Potential New Resort: Disney's Animation Inn & Suites

Walt Disney Imagineering has recently filed construction permits to build a model room for a project titled "Disney's Animation Inn & Suites".

A notice of commencement has been filed with the General Description of the Improvements listed as, "Construction of 2,500 square foot model room (inside existing Commercial Building)" and the Description of Property listed as "Section: 21, Township: 22 S, Range: 26E (Legal Description)-Disney's Animation Inn & Suites". A second permit has been filed for the same Description of Property with the General Description of Improvements listed as, "Construction of mock-up wall panel, incl. hat channel, sheathing, lath, stucco, paint".

Although various rumours are now circulating as toward the overall plans for this model room, the only concrete information at this point is that the Walt Disney World resort is planning to build a model room in an existing structure that will serve as a test unit for a project with the tentative name of "Disney's Animation Inn & Suites".

Rumour wise, the most credible rumour floating around is that this potential project could replace the formerly planned Legendary Years section of the Pop Century Resort.

Further updates or developments will be posted to this thread.

That is very exciting! Thanks for the news! :number1:

Sounds like a great idea for the other side of Pop Century.

I hope they don't end up changing the theme to the other side of the Pop Century resort, we were really looking forward to the cool stuff those decades would showcase.

It makes good sense that this could be at POP.
. . . family suites at AS sell out quickly, and without discounting
. . . POP needs family suites
. . . easier to re-do an unfinished resort than rehab existing rooms

I would love to see them finish the other section of Pop no matter what they do there since it will be much nicer looking at a finished resort than the ghostly empty buildings. It sounds like a cool idea :thumbsup:

My only hope is that it will be offered to everyone not just as a DVC option.

Fingers crossed . . . .

If it is true about the Animation Inn going where the Pop Century Legendary Years was going to go, I guess they decided theming to years that old would not have mass appeal.

There was also a rumor about the Animation Inn being a Moderate level resort. Granted, it was from Jim Hill.

That brings me to another question. JHM claims that the All Stars have a higher occupancy rate than Pop Century. Weeeeelllll, if that is true, why do I always have trouble getting a room at Pop, but am usually told, we have the All Stars available... Sounds like another highly accurate post by Jim Hill...;)

:sulley:

I'm going to guess that this is...in fact....where they're going with the POP segment unfinished...

but i bet it goes further....

POP has now been open for 5 years,....by the time anything gets off the ground...it will probably be more like 8....

I think the whole pop complex gets the overhaul....and they may...in fact....do tiered pricing to create a moderate/value hybrid.

That would be in their best interests going forward......and would create more flexible space in busier times and down times


I was at CBR during most of POP's construction....and it never seemed liked the theme would work.....never seemed like the Disney people working on it were convinced.....

Another Eisnerian shaky decision.....

they might just go ahead and make it more brand oriented.....as that never gets old to guests in orlando....unlike fussball and the rubic's cube

And then again, if it is like so many other things that big companies do, this may not ever amount to anything at all. I know that many folks will comment about how expensive it is to build a mock up and then not go ahead with the project, but in the whole scheme of how much Disney spends in a year, the cost of a room mock up is negligible.

Don't get me wrong, I would like to see this happen as much as anyone, but until I see an official announcement I am going to hold off having any celebration!

An awful lot of people, me included, much prefer Pop to the All Stars. There is nothing wrong with the theming, other than the fact that's it's half a century.

It would seem to me to be a silly investment to retheme a resort that is very in demand. Like I said earlier, I've been told numerous times, "Pop is completely sold out, but we have rooms at All Star Sports and All Star Movies..." I just don't see where they're not successful. I could see using ther Animation theme for the other side of the lake, at which time it would be it's own resort. I hope it is a value resort, because althoug I've been told All Stars are available sometimes when Pop isn 't, I've also been told that no values are available.

:sulley:

Interesting! I'm excited to see how this plays out - hopefully whatever it is will be in my price range! If it does happen to be a finishing or retheming of POP, I think that would be great. I would be very angry if I had to stare at the unfinished buildings across the lake, even if I did pay a rock-bottom price.

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Originally Posted by big blue and hairy

An awful lot of people, me included, much prefer Pop to the All Stars. There is nothing wrong with the theming, other than the fact that's it's half a century.

It would seem to me to be a silly investment to retheme a resort that is very in demand. Like I said earlier, I've been told numerous times, "Pop is completely sold out, but we have rooms at All Star Sports and All Star Movies..." I just don't see where they're not successful. I could see using ther Animation theme for the other side of the lake, at which time it would be it's own resort. I hope it is a value resort, because althoug I've been told All Stars are available sometimes when Pop isn 't, I've also been told that no values are available.

:sulley:

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it's not to say that POP has been a failure....it's been good...i've stayed there a few times and enjoyed it....

But if one thing can be determined about the way things have been moving with Iger and Lassetter calling the shots....it's that characters are good.

After 35 years and all kinds of development.....they still don't have a 'disney" place to take the kids and stay....
They skirt around it....afraid not to turn anyone off.....but at some point....they'll just do it.

This could be it....

or it could be nothing, as others have rightly pointed out.


As far as POP being "more in deman"...i can give you a couple of possible explanations:

1. It's newer than All stars.....typically people will book newer hotels out of habit.
2. It's "closer" as deemed by the Weblic.....such as this board.
There has been a conscious 15 year campaign to paint AKL, Coronado, and All Stars as being located in far out, Disney purgatory....
That has had a cumulative effect on the "demand" for those locations

I've stayed at Pop a couple times and it's always felt like a Motel 6 to me.

Anything they can do to blow that out and upgrade it would be fine with me.

Sounds cool! Thanks Jason! :thumbsup: :mickey:

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Originally Posted by JPL

I would love to see them finish the other section of Pop no matter what they do there since it will be much nicer looking at a finished resort than the ghostly empty buildings. It sounds like a cool idea :thumbsup:

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I totally agree. :)

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Originally Posted by lockedoutlogic

it's not to say that POP has been a failure....it's been good...i've stayed there a few times and enjoyed it....

But if one thing can be determined about the way things have been moving with Iger and Lassetter calling the shots....it's that characters are good.

After 35 years and all kinds of development.....they still don't have a 'disney" place to take the kids and stay....
They skirt around it....afraid not to turn anyone off.....but at some point....they'll just do it.

This could be it....

or it could be nothing, as others have rightly pointed out.


As far as POP being "more in deman"...i can give you a couple of possible explanations:

1. It's newer than All stars.....typically people will book newer hotels out of habit.
2. It's "closer" as deemed by the Weblic.....such as this board.
There has been a conscious 15 year campaign to paint AKL, Coronado, and All Stars as being located in far out, Disney purgatory....
That has had a cumulative effect on the "demand" for those locations

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For whatever reason, it seems to be more in demand. I can give you reasons why I prefer Pop over the All Stars. The decor is better, being four floors instead of three it's not as spread out for the amount of rooms, the food court and store are much nicer. All of that is opinion, of course, my point is just that I think it would be a foolish investment (unless it's a smaller investment that I realize) to re-do Pop. Putting the Animation Inn across the lake is certainly a cool idea. I just don't think they'd tear up the existing resort.

:sulley:

It doesnt surprise me that this would take over the lengendary years. They will have to be careful to style it somewhat different than the movies resorts. I think with the economy the way it is, the values are becoming more and more popular and probably necessary.

It sounds like a pretty cool theme to me! :thumbsup:

Another positive about this I just thought of... If Animation Inn happens over ther and it's value, most people will want to stay at the new resort, and I can get a FREAKIN' ROOM AT POP. ;)

:sulley:

I think planning anything for the other half of Pop Century is better than leaving the buildings the way they are now.

Sounds interesting. If it were to go in at Pop Century, they sort of already have that type of theming at All-Star Movies.

And it would make sense for them to make more of this type of theme since ASMovies is the one that is always sold out first.

We have usually stayed at ASMusic because it is less crowded than Movies, and we don't care for the sports themes.

Sports is usually WAY less crowded too.
The nice thing about being in the Music resort, is that when the busses come, we can jump on any of the AllStar busses that are empty, and walk over to our resort.
The short walk is nothing compared to waiting in a huge crowd of people for a long time.

FYI

The thread drift regarding the amenities of the Animal Kingdom Lodge resort have been moved to Amenities of Animal Kingdom Lodge vs Other Deluxe Accommodations for further discussion.

At 17 posts on a different topic, the thread drift was beginning to make this thread hard to read for its original topic.

Thank you

Thank you Jason for the original post and removing the 17 completely unrelated posts.

Having stayed at the All Star Music Family Suites, this seems to be a very good idea to me. We were very impressed with the Suites.
As other have said, anything is better the current pile of concrete across the lake at Pop.

With the closeness of this new resort to Pop, is there a chance that it will share bus transportation with Pop?

Can anybody verify the numbers that Jim Hill floated out there... he said that the All Stars tend to operate at 95% capacity while Pop only operates at 80%. I am just wondering if there any real numbers on that or if he's making it up. The last time we stayed at Pop it was the last week of November/first week of December and it was pretty darn crowded. People were staying in all buildings and lines were crazy. If that's only 80% capacity, I am really afraid of 95%!

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Originally Posted by PirateLover

Can anybody verify the numbers that Jim Hill floated out there... he said that the All Stars tend to operate at 95% capacity while Pop only operates at 80%. I am just wondering if there any real numbers on that or if he's making it up. The last time we stayed at Pop it was the last week of November/first week of December and it was pretty darn crowded. People were staying in all buildings and lines were crazy. If that's only 80% capacity, I am really afraid of 95%!

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Disney doesn't release hotel occupancy figures so there is no real way to verify his numbers.

I love Pop Century and getting something finished across the lake would be great as long as Pop Century is left alone. Plus it would be great to have a new resort just a few steps away to go snoop in!

I must be in a SMALL minority, but I would rather see the other side of Pop Century finished like the original plan, than to completely change around the concept. I think it'd be cool to stay in a resort and be surrounded from themeing from the first 50 years of the 20th century. While an "Animation Inn & Suites" sounds cool, I would rather it come after Pop Century is completed like it was meant to be.

While I am completely against it, I guess anything would be better than just letting the buildings sit there doing nothing.

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Originally Posted by hokies4life

I must be in a SMALL minority, but I would rather see the other side of Pop Century finished like the original plan, than to completely change around the concept. I think it'd be cool to stay in a resort and be surrounded from themeing from the first 50 years of the 20th century. While an "Animation Inn & Suites" sounds cool, I would rather it come after Pop Century is completed like it was meant to be.

While I am completely against it, I guess anything would be better than just letting the buildings sit there doing nothing.

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I agree with you in part. It would be nice to see the Pop concept finished, I'm not as much against it being different as you. At this point, please build something!

:sulley:

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Originally Posted by Ian

I've stayed at Pop a couple times and it's always felt like a Motel 6 to me.

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I have stayed at Pop and I once (Feb 2001) stayed in the Motel 6 out on 192..... not much of a difference between the two.
Oh yeah, the Motel 6 was only $36.00 and the McDonalds was within 100 feet.

POP just has a short fuse theme....in my opinion....

I thought it was cool the first time i stayed there.....then was back a couple years later and it just seemed silly.....

for every 1 person who thinks it's 'really cool'.....

i think many couldn't be turned off more by the theme.....


no facts.....just a strong opinion based on alot of time and study of how disney-ites think....

It sounds really COOL!!! We love the POP and having another resort there to try would be great!!!:mickey:

Next trip: 11/24 thru 12/5 @ the POP
( 9 days to go ):thumbsup:

We were at POP in August, and saw the other POP building across the lake, and they had the numbers on the building already, oo, 10, 20, 30, 40 why would they just change their mind??

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Originally Posted by lockedoutlogic

POP just has a short fuse theme....in my opinion....

I thought it was cool the first time i stayed there.....then was back a couple years later and it just seemed silly.....

for every 1 person who thinks it's 'really cool'.....

i think many couldn't be turned off more by the theme.....


no facts.....just a strong opinion based on alot of time and study of how disney-ites think....

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Well, I wish alll these people who are sick of it would stop booking rooms and eating in the food court. It would make it easier for me to get a room more often.

:sulley:

I've stayed at Pop. It was nice and the themeing was ok but I can't understand why some here think it's so great as compared to the All Stars. Perhaps because they're nostalgic and remember that era as they grew up in it. On the other side of that coin though....the younger generations, who have come of age and are bringing their children to WDW, are not as attracted to the things of their parents' and grandparents' pasts. I think some here fail to recognize that. I just don't see how 1900 - 1940 will be much of a draw to people.

Here's a scenario though. What if they're going to use the legendary years area to create this new resort, animation inn..., and only "re-theme" part of Pop in order to incorperate the entire classic and legendary year themes using the buildings currently designated as the classic years buildings?

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Originally Posted by johnO

I've stayed at Pop. It was nice and the themeing was ok but I can't understand why some here think it's so great as compared to the All Stars. Perhaps because they're nostalgic and remember that era as they grew up in it.

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In my case anyway, that is not the case. I prefer Pop over the All Stars because I like the furniture in the room better, and because I much prefer the food court and store to the All Stars. I will say though, I have not stayed at All Star Music since it has been refurbed, I'm interested to see them in person.

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I just don't see how 1900 - 1940 will be much of a draw to people.

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Could be right, which is why I beleive they built the Classic years first.

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Here's a scenario though. What if they're going to use the legendary years area to create this new resort, animation inn..., and only "re-theme" part of Pop in order to incorperate the entire classic and legendary year themes using the buildings currently designated as the classic years buildings?

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Interesting idea, but I would think just changing out the numbers and icons would be pretty expensive. I wonder if Disney would see it as worth the price? Somebody suggested changing the name to Pop Culture, interesting idea, but I really doubt they'd even do that. Pop seems to be doing pretty well.

:sulley:

I like POP more than Allstars, theming & location wise.
but they do need to do something w the other side of the lake....as long as it doesnt disturb the turtles & wildlife when you walk across the bridge.......
and that it doesnt all become a mod pricing wise

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Originally Posted by Crow

I like POP more than Allstars, theming & location wise.
but they do need to do something w the other side of the lake....as long as it doesnt disturb the turtles & wildlife when you walk across the bridge.......
and that it doesnt all become a mod pricing wise

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And what would that do to the bridge theme? Hard to believe that they would keep 'Generation Gap Bridge' if the "new" resort didn't fit.

I guess we'll all just have to wait and see what actually happens.