There are few subjects more interesting to hardcore Disney fans than Disney’s unbuilt projects.
From rides to attractions to full-on theme parks and even hotels, for every Disney project that’s been completed, there are hundreds that have not moved beyond the blue sky phase, even after some of them were announced.
When it comes to unbuilt Walt Disney World hotels specifically, there’s perhaps no area more fruitful than the land surrounding the Seven Seas Lagoon. When Walt Disney World first opened in 1971, the resort’s two opening-day hotels – – the Polynesian Village Resort and the Contemporary Resort – – were on the shores of the lagoon. However, they weren’t meant to be alone.
During the early years of the resort’s existence, plans were in motion for several further resorts, including the Persian Resort and the Asian Resort. However, the economically crippling gas crisis of the 1970s put a stop to those plans. There wouldn’t be another hotel built in the area until the Grand Floridan Resort & Spa opened in 1988.
As the 1990s began, Disney was once again eying the area for expansion, considering resorts based on Italy’s Venice and, our subject today, a Greek island in the Mediterranean.
Disney’s Mediterranean Resort was to have been a massive complex themed to a Greek fishing village. Designed in part by renowned architect Alan Lapidus, the resort was originally developed in the early 1980s.
According to Lapidus’s 2007 book Everything by Design, “The resort began to take shape as a series of streets with multicolored waterfront “houses” (actually, rows of hotel rooms of various heights). There was a waterfront walkway with a mosaic serpentine design, a harbor entrance with a lighthouse, windmills, a breakwater, a marketplace, olive groves, and trellis-cover walkways leading to streets of “tavernas,” market squares, and many hidden courtyards with a variety of fountains and outside cafes.”
The concept was put on hold to focus on the opening of the Grand Floridian before being briefly revived in the 1990s. During this period, the hotel was planned to rival the then-new aforementioned Grand Floridian in luxury and price. However, that never happened. Why? Well, it comes down to land and expense.
Allegedly the hotel wasn’t built due to the swampy nature of the ground at the site, which would have made the Mediterranean too expensive to build for Disney’s liking, as the site would have required millions in stabilization before construction could even begin.
Models of the unbuilt hotel are currently in the possession of the University of New Mexico…
…. and truly drive home the massive scope it would have had had it been built.
Disney’s Mediterranean Resort once seemed destined to sit on the shores of the Seven Seas Lagoon as the crown jewel of Walt Disney World’s resort collection. Instead, the unbuilt hotel only lives on in the blue sky dreams of Disney aficionados.
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Stay tuned to AllEars for more on Disney’s history of unbuilt attractions.
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Do you wish the Mediterranean Resort had been built as planned? Let us know in the comments below.
I didn’t even know about it. I guess I’d have to say no. You can’t miss what you don’t know.
Three hotels opened in 1971. Fort wilderness was one of them