"When Will We Get Another Value or Moderate Resort?" — Disney World Fans React to NEW Hotel Announcement

This has been the year of BIG Disney World announcements.

The newly announced Lakeshore Lodge ©Disney

We finally got more details about the DinoLand, U.S.A. replacement in Animal Kingdom. We learned about a Monsters, Inc. land coming to Hollywood Studios. Magic Kingdom is getting a huge Cars expansion PLUS a Villains-themed land (FINALLY). Disney has NOT been playing around. We also found out about a project that we thought was shelved that has been resurrected: a project now called Lakeshore Lodge. We asked you, our readers, what you thought about it, and you told us!

Here’s a little background on Lakeshore Lodge. This new hotel will be located in the same location — the former location of Disney’s River Country water park — that the previously announced Reflections — A Disney Lakeside Lodge Resort was supposed to be built. Reflections was originally announced in 2019, but construction was halted on it after Disney World’s closure in 2020 due to the global health crisis.

Reflections concept art ©Disney

Lakeshore Lodge will be “inspired by the majesty of nature and its enduring influence on Disney artists” and is expected to open in 2027. The concept art looks a lot like the previous concept art we saw for Reflections. However, when you zoom in on the concept art, you can really see all these nature details, including characters from Bambi!

©Disney

We asked you, our DFB Readers, what you thought about this new hotel, and we got some varied responses to say the least.

Several readers were happy about the new announcement, including reader Jeni who was glad to see the plans resurrected and reader Shawn who said the announcement was “good for us DVC members!”

Disney’s River Country, the former water park on the site ©Disney

However, not everyone was so positive. Reader Leigha lamented that Disney is opening yet another DVC resort, writing “Another DVC resort 🙄 – when will we get another value or moderate resort?” while reader Barb took the opportunity to rail against the modern DVC system overall. They wrote, “Yawn. DVC, once upon a time was $11, 000 with no “home resort” or limited amount of time you could stay. Then Disney got greedy, put limits on time you could stay, jacked up the cost and added the “points” system. Back then you owned it for 99 years then it automatically reverted back to Disney. No forever in the family.”

©Disney Vacation Club

Finally, reader Jamie seemed to play things down the middle. They said they’d “love to see what it’s like” but “until it’s walking distance to Epcot” they’d “keep staying at Beach Club.” Can’t argue with someone who knows what they like!

Beach Club

We’ll be keeping an eye out for more information about Lakeshore Lodge, so stay tuned to DFB for more. If you’d like to participate in these discussions, be sure to follow us on Facebook.

Everything We Know So Far About Walt Disney World’s Lakeshore Lodge

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What do you think about this new hotel? Let us know in the comments!