Disney’s Art of Animation Resort Photo Walk 2013 – Nemo, Cars, Little Mermaid, Lion King

Hi everyone!

As each section of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort opened, I posted a photo tour of that particular area. Today I’m tying everything together in a nice walk around the resort – a 20 minute timed walk, which could be extended by heading over the bridge to Disney’s Pop Century Resort!

Most of the photos were shot last weekend, a handful of them were pulled from the opening day of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort (which was less crowded than last Sunday).

I take photos first, and then I time the walk. I don’t stop for photos during the timed section.

Disney’s Art of Animation Resort is my favorite Value Resort. Remember, if you want to book the resort, that the only standard rooms are in the Little Mermaid section. All the other wings (Cars, Nemo, Lion King) are family suites. We have dozens of videos from construction to room tours and grounds tours.

Before the timed walk, we’ll look at the front entrance and then enter into Animation Hall, which houses the check-in area, Landscape of Flavors Food Court, the Pixel Play Arcade, and Ink and Paint Shop.

What I love about the lobby is all the artwork! Even John Lasseter signed a sketch for the chandelier.

The Ink and Paint Shop leads into the Landscape of Flavors, which has 4 sections themed to the different areas of the resort. You can see more of this in the Finding Nemo Wing Photo Tour from opening weekend.

We are heading out of Animation Hall on the other side of the chandelier (past the Ink and Paint Shop), starting our walk at 12:26 p.m. The Big Blue Pool – Walt Disney’s largest pool – is in front of us, and we’ll be walking to the right toward the Cars wing of the resort.

We are entering Radiator Springs!  Sheriff is the first Cars character you’ll find – but there are plenty more as we walk along Route 66. The Cars section is my favorite area of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.

Doc Hudson is the next character we find, on the right hand side. These cars are all solidly built! It only took us one minute to walk here from Animation Hall, it’s now 12:27 p.m. I walk at about a 3mph pace. 

On the left hand side, we find Flo:

And Ramone is on the right:

The Cozy Cone Motel sign was working (turning) when we were there:

We’ll be stopping the clock to see Luigi and Guido, since they aren’t on the timed portion of the walk.  The walkway splits around the Cozy Cone pool.

The entrance to the Cozy Cone Pool is the motel front – which has a lot of great details in the windows!

I like these reflections in the windows:

We are back on the timed portion of the walk, heading to Mater. We arrive to him just 2 minutes after we left Animation Hall, at 12:28 p.m.

We are walking toward Sarge, with an untimed stop at the Cozy Cone Pool. This is a GREAT pool location, with cabanas shaped as cones that don’t cost extra (first come, first serve). The pool is small, but we enjoyed spending time in the cabanas when we stayed.

 

We were told that Sarge’s Supply Hut here is a pool supply building.

Just around the corner is Lightning McQueen and Sally!

And we are walking to Fillmore, who has great detail on his bumper! When you finish this walk, check out my Cars section photo tour for more detail. 

We are walking towards Hourglass Lake, passing by the Luigi’s sign at 12:30 p.m. Without stopping for photos, I walked here from Animation Hall in 4 minutes.

We’ll be taking a left, but I wanted to show the Piston Peak sign that is to the right.

Now we are taking that left, you can see the Luigi’s sign we had already passed.

We are walking along Hourglass Lake, which divides Disney’s Pop Century Resort and Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. There are signs that line the path, giving information out about the movie that corresponds with the wing we are in.

We are arriving to the bridge that separates Disney’s Art of Animation Resort from Disney’s Pop Century Resort at 12:33 p.m. The bridge has been called the Generation Gap Bridge, but it was originally to span the two sections of Disney’s Pop Century Resort (Classic Years and the eventually defunct Legendary Years). I don’t know if the name has stayed the same, but I’ve not heard otherwise.

If we headed to the left, we’d be back at the Big Blue Pool and Animation Hall. But we’ll be going straight.

The walk here is continuing along Hourglass Lake, with the various buildings (including the Lion King section) to the left.

We are passing the “A Star is Born” sign at 12:36 p.m.

Heading into the Little Mermaid section:

Ursula:

The 50’s bowling pin section of Disney’s Pop Century Resort is across the lake as we walk further into this section.

We will be taking a left between buildings 7 and 8 at 12:39 p.m, which will take us to the Little Mermaid courtyard. The Flippin’ Fins pool is here, as well as huge character icons.

Ariel is on the right:

We are taking a left at Building 9:

And we pass King Triton at 12:41 p.m.:

I stop the clock to take a few photos of Sebastian and Ursula:

You can see the Flippin’ Fins pool in detail in my Art of Animation Little Mermaid Section Photo Tour.

We’ll be passing by Prince Eric in statue form:

King Triton and Prince Eric:

A Cast Member delivers items for a celebration:

Prince Eric:

We are now heading to the Lion King section, but we’ll find some recognizable icons from the Little Mermaid film along the way!

A treasure chest, a Dinglehopper, and a a Snarfblatt can be found here. I also love the foliage that looks like it comes from under the sea!

These trees separate the Little Mermaid section from the Lion King buildings.

Zazu and Scar are the first characters you’ll see as we walk toward the Boneyard. We arrive at the Boneyard at 12:43 p.m.

The Boneyard was originally touted as a playground, but it’s mostly just a nicely themed tunnel. The hyenas from The Lion King watch over guests below.

The next characters we find in this lush wing of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort are Timon, Pumba and Simba on top of a log. And further down the way, Mufasa and Rafiki.

When we stayed at the Lion King section of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, we found it very convenient to Animation Hall. But even the Cars section was very close, at 5 minutes or less walk. Disney’s Art of Animation Resort is very well laid out, and I like that all of the suite buildings have interior hallways.

We are less than a minute walk from Animation Hall when we pass Rafiki, and you’ll see the Finding Nemo seagulls as well! The Big Blue Pool will be on our left hand side. We arrive at Animation Hall at 12:46 p.m., 20 minutes after I first started.

Here are some photos (non timed) of the Big Blue Pool location and Schoolyard Sprayground water play area. You can find much more in my Finding Nemo section tour!

I was delighted to see the wonderful outcome of this property after so many years. When I worked at the Disney Reservation Center in 2000, it was set to be the Pop Century Legendary Years (9/11 halted construction on both sides of the resort). The Legendary Years were scrapped completely, and sat for about 10 years until construction started on Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. For 6 years of that time, I was a Disney specialized travel agent and watched as the All Star Music Resort tested Value suites. And once construction started, we started covering it for Mousesteps. It’s been quite the journey, but it was worth the wait.

Remember to check out our videos of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, and my detailed photo tours of each section.