by Jim Korkis
Starting in 1971 with just the Contemporary Resort, the Polynesian Village Resort, and the Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, the WDW resorts expanded into over two dozen offerings with still more being planned and built including a Star Wars resort near Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The preview publicity for the resort hotels in 1971 stated:
Conceived by WED Enterprises, the Disney design and Imagineering firm, and Welton Becket & Associates, architects, each hotel will be a complete major attraction itself, with its own recreation activities, entertainment, dining facilities, and resort atmosphere.
Additionally, guests in any hotel will be able to enjoy the facilities of all others during their stay in the Vacation Kingdom. The hotels are called “theme resorts” because everything from interior décor to employees’ costumes and dining room menus will carry out an overall theme. Unique swimming pools will meet the needs of every member of the family.
The new Star Wars resort will be the most immersive of all the previous WDW resort experiences. Located right next to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it will provide an exclusive entrance to the new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge land for resort guests to continue their adventure.
Bob Chapek, chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts, said:
It’s unlike anything that exists today. From the second you arrive, you will become a part of a Star Wars story! You’ll immediately become a citizen of the galaxy and experience all that entails, including dressing up in the proper attire. Once you leave Earth, you will discover a starship alive with characters, stories, and adventures that unfold all around you. It is 100% immersive, and the story will touch every single minute of your day, and it will culminate in a unique journey for every person who visits.
Former president of Disney Parks Dick Nunis stated in 1996:
When we were building the hotels, we spent more for name architects. Michael [Eisner, the CEO of the company at the time] said that someday, if we have every famous architect represented here, people will come from all over just to see their work.
In 2008, Disney completed the state’s Green Lodging designation for all of its then 23 resort hotels, representing the largest number of Green Lodging-certified hotels in the state. Disney’s Boardwalk Inn Resort was the first resort in Florida to receive the designation when the program launched in 2004. To achieve this special designation, resorts must focus on five categories: water conservation, education and awareness, waste reduction, energy conservation, and indoor air quality.
As of October 15, 2017 Walt Disney World has made four hotels pet-friendly: Yacht Club, Port Orleans Riverside, Art of Animation, and Fort Wilderness.
While some guests consider the resorts just a location to rest during their extended trips to the parks, others realize that the resorts themselves offer the same attention to detail and immersive experience.
Polynesian Village
Polynesian Village Luau Show
Today, the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at the Polynesian Village Resort tells the story of Auntie Wini who is hosting a fun-filled luau to say goodbye to one of the local girls who’s headed to the “mainland” for college.
Guests are invited to join the festivities including an all-you-can-eat buffet in the open-air but covered theater in Luau Cove. However, for the first three decades the show and the performance area were significantly different.
The grand opening celebration for the Polynesian Village Resort was on October 24, 1971. It featured a spectacular night-time luau and show on the shore of the Seven Seas Lagoon for more than a thousand media and celebrity guests. Dozens of Polynesian entertainers performed the native dances of Tahiti, Hawaii, Samoa, New Zealand, and Bora Bora.
Theatrically, a raft was used to bring the luau cast over from an island in the lagoon at the start of the show. The show was performed on the beach in approximately the same location where the Luau Cove is today.
The Luau Cove structure with a canopy (in case of rain) was built and seated 550 guests with a portable kitchen brought from the Great Ceremonial House in May 1972. Using the outside facilities helped alleviate the food-service challenges inside the resort for the packed restaurants. Luau Cove is the name of the structure, not the actual cove.
Dressing rooms were added in October 1972 and more modifications were made in June 1975. Restrooms were added in 1979.
In 1991, the luau kitchen was changed to be a full kitchen and a green room for the entertainers was also built. In January 2003, the original luau show closed and in February of that year the Spirit of Aloha show premiered. In the process, more rehab work was done on Luau Cove.
The Polynesian Village Resort show was inspired by a similar show at Disneyland’s Tahitian Terrace that opened in 1962 in Adventureland. For over thirty years, Disneyland guests enjoyed food and entertainment inspired by the islands of Polynesia. In 1993, the location was replaced by Aladdin’s Oasis, a show that only lasted two years.
In 1971, Kau’i Brandt, better known as “Auntie Kau’i,” moved from Pearl City, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, to California for eight months to perform in the Polynesian show at Disneyland. She had been approached three different times in the 1960s by Disney representatives to relocate to southern California, but each time she refused, fearing that once she left she might never come back.
Shortly after coming to Disneyland, she moved to Florida with her husband Pono to open the Kau’i-Pono Polynesian Revue at the Polynesian Village Resort.
She was the master of ceremonies for the show and remained as a cultural representative at the resort for decades. While she remained at Walt Disney World, she did return occasionally to Hawaii.
She said:
When Pono and I learned that the Disney organization was looking for a company of Polynesian artists to perform at Walt Disney World in 1971, we decided to put together a show that would be both authentic and exciting.
I believe our group of artists is unique among most Polynesian companies. Each performer is familiar not only with the culture and tradition of his own islands but with the other islands of the South Seas as well. We have learned from each other, and, because of our enthusiasm and pride in our heritage, we hope to give our audiences at Walt Disney World and Disneyland the very best of Polynesia.
Polynesian Village
Auntie Kau’i
“Auntie” Kau’i Brandt was born during a Hawaiian thunder and lightning storm in 1932 and was named “Kauihealani” which means “thundering voice of heaven.” She uses the shortened version “Kau’i.”
Her grandmother was Hawaiian and she was shown the stories of Polynesia as told through hulas before she was able to speak. By the time she was seven years old, Brandt was telling the stories herself at luaus.
In 1971, she moved from Pearl City, Hawaii, to California for eight months to perform in the Polynesian show at Disneyland. Then she moved to Florida with her husband Pono to open the Kau’i-Pono Polynesian Revue at Disney’s new Polynesian Village Resort.
Brandt was the master of ceremonies for the show and remained as a cultural representative at the resort for decades. Among other things, she would sit in the lobby as she does today and create the authentic leis from real flowers to give to couples celebrating honeymoons or anniversaries as well as stopping occasionally to give children Hawaiian cookies and to offer hula lessons.
She said:
I studied the dances of Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, Hawaii, and the Maori dances of New Zealand. My teachers were always from the islands where the dances are still performed and knew the legends and traditions told in each dance. I taught and I learned. Many of my teachers were from the Mormon Church College on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
When Pono and I learned that the Disney organization was looking for a company of Polynesian artists to perform at Walt Disney World in 1971, we decided to put together a show that would be both authentic and exciting.
It was natural that we would select some of our young dancers and musicians from among the
students at Church College. We wanted the best performers, of course, but we also wanted eager, happy, young people who would best express the spirit of aloha—generosity, joy, and good will toward everyone.
In 1972, the Kau’i/Pono company had twenty-eight young dancers and musicians and more than one hundred dances in their repertory. At that time, the company appeared three times nightly in the Papeete Bay Verandah restaurant and at the evening luaus on the beach. Part of the group performed during the summer season and Christmas holidays at Disneyland.
Brandt recalled:
Guests ask us if we miss our islands, if we ever get homesick for our flowers, waterfalls, mountains, and rolling waves. I tell them that we bring the islands with us in our songs, in our dances and especially in our spirit of aloha—the gift of the islands to all who enjoy life.
On April 20, 2007, Brandt returned briefly to Hawaii to receive the prestigious Duke’s Ho’okahiko award presented by the Duke’s Waikiki restaurant to an individual who exemplifies the finest traditions of Hawaii. She was able to spend time reuniting with people she had not seen in fifty years.
Another Disney cast member, Rose Monahan, accompanied her. Monahan dances with Brandt at the nonprofit organization the latter started called Na’o piopio I Orlando (Children of Orlando) that teaches children for free how to dance the hula and raises money for competitions and costumes.
Monahan stated:
She is an inspiration to everyone. She is truly the definition of aloha, and when you meet her, you fall in love with her. She is welcoming to everyone and teaches everyone to love one another.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Brandt was sitting on her mother’s roof in a town near Pearl Harbor, eating mangoes off a tree with her brother.
She recalled:
We saw the planes flying overhead. My mom told me, “It’s war. Get off the roof.” I said, “What’s war?” We didn’t know what war was. But, we learned. It was a tough time.
Brandt grew up during a time when speaking Hawaiian was forbidden and kahiko-style (traditional) hula was taught only in secret. At the time, hula was considered vulgar because of the swaying hips and so was often used for comedic purposes with performers in cellophane skirts.
Polynesian Village
Dole Whip
A cult following for Dole Whip, a soft-serve frozen dessert created by the Dole Food Company, has created such a frenzy in Disney theme park fans that many suspect the treat is only available at Disney. It is not.
It has been served for decades at the Dole Plantation three miles north of Wahiawa, Hawaii, but in recent years, thanks to the ease in creating it, a variety of popular venues now offer Dole Whip, from sporting events to zoos to state fairs and other amusement venues. Outside of Disney, vendors are strongly encouraged to use the term Dole Soft Serve instead.
“Disney has literally created Dole Whip devotees,” stated Jamie Schwartz of Kent Precision Foods Group, the organization that licenses the product. “Disney built [up] the brand.”
When Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room opened in June 1963, it was sponsored by United Airlines to promote its flights to Hawaii. In 1976, the Dole Food Company took over sponsorship and opened a food-and-beverage stand at the entrance to the attraction called the Tiki Bar.
Disneyland’s concept manager of Food Operations, Karlos Siqueiros, who has worked at Disneyland for over thirty years, recalled that in the beginning the little stand only sold pineapple juice and pineapple spears:
Pineapple juice had always been served at the Tiki stand, but we didn’t have anything to add to it until the Dole Whip came in.
The soft-serve pineapple dessert can also be purchased as a “float” with pineapple juice or as a swirl of pineapple and vanilla. While most Disney fans associate a Dole Whip with pineapple soft serve, it also comes in several other flavors, like orange, strawberry, lemon, raspberry, and mango.
In 1997, Kent Precision Foods Group in St. Louis, Missouri, began to license the Dole Whip product. While it used to contain a dairy derivative, in 2013 the formula was changed and it became certified as vegan and gluten free. They sell the Dole Whip mix, a dry powder, online. To make it just like at Disney, all that needs to happen is to add water and pour it into a home soft-serve ice cream machine.
Park guests at Disneyland and Walt Disney World consume approximately 1.4 million Dole Whips each year. (Disneyland consumes a minimum of 600,000.) It is not served at any of the other Disney theme parks worldwide. At the Aulani Resort in Hawaii, it is offered at the Lava Shack.
At WDW, it can be found at Aloha Isle, located outside of the Enchanted Tiki Room in Adventureland, and at Pineapple Lanai just outside the back of the Great Ceremonial House at the Polynesian Village Resort.
Starting in 2013, the Pineapple Promenade Booth at the Flower and Garden Festival sold Dole Whip where guests could order it with Siesta Key Spice Rum. Subsequent years had the option for including coconut rum and Sammy’s Beach Bar Red Head Macadamia Nut-flavored Rum. An alcoholic version with dark rum or coconut rum can also be purchased at Tamu Tamu restaurant in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Kent Precision Foods explains:
Dole Soft Serve Mix is a lactose-free dry mix that is reconstituted with tap water and frozen down in a soft-serve machine. Marketed under the popular Dole brand name, this unique product delivers an intense, natural pineapple fruit flavor, yet is fat free and cholesterol free.
Although the Dole Food Company originally created the Dole Whip soft-serve mix, they licensed the brand to Kent Precision Foods Group which now has an exclusive agreement.
Wilderness Lodge
Native American Culture
The lobby of the Wilderness Lodge was designed as a tribute to Native Americans with both real artifacts and reproductions.
The wood floor in the lobby is composed of Brazilian cherry, white oak, bird’s eye maple, and burl walnut. It mimics a Native American Hopi rug that tells a “storm pattern.”
There is a rectangular center of the earth and from it flows four rivers in a lightning zig-zag pattern to the four corners of the earth where lodge poles extend upward to hold the canopy of the sky. Standing on an upper level looking down into the lobby, the design is clearly prominent.
The “carpet design” also depicts the symbol of unity among the four seasons, wildlife, man, and the cosmos.
A variety of Native American tribes including Cheyenne, Crow, Sioux, and Blackfoot are represented in the lobby and throughout the lodge.
Hanging above the lobby are four massive, 500-pound floating tepee chandeliers. Made from actual rawhide that was stretched over the framework, each of the tepee shades are hand-painted with geometric Native American symbols in red and black.
Inside each teepee is a 48-bulb fixture which provides 2,880 watts needed to illuminate the entire lobby. The tepees are about ten feet in diameter at the base and ten feet high at the peak.
Additionally, they are framed with a bronze and steel ring (with an aged finish) of silhouetted buffaloes and Native Americans on horseback. The images were inspired by photographs as well as the work of artist Thomas Molesworth.
Behind the front desk are a beautiful collection of reproductions of cradleboards, which consist of a wooden frame and a soft skin pouch used for the protection of a baby, or “papoose,” if it fell.
Left to right, the cradleboards behind the front desk represent the North American Indian tribes of Crow, Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Ute, Kiowa, Navajo, and Comanche.
A striking and unique garment is the elk tooth dress located near the lobby elevators. This particular dress was the possession of a great hunter’s wife since elk teeth are a display of wealth. An elk only has two teeth and a dress might take hundreds of them. Most hunters saved the teeth as a memento of the hunt or traded them with other warriors.
This rare dress, which has been determined to be from around 1875, was worn for special ceremonial occasions like a wedding, a special dance, or a young girl entering womanh
ood.
Headdresses are displayed in the lobby. Today, it is illegal to use eagle feathers so the Imagineers had to adapt turkey feathers when they re-created headdresses for display. There are four headdresses in the lobby: the double trailer (circa 1875) from the Sioux tribe, the feather duster (circa 1890) from the Crow tribe, the ermine-tipped raven (circa 1830s), and the single trailer (circa 1835) from the Mandan tribe.
When Wilderness Lodge first opened, and for many years afterwards, every November as part of Native American Heritage Month, a ceremony called the Blessing of the Four Directions would be performed.
The Blessing to the Four Directions is rooted in the belief that human beings are tied to all things in nature. It is this belief that assigned virtues to the four cardinal directions: east, south, west, and north. There are many different versions of the ceremony
Conducted by James Hansen (Black Wolf) and Anita Hansen (Quick Silver), the ceremony symbolically drove out negative energy and purified the resort for the year ahead. The Hansens also told stories and answered questions for guests about Native American culture. The last ceremony was held in 2009.
Wilderness Lodge
Copper Creek Villas and Cabins
The Copper Creek Villas and Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge that opened in July 2017 is the fourteenth Disney Vacation Club resort.
Imagineer project manager Mitch Mioelli stated:
We were pulling from different materials and objects that were indigenous to the Pacific Northwest.
What we wanted to do, knowing that this resort would have been here for hundreds of years, is take materials that these settlers would have found on site and the rejuvenation and sort of re-gentrification of the area. Its found objects that would have almost been artifacts from the mining area from the railroad are incorporated. They would have been repurposed and built into their everyday houses and everyday construction.