Walt Disney World has opened reservations for all guests to book cash rates at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge starting in July 2027. We have a first look at opening season rack rates, the reason it’s excluded from current deals for next summer, and why we expect deep discounts going forward.
Located along the ‘bayou’ of Bay Lake, Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge will feature floor‑to‑ceiling windows that welcome natural sunlight, allowing the outdoors to flow into the architecture, artwork, and ambiance. Otherwise, there isn’t much to the architecture or design of Lakeshore Lodge. It’s not a “lodge” in the conventional sense of the term, but is instead decorated with art from nature-inspired Disney movies.
The resort will offer 967 themed accommodations, including standard studios, a variety of villas, waterfront A-frames, and even the Club Level lounge and presidential suite. Check out Inside Resort Rooms & Club Level of Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge for more.
It cannot be overstated how massive of a resort complex Disney Lakeshore Lodge is. This 10-story resort will be Walt Disney World’s biggest since Art of Animation or Animal Kingdom Lodge. Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge is slightly smaller than the Grand Floridian once including the DVC wing, and larger than the Poly, Contemporary, or Wilderness Lodge.
Depending on how you count, it’s either the largest or second-largest behind Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort, which has 888 vacation homes, plus the 60 Treehouse Villas. (Obviously, that adds up to 946, but that’s not the only measure of a resort size; Lakeshore Lodge has 45,552 timeshare weeks, which is below SSR. Not that it’s a competition. They’re both very large, albeit with very different layouts.)
This is particularly interesting because not only is Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge large, but the company claims it’s only a Disney Vacation Club resort. On top of that, there are several in active sales, meaning DVC has a lot of points to sell.
As we previously predicted in Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge is Not a Mixed-Use Resort Hotel, But That Doesn’t Really Matter, an entire wing of this property is likely going to be Resort Studios (a la Big Pine Key at the Grand Floridian), which are basically glorified hotel rooms with a microwave added.
Walt Disney World hasn’t indicated how many Resort Studios there will be or what they’ll offer, but we expect these hotel rooms to be the majority of the inventory at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge, and bookable with cash for decades to come for the reasons hinted at above. More on that in a minute.
Walt Disney World previously announced that Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge opens July 1, 2027. Reservations started in phases beginning in October for opening night. This began on October 6-7 for DVC Members and Annual Passholders, and continued with the general public now being able to book as of October 8, 2026.
With today’s booking window opening, reservations are now available on disneyworld.com, giving us our first chance to poke around the availability calendar and price out rooms without picking up the telephone. What we discovered was (pleasantly) surprising.
Note that these are for bookings with cash, meaning that members or anyone else booking will need to pay the regular rack rate for the rooms. Disney Vacation Club members will be able to make points-based reservations at a later date. We’re marking our calendars for that, not this. We did not and will not book a room for the cash rack rates.
Here’s a quick rundown of rack rates in spot-checking availability for late Summer 2027 and the off-season that follows:
- Duo Studio – Preferred View: $505/night
- Resort Studio – Resort View: $559/night
- Resort Studio – Preferred View: $604/night
- Deluxe Studio – Resort View: $621/night
- Deluxe Studio – Premium View: $738/night
- Resort Studio – Club Level: $888/night
- Resort Studio – Premium View – Club Level: $1,093/night
- 1 Bedroom Villa – Resort View: $916/night
- 1 Bedroom Villa – Premium View: $1,128/night
- 2 Bedroom Villa – Resort View: $1,526/night
- 2 Bedroom Villa – Premium View: $1,863/night
- 3 Bedroom Grand Villa – Premium View: $2,930/night
- 1 Bedroom Lakehouse: $2,319/night
- 2 Bedroom Lakehouse: $2,899/night
Note that there is very little variance in pricing from July 1, 2027 through September 2027. Most prices I’m seeing are pretty consistent for all dates in that range.
Additionally, duo studios are the (controversial) small units with only a single pull-down Murphy bed that converts into a couch. However, they do have balconies by default and that’s not true of all studios.
Premium view means Magic Kingdom fireworks views. Just based on how the buildings are laid out, I assume there are some preferred views that’ll have peek-a-boo views of the fireworks, too.
I know what you’re thinking: those rates do not seem anything approaching “pleasantly surprised.” And that’s a fair perspective. These prices are very expensive, especially when viewed in a vacuum.
However, a couple of things are worth noting. First and foremost, almost all Deluxe Villas (DVC Resorts) are astronomically expensive when looking at rack rates. Anyone who is paying rack rates for these units is either nuts or visiting during peak season (basically just the last week-plus of December). For an apples to apples comparison, go take a look at other Deluxe Resorts once you’ve opted out of special offers.
Second, only rack rates are available because previously-released discounts for Summer 2027 predate bookings for Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge. They neither include or exclude the new resort; it simply does not exist from their perspective. Consequently, when searching availability under special offers you won’t see anything for Lakeshore Lodge
Finally, these rack rates are actually lower than other recent Deluxe Villas. They’re not as bad as comparable accommodations at Disney’s Riviera Resort, Island Tower at the Polynesian, or either of the Grand Floridian and Poly add-ons.
The difference is actually quite considerable, often amounting to hundreds of dollars per night for comparable units. This suggests that, mercifully, Disney is not attempting to position Lakeshore Lodge as a flagship resort.
Here, you might be inclined to say that obviously it’s not a flagship on par with the monorail loop resorts, but we thought the same with Riviera, and yet there it is, charging over $600/night for a tower/duo studio and almost the exact same amount as Grand Floridian for a standard studio!
Although I have zero interest in paying rack rates for Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge, we are “pleasantly surprised” by these amounts, exorbitant as they might be, because they also suggest that the points chart should be more reasonable than Riviera or the monorail loop properties.
Whether you’re a DVC Member or are considering renting Disney Vacation Club points to save money, this is significant if you’re looking at the ‘cheapest’ way to stay. It underscores that Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge should be a better use of points. I’d stop well short of calling it a budget-friendly DVC resort, as it almost certainly won’t have any ‘value’ room categories, but it should be more favorable than other recent point charts we’ve seen.
As is usually the case with new DVC resorts, there should be a ‘window of opportunity’ when Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge is easier to book via points than established resorts that are fully or mostly sold out. This is both because they take time to fill up (aside from opening week) and because there’s more declared inventory than there are sold points. If you want the best option for scoring a ‘deep discount’ on Lakeshore Lodge, the best (non-speculative) answer is simply booking with points, whether rented ones or your own.
Once discounts are available via disneyworld.com, Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge should look similar to the other lodges. Rack rates are currently positioned just above both Wilderness and Animal Kingdom Lodge, which are two Deluxe Resorts we often highlight as having the best nightly rates after discounts.
As evidenced above in the discussion of its size, Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge has a ton of rooms to sell. That’s also why the question of mixed-use hotel vs. dedicated exclusively to DVC is utterly meaningless for now. No matter what Disney calls it, Lakeshore Lodge is a mixed-use hotel for years and years (and years!!!) to come.
Disney’s Riviera Resort recently declared its final 20 vacation homes more than seven years after the first declaration was made in early 2019. At the current pace, Riviera should sell out by Summer 2027. That’s 8 years for a fairly small property.
With nearly triple the room count, it will likely take Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge at least three times as long to sell out. Let’s put that at 25 years, just for the sake of discussion. The actual timeframe doesn’t really matter–we’re only concerned with the next couple of years, and it certainly won’t sell out within that window.
These declarations are important because all of the undeclared rooms are available for cash bookings when a resort first opens. There’s a lot of inventory that does not yet “belong” to DVC and thus is not available for members to reserve with points.
This is why Disney’s Riviera Resort had deep discounts when it first opened offering 40% off, and the same is true of the Cabins at Fort Wilderness today. Although not DVC, it was a similar story with Gran Destino Tower having deeply-discounted $199/night rooms when it first opened.
Disney’s Riviera Resort first declared 69 of 341 rooms when it started selling back in 2019. This meant that, as of opening night, approximately 80% of that fully Disney Vacation Club resort was actually available exclusively for cash bookings. Its categorization as a DVC resort as opposed to mixed-use or a hotel was irrelevant. As a practical matter, it basically started as a hotel that has gradually shifted to DVC over time.
The same thing will be true of Disney Lakeshore Lodge when it opens in 2027.
No matter what the eventual declarations might be, Lakeshore Lodge is going to be 80% or more weighted to cash bookings in 2027 and probably 2028. Over time, as more of the resort is gradually declared, that number will tilt in the favor of DVC. But that’ll take two decades or more!
In the meantime, cash will be king. And I’d hazard a guess that number will actually be higher than 80% in 2027 due to the overall room count. An initial declaration of 69 units at Lakeshore Lodge (a la Riviera) would leave approximately 92% of the property for cash bookings.
Whether the number is 80%, 92%, or somewhere in between, the reality of Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge is that it’s functionally a regular resort sold on DisneyWorld.com that first year-plus. That is a massive influx of inventory.
Although the new hotel smell is enticing to Disney diehards, not everyone is us. Most guests are not us. Other Deluxe Resorts have established reputations, and casual guests researching them will be more familiar with those options.
It’s going to take time for “word to get out” about Lakeshore Lodge, and the resort to establish its reputation and attract an audience. That’s likely to be true regardless of early reviews.
On top of that, people are booking 2027 Walt Disney World vacations right now (and have been for several months), and Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge is not available at discounted rates yet. It’ll likely be a few more months before Lakeshore Lodge is included in special offers, rolled into the bounceback, etc. All of this means it’ll be playing catch-up with its occupancy numbers versus the other WDW hotels.
Given all of that, it’s safe to expect aggressive last-minute discounts on par with or exceeding the 40% off that Disney’s Riviera Resort offered its first year. Keep in mind that Riviera had far fewer rooms to fill, and debuted with the novelty of the Skyliner.
Walt Disney World probably won’t advertise 50% off rates for Lakeshore Lodge, as that would make it look like a failure (even though it’s just a matter of the room count), but I could see flat-rate nightly rates a la the Disney+ and Disney Visa deep discounts we’ve seen in the last 2 years.
A Resort Studio for $369 per night wouldn’t surprise me in the least; to the contrary, I would bet on under $400 per night rooms at some point after mid-July 2027. Keep in mind that the ‘Resort Studios’ are simply the standard hotel rooms. (I actually doubt there will be deep discounts on Duo Studios, which are surprisingly popular and fewer in number.)
Obviously, there’s no guarantee of this, but this is what happened with two of the last three major Walt Disney World resort additions. The newest of the trio, Island Tower, was also discounted, but not to a deep degree. Of course, Island Tower is at the Polynesian, and as is clear from the above, that property can command premium pricing that Disney feels Lakeshore Lodge cannot.
Ultimately, we remain cautiously optimistic about Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge. We’re looking forward to staying at the new resort when it opens on July 1, 2027. Most likely via DVC points for night one, but depending on how that goes, we wouldn’t be averse to a second stay later in the off-season if there’s a deep discount on a standard room for under $400 per night.
I’m really looking forward to Lakeshore Lodge at this point, and had become increasingly optimistic about the project prior to this. Part of that is my unabashed love of lodges, and the ‘wilderness region’ of Walt Disney World. Another part is how I’ve ended up feeling about other dubiously-designed resorts that have opened since 2018.
Ugly and underwhelming as they all might be from the outside, Gran Destino, Island Tower and Riviera Resort are all accommodations and amenity-rich, and great places to stay as a result. Lakeshore Lodge looks poised to join that list. Plus, you can’t see the outside when you’re inside the towers–just the big views they boast!
Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge looks much more ambitious, fully-featured, and better looking than any of those. If this has a healthier budget for placemaking and a lush environment around the outside, that alone will make it a massive upgrade over the Island Tower.
It’s a shame that Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge towers over the Settlement, as opposed to being centered between Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge, but it should still be an asset to this resort ‘region,’ as well as the DVC portfolio and Walt Disney World as a whole. Failing all else, we’re looking forward to finally being able to walk between Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness again!
If you’re considering joining DVC and want more guidance, be sure to read our Ultimate Guide to Disney Vacation Club. That guide covers the pros & cons, resale v. direct, how much money you’ll save, and other important things to know before taking the plunge. If you still can’t decide whether membership is right for you, “try before you buy” with the recommendations in How to Save BIG on Deluxe Disney Accommodations Renting DVC Points.
Your Thoughts
Will you be booking a stay for opening night on July 1, 2027 at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge? Booking a cash rack rate, or holding out for the points chart or deep discounts to be released? Thoughts on the DVC villas, hotel-style guest rooms, A-frame cabins, Club Level lounge, or Presidential Suite at Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment on pricing? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
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