OK, for those of you who are still following along, I made a field inspection of the area of this rumored new project over the past weekend.
For the past year or so, survey stakes and flags have been a common sight around Fort Wilderness. But, up until now, nobody was quite sure what these were all about.
On Saturday, October 30, I spotted some new stakes along the north side of Vista Blvd. Here are some photos of them:
One of the stakes was near this paved cut-off from Vista Blvd.:
Inside Fort Wilderness, just past the group camping area, there is a similar looking gate:
This closed-off, unpaved right of way is adjacent to the road currently used by FW buses and vendors making deliveries to the Settlement area:
So, this new survey stake got me to wondering . . . Could WDW be contemplating creating a new, separate gate for guests to use to access the new project on the old River Country site?
Here's an aerial view of the area:
On the photo above, the green star marks the location of the cut-off and gate on Vista Blvd. The yellow star marks where this right-of-way intersects with the right-of-way that terminates near the group camping area parking lot, and the red star marks the location of the rumored DVC project.
As I look at this, it doesn't seem to make much sense for there to be a new entrance constructed on Vista Blvd. Such an entrance would requires guests to drive quite a way to get to the new project. Clearly, entering through the Wilderness Lodge entry, and using the existing (currently castmember only) road to access the new project would be a better route.
Unfortunately, either of these routes would drastically increase vehicle traffic adjacent to the exercise path between FW and WL.
The only other obvious alternative would be to route all traffic through Fort Wilderness, using the route currently used by vendors and castmembers traveling to the Settlement. This would add a lot of traffic to the campground. So, that's not a good solution either.
When you get down to it, there isn't a good solution.
That's probably why there was never a parking lot near River Country, and guests were transported back by internal FW transportation. And, this new project will create a lot more traffic than RC ever did.
Not good.
On another note, I did some looking around for evidence of the cannon and ammo carrier.
As most of you know, the old wagon stood near the playground for years, until it was mysteriously moved in March of this year. You can see that there were little concrete footers used to keep the wheels from sinking:
So, wouldn't it stand to reason that there would be similar support somewhere in the area where the cannon and ammo carrier stood?
I never noticed this concrete square before:
It looks like this might have been put there to support something.
Of course, this is where the big Christmas tree goes every year.
Maybe it is there for that.
Otherwise, I did not see any "footprints" relating to a cannon or ammo carrier:
While looking around the area, I saw this new survey marker just inside the fenced in area of River Country:
Like a lot of you, I have also been wondering about the placement of the buildings on the leaked drawing. Why cram the buildings in so close to Fort Wilderness?
After looking around, it looks to me like the plan is to try to use Discovery Island as a buffer between this project and the Contemporary Resort. Remember, you could see the Contemporary Resort clearly from River Country. Apparently, the Imagineers of old did not have a problem with folks in River Country, which was supposed to be set in pre-centennial America, from seeing the modern Contemporary Resort. But, things have clearly progressed since then. The Wilderness Lodge is oriented so that the main view from the lobby faces at an angle away from the Contemporary Resort. The idea at WL is for guests to feel like they are in an old National Park hotel. They built it so that there are very few glimpses of the Contemporary Resort. Over at AKL, most guests cannot see anything other than the savannas from their rooms, again, to give the impression that they are in Africa, and not at a hotel in WDW.
So, I see why the proposed buildings seem to curve around the stand of cypress trees in Bay Lake, and the view is directed away from the Contemporary Resort.
But, the plans also seem to show a big central building which faces directly toward the Contemporary Resort.
This is a photo from the shore of Bay Lake, looking toward the Contemporary Resort from where the curved row of buildings appear on the drawing:
It's a cool view.
In fact, you can see the MK monorail entering the Grand Canyon concourse in the Contemporary Resort if you look carefully at the photo.
But, if the theme of this new resort is gong to be some type of Wilderness Theme, how are they going to deal with the Contemporary Resort and BLT sitting over there.
The view of the Contemporary is even more pronounced from where the main building will sit:
But, I do notice that the main building sits back a way from the water.
I wonder if they plan on leaving the big hill and rocks from River Country to serve as a buffer between the new building and the view of the Contemporary?
Of course, if the view is directed more to the north and east, then guests will be looking right at Discovery Island, and not the Contemporary:
After all of this, I am left with more questions than I answered.
Such as:
1. Where will guests of the new project park?
2. How will guests drive to and from the new project?
3. How will the dominant view of the Contemporary Resort from this parcel be addressed?; and
4. Why build buildings out into the water?
I have some more photos of the general area to share, and I will post them after everyone has a chance to review and discuss the photos from this post.
TCD