Post #717998 by AceExplorer on Fri, May 23, 2014 1:37 PM

But they put shops, restaurants, and bars into those lobbies as well as offering grand photo opportunities. While you're right about the check in processes improving over the years, I think you're not giving the rest of the lobby aesthetics and functions enough credit.

For example, at the Poly this weekend, I heard one guest gushing about how much they loved sitting down and enjoying fresh Kona coffee in the restaurants and lobby. At the Grand Floridian they build huge gingerbread structures at Christmas where people hang out and browse for quite a while.

The Disney lobbies are good examples of mixed-use common areas which, if it wasn't for the competition from the theme parks and the swimming pools and the water parks, we would see much more use of the lobbies during the day. Breakfast and dinner times are known to be very busy there and will be even more so if DVC expansion grows the average daily guest census.

I'm not sure how on-target I am with what they're actually going to do, but it wouldn't surprise me to see walls and ceilings pushed out for expansions needed to support higher guest counts. Bigger restaurants, shops and bars would be needed. It's gonna be a lot of fun to watch what happens! :)