This summer brings a pioneering “first” to Walt Disney World Resort as Disney’s Wilderness Lodge becomes the first property to feature two separate Disney Vacation Club Resorts.
Following a timber-lined trail first blazed for Disney Vacation Club Members by the resort known today as Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge (which opened in 2000 as simply The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge), the new Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge (Currently in the final stages of construction, the Resort is scheduled to open July, 2017 – not yet registered in all jurisdictions) will add a new chapter to the property’s richly layered back story.
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge pays tribute to the grand 19th century vacation lodges established along the First Transcontinental Railroad through the Pacific Northwest, while Boulder Ridge Villas draw inspiration from the residential communities that grew along those rails.
Copper Creek Villas & Cabins pick up that story decades later, as more Americans opted to travel by car and plane. Unwilling to allow their communities to disappear with the railroad, Westerners resourcefully turned those “rails into trails,” repurposing industrial buildings, rock quarries and more as they reimagined spaces to welcome new generations of explorers.
That spirit of reinvention and renewal is evident throughout the latest additions to Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, from railroad-depot-turned-waterfront-restaurant Geyser Point Bar & Grill (now open) to abandoned-quarry-turned-pool-area Boulder Ridge Cove (scheduled to open this summer). Copper Creek Villas themselves repurpose everything from salvaged steel to railroad spikes as part of the transformation and refinement of former hotel rooms – reimagined as Deluxe Studios, one-bedroom villas, two-bedroom villas and three-bedroom Grand Villas, while rustically elegant Cascade Cabins re-imagine vacated lakeshore homes said to have once housed the railway company’s supervisors, site managers and VIPs.
Copper Creek Villas & Cabins will become the 14th Disney Vacation Club Resort, the 10th at Walt Disney World Resort and the fifth in the Magic Kingdom Park Resort area – joining Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows and the aforementioned Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.
This post, New Disney Vacation Club Resort Celebrates Spirit of Reinvention first appeared on the Disney Parks Blog.
