As has long been rumored, a new resort has been announced for Walt Disney World. This will be a mixed-use Disney resort (meaning both regular hotel rooms and Disney Vacation Club villas) that rests along the picturesque shoreline of Bay Lake. Physically located between Disney’s Wilderness Lodge complex and the Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, the new nature-inspired resort will have more than 900 hotel rooms and villas.
Disney hotel designers want this new deluxe resort to compliment its natural surroundings.
“Walt Disney World is in the midst of our most significant expansion in the last two decades and the combined 1,700 new hotel rooms and proposed Disney Vacation Club villas we are building at four different resorts will create thousands of new construction and permanent jobs and will drive economic opportunity and incremental revenue for Central Florida,” said George A. Kalogridis, president of Walt Disney World Resort. “We continue to add new attractions, new lands — and these beautiful accommodations will be right in the heart of all that magic.”
The soon-to-be named resort is slated to be Disney’s 16th Disney Vacation Club property and it will continue to build on the value and flexibility of a Disney Vacation Club membership.
“This resort experience will be a celebration of Walt Disney’s lifelong love and respect for nature, with some fun and even surprising accommodation types that families will find irresistible,” said Terri Schultz, senior vice president and general manager of Disney Vacation Club. “It will give our members and guests yet another opportunity to stay in close proximity to all the newest attractions and experiences in our theme parks, and with the flexibility, value and world-class service families expect from Disney.”
The art of selling timeshares is a strange one, Walt Disney World hasn’t finished building its next Disney Vacation Club Resort – The Riviera Resort (which will be on the new Disney Skyliner gondola line) – and it’s already announced the next resort. We’re old enough to remember the days when Bay Lake Tower was already in vertical construction up to at least the 8th floor before Disney officially announced they were building a new DVC resort.
Disney has already announced closures for some Fort Wilderness facilities that will be impacted by the construction (Mickey’s Backyard BBQ and some outbuildings). It’s believed that the Pioneer Hall complex will also receive some updates and TLC as part of this project.
What are your thoughts on the look in the concept art? It’s received some criticism online for looking a bit too cookie cutter, but I feel it will fit in nicely with the forested feel of that part of Walt Disney World. Reminds me a bit of a Colorado Ski Lodge. The devil is in the details, so we shall see.
Construction is expected to take around four years. Other hotel projects currently under construction are the Riviera Resort, which will be Disney’s 15th DVC property and a new tower at Disney’s Coronado Springs resort. Announced, but still awaiting groundbreaking is a Star Wars-themed hotel that will take guests into space for a highly immersive experience.