New Disneyland Hotel?

[dweezil78]

I think you're right. Although, It's not in any of the plans for WESTCOT that I have.

Looks like Tony Baxter shared this artwork at the 2012 Pacific Northwest Mouse Meet. Says it's from Westcot but could be wrong... I'm sure there were various stages with different concepts/layouts as there usually are with these things.

http://www.thedisneyproject.com/2012/08/pacific-northwest-mouse-meet-2012-part_21.html

 

[Disneyfan_76]

Maybe they could demolish Paradise Pier and replace it with a resort that actually lives up to Disney caliber hotels rather than just charging $300/night for a Best Western experience with a 30-45 minute elevator wait time? This hotel needs friggin fastpasses for the elevator.

And before all you DL purists go off and tell me that it wasn't theirs and just acquired and re-themed a 3rd party hotel, well, I already know that, and it's not a good excuse. It was value engineered straight out of WDO's playbook.

My experience with the elevators was the same when staying at the Disneyland Hotel.. 20-35 minute wait time for the elevators.... and, there were no optional stairs to take so we had to just sit there and wait for a non-full elevator.

 

[Disneyfan_76]

Oy. Visions of some hotel building looming over Space Mountain and Tomorrowland....

If they theme it as 'space age' then it is fine by me. It will only add to the land and the feeling of it being a 'spaceport'. I am more worried about it being seen from main street. But, you can already see the Matterhorn so....

 

[Universal Core]

Maybe a Star Wars themed hotel or am I just wishful thinking...

 

[Sage of Time]

I can't remember where I found this piece of concept art and I don't know anything about it, but it shows an old concept for a hotel on that site. It must be a plan from before DCA was built
View attachment 96501

OK, the hotel (very similar to DLP's DL Hotel) is lovely, but maaaaaan is that scaling just flat out BAD for Disneyland and the entrance to the park. Tiny and quaint Disneyland giving way to something that grand and large? Oy. No.

What if it is was themed to Tomorrowland in the same way Grand Californian blends well w/ Grizzly Peak?

Looking at the aerial shot on Google Maps, this thing could potential run in back of the Hollywood Studios area of DCA and create 1 mega resort that has private entrances into both parks.

...That would be preferable but not optimal. I don't think GCH blends THAT well with Grizzly Peak.

 

[Disneysea05]

Wow. I've never seen that concept art. The scale is a little off, but it would be great to have a beautiful hotel and gardens instead of the shuttle drop off area.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I can't remember where I found this piece of concept art and I don't know anything about it, but it shows an old concept for a hotel on that site. It must be a plan from before DCA was built
View attachment 96501

I think that image was more of an emotional/evocative piece. The sale and perspective are really off. Herb Ryman once painted Tomorrowland on the wrong side of Tokyo Disneyland but that was apparently never planned.

 

[Magenta Panther]

How come neither Disneyland nor WDW has a hotel as cool as this?

This is MAGICAL. This is AWESOME. And yes, this is DISNEY. How come Paris got the cool hotel????

 

[Californian Elitist]

How come neither Disneyland nor WDW has a hotel as cool as this?

This is MAGICAL. This is AWESOME. And yes, this is DISNEY. How come Paris got the cool hotel????

The Disneyland Hotel is pretty great, in my opinion.

 

[lazyboy97o]

How come neither Disneyland nor WDW has a hotel as cool as this?

This is MAGICAL. This is AWESOME. And yes, this is DISNEY. How come Paris got the cool hotel????

That is Disneyland Paris' take on the Grand Floridian...
The plans to tear down the Disneyland Hotel first died with WestCOT and periodically get reconsidered.

 

[Longhairbear]

There have been rumors about hotel expansion. The all-new hotel has been mocked up to sit on the current site of the "East Esplanade" shuttle bus loading area. This would place it directly between both DCA and Disneyland, roughly between Tomorrowland and Hollywood Land.

The East Esplanade shuttle bus loading area would become unnecessary once a new parking structure and bus loading area is built on the Pumbaa lot and adjacent business park, with a skybridge over Harbor Blvd. for access to the parks. That would allow that land to be turned into a big hotel complex. The skybridge from the parking structure would connect with the new hotel complex and make for a more gracious arrival for pedestrians than the current shuttle loading area.

This was all talked about by Al Lutz a couple years ago in a Miceage column.

This is also the reason Disney just bought the Carousel Inn on Harbor Blvd., to use as the skybridge route from the structure over Harbor, in case the shaky plans for the Anaheim Streetcar don't get off the ground and they can't use the Park Vue Inn land for the skybridge.

It sounds like Disney is getting closer to making a decision on this big plan.

I remember Al's piece on this. Wasn't it a Victorian theme at the time he reported it?

 

[Magenta Panther]

The Disneyland Hotel is pretty great, in my opinion.

Never stayed there, but hope to someday!

 

[Stevek]

Interesting concept but wonder if they could pull it off AND keep it hidden from inside Disneyland (or even DCA) as to not intrude on the sightlines. The picture that Baxter showed, similar to the DLP hotel, would be beautiful but would seem completely out of place in that area. I'm really not sure where that hotel could be build in the DL resort area and not seem out of place though.

 

[Stevek]

Never stayed there, but hope to someday!

My wife booked one night for my 40th and paid $500. I have a buddy that works there now and recently quoted me a mid week stay, 2 nights in June for $532 total...that's with a 40% discount. Crazy...and people are paying full price regularly. It's a very nice hotel as is the Grand Californian but neither of them are what I would consider a good value for what you get. And yes, PP does need an upgrade. It's not as bad as some people make it out to be but again, not worth the money IMO.

 

[Stevek]

Wow, great stuff there!

That's the plot of land for a future hotel. The Carousel Inn, the hotel property Disney just bought, can be seen in the middle bottom of that photo. It's the circular black turret right on the bottom of the photo. That slim piece of property connects directly with the surface level parking lots and office park that Disney now owns on the backside of that property.

The Carousel Inn would be razed and become 50+ foot wide skybridge over Harbor Blvd., landing on Disney property on the other side of Harbor. The new hotel complex would take up all of the land currently used for shuttles, Toy Story buses, and some "Backstage" uses behind Tomorrowland. At least that's what I learned at an OC cocktail party with some well connected folks on their third martini.

That photo also makes it easy to see how they could connect the new hotel to Disneyland via Main Street behind the Opera House, or to Tomorrowland around Space Mountain. Or both.

All future buses, shuttles and cars would unload or park in the massive structure facility, then everyone would go over the skybridge to get to Disney property. It's easy to imagine a series of moving sidewalks speeding up the process through the skybridge and parking structure, like big airports or the Universal Orlando parking facility.

If you look at the models Werner has posted on his site, you can see where Disney did indeed plan on building the two massive parking structures to accomodate Westcot. The purchase of the Carousel Inn would, as you said, allow them to connect to those structures IF they somehow figure out how to buy all that property directly east of that hotel. Or even better, use the original concept and run a peoplemover west on Grand and across Harbor to the resort. Whatever their plans are, its likely to be a long wait until we see any activity.

 

[Stevek]

I can't remember where I found this piece of concept art and I don't know anything about it, but it shows an old concept for a hotel on that site. It must be a plan from before DCA was built
View attachment 96501

I think you're right. Although, It's not in any of the plans for WESTCOT that I have.
View attachment 96510

I think the hotel that is in the first pic, was likely moved as some point to the hotel district in the western part of the new resort. It may be near #9 in the map.

 

[lazyboy97o]

The purchase of the Carousel Inn would, as you said, allow them to connect to those structures IF they somehow figure out how to buy all that property directly east of that hotel.

A lot of your "IF" property is already owned by Disney, at least north of Garden Walk.

 

[Stevek]

A lot of your "IF" property is already owned by Disney, at least north of Garden Walk.

Yep, the old Grand Hotel site is now CM parking I believe. I was talking about the property directly north of that that basically ends right behind the Carousel Inn.

 

[rle4lunch]

My experience with the elevators was the same when staying at the Disneyland Hotel.. 20-35 minute wait time for the elevators.... and, there were no optional stairs to take so we had to just sit there and wait for a non-full elevator.

We've stayed at the Disneyland Hotel twice in the last year and each timer we were in the wing of it on the east side of the pool. No wait times for either bank of elevators at all, building was kinda dead actually.

 

[rle4lunch]

My wife booked one night for my 40th and paid $500. I have a buddy that works there now and recently quoted me a mid week stay, 2 nights in June for $532 total...that's with a 40% discount. Crazy...and people are paying full price regularly. It's a very nice hotel as is the Grand Californian but neither of them are what I would consider a good value for what you get. And yes, PP does need an upgrade. It's not as bad as some people make it out to be but again, not worth the money IMO.

We stayed at the Grand Californian once for our anniversary and they surprised us and gave us a free upgrade to the penthouse suite. It was 2000 square foot and was just ridiculous.