News Contemporary Refurbishment--April to Sept 2021

peter11435

peter11435

Well-Known Member
wdwfan22 said:
Everything thing I have seen shows the garden wing going away. There was no plans to renovate them last I heard. The convention center is also schedule to be reimagined.
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The south wing will get the same room refurb. There were plans years ago for something different in that space but that died a long time ago. May one day come back but for now those rooms will be treated as any others at CR.
 
phillip9698

phillip9698

Well-Known Member
Todd H said:
Good. The Contemporary is was my favorite resort. I've loved it since my first visit to Disney World as a small child in the 70s. I never got to stay there as a kid but the memory of riding the monorail through the resort after leaving the Magic Kingdom stayed with me until I became an adult and could finally afford to stay there. The IP kiddiefication of this iconic resort is an abomination. I probably wouldn't be as upset had they just turned a few of the rooms into this IP nightmare and upgraded the rest to something more modern and adult. But to do this to every single room is just too much. At least I still have the memories.
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I don't understand why they don't pull a win win scenario and just theme some of the rooms at a resort with IP. That way people who want characters but also like the resort can have their fill and others don't have to be bombarded with IP if they don't want to. Doesn't it work at Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans? Why not just keep that up elsewhere if need be?
 
Disone

Disone

Well-Known Member
phillip9698 said:
I don't understand why they don't pull a win win scenario and just theme some of the rooms at a resort with IP. That way people who want characters but also like the resort can have their fill and others don't have to be bombarded with IP if they don't want to. Doesn't it work at Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans? Why not just keep that up elsewhere if need be?
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Its a good thought for sure. Too late now though. Though to be fair before this there was a lot of hate for the very plain Marriott looking rooms. Now that they've gone with the character overlay there's a lot of hate for that. So there is a little bit of Darn if they do and darn if they don't, but going the route you have suggested probably would have been smart. Hindsight is 20/20.
 
G

GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
The issue is not so much the use of an IP but the design and how it is used. The Contemporary is presented / rated by Disney as a Deluxe Resort, top tier. Look at this refurbishment and ask yourself does it present Luxury, Sumptuous, Palatial, Opulent, Splendid, Lavish, Grand? All the terms that coincide with "Deluxe Resort". The things that are correctly expected for the price being paid. The design team failed.
 
G

GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
Disney would have been better off if the design team had taken their Q's from the Galactic Star Cruiser Cabin designs. Think of it, all those people complaining about the Star Cruiser not having a pool and about being locked into that deep of an experience but not enjoying a Star Wars Hotel. The Contemporary refurb would have been a wonderful opportunity to satisfy a lot of people plus, depending how tastefully done, fully justify the "Deluxe" rating. Just saying it would have been better than what has been done.
 
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lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
phillip9698 said:
I don't understand why they don't pull a win win scenario and just theme some of the rooms at a resort with IP. That way people who want characters but also like the resort can have their fill and others don't have to be bombarded with IP if they don't want to. Doesn't it work at Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans? Why not just keep that up elsewhere if need be?
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Because Disney leadership fundamentally doesn’t understand why someone would stay at a Nondescript Hotel Themed Like India or Whatever.
 
Animaniac93-98

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Both the Contemporary and Polynesian have been successful for half a century without character themed rooms, and yet current management thinks this is the only way to go moving forward. It's a spectacular failure at understanding the audience or the product's core appeal.

Their whole mindset is fundamentally broken. They are completely incapable of thinking beyond Disney = cartoon characters when it comes to anything they do with parks and resorts. This is what happens when you spend a generation + throwing out anyone who helped shaped the initial WDW experience or anyone with a hospitality background and only promoting people from marketing and merchandising. Might as well get a pharmaceutical company to run the parks.
 
prberk

prberk

Well-Known Member
Animaniac93-98 said:
Both the Contemporary and Polynesian have been successful for half a century without character themed rooms, and yet current management thinks this is the only way to go moving forward. It's a spectacular failure at understanding the audience or the product's core appeal.

Their whole mindset is fundamentally broken. They are completely incapable of thinking beyond Disney = cartoon characters when it comes to anything they do with parks and resorts. This is what happens when you spend a generation + throwing out anyone who helped shaped the initial WDW experience or anyone with a hospitality background and only promoting people from marketing and merchandising. Might as well get a pharmaceutical company to run the parks.
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This is all true, but it is farther and deeper than the parks. Just look at what they put on Disney+ and how it is marketed. Everything is under an IP or “brand,” such as Star Wars or Marvel or “Disney” (meaning animation or characters primarily, with some exceptions). If they can ascribe anything to a “franchise,” they will.
As a lifelong Disney fan once inspired by Walt Disney World, it especially pains me when browse through Dave Smith’s “Disney A to Z” encyclopedia of Disney history, whi I own and otherwise really enjoy. I say that reading it now pains me because it shows how diverse and innovative the company used to be. Walt Disney World itself was meant to be an innovation and a showcase of so many things, which employed characters but went well beyond cartoon tie-ins. It was the gold standard for a resort that had everything.
Remember the Hawaiian luau at the Poly, before characters invaded? Remember the “Hoop-de-doo Revue” at Fort Wilderness? (Or the Diamond Horseshoe Revue in Frontierland) bringing great Western medicine show/Vaudeville entertainment without a movie tie-in?
The resorts were truly themed to be a great getaway to another part of the world. The theming was amazing and fun and inspirational all at once. The Contemporary also was and is a conference hotel. Didn’t anyone tell them they needed a desk?
Sigh. But I digress. They just don’t know what they have. I hope someone in management takes a look at Dave Smith’s book and learns the diversity that goes beyond “branding” before it is too late.
 
castlecake2.0

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
prberk said:
This is all true, but it is farther and deeper than the parks. Just look at what they put on Disney+ and how it is marketed. Everything is under an IP or “brand,” such as Star Wars or Marvel or “Disney” (meaning animation or characters primarily, with some exceptions). If they can ascribe anything to a “franchise,” they will.
As a lifelong Disney fan once inspired by Walt Disney World, it especially pains me when browse through Dave Smith’s “Disney A to Z” encyclopedia of Disney history, whi I own and otherwise really enjoy. I say that reading it now pains me because it shows how diverse and innovative the company used to be. Walt Disney World itself was meant to be an innovation and a showcase of so many things, which employed characters but went well beyond cartoon tie-ins. It was the gold standard for a resort that had everything.
Remember the Hawaiian luau at the Poly, before characters invaded? Remember the “Hoop-de-doo Revue” at Fort Wilderness? (Or the Diamond Horseshoe Revue in Frontierland) bringing great Western medicine show/Vaudeville entertainment without a movie tie-in?
The resorts were truly themed to be a great getaway to another part of the world. The theming was amazing and fun and inspirational all at once. The Contemporary also was and is a conference hotel. Didn’t anyone tell them they needed a desk?
Sigh. But I digress. They just don’t know what they have. I hope someone in management takes a look at Dave Smith’s book and learns the diversity that goes beyond “branding” before it is too late.
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They really need an Eisner type back in some capacity. I was talking to my partner about this the other day. We live in celebration and drive past the big mickey power line almost everyday, and we were saying how Iger would never dare to build either of these things, it’s such an Eisner era idea. The company doesn’t know how to be creative or take risks anymore.
 
Poseidon Quest

Poseidon Quest

Well-Known Member
castlecake2.0 said:
They really need an Eisner type back in some capacity. I was talking to my partner about this the other day. We live in celebration and drive past the big mickey power line almost everyday, and we were saying how Iger would never dare to build either of these things, it’s such an Eisner era idea. The company doesn’t know how to be creative or take risks anymore.
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For all the issues of the Eisner era, at least they were for the most part creative. I think the original theme of DCA would have worked if given the proper budget and time. Instead of "why would you theme a park to California, located in California?", it could have been "this park is a love letter to California in a way that only Disney could pull off". Yeah, a lot of serious mistakes were made, but this bland and insulting corporatism of Iger and Chapek is far worse.
 
S

Skywise

Well-Known Member
I'm not as beholden to the current lobby which is an odd mixture of styles and designs. Was googling this morning for original lobby photos to see the changes but, alas, my google-fu is lacking there.

But I'm not optimistic with the current design trends that the rework will be "better" especially with buzzword terms as "free flowing" as that Lobby is already one of the most open ones around for foot traffic. I'm sure that's a euphemism for "knock down all the dividing walls and put nothing back to save $$$!
 
LSLS

LSLS

Well-Known Member
If you take away the incredibles decals they ordered off fathead, the design is, eh, ok I guess. Doesn't seem that interesting to me. But the incredibles stuff is just not well done.
 
412

412

Well-Known Member
In contrast to the terrible room makeover, I am really excited to see the new lobby and Steakhouse '71. The current lobby is a mess— worse than any other deluxe or moderate resort on property.
 
Beacon Joe

Beacon Joe

Well-Known Member
I'm normally quick to throw shade at most of the redesign/retheming stuff rampant at WDW these days, but I'll admit when I saw the first photo of the Contemporary's Incredibles-themed rooms (the first photo at https://www.wdwmagic.com/resorts/di...k-contemporary-resort-rooms-designs/42523.htm), I immediately liked it. The furniture and art, not so much.

Then I happened to watch AllEars' video review of the Pop Century (title "Why Everyone Loves This Cheap Disney Hotel") and when Quincy did her room tour, I couldn't help but think back to the new Contemporary rooms and make some comparisons.

Ouch. Sure, square footage and a far nicer bathroom and interior hallways and better amenities, but still, ouch.
 

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