Lazy River Confirmed for Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge
Construction on Disney Lakeshore Lodge, the new Magic Kingdom resort, continues moving at a fast pace as the resort is now topped out and work continues to enclose rooms with windows and balconies. Additionally, we’re starting to see the amenities of the resort take shape, including the waterfront restaurant and lazy river!
In case you’re unfamiliar with Disney Lakeshore Lodge, it was originally Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge and was paused during early site prep amidst the COVID closure of Walt Disney World 5 years ago. Demolition of the abandoned River Country water park already happened in 2019, as had site clearing and prepwork for the new lodge in early 2020.
Reflections — A Disney Lakeside Lodge was previously set to debut in 2022, but Disney Lakeshore Lodge is not set to open until 2027. This makes sense given the delay, and suggests the construction timeframe from start to finish is more or less unchanged–it was just delayed by ~5 years. Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge is a mixed-use resort, meaning there are separate hotel and Disney Vacation Club wings. Here’s everything you need to know about Disney Lakeshore Lodge.
In the interim, Walt Disney World converted the Cabins at Fort Wilderness into Disney Vacation Club inventory. In so doing, they actually replaced the old cabins with brand-new ones that are more modernized and mirror the style what we’re expecting of Disney Lakeshore Lodge.
These cabins are one of a trio of stop-gap projects aimed at adding DVC inventory in lieu of Reflections, along with the Island Tower at the Poly and Resort Studios at the Grand Florida. Whereas the monorail loop projects were low-risk, slam dunk additions that would sell themselves, the cabin conversion is another story entirely.
The DVC Cabins opened in phases starting about one year ago. They’ve proven controversial among Disney fans, but we love the new DVC Cabins at Fort Wilderness.
There’s also been a “collection of improvement projects” at Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground aimed at enhancing the guest experience. Examples include pool and walking trail enhancements, as well as expanded dining experiences at Trail’s End Restaurant and Crockett’s Tavern.
Most likely, these improvements have been made with Disney Lakeshore Lodge in mind, and modernizing the amenities at Fort Wilderness so it appeals more to a contemporary, upmarket audience. While Lakeshore Lodge will have plenty of its own amenities, there will obviously be crossover between the two resorts. Think of these projects as similar to the enhancements at Caribbean Beach in the lead-up to Riviera Resort’s opening back in 2018-2019.
Now, let’s turn to progress on Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge, which continues to move at an incredibly fast pace ahead of its projected 2027 opening. As always, all aerial photos are courtesy of friend of the site bioreconstruct, who graciously provided the construction photos here…
Let’s start with a high-level look at the Magic Kingdom resort area, including the Disney Lakeshore Lodge construction site. You can also see Discovery Island to the far right, along with Wilderness Lodge, Grand Floridian and Contemporary above the Lakeshore Lodge.
This should give you an idea of Lakeshore Lodge’s location. At least, relative to those Magic Kingdom resorts. Although it’s spaced out nicely from Wilderness Lodge, it’s right on top of Fort Wilderness.
The Settlement area of Fort Wilderness is on the left side of the above photo. It’s difficult to discern because it’s so much smaller (and brown), but the boat dock on the far left is basically the outer edge of the Settlement. Pioneer Hall is closer to the construction site.
This should really put into perspective the footprint of Disney Lakeshore Lodge. It’s obviously not as sprawling as Fort Wilderness, which is a bunch of spread out campsites, cabins, and–as the name suggests–wilderness. But it’s nevertheless quite large!
The key difference is that these three interconnected resort wings top out at 10 stories tall. Nothing at Fort Wilderness is more than a couple of stories. It’s hard to tell from such a high-level photo, but Lakeshore Lodge is also really, really close to the Settlement.
Here’s another aerial shot showing just how close Disney Lakeshore Lodge is to Pioneer Hall. At the bottom of this frame is the Pioneer Hall and Clementine Beach, with construction of A-frame cabins on that beach and directly in-line with Pioneer Hall.
The Disney Lakeshore Lodge towers, quite literally, tower over Pioneer Hall. For reference, Disney Lakeshore Lodge is much closer to Pioneer Hall than Gran Destino is to the (old) main lobby of Coronado Springs or even Island Tower is to the existing longhouses at the Polynesian.
For a ground-level perspective on this, see our Disney Lakeshore Lodge Construction Progress Photos from late August. It’s almost impossible to overstate just how much Lakeshore Lodge encroaches upon Pioneer Hall.
Disney Lakeshore Lodge is going to be a 10-story resort with 900 rooms. That’s a very large–you’d have to go back to Art of Animation or Animal Kingdom Lodge for the last resort of this size.
By contrast, Wilderness Lodge has has a 7-story main building and 728 rooms in total. The largest resort in the Magic Kingdom area is currently Grand Floridian; it’s just over 1,000 rooms between the hotel and DVC wings. Lakeshore Lodge will be fairly close in size to the main resort–with more inventory than the Poly or Contemporary.
Relative to recent resorts, Disney’s Riviera Resort is 9-stories tall but with only 300 rooms. This will be one story taller and with a significantly larger footprint. It’s not necessarily triple the size of the Riviera, but it’s the largest new resort at Walt Disney World in a long time–with more room inventory than Riviera and Island Tower combined.
The footprint of Disney Lakeshore Lodge is unchanged from the previous permits and site plans for Reflections. Disney Lakeshore Lodge has a “W” layout of its wings, with two main courtyards.
There’s no reason to believe the layout or site plans have materially changed. That would trigger permitting updates with the South Florida Water Management District prior to construction, and nothing was filed. What is being built is substantially the same as what was permitted. The differences, if any, will be thematically or aesthetically.
As we’ve been saying for over a year, the site plans indicate that there will be a lazy river and feature pool, along with a waterfront restaurant in the courtyard closer to Fort Wilderness. The lower courtyard will hold the quiet pool and boat dock. None of this really needed “confirmation” in light of the site plans and permits, but construction photos nevertheless confirm all of it!
Here’s a look at the courtyard closer to Fort Wilderness.
The lower structure is the waterfront restaurant, which is now clearly taking shape. Here’s a better look from a higher angle:
Back at the 2019 D23 Expo, Parks Chairman Bob Chapek announced this restaurant would be “along the bayou of Bay Lake” have a Princess and the Frog theme. However, that was before Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and more additions of Princess and the Frog at Port Orleans, so another IP might be chosen.
My hope is that it’s something else. Princess and the Frog fits perfectly at Port Orleans; if more of the IP “needs” to go anywhere, have it be there. (I also question whether we’ve reached a saturation point with Princess and the Frog.) Regardless, I hope the interior design differs from the concept art flashed on screen at D23. It was rather bland.
In much more exciting news, we have visible confirmation of the lazy river!
At the risk of stating the obvious, the lazy river is the incomplete loop that’s partially yellow. Above that and to the right is the feature pool. This lazy river is huge. The pool complex will be the likely highlight of Disney Lakeshore Lodge, making it only the third Walt Disney World hotel to offer one, joining the iconic Stormalong Bay at the Yacht & Beach Club Resorts.
Disney Lakeshore Lodge’s feature pool will also include a zero-entry design for easy access, water slides, and a splash pad for the children’s play area. Positioned near the lake and nestled behind the main hotel building, the pool area is expected to offer scenic waterfront views of Bay Lake.
From the permits, site plans and now the construction site, we also know that there will be treehouse villas and A-frame cabins along the waterfront. In the above image, you should be able to spot several of these A-frame structures on the left and right side of the frame.
What used to be the Clementine Beach at Fort Wilderness should also become home to a second ‘row’ of treehouses behind the A-frames, which will presumably have water views thanks to their elevation. This will completely replace Clementine Beach–we’d expect everything on the other side of the boat dock at Fort Wilderness to be gated off.
Some of these treehouses and A-frames will be much closer to the Fort Wilderness boat launch than the new dock at Lakeshore Lodge. Speaking of which, the new boat dock is also taking shape…
That’s the dock at the top of the above photo.
Below that in this courtyard is what remains of the former River Country ‘natural’ pool that fed into Bay Lake. You can also see early work on the quiet pool over here.
Here’s one last look at the lazy river, restaurant, boat launch, and quiet pool. All coming along quite nicely!
One thing I appreciate about the waterfront restaurant is that it actually will have views of the “bayou of Bay Lake,” as the waterfront trees have not been removed here. My hope is that many more trees are planted around the periphery of the resort once exterior work is finished.
One of the big issues with the Island Tower and other recent projects is a lack of lushness, and if this continues with a resort in the wilderness, it’ll stick out like a sore thumb. Trees can also help conceal underwhelming facade work, and back of house areas. There are some spots like this that are plainly visible at the Island Tower, and look awful.
Ultimately, it’s impressive how quickly Disney Lakeshore Lodge is speeding along. It’s been about a year since this project resumed, and already, the resort wings are at their full and final height. Obviously it’s a simpler project and a lot of site prep was done in 2019-2020, but it’s nevertheless amusing to see how quickly DVC development is done.
Given the pace of the project to date, it’s hard to imagine that this will take over another full year to complete. Our expectation is that it opens in the first half of 2027. Quite honestly, it wouldn’t surprise us in the least if Disney moved this up to late 2026. It probably depends on when it’s most strategically-advantageous to launch a new DVC resort from a sales perspective, so perhaps Island Tower sales are more outcome-determinative than construction progress.
It’s also curious that Walt Disney World hasn’t really said much officially about Disney Lakeshore Lodge. The only “announcement” about the project’s resumption was basically just a single passing reference from Disney Vacation Club with the new name. Not even a full press release.
That was almost a full year ago, and there have been zero updates since. Nothing at Destination D23, during any media events or anywhere else. With the Island Tower at the Polynesian still brand new and in active sales, this makes sense. Disney Vacation Club doesn’t want to steal the spotlight from that.
But it is becoming a bit awkward that we can easily confirm specifics about the upcoming resort from construction photos, and yet, Walt Disney World still hasn’t really said anything. Maybe that’ll change this holiday season–we’re excited to learn more about the new mixed use resort, and would love concept art of the hotel’s lobby, rooms, restaurant, and more!
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of the construction on Disney Lakeshore Lodge? Surprised at just how massive this new Magic Kingdom resort looks from above? Have you seen it from on the ground at the Fort Wilderness Settlement? 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!
I’m pretty saddened by the huge resort construction, though I knew it was inevitable. But to have it so close to the serene atmosphere of Fort Wilderness is a crime. A cherished memory from staying in a FW cabin is that of my grandsons enjoying tetherball on Clementine Beach and watching the MK fireworks and water pageant from the beach. Now there will be NO BEACH at FW! Can/will they extend the beach on the other side of the boat dock?
Disney has so many adorable woodland creatures from the classics that are largely overlooked. IP can be subtle and still say ‘Disney’.
I wonder how they will deal with the smell from Tri-Circle-D Ranch being across the parking lot, LOL. Fortunately I believe the prominent winds there are from the northeast…
Looks great… except I’m tired of “modern” design and theming. I think builders keep pushing this because it’s cheaper than adding detail. I like the theming of Wilderness Lodge 1000x better.
I’ll try to keep this from getting too negative, but this resort rubs me the wrong way in so many ways. Without fail, massive DVC resorts can somehow be stomped out of the ground overnight. None of the multiple years of hand-wringing, challenges and delays that plague anything park related. It’s so predictable, it’s almost comical at this point. And the excuse, that building such bland and simple structures is much easier, is really not a good indictment of what the company is doing. The Disney I care for, goes beyond imagineered wall-displays and magical grey/beige color accents.
If they had left a smidge of buffer to FW, I might feel a lot differently. But to put those soviet-style blocks right on top of Pioneer Hall is just so ugly and destructive to the existing area. And not enough, building out every inch of open space that was Clementines Beach. Following the playbook by replacing any non-monetized water views at low-revenue FW.
What I notice from watching this unfold is the size of it, which I underestimated. Granted, there were hardly any announcements yet so I can’t really tell, but there have to be more restaurants/amenities planned than what is currently visible. Pioneer Hall is a fairly limited quick serve. (Featuring less appealing views in the future – see above.) The room capacity that’s being added here is incredible and would have to be more than self-sufficient. FW DVC cabins probably need a boost in desirability, so this new resort has to be a net positive as a destination. The location is less forgiving than being on the Monorail loop, for example.
As a whole, this feels so wrong. I’m cautiously excited about the pool/lazy river/splash pad and restaurant. Those have the potential to be saving graces and wonderful if done well…but will they be done well? I keep thinking about the Poly – the outside of the tower, the new pool and splash pad, the decor/theme of Wailulu…everything is totally blah (by Disney standards) aside from the food and the booths with the lake view. I also hope they aren’t too heavy-handed with the IP and incorporate it in a way that is tasteful and organic. The old Reflections concept art feels overly modern to me…and that giant Pocahontas statue is dreadful. (I’m all about nods to “Colors of the Wind” but not a fiberglass monstrosity that belongs at All-Star Movies.) I get that it needs to have a distinct personality and can’t be a clone of Wilderness Lodge, but if it doesn’t have somewhat of a rustic and timeless quality, I can’t see how it’s going to work. Can Michael Eisner be brought in to consult on these new resorts? Ha.
I’m excited to see this come to life, but we were there last week and it raises a lot of logistics questions, namely food–is anyone else concerned that we are only talking about 1 restaurant for a resort roughly the size of the Grand Floridian? Sure, there is likely a pool bar as well, but it seems like the biggest impact of adding this kind of capacity is on the limited dining options.
Gosh, yeah, let’s hope that there are five more restaurants housed inside…
The new Lakeshore Lodge is an eye-sore to the beautiful wilderness feel. It is way too high! Adding treehouses and cabins to the front of the shore, take away the view of the bay. Disney needs to stop building hotels and start concentrating on extras they have taken away: building another Poly tower, took away the Hawaiian dinner show, and many resort activities are gone.
You may be right about “The Princess and the Frog” reaching a saturation point. And to think, when that movie first came out, it was considered a box office failure, and therefore Disney thought it justified to not make any more traditionally animated movies, which is such a shame. CGI just doesn’t move me as much. Maybe now that “Princess and the Frog” is a retroactive classic, they should reconsider. I don’t even make an effort to see all the official Disney animated movies anymore, & there are plenty of Pixar films I’ve skipped. In the 1990’s, I was pretty religious about seeing all the official Disney animated movies when they were first released to theaters. Frozen is highly overrated, & the Toy Story franchise has become too sad starting with Toy Story 3.
Regardless of this resort’s flaws, I could not be more excited.
Hear me out – a Disney Bears resort and restaurant theme, where all the bears of Disney are taking a break in the woods.
Does this include the Country Bears? If so, sign me up for a DVC add-on contract at Lakeshore Lodge!
love it
and fox and hound would be a good add too
actually, no joke, but if they ran with that Country Bear theme I would get a DVC contract there as well,..
Great idea!
I agree with you about originally being angry and gradually growing optimistic about Lakeshore. I definitely think they should add the cabins to Lakeshore because that would give everybody so many booking options. I can’t imagine the cabins would get stuck with only one room type. Wouldn’t they need studios, 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom options and a community hall to make the amenities comparable to all other DVC resorts? As far as IP goes I’m not sure what characters they could have other than Pocahontas…maybe the Rescuers? On a tangent, now that Fort Wilderness is getting a new pool wouldn’t a subtle nod to the RVs in Cars and Planes be really cute?
I’m actually pretty excited about this resort…wonder if there’s any chance the rack rates will be in the $400 range in low season? But it’s completely beyond me that with all the space they had, they couldn’t keep a 40 foot natural buffer zone between that easternmost tower and the Settlement – would have made such a difference for the campground.
How will 900 rooms and approximately 1800 new guests fit into the existing theme parks, which are already overcrowded and have long waits? Every time Disney adds hotel rooms, I ask myself that question. Disney has become an uncomfortable and difficult vacation for me. Not even sure if it defines the word “vacation” anymore. I hope it works out.
This will have a negligible impact on park attendance.
The overwhelming majority of guests are not drawn to Central Florida by a hotel; it’s for the theme parks, with where to stay being secondary. This will shift existing visits from off-site to on-site.
It’ll have a more noticeable impact on Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours.
I’d be interested to know the ratio of “resort guests” to “time/days spent at WDW parks by those same guests” across various on-site properties. Sort of a utilization metric, I guess? I’m sure the company tracks this.
The reason I ask is that, as a non-expert in this area, I’d presume that guests at cheaper (value/moderate) resorts with less amenities are probably spending more time in the parks than in their rooms, pools, food courts, arcades, etc. But if I was paying a huge nightly premium for upgraded amenities, larger rooms (with balconies), high-end restaurants, and a mini-water park like we’ll see at this new resort, I’d probably be more inclined to spend more of my time at the resort taking advantage of those things.
Thus, my assumption is that at a place like this — which might feel worthy of a vacation even if not on WDW property — there will be a far smaller proportion of hardcore “8am to midnight in the parks” guests, and many guests who will spend only a few hours at a park (if any hours at all) on any given day of their trip.
But I could be wrong. My mind works as a thrifty person who’s constantly (obsessively?) looking to extract every shred of value from my time and money. The target audience for this resort will lean towards the “money is no object” guest, who is more of an enigma to me.
I think this assessment is largely accurate, but even so, I doubt it moves the needle much.
Lakeshore Lodge guests will not, for the most part, be trading up from the All Stars (or off-site counterparts). They’d be coming from maybe the Bonnet Creek resorts or something like that, where they’d also be spending time enjoying the hotel amenities.
I do think there’s an argument to be made that, bigger picture, Disney Vacation Club results in more repeat visitors and fans of Walt Disney World than would otherwise exist. That does mean higher attendance in aggregate (probably), but I’d argue it’s a net positive for WDW fans.
Do you think there will be a decent view of the fireworks from the lazy river?
I love that they’re doing more with the pool area. The pool is such a selling point for kids, we’ll definitely pay (somewhat) more to stay here if possible. Agree that a Tiana restaurant here makes no sense, since Tiana’s practically has her own hotel and its Port Orleans. Unfortunately there aren’t any obvious IP choices for a forest themed restaurant – I doubt many kids now even know who Bambi or Brother Bear are, so not sure what they can replace that idea with if they’re heck-bent on it involving IP. Storybook dining involves a character from Germany, so maybe they’ll end up theming it to another princess with a forest backdrop, like Aurora.
If it’s going to be character dining, they could just do something similar to Storytellers at Grand Californian, which is (basically) regular characters in explorer/camping outfits.
If it’s just a regular restaurant, make it like Camp Woodchuck Kitchen (except perhaps a bit fancier?): https://www.disneytouristblog.com/camp-woodchuck-kitchen-review/
I think something like that would be perfect, if it’s considered IP-ish enough by the powers that be!
One of my favorite memories of a parent involved this area over a decade ago — we were staying off-property in Orlando on vacation, but on a limited budget. We splurged for one day at MK, then a couple days later decided we wanted to come back to spend more time on WDW property. So we parked at Wilderness Lodge, had lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe, explored the lodge a bit, and then realized it was naptime. But instead of heading back to our hotel, we put the kids (ages 2 and 4) in their stroller to nap, and walked slowly through the beautiful, bucolic forest between Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness, eventually arriving near the Settlement to see there was a “ranch” with pony rides. We hadn’t heard of this before, but after the kids awoke we decided to splurge again and let the kids take their very first pony rides ever. Such a delight — they were in heaven.
We ended up hanging in that area for awhile — it just felt so peaceful and “chill” as the kids played at the little playground and we got a couple things at the gift shop. Then, the little ones got to “hike” back to Wilderness Lodge, which they enjoyed.
I realize that time always marches on at WDW (and that this area was already cleared several years ago), but this hits me as a “paved paradise and put up a parking lot” kind of loss. Yes, I’m also a bit sad about Tom Sawyer Island and other classic, kid-friendly areas and attractions going away — but this feels different as those were technically “fake” (imagineered and constructed) but this area was maybe the one place on property that felt “real” and you could get a quick respite from artificial/manufactured things (which I also love, don’t get me wrong!). And I can’t imagine the secluded feel and relaxed vibe of the Settlement area ever being the same again, as it’ll have thousands of new affluent “neighbors” next door, and a hulking 10-story tower will always loom above it (would have been nice if the hotel design paid any respect to its location).
I realize 99% of WDW guests have zero interest in nature walks and pony rides and mature trees with hanging Spanish moss, but still…there was something kind of special about this area that isn’t ever going to be replicated.
It’s definitely a ‘paved paradise to put up a parking lot’ kind of change. I don’t know if you caught our original commentary back when this was announced, but the best way to describe it would be angry. I had very little faith given how many trees were removed back when Wilderness Lodge added the Cascade Cabins, and wasn’t exactly enthralled with the exterior design of Riviera.
I’ve softened on that a bit, largely because it’s been so long (2018!) and what’s done is done. I’d certainly rather have Lakeshore Lodge and a connected Wilderness Resort District, and am cautiously optimistic about some of the features, amenities, and rooms. It’s better than having the parcel sit empty for another decade.
On the other hand, I’d rather this project were never announced in the first place. If I could go back in time and choose Disney doing nothing at all or this, I’d pick nothing at all.
I think something like that would be perfect, if it’s considered IP-ish enough by the powers that be!
Thanks, Tom — knowing me, I probably shared a version of my story above on that original post, as well (a post I do remember)!
I had also softened a bit on things over the years, but today was the first day I really comprehended the full massing of the project and how it engages (or not) with the lake and properties on either side…it’s truly a mega-resort by Disney standards — bigger than not only most other WDW properties, but also more rooms than a really large resort like Aulani. I believe there could have been other better uses for this land (which might have kept it somewhat accessible to those not in the highest income brackets, and retained some of the thematic continuity between FW and WL), and other parcels where a deluxe mega-resort would have been better suited. But as you said, what’s done is done and I hope they do a good job with it — the biggest crime would be if, after all this, they made something bad.
Might have missed this, but will there be a walking path connecting Wilderness Lodge and this new property? As an owner of the former it would be fun to have this start to feel like a full fledged “resort zone” à la the Beach/Yacht/Boardwalk area.
There hasn’t been one officially announced yet, but there was such a path before (connecting Wilderness Lodge to Fort Wilderness) and with how close the cabins are going to be to the existing resorts, it seems pretty obvious to have one.
A path connecting the three and making this a bona fide resort district is probably what I’m most excited about.
I just want to know if they will combine the DVC cabins with lakeshore lodge like the tower was combined with the longhouses at Polly.
Unknown at this point. It would definitely help with struggling sales at the cabins, but they may not want to saddle lodge owners with the maintenance fees of the cabins. I could see it going either way.
do the rooms include golf cart parking,. that’s a joke, but I am curious how they will solve the transportation question,. when we stayed in the new Fort Wilderness cabins which we loved -thanks to you- the roads out seemed rather narrow and convoluted,.. but maybe they will offer aqua-golfcarts!
Lakeshore Lodge will have its own roads and bus stop, plus the aforementioned boat dock.
I really don’t think the lodge will burden infrastructure much at the campground, and I highly doubt many guests staying at the lodge will rent golf carts. To the extent guests want to use Fort Wilderness amenities, 99% will just walk over to the Settlement.
IMO the biggest transportation question is how boat service works–will it have a dedicated route, or will the same boat make 3 stops for the wilderness area resorts?
I am always amazed that boats with such small capacities could ferry all the folks I figured wanted to get to Magic Kingdom from Wilderness,. but somehow there never seems a line of hundreds,. beats me,. but hey maybe they can use the extracted Liberty Belle from Magic Kingdom and just lay a track underwater? That would keep with the swimmin’ hole theme!