Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge

Boulder Ridge Villas (originally The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge) opened in 2000 as one of the earliest DVC additions at Walt Disney World. The resort is themed to the great national park lodges of the American Pacific Northwest — Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone, the Ahwahnee at Yosemite — and the lobby of the main Wilderness Lodge is one of the most photographed spaces in all of Walt Disney World, with a 70-foot stone fireplace and totem poles representing the indigenous nations of the region.

Boulder Ridge sits in a wing of the larger resort complex, which it shares with the original Wilderness Lodge hotel and the newer Copper Creek Villas & Cabins. The combined resort benefits from a beautiful wooded setting on Bay Lake, the only Disney property featuring an erupting geyser (Fire Rock Geyser, which erupts roughly every hour from sunrise to 10 PM), and a network of woodland walking trails that connect to Fort Wilderness.

Transportation to the Magic Kingdom is by boat — a relaxing 10-minute ride across Bay Lake — which many guests consider the most enjoyable park commute on property. The main Wilderness Lodge lobby, the Copper Creek Springs Pool, and the Boulder Ridge Cove Pool are all available to Boulder Ridge guests. The villas themselves feature handcrafted log furniture, woven Navajo-style rugs, and quilts — a more rustic interior than the polished Copper Creek next door.