When it comes to building a hotel that will make sense to operate with rooms going for less than $100 a night Disney isn't stupid.
Some of us would say it's Disney's insistence on courting the "less than $100 a night" market that's the stupid part.
The main reason they bought all those orange groves was to create a buffer from the cheap hotels and such that sprang up around
Disneyland, an aesthetic choice that Walt felt was central to the company's identity. Reversing that kind of decision just because you're the one cashing the checks, well, that sounds a lot like "selling out," to me.
I honestly believe the parks and animation would still be carrying the company if those kinds of choices, subtle but important changes of focus from the product to the cash flow, had been made in the other direction. Investing in creativity would have been better than out-sourcing it.
Ignore what you like - that is the good thing about these boards.
Ignore what you don't like - that is the productive thing about these boards.
-WFH
PS: I don't mean to be knocking Graves or his style... only to suggest that Graves' architecture is of a "straighter" nature than the high-end Disney resorts that preceded the S/D... and that the more subtle building flow theming doesn't fit a "Disney standard" as defined by those hotels, any more than does one decorated with with giant bowling pins. To revisit something I said about the All-Stars, when you're in the S/D, you know you're in a hotel in Central Florida in 2002, even if you appreciate the subtleties of Graves' archetectural themes.
I mean, consider the WL and the AKL, two resorts that a lot of folks would say epitomize Disney Magic. The lobbies are near archetectural dopplegangers, but it is the detail of the story-oriented art- and artifact-based theming that defines them differently (and, I think most folks would say, in a classically Disney fashion). Graves' buildings may be cool, but they represent a dilution of the resorts' previously strong brand identity.
The fact that the S/D munged up the World Showcase sightlines just adds insult to injury.