Disney's Latest Resort Retheme Has Guests Heated - Inside the Magic

Comments for Disney’s Latest Resort Retheme Has Guests Heated

INCREDIBLES 2 - (Pictured) Jack-Jack. ©2018 Disney•Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

Credit: Disney-Pixar

16 Comments

  1. Michelle

    I am THRILLED that the resort hotels are being themed to IP!!! I was horrified when Iger tried to make the resorts look like high end Hiltons, so that Chapek getting back to the Magic is the best news EVER!!!! If I want to stay in a high end Hilton, or the like, I have no problem…. but if I’m going to pay big bucks for Disney Magic… I want to be immersed!

    1. Mickeba

      For the price they charge at the premium resorts, it had better be a premium resort and not cheaped up garbage. Why would you pay the premium price, happily, for a hotel experience that’s straight out of the bargain bin of hotels?

  2. Big Bob

    Man, people truly will complain about anything.

    1. Mickeba

      For 300 to 500 a night, people expect more than what they’d see at a bargain resort. They’ve completely marginalized the characters that made Disney what it is (Mickey, Minnie and all the rest are there to badge cups, hats, t shirts, backpacks and pins, while Pixar, Star Wars and the rest get the prime exposure). If this blew up in their face, good. They deserve the failure.

  3. Kay

    I too did not like the thought of rooms being made to look like the Hilton. This is not truly themed – just decorated. And what is up with the horrible voice over on the DPB video? Not sure. Anyway, the rooms look fresher and the bathrooms very nice. For what they’re charging this year, that toilet should be solid gold.

  4. Corrine

    The Contemporary Resort Hotel has always been my favorite because of the contemporary look that it had. Now it looks like one of the All-Star themed hotels and it just won’t be the same for us

    1. KenG

      You bring up sort of a convoluted point. Why?

      Because the Contemporary opened in 1971, meaning it was designed back around 1968 or so. Pretty close to the “mid-century” modern time of the 1950’s.

      When does Incredibles take place? In the 1950’s! So the theming fits perfectly.

      I stayed at the Contemporary in 1978, I still have photos. And guess what? Except for Incredibles decor the furnishings where very similar in style, complete with conceptual renderings of MK. So in a way they took the Contemporary back to it’s roots in a retro sort of way. And keep in the mind, the Contemporary was “contemporary” back in 1971, not so much now. It’s really “retro-contemporary”.

      And by the way, the resort it was designed that was is because back in the 1970’s and when the MK Tomorrowland fully opened with Space Mountain you easy see that resort from inside that area of the park. So it was designed to feel as an extension of Tomorrowland.

  5. AB

    What some of these comments sound like:

    “I hate when I go to Walt Disney World™️ and my Disney™️ resort has Disney™️ Characters all over it”

    1. Katherine Akin

      I think the new rooms look cold and cheap. Perfect for the kids, but it’d be nice if you could request another room for the adults.

  6. JMH

    We’ve stayed at All Stars, Pop Century and more recently, Caribbean Beach, French Quarter and Riverside. I think Pop Century was the one with a Mickey themed coat hook and chairs with icon cutouts. We haven’t stayed since the remodel, but I was very disappointed to see photos of the finished rooms with NO SIGN of character themes. The value resorts are otherwise plain rooms with no luxury yet at those rates, we could stay off property in upgrade rooms. So at Disney rates, I expect character infused into the decor of my room. Otherwise, why stay? I wanted more amenities and better waiting areas for busses, so we started staying at a few moderates. I have to beg and plead for him to pay these rates… And the rooms have very little character. I was delighted to stay in a princess room at Riverside! I absolutely love all the details. We will never stay at a deluxe unless we win some magical contest. You should be excited to be so immersed in those Contemporary rooms! I love that Edna pillow. So cute. Custom stuff like that is really expensive!!

    1. Mark Kaplan

      The contemporary Asian look was better not this. You don’t need to theme everything with a Disney Character. This refurbishment is money wasted. I’m glad I’m no longer an annual pass holder.

    2. Mickeba

      I doubt that pillow was expensive or very “custom”, in the least. Probably a very generic pillow they bought in bulk and the pillow case didn’t take a lot of resources for a Pixar artist to throw together, but it does look ok and is a great way to justify increasing the hotel cost in general. I do think Disney hopes people will just mindlessly love it, have no critical thoughts or standards to apply to it and just pay the cost. Sadly for Disney, I think the year away has made people much more aware of the inflated costs for everything associated with Disney resorts and they’re going to have to regroup many things. And I was an Anaheim annual passholder for 27 years, so I have a long track record of Disney patronage. I’m not just a “hater.”

  7. ChadMC

    This just looks cheap and quick. For sure there can be some classy touches and mild themes in the rooms even at top end resorts. I stayed at the Disneyland Hotel at Disneyland Paris. It’s considered a 5-star hotel (according to Disney). There are small touches throughout the hotel that DO have some theming but it’s not the computer-generated types. In my room, there was wallpaper with Dumbo and some other classic characters. It was done in a very nice and non-bold way. The colors blended in and were muted in nature.

    What they have done here with Contemporary is take the computer-generated characters and blasted them all over with the BRIGHT and BOLD colors which are impossible to just look past. Imagine silhouettes instead in these rooms. That would likely appease everyone. I think the issue here is that it is cheap looking and not done in a classy way for this high end resort. What is in place here looks like something that should be a value resort. For a deluxe/high end resort it’s just cheap and done without much imagination.

  8. KenG

    I would like to give a similar but different perspective as an example:

    The most recent iPad got Apple’s powerful M1 chip, the same as what is in the new Macs. So a very small but vocal reviewers (mainly the super techy and power users) were miffed that the new IPad Pro won’t run Mac specific apps.

    But the smart reviewers and vloggers (and shows like MacBreak weekly) rightly stated that 95% of iPad users like it just the way it is. Keep it a separate but complimentary device from the Mac.

    So…. When it comes to the Disney World Resorts and putting the characters in, branding each resort with IP, etc… Guess what? 95% of the guest and their family want that! They want that total immersive Disney experience. How do I know that? Because I was at Epcot the day it opened in 1982. The thought was at the time to keep the Disney characters out of it – Epcot was different, a “high-brow” park. But guess what happened? Major complaints from guests and families that there was no “Disney” there! And in less than one year when we went back, Mickey and all were there in themed costumes.

    So to those of you who are complaining that there is Disney now in a Disney resort, well then go stay off-property!

  9. Brett

    The rebrand stinks! What adult wants to have Pixar cartoon character branding in their hotel room? We get enough of that in the parks. Don’t need it in the hotels, too. This is yet another FAILURE of Disney (lack of) imagination! Instead of re-imagining the property to something new and exciting they are taking the cheap way out by slapping branding on it.

  10. Kenr

    I wish they would spend some time, money and design effort to re-do the 4th floor and the monorail waiting area. That whole area is dingy, incongruent and looks nothing like a modern, exciting, fresh Disney type futuristic resort. More like it’s stuck in a 1980 shopping mall time warp. The sad thing is that so many guest see it as they pass through on the monorail. As for the room update: not the IP I would have selected. I don’t know anyone really excited about the Incredibles. But Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Mary Poppins at the Grand Floridian Would be great.

Comments are closed.