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[Martin B]

Wow! A real improvement indeed!!

Might just go and update my booking for February!!

[MrsPirate]

Love it, such an improvement on the tired and dated rooms. I will certainly consider staying there again.

[Martyn]

I'm really liking what they're doing to the hotels. The characters in the the banners are cute, and subtle, perfectly done Disney.

I've really liked the look of the NBC, but this looks grand, keep up the good work!

[-breeno-]

Hm I don´t like it that much. Liked more the bite elaborated style of newport bay and so for the rooms. Love the corridors. But this portholes are a bit too much. I loved the not so heavy bambi touches at SL. This room is a bit tooo much characters for me. I want to be in new england. Not in a comic stripe.

So what I like:

The new carpet
The new pillows
The new blankets
The style of the chairs
The idea of suitcase boards (but this variation is to much toon for me)
The bathroom

I think the rooms lost everything of the old imagineering idea. It´s a bit like the cars theme at  SF.  :?

Completely agree with you Riebi.  I've never really been a big fan of most cartoon/Disney character elements in the hotels, I can understand why they do it but for me it cheapens the high quality of theming just a bit.  I can also see why some may say that it's a Disney Park so you should expect Disney but when you look a little further, some of DLP's (and all Disney Parks in general) finest elements don't contain any Disney movie references at all.  The likes of Phantom Manor, Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Le Visionarium all are (or were) original imagineering and didn't have to rely on the popular Disney faces to attract guests.  I always liked to see the Disney hotels taking a similar approach, Disney characters is great as meet n greets in the hotels, but part of the  furnishing?  Not for me sadly.

[Thaliel]

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, a table with mirror and small drawers. LIKE!

[Riebi]

Completely agree with you Riebi.  I've never really been a big fan of most cartoon/Disney character elements in the hotels, I can understand why they do it but for me it cheapens the high quality of theming just a bit.  I can also see why some may say that it's a Disney Park so you should expect Disney but when you look a little further, some of DLP's (and all Disney Parks in general) finest elements don't contain any Disney movie references at all.  The likes of Phantom Manor, Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Le Visionarium all are (or were) original imagineering and didn't have to rely on the popular Disney faces to attract guests.  I always liked to see the Disney hotels taking a similar approach, Disney characters is great as meet n greets in the hotels, but part of the  furnishing?  Not for me sadly.

That´s exactly my point of view. Disney never was about characters. It was about story. Why have there everywhere to be characters? The idea behind the hotels was to travel to diffrent regions of america. Not to the real ones but to a perfect wonderful themed idea of this regions.

The better story isn´t a character wallpaper. The best story is to make an enviroment that themed, that you even would be disapointed by the original part of the world.

In the same way we don´t see the disney villains at phantom manor and the funny crew from "Home on the Range" at big thunder mountain. And if we rethink it...well that´s quiet the thing we love about disney imagineering. They make something new. Not something character based.

I´m not completly again this characters in hotels. With a much calmer appearance in the rooms it would be OK with me. As I said the Bambi theme for SL is very calm and it gives the hotel some nice touches without giving it another theme.

The NPBC rooms are for me too much of a fab 5 on a sea cruiser cartoon. And a bad one.  :?
At NPBC we simply aren´t at a cartoonish "The Art of Disney Animation" resort. We are at a new england seaside resort (by the way with a big conference center for dlp business guests)

The point is: More fantasy doesn´t mean more disney characters for me. It means more disney. And that means more magic and a deep imagineering "characterless" look on it. Escaping from the real world is for me not escaping in a cartoon...and by the way: In this times the better theme would be Duffy the Disney Bear for Newport Bay. Cause it´s their nautic around the world sea bear. Wouldn´t that be great?  :mrgreen:


It´s a bit like Disney Aulani would be just about lilo and stitch. But it isn´t...

[Soap]

Nicely said Riebi  :thumbs:

[dagobert]

Well said Riebi! I couldn't agree with you more.

The new rooms look nice, except for the character port holes and the shower curtain. It amazes me that Disney still uses shower curtains. You hardly find them anymore in hotels these days. I don't like them and honestly nowadays I expect glass instead of curtains in hotels of that category. I had to stay in 13 different hotels over the last two years and none of them had shower curtains.

[isani]

Disney never was about characters. It was about story. Why have there everywhere to be characters?

I think it's pretty clear why the characters are everywhere. It's the one thing Disney can do to make their properties more attractive to consumers without spending all that much extra money or effort. If you ask people with kids if they would rather stay at the Cars Hotel or the Abstract Representations of Icons of New Mexico Hotel, the former is a much easier sell.

Many people here have said that the overuse of characters is a loss for imagination, and I agree. I'd also like to argue that it diminishes the characters themselves. Instead of being actual characters with personalities and stories, they become images that can simply be pasted anywhere.

This is why I dislike the Disney Princess franchise, for example. The characters have become pieces of clipart, devoid of story. It's as if all the Princesses have left their respective Princes and taken on careers as runway models.

I think Mickey suffers from this phenomenon as well. If you go see old Disney cartoons at Videopolis, you'll see Mickey making mischief, wooing Minney, chasing Ghosts, fighting giant bugs... Elsewhere in the parks, you'll see him smile, wave and say "Gosh, gee!" a lot. He doesn't get to do things, he's just there to introduce shows and pose in photos.

[ed-uk]

But my point is we're booking a holiday at a Disney Resort, I know the hotels are themed to different parts of America and I like the hotels and always stay with Disney. But  people are buying into a Disney experience, and for some families that is about the characters, for others it's about the rides and Jules Verne themeing in Discoveryland, for me it all belongs.
In the parks there's a mixture, Phantom Manor, Pirates (my favourite ride) and Space Mountain don't feature Disney characters, but other rides do like Snow White and Peter Pan. Disney Dreams, which I think is an amazing show  full of Disney cartoon characters, so is Fantillusion, Disney Magic on parade and the Tarzan Encounter. Main Street doesn't need characters but at the top of the street there's a fairytale castle based on the classic Disney Cartoon Sleeping Beauty.
So people go to Disney for Disney Entertainment, the rides, the shows and the characters. Then to say that the characters should play no part in the hotels because they cheapen the high quality themeing, I don't agree with that.
Walt Disney was a cartoonist, he created many of these characters and he had more to do with Mickey Mouse and Pluto than TOT.  Disney has always been about films, live action, cartoons, cartoon characters, he invented the cartoon character and introduced them into Disneyland in the first place.
i can credit him for inventing the cartoon character, but not for inventing the theme park and roller coaster ride.
And just to add Disney knows what sell, and Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh sell.

[dagobert]

I get your point, Ed!!

I have no problems with characters, but during the last twenty years the theming was fine at the hotels and no one complained. And suddenly they start adding characters to all things. When it's done subtle, like on the Cruise Ships, at the DLH or at SL, I don't have a problem with that. Until recently nearly no Disney hotel around the globe featured so many characters.

Of course people want to meet the characters. Honestly I'm not an exception, but you can't tell me that BTM, POTC, SM, PM or TOT aren't 100% Disney, because they don't have a character connection. The same goes for many Disney rides and hotels around the globe. Creating great stories was always Disney's strength and even Walt Disney considered this as the reason for the big success. In my opinion it needs a balance between character based rides and original attractions. That's why I think Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Manor at HKDL don't use characters, because the rest of the park is heavily based on them.

[ed-uk]

And Disney don't use characters in Buena Vista Street at DCA in Cars Land they do. Walt Disney did create great stories (WDC still does ) but he told his stories on film and in the theme parks and sometimes Disney bring them together. Pirates and Haunted Mansion became films, the Tree House and Buzz Lightyear started of as films and became theme park attractions. The idea for TOT came from 1950s TV show called The Twilight Zone, originally it had nothing to do with Disney but they built a great ride out of it.

[Riebi]

And now we are entering again the "What would Walt think zone".

For me Walt isn´t a cartoon guy. It´s getting very clear at the walt disney falmily museum. He was the man behind stories. He developed Disneyland without characters in his mind. He just gave them a home at fantasyland - not at the rest of the park. And he was the man behind the wonderful rides like POTC, the haunted mansion or the tiki room. Just cause he loved to develope a story. All without characters. He even created a big city project never built but named EPCOT. That was Walt for me all the years.
And by the way dagobert is absolutly right. Also the new built disney hotels aren´t character heavy. They are high quality resorts with a incredable deep theme.

So the question is for me: Do the disney characters at NPBC develope the story? And I have to say: No. Even Duffy as character at NPBC would develope it better    Let´s pray that they don´t get this idea  [-o<

For the disney hotel: It isn´t the lack of a disney character that is the problem. And this isn´t the cause for people not to visit a hotel. They are very well visited. The figures are great.

But the guests aren´t that happy. Why? Not because they have no mickey bed (or duffy wallpaper). It´s more a quality problem. Started by the rooms that have not the quality of normal european hotels (thanks god they renovate them now). But also the kind of breakfast choices or the whole lake area is something that hasn´t the same quality as 20 years before. And that is why people are complaining. Never heard that someone missed a characters wallpaper.

Hotel Santa Fe had always a special problem. The europeans simply didn´t get the design of it. Pueblo isn´t beautiful without sunshine all the time  :mrgreen:

But have I said what I like at the room:

The new carpet
The new pillows
The new blankets
The style of the chairs
The idea of suitcase boards (but this variation is to much toon for me)
The bathroom

[Josh]

but this hotel is at a Disney resort so there has to be some compromise between fantasy and reality. I put the emphasis on the name Disney and then it all makes sense.

Slapping Disney characters on a wall doesn't add a fantasy element. The fantasy is that this is a fictional yacht club on a fictional harbour. It's the story of the hotel. It's not a replica of a real place. No one is saying they want to pretend they're in a real New England building; we're saying we want to be immersed in the story that the original architect wanted to tell when he designed the hotel. While the new room set-up is great, it loses some of that setting.

Surely people who book a holiday to DLP are buying a Disney holiday, not a really a holiday in New England. They want the full on Disney experience. Walt Disney after whom the resort is named was a cartoonist.

Walt Disney was also an imagineer and a technology geek. The original five lands of the original Disneyland had nothing to do with characters in his films (except Fantasyland). All of those lands tried to immerse you in a particular place based on somewhere. They try to immerse you by being strongly inspired by the architecture and landscapes of these places.  That's also how the hotels work. They are like lands, too. I feel less inclined to say "I'm in New England" when Donald and Goofy are smiling at me through portholes.

As all of us on this side of the debate have said before: the new rooms are great. Just make the character influence more subtle and in a way that compliments the story, and there will be no problem.

It amazes me that Disney still uses shower curtains. You hardly find them anymore in hotels these days. I don't like them and honestly nowadays I expect glass instead of curtains in hotels of that category. I had to stay in 13 different hotels over the last two years and none of them had shower curtains.

Really? That's quite surprising. I've never been to a hotel without them. So they use nothing at all?

[ed-uk]

Disney know what sells and maybe characters in portholes will help them sell rooms. I like the new rooms and feel the use of characters has been subtle in this case.