Have you ever wanted to take a hands on educational course while vacationing at Walt Disney World? Well, in the late nineties, the Disney Institute allowed guests to vacation in their special resort village while participating in personal development courses and activities!
As their promotional theme song stated- “Doing things you’ve always dreamed of, or things you never dreamed you’d do. You’ll be amaze what you get through, learning difference sides of you. You won’t believe what you can do!”
It is like the children museums that allows kids to go and try different careers…but for adults…and super expensive (a clue as to why it did not work out).
Let’s dive in to see what it was all about!
The Disney Institute opened it’s doors on February 9, 1996. A destination vacation, the resort sat upon 75 acres! Initially, the program required a 3-day minimum stay. Hotel accommodations were held on site at the Vacation Villas and Bungalows.
During their stay, guests had access to 28 program studios, a performance center, outdoor amphitheater, cinema, TV station, radio station, sports & fitness center, tennis courts, 18-hole golf course, swimming pools, a full service spa, and a restaurant that offered a themed menu that rotated nightly.
Just where was this site located?? DVC Saratoga Springs! It was across from Disney’s Marketplace and Pleasure Island. This area has an interesting history. Did you know before it became the Disney Institute, the villas & bungalows built were intended to be single family homes? To learn more about the history of this site, visit DizAuene.
With a prime location, the Disney Institute offered 80 programs in 8 different areas of interest: Animation, Culinary Arts, Gardening, The Great Outdoors, Photography, Radio, Television, and Youth Programs. Guests were able to craft their schedule based on their interests, while immersing themselves in hands on experience. This was all about learning through fun!
Prices for the Institute ranged from $450-$1300 a person per day. With that high cost, it is pretty easy to understand why the program did not last long. Within the first year, attendance was so low, that Disney had to cut their programs in half.
To promote interest, Disney began offering “Preview Days”, for $50, this gave guests an opportunity to spend one day participating in courses. Unfortunately, that was not enough to bring in the revenue needed to keep it operating as was.
Here is the promotion video used:
In 2003, Disney closed the Institute’s classroom & studio facilities, announcing their plans to revamp the resort into a new Disney Vacation Club- Disney’s Saratoga Springs! To learn more about Saratoga Springs and the Treehouse Villas, visit Disney Tourist Blog for great reviews & info.
The Disney Institute is still active today, but instead of family oriented vacationing packages, it has become a multi-day seminar for business professionals to learn the secrets behind Disney’s very successful business and customer service culture. Still costly, averaging $1,500 per person for a single day of training and $5,000 per person for multi-days, this program is presented as an investment in company personal.
Were you surprised to learn about the Disney Institute’s history? It makes sense that it did not work out. Disney vacations are already expensive enough and for many families, they want to immerse themselves in the parks, not personal development courses. If it were still opened and you had the opportunity to go, which courses do you think you would try? As they said, “You won’t believe what you can do!”
