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

[BrianLo]

My fear is that the Settlement will be taken away from Fort Wilderness and given to this new resort.

I meant DVC structural sales issues from my comment. Which is hard to parse what I meant very fairly.

How do you “take away” the Settlement and give it to Lakeshore Lodge? First of all it’s physically outside the boundaries of the project in the image. Even still, you think it will be gatekept so that Fort Wilderness campers can’t go into it? That’s rather without precedent.

If you mean it’s going to be busier, definitely. But there will be lakeshore stuff for the campers to also go into now. A deficit could be not enough facilities for Lakeshore Lodge and they need to rely heavily on Fort Wilderness, but that also doesn’t empirically seem to be the case. The table service and quick service are rather large. There is dedicated bus terminals and boat launch.

The pool area I think will be the opposite problem, no Lakeshore lodge people will want out and all the Fort Wilderness into it.

 

[dseepersad]

I meant DVC structural sales issues from my comment. Which is hard to parse what I meant very fairly.

How do you “take away” the Settlement and give it to Lakeshore Lodge? First of all it’s physically outside the boundaries of the project in the image. Even still, you think it will be gatekept so that Fort Wilderness campers can’t go into it? That’s rather without precedent.

If you mean it’s going to be busier, definitely. But there will be lakeshore stuff for the campers to also go into now. A deficit could be not enough facilities for Lakeshore Lodge and they need to rely heavily on Fort Wilderness, but that also doesn’t empirically seem to be the case. The table service and quick service are rather large. There is dedicated bus terminals and boat launch.

The pool area I think will be the opposite problem, no Lakeshore lodge people will want out and all the Fort Wilderness into it.

They have already taken Clementine's Beach away from Fort Wilderness, I guess I'm just cynical when it comes to Disney and their "plans" these days. Also, I saw that there is a "limit of construction" circle between the Trading Post and Pioneer Hall, that is the location of one the playgrounds, I wonder why it is marked on the plans.

I hope the FW folk will be respectful of the no pool hopping rule, but I also know that pool hopping happens at most resorts.

I wonder how things are going to be handled for Halloween and Christmas, FW goes into hard lockdown during those times and no one can enter the resort without a reservation to dine, stay or play.

 

[BrianLo]

I wonder how things are going to be handled for Halloween and Christmas, FW goes into hard lockdown during those times and no one can enter the resort without a reservation to dine, stay or play.

The biggest outstanding issue in my eyes is the new Fort Wilderness Cabins with DVC. They open a whole can of worms if they try and blend those together with Lakeshore. Those cabins are deeded to the resort.

You can’t gate keep anything and pretend it’s two different resorts when the DVC product blends them together.

So that’s I guess the mistake I’m waiting for. And hoping they don’t carry through.

 

[nickys]

Pool area looks fantastic. The three cabin configs remain consistent with old Reflections plans. Generally speaking they messed up the cabin to regular room mix on Poly and Copper Creek.

Not only are there less of these units than Cabins or Bungalows (though you could be right on lock offs), there are definitely more overall units to drown them out. Plus having three different types will likely drive a much stronger sense of scarcity than the bungalows or cabins have ever generated.

Generally speaking the lux villas aren’t a bad thing, they are points hogs and drive down everyone else’s fees. But they are bad when there are too many.

DVC has made many missteps with almost every build so far and I’m still waiting eagerly to find out what the mistake is here. I’m not seeing it clearly yet.

We don’t know how the different room types will be split between DVC and non-DVC yet. It seems likely that the cabins will be DVC, but if that is the case and most of the DVC rooms in the main building are studios, that replicates the mistake at CCV and the Poly.

I also don’t see any clear info yet about the A-frame cabins. Which are they in the plans? Are they the ones @lentesta suggested could be the lock-offs?

 

[BrianLo]

I also don’t see any clear info yet about the A-frame cabins. Which are they in the plans? Are they the ones @lentesta suggested could be the lock-offs?

Those are the 8 ones on the left side of the image. The treetops cabins are on the right. The four units behind and not lake adjacent are a bit of a mystery still.

I meant the percentage of points of the total association of the luxury units compared to the other units. By all indications there are way more non luxury units here compared to the stand alone cabins as seen with Poly and CCV. Though yes there are other issues like Poly not building anything but studios. But CCV doesn’t have enough studios compared to its total association point volume and Poly had too many.

 

[BrianLo]

You can also see @nickys how the A frames aren’t totally a square foundation and how they line up with the left sided units on the full resort image.

 

[HauntedPirate]

I can respond to several of the questions tomorrow. For tonight - There are two types of lakeside cabin classifications, large and small, and 5 treehouse villas that will be connected to the main building via an elevated walkway.

 

[lentesta]

The biggest outstanding issue in my eyes is the new Fort Wilderness Cabins with DVC. They open a whole can of worms if they try and blend those together with Lakeshore. Those cabins are deeded to the resort.

You can’t gate keep anything and pretend it’s two different resorts when the DVC product blends them together.

So that’s I guess the mistake I’m waiting for. And hoping they don’t carry through.

Yeah, the blending is an issue. How do we pretend we're camping in the wilderness when there's a 900-room resort right over THERE?

 

[John park hopper]

IMO the current leadership if the can earn a buck they don't care what they ruin in the process--the new wilderness of high-rises

 

[HauntedPirate]

As far as I know:

- There is still the lakeside table service restaurant and some kind of bar/restaurant inside the main building
- Not sure on the breakdown between DVC and cash rooms. I'm curious as to where the Presidential and Vice Presidential Suites are going to go, on the cash room side.
- For DVC, there will be what appears to be two-person "pod" rooms (at least that's the name I've seen), studios, 1BR, 2BR/2BR Lock-offs, and Grand Villas
- DVC will occupy the buildings to the west side, cash rooms to the east
- The pool area is impressive
- Blending will definitely be an issue, as this backs up to Pioneer Hall
- There will apparently be a sales center with "pod", studio, and 1BR mock-ups

 

[lentesta]

I can respond to several of the questions tomorrow. For tonight - There are two types of lakeside cabin classifications, large and small, and 5 treehouse villas that will be connected to the main building via an elevated walkway.

Ahh, the elevated walkway explains the super-detailed water run-off stuff in the SFWMD filings. Thank you!

 

[Naplesgolfer]

I surprised they are adding 450 (guess) deluxe cash rooms. This seems contrary to the DVC conversions at wilderness lodge and the Grand. It seems the large quick profits on the DVC conversions were more the motivation than the often surmised problem of selling Deluxe rooms nights.

 

[Smoky]

- There will apparently be a sales center with "pod", studio, and 1BR mock-ups

Nothing quite says Disney like a high pressure timeshare sales pitch

 

[HauntedPirate]

I surprised they are adding 450 (guess) deluxe cash rooms. This seems contrary to the DVC conversions at wilderness lodge and the Grand. It seems the large quick profits on the DVC conversions were more the motivation than the often surmised problem of selling Deluxe rooms nights.

I just found the numbers. 557 total cash rooms, and 399 total DVC rooms. I can break down further in a bit, busy with other things at the moment.

 

[Naplesgolfer]

I just found the numbers. 557 total cash rooms, and 399 total DVC rooms.

These numbers make the resort even more of a departure from recent practice and common belief that they are having problems filling deluxe rooms without large discounts. I am surprised the whole resort isn't DVC. Very curious .

 

[HauntedPirate]

Cash room breakdown (557 total):

Two queens: 481
Single king: 70
Two bedroom: 4
Vice Presidential Suite: 1
Presidential Suite: 1

DVC room breakdown (399 total):

Pod: 24
Studio dedicated: 95
Studio lockoff: 91
1BR : 91
1BR dedicated: 51
2BR: 38
Grand Villa: 9

 

[HauntedPirate]

Other things of note:

- Guests will enter on floor 3
- QS in the main building (which is what I thought was the "bar/restaurant of some kind" in an earlier post)
- The main lobby area will be open-air, about 4-5 stories high. I'm thinking this will be similar to Wilderness's lobby in terms of open air space, but that's just my guess.
- I'm still looking for additional information about the lakeside cabins and treehouses

 

[Naplesgolfer]

Room totals and distance to the Fort makes me feel the pool will be a zoo.

 

[Naplesgolfer]

I was considering buying points at Lakeshore. But with the low number of dedicated 2 bedrooms , I am now doubtful. The 91 lockouts will mostly be broken up. This will be a 11-1O month window resort for 2 bedrooms.

 

[HauntedPirate]

- The small A frame cabins will be one bedroom
- The large A frame cabins will be two bedroom
- Treehouses are two bedroom