Abandoned resorts

[Missytara]

I took my mom in 2004; and we stayed at POR not long after hurricane Ivan.

We took the water taxi to DTD and the THV had been practically destroyed. They were all sitting empty. It was very creepy to come back late at night and see them all abandoned, with trees having fallen through most of the roof areas.

Two years later, they had been rebuilt, but were being used by upper level Interns from the Disney college program. They had not been converted to accessible, so it was a mid-step before converting them to THV for DVC.

[Jestocost]

Originally Posted by artemis908

ok did a little search to answer my own question and found this, thought it was interesting:

http://www.abandonedfl.com/?p=241

Also, it seems Seven Seas Lagoon is connected to the body of water around Discovery Island and bordering River Country, so I wonder if guests are not allowed to cross into that area if they are taking the boat out of Grand Floridian. Maybe I'll start another thread and see if I can get that question answered!

That body of water is Bay Lake. The boat from the GF only runs in a loop including the MK and the Poly on part of Seven Seas Lagoon. If you take the MK-WL-FW boat, however, or the CR-WL-FW boat you will traverse Bay Lake and have a view of both the old River Country and Discovery Island.

[greeneggs1082]

Originally Posted by Rudi610

Not so much a resort that no longer exists, but how about a resort that was never built. I'm going strictly by memory here, but I remember reading that Walt's original vision included 2 resorts on the Seven Seas Lagoon that were never built (but the land was graded/developed). I'm pretty sure one had a middle eastern theme to it and the other was an Asian theme. The Grand Floridian was eventually built on one of the sites and the other site is still undeveloped (between the TTC and the Contemporary Resort).

I just looked at that area on google maps, and it DOES look like the area was graded and cleared. Part of it is still sans trees in a very man-made looking way.

[tofubeast]

Originally Posted by Rudi610

Not so much a resort that no longer exists, but how about a resort that was never built. I'm going strictly by memory here, but I remember reading that Walt's original vision included 2 resorts on the Seven Seas Lagoon that were never built (but the land was graded/developed). I'm pretty sure one had a middle eastern theme to it and the other was an Asian theme. The Grand Floridian was eventually built on one of the sites and the other site is still undeveloped (between the TTC and the Contemporary Resort).

The Asia resort was cancelled and GF was built on that very spot. Here is some interesting history on that piece o' land!

[crazy4wdw]

The other two resorts included in the initial master plan for WDW were the Venetian and the Persian. The Venetain was to be located on the eastern shore of the Seven Seas Lagoon near the Poly. There were rumors years ago that Disney had designed a greek island themed resort for this location called the Mediterranean Resort but the land would not support the resort without expensive modifications. The Persian was to be located on the north shore of Bay Lake.

[dis_guy]

I wonder if anyone at Disney kinda wishes they'd built the Persian-themed resort. It would have been a perfect base to add an Aladdin theme to, similar to adding the Nemo theme at CBR.

[bwifan]

Originally Posted by MickeyMomOfThree

We stayed in a Treehouse Villa in 1980ish. I was only about 5 but remember it vividly. I remember walking to the soda machine for a Mello Yello (something new for me at the time) and seeing an alligator! I also remember Musekeeping making all my stuffed animals I had gotten into their own bed in front of the window. she made the bed out of pillows and blankets and had them all tucked in. I remember it was very special, totally out of our family's budget and nothing like we had done before, so it really made an impact in my memory.

Awwwwwwww, that's so cute.

[cjsm&d]

Very cool thread.

[SenecaWolf]

Originally Posted by Rudi610

Not so much a resort that no longer exists, but how about a resort that was never built. I'm going strictly by memory here, but I remember reading that Walt's original vision included 2 resorts on the Seven Seas Lagoon that were never built (but the land was graded/developed). I'm pretty sure one had a middle eastern theme to it and the other was an Asian theme. The Grand Floridian was eventually built on one of the sites and the other site is still undeveloped (between the TTC and the Contemporary Resort).

If you mouse over the areas above and below the Contemporary on the map it shows the areas where the resorts were supposed to be. Disney Map

[elfbo]

IM glad this thread was resurrected. Ive learned ALOT browsing through it.

[theduck619]

Great thread

[prfctlyximprfct]

Originally Posted by SenecaWolf

If you mouse over the areas above and below the Contemporary on the map it shows the areas where the resorts were supposed to be. Disney Map

Thank you for sharing this! This was awesome!!! I wonder when and if they'll ever build another resort on the proposed areas.

[FilmProf]

Originally Posted by prfctlyximprfct

Thank you for sharing this! This was awesome!!! I wonder when and if they'll ever build another resort on the proposed areas.

It was indeed a very cool site and interesting to see where the Asian resort was planned. I suspect though that Bay Lake Tower wouldn't allow a full resort to fit there.

[Karabee]

Very cool to look at that map! I just can't imaging a Venetian style hotel there...Then again, if they add one more hotel and not another park I might scream!

[Disneyhenry]

I love this thread!