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Walt Disney World Resort
Orlando, FL
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(12/20/2024) A Look at the new Island Tower at Disney's Polynesian Resort
(11/28/2024) Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge Resort Coming in 2027
(11/8/2024) Two Former Walt Disney World Ride Vehicles Donated To National Roller Coaster Museum
(10/26/2024) Walt Disney World Increases Annual Pass Prices
(10/8/2024) Upcoming New Eatery At Disney's Boardwalk Is Causing Sticker-Shock
(9/7/2024) Blizzard Beach Waterpark Reopening Set for November
Resort Rehabs - The following information is subject to change:
Typhoon Lagoon - NOW CLOSED through TBD (Likely Spring 2025)
 General Resort News - (11/8/2024) Ride vehicles from two former Walt Disney World attractions have now been donated to the National Roller Coaster Museum. Freshly delivered is a former ride car from the removed Snow White’s Scary Adventures dark ride in the Magic Kingdom, along with something else I haven’t seen in a long time… one of the former Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blaster bumper cars that ran inside the closed DisneyQuest attraction at Downtown Disney. The custom bumper cars were unique in that riders sat inside an enclosed plexiglass cabin, because each of the cars was also outfitted with a cannon that could shoot rubber balls at the other cars. As I recall, upon your car being struck by a ball, it would power-down for a few seconds leaving you stranded if you kept getting pelted by the other gunners. Each Astro Blaster car could gather up a collection of new balls to shoot by driving over them on the course, scooping them up into a bin where the designed gunner could reload them into the cannon to shoot at the other players.
(10/8/2024) You may recall that a new eatery was supposed to open at Walt Disney World’s Boardwalk Resort sometime earlier this year. That would be the innocent sounding “Cake Bake Shop”, but while delays have pushed back the opening until early 2025, the menu has now leaked out and is putting everyone into sticker-shock overload.
Keep in mind that the prices of things at Walt Disney World are already expensive, but the fact that the prices posted thus far are enough to make even the most frivolous Disney spender pause really says something. According to a post over at Cinemablend, the location will feature cake slices that start at $22, $14 fries, Sandwiches that mostly range from $23 to $34, except a Peanut Butter & Jelly that goes for $18. Oh, and $8 for some broccoli, $20 for a bowl of soup and more. Even the same Coca-Cola you buy anywhere on Disney property for about $4 bucks will apparently run you $8 at this location.
At this rate more people are going to show up just to take a picture of the menu to post on social media than those who would be willing to pay to eat there. I guess we’ll see if things change before it actually opens in 2025, otherwise it may not survive more than a few months before shutting down.
(9/7/2024) The hand-off between the two Walt Disney World waterparks is now set to take place in early November, with your last day to visit Typhoon Lagoon in 2024 being Nov. 4th. Blizzard Beach will reopen once again for the next several months starting Nov. 5th, 2024.
Based on the current operational pattern established since the pandemic, Blizzard Beach will likely remain open until sometime in Spring 2025, when they would swap parks again and reopen Typhoon Lagoon for the warmer months of the year, which always seemed a little counter to the theme of Blizzard Beach as the whole concept of the theme was to enjoy an arctic blasted waterpark in the warm summer season.
Even though they say Walt Disney World has returned to pre-pandemic performance numbers, the one thing they have not done is gone back to operating their two waterparks at the same time in the Spring and Summer seasons. Prior to the pandemic, both waterparks essentially had year-round operations, but would each close for about a 2-month long period in the late fall through early Spring for refurbishment.
With the rise of so many other high quality waterparks in the Orlando area, especially Aquatica and Volcano Bay, the rumor is that Disney running both waterparks at the same time either barely made back their operational budget, or were possibly even operating at a loss. If true, then much like the loss of the free FastPass program, the pandemic gave Disney the perfect excuse to shake things up and change how they were going to operate their waterparks going forward.
(6/14/2024) It has been confirmed that the Florida government and Walt Disney World have come to an agreement over a new 15-year master plan of development that will see up to $17 billion in new developments added to the theme park resort property. This seems to have finally brought an end to the angry stand-off between Florida’s Governor DeSantis and the state’s biggest tourism revenue generator.
As part of the deal, Disney has agreed to fund $10 million in ‘attainable housing projects’ in the area, and ensure that at least 50% of their construction work will be contracted out to Florida-based companies, which is also great for the local economy.
(6/3/2024) Cirque du Soleil is adding a special new experience to their Drawn to Life show at Disney Springs. They are calling this new add-on experience the ‘Page to Stage Signature Experience, which includes a beverage and snack of your choice, premium seating to the show, and unique keepsake and an exclusive backstage tour, complet with a meet & greet sesion with one of the show’s performers.
Visit the official show site for all the details and to purchase this special experience ticket.
(6/2/2024) According to a local news report, Walt Disney World is seeking approval of a new development plan with the oversight district installed by Governor DeSantis. This involved that possible $17 billion in new development projects that Disney once floated as possibly being spent to benefit the Florida economy over the next 10 to 20 years. This could possibly also include some official plans for Disney to build a 5th theme park, if they were so inclined. The vote on the new development plan for Walt Disney World is set to take place on June 15th.
(5/28/2024) Walt Disney World put on a new aerial light-up drone show in the skyover Disney Springs and our friends at Orlando Experience were on hand to capture a great video of this new show in action! If you’re visiting Orlando this summer, you can see the new show for free from Disney Springs, but in the meantime you can also check it out below.
(4/20/2024) I’m far from being a snob when it comes to theme park food. I’m what is known as a “Fussy Eater” when it comes to food in general, but more in a George Carlin “Big Pain In The Ass” sort of way. You know, sort of like how a five-year old would prefer a box of chicken nuggets or a bowl of Mac & Cheese to something a little more fancy. So while I usually expect a bit of a greasy mess with my theme park meals, at the same time I can also appreciate most aspects of a fine dining experience as well.
Rarely do the two world’s mix however, especially in America… until now. Disney’s extremely high end “Victoria & Albert’s” restaurant at Walt Disney World, located within Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, has been awarded a MICHELIN Star. There are few restaurant anywhere in the US awarded with a Michelin Star, and Victoria & Albert’s is now the only one owned and operated by a US Theme Park.
Before you load the family in the car and head on over, keep in mind that advanced reservations to get in are a must, and I feel comfortable saying that the pricing is a bit “through the roof” for the experience. According to Disney’s website, while the menu is subject to change, pricing for the standard multi-course meal begins at $295 per person and does not include sales tax or gratuity. Oh, and speaking of those reservations… you’re going to need to put a credit card down to place one, because if you have to cancel for any reason 5 days or less out, you will pay a $100-per-person cancellation fee. If you no-show or cancel 24-hours out or less, then you are on the hook for the full price of the dinner. Ouch!
You are also going to have to change out of that sweaty t-shirt and crocs that you wore into the Magic Kingdom earlier in the day as Victoria & Albert’s also has a dress code. According to the website, “Guests are expected to dress accordingly in semi-formal/formal attire that respects the restaurant’s elegant and opulent aesthetic.”
(4/14/2024) Disney is making a change to their Disability Access Services policy that will go into effect in the US parks in the near future. The program was designed to allow those with certain disabilities where standing in a long line for an attraction isn’t really feasible to instead request a time to come back later and bypass waiting in the queue. Unfortunately the verbiage of Disney’s old program was a bit vague and had become subject to abuse, with Disney claiming that the number of guests now requesting the service has tripled over the past five years.
The new policy will go into effect on May 20, 2024 in Walt Disney World and June 18, 2024 at Disneyland and is now ‘intended to accommodate a small percentage of Guests who, due to a developmental disability like autism or similar, are unable to wait in a conventional queue for an extended period of time.”
While Disney does not require proof of a disability from guests in order to gain access to the program, those caught lying or falsely claiming to have a disability will be issued a “lifetime ban” to the Disney theme parks. If the banned guest has an annual pass, those will be “forfeited and not refunded.” Other changes to the program will now limit the number of guests in a party requesting access to just 4, down from 6. Eligible guests will now also only be able to enroll in the program once every 120 days, up from the previous 60 day restriction.
(3/29/2024) While there are few details posted at the moment, the media headlines from Florida state that Disney and the state of Florida have reached a settlement, ending the nearly two-year long dispute that resulted in Gov. DeSantis taking away control of the special tax district created by the state decades ago to allow for Disney to have better control over their future development and needs.
With Disney poised to spend up to $30 billion on their theme parks and attractions over the next decade, a carrot on a string was held aloft over Florida at the time of the announcement, that just how much of that capital would come to Florida remained to be seen due to the ongoing issues between Disney and Florida’s state government. The once peaceful partnership had grown increasingly hostile during the brief leadership era by Disney’s Bob Chapek, and just one of the many reasons that Bob Iger was brought back in as CEO to address.
(2/26/2024) According to various reports some demolition permits have been filed for the failed NBA Experience attraction at Disney Springs. You know… that big dumb idea that someone thought was a good idea to replace DisneyQuest with?
Seriously though… I believe the demo permits are simply for some interior work to take place within the structure, and not demolition permits for the entire building once again. I am curious what Disney could be planning to do with this location going forward, and while many might appreciate a DisneyQuest-2, I really wouldn’t count on that ever happening. So I guess the question is, what else could they put inside there that might be more successful?
(2/9/2024) According to the WDW website, Typhoon Lagoon will officially reopen to guests once again on March 17, 2024. Once again, Blizzard Beach, which is currently open, will close for refurbishment on the same day. So there you have it… Disney is still unwilling to open both of their waterparks at the same time.
Is anyone else disappointed that Blizzard Beach is only open in the winter months under this new schedule they’ve adopted since the COVID shutdown? For me it was always fun to visit Blizzard Beach in peak summer, to enjoy that stark contrast between Orlando’s blistering heat while surrounded by a themed environment that looked like it was supposed to be frozen but just refused to melt.
(2/5/2024) It seems Disney may have decided on something new to do with the, now closed, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser ultra-themed resort complex. According to a post at MSN, Walt Disney World has filed a new permit to begin “general construction” on the site back in late January. So far we’ve heard no hints about what may be planned for the site just yet.
(1/8/2024) Walt Disney World is offering a new special perk for guests who are also subscribers to the Disney+ streaming service. According to the release from Disney, subscribers who purchase a 4-night / 4-day Disney Travel package that includes an on-site resort room at one of the approved hotels can receive a free “dining plan” addition to their package if visiting between July 1, 2024 and Sept. 30, 2024.
Follow the link for all the official details on how you can get this special offer.
(1/7/2024) It may just be that they haven’t finalized the park schedule this far in advance yet, but if you check the hours of operation for Disney’s Blizzard Beach waterpark, it currently only shows that it is open through to Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024.
Ever since the resort-wide closure in 2020 due to COVID-19, Walt Disney World has so-far refused to open both of their waterparks at the same time, despite the fact that there are no more attendance restrictions in place and that crowd levels have returned to their peak-form once again. The new typical operations schedule over the past couple years has seen Blizzard Beach open sometime in the Fall (typically October or November) and closed last year on March 19, 2023, at which point Typhoon Lagoon reopened for the warmer Spring, Summer and early Fall Months.
Even if Blizzard Beach doesn’t close in February, it seems a solid bet that it will likely close down sometime within the following 30-days if Disney attempts to follow the same general schedule.
(12/17/2023) Disney Springs has opened a major new restaurant this week called Summer House on the Lake. The waterside restaurant experience is said to feature a menu using “sustainable and local ingredients” as well as featuring a “Cookie Bar” featuring 15 different types of oversized cookies and bars. Follow the link for more information about the kind of seasonal menus being offered.
(12/1/2023) Would you believe that a politician in Florida is now proposing to introduce a new bill to the state that would go back and restore Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District as it was before Gov. DeSantis took it apart? I don’t know if there is a chance in hell of it actually happening, but this is Florida, and anything is possible.
(10/1/2023) Can you successfully file a lawsuit against a waterpark for receiving a “wedgie” from a waterslide? We are about to find out, as one “Emma McGuinness” has filed a suit against Walt Disney World after a visit to Typhoon Lagoon caused an “injurious wedgie” from the Humunga Kowabunga slide in 2019.
Depending on when you visited Typhoon Lagoon, this slide started off as a pair of just semi-steep straight down slides from the top of the mountain where rides land in a trough of water at the bottom after passing through an enclosed rocky cave portion over the lower third of the descent. Years later the slide was upgraded to allow for three enclosed-tubes slides to take the descent side-by-side instead of the previous 2 open top slides, increasing the former capacity by 50%.
In 2019, this would have definitely been the newer version of the slide but regardless of which version, these style slides at any waterpark are well known for causing a good wedgie to any rider who fails to cross their legs tightly as instructed. According to the report from MCguinness, the impact into the water at the bottom caused her swimsuit to be “painfully forced between her legs and for water to be violently forced inside her.” In pain, upon standing up, the suit claims that “blood began rushing from between her legs”, and she was then transported to a nearby hospital for further care.
They are now seeking $50,000 in damages against Walt Disney World over the incident, claiming that Disney did not provide proper warning to riders about the risks of that particular waterslide, and that Disney did not provide her or anyone else with “proper protective swimwear.”
(4/4/23) A rundown of the latest happenings with Bob Iger and the future of Walt Disney World has been posted to Fool this week, and it’s a doozy. When asked about the ongoing issues between Disney and Florida’s Governor DeSantis, Iger ‘voiced his frustration’ with the state’s retaliation against Disney, when Disney is also Florida’s largest taxpayer. He also dropped a mega-bomb of sorts, claiming that Disney was currently expecting to spend a mind-boggling $17 BILLION DOLLARS on their Florida resort over the next 10 years. Yes… that’s BILLION with a “B”!
Can you even begin to imagine what Disney could build with $17 Billion? In addition to that huge sum, Iger also mentioned the expectation of creating up to 13,000 new jobs in Walt Disney World over the same time period. Again… I’ve got to think that Disney may be in the early phases of planning a 5th theme park for their Florida resort. That would certainly explain both the huge investment numbers as well as the large number of jobs, as it will take an army to design, build and then finally staff an all new theme park.
(4/1/23) The latest rumblings say that as Disney’s own Reedy Creek Improvement District board made some changes on their way out the door to limit the power of district has over the theme park request, they may have also approved plans for a 5th major theme park. This seems to be based on a document you can see posted on Reddit that shows that the resort property’s plans approved now through 2023 include permission to build one more major theme park, as well as up to 2 more minor theme parks (like Typhoon Lagoon).
Keeping in mind this is not entirely new, as the long term land-use plan for the Walt Disney World property has actually ear-marked sites in the resort for decades where they can build several more theme parks if the need arises. So just as they were about to lose control of the special district, they at least seemed to set some permissions in place to allow for possible expansion over the next decade… but only if the need arises.
Does this mean Disney will build a major theme park and two minor parks between now and 2032? Certainly not… the chance of that kind of growth happening is nearly impossible, and yet the pressure being applied on Disney by the ongoing growth of Universal Studios in Orlando who is now building their 3rd major theme park can not be denied. Bob Iger’s own comments on how the company wants to operate going forward seem to almost hint that a new park may be considered. Iger confirmed that Disney will continue to limit attendance in the parks to improve the guest experience by keeping the controversial reservation system in place. At the same time he also agreed that they can’t just keep raising prices to increase their profit margins, and yet they want to continue to grow. So if you aren’t going to let more people in to the parks you have, and if they really aren’t planning on placing major price hikes for the guests they do let in, the only way to continue to grow their theme park business is to add more parks.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the last major theme park to open at Walt Disney World, did so way back in 1998. If Disney were to begin working on a 5th WDW theme park now, it would probably be about 5 years at the earliest for it to open… so roughly 2028… an astounding 30 years after the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. When you consider there was only about 27 years between the opening of the Magic Kingdom in 1971 and the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the huge gap in development seems even more shocking. Over the years since, Walt Disney World has spent more time building resort hotels and the development of Disney Springs than anything else. It has only been in the past decade or so that we’ve seen a renewed focus on updating and renovating the four existing parks with new lands and attractions. There was New Fantastyland and now Tron at the Magic Kingdom, Toy Story Land, Galaxys Edge and Runaway Railway at the Studios and Pandora: The World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom. Now as they work to finish up plans to renovate Epcot, the next logical step might be to turn their focus on the idea of building an entirely new theme park experience.
 Disney Genie / Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane - (10/25/2023) The attraction reservation nightmare is about to get worse at Walt Disney World. While Disney has yet to talk about this publicly, according to Travel Weekly, WDW President Jeff Vahle shared the news with a group of 400 Travel Agency owners that the ability to make “pre-trip reservations” for attractions will be coming to Genie+.
It’s as if Walt Disney World didn’t learn from their mistakes the last time, when they turned FastPass+ into a living nightmare for all other guests by allowing WDW resort guests to pre-book three attraction FastPass+ reservations each day up to 60 days in advance of their trip. If you don’t remember how that worked out the last time, essentially imagine walking into the Magic Kingdom first thing in the morning and now PAYING for Genie+ (rather than the free FastPass+ program), only to discover that you can’t get a Lightning Lane pass for anything you really want to ride until that evening because the resort guests already pre-booked everything two months prior.
Now, we don’t know the rules for this new system yet, but honestly, the current system is not great as is. In my opinion, and based on how bad FastPass+ got towards the end, pre-trip reservations for Genie+ are only going to make your experience worse… a lot worse. Just for fairness sake, I still don’t think that any reservation of any kind (Genie+ or Individual Lightning Lane, or Virtual Queue Boarding Groups) should be possible until a guest actually physically enters the park itself.
Oh, and in case you haven’t read this yet, please do check out my article about how the current system has brought about the slow death of spontaneity during your Disney theme park visits.
Ticket Pricing Updates - (10/26/2024) With Disneyland having raised their ticket and annual pass prices a few weeks ago, you just knew it was only a matter of time before Walt Disney World did the same. While the Florida resort already raised their 2025 ticket prices that could be pre-booked earlier this year, they did choose this week to increase the price of their annual passes instead, with the various tiers rising anywhere from $30 to $100 for the year-long pass.
(3/2/2024) Disney fans will need to prepare themselves to pay more for their visits to Walt Disney World in 2025. Yes, I said in 2025. While previously Disney’s price increases were just sort of slammed in overnight, with little to no warning and effective from that moment forward, the new era of Disney ticketing, with surge-pricing in effect for busy days now allows them to add in their price increases over a year in advance.
According to Blooloop, based on ticket prices they are finding for 2025, it appears that most ticket prices will rise from $10 to $15 per day, based on the current prices listed for 2024. According to the report the cheapest day/tier tickets offered for Disney Animal Kingdom will jump from $109 to $119, Epcot will rise from $119 to $129, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will rise from $129 to $139 and tickets to visit the Magic Kingdom will rise from $129 to $144 in 2025. You can also expect a $5 to $20 price increase for passes with Park Hopping.
(10/11/2023) A little good news came from Walt Disney World today, as they confirmed that anytime Park Hopping access would return for guests with valid park hopper tickets or annual passholders starting January 9, 2024.
This is also the same date that “reservations” are no longer required to buy date-specific tickets to the parks, though that isn’t quite the same as dropping reservations entirely, because Disney can always just “sell out” entirely of tickets on any given day if they wished to do so. At least this is a step in the right direction, since you will be able to buy a ticket for a date and visit any park you wish, and park hop as well provided you pay for the add-on.
For Annual Passholders, I wish I had better news, as passholders still have to play the reservation game to gain access to the parks, however there is some light there as well. As current passholders are aware, you can still visit the park of your choice after 2pm without a reservation… just not on the weekends at the Magic Kingdom. HOWEVER… sometime in January 2024 (date not locked in) you can start to look for “Good-to-go Days” on the calendar, which will be days that all passholders can visit without needing a reservation.
Oh… speaking of Passholder pain, Disney did just announce across the board price increases are in place for all tiers of Annual Passes. On average you’ll see a price increase of between $30-50 bucks, with the top tier pass rising to a whopping $1449. Oh… and before I forget, the price of parking at the theme parks also just jumped from $25 to $30.
(11/18/22) According to CNN, Walt Disney World will raise ticket prices to their parks on December 8, 2022. While Disney World ticket prices already were a bit confusing before with all the tiers and a different price between the Magic Kingdom and the other parks, it’s becoming even more complicated now, with entirely different pricing ranges being set for each other parks.
According to CNN, the new price ranges will be:
Magic Kingdom - $124 to $189
Epcot - $114 to $179
Disney’s Hollywood Studios - $124 to $179
Disney’s Animal Kingdom - $109 to $159
It was noted that the pricing for Disney’s Animal Kingdom will actually remain the same as it is today, seemingly as some kind of reflection that the park hasn’t added anything new in the past few couple years compared to the other three parks.
On the positive side of things, they also mentioned that if you are just buying a single-day ticket to one park (no park hopping) you will no longer have to make a park reservation to visit that day. Otherwise Reservations are still required for all other ticket types.
The idea of having unique pricing for each park is also an interesting one that goes against the grain of Disney’s long established concept that all the park’s would have the same ticket price, even though some were more popular than others. For years people who argue that park’s like Disney’s Animal Kingdom should have been priced less than the other parks since it offered less to do and was often referred to as a half-day park experience.
Over the past few years, Disney began to charge a little more for guests to get into the Magic Kingdom, but the other three parks would be offered at the same price as each other, until now. With Epcot now being home to Walt Disney World’s two newest rides, and the Hollywood Studios park having become very popular due to its own new rides, including the Star Wars themed Galaxy’s Edge, it is interesting to see Animal Kingdom offered as the lowest price option.
(11/24/21) In an interesting bit of news, Walt Disney World has actually pressed the pause button on the sale of most of their Annual Passes once again, after just starting to sell them again in late August. As of Sunday, you can no longer purchase the Pirate Pass, Sorcerer Pass or Incredi-Pass, which are the top three tiers of passes sold. The Incredi-Pass was the only version available to those who live outside of Florida, unless you were a Disney Vacation Club member, and then you could have purchased the also-paused Sorcerer Pass. The only pass still being sold is the lowest tier pass, the Pixie Dust Pass, which is only available to Florida Residents and has the most blackout days, being primarily only available for use during most weekdays.
The good news for existing passholders however is that the pause in sales only affects the sale of NEW passes. Existing passholders will be given the option to renew their passes and keep them going.
While no official solid excuse was given, it may be due to a mixture of the resort entering the busy Holiday season to finish out the year, as well as the return of International tourism to the resort, which is expected to be off the charts for the rest of the year. If this is the case, we may see passes return to being sold sometime in early 2022 once again.
(2/7/19) When it comes to the price of admission, how much is too much? Surprisingly, despite what your initial take is, when you get down to it, this really is more of an individual choice question. Doubly so when it comes to Disney fans and the price of admission into Disney theme parks which have steadily been on the rise each year for the past several decades. This week I decided to take a look at past price increase trends from Disney and even predict where the price is going between now and 2030, based on past increases, all in my latest article for BlooLoop.
Late 2024 - DVC Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort - (12/20/2024) Orlando Experience has posted a quick look at the new Island Tower expansion that has opened at Disney’s Polynesian Resort.
(5/12/2024) Walt Disney World has confirmed that the new expansion tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows resort is now set to open to guests this December. The new 10-story “Island Tower” will feature a large number of DVC rooms that offer a scenic view of Disney’s Seven Seas Lagoon.
DVC members will be the first to make reservations in the new tower on June 4th, followed by WDW Annual Passholders on June 5 and the general public can make reservations starting June 6, 2024.
(12/29/2023) A nice photo construction update of the progress being made at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort has been posted to MouseSteps, looking over the new DVC resort building.
(11/7/2023) MouseSteps has posted a new construction update for Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, including a look at the new tower under construction.
(7/17/2023) A construction update showing off the current progress on the new DVC tower at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort has been posted to MouseSteps this week.
(5/20/2023) MouseSteps is back with a look a the construction of the new DVC Tower over at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.
(4/22/2023) While we’re on the subject of Disney DVC properties today, MouseSteps has posted new construction photos of the new DVC tower going up at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. The new tower is expected to be ready sometime in late 2024. Follow the link to check it out.
(3/17/22) Disney isn’t finished rebuilding their Polynesian Village Resort it seems. The company has announced a new large DVC tower will be coming to the resort to replace the existing “Luau Cove” area, looking to replace the closed Spirit of Aloha dinner theater that has been closed since the pandemic started and was just confirmed as being closed permanently.
Like all big projects, the time-table is a bit fluid, but the concept art says it could open as soon as 2024.
2024 - DVC Cabins at Fort Wilderness Campground - (4/22/2023) The expansion of the DVC (Disney Vacation Club) brand throughout the Walt Disney World Resort properties continues with this week. Walt Disney World announced that the 350+ stand-alone cabins at the Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground will be replaced with updated versions that will become the next DVC timeshare vacation property at the resort. The basic footprints will remain the same, but the cabins will be updated to be more modern and more ‘environmentally friendly’. Look for the transformation to be complete sometime in 2024, and like other DVC properties at WDW, regular non-DVC guests are still able to make reservations to stay here as well.
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2027 - Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge - In Development - (11/28/2024) The former “Reflections - A Disney Lakeside Lodge” DVC Resort project for Walt Disney World that was put on indefinite hold shortly after starting the initial site clearing due to the pandemic is now back… kind of. Disney has spent the years revising the concept and has announced a new project on the same site (where the old River Country water park used to be) that will be called Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge. New permits have been filed and work has restarted with the goal of opening this new resort sometime in 2027. Beyond that, few details are known, other than it will be similar in size and scope and theme to the original Reflections concept.
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 ???? - New Magic Kingdom Resort - (10/23/21) Is Walt Disney World planning some kind of new resort for the Magic Kingdom area? New permits filed by Walt Disney World for a “World Drive Phase III” now show plans to move the existing Floridan Way road as it approaches the Grand Floridian. The roadway will turn to the left and cut through a small section of the Magnolia Golf Course that will essentially wipe out Hole 16 to get around a backstage work and parking area and then head North again with an all new road to eventually reconnect with the existing road at the intersection of Maple Rd.
I drew up a quick graphic showing the approximate location of the new planned route for Floridian Way and how it would open up a rather large piece of land just to the north of the Grand Floridian along an undeveloped section of the Seven Seas Lagoon. Well, almost undeveloped… you may recall that Disney management FINALLY completed the “decades in the making” walkway from The Magic Kingdom to the Grand Floridian resort with the construction of two bridges and a pathway. While the pathway was announced a long long time ago, the reveal of this new piece of the puzzle makes me wonder if they finally had a good reason to finish this pathway after all these years to provide walking access to the Magic Kingdom from any possible new resort they might choose to put there. (The distance isn’t far enough to bother with adding yet another monorail stop between the park and Grand Flo…)
Now don’t go expecting to see a new building rising in the next year or so. This is a fine example of Disney’s long term strategy at work here, and I think they’re just setting the stage for something special to come in the future… but not until they are ready.
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