On Wednesday we attended a general housing meeting where we learned about safety within our apartment communities and events that would take place throughout the year. There will be constant “welcome” programs for new college program students with free drinks, pizza, and Disney characters. Any stranger would immediately know that the Housing meeting was put on by Disney because there were sparkling lights, loud music, and smoke machines blowing fog as we entered the building – it was absolutely fun and ridiculous.
The next day all 6 roommates had the day off so we decided to ride some busses and figure out how to get to important places like Disney University where we would be completing Traditions (our introduction to the Walt Disney company, overall) and initial training for our roles. The busses took quite a while to get to and from Disney University – about 45 minutes or so – but we still had fun figuring out the bus system and schedules. When we got back to The Commons, we hopped on another bus to check out the Art of Animation Resort – my work place! Again, a very long bus ride but totally worth it. When we arrived, we were overwhelmed by the design of the buildings. The side of each building had large portraits of Disney characters then huge sketches of the same characters in motion. Here’s a panorama picture of The Lion King building to help me explain:
Mufasa pouncing!
The first picture that I HAD to take when we arrived at DAAR (Disney’s Art of Animation Resort because I’m trying to learn acronyms).
We were so excited by The Lion King building that we all immediately decided to explore the area between the two buildings where large statues of many of the movie’s characters were placed. We squealed with delight as we found more and more of our favorite characters, taking pictures all through the little walkway from one movie resort building to another. We saw all characters except Nala and Sarabi (Simba’s mom). We still are unsure of why this is? Nala was a major character, right?! Anyway, enough contemplating.
The Lion King has been my favorite movie for about 19 years now sooo I was pretty excited.
:3
The Elephant’s Graveyard. Children can go underneath the “rocks” through a little tunnel if they want to play (which they do because this place is awesome).
After exploring The Lion King buildings, we headed to “The Landscape of Flavors” – the resort’s only “restaurant” that is in the style of a food court and “grab and go market”. Since the resort is geared more toward children, it seems that quick service food and beverage options are the best options as the families staying here want to get to the parks or the resort’s 3 pools as quickly as possible. Food ranges from Indian food options to pizza to gourmet sandwiches. I had a Caprese sandwich (too much bread, too big, should’ve gotten the tandoori chicken), a small package of fruit, and a water. Overall it was great lunch and the experience overall was very nice. The restaurant includes the word “landscape” because original portraits of landscapes of the featured Disney movies surround the dining area – it’s very pretty!
I forgot to explain how the resort is set up! There are four different building sites featuring 4 Disney and Disney Pixar movies – Cars, Finding Nemo, The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid. All but TLM are family suites while TLM contains value suites – two Queen beds or a King bed with an attached room with two Queen beds (these buildings are much cheaper in price than those with family suites).
After lunch, we explored the “Ink and Paint Shop” or the resort’s small merchandise store – every Disney resort has to have one, you know? 🙂 The store is named as such because it had large statues near the ceiling of paintbrushes with color on them – the tools necessary to create the landscapes in “Landscape of Flavors” and the sketches of characters in “Animation Hall” where the lobby is located.
When guests first check in, they will turn to their right and see large, original, and actual sketches of characters from each of the featured Disney movies of the resort. At the beginning, the sketches are early, almost unrecognizable and in black and white. As guests move forward, the sketches look more and more like the actual characters featured in each movie and have color added to them. It was a great concept and I swear that my roommate, Cristina and I looked at every sketch on the wall while the rest of the roomies still looked at items in the store.
We then briefly explored the Finding Nemo pool area – aptly named “The Big Blue Pool” before heading to “Radiator Springs” then finally “Under The Sea”.
The Big Blue Pool. Apparently Nemo is the size of an average guest so the other statues are HUGE in actual comparison to little Nemo.
Featuring the “Cozy Cone Pool” and statues of almost every character from Cars. Lightning McQueen is currently “under construction”. Maybe he needs a new coat of paint?
Fishes cover the sides of each building. The fishes on Ursula’s building are swimming away from her with frightened faces. P.S. This statue is HUGE.
Then we headed out to our “Adventure is Out There” welcome party for new college program students. It was Up-themed and we were able to take pictures with Russell and Carl. My roommate Jessica has yet to upload the pictures – she’s a very busy lady but as soon as I get them, I will post them! Here is a picture from the event – it was so fun!
Me and my roommate, Jessica!
We had a very fun, exhausting day. We all went to bed early because we had the 4-hour long Traditions course the following day.
More to come!
I had a great day at the Art of Animation Resort!
Love,
AG
Adventure is Out There! 