Why Won't Disney Just Admit a HUGE Hotel Announcement Is Coming Soon?!

Disney is no stranger to announcing projects and then later changing their mind and outright canceling plans.

We’ve seen it happen often over the past five years, and the best example is all of the things we were initially promised for the EPCOT transformation that just never came to be, or somehow ended up far less than what was originally imagined (for example, CommuniCore Hall and Plaza). However, there was one project that Disney seemingly abandoned that we later learned may not have been abandoned. But we’re still waiting on the company to make an announcement about it.

UPDATE: We spoke the announcement into existence! On November 26th, Disney announced a brand new Disney Vacation Club hotel called Lakeshore Lodge.

Let’s take it all the way back to 2018 when Disney World announced plans to build a 900-room deluxe resort called Reflections — A Disney Lakeside Lodge. This resort would be located between Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness Resorts and have a nature theme. Disney even had plans to bring a Princess and the Frog-themed restaurant to the hotel. The land was cleared and it seemed like Reflections would be on its way. Here’s what the resort’s concept art looked like:

Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge Concept Art ©Disney

Then in 2020, everything changed, and it seemed like Disney had abandoned the project. All mentions of it were scrubbed and Disney never mentioned it again. So one would assume that the project was canceled, right?

Fast forward to May 2024, when Disney filed a permit to extend the original Reflections construction site permit. That permit was for an additional five years, giving Disney time to decide what they were going to do with the site.

In August 2024, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District filed documents that indicated: “The purpose of this project is to provide a new transformer service yard, transformer loop, and SCADA monitoring cabinets for a “new resort.”

A new permit was filed in September 2024 for the exact location of the project for the installation of a water main. That suggests that Reflections could be underway again, although Disney has neither confirmed or denied that. But the water main was set to go into a staging area for the original Reflections construction site.

Another permit was filed in October, 2024 for construction in the area, suggesting this is a major project. Again, the permit indicated the location where Disney had intended to put Reflections.

Princess and the Frog restaurant concept art ©Disney

There’s just one big problem. Disney has not confirmed that it has plans to continue work on Reflections. There have been no official announcements indicating that the project is back on Disney’s list. Something is obviously happening at the site where the resort was supposed to be built, but Disney has not yet confirmed or denied exactly what’s going on there.

At the most recent D23 event, Disney made a TON of announcements about projects coming to Disney Parks and Disney Cruise Line. However, there were no announcements about new hotels at Disney World. So why hasn’t Disney told us what’s going on?

There could be several reasons and the first is that Disney has no plans for revisiting the project. Maybe those construction permits are for something else that Disney has decided to use the land for, maybe even something mundane like service buildings. However, maybe Disney is still on the fence about continuing the project and is filing permits just to keep it on the table until a decision is made.

If Disney has decided to build Reflections, after all, the company may just not be ready to announce it. These big announcements are usually well thought out and the company will want to make sure everything is in place so that the announcement has maximum impact.

Whatever the case, we’re really wanting to know what’s going on with that land. Maybe Disney will enlighten us eventually.

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