Disney unveils plans for Hawaii...

See attached link for details on news story...

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/ ... ily41.html

 

Can't wait to use my points there!

 

In case people don't want to go to the link...



Walt Disney Parks & Resorts on Thursday unveiled a model of a resort scheduled to open on Oahu in 2011.

The mixed-used resort includes 350 hotel rooms and 480 vacation villas for Disney Vacation Club members.

The family-focused resort will be located on 21 acres at Ko Olina Resort & Marina in West Oahu.

Disney officials expect the project to generate 1,000 new jobs ranging from entry-level positions to management.

Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, declined to provide cost estimates for the project, room pricing, whether employees might have labor representation, or how much access to the property local residents will have.

The resort will feature two towers, gardens, pools, water slides, a fake volcano caldera, spa, banquet and meeting space, and wedding facilities.

Disney film characters played by humans, such as mermaids, are expected to play a regular role at the resort.

This is Disney’s first vacation club-hotel venture to be separate from its theme parks in California, Florida and Japan. Disney also operates vacation clubs in Vero Beach, Fla., and Hilton Head, S.C.

Disney announced its plans at Kapolei Hale, Honolulu’s second city hall. Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, City Councilman Todd Apo, Ko Olina developer Jeff Stone and Ko Olina resort executive John Toner attended.

Rasulo said Disney is confident about the long-term prospects for Hawaii’s tourist economy, currently in the midst of one of its most serious downturns.

 

Ok, this is just TOO cute! ; I wonder if Lilo will appear as well? ;

 

Wouldn't it be wonderful? ; She'd have to, wouldn't she? Breakfast at Ohanas isn't a fix enough for me - I love Lilo. ; (And I've somewhat forgiven her for being the first of the group of Mickey, Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, etc. to shatter my eldest daughter's illusions - when DD was not quite 4, she asked me why Lilo had velcro on her back!)

Even though I LOVE Disney, when we first had kids I thought, we'll we won't be able to get back to Hawaii again very often - we've been fortunate enough to vist Oahu, Kuaui, and Maui several times. ; Now I'll have a way to combine both passions!

 

Source: http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/11600/245/
click on link to see 3 videos from event.

Groundbreaking Held for Disney Ko Olina Resort

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Mickey Mouse and the gang will be in Ko Olina today for the groundbreaking of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts first family destination resort. The 800 unit resort is scheduled to open in Hawai'i in 2011. It should create nearly one thousand jobs for Hawaii.

Located at the picturesque Ko Olina Resort & Marina on the western side of O'ahu, the resort will include hotel rooms and Disney Vacation Club timeshare villas. For more information: www.disneyvacationclub.com

The 21-acre oceanfront property overlooks white sand beaches and crystal blue lagoons and is destined to become a perfect place for families to discover the wonders of Hawai'i. The resort has been designed to honor the local culture of the Hawaiian islands. During the past year, the Walt Disney Imagineering team has worked with local architects and cultural experts on O'ahu and throughout the state as part of the creative design process for the resort. The resulting design is a village celebrating the Hawaiian customs and traditions that lead to a life filled with joy and in harmony with the natural world.

Upon completion, the resort will include 350 hotel rooms and 480 Disney Vacation Club timeshare villas along with an 18,000- square-foot spa and an 8,000 square-foot conference center. Both on-site restaurants will feature foods unique to Hawai'i. One of the restaurants will offer views of the spectacular sunsets for which the Leeward Coast is famous. And for couples dreaming of a perfect beginning, plans call for a wedding lawn with a serene view of the Pacific's endless horizons. A signature Disney kids' club with custom-planned activities and adventures is also in development.

As part of the signature water way at the pool, family friendly tubes and body slides will weave through volcanic rockwork and engage an iconic caldera volcano, while a nearby wading pool gives parents with toddlers a welcoming alternative to the sprawling fun pool. In addition, more adventurous family members will swim with vibrant fish in a saltwater snorkel lagoon.

Disney Vacation Club Part of the Disney resort in Ko Olina will be dedicated to Disney Vacation Club, a vacation-ownership program that helps families enjoy flexibility and savings on vacations for decades to come. By purchasing a real estate interest in a Disney Vacation Club resort, families enjoy flexible vacations at Disney destinations worldwide as well as hundreds of other popular Member Getaways vacation locations around the globe.

Disney Vacation Club accommodations blend Disney's famed attention to storytelling detail with all the comforts of home. From well-appointed studios equipped with convenient kitchenettes to sprawling, multiroom villas complete with full-size kitchens, washers and dryers, luxury tubs and other homelike amenities, Disney Vacation Club Resorts create flexible options to meet the needs of thousands of families from around the world. Disney Resorts Walt Disney Parks & Resorts operates 38 resort hotels with more than 35,000 hotel rooms worldwide.

Disney Vacation Club existing properties include the following eight deluxe resorts:

; ; * Disney's Old Key West Resort
; ; * Disney's BoardWalk Villas
; ; * The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge
; ; * Disney Beach Club Villas
; ; * Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
; ; * Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas
; ; * Disney's Vero Beach Resort
; ; * Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort

Fun Facts About Disney and Hawai'i:

Disney's fascination with Hawai'i began in the company's infancy, with founder Walt Disney. From the 1937 Mickey Mouse animated short “Hawaiian Holiday” to the Hawaiian setting of Disneyland's groundbreaking Enchanted Tiki Room attraction, which debuted in 1963, to the inclusion of Disney's Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World Resort, Walt often pulled inspiration from the islands.

Walt Disney Pictures continued the Hawaiian legacy in 2002 with the hit animated film “Lilo & Stitch.” The Walt Disney Company also does extensive film work in Hawai'i, including on-location production for the hit ABC series “Lost.” The Walt Disney Studios feature film “Pearl Harbor” also was shot on location in O'ahu. Ko Olina means "place of joy."

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Quick Facts Date Announced:
October 3, 2007

Location/Geography:
Disney Resort & Spa at Ko Olina will be located on the island of O'ahu's western
side in the picturesque Ko Olina Resort & Marina.

Size:
21 acres

Planned Number of units:
350 hotel rooms
480 Two-bedroom equivalent vacation villas for Disney Vacation Club

Planned Restaurants:
One full-service restaurant and one buffet restaurant

Planned Convention Space:
8,000 Sq. Ft.

Planned Spa:
Full-service spa, 18,000 Sq. Ft.

Workforce:
Approximately 1,000 Cast Members anticipated

 

We are defiantely gonna check this place out! ; Hope we don't have a hard time booking at the 7 month mark.

 

That's my fear too.

 

Disney unveils resort hotel, spa for Oahu

Seventy years after his first ride on Hawaii surf, Mickey Mouse is finally coming back to the islands.

Disney's plan for a Hawaii hotel complex is far from another Disneyland, both in distance and concept.

But Walt Disney Parks and Resorts' first venture in the islands will add 830 hotel and vacation time-share rooms, a fantasy-laden water play area and an 18,000 square-foot spa to the rapidly expanding Ko Olina resort on West Oahu.

The complex is expected to be complete in 2011.

A detailed scale model of the complex was displayed at a news conference with Disney officials and Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

It'll be the first such complex for Disney away from a theme park, combining a 350-room hotel with 480 vacation villas on one of Ko Olina's four man-made lagoons, which already feature a Marriott hotel and timeshares, a luxury condominium project and wedding chapels.

"We plan to offer the opportunity for our guests to vacation in a completely new way, very different than they do at our theme park resorts, when they come here to Hawaii – to be surrounded, to discover Oahu, to discover the Hawaiian Islands," said Disney resorts chairman Jay Rasulo.

The resort is expected to hire 1,000 "cast members," Rasulo said. Many will come from Oahu's relatively low-income Leeward Coast.

He noted that one of Walt Disney's earliest films, "Hawaiian Holiday" of 1937, featured Mickey on a surfboard in the islands.

Disney has several themed resort hotels near Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida, but has never built a hotel and time-share complex that will stand on its own.

Rasulo had said there were no plans to expand the resort into a theme park.

The timeshare units will be part of the 350,000-member family-oriented Disney Vacation Club, which has eight other resorts

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbc ... /811293874

 

Hoping to get something at the 7 month mark also!

Wonder how many points to spend two weeks there?