Visiting the Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World
At the Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World, Silver Creek Falls and the building in the background glisten in the afternoon sun.
The Wilderness Lodge is one of our usual stops when we are at Walt Disney World. But we don’t quite always make it there, since it is a little bit off the beaten path. It is easy to visit the Polynesian Village, Contemporary, and Grand Floridian Resorts since they are all connected by Monorail, so that you can get from one to the next in just a matter of minutes. But there is no direct line to the Wilderness Lodge, meaning you have to work a little harder to get there.
You could always take a bus from Disney Springs or from one of the parks, but that does take some time, depending on how long you have to wait for the bus. Our favorite way to get there is by boat. The Wilderness Lodge is just a short boat ride away from the Contemporary Resort, although as with the bus you may have to wait a little bit for the boat to get there. But for us, a boat ride is much more fun than a bus ride, so the boat is worth waiting for. And on our recent visit, we had a boat pilot that sang the entire time that we were on the boat, so that made it even more enjoyable.
Of course, it is fitting that the Wilderness Lodge is somewhat away from the other Magic Kingdom resorts. After all, it is supposed to be in the wilderness, so the extra effort to get there makes you feel like it is farther away from everything, off in some remote area. Actually, it really isn’t that far away at all, but rather it just isn’t quite as accessible as some of the other hotels are.
Because of the layout of the resort, there are several nice wide-open vistas, such as the one pictured here. The creek/river and waterfall that begins as a spring inside the hotel and runs through the middle of the open space, through the pool area, and out to Bay Lake helps to open up the area a good bit. And it provides some scenic views, too. Such as this one. And of course, a fisheye lens makes it seem even larger, too.
You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. - Psalm 65:11-12
About the Photo
I already mentioned the fisheye lens above, although you could probably already tell that one was used here by the curvature of the otherwise straight light pole on the right. Always interesting to see how the lens bends things like that.
For this one, just some simple processing was done in Photoshop using the Google Nik filters. But just that little bit of work, a few clicks of the mouse, made quite a bit of difference, as you can see from the before-and-after version below. Look at how much difference it made in the sky, as well as in the foreground plants!
Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: June 7, 2016
Location: Wilderness Lodge, Walt Disney World, Florida
