Hotel Review: Art of Animation

Of all the Disney movie scenes that I dreamed of recreating, that scene in The Lion King: the one when baby Simba and baby Nala make bad decisions and decide to jump around the elephant boneyard--that scene was not one of them. I will circle back to this.

Flash forward 24 years, and I decided to take a quick solo trip to Walt Disney World, selecting Art of Animation (new, cheap!) as the place to rest my head. Even better was the discovery that the Little Mermaid section is the only section of the hotel that is not dedicated to family suites.

Swirling in my head was the notion of waking up in my Little Mermaid themed room, combing my hair with a fork, holding up gadgets and gizmos, and singing "Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat?" A true vacation getaway.

The Art of Animation sat vacant for years across from Pop Century, before being fully developed into the colorful and massive resort that it is today. The lobby itself is really one of a kind. The walls are decorated with swaths of color and animation drawings of familiar characters like Crush, Sebastian, and Pumba. Each day, the resort provides animation classes so that you can return home with animator level ability to draw one of these characters. Chandeliers of sketches from Cars, the Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, and the Lion King hang from the ceiling. Every so often, the Art of Animation holds a signing ceremony where an actual animator will autograph his or her drawing and stick it in the chandelier. So cool.

The resort is broken up into lands that are themed from each of those four animated features. The Finding Nemo swimming pool is an absolute show stopper and the Lion King and Little Mermaid areas are 90s kid's dreams come true. There is a quick-service dining area that serves up bounty platters and mickey waffles in the morning and flat bread pizzas, hamburgers, pasta, and gelato in the evening.

The Little Mermaid room actually has a mirror that looks like a clam shell, shower tiling that makes you think you have Ariel's treasure trove just behind the shampoo, and song sheets with the lyrics to "Under the Sea." I could not get enough of my room. The mattresses leave something to be desired, but you are not in your room for that long anyway. What I didn't imagine was that I would have to walk through the Lion King section, to get to the Little Mermaid section…..passing an uplit elephant boneyard, at night after the parks, with only gentle cricketing behind jungle grass to keep you company.

The good news is that there is a backway, dotted with bright and colorful Finding Nemo characters that allows you to completely avoid this nightmare.

I have since returned to the resort, staying in the much more lively, nice, bright and bone-free Cars section. Upgraded to a family suite, this area and room type is now my favorite with quick access to the buses, two (!) bathrooms, one queen bed, a pulldown murphy bed (complete with surprise mural of a sleeping Mater), another pull-out sofa, and a mini kitchen. You can truly maximize this resort for your growing, traveling, mickey-ear wearing family.