Last month I spent almost a week at a Disney resort hotel in Orlando. I was there to attend a meeting, and didn't expect much. But to my surprise, I found the hotel and its setting much more interesting than any other Disney site I've ever visited.
In recent years, Disney has increasingly turned to well-known architects for some of the entertaiment giant's high-end properties. Post-modernist Michael Graves designed several buildings at the Disney headquarters in Burbank California, including the Team Disney building, with its classical pediment supported by caryatids in the shape of the seven dwarfs.
I stayed at Disney's Animal Kingdon Lodge designed by Denver's Peter Dominic. It's set in the middle of a savannah populated by African animals, and yes, it's possible to see browsing giraffes or racing impalas from right out the guestroom windows. The building quotes many African design motifs, complete with (faux) thatched roofs, and balconies that appear to be supported by massive timbers that are actually cast concrete painted in earth tones.
But the resort, which has more than 1200 guest rooms, turns out to be visually impressive and memorable. Disney has amassed a collection of museum-quality African art, including a breath-taking 16-foot tall ijele mask from Nigeria's Igbo people. Here's the mask on display in the lobby with an amazed spectator trying to take it all in. (Incidentally, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes about a festival featuring these giant masks in her wonderful novel about Nigeria, Purple Hibiscus).
The chandeliers in the six-story lobby are one of my favorite features. They're made from full-sized Masai shields.
But everywhere I looked, I found great stuff, including the appliqued wall hanging behind the registration desk.
My room had an odd combination of the real thing--gorgeous Ndebele baskets permanently attached to the wall and an excellent silk-screened print illustrating an African proverb--and the faux. The headboard and mirror frame were resin made to look like carved wood, for example.
The hotel had many African ebony items including footstools by the television sets in the lobby that continually ran Disney cartoons, and a pair of huge ostrich-shaped light fixtures topped by egg-shaped globes.
Disney hires a dozen African young people every year to come to the hotel and act as docents for the art collection and the animals. Typically they are involved in conservation or tourism back in their home countries, and are adept at gracefully answering the same questions over and over again. (They are NOT happy to be asked where they learned their English, given that English is one of the official language of a number of the countries from which they come).
Here are some of the animals I saw from the hotel balconies and terraces, including the very long-horned Watusi Ankole cattle.
The hotel had two African restaurants, a very pricey white-table cloth version with what is the most extensive South African wine list in North America, and a huge buffet featuring some surprisingly good choices. I particularly liked sosaties, the mildly spicy bobotie, and a combination of stewed South African vegetables. Jiko is the high-end restaurant where I had a very good fillet served, rather improbably, on a bed of macaroni and cheese, accompanied by a big gutsy shiraz from South Africa's Western Cape region.
All in all, I would go back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which was a relativelycalm oasis in the midst of hurly-burly Disney World. I was steeled for plastic and hype and "Hakuna Matata" piped into the hallways 24 hours a day. Instead, I heard Ladysmith Black Mombazo and got to stay in a fancy resort much more interesting than the average convention hotel. It would be a fun place to take kids or grandkids, particularly those interested in animals, Africa, and/or art. But be sure to bring plenty of cash. This is not a place for families on a tight budget.
Here, in parting, are a couple of exterior shots of the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
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