WL - Deluxe Rooms aka Jr. Suites

I have been OFF World (literally) well OFF all things WDW since my inexcusable experience last September and the complete lack of Guest NO-services, information and assistance which lead up to the collapse of a trip that had been in the planning stage for more than 8 months for my daughters 13th birthday. Now 9 months later I have started to come around, well my daughter has helped me come around to embracing the concept of letting that one bad experience be water under the bridge.

That rant now out of my system I am once again back looking for insight and intel as I have booked a "redo" "make-up" trip for her 14th birthday. No one within my family knows I have done this and they may not know for some time as I do not want to have to face the absolute disappointment that I did when I had to tell her two days before our arrival date all plans are cancelled.

Getting to the point of this post, since the pillaging of the WL resort and cutting it in half for DVC my best evaluation is that where once the WL had 25 Deluxe rooms 15 on the South Wing and 10 on the North Wing, there is now only 10 left all on the North Wing. Is this a correct assumption? If not can someone in the know please enlighten me. I had hoped they would have kept at least the 5 on the south wing where the upper and lower sections come together, but from reading and reviewing and speaking to Guest Services it seems ALL of that wing in now only DVC property.

If there are truly only 10 left then all 10 would be on the end of the North Wing where those have always been. These 10 had obstructed views of Bay Lake and I am wondering since the addition of the Cabins and walkways leading to them are the views to the lake any better?

Has anyone recently been there to visually see this area or stayed in one of these rooms?

Just trying to get the real picture before speaking with what used to be called Itinerary Planning and is now Signature Services... No clue why they would remove onsite personnel that could actually answer site specific questions and put them in a central off site location that is generic at best.....

Anyway, as always I appreciate all insight and information and thank you for your help!!!

I don't have any information for you about that - but I AM dying to know what on earth hapepned last time??

The only Jr Suites left are the 10 on the end afaik. The views on that side have improved for the time being. They took out a lot of the forestry and replanted but those will take a bit to grow.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mom2morgan

I don't have any information for you about that - but I AM dying to know what on earth hapepned last time??

---

Sorry have not logged in till now did not mean to leave you hanging :blush:

I will try to not make this a novel.

As stated this was for my daughters 13th birthday, we were bringing her best friend and staying 10 days. I had absolutely ready as we were staying for the first time in 16+ years at Ft. Wilderness and bring our new 30' Airstream down. As I normally due I knew exactly which loop and site I wanted to stay at and put my request in a month earlier. 10 days out I call Ft Wilderness directly to make sure the notes were in our reservation, but for some reason i could get noone. I went through a laundry list of numbers I had accumulated through the years and personal emails I had for cast members down there and finally got connected all the while I've been watching Hurricane Irma for days to see where she was headed. Well fast forward to 6 days before arrival and Irma has hit Orlando, I have gotten no notification of any changes occurring within the World or Ft. Wilderness so i continue with my plan which also included getting 5 - 5 gallon gas cans, 5 cases of water and such just in case to ensure we made it there and could get back out. I booked the night before at a KOA in Ocala to make sure we only had about 50 or 60 miles to go the day of check in.
Now we are at 5 days till arrival, STILL no notification of any nature from Disney of issues at Ft. Wilderness. I begin calling first thing that morning and get a lot of hemming and hawing on the status of the campground and IF we could come OR relocate us as for this event $$$ did not matter. I escalate things and move up the chain of authority though 9 yes 9 different Managers to finally get a response that Ft Wilderness was closed for between 4 and 5 days which would mean it would be open for arrival date. I get a name and direct call back number and tell Virginia that I will call her in the morning for an update. Now we are at about the 5 to 6 hour mark with phone time at this point.
As promised I call the next morning and get the same answer that yes it looks like we are a go and plan on arriving. We are now 4 days before arrival date.
Skip forward to 3 days and I make my daily calls with Virginia. Still absolutely NO email, phone call, text or smoke signal has been sent from Disney to me concerning this event and IF I had not taken it upon myself to do so then I would be oblivious to all things. NOW is when Virginia informs me that Ft. Wilderness is closed indefinitely and WAIT FOR IT, WAIT FOR IT... there is no availability to move us due to the fact that Disney moved 3 YES 3 Cruise ships of people into Walt Disney World before making sure current guest were handled.......... Add in all the electrical crews, emergency response units and such and we were SOL (to keep this clean). I LOST IT.... especially asking days earlier if we could or should be moved to a different resort. Their best offer was 3 days at Coronado Springs BUT we would still have to tow our Airstream to Florida, leave a $90,000 rig unattended and not connected to shore power so no way to run refrigerators for the food and NO guarantee we would have a place to go to after day 3...
I was told to call back one last time the next day which was 2 days before arrival and see if anything could be done. NOW here is where I know they were manipulating the reservation system as I ask that Virginia look at every resort, DVC site no matter the cost or location and guess what, their reservation system showed 0 ZERO rooms at every single property for every single day... I let her know that was a statistical impossibility as I actually had people I knew down there and talking with front desk personnel at AK lodge and they said off the record they had a small number of rooms available.
End of this sad story is I had to go tell my daughter her birthday trip was off and we could not go. The kicker was that Guest Services acted like they were doing me a favor by refunding me 100%. They never offered to give me some special code for a future trip or any other form of compensation for all of my time and effort wasted.

NOW you know the rest of the story :-o

Lets just hope this trip is not a repeat of the last episode.

VWL Mom,
Thank you as always! I thought this might be the case...
I actually found a girl / young women who posted a video on Youtube of her room about 3 months ago and they were staying in room 3003 at the end and she went out on the balcony and you are right they have removed a great deal of vegetation and thinned the Cyprus trees so you have a much better view of Bay Lake. At the end of the day it is what it is and We will have a great time as always. I just am the relentless planner and why I do things like search for obscure youtube videos just to find a current view from the room. They even installed a fence system between the natural area and the first floor rooms... I am unsure what exact purpose that has as I do not think the WILD bunnies will attack resort guest??? Maybe WereRabbits are more common than I thought :yeti:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Davy Crockett

They even installed a fence system between the natural area and the first floor rooms... I am unsure what exact purpose that has as I do not think the WILD bunnies will attack resort guest??? Maybe WereRabbits are more common than I thought :yeti:

---

I think the fencing is more to keep guests on their side than the animals on the other side. Definitely not strong enough to stop a gator with a mission but maybe a child from wondering from the patio into the swamp. Much has changed with the construction but a lot has stayed the same.

Don't know if you've been since the opening of Geyser Point but it's a nice place to stop for a light lunch (love their bar menu bites) or cocktails, DS26 & GF went down for drinks one night and watched the fireworks from there.

When WL opened in '94 the JS were $299 as compared to the regular room of $199. My boys grew up in the JS until we bought into the villas in 2006. So, I can be a bit partial to WL because for me part of the ambiance is my boys' youth and all our memories there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by VWL Mom

I think the fencing is more to keep guests on their side than the animals on the other side. Definitely not strong enough to stop a gator with a mission but maybe a child from wondering from the patio into the swamp. Much has changed with the construction but a lot has stayed the same.

Don't know if you've been since the opening of Geyser Point but it's a nice place to stop for a light lunch (love their bar menu bites) or cocktails, DS26 & GF went down for drinks one night and watched the fireworks from there.

When WL opened in '94 the JS were $299 as compared to the regular room of $199. My boys grew up in the JS until we bought into the villas in 2006. So, I can be a bit partial to WL because for me part of the ambiance is my boys' youth and all our memories there.

---

Lynn,
I agree I just find it interesting they would run fencing that close, but to keep kids out makes good sense.

Our last stay was June of 16' so they had broken ground and had some framing up but it was not completed. I am looking forward to going and sitting out down there. I will miss the Trout Pass Pool Bar though :( I always enjoyed sitting at the bar having a beverage and being able to watch the kids in the pool at the same time.

Isn't it sad how expensive things have gotten just in 20 years.... I understand completely as all of our daughters experiences since our first visit with her when she was just 3 have been at the WL. Just trying to grab a few more with her before she is grown and off to college. Really looking forward to this trip.

I hope you had a wonderful Mothers Day and really appreciate all of your help!