Disney World Announces Multi-Night “First Wave” Pre-Opening Preview Event at Lakeshore Lodge in 2027

One day after announcing the official opening date, Walt Disney World has revealed an exclusive “First Wave” experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge. Here are dates & details about the multi-night DVC Member preview event, pricing, what’s included, and our take on the soft opening(ish) event of the resort hotel.

As basic background, Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge will celebrate the beauty and magic of nature as seen through the eyes of Disney artists and storytellers. Inspired by Walt Disney’s admiration for the great outdoors, the resort’s design highlights animated stories rooted in nature, with subtle nods to classic films, from the lush forests of Bambi and the colorful winds of Pocahontas to the glacial landscapes of Brother Bear.

Located along the ‘bayou’ of Bay Lake, Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge will feature floor‑to‑ceiling windows that welcome natural sunlight, allowing the outdoors to flow into the architecture, artwork, and ambiance. Guests follow a lush tree-lined driveway and arrive beneath a porte-cochere that’s inspired by a bird in flight and surrounded by cascading water features. Otherwise, there isn’t much to the architecture or design of Lakeshore Lodge.

The resort will offer 967 themed accommodations, ranging from studios to spacious multi-bedroom villas. Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge also introduces standalone one and two-bedroom Lake Houses positioned along the waterfront, similar to the Cascade Cabins at Wilderness Lodge.

As noted above, Disney just shared a first look on the resort’s accommodations, taking us inside the DVC villas, more traditional hotel-style rooms, waterfront A-frames, and even the Club Level lounge and presidential suite. Check out Inside Resort Rooms & Club Level of Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge for more, including our additional commentary about how it actually is a mixed-use resort.

Beyond the guest rooms, the big news is that Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge opens July 1, 2027 at Walt Disney World Resort! Reservations will start opening in phases beginning in October for opening night. But before that, a special “First Wave” preview event will happen in June 2027…

Member “First Wave” Experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge

Be the first to stay at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge—the newest Resort hotel coming to Walt Disney World Resort! This exciting 4-day, 3-night, Member-exclusive experience will take place from June 24 through June 27, 2027, before the resort’s official opening on July 1, 2027.

Delight in a fun-filled visit complete with theme park tickets, delectable dining, special insights about the resort hotel (interesting that Disney is referring to it as a “resort hotel”) and commemorative keepsakes created with Disney Vacation Club Members in mind.

The DVC Member “First Wave” Experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge booking begins on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 10:00 AM Eastern Time.

What’s Included in Lakeshore Lodge’s First Wave Experience

During the Member “First Wave” experience (June 24 through June 27, 2027), you’ll be the first to stay at this new Resort hotel on the tranquil shores of Bay Lake, where the wonder of nature meets the magic of Disney as you enjoy:

• A 4-day, 3-night stay at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge
• A 3-day Walt Disney World Theme Park ticket with the Park Hopper option for each Guest, ages 3 and older
• DVC Event-Exclusive dining, including:
  • One dinner at Moonglade, the Resort hotel’s new table-service restaurant
  • One breakfast at Pioneer Hall
  • One dinner at Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue
  • A $200 Disney Dining Promo Card, per person, ages 3 and older
• Insights into the making of Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge
• Commemorative keepsakes

Itinerary details—including curated event experiences—will be shared and bookable at a later date.

Eligible Members can call Member Services at (800) 800-9800 or (407) 566-3800 once the booking window opens on November 7, 2026, at 10:00 AM Eastern Time.

Member Services will be open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, November 7, 2026, exclusively to book reservations for the Member “First Wave” Experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge —as well as to assist with any other Resort arrivals occurring within 5 days of the November 7 date.

Due to the popularity of this Member-exclusive experience, you may experience longer-than-usual wait times. Member Services will reopen with normal operations at 9:00 AM Eastern Time on Sunday, November 8, 2026, to support all Membership requests.

Disney Vacation Club Members must be eligible for Membership Extras benefits in order to book the Member “First Wave” Experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge. Anyone on the Membership can make a reservation. Member Services will collect full payment at the time of booking; please have your payment method prepared.

This Member-exclusive experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge is part of the Disney Collection exchange, and its points chart is based upon Double Occupancy. Disney Vacation Club will waive the initial $95 transaction fee associated with booking your reservation for the Member “First Wave” Experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge.

Payment for the first and second Guests in the travel party (with at least one of those Guests being the primary/lead on the reservation) must be made using only Reservation Points. Payment for other members of the travel party can be made using cash or Reservation Points. (Reservation Points and cash cannot be combined to pay for an individual Guest.) Here’s the point chart for the Member “First Wave” Experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge:

Eligible Members may book a maximum of 2 rooms per Membership. The Rule of Four does not apply when booking the Disney Vacation Club Member “First Wave” Experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge.

In the event of a sold-out Member “First Wave” Experience, eligible Members may join a waitlist. To inquire, please call Member Services.

There’s a bunch more fine print and need to know info on the event page for the “First Wave” Experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge. Refer to that for full details if you’re even debating booking this preview event.

Our Take on Lakeshore Lodge’s First Wave Experience

We love stuff like this. I’m glad Walt Disney World and Disney Vacation Club are offering something like this–it should be a ton of fun. If you’re on the fence about attending, even without knowing much about the itinerary, I’d recommend it.

That is, so long as you have a mild tolerance for hiccups and opening day/night jitters, as that type of thing is common with both debuts and one-off events like this. If you have reasonable expectations about how something that’s large and brand-new will work upon its debut, you’re likely to have a fantastic time.

There’s something special about events and debuts like this. There’s a communal energy and excitement in the air, for guests and Cast Members alike. I still savor our opening night stays at Disney’s Riviera Resort and Helios Grand Hotel at Epic Universe, and those memories probably have engendered goodwill towards those properties that I otherwise wouldn’t have.

Obviously, you’re paying a significant points premium to attend this event. I don’t really see the point in addressing the value proposition here, as demand will undoubtedly be high and (I assume) it will be supply-constrained with not every single room being filled for the First Wave experience. I’d be surprised if this doesn’t sell out fast.

Even though this First Wave event will undoubtedly feature a significant managerial presence and a lot of smiling faces, there are nevertheless bound to be missteps. If you have exacting standards, expect a posh experience with honed guest service or are just generally a higher-maintenance guest, you should probably wait a couple of months and stay at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge around Halloween or Christmas 2026. That’s roughly the typical ‘sweet spot’ on the initial excitement still being there, but the resort starting to fire on all cylinders.

We’re on the fence about whether to do the First Wave experience or “only” opening night. For us, the points premium is a bit difficult to stomach, especially since it includes park tickets and other things we don’t really need. The event does sound really exciting, but I’m also fairly confident the communal energy and excitement will exist in equal measure a few days later, on July 1, 2027.

Speaking of which, here’s more on booking a regular cash rate stay at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge…

How to Book Your Stay at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge

• October 6, 2026: Disney Vacation Club members can make early rental reservations by contacting Member Services at (800) 800-9800.
• October 7, 2026: Walt Disney World Annual Passholders can make early rental reservations by contacting (407) 934-7639.
• October 8, 2026: All guests can make reservations online or by calling (407) 934-7639.

Note that these are for bookings with cash, meaning that members will pay the regular rack rate for the rooms, which will undoubtedly be astronomical. Disney Vacation Club members will be able to make points-based reservations at a later date. We’re marking our calendars for that, not this.

Stay tuned as we continue to share more details about Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge ahead of its official opening on July 1, 2027 at Walt Disney World Resort! The biggest outstanding items are largely DVC logistics still to be announced: points charts, pricing, incentives, start of sales, and booking dates with points.

Ultimately, we remain cautiously optimistic about Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge. If the attention to detail is there, the inside should be a winner. Not that I’m surprised. For all of our complaints about the Island Tower’s hideous exterior, Imagineers nailed the inside of the hotel. Like that, Lakeshore Lodge is ugly on the outside–but it should likewise be detailed and well-appointed inside.

The lobby looks nice, as do the restaurants and fireworks viewing areas. As good as they look in concept art, those are still the biggest wildcards for me. Of course, everything comes down to execution. There are times when the art is better than reality, or vice-versa. Here’s hoping a gigantic Pocahontas statue isn’t plopped down at the entrance!

At the same time, I have zero doubts that the rooms will be great. That’s the one way DVC hasn’t really missed in years. Even the resorts with boring and bland exteriors have had great attention to detail in the guest rooms, with Disney doing a great job of marrying form and function.

We never wanted this built in the first place, and were pleased when it was seemingly abandoned. However, we also have a “what’s done is done” outlook on this project. That’s to say that Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge is being built, whether Walt Disney World fans want it or not, so we might as well hope for the absolute best. It will bring me no joy whatsoever if the end product is underwhelming.

We’re looking forward to staying at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge when it opens on July 1, 2027 (or perhaps earlier during this First Wave event). While I have lingering reservations about this project and its proximity to Fort Wilderness, everything else WDW and DVC have revealed in the last couple of months has been optimism-inducing. I’m really looking forward to Lakeshore Lodge at this point, and had become increasingly optimistic about the project prior to this.

Part of that is my unabashed love of lodges, and the ‘wilderness region’ of Walt Disney World. Another part is how I’ve ended up feeling about other dubiously-designed resorts that have opened since 2018. There’s the aforementioned Riviera Resort for one, which has grown on me a ton. We also have ended up loving Gran Destino Tower. Hideous as it is from the outside, we’ve enjoyed Island Tower far more than expected.

Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge looks much more ambitious, fully-featured, and better looking than any of those. If this has a healthier budget for placemaking and a lush environment around the outside, that alone will make it a massive upgrade over the Island Tower.

It’s a shame that Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge towers over the Settlement, as opposed to being centered between Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge, but it should still be an asset to this resort ‘region,’ as well as the DVC portfolio and Walt Disney World as a whole. Failing all else, we’re looking forward to finally being able to walk between Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness again!

If you’re considering joining DVC and want more guidance, be sure to read our Ultimate Guide to Disney Vacation Club. That guide covers the pros & cons, resale v. direct, how much money you’ll save, and other important things to know before taking the plunge. If you still can’t decide whether membership is right for you, “try before you buy” with the recommendations in How to Save BIG on Deluxe Disney Accommodations Renting DVC Points.

Your Thoughts

Thoughts on the First Wave Member experience at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge? Will you attempt to score a multi-night stay during this special preview, or is the point chart too steep for you? Hoping this means more soft openings at the new resort hotel? Are you going to book a stay for opening night on July 1, 2027? Paying a cash rate, or holding out for the points chart to be released? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!