Tag: Disney Hotels
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Disney's Hotel Dreams Are Dead
Sorry kiddies, we hate to put a damper on the holiday spirit but there will be no more Disney Hotels for a while. The Orlando Sentinel reports that Disney's vision for standalone resorts, like their recently open Aulani Resort in Hawaii (above), has been put on hold due to some money woes, namely because the House of Mouse has been so busy spending money on its theme parks and cruise lines.
The company recently scrapped plans for a 500-room stand-alone D.C. hotel even though they already bought the property in 2009 for about $11 million. Disney said the timing wasn't right but given that the Aulani has had some missteps in its opening (the time-share hotel is not expected to reach goal occupancy levels until 2015), it's clear that Disney was just looking for an out. And besides, who's gonna wanna see Mickey randomly in D.C. without a theme park to visit?
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Disney's Animation Resort to Open in Spring 2012 with 'Finding Nemo' Suites
Expect some Nemo sheets!
It seems that there can never be too many hotels at Disney World and the more thematic these hotels can get, the better.
Which is why Walt Disney World is planning its first family-suites hotel that will be centered around the animated Disney movies everyone knows and loves. It will be called Disney's Art of Animation Resort and yes, expect to find Nemo here, as well as Ariel and Simba.
The 2,000-room hotel will open in May 2012 with 866 standard rooms but also 1,120 of these family suites which can fit up to six people.
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The Pirates of the Caribbean Suite Could Probably Use an Upgrade
Fresh off re-introducing The Mousepad at the Disneyland Hotel, Disney has is focusing on yet another specialty suite--The Pirates of the Caribbean Suite.
The Disney Blog has the detes on what sort of "buried" treasure the 11th floor suite holds:
The Pirates experience begins as you ring the doorbell, which plays, “Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life For Me,” and enter the living room. There you will find Old World rugs covering dark-stained hardwood floors, with wooden beams overhead. The Spanish colonial-style furnishings could be part of a pirate’s plunder, yet the room also provides landlubbers’ comforts including a wet bar, 42-inch plasma TV and surround sound stereo system.
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Disneyland Hotel Offers a House of Mouse Suite
If you're staying at the Disneyland Hotel, you expect to see some Disney figurines here and there. But the penthouse suite is all tricked out with Mickey, with those famous mouse ears found on everything from the ceiling lighting fixture to the carpeting.
The mouse pad is done up in the colors Mickey usually sport—black, white, red and yellow—and you'll find rare photos and sketches from the Disney library adorning the walls. On display in the master bedroom are maquettes—collectible 3-D models used by animators to create a 2-D character—from Mickey's most notable roles.
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Would You Book a Hotel Room One Year in Advance? Mickey Mouse Hopes So
Even though it won't open until August 29, 2011, Disney's newest resort in Hawaii, The Aulani will start taking reservations on August 2. Yup, that's more than a year away. And: this is the first Disney hotel that's not positioned next to one of its theme parks.
Which got us thinking: would you book a hotel room 12 months in advance? Do you like careful forward planning, or do you prefer to travel spontaneously? Of course, Disney is all about families, and it can take military precision to plan a kid-friendly vacation. So perhaps advance planning makes sense here.
But then: do you know when you can take your vacation days next August? Will you even have a job?
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Disney to Open 'Art of Animation' Hotel in 2012
The themed resorts at Disney World in Orlando are a little bit cheesey, but they do offer a close stay to the park for a good value. However, we think their plans for a new hotel near the Pop Century Resort is brilliant. Orlando Biz Journal reports:
Disney’s Art of Animation Resort — expected to open in 2012 — will feature more than 1,100 suites with room for up to six people, plus 900 regular hotel rooms. The resort will include wings based on the popular Disney films “Cars,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Lion King” and “The Little Mermaid.”
Do you know how crazy little kids go over "Cars"? Can you imagine if you tell them they will be sleeping in an entire hotel wing full of Lighting McQueen, Doc Hudson, Mater, Sally and more? They might get so excited they will forget about seeing Mickey! Ok, maybe not but this new hotel sounds very smart. And the "Little Mermaid" rooms will totally appeal to 32-year-olds as well...um...we mean, little girls as well.
Groundbreaking is set to begin this summer so we suggest not telling the kids until the hotel is closer to opening. We don't think they can handle the wait. We barely can!
[Photo: Emrank]
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A Disney Resort For the D.C. Area?
About a decade ago, Disney was in talks to build a history-themed park called Disney's America near D.C. It never happened. But Disney is coming to the D.C. area, except this time they're not planning a goofy theme park for history nerds: they're planning a big hotel that will "put a recognizable Disney footprint in the Washington area," according to a spokesman who talked to the Washington Post.
Disney has just purchased a 15-acre piece of land at Prince George's County's National Harbor development near D.C. to build a 500-room hotel resort. But as we entertained visions of what we imagined Disney's America's dorky history-themed Disney-ness to be, our fantasies were squashed by this:
"The National Harbor resort is a completely different kind of project," [a rep] said. "It's specifically zoned for hotel, residential and other commercial development. This project is a hotel resort. It is not by any stretch of the imagination a theme-park project and never will be. We have no intention of building a large-scale theme park in the Washington area."
Oh. Boring. However, the Post article does mention that it's going to be "a fun-filled new destination for local visitors," which means — hello — silly theme hotel a la Pop Century! (Please say yes!)
Unfortunately, there is no timeline on this project yet, so we'll see what happens.
[Photo: Washington Post]
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Is Pop Century the Best of the Disney Pack, Man?
We've stayed at the likes of Gleneagles, as well as a fabulous little hostel in Tarifa, but no hotel has managed to provide us with as much fun as a stay at a Disney World resort.
While we haven't stayed here ourselves, it seems from TripAdvisor reviews that there's few better places to stay in Orlando than at Pop Century Resort, which is sort of like I Love The 80's (and in the case of some rooms, 90's) in hotel form.
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Hotel News Briefs :: Add This To Our Bucket List
There's tons of hotel news flying around this week and we don't have time to give each and every story the love and attention it may deserve, so you will have to settle for some news briefs.
· This is How We Want to Go Out: A dying woman from Vermont spent the last 10 weeks of her life in a suite at the Carlyle Hotel. It cost her family about $30,000 to support this bucket list wish but honestly, it sounds amazing. [Newsday]
· Not All Hotel Projects Are Dead: Caesar's Las Vegas just topped off their sixth tower. No word on the opening date for the 665-room Octavius Tower. [MSNBC]
· Hard Rock SD Gets AAA 4-Diamond Award: The hotel has barely been open a year, but already it snagged this award. Guess that Vibe Manager has really helped get things going. Or should we say, vibin'? [Press Release]
· Disney Still Going Ahead with Crazy Hawaiian Resort: This is kind of ambitious project to be launching in these times in Hawaii and one that doesn't even include a Disney World! But we begrudgingly wish them best of luck. [Google News]
Hotel News / Hard Rock Hotels / Intercontinental Hotels / Disney Hotels / Hotel Happenings / Hotel Concerts / → All Tags
Express Check-Out: Unskinny Bop at the Hard Rock Hotel Orlando
Poison frontman and Rock of Love star Bret Michaels is performing at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando on May 29th for the hotel's Velvet Sessions. The cost of a chance to dance near the extension-wearing aging rocker? $50 and that includes specialty drinks from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The concert starts in the hotel lobby at 8:30pm. [Orlando Sentinel] · Speaking of Orlando, About.com just released a Disney World Resort Map. Prepare to do a lot of reading. [About.com]
· Intercontinental Hotels might be lagging in the WiFi department but they are determined to stay green in the future. The hotel brand just unveiled its Innovation Hotel website which showcases sustainability of hotels. [LAT Daily Deal Blog]
· MGM Mirage might be splitting their hotels and casinos into two separate divisions. [Online Casino Advisory]
· The burgeoning Riviera Maya Hotel Scene in a nutshell. [Dallas Morning News]
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WTF News: Disney Wants to Brainwash Your Wine Drinking Tastes
Seems like last year's $60 million upgrade of the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort wasn't enough to impress all of their guests: now they've taken service to new extremes and you can get your own personal, certified sommelier to take care of your wine drinking while you're staying at the resort, because, of course, that's the kind of thing you have in mind when you book into a Disney hotel.
The resort itself describes the personal sommelier program as an experience "designed to subtly educate guests and elevate the wine and culinary experience" by giving you somebody to advise you on every single wine you drink. "Subtly educate" sounds like it belongs back in communist Russia or somewhere, but for wine-lovers it might be interesting to get advice on the best wine for each meal. The idea is that your personal sommelier keeps track of what wines you've already tried, and what might suit your tastes, while at the same time offering you more diverse varieties that might match your meal.
There are 60 certified sommeliers on the staff so it shouldn't be a problem to match up with one--but you do need to make a reservation for one at the time of booking. And if you're a regular guest at the Swan and Dolphin Resort, they encourage you to request the same sommelier to build your relationship and your wine knowledge more effectively--there are 1600 varieties to try, after all. The jury's still out for us on combining Disney theme parks by day with sophisticated wine tasting by night, but we accept that there are niche markets everywhere.
[Photo: slack12]
Related Stories:
· Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort Gets a $60 Million Upgrade [HotelChatter]
· Disney Hotels [HotelChatter]
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Another Element Announced :: This One's For Orlando
The Starwood group's extended stay spin-off, Element Hotels, keeps on announcing new hotels, without having even opened the first one yet. Each announcement makes the chain sound even better but it's so easy to say that when we can't test them out.
This next Element is planned for "travelers to the home of Mickey and Minnie" which of course is in Orlando, Florida and will be known as the Element Orlando Convention Center. Apparently with the presence of Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Studios, Sea World and The Kennedy Space Center, Orlando is just crying out for an extended-stay hotel so Element is the perfect solution.
Element loves to talk about its plans to make guests thrive, and they also want to encourage our productivity while enabling us to relax: all at once. They say that having swiveling modular furniture that we can change around in our rooms will help us do that and we'll leave the Orlando Element "knowing what it truly means to wake up and thrive". After too many days visiting Mickey and Minnie and their colleagues we suspect we won't really feel like we're thriving.
[Photo: Teny Jr]
Related Stories:
· Element Hotel Groundbreaking Party [HotelChatter]
· Element Hotels Coverage [HotelChatter]
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