Exactly!If they built exactly this, I'm sure someone would post about how it looks exactly like any other resort destination for the uber elite and fantastically wealthy. Same as all the rest of such places found the world over.
That looks like the photoshopped version of that one Monaco style! Colors look more typically Caribbean. But to each his/her own! Both are interpretations of something one might find on the Riviera.
Which is exactly why they needed to hone down on the actual theme of the place. What exactly is the story behind the resort. A vague idea of Walt's travels through Europe is cop out. It would be akin to having an America Resort at DLP that tries to capture the entirety of the American built and unbuilt landscape within a single 20(?) story hotel tower.
They did build the Hotel New York, the Newport Bay and the Hotel Cheyenne to all help tell a bit of the story of an American theme...It is just an odd theme, not well executed.
I made the point about DLP for this very reason. While conveying an "American" theme, they are also all distinct individual properties, each telling a different "story" about the American experience.
Mixing places and aesthetics is a very valid concept, but they should be distinct in their presentation. Imagine something like Frontierland and Liberty Square where one moves from the French Riviera into the Italian Riviera with the aesthetics changing to show that movement from one place to another. Grabbing bits from here and there and then mashing them together doesn’t communicate anything clearly, it’s the sort of visual chaos that the “architecture of reassurance” contrasted. Even in something like Adventureland where places are less specific in their organization, European colonial ornament would make no sense on the Enchanted Tiki Room.
I didn't stay there but I thought the common areas had a certain charm. Reminded me of MGM in it's hey day in spots. I found it to be self-referential without being kitsch.
The thought of the resort being a "walk along the Mediterranean Riviera" would have been great if they would have massed the building to reflect differing building typologies, thus reinforcing the story that the guest is making their way from Italy, past Monaco, and into France. Would have been light years ahead of what they are building. Unfortunately, the monumental form does not lend itself well to the idea simply by being a single mass, despite being the most cost efficient approach. So one is left with a distilled, vague European Med Coast Riviera Walt's Travels "theme", instead of a cohesive story to present to the guest.
I disagree. This is a hotel -- not a land in one of the parks. I don't think it requires an incredibly detailed and specific story. I think it's enough to conjure a general vibe. Some of Disney's hotels are more "themed" than others, and I think there's room for a range.
Apparently Disneyland is getting a hotel similar to this and it's by Westin a luxury brand not "Holiday Inn Express". So whoever designed this must have did the same for the Riviera.
