WDW hotel expansion
It's been a few weeks since Disney announced to the "real" media that they will expand WDW offerings with a luxury (Four Seasons) hotel and a budget section out on Western Beltway (hotels, shops, dining).
The former is likely a play by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the major DLP investors who is probably demanding reciprocation for him propping Disney up (you see, he's part owner of Four Seasons). And yes, there probably is room on property for ultra luxury. Those customers would come to Disney too.
The budget stuff seems to me a blantant attempt to get people paying Disney and not some unnamed hotel for the budget experience. I said as much when I broke the news about Western Way expansion (and this is one of only two things I can really say I beat every single media outlet on). Disney sees the 192 corridor full of cheap hotels and thinks: "gee, how can we get *their* money too". The problem is, the "cheap" experience is NOT the Disney experience. On the whole, this one is probably bad news. As always, I withhold full judgment until I actually see it, but that doesn't prevent me from guessing. Let's just say my guesses are not as yet very positive.
The former is likely a play by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the major DLP investors who is probably demanding reciprocation for him propping Disney up (you see, he's part owner of Four Seasons). And yes, there probably is room on property for ultra luxury. Those customers would come to Disney too.
The budget stuff seems to me a blantant attempt to get people paying Disney and not some unnamed hotel for the budget experience. I said as much when I broke the news about Western Way expansion (and this is one of only two things I can really say I beat every single media outlet on). Disney sees the 192 corridor full of cheap hotels and thinks: "gee, how can we get *their* money too". The problem is, the "cheap" experience is NOT the Disney experience. On the whole, this one is probably bad news. As always, I withhold full judgment until I actually see it, but that doesn't prevent me from guessing. Let's just say my guesses are not as yet very positive.
posted by Kevin Yee at 8:20 AM
1 Comments:
Kevin, I am curious as to How Low Can They Go? $49 a night. Wow! There is no way I would want to tie my companies reputation to a level of quality that $49 is going to have to deal out. Disney is not happy with the level of offerings it gives (actually paid for dearly buy us) at it's much more expensive on site offerings so much so that they want to CUT services by true cast members and go with nothing to lose contracted service providers.
So here is my take after hearing rumours from or friendly Cast Members at some of our favorite resorts.
Disney want to go with a totally automated checkin system. You get a package in the mail with your itinerary and bar codes for the steps that will have to be taken once you arrive at your resort. You pull into the resort and flash your "ON PROPERTY CARD" and you get a print out of where you park your vehicle. Next you drag your bags to the lobby where you are greeted by a warm and friendly bank of checkin screens (like at the airport or new automated checkout stations at the big box stores). You then scan your "ROOM ASSIGNMENT CARD" you are then next asked to punch in you credit card that you wish to pay with and the amount you would like to be added to your "ROOM KEY/PARK PASS". Your newly printed room card/park pass is spit out and you are ready for your vacation. You drag your bags to your room which you find on your own and settle in to a room that is about 275sq ft.
Thats it! No frills. No human interaction. Kind of like self service gas with a credit card or how about a self storage facility with a card reader.
I'm all warm and fuzzy!
I don't know. Maybe there are folks that don't care about the magic and just want to get a cheap room and go to the big amusment parks. I hope that it doesn't catch on and start to become the norm and move to the established resorts on property.
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