Where to stay when you leave.
3/21/2007 at 9:15 AM
Tags: Walt Disney World Hotels, Hotel News, Four Seasons
The news is a tad old but we just discovered that the Four Seasons hotel chain is pairing up with Walt Disney World to build a luxury hotel, residences and an 18-hole "championship"* golf course on the theme park's northeast border.
Finally, a luxury hotel in Disney World that isn't all about Disney characters or so we hope.
The Toronto-based luxury hotel chain is part of two expansion plans that will take eight to 10 years to fully develop and will include single- and multifamily vacation homes, fractional ownership homes and a 450-acre retail, dining and lodging district, said Meg Crofton, Disney World's president.
Yes, that's right. There will be two Four Seasons development in Disney World, to be completed after 2010. The second resort will actually be closer located to Disney World proper and will include (what else?) retail shops, restaurants and small-scale entertainment venues.
But what we are really curious about is whether or not there will be Mickey Mouse stickers on the toilet paper.
*--How come these are "championship" golf courses if they haven't even been built yet? Shouldn't they at least have a championship there before using that description?
[Photo:
Burnsland]
Related Stories:
· Disney to team with Four Seasons on massive Disney World golf resort [PGA.com]
by juliana
1/10/2007 at 12:42 PM
Tags: Miami Beach Hotel Reviews, Four Seasons, Luxury Hotels, Michael de Zayas
Travel writer Michael de Zayas is in Miami on an assignment--30 Miami
hotels in 30 Miami nights. You will be able to find his detailed travel
musings in Miami and Miami Beach books later this year.
HotelChatter asked Michael to let us know his minute-by-minute thoughts on
the Miami hotel scene during his guide book mission, which he will be doing
over the next two weeks. During the fortnight, Michael will share with us
every bed, maid, drink, pool, henhouse and outhouse that comprise the Grove, Gables, Sunny Isles, North Beach, South Beach and the Key Biscayne hotel scene in 2007. If you wish to ask him a question during
his jaunt, shoot it our way.
At a New Years Even party in New York I met a man who had just spent 100 days at the Four Seasons Miami. He was a lawyer who was tied up with a long case - which ended up, ironically, declared a mistrial.
One hundred days is enough to expose the flaws of any hotel. Not this one? Exactly right: he loved it. Its flaws? "Nonexistent," except for not too much to do around the neighborhood.
Seventy stories tall--the highest building south of Atlanta--my taxi seemed to have no problem locating it. Yesterday we zoomed to the middle of the hotel, pulling into the porte cochere cleverly hidden from the street. After signing over my bags I was greeted by an employee who welcomed me and escorted me past monumental bronze Botero sculptures (part of the Miami and Latin American art collection here) up elevators to the seventh floor lobby.
After check in, I was presented to a different employee who ferried me to the room elevators, pointing out Acqua, a bar, and the "two-acre pool terrace."
That's a lot of introduction. My guide book received a letter complaining about this double elevator system - a guest said it grew wearying after three days. I spent only one night, but I found it elegant and ceremonious. But I happen to equate ceremony with fun. I also liked being escorted, immediately initiated into the vaunted service experience of the famous Four Seasons mark.
More on the Four Seasons Miami after the jump.
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by Michael de Zayas
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