By Steven Vagnini, Walt Disney Archives
From a signature art collection and imaginative Disney-inspired details to extraordinary landscapes and classic architecture, delightful discoveries await around every corner of Disney’s Riviera Resort. This modern masterpiece, which debuted in 2019 at Walt Disney World as the 15th Disney Vacation Club Resort, draws inspiration from the vibrancy, casual elegance and old-world glamour of Europe’s Mediterranean coastline—a coveted getaway for many an enchantment-seeking traveler, artist, and celebrity.
One of those famous travelers, of course, was Walt Disney. Paying tribute to Walt’s European travels and the stories they inspired is a richly layered gathering place tucked just off the resort’s main lobby. Let’s take a closer look at Voyageurs’ Lounge.
This welcoming, library-inspired living room offers a pleasant break in the day’s activities. Whether you’re settling into the space to enjoy the specialty coffees, evening cocktails and small bites of the adjacent Le Petit Café or just perusing the thoughtfully stocked shelves and display cases, Voyageurs’ Lounge feels like an attraction unto itself.
To help bring Voyageurs’ Lounge to life, Disney Imagineers collaborated with the staff of the Walt Disney Archives, who supplied extensive documentation, photography, stories and other reference material that detailed Walt’s journeys throughout Europe. The result is an intriguing space filled with details devoted not only to Walt’s adventures, but also to the many ways in which the showman’s legendary creations enchanted his global audience in return. Here are just a few of the details you won’t want to miss the next time you find yourself in this cozy retreat
Although his personal interests tended to align more with his Midwestern roots than with the sophisticated styles of the Côte d’Azur (Editor’s note: that’s a nickname for a cultural region of the French Riviera), Walt Disney was very much a citizen of the world. Over the years, he visited Europe some two dozen times, for both business and pleasure (although the two were regularly intermixed). Camera often in hand, Walt made it a point to document and photograph the people and places he discovered along the way.
In Voyageurs’ Lounge, a display case offers a glimpse into Walt’s excursions, with featured items including a travel hat and photo albums inspired by originals in the Walt Disney Archives collection. One notable reproduction is a 16mm Bell & Howell camera, based on the one Walt was known to bring on his travels. Fun fact: You may have even seen glimpses of Walt’s travel documentation before, as some of the footage he captured during a 1941 research trip to South America was used in the 1943 film Saludos Amigos.
It’s unlikely that Walt and Roy O. Disney could have envisioned how profoundly a vacation to Europe would influence the creative trajectory and future of their company. In 1935, during an 11-week grand tour of the continent, Walt and his wife, Lillian, alongside brother Roy and his wife, Edna, took in the grandeur and charm of England, France, Switzerland, Italy and Holland — taking note of the nations’ art, cuisine, architecture and, especially, their stories.
Walt frequented bookshops throughout his journey and ultimately purchased some 335 titles, which he shipped back home to The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. (Just imagine what Disney studio librarian Helen Josephine DeForce was thinking when the loads of books arrived.) Consisting primarily of European fables, children’s tales and illustrations, these books would soon populate the Disney Studios Library as resources and reference for Walt’s animation staff.
Excited to share the magic of Europe with his global audience, Walt explained in a memo, “Some of those little books which I brought back with me from Europe have very fascinating illustrations … The quaint atmosphere fascinates me.”
Within months, Walt recruited European artists, like Swedish illustrator Gustaf Tenggren and Danish artist Kay Nielsen, to help guide the artistry of the studio’s first animated features, which would include Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), and Fantasia (1940). Other books would help inspire beloved film projects in the decades ahead, from Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953) to The Little Mermaid (1989).
Believe it or not, the books that Walt brought home from Europe are still used by Disney artists and storytellers today. And at Disney’s Riviera Resort, you’ll find copies of many of them lining the warm walnut bookshelves of Voyageurs’ Lounge. Imagineers even brought the receipts — reproduced from Walt’s visit to the popular W.H. Smith & Son bookshop in Paris — which appear in a display case . . . all quiet reminders of Disney’s rich, and often surprising, sources of inspiration.
While admiring the lounge’s library shelves, keep an eye out for curios and knick knacks. Among the gold plate stands and vintage book holders are even more nods to Disney’s European inspirations — whether a carriage like the one that sent a princess to a ball, or a bird bath that even the fairest one of all could have admired. A diving helmet might even recall a classic French tale of adventure, Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which would inspire the 1954 Disney film epic.
High up on another bookshelf, a souvenir figure of a mermaid becoming human complements a similar pair found in Walt Disney’s offices at The Walt Disney Studios—miniatures of the famous bronze statue from Copenhagen, Denmark, purchased from Tivoli Gardens (an amusement park that helped inspire Disneyland Park), based on the 1837 Little Mermaid story by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.
While Walt was inspired by the stories he discovered in Europe, he was equally as touched by how much the citizenry embraced his own brand of storytelling. Legendary entertainment reporter and biographer Bob Thomas described, “Everywhere the Disneys went in Europe [during their 1935 vacation,] they saw evidence of the appeal of the Disney cartoons. Crowds greeted them at railway stations; reporters came to the hotels for interviews … For Walt, the most significant part of his European trip was seeing a theater in Paris that played six of his cartoons and nothing else.”
Disney’s popularity “across the pond” was also evidenced by a richness of locally licensed merchandise and souvenirs — a story told in Voyageurs’ Lounge through the many early European collectibles on display: pop-up books, illustrated postcards and even a series of Silly Symphony trading cards that prompted a collector’s craze in Italy. A section on Les Trois Petits Cochons (Three Little Pigs) spotlights the trio as they are fondly known in France: Nif Nif, Naf Naf and Nouf Nouf. (Now try saying that three times fast.)
Another display case celebrates the wildly popular Topolino and Paperino, the Italian names for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. (Regulars will quickly make the connection to the resort’s signature restaurant, Topolino’s Terrace – Flavors of the Riviera, on the 10th floor.) Topolino is the title of a popular Italian comic series which began as a magazine publication in December 1932, making it the first of the Disney comic books.
A display case of locally licensed merchandise celebrates Europeans’ love of Topolino (Mickey Mouse), Paperino (Donald Duck) and friends.
Take a close look at the bronze marquee for Voyageurs’ Lounge. The icons represent three travel vehicles — train, plane and ocean liner – that fascinated Walt Disney. Take an even closer look, and you might find that the ship bears a remarkable resemblance to the Disney Cruise Line fleet.
Explore "The Intricate Art of Disney's Riviera Resort" on the Disney Files On Demand YouTube playlist!
