Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, see this.)

Note 8/4/2019: I am in the middle of updating this review to incorporate the changes at Coronado Springs that opened in July 2019. An overview of these changes is here, and a photo tour of a new room in the new Gran Destino tower is here.

Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort completed a room refurb project in the fall of 2018.

The main differences in the refurbed rooms:

• Double rather than single sinks
• More Disney theming
• The addition of an easy chair
• Wooden rather than carpeted floors
• Higher beds, with storage underneath
• Bigger TVs and many, many more power points
• More structured storage, especially in the old closet area
• Many rooms with showers instead of tub/shower combos, and where tub/shower combos still exist, the shower curtain is now sliding glass, rather than fabric

The rooms continue to be largely similar to those in the other Disney World moderate resorts, but with a few key differences related to the importance of the convention and meetings market at Coronado Springs–specifically, a desk instead of a table and two chairs, and a dresser optimized for two convention-goers.

As you enter the room, on one side you’ll find a pair of queen beds.

The bed side from the back.

A closer view of one of the queens.

Besides the lights over the beds you can see, there’s four of these pencil reading lights–one on each side of each bed.

As has become common in recent Disney World refurbs, the beds are a single mattress on a platform, and are about 30 inches high.

Open underneath, there’s now room for you to stick your luggage under the beds–there’s about 14.5 inches of clearance.

Between the two beds is a bedside table. Note the Three Caballeros-inspired art above.

There’s multiple power points on either side of this table…

…and a drawer, small but big enough for your important books.

Inside the table you’ll find a safe.

It’s as large a safe as I’ve seen in a Disney World room, likely so it can hold to hold the valuables of two conventioneers.

To give you a sense of its size, my book is six by nine inches.

The other side of the room is dominated by an easy chair and a long mini-fridge/desk/dresser combo.

This side of the room from the back.

The easy chair by the window is new in this refurb, replacing a couple of small ottomans, and makes the room more comfortable for conventioneers or families. Note more Three Caballeros art.

Next to it is the first part of the long object…

…with a glass-doored mini-fridge below…

…and a coffee service above.

Next is the desk area with a task lamp and set of power points.

Here you’ll also find the room service menu.

A larger version of the dinner side–still a little better than what you will find at the other moderates; note in particular the chef’s daily special.

Next is the dresser with a 54 inch TV above and another set of power points in between at the right.

The six drawers of the dresser will easily fit the two conventioneers or family of four that these rooms can hold.

The divided bath is in the back of the room, separated from it by a pair of sliding doors.

The sinks are just behind these doors. Note the makeup mirror, new with this refurb.

There’s an extensive set of toiletries, including sunburn relief gel, a shower cap, and a sewing kit–more than you’ll find at other moderates, or most deluxes–suited to the demands of business travelers.

There’s some storage below the sinks…

…and also at the back of the sink area.

The formerly open closet area is now enclosed.

Inside the closet you’ll find the iron and ironing board.

The rest of the bath is enclosed behind a pocket door.

It features either a shower, or (as I learned on Mario’s terrific Coronado Springs Facebook group–also see his site and forum), a shower/tub combo with sliding glass doors. If a tub is important to you, Mario says to request one.

Either way you’ll get a rainfall showerhead and in addition a hand-held head.

As is becoming common in hotels at Disney World and elsewhere, shampoo, conditioner and body wash is available in large wall-mounted bottles.

A motion-sensitive fan is in this part of the bath, and because it is loud and seems to never shut off, it may drive you mad until you realize that you can turn it off by tapping on the left-most of the three controls in this area.

In general this refurb is a positive step. Some will object to the lost carpet, and others to the shower or the glass doors in the tub. But the added sink, added easy chair, bigger TV, plethora of power points, re-structured closet, and other additions are all positives for both business and family visitors.  And the Three Caballeros art adds a bit of Disney theming to a space that in its prior life did not have any.

PHOTO TOUR OF A GRAN DESTINO TOWER STANDARD ROOM AT DISNEY’S CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT

This review continues here!

TOPICS IN THIS REVIEW OF DISNEY’S CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT

• Overview and summary review of Coronado Springs
• The theming and accommodations areas of Coronado Springs
• A photo tour of a standard room at Coronado Springs
• A photo tour of a Gran Destino Tower room at Coronado Springs
• Amenities at Coronado Springs
• Dining at Coronado Springs
• The pools at Coronado Springs

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 150+ stays in them

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I was at Disney World last week, and among other adventures as usual blew a day wandering around checking the status of the various resort refurbs, on the principle that you can observe a lot just by watching. Here’s the scoop.

ALL STAR MOVIES REFURB

Since my last visit in February, Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort  has entered a room refurb project.

When I visited a week ago, most of the two buildings (9 and 10) in the Toy Story Section were closed for refurb.

The floor plan (ignore the bath, as it’s the accessible variant) confirms what one would have suspected—that the refurb is following the path that Pop Century set, with queen beds, one a fold-down that makes the dining table go away, and, presumably, coffee makers.

For a photo tour of one of the similar refurbed Pop Century rooms, see this.

POP CENTURY REFURB

Speaking of the Pop Century room refurb project, the end is in sight. Buildings 4 through 10 are complete. That’s all its areas except the 50s.

In the 50s, Buildings 1 and 3 were being worked on at my visit, so the only bookable non-refurbed rooms were in Building 2.

This refurb should be complete by the late summer.

CARIBBEAN BEACH REFURB

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is in a complex refurb. 576 of its rooms were taken down–all of Barbados and half of Martinique–and are being replaced with a separate new standalone DVC resort, Disney’s Riviera Resort.

The current Buena Vista Drive entry to Caribbean Beach will become the entry to the Riviera, and Caribbean Beach will be eventually entered at Victory Way, with check-in shifted from the Custom House to a new area in the refurbed Centertown/Old Port Royale. Progress is far along on Victory Way entry, as perhaps you can see from my lousy drive-by photo (I was unwilling to stop traffic, and am generally an inept photographer).

The gift shop and most permanent dining are closed for refurb—the word is that there will re-open in late 2018. Temporary dining of varied quality and capacity has largely replaced them.

A month or so ago, a new permanent dining option, the Spyglass Grill, opened in the Pirate rooms area of Trinidad South. It’s small and not air-conditioned, but provides a quite reasonable breakfast, lunch and dinner set of counter service options. More seating is available outside.

I’ll post a full review shortly, but it’s a great option for those in Trinidad South.

It’s further than the Old Port Royale/Centertown options for everyone else. In the image, the two red circles are the same size and centered on the two sets of dining venues. A couple of buildings in Jamaica and Trinidad North are equidistant from the dining options; pretty much everything else is closer to Centertown.

The old bus stop at Old Port Royale has been replaced with three new ones, one for Magic Kingdom, one for Animal Kingdom and Epcot, and one for Hollywood Studios. I am hoping, perhaps unreasonably, that shortly the Martinique and Trinidad North stops will close as well, with the six (total) accommodations buildings in these two areas being served by the three new stops.

The demolition of half of Martinique means many of the remaining buildings here are closer to the new stop anyway, and the new stop is just 500 feet from the current Trinidad North stop. The elimination of these two bus stops would bring Caribbean Beach down to a reasonable four sets of bus stops (perhaps five after the Skyliner opens—see next para)—down from the seven or eight (depending on the route) of just a year ago. But who knows? Sadly, I’m not in charge…

Finally, construction of the Disney Skyliner system, a new set of gondola routes that will connect Caribbean Beach, Art of Animation, Disney’s Riviera Resort, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot, continues.

Caribbean Beach will be a key hub, and the station will be just south of Jamaica, making Jamaica, Trinidad North, and Trinidad South particularly well-located when it opens, likely in the second half of 2019. I have to think that the Skyliner will get its own bus stop, as otherwise there will be a lot of road-crossing to get to the Jamaica stop.

The Skyliner and the Spyglass Grill will make Trinidad South–until recently an overpriced backwater–a particularly intriguing place to stay.

You’ll find some Skyliner-related construction not just in the station area but also in the middle of Jamaica and Aruba.

CORONADO SPRINGS REFURB

Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort is going through almost as complicated a set of refurbs as Caribbean Beach—although, since they little involve dining, they are not nearly so disruptive.

First, the old Cabana 9b has been demolished and is being replaced by a 500+ room tower that will contain preferred rooms and a rooftop fireworks-view dining venue. This expansion will make Coronado Springs more attractive to the convention markets it already serves. This building, almost topped off, completely changes the ambiance of the entrance to Coronado Springs.

Second, Coronado Springs at the same time is going through a room refurb. I finally last week had the chance to stay in one of the refurbed rooms here, and you can find a full photo review of a refurbed Coronado Springs queen room here. (Co-author Josh of easyWDW.com published a review of a refurbed king bed room a while ago—it’s here.)

According to Mario’s terrific Coronado Springs Facebook group  (also see his site and forum), here’s the current status of the room refurb project:

Complete:

• Casita 1
• Casitas 2
• Casita 3
• Casita 4
• Rancho 7a
• Cabana 8a

Under Refurb

• Casita 5
• Rancho 6a

Not Yet Started

• Rancho 6b
• Rancho 7b
• Cabana 8b
• Cabana 9a

Finally, a new over-the-water dining venue is being constructed between the Casitas and The Dig Site. The concept art is above, and the current state of construction below.

PORT ORLEANS FRENCH QUARTER REFURB

Rooms at Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort are undergoing an unambitious refurb that is proceeding quickly.

I have not yet stayed in one of the refurbed rooms (we have one booked for our late June visit), but according to Andre’s marvelous PortOrleans.org, here’s the current status:

Completed

• Buildings 1, 2 and 3

Under Refurb (old or new rooms may be partially available)

• Buildings 4 and 5

Not Yet Started

• Buildings 6 and 7

Ok, that’s the scoop on the refurbs for now! My travel agent partner Kelly can help you book–or avoid!–one of these rooms.  Contact her by using the form below!

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

ARTISTIC INFLUENCES OF DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM

By Jim Korkis

On August 3, 2017, the Orlando Museum of Art presented “Pandora: Celebrating the Beauty of the Natural World” featuring two similar forty minute, capacity-crowd presentations by Imagineer Joe Rohde, entitled “Animal Kingdom, Pandora and the Great Masters.”

Rohde spoke about some of the major artistic influences on the design of all of Disney’s Animal Kingdom but in particular on Pandora –The World of Avatar. He made clear that while he studied the works of previous Imagineers when he was doing his design work that he also studied just as intently the great painters and sculptors of past centuries.

Rohde quoted Victorian era English art critic John Ruskin, “There are many beautiful things to see in the world if you stop and you look at them.” His point was that Disney guests at Disney Animal Kingdom would be rewarded if they slowed down to discover some of the details.

One of the major influences Rohde cited was mid-Nineteenth Century American landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church.

“Church’s paintings were the IMAX movies of the mid-19th century. These paintings did not hang in a museum [or] church, they traveled the country. … In the paintings were thousands of teensy-weensy details … so people spent an hour that they paid for in an artificial space, wandering in a painting. That sounds remarkably familiar to me.”

These paintings were exhibited in theaters. Audiences would buy a ticket and fill an auditorium. The proscenium of a theater stage before them was covered by a curtain. Sometimes accompanied by music, the curtain would be opened to reveal the massive 18-wheeler-sized painting by Church.

El Rio De Luz (The River of Light), Frederic Edwin Church 1877

When audiences looked into the painting, they would discover another, smaller painting, and another, and another, all the way down to the size of a nickel. Audiences would look into the painting for an hour or more at a time discovering new secrets and images all the time.

“The word picturesque refers to [late Baroque artist] Claude Lorrain, who invented the romantic idea of the landscape,” remarked Rohde. “Without Lorrain, you don’t have the picturesque tradition, and without the picturesque tradition, you really don’t have the arts at all.

“When you ride through [Kilimanjaro Safaris], you do not realize the degree to which this is a manipulated landscape. The height of the little hummocks and rises in the hills just happen to be slightly higher than the sightline of a person in a vehicle, so even though there are unimaginable numbers of those trucks driving around, you are [only] aware of six.

“Landscape was considered the highest form of art in the 18th century, because it combined all the appeal of sculpture, all the color of painting, with the process of movement through space. So when you ride on a vehicle through our lovely crafted landscape, you are in fact experiencing what the great philosophers of the 18th century considered to be the highest form of art.

“[We] continually talked about Giovanni Bernini, because who in the history of the world has taken absolutely rigid, inflexible material – marble! – and rendered it in such a way that it appears to be weightless?” revealed Rohde. “To get the sense of uplift, the sense of swirl, the sense of suspension that makes [Pandora’s floating] mountains not hang over you, but lift above you, rise above you? That’s not easy.

“We even talked about commissioning Dale Chihuly [glass sculptor—Dave] at one point [to help in] solving this problem of these organic soft glowing plants that embody the entire nature of this palace. It’s simply not enough to go look at natural bioluminescence, because natural bioluminescence isn’t this psychedelic.”

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! Co-author Josh of easyWDW.com recently has the chance to hear Joe Rohde speak at Tiffins–see this for more. And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Call Me Walt, 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.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: MAY 5 TO MAY 13, 2018

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

For more on May 2018 at Disney World, see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 5/5-5/13/18

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 8a-12MN 5/5, 9a-11p 5/6, 9a-10p 5/7 through 5/10, 9a-11p 5/11, 9a-12MN 5/12, and 9a-11p 5/13

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open 9a-9.30p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open 8a-10.30p 5/5, 9a-10.30p 5/6, 9a-10p 5/7 through 5/11, 9a-9p 5/12, and 9a-10.30p 5/13

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 5/5-5/13/18

Saturday 5/5 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Sunday 5/6  Morning: Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Monday 5/7  Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Tuesday 5/8 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening:  Epcot

Wednesday 5/9 Morning:  Animal Kingdom  Evening: Magic Kingdom

Thursday 5/10 Morning: Epcot, Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Friday 5/11 Morning:  Magic Kingdom Evening: none

Saturday 5/12 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Sunday 5/13  Morning: Hollywood Studios Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 5/5–5/13/18

The Magic Kingdom: Afternoon Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 5/5-5/13/18

Happily Every After at Magic Kingdom: 9p every night

IllumiNations at Epcot:  9p every night

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:  9p every night

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 9.30p every night

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 9.15 and 10.30p 5/5 through 5/11; 9.15p 5/12

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 5/5-5/13/18

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

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Josh of easyWDW and I, co-authors of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit, will be meeting and greeting and signing copies of our books (or someone else’s book, or your T-shirt, we’re easy) today!

We’ll be at Epcot, on and outside of the Mexico pyramid to the right, from roughly 1p to 2p.

Our book combines…

• the un-matched insights of Josh into the parks and dining (he’s in the parks several days a week) with
• my un-matched insights into the Disney hotels (I’ve stayed in more than 150 Disney World-owned hotel rooms, suites, studios, villas, cabins and campsites)
• other stuff we are both just wizards about

…into the best-rated Disney World guidebook series ever published (our Disney World guidebooks have had almost 300 reviews on Amazon, of which 91% have been 5 stars).

There’s not a better way to spend an afternoon hour on Saturday than reading our book. But if you are at Epcot instead, come on by–we’d love to meet you and thank you!

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

STAR WARS: SECRETS OF THE EMPIRE AT DISNEY SPRINGS

By Jim Korkis

Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, a multi-sensory environment that combines groundbreaking technology, virtual reality and the art of illusion, opened at the Marketplace section of Disney Springs on December 16, 2017.

The Disney Accelerator program that started in 2014 backs around ten companies every year providing financial investment and a three month mentorship program providing access to the Disney creative campus based in Los Angeles.

(c) Disney

In 2017, The Void was one of the companies selected for the accelerator. The Void is a location-based entertainment company that combines interactive sets, virtual reality, real-time effects and state-of-the-art technology to bring guests into their experiences.

“There’s a lot we’ve learned working closely with the Walt Disney company,” The Void’s CEO Cliff Plumer said. “It’s not just what happens in the virtual world; it’s that whole journey that we’ve worked really hard on.”

For the attraction, The Void also collaborated with Lucasfilm and ILMxLab, which is the collaboration between Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Skywalker Sound that’s solely dedicated to creating “immersive experiences.” [Read more →]