45 years before Moana…
Image: Disney
While what we now know as Disney’s Contemporary Resort delivered the showiest theming with the monorail heading through the building, the other Walt Disney World hotel on day one also enjoyed that revolutionary kind of transportation. Its overall theming was more overt. Every inch of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort embraced the South Seas theme, and the rooms felt like an island getaway rather than a theme park vacation. It was the perfect option for parents who wanted to spend a week at the beach but knew that their kids would bore quickly.
Over the years, Disney has updated the hotel to maximize its exotic feel. The most recent addition is the mega-expensive, ultra-luxurious bungalows. These rooms are uncannily similar to ones you’d find during a stay in Belize yet they’re only a walk down the beach to the hotel lobby away from a monorail ride. Disney brought the Polynesian Islands to the Walt Disney World complex, and the bungalows are the ultimate embodiment of this theme.
Bringing Floridian opulence to…Florida.
Image: Disney
In June of 1988, Archer’s favorite actor, Burt Reynolds, introduced the world to The Walt Disney Company’s masterpiece. The Florida native was the perfect person to christen what was then called The Grand Floridian Beach Resort. An exercise in elegance, this 900-room hotel cost the equivalent of $275 million, and the stated goal was to provide the patrician class with a place to stay at Walt Disney World.
At the time of its opening, the most expensive room onsite was the honeymoon suite, but Disney frequently upgraded and added suites to cater to the richest guests. 25 suites now populate the facility, and the most fitting of them is the Roy O. Disney Suite.
Image: Disney
The brother of Walt Disney famously had to move to Florida for a time to helm the completion of the Florida Project. He and several other Disney execs basically took over a competing hotel for a time before buying housing on the Disney campus. This commemoration of his achievements includes family portraits on one of the walls. Amusingly, it’s smaller than another themed room at the property, the Walt Disney Suite. No matter what Roy O. Disney meant to Walt Disney World, it’s his brother’s company, after all.
The theming at the various suites at the Grand Floridian all incorporate Victorian elements, which is true of every room at the property. They’re also decadent displays of excess that all theme park tourists should aspire to visit at some point.
Comments
They should retheme the Contemporary resort into, for example, a Star Wars or just Space themed hotel. It is the least interesting luxury hotel there with only the short walk to MK as a bonus. I also hate the Bay lake tower add ons.