BOULDER RIDGE VILLAS & COPPER CREEK VILLAS & CABINS: Wilderness Lodge DVC Expansion Thread

[Ohana2011]

I don't think I have seen this mentioned anywhere, and this may be WAY off base here, but here it goes. We r staying at the poly now, and on my drive in on Wold Dr. Right before you turn on timberline to go to WL there are a bunch of cabins on what looks to be a staging area for the new dvc area. Are these the new copper creek cabins waiting to be brought over to the lake at WL? I just caught a quick glance while driving and could not get a pic, but they were duplex style cabins. I will try to go back there tomorrow to get pictures to upload. Anyone else seen this or heard about the cabins being staged there?

We noticed them as well when we were there last week. I believe those are refurbished cabins (or yet to be refurbished) for Fort Wilderness... Or they could be moved out of the way for RVs as sleepydog25 mentioned. Disney's plans seem to include building permanent cabins from the ground up (not using mobile ones) at Copper Canyon. The cabins that were parked out on Timberline drive appear to be mobile home like cabins, similar to the ones that you see at Ft. Wilderness. I noticed a trailer hitch on those mobile cabins.

 

[dalmatian7]

From what I have read, the old FW cabins are being used as a work area for various constructions projects, kind of as offices and such.

Thanks, that makes sense. It makes me chuckle because I work extensively with our county fair and quite a few buildings are on skids so they can be moved or repurposed. I would just think a "classy" place like WDW wouldn't do this. But it is a good idea for.them.
I wonder if they were replaced with newer ones or RVs are so popular they need more space?
For what they will probably charge to stay in those cabins, I hope they are more substantial then a modular unit.

 

[AngiTN]

What would they keep them for? Or do they move then often? I have never been to the cabins at FW, I thought they were built in?

Thanks, that makes sense. It makes me chuckle because I work extensively with our county fair and quite a few buildings are on skids so they can be moved or repurposed. I would just think a "classy" place like WDW wouldn't do this. But it is a good idea for.them.
I wonder if they were replaced with newer ones or RVs are so popular they need more space?
For what they will probably charge to stay in those cabins, I hope they are more substantial then a modular unit.

Nope, not built in. They are basically mobile homes. Which is why I have never been overly fond of staying in them.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Here now in WL courtyard room. Construction side interior is clearly gutted. (No interior walls are visible) It appears that they are just beginning to add new interior stud walls beginning nearest Bear Face end. Still handing out Pardon our Dust pins. Elevator traffic is very manageable (rarely a wait). We haven't gone looking for construction and haven't seen / heard any that is readily noticeable. Pool traffic is about normal. I assume because there is only 1 now. Questions?

Have they started to construct any of the cabins yet?

 

[Ohana2011]

Have they started to construct any of the cabins yet?

On the hotel side, no... It looked as though they were laying the pipes for plumbing and electrical. We didn't see the DVC side.

 

[mbrown572097]

Have they started to construct any of the cabins yet?

It does not appear that they have. Haven't looked too hard though.

 

[Dean Marino]

Some data....

Some time ago (April 2015), we also saw the old Ft. Wilderness Cabins lined up & waiting at the Old Airstrip. We ALSO (from the road), thought they MIGHT be pre-fabs for the new WL Copper Creek DVC offering. They are not. They are OLD FW Cabins that have been removed, and SOLD to a third party. As you could guess - these are BIG. It's going to take some TIME for the purchaser to move 'em .

To the best of our knowledge - the NEW Copper Creek Cabins will be purpose built, on site. For better or worse - they will NOT be cheap .

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

Here now in WL courtyard room. Construction side interior is clearly gutted. (No interior walls are visible) It appears that they are just beginning to add new interior stud walls beginning nearest Bear Face end. Still handing out Pardon our Dust pins. Elevator traffic is very manageable (rarely a wait). We haven't gone looking for construction and haven't seen / heard any that is readily noticeable. Pool traffic is about normal. I assume because there is only 1 now. Questions?

Are you saying the entire south wing that you see from a courtyard view room is gutted?

Thanks for the update!

 

[DebbieB]

I seem to remember there being a change to Florida timeshare laws that Disney had helped to shape right before the announcement was made for the new development at WL concerning existing timeshares and the associations right to alter the end date? Does anyone else remember this?
It is on these boards somewhere - I remember the VWL owners speculating what it would mean for us once the new development was put up for sale.

Also for those of us who purchased VWL directly from Disney - I purchased a 50 year contract that only had 41 years to go. If they want to give me those 8 years for free I'll take them.
Those 8 years will allow my children a few years of taking their grandchildren - I'll probably be a little old for Disney by then.

From what has been speculated, there will be no change to existing VWL (Boulder Ridge) contracts. The new construction (Copper Creek) will be a separate resort contract, most likely 50 years and at a high price. Existing owners will not have any home resort rights to Copper Creek.

 

[sleepydog25]

Are you saying the entire south wing that you see from a courtyard view room is gutted?

Thanks for the update!

The entire south wing appears to be under construction and gutted to the studs. Those will be the new suites for Copper Creek, though DVC hasn't (can't yet) officially said as much.

 

[mbrown572097]

Are you saying the entire south wing that you see from a courtyard view room is gutted?

Thanks for the update!

Yes, There do not appear to be any interior walls that I can see. You can see straight through and out the other side sliding doors.

 

[Dean Marino]

Yes, There do not appear to be any interior walls that I can see. You can see straight through and out the other side sliding doors.

Let me describe "gutted" ....

Sandy & I were at the VWL, 2nd Story, "construction view" (room 2505?) in April of 2016. From our balcony, we got a REALLY good look at what was coming OUT of the South Wing .
Folks - this included wallboard, bathtubs, metal wall studs, and even DUCT Work. Metal was going into recycling dumpsters - and the crews were traversing the floors with zero barriers .

Now, we have not BEEN in that wing, anymore than anyone else.... but casual observation leads us to believe that this puppy is pretty much hollow . It's actually a testament to it's construction: it does not APPEAR to have any serious load bearing walls on the interior. Much like a business oriented office building? It can be totally hollowed, and re-configured.

 

[kungaloosh22]

I hope the south wing does in fact get a mix of studios and larger units. I'd hate to see all studios as they'd be on the small side. At least the Poly conversion had some decent square footage to work with (regardless of whether they used it as efficiently as possible, ie main bathroom space gripes). Does the placement of the existing balconies limit reconfiguration significantly?

 

[Lisa P.]

Excellent question. Does anyone know how they dealt with the limitations of existing balconies with the AKL Jambo room conversions from hotel rooms to DVC condos?

For that matter, what was the timeline for that, at AKL? How long from shutdown of hotel rooms to reopened DVC units?

 

[Lisa P.]

I'm answering one of my own questions. Per Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney's_Animal_Kingdom_Lodge): "On October 11, 2006, Disney announced to local media that Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge would become home to the newest Disney Vacation Club property, Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas. On February 18, 2008, Disney announced the first phase of this expansion was complete, and included 109 rooms" So construction converting Jambo hotel rooms to DVC villas was completed about 16 months after announced.

Does anyone think the hotel portion of construction will be completed by the end of this year?

 

[Flossbolna]

I'm answering one of my own questions. Per Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney's_Animal_Kingdom_Lodge): "On October 11, 2006, Disney announced to local media that Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge would become home to the newest Disney Vacation Club property, Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas. On February 18, 2008, Disney announced the first phase of this expansion was complete, and included 109 rooms" So construction converting Jambo hotel rooms to DVC villas was completed about 16 months after announced.

Does anyone think the hotel portion of construction will be completed by the end of this year?

I think I am in the minority, but, yes, I do expect an announcement of sales to begin this summer and the resort opening to its first guests late this year or very early next year. But that is just my personal guess from the AKV timelines. I compared those some time ago as well. As you said, the AKV Jambo conversion really did not take that long. And their they had to be more careful with how much noise they were making as they were only converting the 5th floor, so there were hotel guests staying underneath the rooms they were working in.

My thinking is that with all the work we see happening there already, the rooms ought to be finished fairly soon. And Disney will not let finished rooms sit around unoccupied when they could be earning money!

 

[DebbieB]

I think I am in the minority, but, yes, I do expect an announcement of sales to begin this summer and the resort opening to its first guests late this year or very early next year. But that is just my personal guess from the AKV timelines. I compared those some time ago as well. As you said, the AKV Jambo conversion really did not take that long. And their they had to be more careful with how much noise they were making as they were only converting the 5th floor, so there were hotel guests staying underneath the rooms they were working in.

My thinking is that with all the work we see happening there already, the rooms ought to be finished fairly soon. And Disney will not let finished rooms sit around unoccupied when they could be earning money!

The question is if they want the cabins to open at the same time. At the Poly, the bungalows and 2 of the 3 longhouses opened at the same time. A similar situation happened at the Poly, those buildings were gutted, you could see straight through. At AKL, Kidani was a much larger construction project so they opened Jambo first. They only opened half of Kidani at first, the side closest to Jambo, while construction continued on the other side. My bet at WL is they will want at least some of those cabins open to help sell the new resort, plus the new facilities.

 

[ottawagreg]

At our company we do 3D BIM construction projects (schools, hospitals, high rises and such). BIM is "building information management", it allows for clash detection and building trades coordination. Once the MEP portion is completed, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing, the rest can really go quite quickly. When the building was constructed the industry was not really doing three dimensional modeling. I would wager three FP(s) that the mouse created a 3D model of the structure and designed the rooms in virtual 3D space. This would allow them to prefab a lot of stuff, (water mains, conduit runs, fixture locations, etc.) It seems like everything would be ordered and delivered so that the finish work snap into place like a jigsaw puzzle. Based on what Dean said they are doing the MEP right now. Christmas time might be doable to have occupancy, at least on some floors in the south wing.

I downloaded the permit drawings last year when the news broke about the expansion. There is a lot of six and eight inch underground piping for the the cabins, pool and the buildings at the pool area. Perhaps I am wrong, but judging by the pictures I have seen online, no UG pipe work has even started. To do all of that trenching and pipe, pour a concrete pool and surrounding deck, build twenty-four (? or more) cabins and all the associated infrastructure (walkways, landscaping, lighting, pool fence, etc.) by mid 2017 seems like a very heavy lift. Project completion would be much closer to 2018. IMHO. Just saying. Plus how long to recreate the Mickey topiary?

 

[Flossbolna]

There were some interesting pictures posted on www.wdwmagic.com:

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...eek-villas-cabins.897594/page-42#post-7246253

You can see the foundation for a cabin being prepared. And there is a link to more pictures.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I'm answering one of my own questions. Per Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney's_Animal_Kingdom_Lodge): "On October 11, 2006, Disney announced to local media that Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge would become home to the newest Disney Vacation Club property, Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas. On February 18, 2008, Disney announced the first phase of this expansion was complete, and included 109 rooms" So construction converting Jambo hotel rooms to DVC villas was completed about 16 months after announced.

Does anyone think the hotel portion of construction will be completed by the end of this year?

They started to wall off the south wing of the resort to begin construction in the WL when we were there Jan 9th to 13th (this year). They told us that they hoped to have those rooms open again by the end of the November.

It doesn't seem possible that they will have all those rooms finished by then, since they were completely gutted.