Disney's Forgotten Hotel | The Legendary Years Resort

The one thing I appreciated about the eisner era is that he knew to promote "timeless" stories and theming when it came to the parks. Unbound by ip, these stories stick harder and last longer in the public consciousness. They stand the test of time, timeless. Disney has lost this ability to see beyond their next quarterly statement and merchandise sales. They used to stand for universal storytelling. Now they just churn out generic crap, riskless, safe, and the worst crime of all, boring.

Eyy, you came through with the video on the Legendary Years Resort! Glad to see it man! I think it would’ve complimented the Pop Century Resort very nicely. Thank you for the shoutout!

As someone who's just a liiiittle bit obsessed with the 20th century, Pop Century has always been my favorite Disney World Resort. I stayed there for my 16th birthday in 2021, and had a great time, even if I had a slightly downgraded experience because of the covid restrictions still in place at the time. I really would have loved to see the Legendary Years section added, it would have been a great addition to an already great resort.

When Disney POP Century Resort opened, the dining area was broken up and had large yo yo's, rubic cubes, in line skates. All that was removed when then removed the indoor bar.

I was actually really excited for this resort concept as a whole when it was initially announced, in particular what would have been the legendary years portion. I’d have been really interested to see how they incorporated the very early Disney beginnings into the 20s theming, for instance. Then I feel like they could’ve really done a lot with Steamboat Willie and the silly symphonies for the 30s, had whole areas themed around Snow White or fantasia, Pinocchio, Bambi, etc etc. So many possibilities that could’ve indicated the early part of the 20th wasn’t all depression and world wars I also think it’d have been a great resort to target the part of the customer base that has that certain sense of Disney-related nostalgia, ie people of a certain age of course, adults without children, dapper day crowds…

Pop Century was actually my first choice when my wife and I went in Sept of 2020--Shortly after reopening. We made reservations at the preferred section, and a few weeks later Disney offered 40% off for annual pass holders, which I happened to have. So we did a one bedroom at Old Key West--a tad larger, and almost empty. A very nice and very peaceful stay.

I think it would be interesting to go into depth on Disney’s utilization of IP over the years. In the Disneyland Era— it was only used when fit. Despite that, Disneyland based its lands off of popular culture from that era (or at least mirrored it), Adventure, Sci-fi, Westerns, and Fairy Tales.

Honestly I don’t think doing a WW2 area is a bad idea. I’m sure tons of dads visiting WDW would go crazy for it. I know my dad and brother would have

The big issue I had with the Art of Animation is that it feels lazy. As an animation major myself, I got excited at the idea of a resort dedicated to animation, until I found it was just an excuse to dump popular ips into a hotel. The sketches and the ink and paint theme to the shop is the extent of it. The rest is basically just another version of all star movies, with so much overlap with the other resorts as to not feel too unique (even going so far as to have two undersea ips and areas in the same hotel even just cuz they are big money makers. It’s not a hotel for animation fans. It’s a hotel for fans of those movies and that’s really it. Even all star movies seems more respectful and thought out in comparison. Don’t get me wrong, they’re well themed in areas (the cars area is really cool) but it feels soooo corporate and a is a big let down, especially since it ALSO took the place of the thematically more appropriate classic years hotel

While I know you said you would want to avoid WW2 imagery for the 40s resort, I think the iconic image of the sailor kissing his girl in Times Square after the announcement of the end of the war would be a good fit for one of the larger graphics in front of the walkways, similar to the dancers. It acknowledges the war, but focuses on the celebration of it's end and the positivity that brought with it.

Stayed on Pop Century in January, and it was a dream. Not only the resort is well themed and the rooms are so well thought out (the pull-down bed that makes it into a table is a genius stroke!), but the access to the skyrail is a game changer.

Would you consider doing a piece on the Boardwalk? The blend of hotel with entertainment district, its transport connections to the parks, its proximity to Swan & Dolphin, the unique attractions (Surrey bikes on the circuit), is all fascinating, but I actually know very little about its conception and development. There's also a broader cultural angle to it which is extra fodder for critique, wherein what's depicted is something like an Atlantic City period setting, with all of the outwardly problematic elements of that time removed & polished down in classic Disney style to leave behind a hyperreal, blended image of a simulacrum focused through their unique lens. It's a really intriguing piece of design. That batch of apparent contrasts & dynamics always made it a very interesting place for a kid on vacation, and I'd love to hear your take on it. The arcades definitely helped, too!

Thanks so much for this video. I remember staying at pop century and noticing the buildings on the other side of the water and wondering what was going on but clearly building had ceased. I always found it interesting how it was completely abandoned for a while.

This Resort has not lost potential, if anything it has gained some. I feel as though it’s been given a future chance by the next Eisner of the Disney Company to come and flesh out! I have hope for Disneys future. Maybe not seen today, but lurking in the shadows waiting for the future!

Great video! Just a few things that I want to say. 1, that's Mufasa on Pride Rock, not Simba as Simba's crossing the log with Timon and Pumba. 2. 8 Track Cartridges are the 70s stairs, not cassettes. They are different. cassettes came out in the 60s but peaked in popularity in the 80s. 3. for the 1930s, Snow White could've been a larger character to place. I think Bambi for the 40s would've been lovely with that color scheme, so that's a good pick. 1920s using Steamboat Willie would've been perfect... but the 00s and 10s would've been difficult to keep Disney when Disney wasn't in existence techincally as a company yet.

Had it been built, I think the contrast between the Legendary Years Hotel and Pop Century would’ve worked super well. The Legendary Years Hotel’s theming could’ve reflected the hardships of the 1910s-1940s and major technological advancements of the era and Pop Century represents the more campy side of history that many have fond memories of, thanks to the progress made in human civilization (Am I looking too deep into this?) Obviously it doesn’t mean that the 1950s-90s were devoid of awful things/tragic events, but I do think that Pop Century taking a more celebratory approach to the decades of the past and Legendary taking a more historical approach would go hand in hand with each other

I didn’t know the whole story behind this resort thank you so much for going into detail. This is a truly interesting part of Disney World (imagineering and development) history and it would have been interesting to see how it would have turned out if they had kept the original theme. But it is pretty neat how they repurposed those original buildings.

I've spent way too many hours of my time on this planet speculating on what could have been. So glad you made a full vid on this!

As much as I would have loved to see it, I just don’t think a lot of people would want to stay in a 1910s themed hotel room. I kinda agree that the early 20th century just isn’t fun enough. The 20s are the exception, but most people don’t have fun ideas about the first half of the 20th century. I love history and do know that there are fun elements in those early decades, but I don’t think many people know that and would want to book a stay there. I just had my 25th birthday party, which was themed “Dancing Through the Decades”. On the invite, I told people to RSVP quickly, as I was assigning people a decade to dress up as, and many people responded, concerned that I would force them to wear anything prior to 1950. Because it’s just not seen as fun. (And yeah, my party started in the 50s)

We stayed in Art of animation in 2018. The Little Mermaid Section does feel older than the rest of the complex, but it still felt fresh and new overall. We stayed there the first night, but we were able to upgrade to the Lion King Suites for the rest of the visit. Pro tip: it never hurts to ask! I did wonder why Pop Century only had half of the century represented.