Could an innovative Disney World hotel take the resort to a whole new level?
©Disney
Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe has been making waves since it announced an opening date of May 22nd, 2025. The new theme park will feature several themed lands and a brand-new hotel — Universal Helios Grand Hotel — INSIDE the park. It’s been a popular practice to compare the future of Universal Orlando to Disney World’s future, which begs the question: will Disney World try its hand at putting a hotel inside one of its parks?
Disney World has some MASSIVE expansion plans of its own. For starters, its planned Villains Land in Magic Kingdom just might be the most anticipated future project among fans. Located beyond Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, this expansion will feature “two major attractions, plus dining and shopping. Walt Disney Imagineering is pushing creative boundaries to dark and mysterious levels to bring this new, first-of-its-kind land to life,” according to Disney. However, it also may be the perfect spot to add an in-park hotel.
Villains Land Concept Art ©Disney
Disney World currently does not have a hotel within a park, and as Universal Orlando continues to positively push the quality of competition between the two resorts, now might be the perfect time to add one.
©Disney
An in-park hotel, especially one themed after popular Disney villains, could be a major draw and really help Magic Kingdom take a huge step forward in the current theme park landscape. Additionally, Disney World is huge , and navigating the resort can be tedious. Building a hotel smack dab in the middle of a theme park would revolutionize the way some guests do Disney.
©Disney
That said, we’ve already seen a themed hotel experience fail quite recently with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. Its niche offerings, mixed with a high booking price, ultimately led to a quick permanent closure after being open for only a little over a year.
Perhaps Disney has been completely turned off to new themed hotels after the disaster that was the Galactic Starcruiser. Maybe the incentive is not there considering profitably, as made evident by the Star Wars hotel, is not guaranteed. It’s one thing to have a failure of a hotel adjacent to a Disney Park. Having a hotel bomb financially inside a theme park would be absolutely disastrous.
Galactic Starcruiser
Ultimately, at this point in time, there’s no reason to assume a hotel will be featured inside the new Villains Land. Disney has given us some breadcrumbs on what to expect, but no mention of an in-park hotel. However, we’ve seen concept art change more times than not, and it’s not like Disney World has never shifted plans around before.
The Evil Queen is EXCITED (or some other less happy emotion) about VILLAINS LAND!
It’s fun to speculate what may or may not come to the new Villains Land! Do you think we’ll finally see an in-park hotel? Let us know, and continue to follow us here at DFB for all the latest Disney World updates!
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Would you be in favor of the Villains Land including a villains-themed hotel? Does Disney World even need in-park hotels? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The GSC only failed because Disney totally botched the project.
Here are three things that would have made it a hide success.
1) It was too short and too intense. 3 nights with a ‘day off’ would have been better. And 6 days on 1 day off would have been a more sustainable schedule for the staff and the facility. And add pool or spa ‘excursions’ to another resort or water park.
2) Marketed by the DCL team. They know how to sell premium
offerings. At a similar price point for 3 nights the trip would have been no more expensive then a cruise on the Wish.
3) On the new third night have an exclusive nighttime event in GE. People were so obsessed with getting points to qualify into the Yoda finale their trip to GE was literally no fun. Along with the day off from the gaming to enjoy themselves add an experience after hours in GE that only can be accessed by GSC guests.