Replacing Nature, Parking People: Disney’s Wilderness Lodge

Abstract

Wilderness Lodge, one of the deluxe-category hotels in Walt Disney World, opened for business in the spring of 1994. This 728 room, luxury to semi-luxury priced, hotel is imagineered to resemble Yellowstone National Park's Old Faithful Inn. It is built with massive logs imported directly from Washington State and rises eight floors above the shores of similarly Disney-imagineered Bay Lake within the Magic Kingdom compound.

The themed back story of Wilderness Lodge harkens to the early 1900s period of National Park development, where "rustic" lodging was considered a more appropriate means by which to consume, yet also preserve nature's wonders.