Disney's Hotel Santa Fe refurbishment — New "Cars" touches

[littlemermaid83]

The rooms still look the same except I like what they have done in the bathroom with the mirror.

[Patrick89]

But toddlers go to DLP. Parents may get alot of pleasure from watching their children having fun in a Disney Cars themed hotel, even if it wasn't the original idea behind the Santa Fe.

But again the question: Why is everything concerned DLP reduced to children? Why does everything has to be focussed on children's interests? There are also other visitors. Not everything has to be matched childrens interests. Maybe families with toddlers are the majority at the moment, but it's all a matter of advertisement. I always wonder why they are focusing all their commercials on just this particular group. How should other visitors be attracted by that? Especially a company with huge depts should go after every possible visitor in my opinion. But the recent proceeding of Disney is concerned with only a part of the population - can they really do without other sources of income?

[ed-uk]

I wouldn't say everything at DLP is focused on childrens interests. Alot of adults probably enjoy the Cars films and animation. I know some people think that toons shouldn't step out of fantasyland, but they're popular with guests in the hotels. The characters and the films are very important to Disney. Adults know it's DLP, and that the hotel Santa Fe isn't really a pueblo village on route 66 in New Mexico, even if we're ment to think it is, and they will know it's not Radiator Springs.

[DutchBrit]

But again the question: Why is everything concerned DLP reduced to children? Why does everything has to be focussed on children's interests? There are also other visitors.

The children very rarely go on their own. They tend to bring parents and grandparents with them. Generally you are going to get a bigger group when children are part of it than you will when only adults are involved.

And I'd say that families are certainly by far the biggest users of the Santa Fe.

[pussinboots]

That is missing the point entirely.

The truth is that people like Walt Disney, Michael Eisner, Mary Blair and, oh, Robert A.M. Stern really only did what they wanted for themselves. Disney works best when its creative decisions are made by eccentric grown men and women who border on autism spectrum disorders but are incredibly driven to turn the twinkles in their eyes into multi-million-dollar projects. Children, especially those who are budding eccentric grown men and women, tend to take to this as a kind of magical side effect. Disney is at its worst when its creative decisions are made by sensible adults who think they can figure out what kids like. Disney is at its worst when it thinks that its Home Depot line of children's wallpaper would make a decent addition to a hotel.

[ed-uk]

I would add John Lasseter to the list with Walt Disney. I'm sure more thought has gone into the Cars touches than picking a roll of wallpaper.

[Martyn]

I dont know if I like the rooms yet.... seems a bit of a mess to me. Traffic cones on the wall? Metal 'flooring' on the wall behind the door.... and that mirror...(it is nice, but a bit random)

[dagobert]

Metal 'flooring' on the wall behind the door.... and that mirror...(it is nice, but a bit random)

The metal flooring on the wall looks really cheap. It could have looked worse, but I still think it looks like a children's bedroom.

[Patrick89]

The metal flooring on the wall looks really cheap. It could have looked worse, but I still think it looks like a children's bedroom.

Well, as Disney wants to attract only families with children these days, this is only a logical step.

[ed-uk]

You could try another hotel, the Sequioa Lodge maybe, no Cars touches there but you'll still find it full of families with children. All the hotels at DLP attract families with children, Cars touches at the Santa Fe won't make that much difference.

[buzz32]

We are staying at the Santa Fe on the 31st March for 4 days, has every room been refurbished? We stayed in the New york last time and I am hoping its not going to be to much of a come down after seeing some of the pictures of the hotel

[samuelvictor]

My family may be in the minority here but we've stayed in the Santa Fe twice and we really like it. This time we actively chose it over the other hotels, not simply because of price, but because we so enjoyed our last stay there.

The implied security, safety and noise advantages of so many separate buildings are a factor, as is the adjoining Tigermarket. But the deciding factor was the "Cars" theme, which helped us all sleep well, associating it with Sally in the film wanting everyone to sleep happily and safely in her Cozy Cone motel. After a long day (we get up at 6:00am and stay in Disney Village til after 10pm!) its a lovely place to rest, and we've had no problems with the hotel.

I posted in this thread a while back about the Cars theming of our last room, which incidentally was in block 28. We had only the (rather lovely, subtle design) Cars duvets in our room.

This year we were in block 12, and our room was far more themed, although still fairly subtly. Around the top of the room was a border with stylised hand drawn versions of Lightning, Mater, Sally and Luigi. The lamp had its lampshade replaced with a traffic cone, and the wall lights were shaped like traffic cones, as was the main mirror.

All of this was subtle enough so that it wasn't constantly in your face, it still had the subdued colouring of the original Santa Fe rooms. The cone shaped stuff only helped imply the idea of staying in a "Cozy Cone" room. Oh, and we had a cute framed picture of a sleeping Mater. Nice touch to make the kids feeling sleepy

The only thing I wasn't so keen on was the metal style parts added (like the steel with threads that you'd walk on at a building site) to some walls, but thankfully this was only really added to small areas, mostly the back of the wardrobe/hanging rail and corridor, so I'd imagine this is acting as protection for areas most likely to get dirty/scuffed.

All in all we loved our room and the theming is cool. If it was all primary colours and gaudily computer generated pixar images I would hate it. Its not, so I don't.

[buzz32]

Sounds great! thanks for posting.

do you know if they have now refurbished all of the rooms? I guess I will find out next week when we arrive 1 week tomorrow. Kids very excited..

[samuelvictor]

No problem

I would certainly assume that all the rooms will have been refurbed by now, they started a looong time ago and its hardly a major upheaval. Of course, I've no way to know, Disney doesn't share this information easily

I forgot to mention that the bathrooms have a minor change too, the mirrors have a light up surround, and the shower area has a border. Again these are un-intrusive and I barely noticed them, but I imagine they might make the room look a little "cooler" from a kids perspective.

I hope (and I'm sure) you and your kids will have a wonderful time!

[chan1986]

Ive just been in the Hotel Santa Fe last week -

I was extremeley disheartened by the outside of the buildings, it looked like lots of shanti apartment blocks (very off putting) the rececption staff were extremeley slow.

The room though was very clean and tidy, in ours we only had Cars bedding - Nothing else.

The Breakfast was manic/hectic but tasty as expected.

I wouldnt stay again mainly because of the walking distance to the park - but as i said the rooms them selves i had no problems with. x

[Josh]

I would certainly assume that all the rooms will have been refurbed by now, they started a looong time ago and its hardly a major upheaval. Of course, I've no way to know, Disney doesn't share this information easily

You'd be surprised. They're still doing the Sequoia refurb (but that's almost finished). It'll take about two years, if they work at the same speed.

[esmeralda]

I've had a look at Hotel Santa Fe last week and i was very impressed with the construction that was going on!!! New colors on the building that are similar to the original version but way warmer! I was so happy to see how well it looked and i'm absolutely looking forward to see the result! Anyone interested in a few pics? Let me know!

[Kristof]

@Esmeralda: do share your photos!

I would certainly assume that all the rooms will have been refurbed by now, they started a looong time ago and its hardly a major upheaval. Of course, I've no way to know, Disney doesn't share this information easily

Don't forget they have to strip the rooms to the bare bones. And not all rooms have the same shape and size, so lots of custom work has to happen.

[aliscrapper]

I've had a look at Hotel Santa Fe last week and i was very impressed with the construction that was going on!!! New colors on the building that are similar to the original version but way warmer! I was so happy to see how well it looked and i'm absolutely looking forward to see the result! Anyone interested in a few pics? Let me know!

We stayed there in June and they were decorating the outside of the building when we went so would love to see your photo's of the buildings!

What was your room like?? We had problems with the safe not working and the plug in the bathroom sink getting stuck. Reception did not seem interested in helping us with either of these problems with our room; so we've been put off staying there a bit. Just wondered if you had had different experience and whether we were just unluckey?? thanks

[esmeralda]

I've had a look at Hotel Santa Fe last week and i was very impressed with the construction that was going on!!! New colors on the building that are similar to the original version but way warmer! I was so happy to see how well it looked and i'm absolutely looking forward to see the result! Anyone interested in a few pics? Let me know!

We stayed there in June and they were decorating the outside of the building when we went so would love to see your photo's of the buildings!

What was your room like?? We had problems with the safe not working and the plug in the bathroom sink getting stuck. Reception did not seem interested in helping us with either of these problems with our room; so we've been put off staying there a bit. Just wondered if you had had different experience and whether we were just unluckey?? thanks

We stayed at Sequioa Lodge. As usual we just take a stroll around every single hotel cause we love each hotel We also stayed several times at Santa Fe but last time in '06. I guess next year we'll be back!
Sorry, for no information about rooms standard. Usually reception was helpful in every hotel we stayed. I'm sorry to hear you had bad experience!
Pics are coming later! They are not finished with painting but i didn't expect construction going on already, that's why i was so surprised and happy!