Just an Idea...

[Luv2Roam]

It would free up the parks because guests wouldn't want to leave the resort!
One reason why we stay at AS is the price and we are seldom in the room. A ToT hotel would change that in a hurry.

 

[Conure]

Just imagine arriving at the hotel a few hours before closing, and listening to people scream on the elevator and the elevator falling for three hours. An active ride inside a hotel wouldn't be a very practical idea, especially since small kids sometimes need to sleep during the afternoon.


"I never let schooling interfere with my education."
-Mark Twain

 

[EUROPA]

Cleary that type of hotel would not be for everyone...but I bet they would not have trouble filling rooms. Now if Disney had invested in these ideas instead of..... (Fill in your favorites here) then Disney would be beating the customers away with a stick.

 

[*Robin*]

Originally posted by Conure
Just imagine arriving at the hotel a few hours before closing, and listening to people scream on the elevator and the elevator falling for three hours. An active ride inside a hotel wouldn't be a very practical idea, especially since small kids sometimes need to sleep during the afternoon.

Practical??? Why does DISNEY always have to be practical? So they could make parts soundproof. They might have areas that are more themed than others. For crying out loud, isn't it time to push the envelope just a little further than the vanilla ice cream crowd expects? To me it's all about the art and adventure. If art isn't innovative, if it doesn't make your heart race, your mind wander, your creative side go running in new directions, what's the use?

Practical got us Eisner. It seems to me Walt would have loved the adventure of it all.

(Edited to add- Sorry, this sounds a bit snippier than I intended, been spending a bit too much time on the DB... )

 

[DC7800]

Originally posted by Another Voice
Faces would appear in your bathroom mirror. Deathly cold drafts would suddenly fill the halls. Furniture would glide across the lobby all on its own. Corridors would suddenly change (thanks to sliding walls). Strange and eerie sounds would beckon you in the dark, dark broom closet.

But the hotel's biggest surprise was that it was convention time. All of Hollywood's biggest (and deadest) ghouls, monsters, demons and studio executives were in town. They were having a huge party in the hotel's basement/boiler room (and one of the hotel's restaurants). You're invited, but the only way to get there was this old service elevator. Most of the time the elevator would take you gently to your destination; other times

If Disney had actually built resorts like this one, they would not be having quite so much trouble trying to fill the rooms (with heavy discounting). Compare these ideas to the "Funky Chicken" of Pop Century - kind of makes you feel sick, doesn't it?

I'm sure there would be many "practical' problems to be solved in the construction of such a hotel, but the point is solutions could have been found. The monorail manages to run through the Contemporary without bothering anyone, and I'm sure an elevator ride could similarly co-exist within a hotel.

 

[Ziggie]

Nooo, no *rides* in a cool hotel like that. Just the hotel by itself would be awesome enough

 

[Planogirl]

Originally posted by Ziggie
Nooo, no *rides* in a cool hotel like that. Just the hotel by itself would be awesome enough

I agree with this! Disney could lighten up the concept so that little kids wouldn't run screaming from the doorman but people would be flocking to hotels like these! I know I'd be there and I would expect these to be VERY expensive.

After Disney fired them, they headed up the road and built the Med for Lowes at Universal Orlando and called it the Portifino. Maybe Universal would be interested in building a haunted hotel as well.

I could definitely see this too. Universal is quite good at the Halloween type stuff from what I hear and they already have the rights to the classic monsters. Wow! But I personally wish that Disney would try to push the envelope in this manner themselves.

 

[Another Voice]

Just to clarify - the elevator in the resort would not have been the monstorously large ride that was built at the studio. The concept (and it never got much passed that stage) was that it was going to be a regular elevator that was rumored to be haunted. You never knew what was going to happen. Sometimes it would take you to your floor, sometimes is would take you somewhere different, sometimes it would plunge you down into the boiler room. I also think there was some talk about secret passageways ("put the candle back") being built into the place as well.

Again, the entire hotel was concieved as a giant movie set. Everything was going to have its little "surprises". The Magic Kingdom resorts were all designed to give you a sense of staying inside the lands of the park; the Studio hotels were meant to give you feeling of staying inside the movies. It was far more than either just a ride stuck inside a hotel or a few hotel rooms stuck inside a ride. This was back in the days (less than ten years ago) when Disney had real dreams and real ambition.

 

[DisneyKidds]

AV - thanks for clarifying. Just so I am crystal clear, while the idea for the ToT ride may have sprung from this haunted hotel that never got past the concept stage, it appears you are not saying that the original plans for the ToT (ride building) included a plan for a working hotel with guest rooms. Is that correct? Not to say that it was never a thought in the back of some Imagineers mind, but that would fit with what I remember from when ToT was built. I did follow that a little. We actually dropped the money for the commemorative ticket (long before the ride opened) and had the opportunity to peek in on the construction a few times.

 

[Another Voice]

As far as I know there were never any plans to include real hotel rooms in the WDW 'Tower of Terror'. There was a lot of Internet chatter about some in the smaller California Adventure version, but that was nothing but a lot of fan "chatter" and nothing else. The building code for a hotel is vastly tighter than the code for an attraction. Even having just a handful of rooms would have added tremendous costs to the attraction.

Disney isn't into the "that would be so kEwL" developments these days.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Could it be done? Sure.

I agree, as anything CAN be done. The question is SHOULD it. I'll agree that as of late Disney hasn't been balancing this CAN and SHOULD equation very well. However, in this case, guest rooms inside the ToT should not have been done, and was never seriously contemplated. That is the only point I have been trying to clarify. You know how I can "read into" things , but I did get the impression that someone was intimating that there was a real plan to actually put guest rooms in the ToT, and that it ended up on the budget scrap heap like so many other things that should have been. That was not the case.

 

[eclipseSD]

Dear.God

I would gladly trade all 4 value resorts for just that one haunted hotel. It is probable that a whole lot of the Disney-going public (even the cheaper ones) would agree with me on that. It is also probable that a good amount of the Disney going public would spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a room like that. Gee, lots of people paying high prices to visit a hotel, doesn't seem like Eisner to pass it up.

Of course, if Walt were still alive and running the company, this hotel would have been built 20 years ago.

Kinda puts a dark cloud on the "Disney Decade", doesn't it?

As for the hotel itself, I would have lessened rooms for kids and seniors, but not for teens and adults. Having "13 or older" rooms would be neat. Like instead of a grim grinning ghost in the mirror, you get a bloody corpse. The maids/bellhops turn insane randomly and take out butcher knives at unexpected times.

"Hello sir, and welcome to the- DIE DIE DIE HAHAHAHA- Haunted Mansion hotel"

Oh, the possibilities.

Then again, Universal still can capitalize on Disney's mistake and dominate the Orlando Hotel market.

 

[Another Voice]

So an interesting whisper floated by on the breeze…

A while back, Disneyland hosted a special dinner to honor the Haunted Mansion's 25th anniversary. It was held, naturally, in the mansion's dining room and tickets went for more than $1,000 a plate.

At the same time Disney had decided that eBay was this week's plan to make trillions from the Internet. Sadly all those "extra special" vacation packages weren't selling well and there's just so much trash you can auction off. A gnome, somewhere, got the idea that if the brand monkeys would pay a grand for dinner, what would they pay for…

All kinds of ideas were floated. How about camping out on Tom Sawyer's Island, or spending the night underwater in 'The Living Seas'? The castle was originally designed to have an apartment, perhaps a couple rooms could be cleaned up once a month for the "winning bid" guest. And of course, if you've got a ride that's themed as a hotel…what could be more natural?

Plans were made and spiffy artwork completed. Breathless prose was readied and the accountants were warned of a sudden in flow of cash when -- the lawyers found out.

It seems that they only barely allow us inside the gates of their park during operating hours (or daylight, which ever is shorter). But the thought of real people being inside all night, and without bubble wrap was just too, too much to be accommodated. No, the parks are wild and dangerous places and no place for silly guests. All plans for the sleepovers were called off.

Meanwhile, my nephews just got back from spending the night with the sharks at Sea World without a worry in the world. I guess that Disney must feel only stupid people go to their parks these days.

Oh well, that's the whispers anyway.