Wilderness Junction?

[Banzai]

In the cheepskates guide to WDW, there was a refrence to the new Wilderness Junction hotel. WHen did this idea fade, or evan come up?

Bradq

 

[carterman_12]

I'm not sure...but you would think that they would lay off the "wilderness" name for resorts...

 

[jsok]

Disney's Buffalo Junction and Wilderness Lodge were announced at the Disney Decade press conference in 1990. This pair of Bay Lake hotels were to share rustic themes, with Buffalo Junction located just between the Lodge and the Fort Wilderness Campground.

During the mid-1990s, after the opening of the Lodge, Disney had announced it was planning a 1997 groundbreaking for the Wilderness Junction, a Pacific Northwest themed resort that seemed to be Buffalo Jct. with a new name. Like the Epcot resort area or the Dixie Landings / Port Orleans complex, the two Wilderness hotels would have been connected via paths and roadways to each other and the campground.

Then, like so many developments throughout Disney World history, Wilderness Junction was never spoken of again. No groundbreaking, no further details.

Though it seems in unlikely that the Junction resort will ever surface again, it is interesting to note that the space allotted still remains undeveloped. The current site of the Wilderness Lodge Villas is *not* where the Junction would have stood.

 

[Another Voice]

The Buffalo Junction Resort’s design was based on the Cheyenne Hotel at Euro Disney. It had one of more unique designs – all of the buildings were to have been themed as “blocks” in an old western town giving the entire complex the look of a complete town. The entrances to the building would be the bank, a schoolhouse, the general store and all of the other clichés of western movies. The exteriors were to be as authentic looking as possible, even more so than the French Quarter look of Port Orleans. Several websites have photographs of the resort at Euro Disney if you want to see what we missed.

Two events killed the project. In the Company’s mind, everything associated with Euro Disney became evil after it opened and so the thought of transplanting one of their hotels to WDW became politically impossible. Second, Disney is not going to construct any more “moderate” resorts because the highest returns come from the motel-level All-Star/Pop-Century level. Coronado Springs was constructed to serve the convention trade and not primarily as a “guest” resort. Plans for the high-end Mediterranean Resort have been canceled once again according to “rumor” because its rate of return on investment did not suit the suits.