2. Despite positive reviews, it was a “Disneyland of the mind”

Where some saw an educational experience, others saw a fantasy. In his review, Jerry Adler of Newsweek called the Institute a “Disneyland of the mind.” At first glance, you might think he was referring to the wonderful intellectual stimulation guests received at Eisner's pet project. In reality, he was suggesting something far more cynical – that the Disney Institute wasn't particularly interested in teaching guests anything meaningful, but rather selling them on the illusion that they were doing so.

And lest you think Adler was being overly negative, then-Disney Travel Company President Randy Garfield essentially confirmed that sentiment to the Sun Sentinel:

"Our goal at Disney is to make fantasies real," says Randy Garfield, president of the Walt Disney Travel Company. "Each of our cast members plays a role in fulfilling the dreams and expectations of our guests."

Adler equated those fantasies to a performance: one in which the cast members acted as though the guest was quickly learning a new skill, and the guests pretended they didn't really know the truth. “Most of us know we really can't draw,” he wrote. “But it's nice to be in a place where people act otherwise.”

1. The Disney Institute is (technically) still around today

Image: Disney

Shortly after the Institute opened, it became clear that guests weren't as enamored with the idea of an education vacation as Eisner was. The programs were quickly scaled back and resources were diverted elsewhere on the Disney property. In 2002, after just six years of operation, the Disney Institute closed due to total lack of interest.

But despite its failure, relics from the failed experiment still remain at Walt Disney World.

While much of the Disney Institute's accommodations and facilities were torn down, some were put through an extensive refurbishment and reopened in 2004 as Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa. Even the name “Disney Institute” lives on as a professional development program Disney offers to this day.

Michael Eisner's dream of a year-round Chautauqua Institution was probably a bit far-fetched. Guests were flocking to the Orlando resort because of the incredible creativity shown within its theme parks, not for a designer-brand correspondence course. But there's something to be learned from the scope of what Eisner was trying to do. The Disney Institute was a failure, yes, but it was an ambitious failure – the kind of thing Disney would never even attempt today.

In 2002, Eisner opted to tear his own project down and replace it with a hotel -- swapping a risky, outside-the-box idea for an assured moneymaker. When you stop to think about it, there's something poetic in that: the only person who really learned something from the Disney Institute was Eisner. Unfortunately, what he learned was the ability to second-guess himself.