Disney’s Art of Animation Resort

Disney / By

I had the opportunity to visit Disney’s new resort last week.  Disney has outdone themselves again.  The attention to detail at the Art of Animation Resort is impressive.  You feel like you’re part of the story.  The resort is located on one side of Hourglass Lake and consists of one main building that houses reception, business center, gift shop, arcade, and food court.  There are four separately themed sections of the resort that offer accommodations based on the movies Cars, Finding Nemo, Lion King, and Little Mermaid.  Standard room accommodations are available in the Little Mermaid section and family suites are available in the rest of the resort.

Animation Hall 
Includes the following:
·         Reception – for arrivals and departures, concierge, kid lounge, Disney animator on hand to discuss and demonstrate illustration.  The color scheme as you enter takes you from black and white to color to pixels and the digital age.  The sketches on the wall start from rough draft to finished drawings. 

·         Business Center – free internet access and printer, airline monitor for info on flights, ATM

·         Ink & Print Shop – The resort’s gift shop, includes a small section of necessity items next to the registers.   Other staple food items are available in Landscape of Flavors.

Entrance to Ink & Paint Shop as seen from the lobby

Necessities

Lots of gift choices
·         Arcade 

·         Landscape of Flavors – only quick service restaurant to use real plates and silverware minimizing the amount of trash generated making this the greenest restaurant in WDW.

Dining

Art of Animation dining is a quick service restaurant called Landscape of Flavors that at first glance looks like a food court. 

The food quality is excellent and diversity of choices is extensive. They have several different food stations: bakery, salads and sandwiches, International cuisine called World of Flavors (Chinese, Indian, etc.), pizza and pasta, and the grill for burgers and other hot sandwiches. There are a number of beverage coolers with bottles of soda, beer, wine, water, juices, vitamin water, milk, yogurts, packaged sliced apples and other fruits and snacks. I noticed many, many kid friendly food options. 

Some of the many menu items highlighted on these boards

Gives some ideas of kid friendly food available
Souvenir reusable drink cups and packaged snacks

Beverage cooler, Italian food and burger stations from the cash register

  Another great feature is you have a choice in how your food is prepared. They offer gluten free and vegetarian selections. They make your food fresh while you wait. In the World of Flavors section, they have a Mongolian grill which is a huge flat round cooking surface. I ordered the Mongolian grilled fish. They told me it would take about 10 minutes as they cook it fresh and gave me a pager. I had a choice of rice (basmati or wild rice with mixed vegetables) and one side dish (choices were dhal, spinach with paneer, cauliflower with a red sauce, or baked squash. I chose the spinach with paneer as I know what that’s supposed to taste like according to my Indian friends. It was so delicious and fresh, it far exceeded my expectations.

Hours of operation are from 6:00 AM to Midnight.
Room Service
A small menu of pizza, appetizers, entrees, beverages, and desserts are available for in room delivery from 4:00 PM to Midnight.

Pools

·         The main and largest pool is right outside Animation Hall in the Finding Nemo section of the resort.  There’s a kids water/splash area near the anemone with Marlon and Nemo. 


Main pool at Finding Nemo



Kids splash area

Pool Bar at Finding Nemo pool offers snacks and refreshments
·         There is also a smaller pool at Cars (the cabana’s are free and are first come first serve) and at Little Mermaid.  Lion King will not have a pool but is a short walk over to Nemo or Little Mermaid.


Cars pool
Cabanas are free

·         Pool areas are gated.  You need your room key to gain access to the pool area for extra security.

Key card access to pool

Rooms

We were able to see a Cars themed family suite.  
·         Layout – Dining Room, living room with kitchenette, bedroom, two bathrooms (one with tub/shower, the other with only a shower)
o   Dining Room – When you enter the unit the first room is the dining room.  There’s a dining table with four chairs that converts easily into a double bed. 

Dining table converts into a double bed
o   Main bathroom – off the dining room that has a sink that can be separated from the toilet and bathtub/shower room.  From the dining room you can walk into the living room or the master bedroom. 

Shower curtains are for sale at gift shop
o   Kitchenette – is located in the living room.  It consists of a small typical hotel sized fridge (larger that a dorm fridge), coffee maker, microwave, and a bar sink.  The kitchenette is stocked at check-in with plastic ware, paper towels, paper plates and bowls.  The coffee maker will make one or two cups of coffee at a time. 

o   Living room – has a flat screen TV on a dresser table with six drawers of storage space.  The couch pulls out into a double bed. 



Lots of storage in TV stand, extra pillows under the coat rack

o   Master bedroom – separate room with a door, TV, queen sized bed ( ?) and its own bathroom with a walk in shower, no tub.  Small soap, shampoo, conditioner are provided.

Master bathroom
·         Quality of rooms – Brand new and very clean!  Great use of space.  You don’t feel like you’re sleeping on top of each other.  Noise is not an issue in this resort.  Disney exceeded the hurricane rating by adding the hurricane proofing to all the walls including the interior of the building. 
·         Kid friendly décor – Each floor outside the elevators have paintings of scenes from that theme’s movie.  Disney realized that kids these days are more visual and know the movies well.  By placing these paintings on each floor and making the entire resort more visual, kids have an easier time finding their way around and back to their rooms.  Last month, the lost kid count went from 23 to 1.  Parents went to security to report a missing kid and were asked if they checked their room.  The parents said “no” so security calls their room and 22 times the “lost” kid answers the phone in their room.
Jogging Trail – a short walk from any of the rooms in this resort

Jogging path is a paved, one mile loop around Hourglass Lake
Park Transportation
·         The buses are located outside of Animation Hall, closest to Finding Nemo and Lion King buildings but still a short walk from Cars and Little Mermaid.


Buses stop here, outside Animation Hall

This is a small glimpse of this new resort.  Just let me know if you would like more information.