Mouse Extra

Thanks to the good folks over at DVCNews.com, we now have artist renderings of the new feature pool that is planned for the Saratoga Springs Resort at Walt Disney World.  The Paddock Pool, which is now a quiet pool, will soon be closed so that crews can begin construction on a new, and much more involved, recreation area. 

The announcement was made during the Disney Vacation Club’s Condo Association meeting.  You can read a detailed report on the meeting here.

…A new feature pool will be constructed that will triple the size of the current pool. The new pool will be 3,300 sq feet and wiil feature a lighted, 146-foot long slide, a larger pool deck with more chairs, another spa pool, as well as a 1600 sq foot wt play area for kids. There will also be a quick service dining facility that will serve burgers and fries, and perhaps a refillable mug station. This will cost about 41 cents per point and will be paid out of capital reserves.

There are three things that stand out from this report.  First, is that even though it is going to be smaller than the main High Rock Spring pool, this does look like a really great addition to the resort.  (That certainly looks like a slammin’ slide!) Saratoga Springs is a big, sprawling place that in some areas can really make you feel like you are out in the sticks.  Having something like this will help brings guests in that area a little closer to some action.

Which brings me to my second point, and that is a not-so-subtle urging of the DVC to make absolutely certain they add the refillable mug station to this project, which in the report seems iffy.  I have stayed out in this area before, and just to get a cup of coffee or a soda can be a hike or even a drive away.  It was the number one complaint of myself and everyone in my party during that stay.  This would really be convenient and the club should make it happen.

Finally, I hope the announcement or report just happened to mistakenly leave out plans to add a pool bar to this area.  Being able to get something to eat without having to trek all the way to the main lobby is a good idea, but that isn’t all I want to do when spending an afternoon at my home resort.  Let’s not forget about us adults, okay?

TouringPlans.com raised the possibility this weekend of an online check-in system coming to Disney World Resorts as well as the Disney Vacation Club properties.  Keep in mind this is still in the rumor phase of reporting.

Disney’s Online Check-In service enables Guests to simplify their arrival by allowing them to go online and provide information related to their upcoming stay. On a Guest’s scheduled arrival date, since check-in information will have been provided previously online by the Guest, they may experience a streamlined check-in at select Walt Disney World® Resort hotels or Disney Vacation Club resorts. A welcome folder with their Key to the World Card will be waiting at a designated Disney’s Online Check-In area in the resort hotel lobby. Guests will need to present valid photo ID to pick up the folder and complete check-in. Guests may check-in online beginning 10 days prior to their arrival date.

This is one of those things that I can’t believe has taken this long to develop.  I mean, if you can check-in online for an airline flight you should be able to do so with a hotel.  Plus, I can’t be the only one who has waited on ridiculous lines for check-in, especially at the value resorts.

But whether or not I take advantage of this, should it become reality, depends solely on the flexibility of the system.  For a couple of resorts the location of my room is critical to the reason I picked it.  If I can not somehow influence which specific room on get with this system then I simply would not be interested in using it.

Here is a story from late last week that I did not want to let go by without a comment or two.  It is from Scott Powers on the Orlando Sentinel’s “Tourism Central Florida” blog, and it offers up some commentary as well as an image of concept art for the upcoming rooms at the Caribbean Beach Resort that will soon be re-themed to a Pirates motif.  What do you think?

A couple of weeks ago I commented on the designs for some other rooms at the Caribbean Beach that are being re-themed to “Finding Nemo”.  And I hated it, in no uncertain terms.  But this I kind of like.  It is certainly different, and no doubt over-the-top, but in a good way.  But I would want to stay here, and I think kids would as well.

So what is the difference, you ask?  You see, there actually were pirates romping around through the Caribbean.  It is engrained within the history and lure of that part of the country that this resort is looking to emulate.  And to boot, the motion picture that these rooms are theme to also actually took place in the Caribbean.  Novel concept, don’t you think?  Nemo however, despite the poor aesthetics of the room concepts, has absolutely nothing to do with the Caribbean, zippo!

As many of you know, I have always been a supporter of the increased influence Pixar has had over the Disney theme parks.  While purists have pounded their collective fists and coined the annoying term “Pixarization”, I have been mostly positive.  But today’s Jim Hill Media posting is going to run me off the tracks a bit.  Check out his piece here with pictures from the recently renovated rooms at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.

Just last week, the first 32 units at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort received the “Finding Nemo” retreatment. In the weeks & months ahead, 64 rooms will be retheming each week until a total of 1738 units have undergone Pixarification.

Yes, you have read and seen that correctly.  “Finding Nemo” will be the theme inside rooms at the Caribbean Beach.  Quite honestly, I can’t think of a more ridiculous idea.  And to make things worse, it isn’t even done well.  These pictures are just plain awful.  It looks cheap and poorly thought out.

The Caribbean Beach has long been a favorite of mine, though I haven’t stayed there recently.  It had a great theme, classy rooms, and bright but subtle atmosphere that made it a happy place.  It had the kind of well done, if somewhat less intense, immersive experience that makes Disney resorts worth the money.  But now we have rooms that look like they belong in the same kind of “shove the marketing down your throat” style we can find at the All-Star Movies or Nickelodeon hotels.  Those styles have a place, but why does it have to be here?

Now in all fairness, this has nothing to do with Nemo or Pixar.  I would hate this even if it was Mickey Mouse himself plastered all over these rooms.  This is supposed to be a resort that is NOT gaudy and kiddy.  It is supposed to be equally as charming to the no-children-in-tow adults as to the five year old.  But now it looks like a value hotel, only without the cheap price tag.  What a terrible disappointment.

Today, June 26th, Disney has finally annouced one of the worst kept secrets they had going in a long time. As reported in this article at the Orlando Sentinel, Pleasure Island will be no more. Disney has announced the information on their FAQ page here.

BET SoundStage Club, Mannequins Dance Palace, 8Trax  and other clubs, 6 in total, will be closing permanently on September 27th it what Disney has termed a “bold new” vision. Disney will be keeping open the shops, cigar shop and restaurants, but not the night clubs. That includes the Adventurers Club and the Comedy Club as well

As I said, this has been a longtime coming. Pleasure Island was initially a great success and very much responsible for the dwindling night life in other parts of Orlando. But as time has come and gone (the Island has been around for nearly 20 years), its popularity has waned. Disney is leaning more and more to place such as Raglan Road (one of the restraurants that will surely survive this). Similiar in concept but different in theme is the coming South American eatery and tequila bar that will replace one of the current clubs. This is the future of the area: food and drinks with entertainment and no cover charge.

I do hope the Adventurers’ Club survives in some form somewhere. It was the only truly Disney experience on Pleasure Island. One rumor is the club will become the port of entry to the Night Kingdom park. I wouldn’t mind seeing the club moved to the Animal Kingdom as long as that park begins to increase its hours (an unlikely scenario for sure) or perhaps it will return to Pleasure Island someday as the last bastion of the old girl.

Yesterday, the Orlando Sentinel reported that the “mystery tower” going up next to the Contemporary Resort has undergone a name change.  The building that will most likely be the flagship of the Disney Vacation Club was reported earlier this year to be called “Kingdom Tower”.  However, now it seems that has changed into “Bay Lake Tower”.

“Bay Lake Tower” has replaced “Kingdom Tower” as the name of the project, at least in filings with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

What’s more, earlier this month Disney filed paperwork to create a “Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort Condominium Association,” presumably to manage the resort once it is sold off to individual owners. Disney had created a “Kingdom Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort Condominium Association” in January.

Disney had to know that there was no way they would escape criticism on this project no matter what they did.  And the name is no different.    People didn’t like the name Kingdom Tower and now people won’t like Bay Lake Tower.  As soon as they decided to build something this big they released the hounds. It is just too close to the Magic Kingdom and way too close to the Contemporary to escape criticism.

Personally, I like the new name a little better.  Kingdom Tower was fine, and I think the idea of it sounding too much like a Jehovah’s Witness church is just ridiculous.  But it didn’t fit such a modern design.  Kingdom Tower should be something that looks more like a castle than a suburbia office building.  But at the same time, Bay Lake Tower sounds more like a retirement community in Coral Gables than a resort at Walt Disney World.  At least that name doesn’t seem counterintuitive the theme of the building. 

What’s in a name?  Everything is in a name.  Think of how perfect nearly every name Disney uses at their resorts fits the theme.  This would be the first one that didn’t accomplish this.  However, until I see more concrete plans for the décor and theme of this new project I can’t really make much of a suggestion.

By the way, the photos that you see here were taken by me late last week.  This project appears to be moving along fairly quickly.