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Leaked River Country DVC Plans


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A brand new Twitter account going by the handle Amusement Leaks was started yesterday.

 

Today, they leaked several images of the proposed plans for the River Country DVC. These are from 2011, and the current rumors is that the project has been canned.

 

I saw plans similar to these, but was sworn to secrecy.

 

Take a look at what they were planning.

 

It's rather shocking.

 

This is the site plan.  Pioneer Hall is near the center of the drawing, and that's the 700 loop you can see in the bottom right corner:

 

RCDVC2_zpscb4fc4d4.jpg

 

This is a drawing showing the overall layout of the buildings:

 

RCDVC1_zps9bebfff8.png

 

There are a few more drawings posted on the Twitter account, which you can find here:  https://twitter.com/AmusementLeaks

 

I hope that this plan is really scrubbed.

 

But, they sure went pretty far in the planning process.

 

TCD

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As a related aside... I'm going to venture a guess that this thread is going to generate a lot of first time visitors to Fort Fiends so...   WELCOME!   If you haven't already created a user name/login

Maybe they'll conduct a training burn on Jacob's Cabin after the bat house is finished?

Suddenly I am seeing a new tour offered by Disney World.

Good find TCD! 

 

Very interesting, I wonder who leaked those plans? 

 

The twitter account seems like it has random pages from different projects, they must work for an architect or engineer that does a lot of work for the parks.  I hope they didn't have a client confidentiality agreement.

 

WBI

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Whoever came up with that idea should be fired.

Or at least tarred and feathered by a few fiends.

 

Agreed!

 

I really hope this never happens.

 

Me too.

 

I am not convinced that it has been abandoned for good.

 

Other then the horrible parking lot. Looks pretty cool

 

Yes, the parking lot is horrible.  The other huge problem I have is that at least a third and maybe more of Clementine's Beach is going to be sacrificed.  Take a look at some of the notes I made on the screen caps below.

 

From what I can see, the existing marina/dock is toast?  The campers would have to trot through the DVC to take the boat?

 

That dock definitely looks like it will be for a MK boat for the DVC.  But, over by the new dining pavilion they have a lot of walkways that seem to connect with the current Fort marina.  I'm not sure they would make guests coming and going to the new dining pavilion traipse all the way through the DVC property.  Plus, there's that whole scummy camper mentality- do they want us filthy campers using their stuff?  I don't think so.  I think they'll have a boat, and we will too.  Wasteful, but they have a lot of points to sell.  On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if the buses to and from the parks are all moved to the new DVC bus stops shown on the plans.  The filthy campers wouldn't have to walk through the DVC property to use those.

 

Good find TCD! 

 

Very interesting, I wonder who leaked those plans? 

 

The twitter account seems like it has random pages from different projects, they must work for an architect or engineer that does a lot of work for the parks.  I hope they didn't have a client confidentiality agreement.

 

WBI

 

I wonder if Disney will do anything about the leaked plans?  Although I guess the cat's out of the bag now.  I agree with you- the likely source is someone who worked on the project.  I have no doubt that there are confidentiality agreements.  The timing of this is weird to me.  Why leak them now?

 

Wow, that will be so depressing. I sure hope they do not mess up what is such an important place to our family and so many others.  <Sigh>

 

I'm not sure the average Fort fan grasps how awful this would be for the Fort if it happened.   Take a look at some of the notes I made on the screen caps below.

 

TCD

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Let's take a look at some of the details on these drawings.

 

First, look at the Clementine's Beach area.  At least a third of the current beach would be gone- with a big building sitting right in the area where the volleyball nets are now:

 

ClementineBeachDetails_zpsda724443.jpg

 

The area around the Settlement Trading Post and the 100/200 loops would have some big changes too:

 

SettlementDetails_zps41b3bdcf.jpg

 

The new parking lot is what makes me really hate this.  The entire field adjacent to Pioneer Hall and the entire area of the former petting zoo would be a huge parking lot.  Can you imagine 400+ cars coming and going from this area?:

 

ParkingLotDetails_zps0678bcb1.jpg

 

Now, the resort itself looks awesome.  Look at the pool area! :

 

PoolDetails_zps18e0c5a8.jpg

 

It looks like there's going to be a waterfall cascading out of the lobby into what they're calling a river pool, and a giant water slide too!

 

The comments next to this sketch suggest that the river pool is going to be like a lazy river.  The drawing shows people sitting in tubes floating in the pool.  The comments speak to enhancing the experience of "river floaters," and also refer to guests having access to the island in the middle:

 

RopeBridgeDetail_zps8765d415.jpg

 

I wish they would put the big parking lot on the other side of the buildings.  There's plenty of room for them to do that.  I'm sure they thought of that, but rejected the idea because they want the parking and buses close to where the action is.

 

If this thing ever gets built, I'm sure it will be an awesome DVC property.  But, it will have a huge negative impact on the Fort.  I guess that tells you what the Disney suits thing about Fort Wilderness.  No big surprise there.

 

TCD

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A couple more things.

 

First, I went deep in to the TCD archives to look for something that I have been saving for 3 1/2 years.  Long ago, on another discussion board, our very own WBI started a thread about the permit application to build a new horse barn and related facilities at the Fort.  That was in October 2010.  He found a drawing in the on-line documents associated with the permit application that had some interesting information on it.  This is it:

 

WBI2010drawing_zpsce82b788.jpg

 

At the time, which was way back in October 2010, we speculated that this could be a leak of the plans for the new DVC resort.

 

Comparing what WBI found then to the plans that were leaked this week,  I would say that WBI called that one right!

 

Also, based on information that I had heard and seen over the years, I prepared this detailed purple crayon drawing back over a year ago:

 

rcproject.jpg

 

Nailed it.

 

TCD

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NO NO NO NO NO

 

Hoping an praying this is no longer something Disney is planning to follow through on.

 

This is a depressing thread.

 

The reason I'm not convinced that this project is dead is that they are making a fortune from DVC.

 

They are just getting started on the Polynesian DVC.  That's a relatively small project compared to what's proposed at the Fort.

 

They want to keep raking in the dough, so what comes next?

 

The design of this resort is clever.  The really elaborate pool and unique Bay Lake location are big attractions.  If they don't put a new DVC here, then where?

 

Think about it- all of the original Magic Kingdom resorts now have DVC projects appended to them.  It is not hard to believe that the Fort will too.

 

As much as I hate to admit it, I would be very interested in staying at this resort.  It's going to have a lazy river! 

 

And there will be some benefit to the Fort.

 

I'm sure there will be new restaurants, including a genuine quick serve location.

 

TCD

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Another observation: It looks like the pools are completely surrounded by the buildings, i.e. no one is getting to those pools without staying there. Probably need to swipe a MB to get out of the building to the pool.  If Disney is taking comments on this proposal, count me in as totally in favor of scrapping the entire project and moving the pool facility to the Meadow swimming pool area for Fort guests to enjoy. I did just comment on our post-visit survey that the Fort definitely needs a lazy river. 

 

 I'm sad to say that my gut feeling is that this is going to happen. Sigh. 

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The parking lot is really what I don't like.

 

Me too.

 

It's hard for me to imagine what it would be like to have that huge parking lot sitting there in the Settlement like that.  Think of the noise and commotion that will come with that.

 

And there's going to be a thousand plus more people hanging out in and around the Settlement.

 

It's really an awful plan.

 

The Tri Circle D horse barn would be gone too.

 

Yes.  Part of the plan is to build a new barn and related buildings up at the Outpost area, in the area behind the old FW Kennel building.

 

I noticed on the plans that they have a small fenced in area they call a horse pasture.  Interesting.  I wonder if the plan is to keep the horses they use for carriage rides and such in there?

 

Another observation: It looks like the pools are completely surrounded by the buildings, i.e. no one is getting to those pools without staying there. Probably need to swipe a MB to get out of the building to the pool.  If Disney is taking comments on this proposal, count me in as totally in favor of scrapping the entire project and moving the pool facility to the Meadow swimming pool area for Fort guests to enjoy. I did just comment on our post-visit survey that the Fort definitely needs a lazy river. 

 

 I'm sad to say that my gut feeling is that this is going to happen. Sigh. 

 

No doubt that River Pool is a major selling point for the resort.

 

Like they did over at Bay Lake Tower, my bet is that marketing will include the promise that only guests of the resort will be allowed to use the pool.  They've got it set up so they can keep out the riff-raff.

 

I hope your gut isn't right on this.  One thing that gives me hope is that there was another DVC project that got into planning stages before finally being scrapped.  That one was going to be built at the Eagle Pines golf course.  Of course, the rest of that story is that Disney instead sold the land to a third party developer, and now we have a high-rise luxury hotel being built right next to the Fort.

 

I think the problem with the Eagle Pines DVC is that it didn't have a "wow" factor.  I think this resort, with the lazy river pool and Bay Lake views, will have the missing wow factor.  As I said earlier, if they decide to build more DVC rooms after the Polynesian project is done, where else would they go?  I can't see them adding anything on to a moderate or value resort.  This piece of land makes a lot of sense for them.

 

so how are the locals supposed to take over that pool I ask? :rofl2:

 

Good point.

 

I reckon they will have signs in multiple languages directing the freeloaders to the Meadow Pool at the Fort.

 

TCD

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The Twitter account now has "Wilderness Way Resort" Floor Plans.

 

Good catch.

 

I meant to mention that hashtag.  I doubt they will call this resort the Wilderness Way Resort.  There's already enough confusion between Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge.

 

I heard they were going to call it River Country Resort.  And, after seeing the pool, I believe that.  People have wondered what the theme will be.  I think they are going with a river/wilderness theme.

 

The floor plan documents that I can see are for 8 floors.  I'm not sure if the last two are for two more floors-they won't open for me. But 8 floors!  With the lobby on the 3rd. That's big!  It looks like there's a large restaurant on the third floor, and then a quick serve with indoor and covered outdoor on the ground floor.

 

TCD

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