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Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida has over 25 hotel resorts on property. Many of which stand as some of the greatest themed, hotel architecture in the world. But throughout the resorts 50 year long history, there have been a few notable hotels that never got the chance to see the light of day. Today, I want to shine some light on those propeties from the original Asian, Venetian and Persian resorts, to the lesser known stories behind Disney’s Mediterranean, Venezia and Hollywood Hotels. All of which, were ultimatly Cancelled.
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I hope that this Reflections Resort can officially get back on building soon.
But if it cannot be built here. They need to build it as part of a brand new Story Living Community near Yosemite National Park.
Because that is one of the main Inspirations for the world of Bambi.
Wow, I can't imagine the amount of research and editing that went into this video. Great work!
The problem is the Disney company itself has changed since those original themed hotels. What was once a family-oriented entertainment empire aimed at the core of the American family is now a woke, unimaginative corporate monster, losing $ billions in market cap, canceling projects, picking a stupid political fight with government of Florida, failing on its cable channels, and having several bombs so far this year in its animated films, which were once sure thing blockbusters. It's not hard to see. They abandoned their core constituents who now are abandoning Disney. Worse, they don't seem to know or care.
Hopefully their woke agenda bankrupts Disney.
Disney is just becoming a big nightmare for building hotels
Nailed it. Disney needs to go back to what worked instead of relying on the “magic” of data-driven growth. The Galactic Starcruiser should stand as proof of that.
As lovely as Grand Venezia looks, it sounds like a long history of drowning lawsuits waiting to happen. Drunks or little children: both disasters around water.
I am not educated on WDW except for Jakes videos, I have a question. Does WDW need more hotels and resorts? I there a shortage?
Hotels serve an interesting barometer for the health of the associated theme park. It's not a perfect barometer, but it is something to gauge health.
Obviously, Disney creating something of a disaster is a terrifying sign in Star Cruiser … but when you consider the construction plans for the parks themselves (or rather the complete absence of them) it's no wonder.
Whereas Universal has generally been building several resorts – while they prior ones haven't acheived Disney Magic they do have fairly distinct vibes and moderate theming … the one for Epic Universe (rumored to be named Helios) may very well reach old-Disney magic.
It even applies to smaller parks. My home park of Lagoon never had a hotel anywhere close to it (it's a seasonal summer only park). After they installed the roller coaster Cannibal (which most enthusiasts rightly consider a destination attraction), it finally got a Hampton Suites just outside the propery limits. Obviously a small park (that spends responsibly) would never get their own hotel designed – but jumping from nothing to a comfort-gen-public hotel is a good sign for the park.
Another great video
Whenever you revisit a concept you do a phenomenal job of making it feel new. Good stuff!
the venetian hotel, or a variation of it seems like it was built in disney Tokyo sea.
Can you imagine today having an Asian and Persian themed hotel run by a large American corporation in today's world?
I've stayed at the Santa fe at Euro Disney back in 2008, and it was a great hotel. I'm going again next year and staying at the Santa Fe again.
Please take a look at ‘The London Resort’ (originally called Paramount World).
Wow, Phil Leotardo was going to be involved in the construction of a Disney hotel?
Instead they built the Galactic Starcruiser.
I have a degree in architecture and have practiced and studied it for years and I will say, it’s important to remember that trendiness in architecture is a bad thing in that it fades quickly, goes drastically in the opposite direction causing costly remodels due to its often blind eye towards actual function and experientially has a short lived wow factor for just being different. Many of these proposed hotels were trendy in their time or relied on a deep knowledge of history behind actual geographical areas they are inspired from to allow a guest to be immersed enough in to hold their attention. Disney’s experiential design is a fictional ‘place-making’ that is pulled directly from a story. All theses hotels looked great in their sculptural forms as a model, but how deep and how much of an adventure into a STORY, that is not a history lesson or reproduction or just a short lived wow factor, would they have been. I will say Peter Dominick’s works are MASTERFUL, his lobbies are dramatically deep in story and scale and all just beautifully pull you in to the story the resort. It’s too bad he passed away, I feel like he was just scratching the surface of his potential.
Thank you for this video @BrightSunFilms 😊 I have been diving into Disney history recently, especially cancelled/abandoned projects. Further down the rabbit hole I go!
I got my BSF t-shirt this week and it's amazing – thank you Jake ❤ from Australia
to the ending: you're exactly right, but disney is no longer interested in making anything new and exciting, they're here to minmax profits. they've spent almost 100 years taking risks and being creative, now they just want to sit and coast with mediocre movies and remakes and parks that anyone will visit and watch because It's Disney. they'll shove an IP into everything because it Might make more people visit
Fun Fact: Cast members who operate the transport boats on Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake to this day refer to the edge of shoreline where the Venetian and Mediterranean resorts would have sat as “Venetian Pointe” for navigation purposes.
It felt like you crapped on the Galactic Starcruiser. I’m here to defend it. Unless you experienced it then you have no clue what you missed. I’m very glad they took a chance on it and so happy I was able to experience it before it shuts down. It was unlike anything else I have experienced in all my travels. I for one would rather see them invest in something so different than just ANOTHER themed hotel…they have enough of them as it is. I think the unfortunate downfall was the price. It was high, but actually it was worth it. So much fun and it put you in a Star Wars adventure. I suggest you do whatever it takes to get a reservation at the Galactic Starcruiser before it’s gone. You will not regret it. And remember to participate when you are there. It’s not a show it’s fully interactive and the more you get involved the more fun you will have. You’re welcome.
Recommended to watch video at 1.75x-2x speed
Man it would be so cool to have that Venetian Venezia hotel today. Its gorgeous.
The things Disney were doing 60 years ago was way ahead of time. I've never seen anything nowadays on a scale like this with so much creativity. Maybe Dubai is unique but Disney was something else.
A shame these never came to fruition. They would've been really beautiful places 🙂
thank you for calling to attention how cool and unique those hotel designs were. i feel like out of disneys failed ventures, the biggest projects that are the coolest are the ones that never get made. all of those talented designers stick their neck out and work for so long on things that only exist as drawings and models and ideas. thanks for putting names on those pictures.
I love Rivera resort
wow.. using data from disney+ as input for theming is one of the most misguided ideas I've ever heard.. disney+ is not a good enough platform to give them an idea of what the people want.. i mean half the time i open disney+, the only thing i want is to go to another streaming service, where it isn't 80% marvel movies
Disney; lotta gab, fuck all results. Then again, I don’t think they’ve ever been run by someone who isn’t a piece of shit aside from maybe Roy Disney. Walt Disney was a deluded snd extremely unlikable idealist, Walker nearly killed the company with Epcot, Eisner was a dickhead, Iger is to blame for all the cancer to come from Disney since 2006, Chapek is a scumbag businessman and now Iger’s back again.
This is a big nothing. The rat was supposed to build a new studio in Santa Clarita ten years ago. They waisted everyone’s time telling us how sensitive they were.