Transylvania Hotel???

[DamnSkippy]

Ok, now I know this has been in talk for some time now, but has anyone heard of the Transylvania hotel Disney was suppose to build?
I have been hearing rumors since 1997, but now I have been hearing more talk, that they are done all the prototypes... and it's covered with cobblestone walkways, etc...
Anyone else want to elaborate more on this subject?

 

[KYMickey]

Where was it supposed the built? WDW, DL or? Did you hear the specific location within the park?

 

[daber]

That's a new one for me. I remember drawings for a Venetian hotel and a Persian Hotel, but a Transylvanian hotel? That would be just as interesting a concept.

 

[Another Voice]

Way, way back – around the time the Disney-MGM Studios were being built and before Michael Eisner anointed himself a Prince of Architecture, there was a proposal to build several hotels nearby and theme them around either specific movies or movie genres. The ‘Transylvania’ or ‘Horror’ Hotel was among them. It’s notable in that it featured an elevator which would have dropped guests down to a basement buffet/diner show (themed as the “Mad Scientist of the Year” awards. Both the hotel and the elevator eventually morphed into the ‘Tower of Terror’.

Other ideas include Tara from Gone with the Wind and The Emerald City Hotel from The Wizard of Oz. They were ways to use the rights Disney had bought from MGM and some rights to ‘Oz’ that Disney has owned for a long time (anyone remember the movie Return to Oz?). Another concept was for a glitzy Art Deco themed “Movie Musical” hotel complete with production numbers in the lobby. A western hotel (along the lines of the Hotel Cheyenne from Paris or the later planned Buffalo Junction at WDW) was also a possibility.

None of these concepts went very far. The Disney-MGM Studios proved to be not all that popular of a theme park, and it never came close to attracting the amount of production work that would have required all the hotel space. And when hotel/motel design was shifted from WDI to Disney Development, all hopes for truely themed spaces ended.

 

[mitros]

Nice to hear from you again, AV.

Way, way back – around the time the Disney-MGM Studios were being built and before Michael Eisner anointed himself a Prince of Architecture, there was a proposal to build several hotels nearby and theme them around either specific movies or movie genres. The ‘Transylvania’ or ‘Horror’ Hotel was among them. It’s notable in that it featured an elevator which would have dropped guests down to a basement buffet/diner show (themed as the “Mad Scientist of the Year” awards. Both the hotel and the elevator eventually morphed into the ‘Tower of Terror’.

Other ideas include Tara from Gone with the Wind and The Emerald City Hotel from The Wizard of Oz. They were ways to use the rights Disney had bought from MGM and some rights to ‘Oz’ that Disney has owned for a long time (anyone remember the movie Return to Oz?). Another concept was for a glitzy Art Deco themed “Movie Musical” hotel complete with production numbers in the lobby. A western hotel (along the lines of the Hotel Cheyenne from Paris or the later planned Buffalo Junction at WDW) was also a possibility.

None of these concepts went very far. The Disney-MGM Studios proved to be not all that popular of a theme park, and it never came close to attracting the amount of production work that would have required all the hotel space. And when hotel/motel design was shifted from WDI to Disney Development, all hopes for truely themed spaces ended.

 

[Padrepride]

I'm loving the Cheyenne/Western Hotel idea. It would be cool if they opened the same time as a Disney America. But that is probably a couple decades off.

 

[Another Voice]

A version of the Cheyenne - called Buffalo Junction - was announced for WDW as part of the 'Disney Decade'. It would have been located between the Wilderness Lodge and the Fort Wilderness camp, effectively connecting all three resorts into one large district.

But when Euro Disney opened with such disasterous financial results, Michael Eisner lost all interest in the parks and all the plans were cancelled - especially anything with the smell of Paris on it. And too the company's plans shifted away from low-margin guests towards convention goers on expense reports. The funds for Buffalo Junction were spent on the Coronado instead.


P.S. Glaciers will return to Virginia before Disney builds a park there. The only way it will happen is if someone else will rent the Disney name and build it themeselves.

 

[MarriedToAPrince]

I would personally love it if they opened a hotel like that and so would DH.

I'm loving the Cheyenne/Western Hotel idea. It would be cool if they opened the same time as a Disney America. But that is probably a couple decades off.

What is Disney America?

 

[KYMickey]

What is Disney America?

Disney American was proposed to be a park devoted to American history and events. It was proposed to be located in Northern Virginia but local opposition forced Disney to cancel the idea. The concept has come up several times since in rumors but nothing definite has come forth. It's doubtful it will ever happen given Disney's current direction.

 

[MarriedToAPrince]

Disney American was proposed to be a park devoted to American history and events. It was proposed to be located in Northern Virginia but local opposition forced Disney to cancel the idea. The concept has come up several times since in rumors but nothing definite has come forth. It's doubtful it will ever happen given Disney's current direction.

That would have been cool! Thanks!

 

[troynkasey]

Disney American was proposed to be a park devoted to American history and events. It was proposed to be located in Northern Virginia but local opposition forced Disney to cancel the idea. The concept has come up several times since in rumors but nothing definite has come forth. It's doubtful it will ever happen given Disney's current direction.

My question is why oppose something like this? It's an economic boom to your area and Disney, by all accounts, is very good to the region. DisneyWorld is very eco-friendly or at least moving in that direction. Not to mention a Historical based park in Virginia where lots of history is.

I for one would have visited this park and so would DW since she's a history teacher. It's odd there was opposition, but I guess to each is their own...

 

[lvanleer]

I can tell you part of the reason for the opposition....the area that it was being considered for was(and this is just my recollection) very close to the historic Manassas battlefield and Bull Run....locals and history buffs thought that it would detract from the real historic sites in the area....in addition they thought that the attractions would be a dumbing down of real American history and an insult to African-Americans because of a proposed pre-Civil War area.

 

[Another Voice]

What also happened was Euro Disney.

The park was planned at a time when Disney fully expected to be swimming in millions of francs, marks, lira, and pounds pouring in from the mega successful Euro Disney project. So much money that there were plans (mostly to save on taxes) to reinvest the profits into expansions at Disneyland (WESTCOT and Port Disney), WDW (Studio Phase Two, infrastucture, Wild Kingdom, several more resorts) and spread DVC complexes all over the globe.

Disney was interested in "regional" operations where they could tap into a day's visit from existing vacation spots. Eisner thought it would be easy to grab some money from all those families visiting Washington D.C. every summer. Hence, Disney's America.

As time went by, Euro Disney turned out to be...well the bottom hasn't been found in fifteen years now. For a while the Disney's America project held in there as Eisner's pet project and a way of showing "confidence" in the theme park business despite the nuclear disaster in Paris. But all those screaming French bankers and screaming NIMBY Virginians finally turned Eisner against the whole concept.

It sits, somewhat poorly, in the same shelf as Mineral King as one of the great Disney never-were's.

 

[KYMickey]

I can tell you part of the reason for the opposition....the area that it was being considered for was(and this is just my recollection) very close to the historic Manassas battlefield and Bull Run....locals and history buffs thought that it would detract from the real historic sites in the area....in addition they thought that the attractions would be a dumbing down of real American history and an insult to African-Americans because of a proposed pre-Civil War area.

That's the story the opposition you. In reality they were just against development and wanted the land to remain farmland. The whole plan backfired in the long run since much of the land where Disney wanted to build is now housing developments! Too bad because it probably would've helped people become more interested in American history.

 

[Padrepride]

I hope that that would be the next idea on the drawing board for a potential 5th gate at WDW or a 3rd at DLR. I just don't think that a villains/transylvania themed park would work. I just don't see Disney doing a dark-themed park.