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(For the first page of this review of the Holiday Inn Orlando, see this.)

AMENITIES AND DINING AT THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

The Holiday Inn Orlando in the Disney Springs Resort Area has both valet and self-parking.

If you are driving, you will park in the port cochere until you have completed check-in.

Also in this area at the front of the resort is the bus stop.

Details on transportation to the theme parks from the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels are here.

The lobby is just inside–with guest services on the left, and a small seating area on the right.

Around the corner is a couple of desks for airline check in and such, and next to it is a Hertz counter.

Nearby you’ll find a Disney gift shop.

More from the gift shop.

Around the corner is this gym.

Just beyond the lobby you’ll find this bar, which also serves lunch and dinner, and is right next to the pool.

In addition to the indoor seating, the bar has pool-side seats. (I cover the pool at the Holiday Inn Orlando in detail here.)

At the corner of the bar you’ll find this mini-shop with drinks and snacks, supplementing the Disney gift shop.

Back inside, most rooms at the Holiday Inn Orlando are in a tower with an atrium. The elevator bank is in the back corner of this area, and you walk around the dining room to get to it.

The dining room is open for breakfast and dinner. Dinner traffic is pretty light, so I actually ate in the bar.

The menu–I had the burger, and it was fine.

Breakfast is an at-first-glance expensive buffet….

…but kids 11 and under eat free. Note the asterisk–parents need to be eating too, and paying full price.  All the details to the asterisk–which strike me as reasonable– are here.

I’ve also seen a lot of deals for the Holiday inn Orlando fly by that offer free breakfast for everyone.

The breakfast itself is fine but undistinguished. There’s fresh Mickey waffles and an omelet station…

…fresh fruit…

…eggs, potatoes, and, not shown, french toast and pancakes…

…breakfast meats, and the usual cereals, pastries, and such.

The Holiday Inn Orlando in the Disney Springs Resort Area has all the basic amenities you’d expect from a hotel its size.  Dining is undistinguished except by convenience–but there’s a ton of great options in nearby Disney Springs, whose nearest part is about a third of a mile away, and which is served by buses beginning in the late afternoon.

THE POOL AT THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

This review continues here.

MORE ON THE HOLIDAY INN ORLANDO

• Summary and overview
• Photo tour of a standard tower room
• Photo tour of a pool view room
• Dining and amenities 
• The pool 

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 160+ stays in them

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

For the first page of this review of the B Resort & Spa, see this.

AMENITIES AND DINING AT THE B RESORT & SPA

The B Resort & Spa in the Disney Springs Resort Area has both valet and self-parking.

If you are driving, you will park in the port cochere until you have completed check-in.

Also in this area at the front of the resort are some lovely flowers…

…and the bus stop. (Details on transportation to the theme parks from the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels are here.) Note the whimsical seating.

There’s more of that outside–and even more inside.

Inside you will find the interesting and in many ways lovely lobby.  Dead ahead, backed by an image of fireworks, is the check-in desk.

To its side is the concierge service.

There are some particularly interesting seating areas near the lobby.

The lobby lighting is also often worth a second look.

Beyond the front desk area is this small business center.

Near the business center are the principal elevators for the tower (Lanai rooms are served by a different elevator).

There’s another tower elevator, with glass walls, at the very front of the building, with music that I’m quite sure someone will not find annoying, but in recompense some lovely views.

The upper floor elevator lobbies continue with the interesting furnishings…

…and add a carpet full of hidden mickeys.

Back downstairs, to the left of the lobby you will find a Disney gift shop.

The gift shops in the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels all give the appearance of being stocked, run, and staffed by Disney cast members…

…even to having rather familiar bags.

Beyond the gift shop, towards the B Resort’s Lanai building, is a second shop. The Pickup, with more food and drink options…

…including some hot food.

More from inside The Pickup:

The Pickup also has an exterior service window convenient to the B Resort’s pool.

Also outside by the pool is the spa and gym.  (I cover the pool at the B Resort & Spa in detail here.)

At the other end of the first floor is the B Resort & Spa’s full-service restaurant, the American Kitchen Bar & Grill.

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I hear that the Kitchen launched with intentions of becoming destination dining, but with the massive improvements in dining at nearby Disney Springs over the past few years, that’s not on.

The bar.

The dining room.

The dinner menu.

I’ve eaten here a couple of times during my stays at the B Resort & Spa–an interestingly plated steak…

…chicken and waffles…

…a large salad.

I have to like any restaurant that serves its iced tea in a jar, and the American Kitchen is certainly convenient–and a step above what you’ll find at the other smaller Disney Springs Resort Area hotels, like the Doubletree, Holiday Inn, and Best Western. But folks, for dinner, if convenience is not an issue, Disney Springs is the way to go. The nearest part of Disney Springs is a half mile walk away, and the furthest a little more than a mile, but buses run there beginning in the late afternoon.

Menus and more on the American Kitchen are here.

There’s some real charm and grace to the B Resort & Spa’s lobby, especially its decorations and furnishing, and the hotel has all the basic amenities that most would want.

THE POOL AT THE B RESORT & SPA

This review continues here.

MORE ON THE B RESORT & SPA

• Overview and summary
• Photo tour of a B Resort standard tower room 
• Photo tour of a B Resort Lanai pool-view room
• Dining and amenities at the B Resort & Spa
• The pool at the B Resort & Spa

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 160+ stays in them

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

MICKEY AND MINNIE’S RUNWAY RAILWAY AT DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

By Jim Korkis

[Update April 2019: The opening of this ride will be delayed until the spring of 2020–Dave]

On July 15, 2017, it was announced that The Great Movie Ride would be closing, to be replaced with a Mickey Mouse-themed attraction, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.

Imagineering would work with the creative team at Disney Television Animation (Paul Rudish, Joseph Holt and composer Christopher Willis) that is responsible for the new Mickey Mouse cartoons appearing on The Disney Channel since 2013.

(c) Disney

Executive producer and director Paul Rudish said “The immediate inspiration for the new (three and a half minute) Mickey Mouse shorts is — the old Mickey Mouse shorts! The originals were kind of our launching point, to go back to that flavor of Mickey. As long as his personality is intact, Mickey can live and do anything all over the world.”

By the end of Season Five in 2018, the Disney Channel series will total more than 90 shorts, including a special seven-minute extended-length birthday episode airing in late 2018. The twenty-one minute long Duck the Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Special was released in 2016. Chris Diamantopoulos, not Bret Iwan, supplies the voice of Mickey because the producer wanted more of an “edge” to the voice.

For the attraction based on the new Mickey cartoon design and attitude, Imagineer Kevin Rafferty said teams are inventing new technologies that turn the flat world of a colorful cartoon short into a “dimensional display of amazingness” in a process Disney is referring to as “2 ½ D” since no special glasses will be required. Rafferty added, “This is not going to be a small attraction, it’s going to be game-changing.”

Guests enter the Chinese Theater for a premiere of a new Mickey Mouse cartoon short with a new song. In the pre-show, guests see Mickey and Minnie getting ready for a picnic and as they drive out to the location, they pass alongside of a train with Goofy as the engineer.

The attraction puts the guests on that train as they enter the cartoon itself into a “wacky and unpredictable world”. To capture that animation experience, the partners at Disney Television Animation have been supplying much assistance.

Guests will see Mickey and Minnie as full-sized audio-animatronics figures in their car driving alongside the train. A maquette of the classic duo in the car can be seen at the preview of the attraction currently at Walt Disney Presents.

Suddenly guests find themselves in the middle of a stampede followed by a trip to a carnival that ends in being caught up in a twister.

The whirling wind drops everyone into a tropical locale with a large screen and water effects (since the train cars are teetering near the edge of a waterfall). Those cars flush through a drainage pipe into a big city where there is a dance studio run by an audio-animatronics Daisy Duck, who even gets the cars to dance.

Somehow all of this leads to an alleyway with a large factory where Mickey and Minnie must save the guests from a giant furnace before arriving in the park for a picnic where an audio-animatronics Pluto greets the guests. The guests go out through a movie screen to get to the final exit.

The attraction will utilize the same trackless ride technology as The Great Movie Ride, and include an original musical score as well as a theme song that Imagineers hope guests will find “lovable” and keep humming. It was once hoped that this multi-dimensional experience would open in time for Mickey’s 90th birthday celebration this month but it is now scheduled for 2019.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! I’m really looking forward to this ride.  The latest rumors seem to point to a “Fall 2019” opening, but I’m hoping for the summer! Update April 2019: The opening of this ride will be delayed until the spring of 2020.

And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Secret Stories of Mickey Mouse, and his Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: NOVEMBER 3 TO NOVEMBER 11, 2018

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

For more on November at Disney World, see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/3-11/11/18

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-10p 11/3 and 11/4, 9a-4.30p 11/5, 9a-10p 11/6 and 11/7, 9a-6p 11/8 and 11/9, 9a-11p 11/10, and 9a-10p 11/11

Epcot will be open from 9a-10p 11/3, 9a-9p 11/4 through 11/8, 9a-10p 11/9 and 11/10, and 9a-9p 11/11

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-8p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-8p every day

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/3-11/11/18

Saturday 11/3 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Sunday 11/4  Morning: none Evening: Hollywood Studios

Monday 11/5  Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Tuesday 11/6 Morning: Epcot Evening: none

Wednesday 11/7 Morning:  Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Thursday 11/8 Morning: none Evening: Epcot

Friday 11/9 Morning:  Magic Kingdom Evening: none

Saturday 11/10 Morning: none Evening: Magic Kingdom

Sunday 11/11 Morning: Hollywood Studios Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/3-11/11/18

The Magic Kingdom: Afternoon Festival of Fantasy Parade: 2p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/3-11/11/18

Happily Every After at Magic Kingdom: 9p 11/3, 11/4, 11/6, 11/7, 11/10, and 11/11

IllumiNations at Epcot:  10p 11/3; 9p 11/4 through 11/8; 10p 11/9 and 11/10; 9p 11/11

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every night

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8.30p 11/3 through 11/5

Jingle Bell Jingle BAM at DIsney’s Hollywood Studios: 8.30p 11/6 through 11/11

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 7.30p 11/3; 6.30 and 7.45p 11/4 through 11/11

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/3-11/11/18

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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For the first page of this review of the B Resort & Spa, see this.

PHOTO TOUR OF A LANAI BUILDING ROOM AT THE B RESORT & SPA

The B Resort & Spa in the Disney Springs Resort Area has several room types in two buildings–the main tower, and the Lanai building. Most rooms are in the main tower, and I have a photo tour of a B Resort tower room here.

The Lanai building at the B Resort & Spa is a two story wing that encircles the pool at the B Resort. Lanai rooms are available with a king bed, a king and a set of bunk beds, and two queens–as well as suites. There’s about 120 bays in the Lanai building, with fewer keys, as some of these rooms–especially poolside rooms–are multiple-bay suites.

More than half of the Lanai building rooms are separated from the parking lots of the B Resort just by the width of a narrow balcony and a sidewalk. While I don’t think first-timers should focus too much on views–they won’t be in their rooms enough–almost any view at the B Resort is better than these.

The rest of the rooms–about 50 bays, a few less keys–face the pool.  These are subject to pool noise, but do largely have better views, and the 20 or so on the first floor, which the B Resort markets as “Captivating Poolside Rooms,” have nice patios with pool entries. This photo tour is of a Captivating Poolside Room.

You will find an immediate difference from tower rooms as soon as you enter the space.

On one side you’ll find a closet, and a divided bath. Tower rooms have a wardrobe rather than a closet, and their baths are undivided.

Here’s one side of the closet.

Note the safe. My book is 6″ by 9″–so the safe is plenty big.

The far side of the closet.

The other side of this space has the sink…

…with these toiletries…

…and this flower, which I find charming. The sink itself has an annoying flat-bottomed shape–you’ll find similar sinks in Disney’s Contemporary Resort–which means that toothpaste tends to accumulate in it. I am not suggesting that you don’t brush your teeth–just that you’ll need to spend a little elbow grease persuading the toothpaste to go away.

Back in their own space you’ll find a tub-shower combo. Note the grab bar, which as far as I’m concerned should be in all tubs, not just those in accessible rooms. A nice touch.

Also in this space is the toilet.

Further in the room you’ll find two beds on one side.  The B Resort markets these as queens. My measurements–this is the third B Resort room I’ve stayed in and measured–mark the beds as a little smaller than that, but they are clearly larger than full beds.

The beds from the back of the room.

A closer view of one of these beds.

Between these beds is this bedside table, with a storage cubby below.  No drawer–there’s not a single drawer in this room, which I find curious.

The other side of the room has a couple of ottomans, more cubbies with a TV above, a desk and a mini-fridge.

The TV side from the back.

The moveable ottomans give your kids a place to sit beyond the beds and the desk chair.

The storage cubbies, with the TV above. The TV looks small in the image, but I got it as 47 inches, which is an adequate size these days. These cubbies, the one between the beds, and the closet, are the only storage spaces in this room. I suppose there is a market segment that is demanding that there be no drawers in their rooms–I just have yet to meet anyone in it.

The small desk has a glass top–not uncommon, but making optical mouses impossible to use.

Next to the desk is a cabinet with a Keurig coffee service above.

Inside the cabinet you’ll find this mini-fridge.

At the far end of the room you’ll find the door to the highlight of these spaces–the poolside patios.

Some views of my patio. Another is at the top of the page.  All patios have gates to the pool area.

These patios come in several sizes, and a couple have views of walls rather than the pool, but are mostly delightful.

Overall this is a spacious, and other than the absence of drawers, well-appointed room.  At around 355 square feet, the overall size is in the lower end of the Disney deluxe resort range. At around ~250 square feet, the size of the living area is comparable to or bigger than that in all Disney deluxe resorts except for the monorail resorts.

The amenities of this B Resort Lanai poolside room, with its divided bath, make it fine for families, although they will be challenged by the lack of storage (cubbies are not a great solution, and when used for storage add powerfully to visual clutter).

AMENITIES AND DINING AT THE B RESORT & SPA

This review continues here.

MORE ON THE B RESORT & SPA

• Overview and summary
• Photo tour of a B Resort standard tower room 
• Photo tour of a B Resort Lanai pool-view room
• Dining and amenities at the B Resort & Spa
• The pool at the B Resort & Spa

OTHER KEY PAGES FOR WHERE TO STAY AT DISNEY WORLD

• Where to stay–the Basics
• Where first-timers should stay
• Reviews of all the Disney World resorts, based on my 160+ stays in them

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

YOUR PERSONAL DISNEY LIBRARY (10)

By Jim Korkis

• Married to the Mouse by Richard E. Foglesong

While published in 2003, the two hundred page Married to the Mouse is still a popular selling book, and is often referenced in the notes of other books about Walt Disney World. It is clearly in the “academic” category and could easily be used as a text for a class in urban planning, tax codes and similar subjects.

Foglesong is a professor of politics at Rollins College in Florida and the premise of his book is that Florida and Walt Disney World are in an economic marriage, with many of the same characteristics as an actual marriage including conflict and compromise. He also maintains that after several decades, divorce would be a costly and messy situation affecting so many others that it is not realistically an option.

Foglesong feels that Disney “seduced” Florida so that Disney could become a “Vatican with mouse ears”–basically a self-governing city with no outside interference. With progress also comes loss (after all, hundreds of private homes and businesses were demolished for the creation of I-4) but Foglesong feels the scales were tipped strongly in Disney’s favor, even though Orlando did receive many economic benefits.

The book is definitely biased that Disney is the villain and that it received overwhelming privileges through the creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District by falsely claiming that the company was still intending to build the City of the Tomorrow that Walt Disney had promised before his death. Foglesong feels that Disney maintained a charade of building an E.P.C.O.T. in order to circumvent government restrictions so that they could do whatever they wanted on the property.

In the years that followed, he feels Disney not only used but abused its governmental immunities enabled by officials too timid to challenge what the Mouse wanted to do right from the very beginning. Disney competed for (and won) bond money, which ultimately paid for new sewers to accommodate its own expansion rather than for low-income housing in a county already overwhelmed with Disney workers. When the Orlando Sentinel ran a series offering “tepid” criticism of Disney’s bad-neighbor policy, the paper was banned from being sold at the theme park.

That being said, the book does have some value, especially in the early chapters about the creation of Walt Disney World. I found the later chapters to be a little harder to muddle through the intricacies of the rather dry financial information. The facts are accurate and Foglesong did his own original research including interviews with people like Billy Dial, who was one of the prime movers and shakers in Orlando who helped smooth the way for the building of WDW.

I appreciated that at the back of the book is a nineteen page appendix listing and identifying people who were involved with Walt Disney World, from Roy Hawkins to Tom Moses to Martin Andersen. All of those listed are extremely important to understanding WDW history.

I also appreciated some of the insights that he included, like the fact that one of the major reasons for building Walt Disney World was that Walt wanted to diversify and not be too dependent upon the fickle nature of Hollywood films. He also points out that one of the reasons for the selection of land was not just to distance itself from the distractions of the beach but to allow for a 360 degree expansion in the future.

These thoughts and others do not appear in any other books discussing the building of WDW. Fifteen years have passed since the book first appeared, so it is definitely due for an updating especially in terms of whether anything has been corrected or even greater perils from Disney’s autonomy have arisen.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! This was, years ago, one of the first “difficult” books about Disney World that I read. I found the history interesting and Foglesong’s perspectives widened my understanding. Personally I find it more useful as a book that is somewhat inadvertently about negotiating, than as a book about what Disney did “wrong.”

And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Secret Stories of Mickey Mouse, and his Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!