So this is what I always understood the theme to be. This is the current story from allears:
"Adjacent to Disney's Wilderness Lodge a team of railroad workers discovers a spectacular property -- complete with lakes, trees and majestic mountains rising in the distance (Splash Mountain and Space Mountain, that is!).
These intrepid explorers decide this is the spot -- the perfect spot to set up camp as they build the transcontinental railway. They build themselves a new homestead and when it's time to move on, they leave it behind to be "re-discovered'' by Disney Vacation Club... and so the story goes!
Like Disney's Wilderness Lodge, the new resort is inspired by the tall timber and grandeur of the Rocky Mountain national park geyser country. In keeping with Disney's legendary entertainment heritage, the DVC resort will build on the storyline "imagineered'' for Disney's Wilderness Lodge property, which describes the new structure as actually "pre-dating'' Disney's Wilderness Lodge through a design reminiscent of turn-of-the century hotels built by early railroad workers in the old West national park region."
Turn of the century railroad hotel
Tall Timbers
Rocky Mountain national park geyser country
lakes
trees
Uh, yeah. Already pretty richly themed. Others have speculated the names are coming from either Alaska or the Northwest, neither which were on the transcontinental railway, nor even close.
One thing that stood out to me from the additional info from DVC was this: "
Disney’s Old Key West Resort, which opened in 1991 as Disney Vacation Club Resort, later adopted its more richly themed name as other Disney Vacation Club Resorts joined the neighborhood. Just as the Disney’s Old Key West Resort name distinguished the Resort from its neighbors and allowed Imagineers to more deeply explore the Resort’s thematic connections to the Florida Keys"
That name predates me in DVC but from what I've gathered there wasn't any big theme change. Instead, wasn't that about the time they started removing all the little things like the peach towels, etc that made it seem more like home? That's what I've gathered from OKW owners who are like I expect to be, still talking about bubbling pools and trees and VWL 15 years from now.
...at OKW, Disney has announced that they are building a new DVC resort on the OKW property. They are going to build new deluxe villas on the banks of the existing waterway. On all the areas that used to be golf course, they will build beautifully themed Bedouin tent villas surrounding lush waterways. They have announced that they will rename the new resort Plush Oasis Villas & Tents.
