Tucked away behind the trees you will see a Resort Disney has been hiding for quite some time. I have actually walked as close to the Resort as I could to see what I could, boring brown buildings, perfectly unused buildings, scary looking buildings! Why are they just sitting there I continued to ask myself!
I was so happy when I learned that these buildings reportedly will open in 2012 as Disney’s Art of Animation Resort Hotel! This resort will include 4 themed areas based on popular Disney movies: Finding Nemo, Cars, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King. Of course, I have not seen these themes, but believe they will be akin to those found in the All Stars Movies Resort. The Little Mermaid buildings will include 864 themed traditional style rooms. The remaining themed rooms will include 1120 family suites that will be similar to those found in the All Stars Music, as reviewed in a previous post.
The new resort will be in the ESPN Wide World of Sports or Hollywood Studios area. It will be Disney World’s fifth value resort.
Many are excited about the Resort for the additional suites in Disney World. Others just want to see the new themed pools! What about this new Resort excites you? As additional information comes available, I will let you know the details!
Contributed by: Natalie H. (NDM #268). Natalie is the Disney Driven Life’s resident resort expert and creator of Meet the Magic!
Natalie grew up in Nashville, TN. Married with one son, she lives on a farm. As if this weren’t enough to keep her on her toes, Natalie also works around the clock due to being self-employed .
Natalie often travels to both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, giving her a vast knowledge of the Disney Resorts which she shares in her posts on The Disney Driven Life. She loves the research on the resorts and appreciates input for these articles as well.
In recent trips, Natalie has begun making a habit of meeting people while in the parks. This habit inspired her personal website, Meet the Magic, http://meetthemagic.com. This site helps her connect to others as well as hold space for Disney fans to post information about their Disney related sites. Her goal with this venture is to help people to “Meet the Magic” of their choice.
When we visited WDW last December our room in the 70’s building overlooked the site that they will be using for this new resort. One morning while we were getting ready to leave I was standing looking out at them and mentioned to my husband how sad it was. He inquired as to what I meant by that and I told him that they weren’t just unused buildings – but that they held so much potential to make people happy – those empty buildings were unused “magic” – and it just felt sad. Which is why I am ever so pleased to hear that those buildings will be utilized and I will work my hardest to stay there on our next trip – to experience the unused magic that Disney is going to put on for us!
I completely agree with you. They just looked so very sad. I just stayed at the Pop and saw that they are still boring looking. I had rather hoped that I would see some significant changes to the exterior. Maybe in December they would have changed!
The new resort will be in the ESPN Wide World of Sports or Hollywood Studios area. It will be Disney World’s fifth value resort.