Disney's Wilderness Lodge History

 A rustic, serene resort nestled on the shoreline of Bay Lake with trees left and right, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge is the perfect place to settle down after a long hustle and bustle at the theme parks. After all, it features some of the coziest and robust amenities the lodge has to offer, from comfy fireplaces and colorful landscaping to top-notch restaurants and imaginative activities. It is no wonder that Wilderness Lodge reflects nature, wildlife, and woodcraft in extraordinary ways.

Designed by architect Peter Dominick, Randy Johnson, Christian Barlock (who led the design for the Villas at Wilderness Lodge) and a group of fellow architects known as the Urban Design Group, the Wilderness Lodge started its construction in mid-August 1992, and completed in late May of 1994, about a few days before its grand opening. Disney’s Wilderness Lodge opened on May 28, 1994, which evokes the sense of American heritage, National Park lodges, Native American elements, and the overall look and feel of the Pacific Northwest.

In 1998, five years after the opening of Wilderness Lodge, Disney Vacation Club (DVC) announced an expansion for the resort, which led to the development of the Villas at Wilderness Lodge. Construction of the villas began that same year, and completed in late 2000, operating on a smaller budget and a shorter time schedule than the original Wilderness Lodge.

The Villas at Wilderness Lodge opened on November 15, 2000, along with additional amenities that apply to both DVC and non-DVC guests. Unlike later DVC expansions at Wilderness Lodge, the villas did not tarnish the legacy of the resort, since it was designed by the Urban Design Group, led by Christian Barlock. Disney’s Wilderness Lodge stayed in its nature’s jewelry for 21 years, with only a couple of refurbishments occurring in 2001 and 2012 that did not cause any damage to the resort’s natural 

beauty.

In late 2015, however, Disney Vacation Club announced another, more unnecessary expansion of its properties at Wilderness Lodge. As a result, the Villas at Wilderness Lodge were renamed Boulder Ridge Villas in May 2016, and the eastern half of Wilderness Lodge’s main building had its rooms converted from luxurious hotel rooms to distorted DVC bedroom units. Not only that, but the entire east half of the main lodge was renamed Copper Creek Villas, along with the resort’s two pools being renamed from Silver Creek Springs and Hidden Springs to Copper Creek and Boulder Ridge Cove, respectively, changing their overall designs and themes during this time.

The unfortunate changes at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge didn’t stop there. The construction of 26 lakeside cabins known as the Cascade Cabins occurred on the shoreline of the resort’s property, destroying many plants and trees, a small beach, and a nature trail in the process. A bar called Geyser Point Bar and Grill was constructed following the disappointing demolition of its previous pool bar Trout Pass Pool Bar, and the nature trail was replaced by a simpler walking path leading to a small tennis court and an extra parking space for Cascade Cabins guests. Although the Cascade Cabins were neat in concept, the reality is that they should have been placed away from the shoreline of Wilderness Lodge and situated between it and Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground instead. The cabins themselves do not measure up to the authenticity and out-of-the-box architecture of the two lodges, and they cause erosion, water pollution, and landscaping damage to occur. 

Lastly, two more refurbishments of the hallways and rooms at Wilderness Lodge and its villas in 2017 and 2021 caused them to lose their color, luxury and interesting designs, replaced by a cheap-looking, colorless feel that did not look “natural” at all, feeling “modern” instead of “rustic”. 

All these unoriginal changes at the once-fresh Wilderness Lodge severely tarnished its legacy, along with the destruction of almost all its wildlife, making the resort itself feel less like a wonderful wilderness and more like a broken, sickly deforestation. In fact, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge does not even feel like a national park as it used to be, with all the “new” renovations looking like a destructive force of nature. 

Although it has changed drastically, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge remains a quiet, glittering forest in spirit, in terms of its unblemished past. The rise and fall of this spectacular resort will never be underestimated, and its legacy, while tarnished, will still be remembered by memory and by heart. Disney’s Wilderness Lodge may be a gentle piece of nature, but it will never abandon its National Park-style heritage.