork sandwich and Mike got a Caesar salad. They both liked their food as much as mom and I loved ours. I love Margaritaville, it just can't be beat!

82 - Driving to Universal Studios

When we were done eating dad left our waiter a really big tip since he had been a great waiter, and we went into the gift shop. I wanted to get a Margaritaville t-shirt but they were all petty expensive and we would only get a 10% discount here. I decided to skip it and we headed out into CityWalk. Our plans had been to go to Universal Studios today, but Mike still wasn't feeling well and he didn't want to walk around in the heat. All I had wanted to do was get an ET t-shirt in the ET Adventure gift shop, but I figured I could just pick it up the next day. No biggie. Before we left CityWalk, though, we decided to go into the big Universal Studios store that was located by the entrance to CityWalk. They didn't have any ET shirts but they had a really nice Universal Studios photo album for only $10. It held 200 pictures instead of the 100 pictures the Target picture frame held, and this one had an area to write captions near the pictures. Perfect! Mom also picked up a set of Universal Studios salt and pepper shakers, and we picked out two more little pre-packed washcloths that expand in the water - one with Spongebob and one with Thing One and Thing Two.

On our way out of CityWalk we stopped at Cinnabon and got Mike a big Cinnabon since they always seem to make him feel better! We then headed back to the house and were there by 7:30. We hung out and watched "So You Think You Can Dance" at 8:00. Mike ate his Cinnabon and started to feel a little better. Those Cinnabons are GOLD! We made it an early night and everyone was pretty much in bed by 10:00. I finished "Their Eyes Were Watching God" before falling asleep at midnight.