Changes for Disney and a Suite for Dreamers

is now

Every month or so I get an e-mail from the Disney Company because I'm on the Disney Insider list. This is how I know what's going on and get my Disney fix :) Today the Disney Insider was about the new Disney Dream Suite in Disneyland. It made me think back and remember when Nathan was training me in the Gallery... He said, "And this is concept art of Walt's suite by Dorothea Redmond who worked on Gone With the Wind." My heart stopped for a minute as I realized the two things I love- Disney and Gone With the Wind, had just intertwined! AMAZING!
Here's Nathan and I working on the Gallery movie.
Jimmy took this picture of me on my last day working in the Gallery.
The last time I visited the Gallery before it closed.
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Anyway, I wanted to share the Disney Insider with you all today:

50 Years Later, a Dream Comes True

As the Year of a Million Dreams continues, the surprises keep coming. And nothing could be more surprising than the latest "dream come true" -- because the dreamer was Walt Disney himself! Walt had originally intended to use the space in Disneyland Park above Pirates of the Caribbean for a private apartment where he could entertain friends and VIPs. Detailed watercolor sketches created in the '60s showed a luxurious and elegant retreat, right in the heart of his beloved Park, but the suite was never completed. Now, dubbed "the Dream Suite," his apartment is being brought to life based on his original vision, with some very special surprises added.

The Dream Suite will be completed in February, but a stay there cannot be purchased at any price -- it can only be won. And throughout February, you have a chance to share Walt's dream with Disney.com's Dreams Come True sweepstakes. Five lucky entrants will each win trips to the Disney Parks -- and the grand prize winner will get a stay in the completed Dream Suite And every Guest who enters the sweepstakes will truly be a winner -- a different free digital prize can be yours each day, from Mickey and friends snow globes and bobbleheads to printable delights.

To see what awaits the lucky Guests who stay there, we talked to Kim Irvine, Walt Disney Imagineering Art Director on the Dream Suite project.

"Dorothea Redmond was an illustrator who had done some major pictures like 'Gone with the Wind.' She was asked by Walt to do most of the interior designs for the shops and restaurants in New Orleans Square at Disneyland. She had a really beautiful watercolor style -- kind of impressionistic, but all the detail was there. So he asked her to illustrate each room of his suite," she explains.

Walt Disney had a personal apartment on Main Street in Disneyland, which he used frequently. So why a second set of digs in the Park? "This is a little bit different -- Dorothea looked for furniture that would feel comfortable for entertaining, and it's just very elegant," says Kim. The new suite was to be a site for entertaining and gracious living, not a personal retreat.

Kim was well-prepared for the project: "I've been looking at the sketches for years now, because the place where the suite is being built is where the Disney Gallery used to be for years. A lot of the Disney fans knew that at one time that was going to be Walt's apartment, so we posted copies of the paintings up there so they could see what it would have looked like. The Imagineers got so far with the construction up there -- they put in the fireplace mantel and some of the decorative crown moldings, and the parquet floor that she has very clearly illustrated in her paintings -- and then they stopped. So it was very interesting to look at the paintings and say 'Oh, I can see that!' and imagine what it would have looked like if they had been able to finish it."

So our idea was to finish the suite, and get it as close as we could to the illustrations -- so that we're actually making Walt's dream come true, too!"

Although she'd been looking at Dorothea's watercolors for years, it was only when Kim began work on making the suite a reality that she realized there was a hidden theme to the renderings. "I started looking for fabrics and flooring and all the different elements that looked similar to what she had in her renderings," she explains. "As I started studying them, we noticed that each room has a little bit of a different style to it, although they blend together beautifully. And the styles actually mimic the Lands at Disneyland. I had never recognized it before after all those years of seeing the renderings, but once I really studied them I saw this pattern. We decided to take that storyline and go with it. It's very subtle -- it doesn't hit you in the face that each room has a Land theme -- but it is there."

The main sitting room of the suite is very New Orleans, decorated in French blue and mauve, and featuring a room divider with New Orleans scenes. The informal sitting room captures the spirit of Frontierland, with masculine colors and a Franklin stove. The little study is very Main Street -- Victorian with red-and-white striped wallpaper that recalls the good old days. On the other side of the suite, the main bedroom backs right up to Adventureland -- you can actually hear the animals from the Jungle Cruise when you're in that room. It has that exotic Victorian look that was popular in that era -- cane seating, leafy fabric, greens, and blues.



Although the bathroom was not included in the original paintings, Kim and her team decided to extend the "land" theme there -- with spectacular results. "One of the things I think the Guests will say is their favorite is the master bathtub," Kim smiles. "The master bathroom was never rendered by Dorothea -- we did it as our kind of nod to Fantasyland. There's a big sunken tub, surrounded by arches filled with glass mosaic showing Aurora standing by a pool of water. Within the stained glass tiles are fiber-optic stars. When you go in and push the button the lighting in the room goes way down and the stars come on, music begins to play, and it's a very elegant bathing experience!"



The luxurious surroundings aren't all indoors. The suite also incorporates a courtyard patio invisible to Park Guests, and a redesigned balcony looking over Pirates of the Caribbean -- a spot that becomes the best seat in the house for the nightly performance of the spectacular Fantasmic!

The suite is meticulously detailed to match the vision Walt and Dorothea expressed -- but there are some very contemporary touches tucked inside. "It's ADA-accessible. It has hookups for computers. It has great systems for audio and video." Dorothea reassures us that "it's incorporated very well into the surroundings -- there's no elegant room with a bigscreen TV in the middle of it!" Guests will also have the services of a personal round-the-clock concierge, ensconced in a separate suite across the hall.

Lastly, there are what the Imagineers are calling "special moments" to surprise and delight Guests. "I think that being in Disneyland, people expect something magical to happen to them -- a step further than being in a beautiful, elegant hotel room, but also that there were some special moments," explains Kim. "So we included these in all three main rooms, and we're calling them 'a kiss goodnight.' There's a button on the wall of each room that they push when they're ready to go to bed, and something special will happen."

All in all, the Dream Suite is truly a prize unlike any other -- a genuine dream come true. Had Walt's vision been completed in his lifetime, this is the experience his personal guests would have received during a Disneyland visit. Now, you have a chance to be that guest for a night -- and to do your dreaming in Walt's own Dream Suite.
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Dorothea prints hanging in the Gallery.

It's strange when a piece of your past is not accessible anymore. But Disneyland is always changing, I think, for the better. So now, I just have to keep entering that contest and hope I can someday see the "new Gallery" and all it's Dream Come True glory!