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[15MagicalYears]

The rooms are an improvement. I'm loving the look of the new bathrooms.

[Patrick89]

Also, it might be worth reading this:
http://www.designingdisney.com/content/ ... l-santa-fe

I've already read about this background story of Santa Fe, somewhere else. Of course the architect was trying to make the hotel something special. Nevertheless, I think there are too many different aspects to make it comprehensible. I've also wandered through all the trails and I was really admiring all the thoughts the architect made when constructing Sante Fe. But still, even if there was a complex story, I never really liked the hotel, not as much as the other Disney hotels. Maybe it would have been better to focus on less aspects, I don't know. In my opinion the architect had a lot of good ideas, but couldn't realize them in a good outcome.

[lorrig]

In my honest opinion, I think these rooms are pretty dire. The beds and room look small and the entrance looks like very cheap 2 star accomodation. The bathrooms do look bright and clean, but why in this day and age do Disney still insist on plastic shower curtains. They are ugly and not particularly hygienic and I would imagine they would need replacing quite frequently - or I hope they would.
I read through the designing disney article and really do feel that it was just the wrong concept for Paris. What might look good in the bright sunlight in America just doesn't look good in Europe, especially in dull, wet conditions. It just ends up looking like concrete block accomodation you would expect to find somewhere like Russia.
I would, time after time, rather stay somewhere like the Dream Castle than the Santa Fe. It's not that much further away. It's clean, comfortable and pretty to look at.
Most people only come here due to it being the cheapest DLP property and because so many companys use it for their package tours.

[pussinboots]

I've always had a soft spot for old Santa Fe. I suppose that, in order to appreciate the theme, you have to be familiar with and have an affinity for American highway culture. If you can't or don't want to see how accurate some of it is and embrace that rickety motel sign with a sense of humor, then yes, I can imagine how you'd rather be at the Cheyenne where the theme conveniently jumps in your face and announces itself.

I think it's wonderful at night with all that blinking neon. Neon is mid-century America in a nutshell, and like brown paper lunch bags or black Bakelite telephones, the more obsolete it gets, the more you start to appreciate it on the rare instance you encounter it. I think it's very obvious that Mr Predock designed something he knew like the back of his hand. It feels strangely authentic.

But... Slap Pixar all around the place and yes, then suddenly all of that crumbles away and the hotel becomes a worthless bunch of concrete boxes.

(Inside the rooms, that's a different story, of course.)

[DutchBrit]

I suppose that, in order to appreciate the theme, you have to be familiar with and have an affinity for American highway culture.

Which was always going to be a rather big ask in Europe. A theme has to work in it's environment and with it's audience. So having a desert-style building in a place that gets a lot of grey, cold weather is a mis-fit and if people have little affection for the theme, then that all becomes glaringly obvious.

So if they don't want to knock it down and start again, they have to give it something that people DO have affection for.  I think Cars is about a good a fit as was possible.

[ed-uk]

The point about the hotels for me is that they all have their own theme and atmosphere, staying at the hotel New York offers a different experience to the Santa Fe or the Cheyenne, for example. No doubt we all have our favourite hotels like we have our favourite rides. The Santa Fe almost feels like a world away from the NPBC or the Disneyland hotel. So for Disney to come up with 6 very different themed hotel experiences within 20 mins walking distance from each other is good. We've stayed at the SL the most, for some people it will be the Disneyland hotel or the Santa Fe. The Santa Fe is in the style of a pueblo Indian village which could be found in the very hot and dry climate of New Mexico, and as others have said  the cold, grey and harsh winters of northern Europe don't suit it as well.

[pussinboots]

I suppose that, in order to appreciate the theme, you have to be familiar with and have an affinity for American highway culture.

Which was always going to be a rather big ask in Europe. A theme has to work in it's environment and with it's audience. So having a desert-style building in a place that gets a lot of grey, cold weather is a mis-fit and if people have little affection for the theme, then that all becomes glaringly obvious.

So if they don't want to knock it down and start again, they have to give it something that people DO have affection for.  I think Cars is about a good a fit as was possible.

Well, they could have delved deep into Route 66 history and come up with better visual solutions themselves, but fine, this must have been a bit quicker for them. *sarcasm*

[DutchBrit]

Well, they could have delved deep into Route 66 history and come up with better visual solutions themselves, but fine, this must have been a bit quicker for them. *sarcasm*

Why stick with a theme that isn't working? Going deeper into Route 66 is hardly going to help when most people didn't care about the 'lighter' version of Route 66/Mexican motel!

Radiator Springs was supposed to BE on Route 66. It's a run-down place with old neon. And it is very-well known and very well liked. So yes, I guess it was a pretty easy decision. That's a good thing when it's going to be a largely popular choice, and the not costing all that much in cash or effort is also pretty damned good business.

[pussinboots]

Radiator Springs is also a place where everybody is a car. It takes a heck of a lot more imagination to make that work than it does to imagine that it's sunny.

And it is actually sunny for a few months of the year. There is no season in which everybody is a car.

I think they could have taken Predock's hotel and made it work, but painting Pixar silhouette friezes all over and replacing Clint Eastwood with an image that toddlers all over the world have on their school supplies and alarm clocks is too easy, and ultimately destructive.

[ed-uk]

But toddlers go to DLP. Parents may get alot of pleasure from watching their children having fun in a Disney Cars themed hotel, even if it wasn't the original idea behind the Santa Fe. I suppose Disney's Cars means more to most people than a pueblo village on the banks of the Rio Grande. But as you say, Cars is a fantasy film where everybody is a car, and I doubt that the Santa Fe will ever look like Radiator Springs out of the film. To really judge we must wait and see the finished results. I don't know how Disney could have made Predock's original hotel work any better than it already did.

[littlemermaid83]

The rooms still look the same except I like what they have done in the bathroom with the mirror.

[Patrick89]

But toddlers go to DLP. Parents may get alot of pleasure from watching their children having fun in a Disney Cars themed hotel, even if it wasn't the original idea behind the Santa Fe.

But again the question: Why is everything concerned DLP reduced to children? Why does everything has to be focussed on children's interests? There are also other visitors. Not everything has to be matched childrens interests. Maybe families with toddlers are the majority at the moment, but it's all a matter of advertisement. I always wonder why they are focusing all their commercials on just this particular group. How should other visitors be attracted by that? Especially a company with huge depts should go after every possible visitor in my opinion. But the recent proceeding of Disney is concerned with only a part of the population - can they really do without other sources of income?

[ed-uk]

I wouldn't say everything at DLP is focused on childrens interests. Alot of adults probably enjoy the Cars films and animation. I know some people think that toons shouldn't step out of fantasyland, but they're popular with guests in the hotels. The characters and the films are very important to Disney. Adults know it's DLP, and that the hotel Santa Fe isn't really a pueblo village on route 66 in New Mexico, even if we're ment to think it is, and they will know it's not Radiator Springs.

[DutchBrit]

But again the question: Why is everything concerned DLP reduced to children? Why does everything has to be focussed on children's interests? There are also other visitors.

The children very rarely go on their own. They tend to bring parents and grandparents with them. Generally you are going to get a bigger group when children are part of it than you will when only adults are involved.

And I'd say that families are certainly by far the biggest users of the Santa Fe.

[pussinboots]

That is missing the point entirely.

The truth is that people like Walt Disney, Michael Eisner, Mary Blair and, oh, Robert A.M. Stern really only did what they wanted for themselves. Disney works best when its creative decisions are made by eccentric grown men and women who border on autism spectrum disorders but are incredibly driven to turn the twinkles in their eyes into multi-million-dollar projects. Children, especially those who are budding eccentric grown men and women, tend to take to this as a kind of magical side effect. Disney is at its worst when its creative decisions are made by sensible adults who think they can figure out what kids like. Disney is at its worst when it thinks that its Home Depot line of children's wallpaper would make a decent addition to a hotel.