Disney is known for starting grand construction plans and then stopping them without sharing any details as to why.
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Let’s take a trip back to 2019 when Disney announced that they’d be bringing a new hotel to Disney World. It was to be called Reflections — A Disney Lakeside Lodge. Permits were filed and everything, but then Disney went quiet and stopped making any references to this future hotel. Those were the last things we heard about the project until now. So let’s talk about what we’ve recently found out!
We make sure to keep an eye out for recently filed permits for Disney World to get an idea of what sort of work may be going on around the property — here’s what we found this time around.
Reflections — A Disney Lakeside Lodge
A permit extension requested by Disney back in June has been granted for work at the site of Reflections — A Disney Lakeside Lodge. The Lodge was going to have more than 900 rooms and be a new Disney Vacation Club hotel. It was planned to be built in the former home of Disney’s River Country over by Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground, and ultimately, we thought Disney had quietly scrapped this project.
Reflections Concept Art © Disney
However, Disney was recently granted an extension on a permit for work at Reflections. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Disney is going to actually do anything with Reflections or that it is moving forward, it just means they have a little bit of time to decide. Five years more, to be exact.
Reflections ©Disney
The permit is for work on a specific spot that could ultimately be used as a staging area for construction at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort. We still can’t be sure at this time whether or not Reflections — A Lakeside Lodge will ever come back or not, but it seems like a possibility! We’ll be sure to keep you updated with any official announcements made by Disney regarding their plans for Reflections — A Lakeside Lodge, so stay tuned!
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I would have liked Disney to spend the money on this project rather than the now defunct Star Wars hotel or the Polynesian expansion.
Interesting.
so is the site of this anywhere near the cabins at ft wilderness so it could be phase 2 of that? it seems awful like they are going to add more cabins and amenities to make it more of a draw than just the rustic cabins. and that is already on the side of ft wilderness bordering the old river country….
Although I am a DVC member, and I love it, I do wish they’d stop making DVC properties and maybe make some more affordable accommodations for everyone. The ones in Disneyland were needed due to such a lack of options there, but there are a ton of options already at WDW.
I hope they go ahead with Reflections. It’s a great location and the prelim drawings looked awesome.
Since they closed down Mickey’s BBQ to build Reflections, and since Ft. Wilderness no longer has a full service restaurant (other than Hoop De Doo, which is great and we hope doesn’t get cut), we certainly hope that Reflections or something with full service dining will eventually come to that space. It’s very possible, that as you allude to, this is just space to move the old cabins out and the new cabins in at Ft. Wilderness. And we would love to see more focus on more affordable options, rather than another hotel at the Deluxe/DVC price point. Even though our go-to for life is the cabins, it’s just very disappointing to see so much focus on availability and amenities going to the most expensive experiences at Disney.