Throughout the week, we’ve been celebrating the reopening of select resorts across Walt Disney World, as well as checking in on any pending projects throughout the property. So far, we’ve all been astonished by the newly-painted Cinderella Castle and taken a gander at TRON Lightcycle Run, but let’s head on over to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground for a look at Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge.
Despite the initial closure, progress on the burgeoning resort seemed promising, since construction was able to resume at a time when all other projects were placed on hold across property. However, recent reports surfaced that the resort had been “cancelled”, with visible signs that construction had been abandoned at the site. We set out to check on the area along the former shores of (the also previously abandoned) River Country.
From the boat dock, mounds of dirt are seen raised for the foundation of what would become the resort, with some equipment and materials scattered along the right edges of the property. The whole area of the beach had been fenced off ahead of construction.
From the beach at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, we hop over to Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, which offers an overview of the site:
In this photo, you can see the new Tri-Circle-D Ranch to the right, with mounds of dirt now showing overgrown grass:
For context, here’s an aerial overview of the complete construction site for the resort, which is (or was) slated to share space with the new Tri-Circle-D Ranch and the neighboring Fort Wilderness.
Despite some machinery at the site, things have been quiet on this side of the resort.
The 900-room Disney Vacation Club resort property is slated for completion by 2022, with an advertised Princess and the Frog-themed lakeside restaurant and innovative new 2-person mini studios similar to the ones at Disney’s Riviera Resort.
With Disney quiet on the project so far and DVC struggling to sell memberships and points, the fate of this resort is still unknown. At this point, it’d be much easier to just build River Country 2.0…