What's up with decorating the windows?

[dskib]

It sounds like a fun thing to do, but is there a reason that people decorate their hotel room windows?

Thanks,
Deb

 

[princess jackie]

The main reason why we love to decorate the room window is because it is soooo much easier to find our room. The kids know exactly what room is ours. Plus the kids like planning out what to put on our window before we go. It's just a little something extra to get us in the Disney mood. Having said that, there are plenty out there that hate it and think its tacky. Also some think its rude to leave up a mess for mousekeeping. We always clean up after ourselves and don't go too over the top. There is a whole thread on decorating resort rooms floating around here somewhere.

 

[shinysparklybubbles]

because it's fun for us and the people who walk by our room, well except the haters

 

[crazycatlady]

I recently bought Disney Halloween clings for our October stay at POP.
It wasn't until I got home that I wondered if they stick with the front side facing out the window, or do people put them on the outside of the window?

 

[jpmandan]

We always decorate our window, and don't forget the LIME GREEN MICKEY.

 

[mom2taylorandemily]

Planning and making our window and door decorations is so much fun for us and part of the magic in the planning process. Plus we like the way it looks and adds to our vacation experience!

 

[Eeyore's Pal]

I recently bought Disney Halloween clings for our October stay at POP.
It wasn't until I got home that I wondered if they stick with the front side facing out the window, or do people put them on the outside of the window?

Window clings are meant to stick from the inside facing out -- so the front side is the clingy side to put against the glass.

I like the window decorations, even though my family is too disorganized to participate.

 

[Donut23]

Oh my goodness.....have I taught my DH the fun of Disney decor.

The first time we traveled together it was Halloween time. I had the costumes made for the Halloween Party and then.....out of my suitcase came the Halloween decor.

Head-on Hildi always got a laugh. We taped her to our window (from the dollar store, a plastic witch that looked like she had slammed into the window).

Nothing compared to Christmas.

We always have a tabletop tree....lights for the balcony and snowflakes to hang on the balcony. Know what.....when we leave the room is more clean than when we entered!

It takes no more than 1 hour total to unpack and decorate....not all that bad for a 10-day trip. We LOVE it.

Look for our lights at the Beach Club - first week in December!

and in the hallway.....watch for our door.

I take a roll of wide christmas ribbon and "wrap" our door for the holidays with ribbon and a big bow. I have made a Happy Holidays "gift tag" which is taped on the door.

If you plan to tape ANYTHING, be sure to use the blue painters tape. It is designed to stay on a surface for MONTHS but be removed with no trace at all.....even in the sunlight.


Yes, I know it takes an hour or so from our unpacking day.....but for us.....it brings us pleasure.

What do we do at the end of the 10 days. Yes, sadly it comes down the last afternoon. We take the tree down to the lobby.....look for a family checking in and hand it off for THEIR decorations! Talk about Pixie Dust!!!


HELLO WINDOW CLING PEOPLE......

NOTE for Christmas guests......Lakeside Collection has window clings in the shape of snowflakes....and they are photoluminescent (sp?).........they glow in the dark. I think they were something like $5.99 for a package of 20. they will be going with us too!

 

[LittleFlounder]

I recently bought Disney Halloween clings for our October stay at POP.
It wasn't until I got home that I wondered if they stick with the front side facing out the window, or do people put them on the outside of the window?

With all window clings I've used, in order to see the design from the outside, you need to put the cling on the outside of the window. If you place the cling on the inside of the window, only those looking at the window from the inside are going to see the design properly, while people outside will see a clouded image(not as bright) in reverse.

I've decorated my resort window before. Its really fun deciding how to decorate it and makes finding your room so much easier. Its much easier looking for the window with your decorations in it, rather than a specific room number.

 

[mom2taylorandemily]

Just be careful what you put on the door. We had one of our Mickey Bubble Heads stolen off of our door when we had 4 days left in our trip. It was a green Mickey Head with Emily in one of the ears. I guess another Emily needed it more than my girl did. My DD was heartbroken, it was there when we went to bed one night and then the next morning, DH got up to go to get coffee and came back asking where it was. We had it up with Magnet tape so it was easy to just lift off the door, but still its just the principle.

 

[LilRonGal]

I love to decorate my window, and I enjoy looking at other people's window decorations! I don't go all over the top, but that's because I suck at decorating. I usually stick a stuffed Mickey or two in the window and call it a day!

My question about it is this: Is it more acceptable at some resorts rather than others? Many windows at Pop were decorated, but what about POFQ? Will it be OK there?

 

[Dan Murphy]

It sounds like a fun thing to do, but is there a reason that people decorate their hotel room windows?

Thanks,
Deb

That is the biggest reason.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Oh I am so glad I saw this thread! I haven't done this in awhile. Last few Halloweens at WDW were at SSR or OKW which isn't as easy to decorate. Now I can buy some window clings for our CBR window!

We decorated for Christmas at CBR in 2006, it was so fun, we also brought a table top tree. We saw so many lights in the windows, it just added to the magic.

And I still remember the lights several Contemporary guests has on their balconies during our Christmas of 2006 visit.

Its just a fun way to add another layer of celebration to a trip.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Not to be a "hater," which sounds kind of harsh...but we're not really into decorating our room. Mostly they are okay, some are even cute. A few tasteful, discreet decorations are fine.

Some 'decor' I've seen was over the top.

One example that comes to mind was not so much a window decoration as a full king sized white sheet tied to a room balcony and painted with crude green lettering. It was really ugly and IMO, ruined the look of the resort. Beyond that, the person loudly proclaimed their DIS identity, which kind of, IMO, made the DIS look a little bad. You could see this thing from QUITE a distance! All the way from the park, or pretty close to it!

Any decor that causes damage to the room, IMO, would be over the top. (tape that takes off paint, stains, etc.)

Anything that well, featured something inappropriate would be over the top - like Halloween decorations that are scary for small kids, profanity, Mickey doing something sexual. For me, that includes putting up overtly non WDW characters. I dont mean generic smily faces, I mean putting up something like a giant Scooby Doo; a big, bloody, death skull; or anything REMOTELY political. Those kind of decorations take away from the experience of other guests.

Also inappropriate would be any exterior decor at AKL that has even the slightest chance of becoming dislodged and falling into the animal pen.

Leaving something like fake spray snow all over your window for the staff to clean up is inappropriate, IMO.

Anything that's a fire hazzard or is dangerous in any way, would be inappropriate (Again, I'm thinking Halloween decor, like the kind I've seen sometimes at private homes)

I dunno. Like I said initially, if you want to put something discreet like a few small Mickey clings in your window that's fine. Probably a small hint of Christmas during Christmas week is fine (I've not been that week, so I don't know). Most of the decor I've seen is okay, but mostly I prefer to leave the decorating to the WDW staff. Disney has worked REALLY hard to create a certain look in it's resorts. Anything that clashes with that look (See tacky sheet description above), takes away from that experience for guests. A small infraction to be sure, but an infraction nonetheless. You are imposing your tastes/feelings on everyone else's vacation.

Someone, at some point, is going to create a liability for Disney.

No, I take that back. It's already been done.

 

[Donut23]

Just be careful what you put on the door. We had one of our Mickey Bubble Heads stolen off of our door when we had 4 days left in our trip. It was a green Mickey Head with Emily in one of the ears. I guess another Emily needed it more than my girl did. My DD was heartbroken, it was there when we went to bed one night and then the next morning, DH got up to go to get coffee and came back asking where it was. We had it up with Magnet tape so it was easy to just lift off the door, but still its just the principle.

That's just not right at all.

Obviously we have been lucky with our door decorations but taking a smile away from ANY child is just rotten.

 

[Donut23]

Ok....a funny door decoration story........

The first time my brand new husband was introduced to my group of Disney travel friends was at the Grand Californian. One of our group is gay (no biggie to either of us....but)......we were celebrating his birthday AND the trip was the end of our honeymoon after being married in Alaska. The door was decorated for BOTH celebrations!

Anyway, there was a fairly large (and happy) group of girls celebrating a bachelorette weekend just down the hall who ran into my friend and DH one afternoon outside our room (we were in a suite). The boys had their buttons on (honeymoon and birthday) and DH had his wedding band on. Immediately, the ladies assumed THEY had just been married.

We saw them EVERYWHERE for 2 days.....and they always congratulated them on their recent marriage....as the rest of us stoodby and giggled. Each time we saw them, they would come over and tell them what a CUTE COUPLE they were!!!

 

[bwallace]

My question about it is this: Is it more acceptable at some resorts rather than others? Many windows at Pop were decorated, but what about POFQ? Will it be OK there?

I'd say a definite yes to the first question. But I'd phrase it more as "less appropriate at some resorts"

The more specifically themed a resort is, the less appropriate decorations are.
From what I've seen, the values are decorated in a tacky, gawdy style, so decorations of the same caliber stick out less.
But it seems like it would be pretty distracting to see someone's construction paper letters and static clings sticking out like a sore thumb in a highly themed, beautiful resort like WL of AKL.


Disney spends a lot of time deciding how a resort should look and keeping consistency with that theme.
Guests spend lots of money to see how Disney thinks things should look, not how the X family from Y-ville, Z-state likes to decorate bulletin boards.

As for POFQ-- Ive spent a lot of time in New Orleans. The only things hung in the windows in the real FQ are menus and pictures of the drinks and/or strippers for sale inside. But, Disney may not like authenticity in that regard.

 

[coneygoil]

We've decorated the window the last couple trips and it's so much fun! My mom had the idea of printing out a few pictures from each trip we've taken to WDW (which is like 25 times since I was a year old). She put them in order and what year the pic was from. It was such a great collage! Here's one piece of the collage...

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I plan to decorate my window with some small xmas decorations and of course, lime green mickeys next trip.

 

[Planogirl]

I would never decorate my windows but I support those who do. I've seen some that look trashy but others can look cute particularly at Christmas time.

We only saw much of this at the Allstars when we stayed there. We've only seen a few at the Moderates and a few of those who stay at the deluxes seem to be more into hanging towels and clothes from their balconies.