September 30, 2009

Resort Roundup: Disney's Grand Californian Resort and Spa

Opening in 2001 as apart of a major Disneyland Resort expansion, with the opening of Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel, Disney's California Adventure and Downtown Disney, Disney's Grand Californian Resort and Spa has the distinction of being the only Disney built, owned and operated hotel/resort in Disneyland Resort, as both PPH and DLH were built by other companies and originally ran by other companies as well. Also, this resort has its own entrance into Disney's California Adventure, as guests enter into and exit out of the Golden State area of the park. Many of the hotel's rooms and features are tributes to various Craftsman-era architects and designers. For instance, two of the Guest Suites, as well as the California Boardroom, pay homage to Frank Lloyd Wright; the Napa Rose restaurant features a rose motif in the glass design which was inspired by Charles Rennie MacKintosh. The Storytellers Cafe features a large tile mural that is a reproduction of an original design by the Gladding McBean Company for a Robin Hood Room in the Wilmington, Calif. public libraryDesigned by architect Peter Dominick of Urban Design Group Inc., it is based on the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 1900s. Despite the large scale of the hotel, the architecture still captures the key elements of the Craftsman style: wide sweeping roofs, projecting beams, exaggerated braces and colors that blend with nature. The exterior evokes the feel of National Park Service lodges of the Western United States. The interior design of the hotel also features the Craftsman motif, albeit on a larger scale. Many Craftsman homes have a garden theme. For the Grand Californian, the theme was taken from a garden idea and scaled up so that the garden became a forest. The reception hall is based on the interior of the Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco, increased in scale to accommodate the large reception desk. The central lobby is a living room done in immense scale with a massive fireplace and vast arching beams overhead, and furnished with comfortable chairs and sofas arranged around small coffee tables. The glowing nook in front of the fireplace features rocking chairs in which to enjoy the fire.In response to a growing demand for guest accommodations in Anaheim, the Disneyland Resort announced on September 18 2007 an expansion of Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa that will increase accommodations by more than 30 percent and will include the first Disney Vacation Club villas in Anaheim. The 2.5-acre expansion on the hotel's south side will add more than 200 new hotel rooms and 50 two-bedroom equivalent vacation villas. Those vacation villas, planned to include kitchens, living and dining areas and other home-like amenities, will mark the West Coast debut of Disney Vacation Club. The new expansion is known as The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, which opened last week on September 23, 2009. Other elements planned for the project include a rooftop deck for viewing fireworks, a new swimming pool and about 300 underground parking spaces. Peter Dominick, architect for Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa as well as Disney's Wilderness Lodge and Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida is designed this ambitious expansion.
There havent been many pins released for the Grand Californian, but the ones that have been released seem basically the same, the logo with the pine tree... Take a look for yourself...

That is it for today... Stay tuned for tomorrow, the beginning of Pin Trading Month, for the 10th Anniversary of Pin Trading... I promise even if you arent a pin trader, which i know many of you arent, you will like this... Stay tuned... And sorry for the delay of this post

Pics from Wikipedia.org and PinPics.com

September 26, 2009

Weekly (Pin) News

On today's WPN, we will take a look at this weeks Pin and Park news....

First off, we will breifly talk about the 10th Anniversary PWP Promotion that we talked about earlier in the week, to check that out, go to http://gdpinvestigation.blogspot.com/2009/09/10th-anniversary-of-pin-trading.htmlThe rest of this weeks Pin News is basically shared by both coasts...

First off, we have a preview of a new "Pin Trading Nights" pin logo that will be shared between WDW and DLR, the pin will feature the Pin Trading Logo with a Mickey and the 10th Anniversary Logo, each pin will feature Mickey in a difference outfit or style, these will be LE 500, and will be released January 2010- October 2010.This next piece of news is about a new "Pin Chaser" promotion...
This mystery collection, releasing in 2010, will have multiple levels of chasers. There will be 10 pins in the set including one full color set (pictured below). Like previous mystery sets, there will be two randomly selected pins sold together in one box. This set will be released in both California and Florida. Additionally, there will be a set of chasers that will feature pins using the artwork above but they will be produced in a different color base metal (think of those red Doombuggies from Disney Summer Pin Festival 2009). They will be randomly intermixed with the full color versions in the retail set. The most exciting part is the third level of chaser. There will be 10 pins featured in gold that use the same artwork pictured above. These pins will only be available for trade from select Disney Cast Members in Florida and California. Think of them as Hidden Mickey pins 2.0. Also previewed this week were a sneak peak of new Hidden Mickey Pins coming to WDW and DLR... These first pictured are of some of DLR's, and below that is a preview of WDW's... If anyone has any ideas on what the dove looking thing is please comment or email me i would love to know... These pics were from DisneyPins.com, but were taken off after 24 hours, so we are your only site to see these.Finally in the Pin News, the color your own pin has been moved from being released in October 2010 to sometime in March 2010.A "viral" marketing campaign by DisneyPins.com had more information released this week, after about 2 months of NO NEW NEWS, FindtheDeeBees.com has released more information.From posters released on PDF (which are no longer avalible) it is said, in DeeBee language that more information will be ready on OCTOBER ONE. I think more info will be shared about these at the Pin Trading Night on that night at the Contemporary. Here are three new DeeBees.. Candee (top), Latee (middle), and Scaree (bottom).

Our final piece of news is from DisneylandNewsToday.com and features pictures from Disneyland's new additions for Halloween...

These first pics are of the "Halloween Screams!" featuring a "blow up" head of Jack Skellington (top), and a flying Zero (bottom), using the same contraption as Dumbo and TInkerbell use in Magical.Another addition to DL this year for Halloween is Space Mountian: Ghost Galaxy... Both items for DLR debuted to the public yesterday..

One final piece of news that come to us from the Princess and the Frog, is just a new movie poster, it looks really good and really CANT wait for it to come out.I hope you all enjoyed this WPN, please please please vote on our Blog Poll on What you are most looking forward too in the Fantasyland Expansion???

September 25, 2009

Pics and Pins of Tokyo's Cinderella Castle

Today's Pics and Pins we feature Tokyo's Castle (we have many pics, because as with many TDL stuff, im sure not as many of you have been as to WDW)..

These first few pics are of the castle before its "makeover" with the new paint color scheme..In 2006, the castle got a makeover and the outside of the castle was covered with construction equipment and getting ready to be painted.Then later that year, the new castle was unveiled, to be a bit "browner" and have a tiny tiny "pink" tint..
The OLC likes to decorate its castle as well, but for all the major events like Christmas and Halloween as well, not just anniversarys.They also decorated it for the 25th Anniversary last year. Now on to the pins, as with many of our Tokyo segments of any series, the Pins part is lacking because Tokyo has barely any pins..A lot of times when Tokyo's Cinderella Castle is represented it has a mountain in the background to distinguish it from Magic Kingdom's.
That is it for today... Tomorrow we will have the WPN with the weekly pin and park news... Also, please vote on our new Blog Poll at the top right corner of the page. Coming up in October, a month of Pin Trading.. Even if you dont like pins, stay tuned, i think you will like this.

September 24, 2009

Pics and Pins of Cinderella's Castle

Today we will take a look at the Pins released that have to do with Magic Kingdom's Cinderella's Castle. We wont take a long look at the castle using pictures because im sure that many of you have seen the castle in person.

Here is another blueprint... (im trying to get a bigger pic, but for now, here is a better view)The classic view of Magic Kingdom's Cinderella Castle, circa 2005.A pin released for the 20th Anniversary of Magic Kingdom...Many castle pins featured have a silver or "metal" look to them..A lot of Pins featuring the castle have the Partners Statue in it...Tinkerbell is also featured a lot with the Castle...A retro look to the castle, THIS IS NOT THE 25th ANNIVERSARY CASTLE In 1996, the company decided to "decorate" the castle with some pink frosting, candles and candies, for the resort/park's 25th Anniversary.Another time the company decorated the castle was in 2005, for Disneyland's 50th Anniversary... It featured gold outlays over the castle, featuring many Disney characters and a giant changing mirror that featured pictures of the 5 castles around the world.Many pins were made for this celebration featuring the castle.
In Winter 2006, the Disney Company decorated the castle with "Castle Dream Lights" which seem to give the castle an "icy" feeling

That is it for today... Tomorrow we will take a look at the Pics and Pins of Tokyo Disneyland's Cinderella Castle... Stay Tuned...