Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Filing Fuels Speculation on New Resort at Disney World

Aug 28, 2024 in "Reflections - A Lakeside Disney Lodge"

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Posted: Wednesday August 28, 2024 12:45pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

A new filing by the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District today adds further weight to speculation that the Reflections resort project at Walt Disney World is about to resume.

In this latest filing, the CFTOD Board is considering a Master Services Agreement with Chen Moore and Associates to install new electrical transformers for servicing what is referred to as "Project S."

In the project brief, the document states, "The purpose of this project is to provide a new transformer service yard, transformer loop, and SCADA monitoring cabinets for a new resort."

This latest development follows Walt Disney Imagineering recently filing a construction permit for what appears to be a new project between Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness Resort. The permit lists multiple locations close to the Copper Creek Cabins at Wilderness Lodge, suggesting that Disney may have plans to add more cabins.

The same Disney contractor, Balfour Beatty, filed a very similar permit in 2019, which was assumed to be for the announced Reflections—A Lakeside Disney Lodge project.

Nature-Inspired Resort concept art

Unveiled by Disney in 2018, Reflections—A Disney Lakeside Lodge was canceled in 2020 amid the pandemic downturn, and the land was mostly returned to its pre-construction state.

It now seems that Disney is returning to this prime piece of land for its next project and that Reflections may be about to make a return in some form. Note that at this time, Disney has yet to make any announcement of a new project in this area.

Aerial view of construction at Reflections - A Disney Lakeside Lodge - March 2020

Back in 2018, Disney said the deluxe resort would be themed to complement its natural surroundings. It would include more than 900 hotel rooms and proposed Disney Vacation Club villas spread across a variety of unique accommodation types. Notably, Reflections also included cabins, which may explain the multiple addresses in the permit.

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mattpeto3 days ago

Oh yeah but they have too many timeshares ending in 2042. They cannot “do nothing” with the inventory and bulldoze or even refurbish starting in 2042.

nickys3 days ago

I doubt they’ll ever try offering extensions to contracts again. OKW was a disaster and it’ll be interesting to see how they handle the “outliers” and how many there turns out to be.

mattpeto3 days ago

I sort of expect Disney to counter with something somewhat risk adverse for the 2042 situation. Think short term extensions on some properties would be my guess.

Fido Chuckwagon3 days ago

They’ll probably just renovate and resell them as “new.” It’s no like the poly buildings were new when they started selling them as DVC.

Fido Chuckwagon3 days ago

The fate of every timeshare located on the ocean.

Indy_UK3 days ago

Surely the likes of OKW and Kidani will just get a large updates and then fresh 50 year contracts sold. It's Hilton Head island and Vero Beach (one of my home resorts :confused: ) That I think will get demolished and the land sold on. I can't see Disney wanting to re-invest in those.

BrianLo4 days ago

We’re in the realm of massive, massive speculation here. But the bugaboo is Boulder and Beach will be flipped and Boardwalk rebuilt. Though Boulder is off on its own so doesn’t really matter per say if they also slow roll that one. Old Key West I’m sure they’ll fire sale the residual 15 year contracts. It might even be the only one for sale for 6-10 months or so as they refurb the one and two that will follow immediately. Likely will have a couple million points there that need to be turned around quickly. Honestly, the far more problematic time they have is Saratoga in 2054 followed by Animal Kingdom and OKW in 2057. Speculatively one or two of those resorts will cease to be. Almost assuredly Old Key West.

nickys4 days ago

The resorts effectively cease to exist at that point. It might be weird especially BWV since it’s the same building. But realistically WDW can’t absorb all those rooms back into the regular Disney Deluxe accommodation. And as the term runs down DVC can’t use maintenance fees to build enough capital reserves for a refurb after the contracts end. If they stick to their 7 year rotation of refurbs then those resorts should be just about due a refurb. So they should be able to schedule all 3 within a couple of years. Whether that’s DVC with a view to relaunch them as new resorts, or WDW - who knows?

ToTBellHop4 days ago

I’m more picturing the visual of BWV and BCV being closed at the same time.

nickys4 days ago

They will not be part of DVC at that point. None of those points will be in the system. What difference will it make? Perhaps they just book the rooms through Disney? But they’ll be in need of a refurb anyway.

ToTBellHop4 days ago

They’ll close BRV, BWV, and BCV at the exact same time? That’ll be a mess.

nickys4 days ago

For OKW you’re correct. Although no one knows how many points there will be expiring in 2042. But since there will be just 15 years to go they could do a fire sale. For the other resorts they’d be either rebuilding or doing a full refurb. They’ll just shutter the resorts until they’re ready.

John park hopper4 days ago

The way they are built in. 50 yrs they will be falling down

SteveAZee4 days ago

I guess my thinking is that there will be a lot of points that they'll need to resell across the resort in 2042 and Disney will need to carry the costs of the annuals dues in the meantime... especially with OKW (large # of points, lots of property and buildings to maintain, staff, etc). You may know the numbers of this better than I do, I'm just speculating.