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We just got back from a 10 night stay at the Wilderness Lodge. The first night in standard view, remodeled room, the other 9 in a woods view bunk-bed remodeled room. They were on the MK side wing, 5th and 6th floors, respectively.

The first thing I noticed is the entire floor has been redone: new carpet and wall paper with a western theme and which contained Mickey heads.

The new rooms are really nice. The furniture is gorgeous! Medium-dark stained wood with green paint on the flat surfaces and rough hewn trim that is supposed to look like logs. All the furniture now has tree branch handles and accents. And the lighting is all new, still western but it now incorporates the tree branch motif.

The head board is over-sized and contains an elaborate carved western scene. On top of the headboard bed posts are large (10 inch?) carved "wooden" animals (we had a beaver and something else which currently escapes me). In actuality the "wooden" headboard is resin, but it looks realistic. The light switches were built into the bedposts, with a light (and switch) on either side of the bed.

When you walk into the room the little chest of drawers recessed into the wall has been replaced with a taller piece that has 2 drawers on top and a cupboard door on the bottom. This is where the fridge is now stowed, instead of under the sink.

The bathroom now has textured leaf wallpaper (tan). Even the sink area is gorgeous. The corian has been replaced with black granite, and there is now a granite shelf above the sinks, under the mirror. Also, there are wood cubbies under the sinks (one cubby contains the hair dryer, but it has plenty of room to store other stuff). For some reason the sinks are white instead of black, but the brushed nickel faucets make up for this oversight in terms of aesthetics. The mirror matches the furniture, and the light fixture was the branch motif. I have to say that I had fantasies of putting the mirror and light fixture into my bathroom - they were AMAZING!

For some reason the bunk-bed was a hand-me-down from the old rooms. It was pretty scratched up and didn't match the other furniture. I don't know why but the light over the top bunk was gone.

The new plasma television was exposed instead of in a cupboard. It was built into a china cupboard type attachment which rested on the bureau. This allowed easy use of the large surface on top of the bureau - a large improvement in available surface area. Also, since the plasma television and said cupboard were thinner, it opened up the room.

The desk is now square, and has a built in power strip and ethernet port. The light over the desk was also pretty impressive, and even had a dimmer built in.

The night-stand was really nice and followed the theming. The clock radio had a mini-jack cable sticking out the back and had an auxiliary setting. We plugged in an iPod and listened to it over the clock radios speakers. The sound was a little thin - Bose it was not.

BTW, No horrible motion sensor thermostat, there was a real thermostat that really worked!

There were a few drawbacks we noticed. The foyer is still dark, and since the fridge is now located there, lighting in the foyer really matters. As for lighting, the bunk room was a little dark. The standard 2 queen room was better lighted because it had 2 lights over each bed. I hope the bunk lights come back.

Overall the room was awesome. There were more storage areas and flat surfaces and it felt more open (I know having the bunks helped with this). The furniture and light fixtures were drop-dead gorgeous, and the new wallpaper was a quality product. I have to say Disney did a great job with these rooms. Two thumbs up!

by Erik, a Podperson