Disney’s $600 Million Hotel Never Opened & Sat Abandoned for 9 Years

Disney's Pop Century Resort at Walt Disney World was meant to be the largest hotel the company had ever built, until the Legendary Years half was abandoned mid-construction in 2001 and left standing behind a chain-link fence for nine years. This is the full history of the Walt Disney World "ghost hotel," from the Epcot Center Ultralight Flightpark buried underneath it to the giant unpainted decade numbers that stared across Hourglass Lake at paying guests. It ends with Disney's Art of Animation Resort, the Little Mermaid rooms, and the Generation Gap Bridge that spent almost a decade leading to a padlock. SOURCES Disney's Pop Century Resort — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%... Disney's Art of Animation Resort — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%... Epcot Center Ultralight Flightpark — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epcot_C... Mark Goldhaber, "The History and Story of the 'Legendary' Disney's Art of Animation Resort" — MousePlanet https://www.mouseplanet.com/9988/The_... "Disney's Abandoned Hotel: The History of Art of Animation Resort" — The Mouselets https://themouselets.com/disneys-aban... "A Look Back at What Could Have Been: Disney's Legendary Years Hotel" — AllEars.Net https://allears.net/2020/08/22/a-look... Josh Taylor, "The World that Never Was: Pop Century" — WDW Radio https://www.wdwradio.com/2011/11/the-... "Pop Century Legendary Years / Art of Animation" — Pop Century Site https://www.popcenturysite.com/conten... "Disney's Pop Century Legendary Years" — World Abandoned https://www.worldabandoned.com/disney... Paul Freeman, "Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Southwestern Orlando Area" https://www.airfields-freeman.com/FL/... Tim Barker, "Disney To Delay Opening Of Pop Century Resort" — Orlando Sentinel, June 21, 2001 https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2001/... "Disney to freeze hires, cut workers' hours" — Associated Press, September 20, 2001 https://thedailyrecord.com/2001/09/20... The Walt Disney Company Q1 FY2002 Earnings Report https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/... The Walt Disney Company Q4 FY2002 Earnings Report https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/... Disney's River Country — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%... "Port Orleans / Dixie Landings Resort History" — PortOrleans.org https://www.portorleans.org/history.php "Michael Eisner resigns as Disney CEO" — HISTORY https://www.history.com/this-day-in-h... "Every Time Walt Disney World Closed and Why" — WDW News Today https://wdwnt.com/2024/10/every-time-... HASHTAGS #PopCentury #WaltDisneyWorld #ArtOfAnimation #LegendaryYears #AbandonedPlaces #DisneyWorld #DisneyHistory #GhostHotel #AbandonedHotel #ThemeParkHistory #Disney #Abandoned #UrbanExploration #DisneyResorts #Orlando