Lakeshore Lodge Mega Update: Fort Wilderness Hotel Reaches Full Height, Theming Elements Arrive
I’ll offer some commentary here and echo statements that I’ve published before. I’m not a fan of the location of the Disney Lakeshore Lodge hotel – at least, as it relates to the Pioneer Hall area. I think the hotel will be wonderful, with a great pool area and stunning views of Bay Lake. It will very likely be beloved by those who stay there. The concept could be the best that Walt Disney World has created in a very long time – if it existed in a bubble. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. I wish that Disney had been able to figure out a way to either push the resort further west, closer to Wilderness Lodge, or take it to the east side of Bay Lake, out of the way of Fort Wilderness’ waterfront. The tranquility of the waterfront near Pioneer Hall is very likely gone for good.
With that out of the way, let’s jump on a boat from Magic Kingdom to Fort Wilderness and check out the views of Lakeshore Lodge from…the lake.
In order to get our bearings a bit, we need to understand the layout of the hotel. Essentially, we have two U-shaped sections. One U-shaped section looks northwest toward Magic Kingdom, while the other U-shaped section looks northeast with views of Bay Lake. As we go through our photo update, we’ll make reference to the northwest section and the northeast section. In general, our watercraft travels from Magic Kingdom to Fort Wilderness from west to east, meaning that we’ll first take a look at the northwest-facing section, followed by the northeast-facing section.
Here’s a late-June aerial photo of the hotel, showing those two U-shaped sections. This aerial photo was taken from northeast of the construction site, providing a sort of reverse view of the permit above.
Via:
Bioreconstruct
Ok, back to our trip from Magic Kingdom to Fort Wilderness. As we float past a lush island near Wilderness Lodge, the Lakeshore Lodge hotel comes into view. This section of the resort isn’t
quite at full height, but it is very close. Other sections of the resort have reached their full height. A good indication of whether or not a particular section of the hotel has reached full height is if you can see a roof installed or not.
We can see that the roof line is starting to take shape with some themed elements created out of steel. Some of the steel structures appear to hide elevator shafts, while others are decorative in nature and hang over room balconies. It also looks like Disney could be creating a new dock which would provide excellent views of the nightly fireworks show across Bay Lake at Magic Kingdom.
As we continue to float past the hotel, the northeast-facing section is starting to come into view. This will be the “main” area of the hotel, cradling what is expected to be a rather dynamic pool area.
We start with a view of a structure starting to rise right along the shore of Bay Lake. I’m not sure what this structure will be, but it is considerably in the foreground, with the pool area in between it and the hotel in the distance.
Because of vegetation along the shoreline, the northwest part of the hotel comes into view before the central section of the hotel. I’m happy to see that Disney has kept quite a number of trees along the shoreline. This section of the hotel has reached its full height, as we can see the roof line theming pretty much all the way around this northeast-facing U-shaped section.
Another big milestone on this project since we last checked in is the construction of the main lobby area. The steel framing below will create the entrance experience. The porte cochere is on the opposite side of the angle seen below, and we’ll have a look at that a little later in this article.
Panoramic view of Lakeshore Lodge from Fort Wilderness boat launch dock
As seen in the panorama photo above, the tent-like structures continue to be installed along the shoreline. These will be part of the Lakeshore Lodge hotel, but they are upcharge “bungalows” like we’ve seen at Wilderness Lodge and Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. Here’s a closer look at the progress on these tent bungalows.
There are still more structures to be installed, as evidenced by the plumbing in an overgrown area nearest the boat dock. Once the buildout is complete, permits indicate that there will be 14 of these tent-like structures.
There are a number of similar structures on the west side of the construction site. They’re a little bit more difficult to see during the watercraft journey between Magic Kingdom and Fort Wilderness. We’ll get a better look at this cluster of bungalows from the bus ride past the front of the resort.
Ok, with our feet back on dry land, it’s time to check out the Lakeshore Lodge construction from a few vantage points around The Settlement/Pioneer Hall. I’ve said it in previous updates, but it’s worth repeating – it’s difficult to represent just how much Lakeshore Lodge imposes on this area of Fort Wilderness. The photos below were taken with different focal length lenses, which can distort the depth of a photo. In general, I would take the “objects are closer than they appear” approach when viewing these photos. Here’s a look around!
Click link for additional images and the rest of the article.
