Disney’s Wilderness Lodge club level review

All about staying at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge club level:

My most recent trip to Disney World I have been calling my “fancy” trip, because we splurged on certain things (check out my review of Takumi-Tei!).

It was our anniversary, and Jason (somehow) is not as big of a Disney fan as I am. So it is a somewhat rare opportunity for me to get him down there, and I wanted to make it special! He also wanted plenty of downtime and the chance to relax, so I knew he wouldn’t be in the theme parks very much.

Because of that, it made sense to do a deluxe resort that would have a lot of amenities right there. And when I came across a nice discount for Wilderness Lodge Club Level, we decided that would be the perfect way to spend our anniversary!

I actually just stayed at Wilderness Lodge for the first time this past February, when we had a 1-bedroom villa through DVC. Wilderness Lodge is really beautiful. It captures the aesthetic of the Pacific Northwest and the beauty of nature. It’s a pretty compact resort and easy to get around. It also has a lovely boat ride over to the Magic Kingdom.

What is club level at Disney?

If you haven’t heard the term before, Club Level is a special room category that you can book at certain deluxe resorts (and Coronado Springs, the only non-deluxe to offer it). It’s a premium option that provides some extra benefits and perks.

These include:

• A lounge with complimentary food and beverage offerings throughout the day
• Fireworks views at select resorts from the lounge and/or rooms
• Planning help before your trip from Disney Signature Services
• Concierge cast members on site to help with any questions or issues

The rooms themselves are typically very similar to a standard room at the resort. I’ve read a few sources that claim the club level rooms are slightly bigger, but I haven’t found any official sources yet to confirm that. At any rate, I’ve found all deluxe standard rooms to be large with plenty of space and that was no exception here.

When you’re paying for Club Level, you’re really paying for the lounge with food and drink, and the concierge cast members. There may also be a few special touches, but like all things Disney this is not to be expected – just an added bonus if it does happen!

Arrival at Wilderness Lodge Club Level

We arrived at Wilderness Lodge at 12:01pm (yes, I know the exact time because I had said to Jason I thought we would get there around noon and he teased me that it was 1 minute after).

Though we hadn’t gotten a text about our room being ready yet, we still went towards the front desk to check in anyway (and check our bags). We were greeted by a very friendly cast member who pointed us towards bell services. 

I mentioned that we were staying club level and at that moment it definitely felt like the red carpet was being rolled out a bit! He immediately said, “Oh, let me call up to the lounge!” We still left our bags with bell services, but he then escorted us upstairs to the Old Faithful Club, where we were transferred to a concierge cast member.

She checked our reservation and noted that the room wasn’t ready yet but would let us know as soon as it was. This cast member was very friendly and made us feel super special. She gave us anniversary buttons, and then led us on a tour of the lounge area, where we were able to hang out and snack until our room was ready.

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Club Level rooms at Wilderness Lodge

As I mentioned earlier, the Wilderness Lodge Club Level rooms are mostly the same as the standard rooms. That means they are super nice! But the rooms themselves aren’t really different.

One thing I did note about our Wilderness Lodge Club Level room – because it was on the top floor, the balcony was not your typical balcony. Instead of a railing, you have more of a concrete half-wall. That means if you’re sitting outside on your balcony you can’t really see much unless you stand up. This might be good or bad depending on what you prefer – you don’t get any views sitting, but it also feels a bit more secluded and private.

(Apparently the below photo is the only one I took of the balcony, during one of the many times it was raining!)

So at the end of the day, the rooms are more or less the same. They are nice, with some subtle Disney themeing, and very spacious. It felt pretty quiet here too. We were facing the pool area, and we could also watch the Electrical Water Pageant from our balcony!

The Old Faithful Club

The lounge at Wilderness Lodge Club Level is called the Old Faithful Club, and it’s on the 7th floor of the resort. Club Level guests can use their magicband, key card, or app to scan into the lounge, which will also lead you to the hallway where the club level rooms are located.

You’ll immediately be greeted by Humphrey, a carved bear who stands over the entrance. Our cast member told us we had to greet Humphrey each time we entered by touching his nose (or as I called it, boop the snoot). And I promise you I did every single time I walked past him.

The rustic yet classy atmosphere of Wilderness Lodge definitely carries over here to the lounge, which is decorated with the same sort of style and decor. There are some neat little details and hidden gems here too, including a model railroad made out of candy? Chocolate? It looked like something edible.

The seating areas of the lounge are open to the lobby, which surprised me a little. The only other Club Level experience I’ve had was at Contemporary Resort, which was much more contained. While you occasionally had noise from Whispering Canyon Cafe below, it wasn’t too bad at all and the views looking down on the lobby are pretty great.

As I was taking some photos and just enjoying the atmosphere, a cast member stopped by and told me how amazing it is at Christmas time. I can only imagine! He described how they put up the Christmas tree. The way he told it, they start at midnight and put it together piece by piece, raising it a bit higher until it’s 60 feet tall, and are done by 4 or 5 am. Just remember that the next time you see a Disney Christmas tree!

There were a number of tables available to use, as well as a few couches and comfy chairs. Some of these were clustered in the main seating area, while others were against the balcony with a view down to the lobby. An area for kids, with smaller chairs/tables and a TV (usually set to Bluey) was there as well.

The Old Faithful Club also has two outdoor balconies which face the Magic Kingdom. In the evenings you can see the fireworks from both of these balconies. While you can’t see the castle, like at the Contemporary, it was still a great view of the fireworks themselves! And they pipe the music in. The one closer to the food area had the better view of the two balconies.

Complimentary food and drink offerings

The food and drink offerings were kept in their own room, which was locked in between serving times. This was a little bit different from the Contemporary, where you could at least access things like bottled water and coffee 24/7. The hours were pretty generous though, so I never really found it a problem.

One thing that was available 24/7, because they kept it out in the hallway? Candy! There were a few jars of candy, including Starbursts and Snickers.

Breakfast

Breakfast is available from 7:00-10:30am, with coffee starting at 6:30am out in the hallway. 

A combination of hot and cold breakfast items were available. Typically for the hot dishes you would have 1 egg dish, 1 breakfast meat, and 1 warm “carb” dish (think waffles or french toast).

They did a nice job creating some variety here too, even with different egg dishes available most mornings. We saw plain scrambled eggs, an egg dish with peppers and onions, cheesy eggs, and an egg white and spinach frittata. The breakfast meat rotated between turkey bacon, regular bacon, and sausage. For the third hot dish, options available during our stay included French Toast sticks, breakfast potatoes, and mini pancakes.

There were some nice cold offerings for breakfast too. Each morning had a small yogurt bar, where you could top your yogurt with berries, granola, raisins, and brown sugar. This area also had hard boiled eggs, smoked salmon, mixed fruit, and swiss oats.

And let’s not forget about breakfast pastries! There were typically 2-3 different pastries available. One was usually a croissant, one was a mini muffin or two, and the third was some type of danish or a cinnamon bun.

That sounds like plenty (and it was!), but they had even more options. Each morning had warm oatmeal, three different types of cold cereal (fruit loops, cornflakes, and raisin bran). You also had some toasters and items like bagels, breads, and English muffins. There were different jams, peanut butter, etc.

Moving on to breakfast beverages! For your hot drinks, of course you had coffee, tea, and hot cocoa. I was pleased to see such a nice selection of teas – they had about 6-7 different types of tea bags to choose from. In addition to milk and creamer, they also offered almond milk.

If you wanted to get a little fancier, there was an espresso machine. So you could just do an espresso, or make a latte or cappuccino. Don’t forget to add a flavor shot if you want! They had about 8 different flavored syrups, including things like vanilla, marshmallow, caramel, and hazelnut. Finally, at the end they had spigots for water, including a sparkling water.

Another nice touch here was the drink of the day! A small sign had a cast member created drink, with the ingredients to re-create it. I thought this was really fun, especially as I never know what to add to my beverages and usually end up being boring and plain, or creating something gross. My favorite was the Honey Bee – espresso, almond milk, honey, and cinnamon.

All of these items were out for all food service periods. I appreciated this, as I often enjoy a cup of tea in the afternoon or evening.

For cold beverages, they had 3 canisters set up with juices. You had a choice between unsweetened iced tea, orange juice, and their special “Geyeser Grog.” The Polynesian might be known for their POG juice, but Wilderness Lodge has a pretty great juice! The Geyeser Grog was cinnamon apple cranberry juice.

The fridge had a few other juices, water, and sodas.

Refreshments

From 11:00am-4:00pm, they had what was called “refreshments” available. These were just basic snacks – if you were looking for lunch, you couldn’t really make a full meal here (though one day when we had an early dinner reservation and I didn’t want to eat too much anyway, I may have had goldfish for lunch).

Some of the items from breakfast were still available during this time, such as the croissants, pastries, and muffins. Cookies were also added, and there was usually fruit as well. The cereal dispensers were replaced with new ones that had snack foods – I mostly remember seeing goldfish and trail mix.

There were a few different types of pre-bagged chips, and a selection of crackers that you could choose from. A small crudite area provided a dip for the crackers that varied each day, and included things like hummus, chipotle dip, and ranch. If you prefer veggies for your dip over crackers, they usually had celery, carrots, and peppers.

Beverages were still the same – you had the juices, coffee, tea, espresso, and water available, plus the items in the fridge. You could absolutely get alcohol if you asked a cast member for it (though you can do this pretty much any time, including breakfast. They even recommended a mimosa with the Geyser Grog!).

Hor D’oeuvres

The hours of 5:00-7:00pm were Hor D’oeuvres, and unlike Refreshments, you absolutely could make a dinner out of this (and we did, twice).

The set-up typically included 2-3 hot dishes, charcuterie and crudite, several small salads, a soup, and rolls.

Though the hot dishes were the main event, they didn’t skimp on the charcuterie or the salad – and these things they also switched up a little each night to make it unique. The crudite seemed to stay the same (and was the same items they had earlier in the day), but they switched up the meats and cheeses for the charcuterie.

They had out 3 small salads each night, which were individually portioned. The first night options were a chicken salad, seasonal vegetable salad, and shrimp Greek salad. The second evening we had black bean and corn succotash, lemon chicken garden salad, and shrimp with cocktail sauce.

The two soups we saw were tomato basil and mushroom soup. Dinner rolls and butter were available as well.

In addition to the soup there were a few other hot items available. The first night this included BBQ chicken and mini corndogs. The second night was what Jason called “the Becky dinner” – it was an assortment of my comfort foods, basically! The Becky dinner consists of chicken tenders and mac and cheese (there were vegetables too). The mac and cheese was amazing. Way better than your typical mac and cheese!

The dinner hour had all the typical beverages from earlier, but it also had alcohol more easily accessible (these were available any time, but prior to 5pm you had to ask a cast member. Starting with the Hor D’ouevres they were placed out and everything was self-pour, except the draft beer).

They had several different types of red wine, several kinds of white wine, and champagne available every evening.

For beer drinkers, there was an assortment of bottled and canned beer in the fridge, but Old Faithful Club also has draft beer! You do have to ask a cast member for draft beer, since the taps are locked. The two available during our stay were the Kentucky Bourbon Ale and the Elysian Space Dust IPA. I had the bourbon ale two or three times and it was excellent. As a craft beer fan I loved having draft beer available.

Cordials and Desserts

And now we have my favorite “meal” of the day: from 8:00-10:00pm every night cordials and desserts were available.

They had quite a lovely dessert spread. This was nice on days we were in the park a bit later and missed the Hor D’oeuvres. We spent a lot of time in the evenings just hanging out in the lounge, getting some dessert and drinks, and watching the fireworks.

They had a lot of dessert offerings, and they were delicious too! Each evening they had two different mini cupcakes. During our 4-night stay we saw:

• Vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting
• Chocolate cupcake with cookie frosting
• Vanilla cupcake with lemon frosting
• Chocolate cupcake with caramel frosting
• Vanilla cupcake with orange frosting
• Chocolate cupcake with cookies and cream frosting
• Vanilla cupcake with vanilla bean frosting
• Chocolate cupcake with mint frosting

They were excellent cupcakes. Not only were the cakes themselves moist and delicious, the true highlight was the frostings. The strawberry one might have been my favorite – it tasted like real strawberries, not that fake strawberry flavor.

Then you typically had 2 other mini desserts. One was a tart of some sort, and one was more of a cream/pudding:

• Lemon curd
• Dark chocolate mousse tart
• Apple pie jar
• S’mores tart
• Pastry cream with marionberry
• Fruit tart
• Caramel chocolate panna cotta
• Dark chocolate tart with raspberry

My favorite was the s’mores tart, but I think Jason liked the lemon curd best.

Each night we always had cookies available (sometimes sugar cookies, sometimes chocolate chip), as well as vanilla ice cream. Chocolate sauce, cherries, and sprinkles were available as ice cream toppings too.

But the real highlight of the desserts at Old Faithful Club was the nightly cobbler! Each evening they had a different fruit cobbler (well, one night it was a bread pudding instead). They were always tasty and it was fun to try so many different flavors. I was impressed that they had so many options!

• Caramel pear cobbler
• Vanilla bread pudding
• Apple cranberry cobbler
• Strawberry peach cobbler

I enjoyed them all, but especially the caramel pear. Even when we’d had a pretty big dinner, I couldn’t resist having some cobbler and vanilla ice cream every night! Vacation life 🙂

But these two hours weren’t just desserts – this was called Cordials and Desserts, after all! All of the drinks that had been out during the Hor D’oeuvres were still available, with the addition of cordials. They had Grand Marnier, Baileys, Kahlua, and Frangelico.

The Concierge team & service

Before we arrived at Wilderness Lodge Club Level, I received an email from the Club Level team. It asked me to reply with an estimated time of arrival, if we had any food allergies, and if we were celebrating anything. They also called the day before we checked in to double check that info. We hadn’t been contacted at all before our Contemporary Club Level stay, and it seemed like a nice yet simple extra step.

The service while we were there was excellent. The cast members were always willing to help and available if you needed it, but they also weren’t in your face about it. Someone was at the desk from 7am-10pm each day, and they had a phone on them so you could call during those hours as well.

The food was constantly replenished, even up until the end of the serving period. For example, around 9:50pm the cobbler was running low, and a cast member still put a new one out even though there was only 10 minutes left. I never felt like I was rushed at all.

One evening the fireworks didn’t happen at the scheduled time due to the weather. I was hanging out in the lounge and witnessed how diligent the cast members were in constantly getting updates from Magic Kingdom, and then coming around to inform everyone of what they knew.

All that being said, technically one of the “perks” of Club Level is a concierge team to help you “plan your visit.” If you are thinking about using this service it’s something you need to be proactive about – they aren’t going to reach out to you when you book asking if you want help.

You can call for assistance – I didn’t do this as I didn’t really need any help planning, but from what I’ve read it doesn’t seem like it’s all that much different from just regular cast member guest services. It also seems like most things you can do yourself.

They do not have any special access to dining reservations or Lightning Lanes, or anything like that. You can ask them to make your dining reservations for you, but they will not start until later in the morning – so if there’s something you really want, you’re better off doing it yourself. You can ask for room requests, but you can also do that for any Disney resort stay.

I suppose if you have a lot of questions, it could be beneficial. You are able to call the Signature Services line, which usually has a much shorter hold time. And I would hope that they would be very knowledgable about all things Disney (though I’ve found with CMs on the phone, that’s never a guarantee).

Extra magic touches

An important motto with anything Disney related is this: don’t expect any extra magic touches or pixie dust.

Disney often will go out of their way to make your trip special and memorable. But it’s not a requirement, and people who go into it expecting free stuff or extra perks… honestly, I don’t feel like they are truly enjoying the magic of Disney that way. Unexpected magic is way better than feeling entitled to it.

So even though it was our anniversary, I wasn’t expecting anything. I’d read there was often a welcome gift for all Club Level guests, but I wasn’t even expecting that (we didn’t get anything when we stayed Club Level at Contemporary).

The cast member we first met at the Old Faithful Club had anniversary buttons already waiting for us, and that was a lovely surprise! Just that small gesture made it all feel just a little bit more special.

Once we did get into the room, there were a few items waiting for us! We had a welcome sign, a letter about the hours of the Club, and a chocolate totem pole.

It was very sweet (literally!) to get a little welcome gift. After I took a few pictures of it, Jason basically devoured the totem pole. I then told him I had read other Wilderness Lodge club level reviews of people who said they couldn’t bring themselves to eat it because it was too cute. I believe his response to that was “huh,” with his mouth full of chocolate.

Several days later it was our anniversary, and we were out at the parks during the day and had an early dinner at 1900 Pare Fare in the evening. When we returned back to our room around 6pm, there was a gift waiting for us!

It was from Mickey and Minnie, of course, and there were some balloons – one of these was an anniversary balloon. This was accompanied by a congratulations photo of Mickey and Minnie, a picture holder, a box of chocolates, a pin, and two wine glasses!

I was blown away, I think I almost cried. It was sweet of them to do anything at all to recognize our anniversary, but this really felt above and beyond. I was checking for a card and a name, thinking it was from someone we knew who had paid for it. Surely, I thought, someone had paid decent money for an in-room gift – there’s no way we’d get all this for free! But that’s the magic of Disney.

And though the chocolate may be gone, the rest of the items are wonderful keepsakes that will remind me for years to come of our anniversary, this gift, and why Disney is such a special place for me.

Is it worth the price?

Like anything Disney, worth is all relative. Budgets are different, and how we allocate our money is different from person to person. We are blessed to be able to go to Disney at all, and I try not to take that for granted. I do work hard for extra fun money, so I look at it from that perspective. Is this how I want to use my spending money?

The first thing to look at, of course, is the cost. We traveled during September, which is already one of the cheapest times of the year to go. Even with that, Wilderness Lodge is a deluxe resort. Looking at a similar timeframe for next year, if you wanted to book a standard room at Wilderness Lodge (no discounts, just rack rate), let’s say it’s around an average of $500 per night.

For a Wilderness Lodge Club Level room the same dates, you’re looking at about an average of $750 per night.

That’s a $250 per night upcharge, so it’s quite a large amount. Keep in mind that discounts are often available for slower times of the year, and that can include Club Level (I got a really nice discount for our stay with my annual pass). I think I paid just under $2,000 total for 4 nights, so it was really around $500 per night.

It’s a lot of money, and I don’t think it’s the sort of thing I will do (or be able to do) very often.

With one of the main “perks” being the food, it’s interesting that you don’t have a per person charge but a room charge. So as a solo traveler it would never really make sense for me to stay Club Level.

I could see the most “value” for a family or group of 4 who will be around the resort a lot. Let’s say a hot breakfast will be around $15 per person, that’s $60 there. Come back in the early evening and you’ve got a nice dinner (if you did table service, even a cheap one for 4 people, that’s over $100). Get mom and dad a few alcoholic beverages, stock up on bottled water and pre-packaged snacks, and I think you can make back your $250 in food if that’s what you want to do.

During this trip, Jason came into the parks with me for 2 out of the 5 days we were there. I visited the parks by myself for 2 of those days, coming back in the early evening. It was a perfect solution when Jason wanted to relax more, and we were both planning to spend the evenings at the resort.

But if I was doing my typical strategy of rope drop, long afternoon break, and then back to the parks in the early evening, I lose most of the lounge perks (particularly hor d’ouevres and dessert).

There’s also the atmosphere, the service, and just something to make the trip feel a little more magical. I can add up how many glasses of champagne I drank (let’s not do that though) and I can calculate how much that’s “worth.” But there’s also something really valuable for me to be able to sip a glass of champagne, watch the fireworks, and then go back to our room and not have to fight the Magic Kingdom crowds.

I would probably consider Club Level again if:

• I was taking a special occasion trip
• I’m with people who don’t have park tickets or we’re planning a lot of downtime
• There were 2-3 other adults I liked well enough to share a standard room with, and we were splitting the cost
• It’s a time when I know I will enjoy the open bar (so probably not during a race weekend)

So as long as I am financially fortunate enough to be able to do so, Club Level is probably a “once every 4-5 years” sort of thing for me. But it certainly made for an amazing experience!