Walt Disney World to build 2,000-room Hotel: Disney’s Art of Animation Resort

[RiversideBunny]

I was thinking that the real drawing power of the new AA family suites will be that they can hold 6 people and provide a kitchen.
Very often on this board people ask where they can get a room than can hold 5, or 6, people.

The answer has up till now been to get two rooms at a Value resort, or the Ft. Wilderness cabins, or POR with a trundle bed.
It looks like the new AA family suites will serve the size need and any theme will be a secondary consideration for the guests.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

These are the same people that also told us that RC was "open seasonally" for more than 3 years.

haha agreed.well I saw the response on the blog saying that it would be staying as Pop, I determined that the PR machine had to say that. They couldn't say that the resort was going to close down without an official announcement...but you won't see that for a couple of years.

I know how I have been pushing this (and of course I could be very wrong)...you need to think how Disney usually operates in this situation. Financially it might not make the most sense to them when it comes to the cost of changing things out for apparently no reason. However, Animation is clearly going to be come the number 1 choice for Value resort when it opens with All Star Movies still probably coming in second. I would have to think that Disney is predicting how this will severely hurt the amount of people who stay at Pop and they will need to be proactive about it. If this resort proves to be as popular as I expect it to be, the ROI on converting Pop won't take much time to counteract the cost of a transformation.

Like I said, this is my speculation, but I do spend a good amount of time analyzing the resort part of their business and the financial decision making that goes in to things (I am a numbers guy, sorry). I just think that from a financial and creative standpoint it will make sense in the long run for Disney to transform Pop in to something that every member of the family will want to go. Pop currently doesn't do that, and as the years go on it will continue to grow even more obsolete.

 

[RiversideBunny]

It's funny how Pop Century is now suddenly a terrible resort.
Usually on here when someone asks what is the best Value resort, Pop Century wins.

Now that they are building a new resort across the lake it's no longer a good place?

 

[Master Yoda]

It's funny how Pop Century is now suddenly a terrible resort.
Usually on here when someone asks what is the best Value resort, Pop Century wins.

Now that they are building a new resort across the lake it's no longer a good place?

This is because of the dedicated bus system. Nearly everything else is identical to the All stars. While I love the theme of Pop most people could care less about it.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Usually on here when someone asks what is the best Value resort, Pop Century wins.

That's a little like being the smartest Stooge. :lookaroun

 

[Figment632]

That's a little like being the smartest Stooge. :lookaroun

:ROFLOL:yes the best of the worst.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

It's funny how Pop Century is now suddenly a terrible resort.
Usually on here when someone asks what is the best Value resort, Pop Century wins.

Now that they are building a new resort across the lake it's no longer a good place?

By no means is it a terrible resort...but in terms of theme it is definitely the loser in the bunch. I remember from my Kingdom Konsultant days that Pop was only popular because of the bus system and its age related to the All-Stars. When I had clients that were basing their choice on theme, the All Stars always won out. It is different when you hear things here, because we are a different demographic than the average WDW visitor. We usually look at the benefits of the resort over the feeling that we get from the theme, etc.

I would also venture to guess that Movies is the most popular overall when it comes to people booking it, and I would say that it is for this exact reason that Disney is building a resort so closely related to its theme.

 

[wdwmagic]

It's funny how Pop Century is now suddenly a terrible resort.
Usually on here when someone asks what is the best Value resort, Pop Century wins.

It is highly rated on here http://www.wdwmagic.com/Resorts/Disneys-Pop-Century-Resort/Reviews.htm

 

[cinderellafan6]

Well im very excited about this new. I have always said the need to base a hotel on Disney Movies and all Disney!! Better then ALM.

 

[Rob562]

Just as an aside, I think we should try and coin a different acronymn than AA for the new resort to avoid additional future confusion. "AA" is already American Adventure *and* Audio-Animatronic.

My suggestion is to use AAR or just AR. (The pirate-speak jokes may now commence)

-Rob

 

[Master Yoda]

Just as an aside, I think we should try and coin a different acronymn than AA for the new resort to avoid additional future confusion. "AA" is already American Adventure *and* Audio-Animatronic.

My suggestion is to use AAR or just AR. (The pirate-speak jokes may now commence)

-Rob

TRTWSTBPCTLY? The resort that was supposed to be Pop century the legendary years.

 

[devoy1701]

It's funny how this resort is to be the Art of Animation resort, yet it will not feature any of Walt's animations. Pinocchio, Jungle Book, Cinderella, Fantasia, the Fab 5, Silly Symphonies...are these not pivotal enough to earn their own section of the resort?

I'll stick with my CBR and WL for my top list.

 

[DrummerAlly]

haha agreed.well I saw the response on the blog saying that it would be staying as Pop, I determined that the PR machine had to say that. They couldn't say that the resort was going to close down without an official announcement...but you won't see that for a couple of years.

I know how I have been pushing this (and of course I could be very wrong)...you need to think how Disney usually operates in this situation. Financially it might not make the most sense to them when it comes to the cost of changing things out for apparently no reason. However, Animation is clearly going to be come the number 1 choice for Value resort when it opens with All Star Movies still probably coming in second. I would have to think that Disney is predicting how this will severely hurt the amount of people who stay at Pop and they will need to be proactive about it. If this resort proves to be as popular as I expect it to be, the ROI on converting Pop won't take much time to counteract the cost of a transformation.

Like I said, this is my speculation, but I do spend a good amount of time analyzing the resort part of their business and the financial decision making that goes in to things (I am a numbers guy, sorry). I just think that from a financial and creative standpoint it will make sense in the long run for Disney to transform Pop in to something that every member of the family will want to go. Pop currently doesn't do that, and as the years go on it will continue to grow even more obsolete.

I agree with everything here. If they were not planning on re-theming Pop Century at some time in the future they would have picked more than 4 movies for AAR and done one movie per building (I'll hop on the new acronym bandwagon).

Just like 5 decades doesn't represent a century, 4 movies don't represent Disney's animation.

 

[stitch2008]

It's funny how this resort is to be the Art of Animation resort, yet it will not feature any of Walt's animations. Pinocchio, Jungle Book, Cinderella, Fantasia, the Fab 5, Silly Symphonies...are these not pivotal enough to earn their own section of the resort?

I'll stick with my CBR and WL for my top list.

Well if I remember right, Fantasia is used at All Star Movies and there are Jungle Book statues at one of the other Values. And I'd also imagine, the loby of this resort will have objects representing more animated films.

 

[Hakunamatata]

It's funny how this resort is to be the Art of Animation resort, yet it will not feature any of Walt's animations. Pinocchio, Jungle Book, Cinderella, Fantasia, the Fab 5, Silly Symphonies...are these not pivotal enough to earn their own section of the resort?

I'll stick with my CBR and WL for my top list.

You will likely see a lot of that in the main building.

 

[devoy1701]

Well if I remember right, Fantasia is used at All Star Movies and there are Jungle Book statues at one of the other Values. And I'd also imagine, the loby of this resort will have objects representing more animated films.

I understand that, but to call a hotel Disney's Art of Animation with seperate areas being themed after particular movies, i still think they're missing the bar IMHO.

You will likely see a lot of that in the main building.

While I hope they will atleast do this, I think it would have been nice to do something along the same lines of the POP theme, but here at the Art of Animation each era is decorated with all mulitple Disney animations from that time period.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

Well if I remember right, Fantasia is used at All Star Movies and there are Jungle Book statues at one of the other Values. And I'd also imagine, the loby of this resort will have objects representing more animated films.

The jungle book statues are at Pop, along with Lady and the Tramp Statues. Part of the reason I believe a change over is more likely.

 

[Coggy]

If they keep it Pop Century then maybe they could easily just add the other 5 decades to the existing resort. Ten buildings, ten decades. That would only require 5 buildings being re-themed.

 

[JEANYLASER]

I can't wait to stay there on 2012!

 

[LudwigVonDrake]

There goes the efficient bus service at Pop