| Walt Disney World Dolphin | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Location | Epcot Resort Area |
| Resort type | Deluxe |
| Opened | June 4, 1990 |
| Rooms | 1,514 |
| Operator | Marriott International |
| Green lodge | Yes |
| Address | 1200 Epcot Resorts Boulevard Lake Buena Vista, Florida |
| Website | swandolphin |
The Walt Disney World Dolphin is a resort hotel located between Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios in the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, and across from its sister resort, the Walt Disney World Swan, both of which are operated by Marriott International. It is one of the few resorts inside Walt Disney World that is not owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. The resort opened on June 4, 1990, partially in response to a lack of convention center space inside Walt Disney World.
Both the Swan and Dolphin were designed by Michael Graves and are connected by a covered walkway crossing a lagoon. The hotels were developed as part of a joint venture between Disney, the developer Tishman, insurance company MetLife, and operator Starwood, which was merged into Marriott in 2019.
The Swan and Dolphin are part of the Walt Disney Collection of resorts, so guests have access to benefits typically available to Disney Resort Hotel guests only, such as early entry.
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.