It has been a rough summer at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.
The latest issue is unfolding at Boulder Ridge Villas, where guests began reporting late Saturday night into early Sunday morning that the entire building had lost running water. Sinks, showers, and toilets were reportedly unusable, and the outage continued well into Sunday as Disney worked to address the problem.
Guests were initially directed to restrooms and showers near the pool, while bottled water was distributed from the Boulder Ridge lobby. As the outage continued, however, Disney began moving some affected guests to other accommodations.
Reports from guests indicate that DVC Members were being refunded points for at least the impacted night, while some guests were relocated elsewhere at Walt Disney World. Compensation and relocation options appear to have varied depending on the reservation and individual circumstances.
At the time of writing, Disney has not publicly identified what caused the Boulder Ridge water outage. While there has been speculation regarding a possible water line issue or nearby construction activity, we have not seen anything definitive confirming the source.
Unfortunately, this is only the latest significant maintenance issue to hit the Wilderness Lodge complex this summer.
A Difficult Summer at Wilderness Lodge
Back in June, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and portions of Copper Creek Villas experienced a major air conditioning outage during some of the hottest weather of the year.
Guest reports regarding that issue began around June 18th and continued for several days. Temporary cooling equipment was eventually deployed throughout portions of the resort, including dining and shopping areas, while guests reported receiving fans, complimentary drinks, treats, room refunds, and offers to relocate to other Walt Disney World resorts.
The outage also affected resort operations. Whispering Canyon Cafe and Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White experienced reservation disruptions, while portable cooling equipment was reportedly installed in areas including Roaring Fork and other common spaces.
Reports from June 22nd indicated that the primary cooling system was still offline, with Disney relying on temporary equipment to provide localized relief throughout portions of the resort.
For anyone who has spent June in Central Florida, losing air conditioning for multiple days is considerably more than a minor inconvenience.
And now, less than two months later, another major utility issue has affected a different DVC component of the Wilderness Lodge property.
Is This Part of a Bigger DVC Maintenance Issue?
Two major outages at the same resort complex within the span of a summer are obviously going to raise questions.
Some of this may simply be incredibly unfortunate timing. Mechanical systems fail. Pipes break. Air conditioning equipment fails. Anyone who owns a home knows that sometimes things simply go wrong.
But I also think these incidents highlight a larger conversation DVC owners are going to continue having as more of the original Disney Vacation Club resorts age.
Boulder Ridge Villas opened in 2000. Other longtime DVC properties such as Disney’s Old Key West Resort, Disney’s BoardWalk Villas, and Disney’s Beach Club Villas are similarly reaching ages where maintaining the underlying infrastructure becomes increasingly important.
We have seen examples of this over the years. BoardWalk Villas has dealt with significant water-related issues affecting multiple rooms in the past, and its recent full refurbishment addressed far more than simply swapping out furniture and changing the appearance of the villas.
There is an important distinction here, however. None of this necessarily means Disney or DVC is neglecting these resorts. Aging buildings require maintenance. Even well-maintained infrastructure eventually needs major repair or replacement.
The difficult part for Disney Vacation Club is that this is ultimately a timeshare.
There has to be a balance between properly maintaining these resorts and controlling the costs passed along to owners through annual dues. DVC budgets include maintenance expenses and reserves intended to address repairs and replacement of major components, but significant unexpected issues can still become expensive very quickly.
During the June outage, DVC owners were already wondering whether the cost of the repairs could ultimately influence future dues. One discussion at the time correctly pointed out that reserve funding exists specifically to help address unexpected repairs and infrastructure needs.
Whether either of these incidents ultimately has any measurable impact on the annual dues at Boulder Ridge or Copper Creek remains to be seen. There simply is not enough information yet to make that determination.
Still, I will certainly be paying a little more attention when those budgets are released later this year.
How Did Disney Handle It?
One positive takeaway from the Boulder Ridge situation appears to be that Disney moved relatively quickly toward relocating guests and providing compensation once it became clear the outage was not going to be resolved immediately.
That does not mean every guest will necessarily feel the compensation they received was adequate.
Moving from a Boulder Ridge One Bedroom Villa to Saratoga Springs may technically preserve the same room category, for example, but anyone who specifically booked Wilderness Lodge knows that resort location and atmosphere are a huge part of that decision. There can also be differences in DVC point costs between resorts that should be considered when Members are relocated.
There is no perfect guest recovery solution when an entire building suddenly loses something as essential as running water.
But communication, flexibility, point restoration, appropriate compensation, and preserving the type of accommodations someone originally booked all matter enormously when something like this happens.
Hopefully Boulder Ridge will be completely back to normal very soon.
More importantly, hopefully this marks the end of what has been an unusually difficult summer for maintenance issues at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.
Were you staying at Boulder Ridge during the water outage or at Wilderness Lodge or Copper Creek during the June air conditioning problems?
Let us know in the comments what happened, whether you were relocated, and what Disney offered you as compensation. Most importantly, do you think Disney handled the situation appropriately?
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