When’s the last time Disney did something different? Like, really unexpected? Something so out of left field – so completely out of the box – it felt like a reinvention and a risk? Think back to the days before box-office tie-ins and IP lands. When’s the last time Disney made a move that truly surprised and excited you? Disney English? The Disney Cruise Line? The Disney Vacation Club? Maybe!
But one thing’s for sure: one of the bravest, boldest, and most surprising moves at Disney in the last few decades is one that’s no longer around (except that it is) that you can no longer visit (except that you can): The Disney Institute was a really-for-real reinvention of what Disney could do. And today, it’s gone… kind of. Would you be willing to skip the theme parks altogether to live, learn, and lounge in a self-contained campus of immersive classes allowing you to expand your horizons? That’s the risk Disney took with its Disney Institute experiment…
So what was the Disney Institute? A program or a place? A campus or a course? Did you study there or stay there? Does it continue, or was it closed? And for that matter, is it a Lost Legend missed by those who experienced it, or a doomed Declassified Disaster whose failings we should learn from? The answer is… yes. In today’s in-depth, unabridged dive into Disney history, we’ll dig into the unusual history of one of Michael Eisner’s more far-flung pet projects; how it was conceived, where it came to life, why it disappeared… and how you can still experience it today.
The Florida Project
“What is Disney World?” That’s the essential question faced by the leaders of Walt Disney Productions left behind after the 1966 death of Walt Disney. Strictly speaking, Walt himself had left a larger-than-life plan for what he’d hoped to do with Disney’s massive landholdings in Central Florida. The problem was that – as he was wont to do – Walt had seemingly moved on from his past pursuits and was thinking bigger.
His closest companions at WED Enterprises (today, Walt Disney Imagineering) tend to recall that while Walt was willing to build a “Disneyland East” near Orlando to secure funding, his real pet project was E.P.C.O.T. Walt’s Community of Tomorrow would be a test market metropolis; a city powered by corporate innovation; a master-planned, continuously-evolving model to act as a blueprint for cities around the globe.
And to make it happen, the Studio arranged a most peculiar agreement: the “Reedy Creek Improvement District,” a governing jurisdiction and “special municipal distict” to provide Disney with the controls it would need in the pursuit and running of E.P.C.O.T., like oversight of building permits, road development, and sewer systems.
As we know, plans for E.P.C.O.T. died with Walt when executives left behind opted not to pursue such an ambitious reinvention of American life without him at the helm. However, the Reedy Creek Improvement District remained… and to this day, Walt Disney World benefits from the questionable legal arrangement wherein it technically grants its own alcohol permits and construction permits.
Given the loss of Walt and his keystone project, it’s probably no surprise that Walt Disney World defaulted to the form it took: the “Vacation Kingdom of the World,” anchored by Magic Kingdom, but accessoried by days’ worth of watersports, nature parks, resort hotels, campgrounds, boating, fishing, hiking, golfing, swimming, restaurants, equestrian trails, luaus, and more.
But even if it weren’t EPCOT, executives weren’t ready to abandon plans for a residential community in Walt Disney World quiet yet…
Residences, rentals, and retail
In June 1973 – nearly two years after the Magic Kingdom’s debut – Disney announced that its Buena Vista Land Company would soon break ground on an exciting expansion to the Vacation Kingdom of the World: a 1,200 acre community called Lake Buena Vista, constructed in the largely undeveloped land in the southeastern corner of the sprawling Florida property.
A true maestro of Disney history with an eye for detail, Passport to Dreams’ FoxxFur produced an epic, multi-part exploration into the history of Lake Buena Vista for the 2719 Hyperion blog – a must-read for Disney World fans who savor getting the unabridged story. For our purposes, suffice it to say that Lake Buena Vista may have been – as Disney’s publicity put it – “the experimental prototype of the experimental prototype.” This village was to be sincerely tucked away along a wooded inlet on “Village Lake,” presenting a beautiful and classically old-Floridian spot for homes and condos.
By 1974, Disney would construct 133 townhomes and 60 “treehouses” (supported on ten-foot tall pylons – a groundbreaking engineering marvel for the time), ingeniously set among the undisturbed woodlands of the area. So who lived there? Well… no one.
Lake Buena Vista had no permanent residents. As the story goes, Disney had intentionally abandoned plans for an authentic neighborhood of homes, as any permanent resident would gain voting rights, complicating the control of Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake that Disney had gained via the Reedy Creek setup.
Instead, the reclusive rental properties tucked away in a forested, quiet corner of the resort along the northern wooded shores of Village Lake would be leased for multi-year use by corporations. Disney marketed the opportunity as “ideal for executive family vacations, customer entertaining, or sales-incentive-reward holidays.”
In other words, this quant collection of single-family dwellings would be filled, but by corporate executives or their chosen employees, awarded as an incentive; a quiet, charming little artificial village hidden away from the rest of Walt Disney World.
And in fact, they sweetened the deal with the 1974 opening of the Lake Buena Vista Golf Course and – that November – the Lake Buena Vista Club, one of the property’s first attempts at true fine dining (above, and in the lightly shaded peninsula northwest of Village Lake on the map below; take careful note of its shape and distinctive roof, which you’ll recognize later).
For at least a little while, these bungalows, townhouses, and treehouses (collectively, “villas”) and their associated golf course were very sincerely an escape from the action of the Vacation Kingdom; a faux neighborhood available only to those with connections. While Lake Buena Vista offered its own recreation, boat launches, and trails, this removed corner of the property felt a world away from Disney World. It probably would’ve stayed isolated, too… except that guests needed somewhere to buy groceries.
In 1975, an anchor element of the Lake Buena Vista area came online: the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village. Situated on the opposite, southern shore of Village Lake, the Shopping Village served as the “downtown” for vacationing executives and visitors to the upscale neighborhood. It offered restaurants, lounges, retail stories selling vacation sundries, and even a grocery store meant for the visitors to Lake Buena Vista, becoming its own lively waterfront scene on otherwise quiet Floridian nights.
Even if locals could drive in (notice the grass parking, above), the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village was most clearly an amenity for visitors to Lake Buena Vista.
And while Disney did have plans to connect the Shopping Village and Lake Buena Vista neighborhood to the rest of the resort via a Monorail (with a PeopleMover route to nearby off-site hotels), neither ever came to be. That meant that the quiet, cozy Lake Buena Vista and its Shopping Village seemed certain to remain a tranquil community separate from the rest of the Vaction Kingdom.
However, in 1977 – just two years after it opened – the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village was officially renamed the Walt Disney World Village to draw a more concrete connection to the rest of the resort. It stood to reason that Disney’s retail village could be a worthwhile attraction among the “Vacation Kingdom’s” lineup for all guests, not just those squirreled away in the hidden forests of Lake Buena Vista.
And in fact, Disney’s leaders clearly saw the value of the rebranded Walt Disney World Village… and all those villas around it. In 1980, the chalet-style Walt Disney World Conference Center was constructed adjacent to the villas of Lake Buena Vista (“M” on the map above) – available for small or medium sized meetings and conferences. Subsequently, corporate leases on the villas expired and Disney gradually repurposed the Lake Buena Vista bungalows, townhouses, and treehouses as hotel inventory for travelers.
Rather than being leased to corporations for the year, the villas were leased to visitors by the night. Officially grouped as the Fairway Villas (“L,” bungalows overlooking the golf course), Vacation Villages (“N,” townhouses along the lake), the Club Lake Villas, and Treehouse Villas (“O”), occupancy shifted in 1980 from corporate executives to out-of-towners drawn to the resort by its burgeoning reintroduction as a professional convention destination.
Think of the transformations that had occured around “Village Lake” just in the first decade of Walt Disney World’s history. Lake Buena Vista – once imagined as a residential community – had instead opened as a corporate client retreat before having its remote Villa neighborhoods repurposed as hotel inventory to support the Conference Center built nearby.
Consequently, the already-growing Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village got a rebrand and a new role… Rather than merely serving “residents” of the villas across the lake with sundries and groceries, the renamed Walt Disney World Village lived up to its identity by serving as an attraction in and of itself – a daytime and nighttime destination for all visitors to Walt Disney World offering dining, shopping, and entertainment.
In 1985, things finally began to come together. The Fairway Villas, Vacation Villas, Club Lake Villas, and Treehouse Villas scattered around the shores opposite the Walt Disney World Village were finally wrangled together and elevated to official hotel status as Disney’s Village Resort.
At this point, having wandered the grounds of Lake Buena Vista and watched its transformation into the Village Resort of treehouses, townhomes, golf courses, and country clubs, you must be thinking: what does any of this have to do with the Disney Institute? The answer is, you’re standing in it. Read on…
To stand on the grounds of Disney’s Village Resort in 1985, you’d find yourself still in the midst of a wooded, swampy land dotted with villas, but otherwise reminiscent of the “real” Florida and the Walt Disney World of the ’70s that promised a retreat from the real world. But things were about to change significantly.
We’ve spent plenty of time in our Lost Legends series exploring the absolutely transformative early legacy of CEO Michael Eisner, who joined Disney in 1984 as a last ditch effort to save the company after the disastrous ’70s.
Yes, it was Eisner who led revolutions of Disney’s live action studios; who kicked off the Disney Renaissance in animation; who boldly reinvented Disney’s theme parks with the controversial choices we chronicled in an in-depth Special Feature on the “Ride the Movies” era; who literally transformed Walt Disney Productions into the multi-faceted Walt Disney Company, paving the way for the today’s media-conglomerate with high-profile acquisitions (like ABC, ESPN, and The Muppets).
But right off the bat, one of Eisner’s more radical roles was in reimagining Disney’s Florida property again. At least for the subject of today’s story, one of the highlights of that redefining of Walt Disney World would be inspired by a family vacation…
The Chautauqua spark
To understand the Disney Institute, you have to imagine Michael Eisner’s summer trip in 1985 to Chautauqua (sheh-TAW-kwah).
Located in western New York (between Buffalo and Erie, Pennsylania), the Chautauqua Institution was established in 1874 as a teaching tent-camp accessed by steamboat that gained national recognition for its grassroots classes and noted speakers. In fact, Chautauqua’s summer programs in the arts, relligion, education, and music “democratized” education and brought new knowledge to the people in an era when the spread of information was slow, laborious, and reserved for the elite.
Chautauqua was different. The lakeside village became a retreat for turn-of-the-century East Coast travelers. The town’s transformation into a learning campus continued year after year, as historic hotels, inns, amphitheaters, halls, and schools were constructed to host classes for everyday people looking for new experiences. In an era when emerging railroad lines made travel faster and easier than ever, Chautauqua’s summer-long learning festivals grew through the early 1900s.
Grassroots “Chautauqua assemblies” spread throughout the United States during the next half-century up through the 1920s, inspiring educational gatherings in midwest downtowns, city parks, rural assembly houses, and more. President Theodore Roosevelt called the Chautauqua movement, “the most American thing in America.” Chautauqua had become the TED Talk of the 20th century.
Meanwhile, through the mid-1900s, Chautauqua’s New York lakeside campus was growing into a summer recreation resort for artists, thinkers, writers, families, sophisticates, and adventurers who sought to learn new trades, hear from great politicians and writers, and pursue niche interests.
And by time Michael Eisner’s 1985 summer trip to the established Chautauqua Institution took place, the educational non-profit had blossomed into a 2,000 acre self-contained village set along New York’s Chautauqua Lake, as it remains today.
During its summer season, visitors can purchase day or week-long passes into the sprawling, purpose-built lakeside town of inns, parks, townhomes, the grand Victorian Athenaeum Hotel (above), beaches, recital halls, libraries, gazebos, amphitheaters, and cottages and partake in an all-you-can-learn buffet of classes, presentations, speakers, and more. Great New England boarding houses, townhomes, and coastal cottages serve as rentals, with visiting adults and families leasing out properties both within and around the wooded town.
Chautauqua’s summer season isn’t just filled with opportunities to absorb information from politicians, speakers, orchestras, forums, masterclasses, and seminars; it’s hands-on, allowing guests to register for courses and live their dreams to try out painting, dancing, musical instruments, sports, sailing, pottery, acting… You can even join season-long Festival Schools – summer-long residency training programs complete with room and board in the campus’ residence halls!
With classes for all ages from preschool onward, this annual summer retreat has been a tradition for generations. For the day guest, the weeklong student, or residency school participants, Chautauqua is a Burning Man for learning… er… Learning Man? It’s a classic New England getaway and sophicate’s paradise. And after a particularly enlightening visit to the Chautauqua Institute with his own family, Michael Eisner had one of his familiar sparks of inspiration. In short: “Disney could this.”
A Whole New Walt Disney World
Eisner must have returned from his Chautauqua Institute visit reenergized and ready to tackle the transformation of Walt Disney World. With billionaire Texas oil baron Sid Bass (and his 25% stock ownership of Disney) on board, Eisner masterminded a new business model for Orlando.
It’s often said that as far as the Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products division is concerned, parks are actually Orlando’s secondary interest… The property’s primary business model? Real estate, rentals, and – yes – hotels. Think about it: Despite being ret-conned as Disney World’s “signature” hotel, the Grand Floridian only came online in 1988 – the first in Eisner’s lineup of extravagent, oppulent, and over-the-top resort properties. It was followed by the Beach Club, the Yacht Club, and the cleverly-moderate Caribbean Beach. Waves of hotel inventory expansion would follow, with increasingly ambitious concepts helmed by world-renowned architects.
But, prompted by an early hint from Bass, Eisner had particular interest in activating on all the space around the Walt Disney World Village and the Village Resort.
It began when, in 1989, the shopping village (renamed the Disney Village Marketplace) was joined by the much more contemporary Pleasure Island – a nighttime paradise of adult-oriented dance clubs, bars, immersive theaters, and restaurants (like the Lost Legend: The Adventurers Club) born of the “Ride the Movies” era and packed with cinematic splendor.
Pleasure Island and the reinvigorated Disney Village Marketplace turning the sleepy, wooded area into a glowing, neon tourist centerpiece complete with nightly fireworks. And just across the lake, Disney’s Village Resort was suddenly prime real estate.
At the same time, construction was underway on no less than three resort hotels that would take shape in the area… A canal carved northwest out of the lake that had once merely meandered into the wooded wilderness past the Treehouse Villas now gained boat traffic. The waterways connected a new dock serving the Marketplace Village and Pleasure Island to those three hotels: Disney’s Port Orleans, Disney’s Dixie Landings (today, Port Orleans Riverside), and the timeshare-based Disney Vacation Club (today, Old Key West), all premiering by 1992.
So standing in Disney’s Village Resort now, you’d find yourself in a very different place: across the lake from the neon Pleasure Island and downriver from increasingly sprawling and ornate resorts. By all accounts, prime real estate.
Meanwhile, by the dawn of the ’90s, Disney was in a very different place than it had been a decade earlier… Eisner’s high-profile transformation of Walt Disney World was a resounding success; the Disney Renaissance had revived the company’s finances (and its reputation); the epic additions of the “Ride the Movies” era had made Disney’s parks more popular than ever. So finally, it was time to active on Eisner’s big idea. Step inside on the next page…
The Institute Arises
In 1995, Disney’s Village Resort closed forever. Remember, the two decade old wooded townhouses, villas, condos, and treehouses that had once been used as corporate cabanas (and had only been collectively united as an official Resort a decade earlier) had always been imagined as a “home away from home,” with a park-like lakeside location overlooking Disney’s rapidly-expanding “downtown.”
But now, the comfortable villas and charmingly sprawling campus would serve as exactly the foundation Eisner needed for his own Chautauqua – THE DISNEY INSTITUTE.
To Eisner’s thinking, the successful ongoing transformation of Walt Disney World with convention centers, upscale hotels, the Disney Vacation Club, and other upper-crust amenities was evidence that he’d been on the right track; that Disney World could be a business far beyond accomodating theme park guests… and in fact, that Disney’s highly-courted upper-middle-class adult demographic might be willing to come to Disney World for a week-long experience that had nothing to do with theme parks whatsoever.
Great care was put into every element of the Disney Institute, right down to its logo. Animation manager Larry Lauria recalled to Jim Korkis, “They paid big money for a design group to come up with that ‘jumping T’ in the name ‘Institute’. The point was that he was to represent the guest and as the guest took more and more classes, he became more and more happy and empowered and knowledgeable and leapt from the mundane world high into the unlimited sky.”
Characteristic of Eisner’s early out-of-the-box thinking, Disney would repurpose its lakeside resort of ’70s villas into its own all-inclusive educational institution; a picturesque lakeside New England town with its in-universe municipal structures repurposed as learning spaces. This would be a romanticized campus of warmth and charm, inviting guests to amble through parks, along waterways, and into the woods en route to classes on storytelling, animation, design, music, and filmmaking – all lead by Disney’s in-house creatives.
The newly-crafted central campus (above) would be the anchor of Disney’s educational space, but those who wished to create entire vacations around the Disney Institute would find THE VILLAS AT THE DISNEY INSTITUTE. Yes, Eisner suspected that the Disney Institute itself could create a niche market within Walt Disney World; a space where adults might opt to visit the property and forego theme parks altogether in favor of focusing on living inside of an immersive, educational campus. The Disney Institute and its Villas officially opened in February 1996.
The Disney Institute
Sure, guests staying in The Villas at the Disney Institute would technically be in hand-me-downs from 1985’s Village Resort, which had technically originated as far back as 1975… But naturally, all of the existing villas were all remodeled – for better or worse, eviscerating any remains from their classic ’70s architecture, accents, styles, and textures. (Unfortunately, the mid-’90s renovation was mostly cosmetic, famously failing to equip the ’70s structures with the additional power supply and outlets that would swiftly become essential in, for example, charging phones and computers…)
The Treehouses remained, replacing shag carpeting and dark wood interiors with simplistic and modern white. The Vacation Villas along the lake became The Townhouses overlooking Pleasure Island. Villas set around the inland Willow Lake were reimagined as The Bungalows, repainted in soft, warm earth tones.
At the head of Willow Lake, the former Walt Disney World Conference Center was repainted and renamed The North Studios, subdivided into cutting edge classroom spaces. Nearby, the East and West Cottages shared Teaching Gardens – perfect for culinary or horticultural classes – with a large Climbing Wall in the woods just past.
But the bulk of the Disney Institute’s learning facility (designed by Tom Beedy) would be built around an unexpected structure…
… the golf course’s former high-end restaurant, the Lake Buena Vista Club. (Notice its roof?) Though the restaurant remained (as Seasons), the structure itself was dramatically expanded outward into an upstate New York-stylized lakeside rural town of iconic architecture, arcades, meeting spaces, and more.
In fact, the new core of the campus contained the rolling 1,150-seat Amphitheater constructed into a hillside with the centralized meeting place, The Green, beyond.
It also containedthe two-story South Studios in a building resembling a repurposed colt barn and silo, as well as an on-site Spa and Fitness Center. Inside a beautiful Victorian-inspired dance hall, guests would find…
…a 225-seat Performance Center. The Disney Institute even offered its own 400-seat Cinema and Business Center, each used as classroom spaces. And to demonstrate just how self-contained a trip to the Disney Institute could be, the campus had its own closed-circuit television station (DITV) and radio station (WALT).
But the place was just one part of the puzzle. It would be the programs and the people that would bring the Disney Institute to life…
Learning lessons
According to the Ocala Star Banner‘s January 26, 1997 article “Mickey gives it to the old college try,” the Institute offered stays ranging from three nights to one week. Depending on the number of courses a guest signed up for, such stays could range from around $500 to $1,500. Disney had prepared over 80 courses sorted into Core Subjects.
For example:
- Animation (Animation Sampler, Animated Beginnings, Voices of Disney, Classical Animation, Computer Animation, Clay Animation)
- Culinary Arts (Taste of the World, Wine, Wonders and Song, Healthy Cooking, Romantic Dinners, Culinary Technique, Studio Bakery, Celebrations)
- Home, Garden & Great Outdoors (Painting Illusions, Disney Architecture, Canoe Adventure, Traveling Gardener, Topiary Creations, Gifts From Your Garden, Container Gardener)
- Communication Arts & Entertainment (Editing Workshop, Outdoor Photography, TimeQuest, DNN Studio Production, Exploring Photojournalism, Computers: Internet, Digital Imaging, DNN Field Production, Candid Portrait Photography, DI Deejay for Youth, Computers: Desktop Publishing, DI Deejay)
- Camp Disney (for Youth 10 years old and older) (Show Biz Magic, Swamp Stomp, The Funny Papers—Cartooning, Art Magic, Broadway Bound, Wildlife Adventure, Youth Rock Climbing, Discovery Island Explorers, Disney Island Kid Venture, Tiles, Temples and Treasure, Stealing the Show, Face Magic!, DI Art Lab, Disney’s Orient Express, Art Surround)
- Sports & Fitness (Aerobics, Golf: The Game, Tennis: High Tech, Dance! Dance! Dance!, Golf: In Depth, Rise & Shine: Walk, Tennis: On the Attack, Tennis Aerobics, Rock Climbing: First Steps, Strength Training & Toning, Rock Climbing: Hang Time, Tennis: Stay in the Pt., Relaxation Techniques, Self-Defense, Water Exercise, Stretching, Tennis Clinic)
But those weren’t the only lessons being learned at the Disney Institute… While guests were digging into animation, baking, painting, aerobics, rock climbing, photography, and digital imaging, Disney executives were learning their own lessons… on the last page, we’ll dig into the downfall of the Disney Institute and how – and where – it lives on…
When the Disney Institute launched, it was with the full force of Eisner’s support. He allegedly admitted that he didn’t even expect or require the Disney Institute to turn a profit for at least its first few years given the start-up cost, the small class sizes he considered essential, and the staff needed to teach such specialized courses.
But even Eisner couldn’t have been prepared for how wrong things went. The Disney Institute encountered some major problems right out of the gate:
1. LOW OCCUPANCY ON-SITE. Guests registering for a Disney Institute course didn’t actually need to stay at the Disney Institute. Given that Disney’s “newest” resort carried a premium price tag without the perks, high-rolling guests who signed up for Institute courses tended to book stays at more extravagent hotels and merely visit the resort each day while families who opted to try a course or two would much rather stay at the brand new Value priced hotels built nearby and take the bus.
2. THE CANCELLED-CLASS DOMINO EFFECT. Given that response to the Disney Institute, its occupancy rates, and thus its “learning community” feeling were well below expectations right out of the gate, its offerings were quickly and quietly slimmed down. To keep classes filled, niche topics were cut and guests we redirected to core subjects. Korkis reports that:
Within six months, classes like genealogy, spiritual inquiry, power babysitting, and money management – along with all the staff teaching them – were suddenly cut. That started a domino effect and, by 1997, the entire Story Arts curriculum, including classes like Storytelling Journeys and As Walt Would Tell It were also gone. […] It’s important to realize that the Disney Institute right from the beginning had the highest rated guest satisfaction surveys on all of [Disney] property and maintained that until major cuts started happening in 1998.
3. DEEP DISCOUNTS CHEAPENED THE PRODUCT. To recoup the percieved losses of the faltering Institute, spread word-of-mouth, and get people booked into programs, Disney did the unthinkable: it offered a good deal. To entice guests into the experience, single-day courses were offered for $49 – a move almost certainly meant to make the Disney Institute fit alongside other day-long attractions like a day at a theme park. And while guests did try out the courses, discounts are a double edged sword… After all, even if a guest enjoyed their $49 day class, did they like it enough to pay $500 for a three-day version?
4. WHERE DOES ‘DISNEY’ FIT INTO THE DISNEY INSTITUTE? On the Institute’s Opening Day, Mickey Mouse was on-site for the ribbon-cutting. Allegedly, Richard Hutton, Vice President of the Disney Institute announced to his team after, “This is the last time that Mickey Mouse sets foot on this property.” In other words, Hutton was determined to elevate the Institute into a serious, respected, prestigious, and exclusive campus for learning real trades and practicing new skills. Hutton reportedly rejected the notion of creating vacation packages that included theme park days, insisting that the Institute should cater to upscale guests who wanted a high-end retreat, elevated above Disney’s cartoon brand. To keep the Institute exclusive, guests needed to be “all-in,” not skipping class to visit the Magic Kingdom.
But couldn’t it be that people would come to the Disney Institute to learn how to be… well… more like Disney? Korkis recalls that the most popular courses were ones in which guests learned to draw from Disney animators, learned about Disney filmmaking in the cinema, and shaped and took home their own mini Mickey Mouse topiary. The poisonous “purity test” of actively avoiding Disney cliches wherever possible may have hurt the Institute more than it helped. After all, you can take a cooking class without flying to Orlando.
It was quickly clear that of all of Disney World’s expansions and pivots in the ’90s, Eisner’s dreams of a Disney Institute just weren’t meant to be. Even if he wanted to defend the concept or take it back to the drawing board, it was too late; Eisner himself was embroiled in a tumultuous battle against the very person who’d rallied for his hiring in the ’80s – Roy E. Disney, who has now calling for Michael’s dismissal.
So here’s where the story splits in two.
What happened to the program?
In 2000 – after just four years of declining attendance and cut-down classes – the Disney Institute changed its focus for good. The campus largely ceased offering creative classes for guests.
Though it retained the name, the new Disney Institute was wholly turned over to corporate professional development, serving as a site for companies to have their teams trained in Disney-style customer service and business practices – ironically, teaching people to be more like Disney. It wasn’t a bad idea given that Disney’s policies, procedures, and Cast Members are widely regarded as the best in the business…. But the new Disney Institute certainly didn’t need a sprawling, charming, New England-stylized campus on prime real estate across the lake from the hip-and-happening Downtown Disney.
In 2003, the Disney Institute campus closed for good.
Instead, the Disney Institute lives on today as a series of targeted corporate professional development and training courses presented online, at regional locations (like conference centers), and at Disney destinations. Revealing the “secrets” behind Disney’s globally recognized customer service, the feel-good courses are meant to inspire and energize teams around tricks that parks fans know all too well, like putting people first, the concept of being “on-stage,” and the four keys to guest service (safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency).
It may not be the Disney Institute it once was, but this traveling and destination training program is obviously well-attended enough and revenue-generating enough to warrant its continued operation twenty years later.
What happened to the place?
The “new” Disney Institute vacated the Chautauqua-stylized campus near Downtown Disney in 2003. While Eisner’s mid-’90s bet on an informal residential education institution right in the middle of Disney World hadn’t taken off, another concept from the era had: the timeshare-based Disney Vacation Club.
By 2003, four DVC properties existed in Walt Disney World alone (the original Old Key West, Boardwalk Villas, Beach Club Villas, and Boulder Ridge at Wilderness Lodge) as well as two standalone properties (Vero Beach and Hilton Head). DVC had proven itself a high-revenue business that perfectly matched Disney World’s real-estate focus. And now, Disney had a large resort property on prime real estate near Downtown Disney available for development.
Most of the Disney Institute’s Villas (dating back to 1975) were demolished, as were the North Studios (formerly, the Walt Disney World Conference Center from 1980). For the most part, only the Treehouse Villas and the central campus of New York lakeside town buildings remained. Fittingly, Disney announced that the remains of the Disney Institute would be reborn as the seventh (and to this day, largest) DVC property: Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, named for and stylized after the city of Saratoga Springs in upstate New York.
In fact, the resort’s custom-built guest accomodations are described as part of an “1880s, Victorian, upstate New York lakeside retreat” amid “pastoral landscapes, formal gardens, bubbling springs, and natural surroundings.” Yeah, frankly, Saratoga Springs looks more like Chautauqua, New York than the Disney Institute with its repurposed bungalows ever did…
Edutainment
Disney has always walked a tightrope between entertainment and education. From Walt’s original park that shared his love of the nostalgic and the futuristic to ongoing attempts at telling the story of America and its people, learning was a part of Disneyland from the start. You can follow that thread to EPCOT (by way of its portfolio of Lost Legends) and to the reality-free Ride the Movies anchors of the ’90s, then to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and beyond…
The point is, finding the balance between empowering guests to build a better world and allow them to escape from it entirely is one that’s not easy to find, and even harder to maintain. Michael Eisner opened the Disney Institute promising “The Disney Institute is stimulation for the mind. At Disney we have fun, escapism and, now, a campus for smart fun.” Obviously, despite his attempts, it didn’t find the balance, either.
However, the Disney Institute was a unique, unusual, and well-meaning risk. Regardless of its ultimate success (or lack thereof), we ought to at least appreciate that it was the kind of project we’re unlikely to see from the Walt Disney Company again: something authentically, earnestly, and unapologetically different. The Disney Institute was as brave and as bold as the Disney Vacation Club, even if it was ultimately much less successful. And even if it, like EPCOT Center, seemingly failed to crack the case of learning on vacation, at least it tried something different.
Would you have sacrified a day of your Disney World vacation to visit the Disney Institute? Or better yet, would you plan a trip to Orlando and skip the parks altogether for an immersive, living campus experience? What would Disney Resorts around the globe look like today if the Disney Institute model had worked? Might we see Disney Institutes pop up in major cities around the globe?
