Official Disney resorts are immaculate triumphs in theming. What’s odd about them is that many aren’t very Disney. What I mean is that when you enter the lobby of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, you feel like you’re transported to the South Seas. At Disney’s Beach Club Resort, the sand under your toes persuades you that you’re spending the day at the beach. Where is Mickey Mouse in all of this, though?
The truth is that Disney doesn’t construct hotels inspired by Disney characters as a rule. The notable exceptions are international locales. It’s an understandable decision but one that bums out those of us who are Disney fans. Here’s a list of the American Disney resorts that are the most Disney-like. Its contents may surprise you.
The criteria
Image: DisneyThis list required an exhaustive amount of research. I looked at countless hours of hotel videos and photographs to guarantee that I knew the most important Disney elements of every official resort. In evaluating the properties, I’ve locked in on the ones that emphasize Disney characters and films.
Yes, every hotel has Hidden Mickeys and various other ties to all of your favorites. Most of them are subliminal, though. This list is about the ones that you don’t have to be a Disney diehard to notice. The only other rule is that the resorts have to be in the United States. Otherwise, Toy Story Hotel at Shanghai Disneyland would be the runaway winner. It’s the only Disney resort thus far that’s 100 percent Disney-themed. Star Wars Hotel will join it in a couple of years, though.
8. Disney’s All-Star Music Resort
Image: DisneyYou should notice a trend throughout these rankings. For whatever reason, Disney’s most expensive resorts are the least Disney in structure. The company wanted to mimic some of the most famous vacation destinations in the world. To achieve their goal, they hid the Mickeys, as it were.
The oddity is that the Value Tier resorts are all about Disney characters. Presumably, the difference is that these hotels tend to skew younger, with lots of traveling groups and starter families visiting. So, Disney leaves comfortable imagery up for them. When you enter All-Star Music, it’s not exactly brimming with Disney aspects. Music artists and jazz symbols decorate the walls, but there is a giant Mickey Mouse headphone arch on display.
At the pool, the Three Caballeros are the (artificial) house band playing the tunes. It’s not much by way of theming, but it’s not enough to qualify. Its presence demonstrates just how little of Disney’s core intellectual properties are on display at their hotels.
7. Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Image: DisneyThe only true Disney characters on display at the Contemporary are the ones playing on a movie screen in a nook in the lobby. Its presence is to work as a distraction for kids while their parents check into the hotel. Other than that, the closest thing is the famous Mary Blair wall treatment on the fourth floor, but it doesn’t feature Disney characters.
Why have I listed the Contemporary? The monorail travels directly through the fourth level concourse. And guests staying on higher levels of the hotel do have a view of some Disney characters. Specifically, Chef Mickey’s has a Mickey Mouse sign and characters roaming the restaurant during operating hours. No, it’s not much, but it’s more than most Disney resorts have. Plus, the monorail is as closely associated with Disney as anything short of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
6. Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Image: DisneyOut of all the Deluxe Tier hotels at Walt Disney World, only two have even the slightest connection to Disney character theming. And one of these is hidden in plain sight. Oh, and it’s a fairly recent addition, too.
When Disney added Disney Vacation Club villas to the Grand Floridian, they built a new lobby. The centerpiece of this lobby is a fountain, one themed after a Disney classic. The penguins from Mary Poppins frolic happily in this fountain, and people tend to smile when they see it. Since the villa building houses only about 100 rooms, however, it’s a very small part of the hotel, a lobby that regular guests must go out of the way to notice.
I give the Grand Floridian bonus points for one other overt Disney connection. The live jazz band that often plays in the lobby here, the Grand Floridian Society Orchestra, embraces classic Disney music. Their sets are largely comprised of Disney favorites. When you enter the main lobby, you will usually hear something that reminds you of Disney movies, even if you don’t see anything. So, that’s something.
5. Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort
Image: DisneyOkay, now we’re starting to do a bit better. The lobby is this resort is almost identical to All-Star Music, with athletes replacing musicians on the walls. The rest of the campus has several recognizable Disney characters, though. Donald Duck angrily plays tennis, Goofy fires oversized baseballs out of a cannon-like pitching machine, and the baby ducks take a few swings in the batter’s box.
Disney hosts a slew of athletic competitions at the ESPN Wide World of Sports facility. Many of the guests at these tournaments stay at All-Star Sports. They’ll always know where they’re staying because this is truly the first of the resorts listed here that celebrates the true nature of Disney. Yes, there are only five such official hotels in my estimation and, yes, Disney needs to do better.
4. Disney’s Pop Century Resort
Image: DisneyPop Century Resort almost seems like the Toy Story Hotel of Walt Disney World. It’s just that the toys here aren’t characters from the movie. Instead, it’s a list of the various entertainment items and technologies that people have loved over the past 50 years. The lobby has everything from flip phones to 1950s malt shop images. It is all things pop culture, and that philosophy permeates throughout the campus.
Disney characters are on full display, though. The 1950s area is more than just malt shops. A classic 1950s film, Lady and the Tramp, is omnipresent in this section. A statue of Lady even looks down on a doghouse where some of her puppies sleep. The Tramp mirrors her by standing in a protective position, albeit while looking quite content. Fatherhood suits him.
The 1960s section is all about the Jungle Hunt, with a giant statue of Baloo and towering over his young human friends. Computers and Play-Doh are the epicenter of other areas, but a Mickey Phone will warm the hearts of Disney fans of a certain age, as well. And Roger Rabbit even appears in the 1980s section. Pop Century is delightfully Disney…but it’s only the third-best Value Tier resort for Disney theming.
3. Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
Image: DisneyYour first instinct in evaluating the Disney elements of the lobby of All-Star Movies likely isn’t a positive one. You may feel as if the designers slapped a bunch of movie characters on the walls and figured that they’d done their job. Like the other All-Star resorts listed here, the lobby is fairly generic. Once you walk the grounds, however, you’ll get a much fuller picture of the Disney celebration on display here.
The most recognizable feature is the Fantasia Pool right in front of the Cinema Hall lobby. Sorcerer Mickey shoots streams of water into this pool, while the dancing brooms fittingly carry buckets of water. The hotel buildings have themes such as Herbie the Love Bug, Toy Story, and 101 Dalmatians. Given the hotel’s theme, it’s almost a cheat to grade it against the other titles listed thus far, but All-Star Movies embraces Disney characters far more than other All-Star resorts.
2. Disneyland Hotel
Image: DisneyWalt Disney didn’t build Disneyland Hotel. An unassociated entrepreneur named Jack Wrather did. And The Walt Disney Company wouldn’t own the property for roughly 30 years. Once they gained control of it, however, Disney executives moved quickly to establish the identity of Disneyland Hotel. It’s unmistakably the most Disney-riffic of the three company-operated resorts at the Happiest Place on Earth.
The Disney elements on display at this resort aren’t characters or movies, though. Instead, they’re Disney theme park attractions. Some of the seats are modeled after the tea cups in Mad Tea Party. A gigantic diorama of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is the centerpiece of a different lobby. And a giant map of Disneyland Map is framed on the wall. This hotel is unmistakably proud of its heritage straight down to the hotel pool slides styled after classic monorails. You’ll never wonder whether you’re on a Disney vacation when you stay here.
1. Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
Image: DisneyWhat I suspect that you’ve realized today is that Disney needs to do more to connect its movies and characters with its hotel designs. They’ve consciously avoided doing so for the most part. None of us could argue with the results, as hotel occupancy hovers in the 90 percent range most quarters. For those of us who are Disney fanatics, however, the lack of Mickey Mouse and co. is a disappointment.
Disney’s Art of Animation Resort is the huge exception to this issue, though. When Disney themed this hotel, they mined their catalog of intellectual properties. Films like Cars, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, and The Little Mermaid have a strong presence here. And the lobby of the hotel connects the dots to numerous other Disney classics. Guests can examine lithographs of their favorite animated films, as these cels adorn the walls of the hotel. It’s the one Disney hotel in America that truly feels like a collection of Disney’s greatest hits. And we need more like it.
