The Walt Disney World Dolphin is a resort hotel designed by architect Michael Graves located between Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios in the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, next to Disney's BoardWalk Resort area. It opened on June 1, 1990 and is joined to its sister hotel, the Walt Disney World Swan (also designed by Graves) by a palm-tree lined covered walkway crossing a lagoon. The Dolphin Resort is owned and operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide under the Sheraton Hotels brand.
The Dolphin and Swan share similar elements, but each has a distinctive appearance. The Dolphin is composed of a 257-foot (78 m) tall triangular tower bisecting a 12-story rectangular mass with four 9-story wings on the Swan-side of the structure. The roof of each half of the main mass is adorned with a 56-foot (17 m) tall Dolphin statue. On the main colored facade there is a turquoise banana-leaf pattern echoed by a similar wave pattern on the Swan.
The statues on top of the Dolphin hotel are not mammalian dolphins, but a stylized version of a nautical dolphin, a common symbol used on old world nautical maps. The design of the creatures is based on Triton Fountain in Rome.
In 2008, The Walt Disney Dolphin Resort was awarded a One Palm Designation through the Florida Green Lodging Program established by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection The Florida Green Lodging Program is a voluntary state initiative that provides the lodging industry with free technical assistance, encouraging hotels and motels to adopt cost-saving “green” practices that reduce waste, conserve natural resources and improve the bottom line.
Read more about Walt Disney World Dolphin: History, Walt Disney World Privileges
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