SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with Bio vol 10 (Lakeshore Lodge, Encanto, Epic Universe and MORE!)

This week’s SATURDAY SIX heads back into the air with blogger-in-the-sky @bioreconstruct for another incredible bird’s eye view of Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando (along with some pretty great “boots on the ground” photos as well.) As a reminder, you can select any photo for a higher resolution version that you can zoom closer into and see even more details. With that out of the way, let’s start off with the construction project that needs to be seen to be believed…

# 6 – Reflections: Disney DVC Lakeshore Monstrosity

We’ve seen photos from the construction of the upcoming Lakeshore Lodge DVC property at Fort Wilderness for about a year now, and while I was never a huge fan of the project because of how it takes away the charm of one of my favorite WDW on-site resorts, this month my stomach sank even further seeing how massive the scope of this project really is.

This is the particular photo from Bio that originally floored me when I first saw it. I knew about the first building in the foreground and had come to accept it. “It is what it is” as they say. Maybe it was my naivety, or more likely my ignorance, but I didn’t realize a second ugly structure would be going up next to the first one.

This angle here gives a better idea of the scale we are looking at because Pioneer Hall (home of the beloved Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue) is at the bottom center of this photo and is just dwarfed by these new DVC buildings. I was a huge fan of the show Yellowstone, and a big focal point of that series was a group of people who wanted to keep the beauty of the land versus another group who wanted to develop it with airports, hotels, ski-lodges, and pretty much everything that these people were trying to escape from in the cities they currently lived in. That’s what I don’t understand about this DVC project. It actively takes away from the whole experience of going to Fort Wilderness in the first place.

They say you can’t stop progress, so let’s at least enjoy some really cool photos in the meantime, such as this straight down shot that includes the nearby Discovery Island.

Here’s a look at the upcoming pool area of Lakeshore Lodge, including what appears to be a lazy river.

Here’s another gut-punch photo showing just how large the Lakeshore Lodge project is when you see it carved out of the Fort Wilderness tree line.

# 5 – Other Disney Resorts

Let’s circle around and get a look at the other Magic Kingdom Resorts from a different angle.

In my book, The Contemporary is – and probably always will be – the coolest hotel Disney ever built.  Granted I may be biased because it was a place I always dreamed about staying at as a kid, but there is something about the monorail going straight through the hotel that is just magical. Of all the hotels at Walt Disney World, The Contemporary is the single one that would never be built in today’s world, and that’s one reason to love and cherish it.

While I’ve been to The Poly a thousand times over the years for things like dining at ‘Ohana, it’s actually one of the only resorts at WDW I’ve never stayed at. Definitely on my bucket list though and hopefully they’ll have a “coupon day” for people like me.

Love shots like this of Animal Kingdom Lodge because they show the unique design of the resort that you can’t really understand the scope of from ground level. For me, staying in a savanna view room is one thing that every single person absolutely MUST DO once because there’s nothing to compare it to. I hard a hard time trying to understand why anyone would pay to stay at a place like Animal Kingdom Lodge and get a parking lot view, but there’s going to be a whole bunch of people staying at Lakeshore Lodge in Fort Wilderness and just looking at a giant building every day, so what do I know.

Regular readers of this fine blog series will remember we recently did a deep dive on the Cars section at Art of Animation Resort. Art of Animation is one of my tippy top Disney hotels, and I would choose to stay here over most places onsite, including the Grand Floridian. This place is just my jam, and the addition of the Skyliner makes it easier to accept that Disney ruined one of the best food courts on property just to save a couple bucks.

There have been so many times that my family have been in the Orlando area and wanted to stop by Art of Animation to check out everything and have dinner only to be told you can’t park there without a reservation. Then you see shots like this which show how many unused parking spaces these resorts have (and this is all the time at places like AOA.) It makes you want to scream. Listen, I get it. They are trying to make sure no one wiggles out of the parking fee at the theme parks, but can’t Disney just do what Universal does and validate 3 hour parking at hotels if you spend a certain amount? Or couldn’t Disney just have some gimmick where guests could just purchase a $100 Resort Specific gift card at the guard gate? There has to be a Win-Win solution here other than just turning people away at security.

Always love Bio’s photos of Pop Century Resort, another one of my onsite favorites.

Let’s go from the Value Resorts to a peek at how The Other Half vacation with this shot of the Four Seasons and the neighboring Golden Oak community. After living in Florida for about 20 years, I think one of the biggest surprises for me is the amount of high end gated communities with houses extremely close to each other. If I was spending over a Million dollars on a house, I want at least a little space between me and my neighbors. Again, maybe that’s just me.

How great is this shot showing several of the EPCOT Resorts, along with World Showcase, in one photo? Incredible.

# 4 – Disney Parks

Speaking of EPCOT, here’s a really cool shot of Future World or whatever “neighborhood” they are calling it now.

Flying over the Magic Kingdom we can see the current status of the upcoming Villains Land project at the bottom center of the photo below.

Here’s a similar look from a different perspective.

The Rivers of America have been completely drained, which a better writer may suggest is a metaphor for something important.

TRIGGER WARNING for any Tom Sawyer Island fans. First we’re gonna take a trip in the Way Back Machine and get a look inside Fort Langhorn that was on the island.

The entire Fort has been completely demolished and removed.

The Liberty Belle riverboat is still being kept intact in a service marina outside the Magic Kingdom.

One thing that’s not discussed much, and ties into my parking lot story at Art of Animation earlier in this article, is how much the theme park industry as a whole has been changed by ride sharing apps such as Uber or Lyft. There are nowhere near the amount of cars in the theme park parking lots or at the hotels because of the amount of guests being dropped off by these services. If this trend continues (and I don’t see why it wouldn’t) it could be interesting to see if Disney repurposes any of this unused space around property.

Okay, let’s head over to Animal Kingdom and check out the latest construction in Tropical Americas.

These pits they are digging out are enormous. Big enough to hold all the unsold DVDs of Tomorrowland, John Carter, and the recent Snow White remake.

The large pits make sense when you understand how large the show building is going to be for this attraction.

For Disney’s Hollywood Studios we’re going to take a quick look back to earlier in the month when the DHS Gateway Arch was still standing…

…because midway through the month it was removed.

This aerial photo shows us the footprint of the arch after it was removed.

Demolition work taking place inside Animation Courtyard.

This photo shows how guests are being routed Temple Grandin style into the new Little Mermaid show that is still open during the construction.

# 3 – Only Bio Could Get These

In the last couple years there have been several people trying to take food off bioreconstruct’s table by chartering their own helicopter flights and getting photos. However, most of these fledgling photographers aren’t at that good at all and even the better ones still can’t get approach the level that Bio provides with his aerials. Its so special to see the Big Picture shots like the one below showing several pieces of WDW in relation to each other.

The entirety of WDW is so massive that its hard to comprehend on the ground, but Bio makes it possible to see how all the puzzle pieces fit together in shots like this.

This photo was already cool with just the hotel composition, but Cinderella Castle peeking through the Contemporary buildings is a ::chef’s kiss: for me.

I feel like there are about a dozen things in Central Florida that Bio, and only Bio, is taking consistent photos of. For all the other photographers their entire shot list is based on “SEO” and what clicks they will get, but Bio is doing it for the love of the game which is why we’re getting updates on the WDW Video Ribbon on I-Drive, the current status of the Green Eggs n and Ham sign in Seuss Landing, and the last remaining McDonald’s on Disney property.

Sitting outside the All Star Resorts, this is probably one of busier restaurants in all of Walt Disney World, yet you pretty much never seen anything posted about it on any of the million theme park sites. Bio’s there though. In the air AND on the ground.

How wonderful are shots like this?

We’ll close with this fantastic shot that includes both a Disney park and a Universal park.

# 2 – EPIC!

Bio made his long awaited return to Epic Universe this month and immediately caught something that is pretty rare to see at Universal or Disney, a giant boom lift in a guest  area.

Turns out that high winds had damaged a shutter in the Wizarding World and it had fallen to the ground.

Love this shot of The Atlantic Restaurant’s windows reflecting the Constellation Carousel, Dark Universe portal and Helios Grand Hotel.

Something tells me that Epic Universe is going to be announcing upcoming projects for this park sooner rather than later. There are several expansion pads available and park already needs extra capacity.

No one can frame a shot better than Bio. No one.

In the Summer we did a three part look at Dark Universe, and I think next week we’ll begin a multi-part series on the Isle of Berk. I just love everything about this land.

When the sun goes down, Bio’s the guy you want taking photos inside the park.

Over the past month or so Universal has been working on a giant fence at the property line of Epic Universe.

A look from the ground shows just how large this fence actually is.

# 1 – Across The Universe

Alrighty, let’s now head over to the rest of the Universal Orlando Resort, starting with this gorgeous shot that shows Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure.

In the photo above Bio mentions there is construction of a new roller coaster, and that’s because this month Universal official removed the last remaining pieces of Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (which was fully operational back in AUGUST!)

The level of detail Bio is able to get in his shots is second to none.

Here’s an aerial view at some of the area where the new coaster will be going by. It certainly appears that this coaster will extend even further than Rip Ride Rockit did and go right by the lagoon outside the front of the park.

While the removal of Rip Ride Rockit is soul crushing for some – okay, JUST ME – Bio has shown there is a silver lining… you can now see things from USF that you could never see before.

Bio’s mirror glass photos are one of my favorite things that he does.

Universal trying to Dummy Proof their new photo recognition process when entering a park. At the main entrance to both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure there are now markings on the ground showing guests exactly where to stand when they look into the screen. I was skeptical of the process at first, but it actually works pretty good.

IOA’s Port of Entry looking gorgeous as always. Have said it before and will say it again, Port of Entry is hands down my favorite “Main Street” of ANY theme park.

How magical is this photo?

A couple of incredible – pardon the pun – Hulk coaster photos next…

In this month’s TPEI we wrote about one of the amazing details in Mythos Restaurant. Many walk by and see the large face that’s been carved in the stone, but almost no one realizes that the face is actually that of Narcissus (who in Greek mythology was a person in love with himself.) If you look below the stone face carved into the restaurant, you’ll see it’s staring at another stone face in the water below, telling the story that Narcissus is gazing at his own reflection.

As of October, Volcano Bay has ended the use of their Tapu Tapu system. I’ve always loved how Tapu Tapu worked during all our Volcano Bay experiences, so will be interesting to see how the park operates without it.

For our family the kid-friendly Runamukka Reef and the Aqua Coaster are the two most popular things in the park, and here they are next to each other.

Hona ika Moana are the slides that most people would recognize Volcano Bay from as the blue side (Hona) is what you see in much of the Volcano Bay marketing.

The Maku Puihi raft slides are more my jam though as they are nowhere near as intense as Hona ika Moana.

So there you have it: Flights with Bioreconstruct vol 10! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on Twitter (@derekburgan).

If you enjoyed this article, you will surely like the following: 

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 1 (Starcruiser, Disney Lake Nona Land)

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstructi vol 2 (EPIC Universe, Tron Lightcycle Run)

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @biorconstruct vol 3 (The Destruction of Harmonious, EPIC Universe)

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 4 (Luminous, Journey of Water)

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstrust vol 5 (DreamWorks Land, EPIC Universe)

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 6 (Back to WDW!)

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 7 (Tropical Americas)

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 8

SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 9

The SATURDAY SIX Celebrates 10 Years of @bioreconstruct

The SATURDAY SIX Presents: @bioreconstruct’s favorite aerial photos

The SATURDAY SIX Takes 3 Flights in a Single Day with @bioreconstruct

THE SATURDAY SIX Presents: Our Favorite @bioreconstruct photos of 2024

The SATURDSAY SIX Presents: Our Favorite @bioreconstruct photos of 2023

The SATURDAY SIX Presents: Our favorite @biorconstruct photos of 2022

The SATURDAY SIX Presents: Our favorite @bioreconstruct photos of 2021

The SATURDAY SIX Presents: Our favorite @bioreconstruct photos of 2020

Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHyde and you Potterheads will  enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.

Speaking of ONLY BIO….