Coming soon to the Golden Oak section of Walt Disney World Resort in Central Florida: Four Seasons. The luxury hotel brand will shortly open its newest crown jewel, the Four Seasons Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort, making its third stamp on the state after Miami and Palm Beach.

You can get sneak peek with the Four Seasons Virtual Hard Hat Tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8vBGjLmeiE

Rumored as a contender for five-star, five diamond status for quite some time, Four Seasons Orlando may become the place to stay for the discerning Disney visitor. Which makes you wonder how that will affect Waldorf-Astoria at Bonnet Creek, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from where the Four Seasons is being built, and the Ritz-Carlton Orlando at Grande Lakes on the other side of I-4 (neither of which has earned five stars from Forbes or five diamonds from AAA). Will Four Seasons steal market share or is there enough Disney-loving wealth to go around? We’ll have to see.

This project comes at an interesting time for Disney as they are currently in the midst of expanding the Polynesian Resort (whose rates are even higher than Four Seasons) for their Disney Vacation Club timeshare program. For the past few years, there has been little to no real movement from ‘The Mouse’ on any development projects on the hotel side of the parks business in the U.S., after CEO Bob Iger and Theme Parks President Tom Staggs made it clear that their goal was to grow the business through acquisitions in this uncertain economic time for vacationing families.

The development of the Golden Oak property, a luxury home community halfway between Disney’s Magic Kingdom and Epcot theme parks, and the unveiling of the affiliated Four Seasons project are certainly forward progressions in refreshing and developing the property for an entirely different demographic – those who want and expect more from their vacation experience.

Come August when the hotel opens, it will be interesting to see what occupancy is like and to read initial reviews. The hotel is already taking reservations and is booking up fast in its first few months.

There’s no question that the bar for other luxury hotels in Orlando — as well as the resort hotels on-property at Walt Disney World — will soon be raised in a big way.