News Disney Lakeshore Lodge (Project 89 - Development near Fort Wilderness)

[Disgruntled Walt]

Isn’t Fort wilderness like massive, and in the woods?

Pioneer Hall, which is one of the main resort areas for Ft. Wilderness, is directly adjacent to the new hotel.

 

[nickys]

It's literally on top of Pioneer Hall!

True....but considering it is literally on top of Ft Wilderness

Not disagreeing with your points but “literally on top”?

 

[FigmentFan82]

Pioneer Hall, which is the lobby and main resort area for Ft. Wilderness, is directly adjacent to the new hotel.

So the massive campgrounds and cabin areas are fine then, yes?

 

[James Alucobond]

I make no judgements as to the look of Lakeside lodge, some will like it, some won't. But I agree not many people understand why they would position this much larger hotel of totally different theme wedged next to and towering over Pioneer hall. This is the strangest hotel decision ever at WDW. Just makes little sense. They should have at least rebuilt Pioneer hall further away and installed a berm and trees.

I honestly think relative proximity and tower-ization are the result of guest feedback, which has itself shifted due to changes in guest behavior. There are probably more elegant ways for Disney to respond, but if you look at reviews for classic resorts like Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans, many complain that they’re too sprawling, with long walks in various directions for amenities, dining, and transportation. I personally love a sprawling resort because, to me, exploring it is part of the experience (and I like walking anyway), but if you’re trying to blitz the parks every day like many do now, having to factor in a 15-minute trudge with children in tow to the bus stop is negative review fodder.

 

[nickys]

Pioneer Hall, which is the lobby and main resort area for Ft. Wilderness, is directly adjacent to the new hotel.

Pioneer Hall is where they do Hoop De Doo.

It isn’t the resort lobby.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

Pioneer Hall is where they do Hoop De Doo.

It isn’t the resort lobby.

True, fixed my post.

 

[peter11435]

Just drawing a line on a plan and saying it’s different is bad design and incredibly bad experience design.

And yet it’s done all over property where one area or resort becomes another. Obviously the best implementations compliment each other or use appropriate transitional methods. My point was not that the new resort shouldn’t compliment the design of the exiting resorts, but that it shouldn’t mimic them.

 

[Naplesgolfer]

I honestly think relative proximity and tower-ization are the result of guest feedback, which has itself shifted due to changes in guest behavior. There are probably more elegant ways for Disney to respond, but if you look at reviews for classic resorts like Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans, many complain that they’re too sprawling, with long walks in various directions for amenities, dining, and transportation. I personally love a sprawling resort because, to me, exploring it is part of the experience (and I like walking anyway), but if you’re trying to blitz the parks every day like many do now, having to factor in a 15-minute trudge with children in tow to the bus stop is negative review fodder.

I make no call on the resort or its style. I own points at both tower and non tower Disney resorts. But they should have come up with a plan to not impact Pioneer hall. It destroys the placemaking allusion and the theme of fort Wilderness with the proximity of Lakeside lodge. Have you looked at an aerial view? It is beyond a bizarre choice of placement .

 

[James Alucobond]

I make no call on the resort or its style. I own points at both tower and non tower Disney resorts. But they should have come up with a plan to not impact Pioneer hall. It destroys the placemaking allusion and the theme of fort Wilderness with the proximity of Lakeside lodge. Have you looked at an aerial view? It is beyond a bizarre choice of placement .

I’m not saying I like it, I’m just saying that I think you’ll see resorts continue to be taller and pop up closer together unless guest sentiment shifts away from convenience and back toward leisure. Hoop-Dee-Doo itself has lots of complaints that you can find online about accessibility, so there may also be intention here to both ease transport and supply an on-site audience.

 

[Adventureland Veranda]

But this isn't Fort Wilderness, It's lakeshore lodge.

Are you sure it's not LAKESHORE LODGE?

 

[BrianLo]

I’m not saying I like it, I’m just saying that I think you’ll see resorts continue to be taller and pop up closer together unless guest sentiment shifts away from convenience and back toward leisure. Hoop-Dee-Doo itself has lots of complaints that you can find online about accessibility, so there may also be intention here to both ease transport and supply an on-site audience.

In some ways it feels like the future model is Ko Olina or Hong Kong’s approach. People really like the proximity of amenities. It’s also not terribly counter to the lodges always having been the more popular choices with one or two exceptions, this leans into that further.


I personally think they could have done a much better job with what seems like the most phoned in portion of the whole resort visible to Fort. Though barely 15% of the resort seems to even look towards the Fort, the Lakeshore Lodge is pretty inward focused. I don’t know why that revenue section needed to look so bland and flat.

 

[BaymaxFan]

Had Disney built Lakeshore Lodge just slightly to the west and centered it between Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness, it would have drastically fixed the sightlines of the campground.
The resort could've even been built directly next to Wilderness Lodge and they could've had the new A frame cabins continue next to the current Copper Creek cabins.
I have no idea why Disney chose the location that they did, other than maybe a ground issue? Maybe it was the only spot suitable for a giant tower.

When you are a guest camping at Fort Wilderness, you don't notice much of the new resort from within the campground. Once you are anywhere in the settlement area it becomes unavoidable. Campsite wise you can see some of it from the 100-300 loops, in certain areas. But any view of Pioneer Hall (I guess you could consider it the main common area of the resort? Where Hoop Dee Doo and Trails End are located) is so odd looking because you have this relatively short rustic log cabin style building and this gigantic "modern" hotel behind it. The themes clash and it just looks bad.

Something else is pretty much the entire campground is trees. Not much open space. When visiting Tri Circle D Ranch, you leave the "woods" vibe and you're just out in the open. There is a giant parking lot across the street with no shade or anything. They could certainly put some trees there when construction is done but it won't be enough to fix the view.

 

[alexdisney]

Had Disney built Lakeshore Lodge just slightly to the west and centered it between Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness, it would have drastically fixed the sightlines of the campground.
The resort could've even been built directly next to Wilderness Lodge and they could've had the new A frame cabins continue next to the current Copper Creek cabins.
I have no idea why Disney chose the location that they did, other than maybe a ground issue? Maybe it was the only spot suitable for a giant tower.

When you are a guest camping at Fort Wilderness, you don't notice much of the new resort from within the campground. Once you are anywhere in the settlement area it becomes unavoidable. Campsite wise you can see some of it from the 100-300 loops, in certain areas. But any view of Pioneer Hall (I guess you could consider it the main common area of the resort? Where Hoop Dee Doo and Trails End are located) is so odd looking because you have this relatively short rustic log cabin style building and this gigantic "modern" hotel behind it. The themes clash and it just looks bad.

Something else is pretty much the entire campground is trees. Not much open space. When visiting Tri Circle D Ranch, you leave the "woods" vibe and you're just out in the open. There is a giant parking lot across the street with no shade or anything. They could certainly put some trees there when construction is done but it won't be enough to fix the view.

I am going to assume there are reasons they build where they do that nobody but engineers that specialize in this stuff will understand

 

[FigmentFan82]

I am going to assume there are reasons they build where they do that nobody but engineers that specialize in this stuff will understand

I thought some posters here implied they wanted to build over where River Country was, for…reasons.

 

[DJDreamer]

Does anybody else find it odd that Disney seems to not want to publicly talk about or promote this new resort? We’ve been told that it’s scheduled to open next year, but so far we haven’t even seen any ‘updated’ concept art (other than what was originally released back in its ‘Reflections’ days)

Maybe it’s normal or I’ve missed something, but I just think it’s weird that there’s been no public mention of this by Disney, no website page, no posts on any platforms, etc.
Anybody know why they’re not making a bigger deal about promoting this in advance? They’re not usually shy about new projects, especially things this far along.

 

[peter11435]

Does anybody else find it odd that Disney seems to not want to publicly talk about or promote this new resort? We’ve been told that it’s scheduled to open next year, but so far we haven’t even seen any ‘updated’ concept art (other than what was originally released back in its ‘Reflections’ days)

Maybe it’s normal or I’ve missed something, but I just think it’s weird that there’s been no public mention of this by Disney, no website page, no posts on any platforms, etc.
Anybody know why they’re not making a bigger deal about promoting this in advance? They’re not usually shy about new projects, especially things this far along.

This is fairly normal for DVC properties. For a variety of reasons they don’t talk about them much until they are closer to completion.

 

[BrianLo]

Maybe it’s normal or I’ve missed something

I think there was a period of time they were denying Bay Lake Tower was being built (as it was being built).

There’s weirdness around DVC, they really don’t want buyers to be aware and wait.

 

[JD80]

They don't want to create demand for a hotel when they are still trying to sell the last hotel.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I’m really sad they tore up the beach for the lake houses - I used to love looking over the water from Crocketts Tavern or the porch.

 

[aladdin2007]

I’m really sad they tore up the beach for the lake houses - I used to love looking over the water from Crocketts Tavern or the porch.

Agree, and was really saddened today seeing it from the windows in the Contemporary, sprawling monstrosity that just wrecks the entire view and feeling of the whole area from Contemporary to the Lodge. Disney really destroyed this area forever. Its looking like a massive city apartment complex.