Dining ... to Die For

One of my favorite Disney dining experiences can be found NOT at Walt Disney World...but rather, on the other coast ...  at Disneyland.  It would be none other than the Blue Bayou restaurant in New Orleans Square.  More specifically...in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.  I spent many a visit to Disneyland as a kid hoping and praying my parents would take us to dinner there.  I had to wait MANY years later when my beautiful wife treated me to dinner here for my birthday.

For those of you that have never been to Disneyland or have never heard of the Blue Bayou ... the restaurant, as I mentioned, is actually inside Pirates of the Caribbean.  Guests enjoy their meal "outdoors" alongside the Louisiana bayou that leads passing boats to a certain Carribbean adventure.  The "skies" are lit by starlight and fireflies as guests hear crickets chirping in the background.  The menu is full of Cajun and Creole style offerings.

There are so many things I love about this restaurant.  I love the fact that the setting, the theming, and the menu all work together to support a unique dining experience.  The sights...the sounds...the flavors...all working in unison.  THAT'S what Disney dining should be about.

The other thing that I absolutely love....the thing that really draws many guests in initially...is the fact that you get to dine right in the middle of a classic Disney attraction.  You essentially become part of the attraction....YOU help set the theme for the guests just beginning their Pirates journey.

Walt Disney World does have a couple restaurants that flirt with this concept.  The first one that comes to mind is the San Angel Inn, inside the Mexico Pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase.  It sits near the Gran Fiesta Tour and has a beautiful Mexican backdrop.  And much like the Blue Bayou, it offers the ambiance of starlight dining no matter what time of day.  Yet...in my book...it fails to match what the Blue Bayou offers.  Maybe because Gran Fiesta Tour isn't quite the classic attraction that Pirates of the Caribbean is.

Another option (again in Epcot, though this time in Future World) is Coral Reef....inside The Seas with Nemo and Friends pavilion.  But...while you are surrounded by an aquarium, you aren't exactly IN the attraction.  And, you could also make the case for Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle.

So...the question I pose is, what attraction would also double as a great table service meal option?  Here's my pitch (which is bound to turn some off)....  The Haunted Mansion.  Yes...this may be a bit of a stretch (no pun intended)....but here's what I have in mind.  Expand the Ballroom and offer a signature dining experience.  Maybe...Master Gracey's Feast?!?!  The story would be that you've been invited to the mansion for an "other worldly" dinner party.  Little would you know that the 999 inhabitants of the mansion would also be making an appearance.

I would enhance many of the "scenes" in the ballroom...in order to prevent diners from seeing the same ghosts perform the same actions over and over and over again.  In addition to the haunts that currently reside within the mansion, other guests would serve as ghosts.  This would need a little help from modern (or future) technology.  I picture some sort of seamless (and invisible) two-way mirror between the guests riding the attraction and the guests dining in the Ballroom.  This two-way mirror causes guests one side of the mirror to appear faded and "ghostly" to guests on the other side of the mirror.  So the diners appear to be ghosts themselves to the attraction riders...and vice versa....all in addition to both sets of guests seeing the haunts that permanently inhabit the Haunted Mansion.

The servers would have to be some of the finest Cast Members in WDW... much like many of the current Haunted Mansion cast members.  Each member of the wait staff would need to speak with the monotone creepiness that they are so well known for.  The hosts and hostess would have to be almost Lurch (from the Addams Family) like.  The food would mirror that of a "typical" upper class feast of Colonial times.

The capacity would have to be somewhat limited....(think Le Cellier).  If the Ballroom would expanded by too much, it would take away from the existing attraction.  So it would have to be done in a manner that complimented it.  That remains the whole point....this needs to enhance the current attraction...not reduce it.

So...what are your thoughts on combining dining with attractions?  What attraction do YOU think would best incorporate a restaurant?

DVC Atlantis?

Rumors have been abundant lately regarding the next Disney Vacation Club property to be announced for Walt Disney World.  A recent post on DVCNews.com highlighted information suggesting a potential California-themed resort.  There have been other rumors flying around about the resurrection of the previously planned Buffalo Junction resort, which was discussed in a great post on the Progress City USA site.  Regardless of what the theme is, it does seem that a WDW DVC resort will be announced in the not-too-distant-future (or...maybe like Bay Lake Tower...it will just be built and then announced once it is almost complete).

So knowing that construction of a new DVC property is most likely on the horizon, let's discuss what the theme SHOULD be.  I don't want to knock the themes that have been churned out via the rumor mill...but to be honest they just don't thrill me.  Granted, details are limited (and even the ones that exist are hypothetical)...but I haven't heard anything yet that has me itching to add on.

And that's the whole goal, right?!?!  Get potential owners excited enough to plop down tens of thousands of dollars.  Animal Kingdom Lodge created that excitement....Bay Lake Tower created that excitement....but a California resort does not, in my opinion, create excitement.  If I wanted to stay at a California themed resort near a Disney park, I'd go to the Grand Californian at Disneyland Resort (yes...I get that the proposed resort at WDW will be different than that of the Grand Californian...but still).

So what is another option for a DVC theme?  The theme should be one that recreates an experience that will be unique to the average guest.  An experience that takes the guest away to another world...either real or imagined.  Each resort at Walt Disney World is its own attraction.  Sure...some are executed better than others...but for this newest DVC I want us to think big!!!  So what do I propose?  Nothing less than the Lost City of Atlantis....

First off, I want to acknowledge that yes, I know, an Atlantis Resort already exists in The Bahamas.  While I have been to Nassau, I haven't actually been to the resort itself.  I almost considered bypassing this proposal simply based on that resorts existence.  However, I think we can all agree...Disney does things in a way that no other company does.  It is safe to say that Atlantis DVC would be a completely different experience than Atlantis in The Bahamas.

With that out of the way, let's move on.  The Lost City of Atlantis....Villas?!?!  Needless to say, water will be a major theme here.  Obviously the resort cannot ACTUALLY be underwater.  But the theme needs to be thick enough that that "minor detail" doesn't matter to the guest.  The exterior grounds would be made up of various "ruins" and larger than life coral.  These structures would serve two purposes...one would be to set the scene of an ancient, underwater civilization.  The other would be to guide and direct the multitude of waterfalls that would flow down from the resort building itself, on to (and off of) these ruin and coral structures, and then through the surrounding grounds.  If done in just the right manner it would give the illusion that the resort was surrounded and engulfed by water.

The rooms would continue to drive home the "submerged" experience for the guest.  By using the same "virtual porthole" technology that is being installed on the new Disney Cruise Line ships, each room would have a "window" out into the surrounding seas.  This window would allow guests to gaze out at the sea life as if they, too, were residents of the ocean deep.  In addition to schools of exotic fish, sharks, and dolphins...perhaps even the occasional mermaid would swim by.

It would only be natural to build in some sort of aquarium into the resort...perhaps on the main level.  This aquarium would have to appear seamless with it surroundings.  I could see this being incorporated with the swimming pool.  Perhaps the sides of the main pool would be clear...and shared with the aquarium.  So guests would feel like they were swimming next to the fish (despite being separated by industrial strength plexiglass like material).  The pool would also, naturally, be fed by the surrounding waterfalls.

Other tidbits that would be worked into the resort:

• A seafood restaurant that would serve meals "farmed from the resorts surroundings" (not really...but it's all part of the story). 
• Sailor Stories:  Much how other resorts (Animal Kingdom Lodge, for example) have some sort of campfire storytelling in the evening..."sailors" could tell the tale of Atlantis...as well as other "fish tales".
• I did consider working in aspects and characters from the Disney animated feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire.  But by Disney standards the movie was hardly a "classic".  So it is probably best left alone, with the exception of maybe some Atlantis merchandise in the shops.

As I mentioned before...this is "dreaming big".  The cost to build and maintain such a resort would make this a tough sell from a business standpoint.  But isn't that what Walt Disney was all about?  Isn't he the one who challeged his team to build a "mountain" in the middle of Anaheim, California way back in the 1950s?  Shouldn't this company continue to take on even greater challeges?  I believe so. 

In future posts, we'll discuss other potential resort themes.  But what do you think? What would you build into our Atlantis?  Or would you go a completely different direction?

Monorail Expansion: The Right Track

If you were to poll the average, "hardcore" Walt Disney World fan (your Annual Pass-holders, DVC members, etc.) on the top 5 things that make up their WDW Wish List...I think a vast majority (75 percent, maybe?!?!) would include monorail expansion.  The topic has long been the source of rumors, raised expectations, and eventually disappointment.  To many, the monorail is the unofficial mode of transportation for Disney theme parks.  These vehicles are, without a doubt, an attraction in their own right.

So what routes should be considered when discussing monorail expansion?  Here are the 2 that jump to mind for me:

• Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC)-Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park-Animal Kingdom Lodge -  This route makes quite a bit of sense to me.  First off, Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park is the only WDW theme park of the four that is serviced exclusively by bus transportation.  Similarly, Animal Kingdom Lodge is the only Deluxe Resort that relies solely on bus transportation (as far as Disney mass transit options are concerned).  These two popular destinations are also viewed as 2 of the more "out there" locations on WDW property.  Now, much of that is intentional due to their theming.  Which is where my hesitation for adding this route comes in.  It would have to be done in way that respects their commitment to the wildlife reserve look and feel.  However, if anyone could pull this off, it would be Walt Disney Imagineering.
• Epcot-Caribbean Beach Resort-Pop Century Resort-All Star Resorts - To date, the monorail has exclusively catered to Deluxe Resorts.  The case could convincingly be made that that should remain the case.  For the rates a guest must pay to stay at these resorts, additional perks aren't just welcomed...they are expected.  And convenient and unique transportation is one of those perks.  But at its roots, the monorail is a mass transit system.  And if you want to truly maximize this system, you need to expand it in a way that will allow the greatest number of guests to take advantage of the service it offers.  This loop would open up the monorail to over 10,000 more rooms total.  Obviously, the right amount of planning would need to go into this expansion to ensure the monorail could handle that sort of load increase.  However, it has to be more efficient that the current bus system being offered to these locations.  More adventurous guests could even transfer twice, and end up at the Magic Kingdom.  Perhaps not as quick as a bus ride to the original Disney World park...but considerably more fun.

These are just 2 options out of countless combinations that could be dreamed up.  What route would you like to see added?  Or do you think the monorail system is fine as it is?