Dolphin - WDW - Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA.
N 28° 21.976 W 081° 33.563
17R E 445186 N 3137903
The Walt Disney World Dolphin is a resort hotel designed by architect Michael Graves, the building is crowned by two 56 feet tall Dolphin Statues. Located at Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Waymark Code: WMJT7P
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 12/28/2013
Views: 7
Two massive six story tall, stylised Dolphin sculptures dominate the skyline, atop the Dolphin Hotel, In the Epcot & Disney Boardwalk areas.
"In a world where anything in your imagination can become a reality, Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida stayed true to their word and hired architect Michael Graves to design a resort consisting of two hotels that would become part of Disney’s famous collection of “entertainment architecture.” Graves’ postmodern, colorful style was the perfect choice for the playful themepark resort, and his whimsical design decisions and statues of grandeur contribute to the famous Disney kingdom. The theme for the design of the hotels sprung right from its early conceptual stages, where Graves developed an entire story to create characters for both the Swan and the Dolphin in a magical tale that he thought could potentially become Disney characters." Text source: (
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"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" Text Source: (
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