Disney announces plans to build a nature-inspired resort at Walt Disney World

Oct 18, 2018 in "Reflections - A Lakeside Disney Lodge"

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Nature-Inspired Resort concept art

Posted: Thursday October 18, 2018 2:42pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has today officially announced its new Disney Vacation Club property to be built on Bay Lake between Disney's Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness Resort.

The deluxe resort, which will be themed to complement its natural surroundings, will include more than 900 hotel rooms and proposed Disney Vacation Club villas spread across a variety of unique accommodation types.

“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.

“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.”

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Sectorkeeper7119 days ago

this is exactly what my parents do now. Growing up, it was economical to be able to get APs for the family and then get two trips in one year span on those passes. Now? Forget it. They go for 4-5 days now vs 6-7. 3 or 4 park days vs 6 or 7 back in the day. Hell, on my honeymoon which was on my parents gifted points, the wife and I did 4 park days out of a total of 8 spent there.

ToTBellHop21 days ago

My family watching you from one of the towers:

CastAStone21 days ago

By the way BCV+BRV+BWV is still fewer points than just one SSR.

CastAStone21 days ago

Bingo. OKW will be 65 years old though and will likely meet my friend Mr Bulldozer. If SSR was expiring today, I think they’d bulldoze it too and create an integrated DVC into a new area of Disney Springs, kinda how GCH is more or less integrated into DTD. But will major retail destinations still exist in 2054? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ I also think they’ll bulldoze BW and build something new there; it will buy time as they sell BCV2 and BRV2, but also it will allow them to build a property that actually makes coherent sense, has indoor accessible dining, and is optimized for its absolutely prime location between DHS and Epcot (with significantly bigger rooms, for example). We’ll see, but no one and I mean no one would build BW today the way it’s laid out, it violates like every principle of good design.

Touchdown21 days ago

Shhhhhhh! Some of us enjoy being on the monorail and paying only paying AKL/WL prices.

Tha Realest21 days ago

I don’t know if that’s feasible, or if TWDC wants to invite new voters within the CFTOD

Tha Realest21 days ago

I took a look at the way Disney factors in available rooms. It’s not clear, but the annual reports quantifies “available room nights (in the thousands).” These reports also caveat that this does not include rooms utilized by DVC members. So, what happens when all those contracts expire? Does the room inventory revert back to Disney resorts?

Tha Realest21 days ago

Could Saratoga / OKW be razed/repurposed to a Golden Oak type development?

BrianLo21 days ago

Old Key West will be mostly shifted to 2057. There’s lot of estates they are now acquiring. I assume Vero and Hilton head will be divested. Boulder Ridge is quite small and Beach Club/Boardwalk are quite desirable. They’ll have a lot of points, but plenty of time to sell them. Where they’ve screwed themselves is later on. Saratoga heading directly into Animal Kingdom Lodge AND Old Key West 3 years later. None of those resorts move cash rates well at that level of volume.

Kittlesona21 days ago

This is an interesting point that I’m surprised there isn’t more speculation about. Right now those 2042 resorts are essentially “guaranteed” to be “sold-out.” What the heck are they going to do this all this excess inventory in 2042 when they currently have large sections of various resorts mothballed?

nickys21 days ago

They can’t. People have bought a deeded interest in a specific resort. There are Florida timeshare laws that they have to follow. Now when the 2042 resorts expire they can do what they want with them.

BrianLo21 days ago

We’re still going to need 2-3 more Riviera’s, or 3-5 more Poly Towers or 6-8 more Grand Floridian wing conversions before the DVC train hits the end of the line. There is an end point though! Maybe 2038/39 is the last ‘new’ DVC product.