I’ve been thinking how Disney Parks utilizes more and more of their actual movie franchises for attractions, but why aren’t they doing similar things for their hotels and restaurants?
The major Fantasyland renovation to the Magic Kingdom looks incredible, and seems to be going along with this idea of making restaurants a greater part of the experience, like Gaston’s Tavern and the Be Our Guest restaurant.
You can’t go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and not want to go to Pizza Planet, but though the signage and decor might resemble Pizza Planet, it’s not spot on. And why not? The very new Pixar Place area is nearly exactly how I remember Pixar’s actual campus in Emeryville, CA. The black metal, light colored bricks.
I imagine a very real Pizza Planet, exacting to the movie version in Toy Story. I’d die to see the pizza-spear wielding guards clearing you for entrance, the Whack-A-Alien game, Alien Slime slush drinks, the exact rocket ship claw game to get squeaky alien toys… and it must have an overhead announcement saying, “Re-energize yourself with a slice of pepperoni!” Come to think of it, why not have the ability to order pizza from your WDW hotel and have it be delivered by a Pizza Planet employee in a yellow YO truck with a rocket ship on it?
Disney Parks has recently held some contests for guests to win a stay inside Walt Disney World’s Cinderella Castle and Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion (in the foyer). And it occurred to me… why doesn’t Walt Disney World have actual hotels for these types of franchises? How great would it be to stay inside a hotel themed as The Haunted Mansion? Can you imagine walking down the corridor and seeing busts turn their heads, portraits changing in your rooms, and the concierge dressed as butlers?
What about a Hollywood Tower Hotel… hotel? An elevator that went 13 floors. Forget key cards for your rooms, use actual keys with a room number keychain, and slots for them behind the concierge counter. Why not a themed restaurant in the Hollywood Tower Hotel? An upscale Hollywood restaurant with “celebrities” walking around and the Disney PhotoPass dressed as old-school paparazzi.
With Universal Studios Florida opening The Wizarding World of Harry Potter this Spring with attractions like Hogwarts and shops like Olivander’s and Dervish And Banges, and dining like Three Broomsticks, it seems like Disney could enhance their parks even more, with some great franchises they already have all the rights to.