It’s been years since we’ve heard about the addition of a hotel building at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground. This Magic Kingdom area property is a charming, nature focused escape. As of more recently, it’s also a Disney Vacation Club Resort. DVC took over the cabins here. For years, the other planned DVC addition at Fort Wilderness has been paused. However, it does look like this area is an active construction site again as of fall 2024. Large cranes, trucks and more can be spotted from a boat on Bay Lake. So is Disney Reflections Resort being built? Is another Fort Wilderness hotel coming to the area? Here’s what we know and some related context.
November 2024 update: Disney has announced this property has a new name.
Read everything we know about it here: Disney Lakeshore Lodge.
Fort Wilderness Hotel Details: Disney Reflections Resort?
As of September 2024, no follow up announcements have been made about the Disney Reflections Resort. Not much is known about this proposed Disney Vacation Club resort. However, if you’re staying at or visiting Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, you can clearly see the construction site has vehicles and activity happening again.
Things stopped in early 2020 and haven’t picked up since. The site where the Disney Reflections nature focused resort was set to go had been empty since. No vertical building construction had happened but the plot of land was clear and fenced off. There may have also been minimal ground work.
Where is the Fort Wilderness hotel construction?
Construction for Disney Reflections resort was underway when Walt Disney World Resort closed due to the pandemic. The construction zone is located in the back of Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground behind the Pioneer Hall area. This is where you’ll find restaurants like Trail’s End Restaurant and the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue. The new Fort Wilderness Hotel is being built right next to the relocated Tri-Circle-D Ranch building. This is home to Disney’s ponies and horses. The new Tri-Circle-D Ranch facility was relocated, built all new on this spot and opened in 2020. The hotel construction zone is right on the water at Bay Lake.
When will Disney Reflections Resort open?
It’s unclear at this time if or when Disney Reflections Resort will open. If construction begins September 2024, a new hotel building could be open at Fort Wilderness in the next few years. We don’t know if it’s Reflections or an all new concept at this time.
We can consider the most recent comparable addition for timing though. That’s Disney’s Polynesian Village Tower. The new Island Tower at the Polynesian was first announced in 2022. This ten story tall Disney Vacation Club addition opens December 17th, 2024.
Based on this timeline, the Fort Wilderness hotel could open in less than two years. That means by 2026 or 2027, a new ten story hotel building could be open on the shores of Bay Lake.
Is Disney Reflections Resort cancelled?
We should find out if the Fort Wilderness hotel construction zone is related to Disney Reflections or not sometime soon. Disney usually announces things like this before construction starts so this is different.
What’s exciting about the Fort Wilderness hotel at Disney?
This lake front property is an excellent location for a resort building. If it’s a tall building, we can expect some awesome firework views. The firework viewing at Fort Wilderness is located on the beach and dock right next to this space. A rooftop restaurant or Disney Vacation Club lounge would be a great choice for this building which will surely see Magic Kingdom fireworks.
This area is also right next to the Magic Kingdom resort boat launch, making it easy to get to and from the popular park.
While this is at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, the entrance might be elsewhere. Cars aren’t able to easily drive to this area through Fort Wilderness. Instead busses drop guests off here, they walk or they use golf carts to get around Fort Wilderness. This area, however, is on the road next to the Tri-Circle-D Ranch that leads to Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. Years ago, this was a beautiful walkway guests could take between Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge. It’s been closed since around the time land clearing began on this space. The road would lead right to it and be accessible from inside the Wilderness Lodge parking lot. This would be a more convenient main entrance than having to drive through all of Fort Wilderness.
When the Fort Wilderness cabins were converted to DVC, Disney said there would be some upgrades at this property. An additional restaurant would really suit this resort. Perhaps the new Fort Wilderness hotel building could have restaurant space as well.
Is a Fort Wilderness resort hotel building able to weather storms?
While this location seems ideal for a new DVC building, let’s also consider that this area is always evacuated for hurricanes. Camping using tents and vans and such is an obvious choice for cancelling. It’s the least secure option imaginable for a storm with lots of rain and strong winds. RVs also prove to not be a safe choice for weathering a hurricane for similar reasons. When evacuations are recommended for hurricanes, mobile and manufactured homes are among the first to be notified. Even a Category 1 or 2 hurricane can be very dangerous in these. The reality is, the prior cabins at Fort Wilderness were, structurally, trailer style dwellings. The new Disney Vacation Club cabins are along those same lines. The bottom line is that no accommodations at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campgrounds are hurricane safe.
How would a hotel building do in this area though? Aside from all of this, the area is next to Bay Lake, filled with creeks and ponds and prone to flooding. We can hope that all of this has been assessed. There is an alternate road to this area of the resort that starts in the Disney’s Wilderness Lodge parking lot. Th lodge resort does stay open during hurricanes so that’s hopeful for this space.
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