4/6 Disney’s Art of Animation Resort Update – Additions to Little Mermaid Buildings

Hi everyone!

We weren’t expecting to have an update of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort so soon – we usually head over to cover it every 2-3 weeks, but we were at Disney’s Pop Century and found enough new to take photos/video of for an interim update (i.e. – I won’t be showing as much of the areas that we regularly cover).

Last week we shared quite a bit new, including Timon and Pumbaa on one of the Lion King buildings!

While we were driving past the resort, Jeff noticed Lightning McQueen being added to the front of the main building (Animation Hall):

The biggest visible changes are to the Little Mermaid section. Fish are now being added to the guest buildings. The waves have more depth in them as well.

Here are some photos of the Finding Nemo Courtyard, but I don’t think there will be many changes now – it appears to be mostly done.

 

The Legendary Years still are posted on the Generation Gap Bridge:

Timon:

Finding Nemo:

 

The Cars section:

 

The Cars section is themed like the Cozy Cone Motel, and you can see cones below:

 

 

Animation Hall:

 

It’s less than 2 months until the first phase of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort opens! May 31st is the opening date of Finding Nemo (and Animation Hall), followed by Cars on June 18th, The Lion King on August 10th, and The Little Mermaid on September 15th. The Little Mermaid section is the only one that will have standard rooms, the rest of the resort will be suites. This will be the first time that a value resort will have interior hallways – Cars, The Lion King and Finding Nemo will all have interior rooms. The Little Mermaid section has exterior hallways just as at the other value and moderate resorts.

Disney has long needed family suites, I spent 6 years as a Disney specialist travel agent (and one year before that at the Disney Reservation Center) and the biggest request was for connecting rooms, bigger rooms, anything so a family could together. Well, that and a reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table! It took a long time for the former Legendary Years buildings to be used, but I think it will be worth the wait. Disney just created some pretty amazing themed guest rooms at Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside, and Disney’s Art of Animation Resort will completely immerse guests in the same way. I think the hardest part will be deciding which section to choose!