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

Aug 28, 2024 in "Disney Lakeshore Lodge"

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.

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.

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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Disstevefan13 minutes ago

Really???? Admittedly I have not heard the sales pitch in about 15 years, LOL Sincere question. What is today's sales pitch for DVC if its not saving money on resort stays for regular returning guests??

Sirwalterraleigh8 minutes ago

Dvc hasn’t used “saving money” on trips in like 15 years…right when it became no longer valid in realistic terms You can have all the $700 rooms you want. As in they’ll be empty and you can have them all. 🤪 If I recall…you’ve been a long time “if people leave…others will line up to take there place…” advocate? Guess what? You might be the only one left. Even the staunches of dust defenders gave it up quite some time ago. Have you been in the last 5 years? Exactly. They can’t and haven’t been able to for along time. Nobody seems to ever want to look at what’s actually going on behind the curtain? Because if we on a fan board demand to go…we feel better if we hold onto the assumption that EVERYONE wants to go and the good is in short supply… Works for those “sellouts” of the Halloween party 4 days in advance…don’t it? 😎

Basil of Baker Street55 minutes ago

Why would Disney need more cash rooms? They can't fill the ones they have.

Disstevefan11 hour ago

I have no idea. I just assume there will be demand because DVC, saving money on your visits, yada, yada, yada. Maybe there is a DVC strategy making it an equal split initially; this makes the DVC inventory significantly lower, creating an artificial demand for DVC? Then DVC absorbs rooms as they need to? Its an interesting discussion, lets see what happens. Just my opinion, not based on fact, I think the cash nights will be more than $700 a night.

Sirwalterraleigh1 hour ago

Yeah…what makes you think they’re selling what they got?

Disstevefan11 hour ago

LOL, did they announce this on Apr. 1st, LOL. An equal split leaves A LOT of money on the table for DVC!!! They want to sell as many contracts they can!!

Sirwalterraleigh1 hour ago

That’s this whole discussion line It was supposed to be about an equal split…but it was noted that they declared the whole Amount for potential dvc…more or less…

Disstevefan11 hour ago

I presume LL is all DVC and there will be marginal cash rooms too?

Sirwalterraleigh2 hours ago

Riviera is all dvc “Cash rooms” is marginal

HauntedPirate2 hours ago

Oddly, I don't really see any pillars or foundation work for the walkway in the last round of Bioreconstruct photos where the tree houses were planned. Little attention has been paid to that area so it's kind of difficult to read what's going on around there, other than being able to see A-frames along the shore.

Disstevefan12 hours ago

But we discuss anything and everything for no reason at all here. My guess is LL will have cash rooms but my guess is they will cost more than Riviera and probably significantly more.

nickys3 hours ago

They’re not really tree houses. Meant to be along a wooden walkway towards FW, from a few floors up.

Sirwalterraleigh3 hours ago

Business…the illusion that somehow they’re clientele is “growing” when in fact it’s not… Wait a minute…checks numbers…yep…big down and now flat for almost 8 years? Time flies. No…I think dvc has become so heavily relied upon that they have to build to “feed the beast”… Are they selling? How long has Caribbean been for sale? Like 9 years? That’s 90’s stagnation early on kinda timeline They ever gonna sell those trailers at Ft wilderness? And there’s the wilderness lodge example…which plays directly into this build. I hope it’s nice…but it doesn’t make really any sense. Other than just to appear that dvc is much more in demand than it actually is

MaidMarian3 hours ago

Seems like they have scrapped the treehouses. Unless I've missed something in the construction news and they are building them?

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