Well. A few people have asked what did we think after 5 nights at Toy Story Hotel and 3 park days.
In short I’m impressed.
I imagined it to be of the Iger era. Big. Flashy. Shiny. State of the art. And it was. But in a good way.
What hit me the most from a design view was the size. Everything is huge and built for slick operation. The massive tree lined plaza with proper metal railing switchbacks that go forever for security. The distance from security to the turnstiles. The distance from turnstiles to the false train station entrance. The walkways wider than Epcots. The size of the gardens and lakes that replaced the hub. The long walking along tree and bush lined paths between lands and sometimes between attractions. The size of the lake in Treasure Cove. Everything is on a massive scale. Including the castle. I’m still undecided on the design, and think it looks better from behind, but the detail on it is astounding. Then inside there’s the windowed spiral internal staircase for a walkthrough. And another staircase up to a massive, lavish restaurant. And shops on the ground floor. And a boat ride that skirts the basement.
Ops wise it was impressive. Very. The sheer people moving skills of the cast and park design was amazing, and we went during a “quieter” period. I’ve never seen so many cast in a theme park. Emporium has 2 separate rooms each with 10 cash register desks. No in store queuing that gets in the way. Guest flow design is amazing. A note about cleanliness; cultural differences have been documented and we saw a handful of things a westerner would go huh? about, but the park, restaurants, attractions, everywhere was absolutely spotless. Spotless. The whole resort looked like it only opened last week. Everything was freshly painted. Ride vehicles weren’t scuffed. Queues were pristine. The sweepers were even picking up leaves when there was no litter. A real eye opener.
The attractions… whilst there’s not a huge amount given the size of the park they ranged from cute (Pooh’s building was elaborate but housed a clone of Hong Kong that’s a clone of Florida) to astounding. Pirates lived up to the hype and then some. Zootopia was surprisingly long. Peter Pan is the classic ride we all know on steroids. It was fun to ride the original Tron. Tomorrowland is a genius multi level design that the more you walk around the more you appreciate it. Adventure Isle is begging to be explored (with its impressive towering mountain range with waterfalls). Restaurants are abundant and amazingly themed. And for a European everything was so cheap.
Toy Story Hotel… fantastic. Chosen for its cost we found it’s hardly a “value” resort. Very modern, well themed but not tacky. A bigger room than expected and again the cast, from drop off to reception, concierge to housekeeping and restaurant were amazing. Friendly. Couldn’t help enough. We had a few language hiccups but definitely no language barriers.
All in all we came away very impressed. Budget decisions can be found if you look, but the overall design is mind blowing. Cast and ops are ironically how Disney should be. It’s a familiar but unfamiliar castle park. I recommend anyone wanting an adventure and to push their comfort zone seriously considers it.
In short I’m impressed.
I imagined it to be of the Iger era. Big. Flashy. Shiny. State of the art. And it was. But in a good way.
What hit me the most from a design view was the size. Everything is huge and built for slick operation. The massive tree lined plaza with proper metal railing switchbacks that go forever for security. The distance from security to the turnstiles. The distance from turnstiles to the false train station entrance. The walkways wider than Epcots. The size of the gardens and lakes that replaced the hub. The long walking along tree and bush lined paths between lands and sometimes between attractions. The size of the lake in Treasure Cove. Everything is on a massive scale. Including the castle. I’m still undecided on the design, and think it looks better from behind, but the detail on it is astounding. Then inside there’s the windowed spiral internal staircase for a walkthrough. And another staircase up to a massive, lavish restaurant. And shops on the ground floor. And a boat ride that skirts the basement.
Ops wise it was impressive. Very. The sheer people moving skills of the cast and park design was amazing, and we went during a “quieter” period. I’ve never seen so many cast in a theme park. Emporium has 2 separate rooms each with 10 cash register desks. No in store queuing that gets in the way. Guest flow design is amazing. A note about cleanliness; cultural differences have been documented and we saw a handful of things a westerner would go huh? about, but the park, restaurants, attractions, everywhere was absolutely spotless. Spotless. The whole resort looked like it only opened last week. Everything was freshly painted. Ride vehicles weren’t scuffed. Queues were pristine. The sweepers were even picking up leaves when there was no litter. A real eye opener.
The attractions… whilst there’s not a huge amount given the size of the park they ranged from cute (Pooh’s building was elaborate but housed a clone of Hong Kong that’s a clone of Florida) to astounding. Pirates lived up to the hype and then some. Zootopia was surprisingly long. Peter Pan is the classic ride we all know on steroids. It was fun to ride the original Tron. Tomorrowland is a genius multi level design that the more you walk around the more you appreciate it. Adventure Isle is begging to be explored (with its impressive towering mountain range with waterfalls). Restaurants are abundant and amazingly themed. And for a European everything was so cheap.
Toy Story Hotel… fantastic. Chosen for its cost we found it’s hardly a “value” resort. Very modern, well themed but not tacky. A bigger room than expected and again the cast, from drop off to reception, concierge to housekeeping and restaurant were amazing. Friendly. Couldn’t help enough. We had a few language hiccups but definitely no language barriers.
All in all we came away very impressed. Budget decisions can be found if you look, but the overall design is mind blowing. Cast and ops are ironically how Disney should be. It’s a familiar but unfamiliar castle park. I recommend anyone wanting an adventure and to push their comfort zone seriously considers it.
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