Rumor: Disney World's Thai Resort Overlooks Adventureland's Fire Mountain

Imagine if you will that the beautiful Grand Floridian Resort was not there. Imagine instead a Thai influenced resort, complete with stunning gardens, exotic cuisine, and gorgeous views of the Seven Seas Lagoon. Let's keep dreaming.

Nighttime view of the exterior.

During the planning stages of Walt Disney World, this stunning hotel was to become a reality in one of the first planned expansions to the Florida resort. Of course, it never happened. Were the suits skittish on building something so exotic looking on the grounds? Was it cut due to cash flow along with Western River Expedition? 

Gorgeous place to wine and dine!

As you can see above, the Thai inspired resort even made the cover of the preview souvenir booklet! If you look to the right, you'll notice the model shows the Persian resort in the background, a different Polynesian resort, and a very different take on Space Mountain!

Once planned to be the Magic Kingdom's 3rd mountain.

What would have made this addition of the Asian inspired resort even better? Just imagine if years later the Disney Imagineers had been given the go ahead to build Fire Mountain? Just imagine that view from those resort rooms to Adventureland's very active volcano. Shades of Mount Prometheus at Tokyo Disneysea. It would have been phenomenal! Want more on Fire Mountain? Go here.

Note- Last night (October 18) I read this thread of the WDWMagic forums. Hadn't read it for about a week. An interesting combination of rumors materialized, making this post from yesterday (Friday) a real possibility! Coincidence?

(Art and images copyright The Walt Disney Company.)