Rumor The EPCOT Hotel

[lazyboy97o]

I will take a wild guess and say they may use the area behind disney play pavilion. As for how guests would get in, they would probably start with checking their luggage at a separate check in place using one of the old ticket windows at the front of the park. . Guests would then leave their luggage and enter epcot through a seperate entrance for hotel guests. When guests are ready to head to their room they will head to the play pavilion where there will be an entrance and a walkway to the hotel. Barring any issues the luggage should be at a check in windows once you enter the hotel. Now there will be two kinds of rooms. The specialized suites and the deluxe suites. The specialized suites will be designed around a theme relating to an attraction at epcot. A few themes that come to mind are Finding Nemo, Guardians of the Galaxy, Mission Space, Figment, innoventions, and classic epcot. The window will instead be replaced with a video projection of a different set of scenes depending on the theme of the room. Now the deluxe suites will be towards the top with a spectacular view of the fireworks. There will also be restaurant/viewing area at the top for watching the fireworks as well. As for the pool, they will have it indoors thus keeping the theming active. When its time to check out you can have your luggage once again delivered to the front while you get some last chances to wander around epcot before heading to the front to get your luggage. Its a plausible option in all honesty and if they used the existing parking system they could theoretically keep things pretty much normal without too much major changes to the landscape.

There are already three Disney hotels “in” a park. There’s be no need for a luggage check window. There would be a lobby just like every other hotel.

 

[PJBuckeye]

Added monorail loop or loops were deemed expensive some time back.

I think he is meaning just the train... not the track.

However, a hotel with access to the Epcot monorail station is a good sign for future improvements to the existing monorail lines/ trains.

 

[trainplane3]

Westin DEN Hotel and Transit Center | Projects | Gensler

Westin DEN Hotel and Transit Center, a LEED Platinum-Certified project by Gensler, is the final piece toward the realization of DEN’s original 1989 master plan.

www.gensler.com

If you look closely in the video it says the architect is Gensler. They are a full service design firm. I have worked with them in the past and some buildings are nice but let’s hope somebody else does the interiors as their hotels inside are generic. They designed the Westin Hotel at the Denver airport. Expect building size and shape similarities due to height restrictions. I’d put money on a design like this...

Funny how the rendering of the new EPCOT entrance renovation looks like it was taken from a hotel room at the front of the park, no?

Gensler is also doing the design for Pittsburghs new terminal. While it looks like, it's very much a "we want something nice and don't care if it blends with the airside terminal it's attaching too":

Looks kinda like a warehouse on the outside though...

And turns out Gensler did a building I work in on occasion. It follows the same bland emptiness but at least they put murals on the floors to give them some color. It's still a nice building to work in though.

 

[HauntedPirate]

I just cannot put into (family friendly) words my level of disgust for this “idea”, and I use that word loosely.

 

[Dizknee_Phreek]

For a resort that is blessed with lots of space and acreage, they sure seem fixated all of a sudden on putting things on top of each other. Riviera being plopped pretty much on top of Caribbean Beach. An Epcot hotel being plopped at the entrance or inside the park. I know this supposed Epcot hotel would be a "niche"/novelty hotel, but still. It just seems like a BAD idea to me. Considering Disney clearly doesn't care about sightlines or theme continuity anymore, I have a feeling this would a boring, generic eyesore competing for attention against SSE. We already have that with GotG.

 

[Sax Man]

Added monorail loop or loops were deemed expensive some time back.

I get that, but I was talking specifically about the trains themselves. They are old and gross. All they do is slap some lipstick on it every few years. And too expensive for more rail? Disney makes how much $?

 

[Master Yoda]

I get that, but I was talking specifically about the trains themselves. They are old and gross. All they do is slap some lipstick on it every few years. And too expensive for more rail? Disney makes how much $?

It does not matter how much you make...you don't spend money on something deemed to have a negative ROI.

 

[drnilescrane]

For a resort that is blessed with lots of space and acreage, they sure seem fixated all of a sudden on putting things on top of each other. Riviera being plopped pretty much on top of Caribbean Beach. An Epcot hotel being plopped at the entrance or inside the park.

The problem is the resort has a lot of assets that are either becoming life expired or no longer commercially viable due to the nature of their construction. It's not a new phenomenon either - there's a reason you can no longer book a room at Disney's Village Resort or the WDW Golf Resort.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Gensler is also doing the design for Pittsburghs new terminal. While it looks like, it's very much a "we want something nice and don't care if it blends with the airside terminal it's attaching too":

Looks kinda like a warehouse on the outside though...

And turns out Gensler did a building I work in on occasion. It follows the same bland emptiness but at least they put murals on the floors to give them some color. It's still a nice building to work in though.

Gensler is one of those huge corporate firms that doesn’t really have any sort of singular vision. They have thousands of employees doing all sorts of different work. How something turns out is very much dependent on the market segment and who specifically is working on the project.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Added monorail loop or loops were deemed expensive some time back.

Not directed at you but that’s not an excuse at the prices they charge.

 

[GimpYancIent]

Not directed at you but that’s not an excuse at the prices they charge.

Hey! With you on the pricing issues.

 

[Haymarket2008]

The silence from “those in the know” is concerning to me.

It seems that the “over the entrance” plan is dead. Especially after the investment to that part of the park already. I’m glad it will remain untainted.

The parking lot adjacent to the Seas is the only option. Imho, I just don’t see the point of this project at all. Why focus attention here when the park it represents is floundering in a sea of rubble and no thematic cohesion?

 

[wedenterprises]

The silence from “those in the know” is concerning to me.

It seems that the “over the entrance” plan is dead. Especially after the investment to that part of the park already. I’m glad it will remain untainted.

The parking lot adjacent to the Seas is the only option. Imho, I just don’t see the point of this project at all. Why focus attention here when the park it represents is floundering in a sea of rubble and no thematic cohesion?

$

 

[GimpYancIent]

Aren't Beach Club and Boardwalk considered EPCOT connected?

 

[trainplane3]

Gensler is one of those huge corporate firms that doesn’t really have any sort of singular vision. They have thousands of employees doing all sorts of different work. How something turns out is very much dependent on the market segment and who specifically is working on the project.

I'm not someone that follows design firms but I definitely see that now.

 

[lazyboy97o]

The problem is the resort has a lot of assets that are either becoming life expired or no longer commercially viable due to the nature of their construction. It's not a new phenomenon either - there's a reason you can no longer book a room at Disney's Village Resort or the WDW Golf Resort.

Huh? People can and do still stay in the original Golf Resort rooms.

 

[SplashJacket]

Huh? People can and do still stay in the original Golf Resort rooms.

I'm booked for January

 

[drnilescrane]

Huh? People can and do still stay in the original Golf Resort rooms.

Yeah, my point exactly. Disney couldn't sell those rooms profitably so sold the resort off to the federal government (who just need to break even to serve their mission).

People no longer want to stay in motel sized rooms with long walks to amenities at the moderate resorts, so they are demolishing rooms and building more attractive towers.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Yeah, my point exactly. Disney couldn't sell those rooms profitably so sold the resort off to the federal government (who just need to break even to serve their mission).

People no longer want to stay in motel sized rooms with long walks to amenities at the moderate resorts, so they are demolishing rooms and building more attractive towers.

The original Golf Resort rooms are large. Bigger than the standard rooms at the Destino Tower and Deluxe Studios at Riviera.

“Attractive towers” is definitely an overstatement.

 

[SplashJacket]

Yeah, my point exactly. Disney couldn't sell those rooms profitably so sold the resort off to the federal government (who just need to break even to serve their mission).

People no longer want to stay in motel sized rooms with long walks to amenities at the moderate resorts, so they are demolishing rooms and building more attractive towers.

Not sure if your second paragraph is directed at the Shades of Green, but the resort's second wing has the largest rooms I've ever stayed in on Disney property. They are absolutely massive.