River Country

[djsamuel 322]

23 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

I agree, if it's just zipping back and forth on Big Pine Drive, from the Settlement to the Outpost, one bus ought to be fine. 

There's going to be A LOT more traffic on Fort Wilderness Trail from 1100/1200/1300 to the Settlement. In addition to the purple bus, all of the Settlement and horse barn CM's will be driving down that road. 

That's not good.

TCD

At least when we were there on Sunday, cast members were still driving down the back road and entering through the open gate near the back of the barn. I assume they don’t want the guests to see the construction mess. 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On 4/2/2019 at 2:02 PM, djsamuel said:

At least when we were there on Sunday, cast members were still driving down the back road and entering through the open gate near the back of the barn. I assume they don’t want the guests to see the construction mess. 

I just got back from a very nice Easter trip. None of the cast was using the back road. While waiting for a bus at the Settlement bus stop I saw a steady stream of cars zip on by and into the campground. What's another 50 or so cars of cast members zooming through the campground?  Plus, it's easier to pick up their friends and families from the pool on their way out  

TCD

 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The bulldozers are going to town out by the group camping area: 

And here's the old River Country entrance fenced off behind the brand new themed fencing that we apparently will be seeing a lot of around the Fort for the next few years:

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Here's how things are looking around the Settlement bus stop:

 

 

do you see that big pile of logs there by the porta-potty?  They used to be growing here in this new field.  Isn't it great?

See what I mean about the theming?  It's nice, right?:

It's nice how they're using that themed fencing to shield the paying guests at the Fort from the massive DVC project being built on top of it. 

TCD

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Yeah, but at least we can see the progress !!

[YENSIDCAMPER 66]

Thanks for the updates TCD!  How did the new beach look?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

13 minutes ago, YENSIDCAMPER said:

Thanks for the updates TCD!  How did the new beach look?

Like this . . . 

From the east, looking west:

from the west, looking east:

looking over the fence:

TCD

[LONE-STAR 370]

Well isn't all that just charming. Thanks for the update.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

14 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Here's how things are looking around the Settlement bus stop:

 

 

do you see that big pile of logs there by the porta-potty?  They used to be growing here in this new field.  Isn't it great?

See what I mean about the theming?  It's nice, right?:

It's nice how they're using that themed fencing to shield the paying guests at the Fort from the massive DVC project being built on top of it. 

TCD

Good grief... help me understand.  Is all that cleared land, right behind the 700 loop??

[ImDownWithDisney 342]

That cleared area behind the 700 loop is going to be retention ponds right?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

53 minutes ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Good grief... help me understand.  Is all that cleared land, right behind the 700 loop??

Yes. That big cleared area is west of the 700 loop and east of the (former?) pedestrian/bike path to Wilderness Lodge. 

28 minutes ago, ImDownWithDisney said:

That cleared area behind the 700 loop is going to be retention ponds right?

I'm not certain. I haven't seen any actual plans. I think it's going to be a retention pond, but I also suspect that it's going to include a big, wide road for permanent access to the big parking lot for the resort. 

TCD

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

55 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Yes. That big cleared area is west of the 700 loop and east of the (former?) pedestrian/bike path to Wilderness Lodge. 

I'm not certain. I haven't seen any actual plans. I think it's going to be a retention pond, but I also suspect that it's going to include a big, wide road for permanent access to the big parking lot for the resort. 

TCD

Mercy.  That is so sad  

After posting here... I read a post on FB.  Someone said that they thought the new stables would go in there and the old stable area would be parking.  Oh.my.goodness.  There is going to be no break between the Fort and this new resort.  What about the Lodge... how are over does this new resort go??

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Thanks for the updates TCD.  I appreciate you and other Fiends on the Scene™ keeping us in the loop even though being in the loop on this makes me mostly sad.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

3 hours ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Mercy.  That is so sad  

After posting here... I read a post on FB.  Someone said that they thought the new stables would go in there and the old stable area would be parking.  Oh.my.goodness.  There is going to be no break between the Fort and this new resort.  What about the Lodge... how are over does this new resort go??

I've heard that rumor about the horse barn too, but I have seen nothing confirming the current plan. The original plan was to consolidate everything in the Outpost area. It would make sense to do that, but those plans may have changed. 

Based on the limited things I have seen, I don't think much of the new resort will extend very far past the old River Country footprint to the west. In fact, everything seems to have shifted to the east- closer to the Settlement. Remember, that bike path was about a mile from the Settlement to the Lodge. That means all of this stuff is a mile away from the Lodge, and right on top of the Fort. The impact on the Lodge will be deminimus. 

2 hours ago, BradyBzLyn...Mo said:

Thanks for the updates TCD.  I appreciate you and other Fiends on the Scene™ keeping us in the loop even though being in the loop on this makes me mostly sad.

It makes me very sad. We will have this new abomination on one side of the Fort, and the old abomination on the other. The Settlement will be overrun by the thousands of guests staying at the new resort.  

The campground itself is still going to be nice, but the illusion that it was surrounded by wilderness is gone.

TCD

 

[BayLake Campers 83]

I did some reading on the enginering report for "Project 89 Phase 1".

Here is a quote from it "The total limits of construction of the PROJECT 89 AD Phase 1 project is 45.14 acres. The project is split into two separate areas, main site and compensating storage. The southeast portion of the Main Site, includes clearing and construction of roadways, parking, utilities and a stormwater pond to support a development.(New horse Barn) The remaining area within the main site is clearing only, with no proposed earthwork.   The majority of the project area is shown as clearing only, with no new impervious area proposed."

What I read this to mean is they split the project into two phases ( phase 1 is to clear all of river country and move the barn, Phase 2 build the new hotel) so we could not see what was going to be built in phase 2. The horse barn is going to be moved across the street where they cleared and the clearing by the group camping is going to be a large pond for the stormwater runoff.

The time table according to the report was starting in early 2019 and finishing in 2023, so they have 4 years to complete the mess and us campers get four years of construction.

[lightbikes 73]

Thanks for the pics TCD -and to all the Fiends who are keeping us up to date on this mess.

  But oh it is so depressing to watch this happen to the Fort. 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

2 hours ago, BayLake Campers said:

I did some reading on the enginering report for "Project 89 Phase 1".

Here is a quote from it "The total limits of construction of the PROJECT 89 AD Phase 1 project is 45.14 acres. The project is split into two separate areas, main site and compensating storage. The southeast portion of the Main Site, includes clearing and construction of roadways, parking, utilities and a stormwater pond to support a development.(New horse Barn) The remaining area within the main site is clearing only, with no proposed earthwork.   The majority of the project area is shown as clearing only, with no new impervious area proposed."

What I read this to mean is they split the project into two phases ( phase 1 is to clear all of river country and move the barn, Phase 2 build the new hotel) so we could not see what was going to be built in phase 2. The horse barn is going to be moved across the street where they cleared and the clearing by the group camping is going to be a large pond for the stormwater runoff.

The time table according to the report was starting in early 2019 and finishing in 2023, so they have 4 years to complete the mess and us campers get four years of construction.

So is 45 acres getting cleared?  And this is only for phase 1?

45 acres is a lot. 

TCD

[Travisma 1,317]

18 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

So is 45 acres getting cleared?  And this is only for phase 1?

45 acres is a lot. 

TCD

I think it's 45 acres total for the project, with Phase 1 being the clearing, site prep and infrastructure (roads and utility feeds) if I'm reading what Baylake Camper posted correctly.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

18 minutes ago, Travisma said:

I think it's 45 acres total for the project, with Phase 1 being the clearing, site prep and infrastructure (roads and utility feeds) if I'm reading what Baylake Camper posted correctly.

The punctuation is throwing me off. I think it says 45 acres is being cleared just for phase 1. Note the part about most of it having no new impervious surfaces. The parking lots and buildings for the new resort will be impervious, and I'd expect them to take up more than 50% of  Phase 2 of the project. 

TCD

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

2 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

The punctuation is throwing me off. I think it says 45 acres is being cleared just for phase 1. Note the part about most of it having no new impervious surfaces. The parking lots and buildings for the new resort will be impervious, and I'd expect them to take up more than 50% of  Phase 2 of the project. 

TCD

There are however new types of asphalt that are semi impervious or even porous, so that may be part of the equation, depending on how it's engineered.

[YENSIDCAMPER 66]

On 4/22/2019 at 8:44 PM, Tri-Circle-D said:

Like this . . . 

TCD

TCD, thanks again for such great pictures.

I am hoping that beach begins to look more like Clementine's.

As for the construction,  If the new area is mostly impervious why would they need to build what seems like such a large retention pond near the group camp area?  It seems to me they are planning to catch a lot of run off water from the new resort.

[kadancer 82]

How very sad that they can't even be bothered to give the Fort some respect and at least put up decent looking fences.  Our plan for this summer was no parks - just a nice relaxing stay in the campground.  It would be the first time for us, but now I am worried that we will have to find places to go to avoid sitting peacefully in a full blown construction site.

[Breezy2 18]

TCD, great pictures that are starting to answer a lot of questions we've all had about impact on the Fort. Presently it seems like "Wilderness" is dropping out of the name of the campground as we lose the "40 acre wood" on the way to the Lodge we all enjoyed so much. I'm sure Disney will make it all nice and pretty as they progress but it'll never be the same. Trees, animals, serenity and greenways don't pay the bills. 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

10 hours ago, YENSIDCAMPER said:

As for the construction,  If the new area is mostly impervious why would they need to build what seems like such a large retention pond near the group camp area?  It seems to me they are planning to catch a lot of run off water from the new resort.

They still have all the roof area and as with most Water Management rules any area that did not require detention previously will now have to be brought up to current standards once upgrades are made. Granted WDW/Reedy Creek is it's own entity, but they are still under St. John's Water Management District and have to follow those regulations for storm water control

[Travisma 1,317]

51 minutes ago, kadancer said:

How very sad that they can't even be bothered to give the Fort some respect and at least put up decent looking fences.  Our plan for this summer was no parks - just a nice relaxing stay in the campground.  It would be the first time for us, but now I am worried that we will have to find places to go to avoid sitting peacefully in a full blown construction site.

Why put up nice themed fences around a construction site, when they didn't even bother theming the fences around all of the previously wide open playgrounds.

They just threw up industrial inner city black chain link around the playgrounds, because parents are too busy on their phones to keep track of their kids wandering off.

At least they could've used split rail, picket fencing or even brown chain link.

Obviously the powers to be could care less about the dirty, sleazy campers.

Strip the place of it's charm and unique theming, pave over everything to look like a mall parking lot, and they'll still come with wads of $$$ in their hands, all because its Disney.