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Disney's Art of Animation Resort Will Open on May 31st at $395 a Night

Where: 1850 Century Drive [map], Lake Buena Vista, FL, United States, 32830

While adults will be partying the Memorial Weekend away at the Revel Resort in Atlantic City, families with children will be waiting until May 31st to take their vacation at the new Disney Art of Animation Resort, full of family suites and standard rooms done up in Finding Nemo, Little Mermaid, Cars and Lion King themes.

The resort is still on track for the May 31st opening and rates are going for $395 which is also the going rate for the 2012 Summer Season from June 1-August 4 for a weekend stay. (Disney Resorts have about 11 different "seasonal" rates.) Later in the summer, aka when it's too hot in Orlando, the price drops to $249 a night.

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Mickey Mouse Will Live It Up at The Four Seasons Disney World

The mouse has a new fancy house--The Four Seasons.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that the luxury hotel chain has just finalized a deal to build a 444-room Four Seasons resort down in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The hotel will feature a rooftop restaurant with views of the Magic Kingdom as well as a lazy river inside its pool scene and guest access to the Disney Osprey Ridge golf course.

The hotel will also include up to 90 Four Seasons residences and about 40 Four Seasons time-share units. As for the guestrooms, there's not much info on that yet but you know how Four Seasons likes to stick with what they know.

Construction will start on the hotel in December and it's expected to be completed sometime in 2014. While we're not so deep-pocketed we can splurge on Four Seasons when we travel, there are a lot of wealthy families out there who can. So a Four Seasons will probably be a relief for those who dread the idea of a night in a kitschy Disney theme resort. Just make sure to get a room for the nanny!

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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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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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Other Cities Make a Play for Super Bowl Hotel Action

Sure, most of the hotel booking action is going on in Miami and Fort Lauderdale for Super Bowl weekend, but they’re not the only cities looking to score from the big game. Packages and parties in New Orleans are starting to shape up—and we presume in Indy as well, although we haven’t heard of many yet.

The New Orleans Marriott comes bursting out of the huddle (ha ha) with its Saints Finish Strong package. Other than South Florida we can’t think of a better place to watch the Super Bowl, but for anyone who needs a bit of arm twisting, the Marriott is happy to oblige.

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Starwood To Cram in More Westin Hotels Before 2010

More Westin Heavenly Beds for Everyone!

If you're into Westin Hotels and white tea scents then you'll be happy to know that Starwood Hotels plans on opening six Westin Hotels before the year is out. The WSJ reports:

The company, based in White Plains, N.Y., will cut the ribbon on two new Westins--one near the Washington Dulles Airport and the other in Orlando--on Thursday. The rest, built from the ground up, will open in China and India by the end of the year.

Mickey Mouse and Westin? That sounds so dirty. And so good.

But there's already a Westin in Orlando near Disney World called The Westin Imagine Orlando. The newest Orlando hotel is actually the Westin Lake Mary, Orlando North. Yeah, it's a mouthful. The hotel, which opened on November 12, is located in the center of Florida's High Tech Corridor and while corporate offices for companies like Allstate, Mitsubishi, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Scholastic are within a few miles away, Disney World and more fun attractions are about 40 minutes away. (Room rates start at $159 a night.)

So Starwood might be cramming in the rest of their Westins for 2009 but they are kind of ho-hum hotels.

Next year, Westin will plan on opening 12 more hotels in more exotic locations like Mexico, Canada, Greece and Japan. And we fully expect the signature white tea scent to be wafting throughout every one of them.

Labor Day Hotels / Hotel Deals / Disney World Hotels / → All Tags

Labor Day Hotels: Make a Splash at Orlando World Center Marriott

Where: 8701 World Center Drive [map], Orlando, fl, United States, 32821

Labor Day, that odd holiday that serves more as a temporal marker and one more excuse to get away before the rush of life ramps up again, is fast approaching. We would be remiss not to mark the coming Labor Day weekend with Labor Day pointers. In theory, there are scads to be had out there, though many of the good ones seem to be booked.

Here's on that caught our eye. And like several Labor Day packages we noticed, but were too late to catch, these rates run into the month.

The Orlando World Center Marriott Resort and Convention Center is running a special that started last week and runs through September 11. Call it the Extended Labor Day weekend package.

The web states that rates start at $149 a night for a double. When we called this afternoon, we got a quote for $139 per night. But the reservationist said there wern't many left. The next rate was $159.

To try and catch these low rates, call 1-800-834-7015 and ask for promotional code LRR. If you're in, you're going to Disney World! Back at the resort, you can make a splash in any of six pools, a 106-foot waterslide, waterfalls and whirlpools and water volleyball.