Theme Suites at the DLH
 

During our recent stay at the Disneyland Hotel, many on the staff were all excited about the new Big Thunder Mountain Suite.

There are some nice elements, but overall the photos leave me with a kind of 'meh' feeling.

What are your thoughts?

The refurbished towers will have lots of these theme suites on the top floors. I think the Pirates Suite was finished last year. Apparently, there's going to be a Fairy Tale Suite, a Mickey Mouse Penthouse, and - of course - the rather sweet Wrather Suite is destined to become the Tomorrowland Suite in 2012.

I like the tub.

What you can't tell from the pictures is that they pump in the smell from the Big Thunder Ranch petting zoo. Totally sells it.

Do you have to bring your own red long johns? :decap:

I'll admit the tub is rad, as is the wall behind it. But putting all that other rustic stuff up against modern walls and ceilings leaves it looking half done. I wish they would have called me. Perhaps if I'd just left the Wrather Suite as we had it for the party, they would have been pounding down my door. Ah well.



If I ever stay in this suite, I will have to wear my red longjohns of course ... but they're the ones I had to change out of at a LoT pajama party because they were too obscene in the package department. So no room service, please.

Meh, indeed.

It seems like it's on the right track, but yeah, the beautiful rustic elements bolted onto the standard-issue-neutral-hotel-wall definitely holds it back big time.

I was reading through the comments and saw this:

I like it. But, it is expensive.

Still I think I liked it best when the suites looked like this.





Yep, that is a Disneyland Hotel suite in 1979. We stayed there when they messed up our reservation and comped us difference between the regular room and the suite.

I'd so love to theme a bathroom like that. And, for the cost of a couple nights' stay, I could! ;)

$3000 better include Tony Baxter tucking you in to bed at night.

Pretty cool, but not as over the top as the place I stayed in Sedona.

Ah, but you see, that's exactly where they needed to go.




Perhaps a little less kitch, but that kind of immersive.

Does that wagon wheel chandelier swing back and forth? They should have wiggling rocks installed in the walls. The bathroom should look like the dripping caverns. And WHERE'S THE GOAT TRICK?? (maybe it costs extra ;) )

Did you all notice this?
A teevee in the bathroom? Lordy. :rolleyes:

Tony brings the goat.

At that price, I think I could totally charge $300 a plate for dinner in our Enchanted Tiki Dining Room.

Disney could definitely have done much better. The more I look at the photos, the more it just looks like an overlay. (Well, except the awesome bathtub, of course.)

My friend Jeremy, who I know from theatah, works in tech services at the hotel and assures me that the pictures do not do the suite justice. Unfortunately, his job does not give him a room key so that I can verify this myself.

It's best to wait till after summer when the hotel's less busy ... but management will be happy to show anyone the suite, or any of the other theme suites, as long as they are unoccupied. Best if you can make arrangements in advance, but I've been known to just pop in and see what I can see. The hotel is very gracious about it.

I'll certainly be checking out the Big Thunder Suite in due course.

That would be awesome if one day you rented out a suite in the Disneyland Hotel and threw a big party. :D

And have someone steal your water and gash your arm...

Oh, wait....

No, more like Walt himself!


I think that suite was designed by someone who watched an episode of Bonanza and called it a day....

Tony Baxter?! I could think of a few other people than him....and I'm just sayin'!!!

{also, I don't know who that is...:blush: }

Tony is Mr. Big Thunder.

:D I figured that much but STILL!!! LOL

{Thanks, though, I wasn't sure. But, when someone said 'Walt himself', I thought maybe it was someone of importance. But still!!!!! I wouldn't want to CHAT in that room all night!!}

Well, that's what he expects his dates to call him anyways, just before enjoying a post-glow cigarette.

That was NOT the image I wanted to have upon waking up at 8:30 a.m. :eek:

At least he didn't say post GOAT cigarette... :eek:

Don't be silly, goats don't smoke!

IM IN UR MOUNTAINZ, EATING ALL UR DYN-O-MITE!!!

Who let Jimmy "JJ" Walker in here?

Hmmm, can't say I like the Mickey Mouse Suite much.

That is a lot of Mickey!

Oof, that rug needs to be sent back to the 80s new wave video from whence it came. And the bathroom is basically nothing more than a WOD display area.

I kinda like it. I checked the Big Thunder suite again and I'd have to say I'd rather stay in the MM one. At least it's unique.

By definition, a Mickey Mouse themed room is one I'd never want to stay in.

How can you have sex in such a hotel room without feeling like a latent pedophile?

Was this room announced something like 2-3 years ago? It looks extremely familiar to me.

I'm with you on that one. It'd be like doing it in some little girl's room. <shudder>

Yes, the room looks very familiar to me as well, that is not the first time I have seen those pics. But it is creepy to think about having sex in that room. I have this image of two guys going at it on the bed, when Mickey walks in from the other room. The guy on the bottom opens his eyes to see that big plushie face looming over him. *shudder*

Years of therapy, oh, boy!

On the flip side, there are plenty of people for whom that scenario would be a big turn-on.

You know, Kevy may be a little overweight, but referring to him as "plenty of people" is pretty rude.

It is better than I envisioned. The LR is almost swanky - but cheap. But, the bathroom and bedroom make me shudder.

Next up on the blog, the Pirates Suite.



Personally ... I'm not too impressed. ;)

Hee hee. They should have hired you.
:)


I'm wondering if these themed suites are a bad idea. I mean, after awhile, the public is going to catch on that certain suites are better than others. Or certain suites will just be more popular period. So, there may be that one suite (like, oh, the Innoventions Suite) that no one will want to book. Or there will be a huge waiting list for the extravagant Cinderella Suite that every single girl on the planet will want to stay in... I predict pissed off parents who have been trying for years and years to get into the Sleeping Beauty Suite and have failed. I also predict stolen decorative items from the rooms. I predict confusion with the hotel staff as they have to look at a user's manual catalog of pictures of each room telling them what should be there on the walls and shelves after a guest checks out...etc. I mean, I've seen people hold up a line because they want to ride a certain Mr. Toad car with a certain name on it, or ride a Dumbo elephant of a certain color... I imagine these rooms getting the same treatment. A ticked off person at the front holding up the hotel lobby check in line: "What do you mean I can't have the Emperor's New Groove Suite? I came all the way from Waxahachie, Texas and Kuzco is my favorite character!"
I'm just blathering...
:)

Haha - first thing I thought when I saw the bedroom photos was geeze ISM already did that :)

Yeah, ISM already did that and did it MUCH better!

There is one thing I like about this Suite over iSm's: they didn't hang the bed canopy from from the fire sprinkler (I was so scared about that the whole night)

There was a cool piece of coral on the bookshelves near the bar that I used for the Submarine Voyage Shower in the Tomorrowland Bathroom. On the morning of check-out, we were really rushing to get out of there on time and I knocked the coral off the shelf I was returning it to, and it smashed into a zillion pieces.

Ugh, the extra time spent trying to clean that all up amidst the other ten thousand things to do that morning in a hurry. But I'm really glad they apparently don't have that user's manual catalog of pictures. ;)



Cowards.

That pirate one looks like my parents bedroom in the 70s, before they remodeled. Blech.

"the Pirates suite"
I can't remember the name, as I never shopped there, but there used to be a mall-store that sold reproduction furniture that looked like it was based on the Victorian-esque furniture used by middling Bed & Breakfasts . . . you know the kind of place; fake flowers that have not been cleaned in the ten years they have been there and ancient potpourri in glass bowls on the mantle - yikes! Not really my idea of sea faring or booty

Of course the best story about The Pirates Suite was told by a stranger at Keith's last birthday celebration at the Swank Bar in the DLH.

There was an annual gathering that day, taking over Steakhouse 55, and we were amazed to have never heard of it. Dinner with the Disney Legends. A slate of "legends" is featured each year, and your table of six or so is headed by one of them for an evening of anecdotes and conversation.

A year or two earlier, the woman in the bar who told us all about this had dinner at this event with X. Atencio and his charming wife. Stories and laughter all through dinner, with some gaiety and merriment that X invited all his dinner companions up to his suite to continue the revelry. It was none other than The Pirates Suite - where X. took the perfect occasion to serenade his guests with his own composition, a little ditty called "Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me."




Le.Sigh.

I loved hearing that story from her... What podcast was she part of? Extinct Attractions or something like that? She was really cool!

yeah, extinct attractions.

UMm, what is ISM? :confused:

Short for Innerspaceman :iSm:

Hey, I resemble that remark!

acronym then, touchy bastard :D

initialiSm.