Recent permits filed by Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando seem to indicate that a new 10-story hotel will be built on the site of one of Disney’s most infamous attractions.
Looking up at The Hollywood Tower Hotel (The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror) at Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World, December 2004. Photo Credit: The original uploader was Techclub at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons
Once upon a time, there was a third water park on Walt Disney World property. Aside from Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, which still operate today, Disney’s original water park was called River Country. It sat between Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Resort and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground.
River Country was designed to be an “old fashioned swimmin’ hole” and used filtered confluent water from Bay Lake for its main pool area, alongside a smaller chlorinated pool. It was the site of three deaths in the 80s, two from drowning and one from an 11-year old boy contracting amoebic meningoencephalitis, in which the brain is infected by ameobas.
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Originally opening to the public in 1976, River Country was closed in 2001, with the expectation that it would eventually reopen. However, the permanent closure was finally announced to the public in 2005. After that, the site sat empty, wasting away until it became something that looked as though it had been ripped from The Walking Dead.
River Country eventually became a favorite for urban exploration content creators who snuck into the abandoned site (illegally) to watch in awe as nature reclaimed the once bustling water park.
Because Disney never actually cut the power to River Country, the water park’s lighting system would still flicker on and background music could still be heard playing, giving it an extra layer of pure creepiness. it seemed as though Disney was content to let River Country rot until the end of time. However, the company announced plans back in 2018 to demolish the old swimmin’ hole in favor of a new deluxe resort.
Once simply dubbed “Project 89,” the project was eventually named Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge.
A new nature-inspired, mixed-use Disney resort will welcome families in 2022 along the picturesque shoreline of Bay Lake located between Disneys Wilderness Lodge and Disneys Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground at Walt Disney World Resort. The deluxe resort, which will be themed to complement its natural surroundings, will include more than 900 hotel rooms and proposed Disney Vacation Club villas spread across a variety of unique accommodation types. (Proposed Artist Concept Only, Disney)
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Announced for a 2022 opening, the project that would eventually be called Reflections was described by the company as:
“A new nature-inspired, mixed-use Disney resort will welcome families in 2022 along the picturesque shoreline of Bay Lake. Located between Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, this resort project joins three others underway at Walt Disney World Resort, bringing a total of more than 1,700 new hotel rooms and proposed Disney Vacation Club villas online over the next four years.”
It was to feature 900 hotel rooms along with Disney Vacation Club villas and a Princess and The Frog themed restaurant.
Concept art for Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge
Work began on the project in 2019, with demolition teams clearing the former River Country and the Mickey’s Backyard BBQ area of Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.
But then along came the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, causing massive financial strife across the entire Disney company. Plans for this resort were seemingly scrapped. This was confirmed in 2021 when Disney filed permits to remove construction trailers from the location. But then in 2023 and 2024, Disney filed to extend existing permits for the site.
Mickey walks down Main Street USA at Disneyland. (Credit: Mortimer Productions)
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Most recently, the company received a permit from the Federal Aviation Administration for the construction of a 240 foot-tall mobile construction crane at Fort Wilderness. The coordinates listed on the permit match those of the proposed Reflections resort. The proposal was also described as such in the description of proposal section:
“Construction of mobile cranes to construct a 10-story hotel. The mobile cranes can reach a max height of 240 ft. AGL when raised to its highest point. When idle, during non-working hours, the crane will be at a max height of 150 ft. AGL.”
Concept art for Disney’s unnamed Cars attraction for smaller racers at Magic Kingdom
While Disney has not made an official announcement that this project is back on, we can safely assume that it’s coming. Whether it will be its own location or an extension of Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground remains to be seen.
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