In this post, we review the Old Faithful Club, the Club Level offering at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. If this is the first post of ours you’re reading, there might be two others you’re interested in. First, we have separately reviewed Wilderness Lodge. If you’re looking for information about the hotel generally, you’ll need to read that post.
Second—and maybe more importantly—we have an entirely separate post covering the ins and outs of Club Level at Walt Disney World. If you’re wondering about the details of whats included, whether it’s worth it, and just how we evaluate it broadly, you’ll want to check out that post. This post focuses specifically on the Old Faithful Club Lounge at Wilderness.
Booking Club Level at Wilderness Lodge
Club Level is a special room designation at all the the deluxe resorts at Walt Disney World (and one moderate resort) that includes a variety of perks. If you’re interested in reading about Club Level at the other deluxe resorts, we have reviews here (links open in new tabs):
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kilimanjaro Club Level Review
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort - Royal Palm Club (Main Building) Level Review
Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort - King Kamehameha Club Level Review
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge - Old Faithful Club Level Review (you are here)
Disney’s Coronado Springs (Moderate Resort) - Chronos Club Level Review
We booked our most recent visit to Wilderness Lodge through our go-to travel agent, Lauren Quirk of Travel With Character LLC. We used a 20% off Annual Passholder offer rate, our most common way of booking Club Level (though we prefer when it is 35% off.)
In 2024, standard Club Level rooms at Wilderness Lodge start at $781. This is a premium of $257 over standard rooms at the resort, a typical premium for Club Level at Disney World.
In the past, you’ve sometimes been able to upgrade to club level at check-in at Wilderness for a fixed rate. We’re not sure if this is still offered (and either way it isn’t always offered, but it might be worth looking into).
Wilderness Lodge Club Level Check-In
If you check in at the hotel’s front desk you’ll want to make sure they either give you directions to the lounge or have someone from the lounge come get you (this sometimes happens, sometimes doesn’t). If you use Disney World’s online check in, you can just head to the lounge before or after stopping at your room.
In either case, it’s important to pay a visit to “check in” with the lounge staff once you’re at the hotel. This was they know who you are and have an opportunity to show you around the lounge and give you any welcome information/gifts.
We arrived at about 1PM. Happily, there was no line at the front desk, and either way there was a Cast Member ready to see what people were there for. We told him we were checking into Club Level, and he took us upstairs where we were handed off to a Club Level Cast Member.
This was one of our smoothest check-ins ever. Our room was ready, and the Cast Member was quick to make sure we knew everything we needed to know about the lounge. We’d already told them we had stayed at Wilderness Lodge before, so we surely saved some time avoiding the details about the hotel.
We were also given a business card with the Club Level’s contact information.
The business card is a classy move. I never realized until now that putting the phone number on the welcome letter is silly because people are just going to leave the letter in their rooms. The card also has the hotel address. This isn’t a huge deal at Walt Disney World, but hotel business cards are an old school way to make sure your taxi driver knows where to take you.
Later, we received the welcome letter in our room. The letter was very nicely designed, and the backside listed the daily menus for the hors d’oeuvres serving (posted below). We were also given Wilderness Lodge chocolate bars.
Wilderness Lodge Club Level Perks
Again, our post on Club Level at Walt Disney World more generally is a better place to get a sense of the value of Club Level. Briefly though, by staying Club Level at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, you’ll get:
access to a lounge (The Old Faithful Club Lounge) with five small food and beverage servings throughout the day
access to a dedicated concierge staff, including by phone and text
The first of these is really the most important, and it’s what we focus most on in this review.
As a guest of a deluxe resort at Disney World, you’ll also get all the perks of a Disney stay, like Early Theme Park Entry and transportation to the parks, plus the deluxe-exclusive Extended Evening Hours.
The Old Faithful Club Lounge
The Old Faithful Club Lounge is located on the seventh floor of Wilderness Lodge on the balcony around the lobby.
The lounge and several rooms are separated from the rest of the seventh floor by a Magic Band protected door.
There’s also a carved bear, Humphrey, guarding the entrance.
Most of the lounge seating is located in an area along the northwest side of the building.
Here you’ll find two televisions, seating for thirty-four adults and six children, and the two concierge desks (staffed 7AM to 10PM).
Adjacent to this room is the serving room.
Interestingly, the serving room is usually closed outside of the serving times. If you need something—coffee, water, soda—you’ll have to asked a Cast Member.
This isn’t wholly uncommon across the lounges. Several use ropes to block off the serving area outside serving times, primarily to make it easier for them to clean everything up. This is the first lounge where we’ve seen the room fully closed off with doors, though.
Additional seating for thirteen people is available along the northeast side of the balcony.
The View From The Old Faithful Club Lounge
The main view from the Old Faithful Club Lounge is into the Wilderness Lodge lobby. This is similar to Kilimanjaro Club at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
There are two big differences between this location and Kilimanjaro Club. First of all, the lobby of Wilderness Lodge is nowhere near as noisy. Yes, you can hear conversations because the sound really carries, but you won’t have people playing drums several hours each day.
Second, there are two outdoor balconies at the Old Faithful Club. These look toward Magic Kingdom, although the view is entirely obstructed by trees.
You can watch the Happily Ever After fireworks from this balcony. The music for the show is also played through speakers on the balcony, giving you the full firework experience—minus being able to see Cinderella Castle.
Service at Wilderness Lodge’s Old Faithful Club
The Old Faithful Club staff set themselves apart early. While Disney advertises Club Level guests as receiving pre-trip services, Wilderness Lodge was the only resort where we received an email from the staff ahead of time inquiring about our needs.
It’s possible that had we booked our other stays further out we would have received emails from them, but several of the other stays were booked over a month out, easily enough time to warrant a welcome email.
The staff also treated guests with the “Disney” touch that frankly I think is starting to disappear around Walt Disney World. Service was always with a smile and “welcome home” was an incredibly popular phrase.
On the flip side, Old Faithful Club fell prey to some of the frequent issues we’ve had at Disney’s club lounges. It wasn’t uncommon for dirty dishes to linger, especially during the afternoon serving.
There was also very little proactive service, even during the evening servings. Like some other lounges, though, the alcohol was constantly guarded by a Cast Member who was more than willing to serve you if you approached him.
Included alcohol is what makes club level one of the better hotel options for adults visiting Disney World.
The staff are always a treat when you interact with them, but they’re not really being put in positions to create a truly luxurious experience. Something as simple as assigning a Cast Member to walk the floor every 15 minutes to check on guests and tidy up would go a long way.
Turn-down service came with the traditional Ghirardelli chocolate and a nice card with a Native American proverb.
We also received two itinerary letters. One was the standard Club Level letter we received almost every other trip.
The other was more plain and just listed a dinner reservation we had.
Wilderness Lodge Club Level Servings, Food, and Beverage
The Old Faithful Club has four-and-a-half servings according to the following schedule:
6:30AM to 7:00AM - Coffee
7:00AM to 10:30AM - Continental Breakfast
11:00PM to 4:00PM - Snacks and Refreshments
5:00PM to 7:00PM - Hors D’oeuvres
8:00PM to 10:00PM - Cordials & Desserts
The lounge itself is open 24 hours (due to its open position in the building) though it’s only serviced from 7:00AM to 10:00PM. During those hours, you can request simple alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, and champagne). Old Faithful Club is the only lounge with beer on tap, serving Elysian Avatar and Kona Big Wave.
Throughout the day, coffee, tea, cold beverages, and refrigerated beverages are also available.
Continental Breakfast at the Old Faithful Club (7AM to 10:30AM)
Snacks and Refreshments at the Old Faithful Club (11:00AM to 4:00PM)
Hors D’oeuvres at the Old Faithful Club (5PM to 7PM)
Cordials & Desserts at the Old Faithful Club (8PM to 10PM)
Breaking Down Old Faithful Club’s Price
The premium to book a Club Level room is around $300, unless you luck into a better same-day upgrade price like we’ve seen in the past.
While the lounge and service at Old Faithful are above average, this is a lounge where you’re really going to want to do some “meal math” because actual lounge access isn’t particularly valuable.
Wilderness Lodge is a fantastic space to lounge around in general, with seating on pretty much every floor around the lobby. You don’t need to pay for the lounge just to sit around. It’s a beautiful building, and I wouldn’t want to just hang out in the lounge on any visit.
Non-lounge seating at Wilderness Lodge
Relatedly, the lounge doesn’t offer a great view like Atrium Club or King Kamehameha Club. This really does come down to how much money you can save on food. (As usual, we don’t really see much value in the other perks afforded to club level guests, like trip planning assistance.)
A family of four would need to find about $75 of value nightly per person. That’s a pretty steep price. A couple of adults visiting Disney World would have an even tougher time, needing to find $150 of value per person.
Eating at the club lounges typically helps you save on meal costs (though the servings aren’t true full meals), but you have to ask if you want to come all the way back to Wilderness Lodge for food during your day. Wilderness Lodge is one of the worst deluxe resorts for transportation.
That means you’ll usually have breakfast, leave, and be back for desserts and cordials. You’ll get some value here, but getting to $300 is challenging.
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge - Old Faithful Club - Conclusions
As far as Disney’s club lounges go, Old Faithful Club was one of the most pleasant to spend time at. Much like Wilderness Lodge as a whole, there’s just something comfortable about the aesthetic, space, and design in the lounge.
Old Faithful Club was a unique experience. There were some things we had never seen in a Disney lounge before, like the beer on tap. There were some things that weren’t entirely new, but rare, like the gold-colored themed chocolate bar, the lobby view, and the lovely lounge design.
Old Faithful Club has shortcomings, but for the most part they’re the same things that seem to plague every Disney lounge. To that end, Old Faithful Club is one of the better options if you’re going to stay Club Level at a Disney resort.
Like most things Disney, it comes down to price. A $300 premium is tough for a lounge you might not spend much time at, but if it’s the right sort of trip where you’re just looking for a comfortable, quality lounge to relax in, Old Faithful Club is at least on the shortlist of Disney lounges we’d consider a return trip to.
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