The air conditioning at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge is still out. We stopped by the resort this afternoon after a morning at Magic Kingdom and found Disney has put measures in place to help provide some relief. The cooling system itself, though, seems to still be offline.
Wilderness Lodge Update: AC Outage Continues
IN THIS ARTICLE:
- What relief measures we found on the ground at Wilderness Lodge this afternoon
- Whether the air conditioning has come back since our last report
- How the timing lines up with the ongoing Central Florida heat
What We Found at the Resort This Afternoon
We walked through Wilderness Lodge this afternoon after leaving Magic Kingdom. The air conditioning remains out across the resort. Disney has brought in portable cooling equipment to help in the meantime.
We spotted the units concentrated in the shopping and dining areas. In one seating area, a freestanding evaporative cooler on wheels was running without any ducting, simply pushing air into the room. In the quick-service dining space and over in the gift shop, the setup was more involved. Those rooms had portable spot AC units with flexible ducts routed up into the ceiling, the kind of temporary cooling brought in for exactly this situation.
The cooling effort extended into Cast Member work areas, too. Small to medium fans were running behind the shop counters and at the check-in area, helping the Cast Members stationed there through their shifts.
Was Any Relief Noticeable?
The relief was certainly noticeable, but somewhat localized. Standing next to the machines, the air was noticeably cooler. The lobby and other open spaces were warmer than the spaces that had the mitigation efforts in place. It was also noticeably warmer just one story higher than the lobby. That said, it wasn’t completely unbearable in the lobby, and likely better than it had been in recent days, but it wasn’t full air conditioning either.
That’s to be expected with this type of equipment and what it can realistically do. Portable units cool the immediate area around them, not an entire building, so guests passing through a space with a unit running got a break that faded a bit as they walked away from it.
Approaching a Weeklong Outage
The air conditioning first went out on June 18, with reports on social media starting around 2pm that afternoon. The outage has continued through today. As we reported, the system has been down resort-wide, affecting common spaces, guest rooms, and restaurants.
Disney adjusted dining operations early in the outage. Artist Point and Whispering Canyon Cafe both showed no reservations available in the opening days, a likely response to the same conditions. Reservations are now available for both restaurants.
The Heat Hasn’t Let Up Either
The outage overlaps with a stretch of dangerous heat across Central Florida. The Walt Disney World area was under back-to-back Heat Advisories, with “feels like” temperatures forecast in the 105 to 111° range. While the “Feels Like” temps have backed down, it was still a high of 96° today with “feels like” temps hitting triple digits.
That combination is what makes this more than an inconvenience. A resort without cooling during a Heat Advisory raises real comfort and safety questions, which is part of why the relief measures matter.
What Disney Still Hasn’t Said
Disney has not returned requests for comment about the outage. The company hasn’t given a timeline for repairs, and it hasn’t publicly detailed what it’s doing to assist guests, though the measures we saw today speak for themselves. There have been multiple reports on social media that Disney is offering to move guests to other resort hotels, among other recovery offerings.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!