When was DW's first on-site resort built??

[motofox4]

A co-worker of mine and I were just discussing WDW. She hasn't been there since high school (she's now in her 50s!) and I said to her I didn't think there was even any on-site resorts built yet and it brought me to thinking, when was the first on-site hotel/resort built?? I've tried finding it on my own but can't seem to locate the answer..

 

[JanB]

I knew that both the Contemporary and the Polynesian were the first resorts and that they had been there pretty much from the beginning, but I didn't know the dates.

According to my Google searches, both the Contemporary Resort and the Polynesian Resort opened on the same date that Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom opened -- October 1, 1971.

I found this interesting website of a Disney historical timeline.

http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/disnehis/

I don't know anything about this website other than what I see. I can't vouch for its accuracy. I fully realize that anyone can put non-factual information on the internet -- but it is definitely interesting to read. You'll even see details of what date each attraction opened.

 

[fatherfolke]

Both the Polynesian and Contemporary resorts opened with the Magic Kingdom back in 1971. The monorail connecting them with the Ticket Center and Magic Kingdom was in place as well.

My grandparents lived in Orlando when I was growing up, so we visited WDW since its inception. We would actually park at the Polynesian to avoid the TTC altogether - something you can no longer do. I remember walking around the Polynesian as a kid, wishing that my grandparents didn't live in the area so that I could stay at one of the resorts. The parts that really didn't click as a kid were 1) we probably wouldn't be anywhere near WDW (or at least not as often) if my grandparents didn't live there and 2) my parents could never have afforded the rates.

We would also drive out to WDW the day before we visited and go into the Contemporary as well, just to stroll around. Like I said, it was a lot easier to have unfettered access to various areas in those first few years than it is today!

 

[fatherfolke]

I almost forgot - Fort Wilderness opened as well on October 1. This was just the RV and tent sites, no cabins at that point.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Technically, the Contemporary wasn't so much built as it was assembled. The rooms are individual modular units that were placed by cranes. The thinking was, instead of redoing the rooms they could just replace them - remove one and put another fully-assembled room in its place. Nope. The building settled

 

[bradk]

i believe the poly actually got modular construction treatment to some extent as well. both hotels were built and initially owned by US Steel who had leased the land (disney would handle operations). disney subsequently bought the hotels prior to opening.

 

[spiceycat]

the Cont was finished the night before WDW opened. I think the Polyn was finished a couple of days later?

 

[spiceycat]

i believe the poly actually got modular construction treatment to some extent as well.

the first part was modular construction - but the Tahiti, Rapa Nui, Tokelau - were build there. Saw Tokelau being build.

 

[edcrbnsoul]

Nice Video and some pictures on the US steel site:

http://www.archive.org/details/us_steel_2

 

[sotoalf]

The Golf Resort soon followed, after which there was a long dry spell until 1988, broken only by the opening of the Village Resort in the mid seventies.

Does anyone remember how difficult rooms were to book then? A friend told me he waited almost a year in advance for a non-peak season room in the Contemporary!

 

[spiceycat]

yea, Grandmother got told it was 2 year waiting list - so on our first trip to WDW she asked at the Polyn front desk how to get a reservation at the Polyn.

don't know what she got told but after that we stayed at Polyn the 2nd week of June until she died.

in those days - disney DID NOT use a travel agency.

so unless you knew the right numbers to call - you were out of luck.

 

[sotoalf]

I believe the old Central Reservations Office phone number was 407-824-2000.

 

[bradk]

i dunno how tough it was, but knowing my parents it couldn't have been that bad, at least in 87 when we were at the contemporary. it was during some february break (saw a lot of people i knew from CT down there). i remember seeing the GF being constructed while riding the monorail to MK.

Nice Video and some pictures on the US steel site:
http://www.archive.org/details/us_steel_2

that was AWESOME. thanks for the link. bookmarked. going by that, i guess i was correct, it was proven to be a very efficient method, at least in the assembly process. it just never caught on.

 

[Phrank40]

I remember one of the big things you would hear about visiting WDW when it first opened was you had to make a reservation months ahead of time, it was almost a special treat if you got to book Poly or Contemporary.

I remember in late '83 my future wife and I decided to go to WDW for our honeymoon, our wedding was to be in May of '84. Had never been so didn't know much about it. Called Disney reservations to see about booking a Disney Resort and told, even calling 7-8 months ahead, only the most expensive room at CR was available. Wound up staying at Buena Vista Palace.

There was a book which came out maybe 10 years ago now, not really sure, name of it was "Storming the Kingdom". It was about the family fight over Disney about the time Eisner took over. One part of the book discusses the fact Disney was not building any Disney owned lodging. One of the Disney board members involved in the real estate business had to convince the rest of the board that having more disney lodging on WDW world property was a good thing.

So in the very late 80s early/mid 90s new resorts were being built all over WDW property so lodging money would flow to Disney not off site hotels. Seems like a no brainer now.

Phrank

 

[SeaSpray]

Nice Video and some pictures on the US steel site:

http://www.archive.org/details/us_steel_2

Cool video, thanks!

 

[LadyZolt]

As I recall from watching some documentary or another about Walt Disney, one of the main reasons he wanted to build WDW was because Disney Land had a bunch of hotels spring up around it and he wanted to give people the option of staying on Disney property instead of having to stay at off-site hotels. So, I believe that WDW was originally conceived to include resorts on-site.

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

 

[princessgirl2238]

does anyone remember the old DisneyInn? it's now shades of green, but i was always told that it was one of the three first hotels to open. my family visited it on my first trip to disney (i was about 7) and the year after it was closed and i remember my mother was so dissappointed cause she really wanted to stay there- we stayed at the tree houses (i wish they'd refurnish them and open them back up)- (something about how it was decorated with animation cells or something?)

 

[sotoalf]

We stayed at the Disney Inn in 1993, not long before it converted to a military-owned operation. It's the closest thing Disney's ever come to owning a bed-and-breakfast: airy, spacious, and very, very quiet. There was (and is) nothing quite like it in today's WDW.

 

[bradk]

Shades of Green was The Disney Inn which was The Golf Resort. i believe it opened in 1973. it was actually also preceded by Disney's Village Resorts (Treehouse & Vacation Villas). that technically would have made it the fourth to open on site.

by then, there were also a few non-Disney hotels on site

i can't say i'd agree that it was ever disney's intent to lose to the hotel business a la disneyland (whose main problem was that a city sprung up around this magical place), but that it was meant to be a place where a guest wouldn't have to nor would want to leave for whatever reason. which is still mostly the philosophy today. if there was a magic pill disney could manufacture that would make its guests forget the city of orlando and any non-disney attractions it contains exist, it most certainly would. the opposite actually seems to be the case considering the two hotels that did open with the property weren't meant to be owned by disney, but Roy decided owning them outright would be less of a headache than being partners with US Steel.

 

[edcrbnsoul]

My first 2 stays were at the Golf Resort which then became the Disney Inn and then Shades of Green. I was in 4th grade, it was 1974 and I remember standing on the balcony in the morning and all I could smell was Orange Blossoms, its one of my most vivid memories.