Thursday, September 15, 2016

Walt Disney World - 1977 Resort Guide, Part 2

Hey! Who's in the mood for more vintage Walt Disney World ephemera?! Ken Martinez has you covered!

Walt Disney World - Resort Guide 1977 (Part 2)

Continuing with the "Walt Disney World - Resort Guide" booklet, featured in today's post are the two original hotels of Walt Disney World.

The Contemporary Resort Hotel is probably the most iconic of all the hotels on the WDW Resort property. While the hotel is highly visible from Seven Seas Lagoon it primarily resides on the shores of Bay Lake. The hotel also serves as a backdrop for the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland. Check out the names of some of the establishments like "The Outer Rim" and the "Top of the World".


Here we have a map showing the layout of the hotel as it was in the 1970's featuring the Contemporary Tower and the North and South Garden Wings. The North Garden Wing was eventually replaced by Bay Lake Tower. The hotel was originally going to be called "Tempo Bay" but reverted back to its placeholder name "Contemporary Resort" when the hotel opened.


The Polynesian Village Hotel was the other original hotel. Designed to look and feel like a South Seas getaway, you could dine at restaurants like "The Papeete Bay Verandah" and "The Coral Isle Café" or attend one of the nightly Luaus on the beach. Like the Hoop-Dee-Do Musical Revue at Fort Wilderness Campground, the Polynesian Luau was an extremely popular show which I believe is still entertaining guests today but in a different location.


Here we have a map showing the layout of the hotel as it was in the 1970's. The map shows the arrangement of the original longhouses with their original names and the Great Ceremonial House. The Polynesian has expanded several times since then. Like the Contemporary, the Polynesian was connected to the Monorail System. The only other hotel that would connect to the Monorail System is the Grand Floridian Resort Hotel which was yet to be built at the time this booklet was published.


Coming up next: The Golf Resort Hotel and Fort Wilderness Campground.

Many thanks again to Ken Martinez!

13 comments:

Nanook said...

Oh, Ken-

Those 1970's WDW memories are flooding back: The Outer Rim; The Fiesta Fun Center; Top of the World; Monorail Club Car; The Contemporary Man/Woman; Fantasia Shop; The Papeete Bay Verandah; The Coral Isle Cafe... Good times, indeed. (And let's not even begin to talk about those prices-!)

Thanks Ken & The Major.

Unknown said...

Just a quick question, Ken. If you show up with one of these guides do you get to pay the prices listed? Seems like a reasonable thing to me...

TokyoMagic! said...

Yeah, the prices are what were standing out the most to me on these pages. That and the super complicated room key codes! I hope those people boating on the water were wearing nose plugs to keep out the brain-eating amoebae.

Chuck said...

I remember seeing the luau on the beach in '79 (I also remember swimming in Bay Lake without noseplugs, but that's a different story). The Whoop-de-Doo Revue was a tough act to follow for my ten-year-old eyes, but it was still a great show.

Since the Contemporary was themed to Tomorrowland, the key codes were probably an attempt to reinforce math skills to help develop the engineers and scientists we were going to need to colonise the Moon by 1999 (just before it was blown out of orbit).

Thanks again, Ken and the Major!

Mark H. Besotted said...

I love this type of ephemera -- thanks!

My wife and I saw the luau show a few years back. It is indeed still going strong, and even the obligatory inclusion of a Stitch song didn't bother me much.

Melissa said...

These are especially exciting after reading the history of changes to the Grand Canyon Concourse at Passport to Dreams Old and New.

What's striking to me about this publication is the scarcity of children in the pictures. Lots of adults still go without children, but you don't see them in any publicity materials.

TokyoMagic! said...

Chuck, so what you are saying is that Martin Landau and Barbara Bain thought up those complicated room key codes?

TokyoMagic! said...

By the way Major and Ken, I'm enjoying this series of posts.....thank you!

K. Martinez said...

Nanook, I love the early names of the Disney hotel shops and restaurants. Way better than what they name them now. Chef Mickeys!? O'hana's!? Ho-hum.

Patrick Devlin, I definitely recommend you show up with this guide and if that doesn't work, just tell them J. Nartubez sent you.

TokyoMagic!, I was watching some DVDs on vintage WDW recently and they showed people wading and swimming and water skiing in Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon. Of course that was back in the 1970's. What a world of difference today. Now it's amoebas and gators and copperheads, oh my!

Chuck, You definitely saw more than I did. While I toured the lobbies of the hotels, I didn't have the time to go to the Disney hotel's signature shows.

Mark H. Besotted. I'm amazed that both the Polynesian Village Luau and Hoop-de-Doo Musical Revue are still running to this day. They must've surpassed Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe Revue's world record by now.

Melissa, I love Passport to Dreams. Really the best blog on Walt Disney World out there in my opinion. And yes, it's amazing how they really changed the advertising to make it about Disney Parks being the rite of passage for every child instead of gearing towards adults.

Tokyo Magic! Again, Glad you're enjoying the series. There's more to come!

Chuck said...

TM!, actually, Professor Victor Bergman (Barry Morse) was responsible for those crazy key codes. In 1977, John Koenig was at MIT and Helena Russell was still in high school.

walterworld said...

What a cool place WDW would have been to visit in the 70's. Seems like Disney at it's most refined...

Gnometrek said...

Proof of Time Travel. Selena Gomez portraying a polynesian dancer seen on page 12.

Gnometrek said...

Proof of Time Travel. Selena Gomez portraying a polynesian dancer seen on page 12.