Remember the old postponed Reflections: A Disney Lakeside Lodge project from a few years back? If not, Disney announced in 2018 that a new resort would sit on the site of the old Disney’s River Country water park between Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.
The Reflections: A Disney Lakeside Lodge project was postponed in 2020 following the closures of Disney’s parks and hotels. Since then, the site has sat mostly untouched. We checked in on the area back in November 2020, but let’s take a fresh look at things now.
The awesome @bioreconstruct has a great look at the land that was originally cleared for Reflections: A Disney Lakeside Lodge.
Aerial look at former site of Reflections: A Disney Lakeside Lodge.
Building at bottom of the photo is Tri-Circle-D Ranch. Residence of the horses of Walt Disney World. pic.twitter.com/7V4UD6Uz7a
— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) February 14, 2023
Let’s take a closer look.
The buildings at the bottom picture are Tri-Circle-D Ranch, home of Walt Disney World’s horses. The building to the right side of the picture is Pioneer Hall at Fort Wilderness Resort, which includes Trail’s End Restaurant and the beloved Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue.
The large and mostly empty field is where Reflections: A Disney Lakeside Lodge was supposed to be built. In 2019, crews demolished the deserted Disney’s River Country water park and prepared the land for construction. That work continued in 2020 before being halted as Disney closed its parks and resorts.
Is there a future for Reflections: A Disney Lakeside Lodge? Possibly, but it’s clearly on the backburner. Disney has prioritized DVC additions, such as the new Villas at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, over a brand new resort. Disney is being more calculated with their capital expenditures, and appear to be more focused on theme park capacity expansions under Bob Iger’s return as CEO.
Disney’s natured-themed resort could be resurrected and may eventually become a reality. But, for now, Reflections: A Disney Lakeside Lodge will go down in history as one of Disney’s announced projects that faded into obscurity.
