Is a NEW Hotel Coming to Disney World? Disney Can’t Seem To Make Up Its Mind.

By Lauren Writtenberry 1 Comment

While we all can dream of using Cinderella Castle as a hotel, there are plenty of realistic ways to stay at Disney World.

Cinderella Castle

Today, we want to talk about one that MAY be coming in the future. Let’s rewind 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 a global pandemic happened, and Disney went silent on those plans. That was the last thing we heard about the project until recently.

First, let’s take a closer look at what the hotel was going to be. The deluxe resort was set to be “themed to complement its natural surroundings” on the shoreline of Bay Lake, tucked between Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground. The Lodge was going to have more than 900 rooms and be a new Disney Vacation Club hotel. It was set to open in 2022 — which clearly, it did not.

Reflections Concept Art © Disney

Did we mention it was set to have a Princess and the Frog-themed restaurant? That would have been pretty neat.

Princess and the Frog Restaurant ©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 be used as a staging area for construction at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort — and there is a lot of that going on. Disney is in the process of replacing the cabins at Fort Wilderness with 350 cabins that will be part of the Disney Vacation Club. So, 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 would love to see this become a reality in the future.

Reflections: Wonders of Nature ©Disney

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!