There goes the neighborhood...
 

...just joking. Disney has announced that they plan to build a 21 acre oceeanfront resort on the island of Oahu which will open in 2011. Do any of our Oahu Fodorites know where this will be built?

Near JW Marriott in Ko'Olina

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/ap...710040355/1001

There goes the neighborhood :-)

Well, it's "just" a hotel -- no theme park or anything like that.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071003/disney_hawaii_hotel.html

.........yet........

I know that the very mention of the word Disney causes the hair on the back of some people's necks to bristle, but like it or not, Disney does things right. I guess people are trying to be funny, but how could anyone be unhappy about Disney building a resort as opposed to any other major corporation?

Mickey Mouse in a speedo - now there's a vision!

Thank god they didn't put it on Kauai or The Big Island.

I had no idea this was happening . . . I haven't read the local paper yet.

There's been a lot of construction out by Ko Olina in the last several years. The area makes sense. I find the idea of a Disney resort out there rather interesting (in a good way).

Great title!

Not as if the Grand Wailea didn't beat them to the punch years ago! I'm always for kidfriendly resorts. Keeps the rest of the resorts quieter!

I have somewhat mixed feelings about the Disney resort. On one hand I used to go to the Ko Olina area fronting the 3 lagoons when it was still private property back in the 60's and 70's. You had to drive through the sugar cane fields to get there and you couldn't see it from the road. So I remember how the property used to be.

But a resort, if well planned, that will bring 1,000 jobs to the Leeward coast is great for the local economy too. If it is done right I think it will be a good thing. With all the development already out there anyway, you can't go back to what it was.

Maybe since I grew up in the 50's in southern California, I have always have a fondness for Disney ventures (even though it is not my current travel style).

It sounds like a great venture. I didn't realize that Disney had that many resort properties around the world. Thanks for the link to the article, Dusty.

"how could anyone be unhappy about Disney building a resort as opposed to any other major corporation?"

Well, in northern California, about 20 years ago, Disney proposed to build a major ski resort just 20 miles south of Lake Tahoe in Hope Valley, a gorgeous unspoiled valley that has a little river winding through it, still shows tracks from pioneer wagons coming through, has stunning quaking aspen color displays in fall, etc, etc, etc,

Instead of saying oh, well, it's Disney at least, people in California went ballistic, and eventually Hope Valley became a protected area, and it is still an unspoiled valley.

Anyway, where is it written that there has to be a resort built?

Charnee

ANY resort, is a bad resort. ANYthing Disney, is even worse.

"ANY resort, is a bad resort."

That silly first statement makes the second one even more meaningless.
Especially on a travel board. So you wish there were no resorts in the whole world? What about hotels? Abolish those too? After all a resort is basically just a fancy hotel. What is your proposal? Forbid travel all together or make every one take their own tents and dig their own toilets and garbage pits? Wouldn't that be an attractive alternative with less impact on the environment?

Well, Hope Valley and the southern Oahu region are too very different places. Oahu sounds like a great spot for a Disney resort.

ITA with Patrick. "Any resort is a bad resort" is an over generalization. DH and I usually don't gravitate to resorts, but some are great and many people enjoy them.

Resorts also can be and often are built in such a way as to be less "obtrusive" - I know it's not a mega-resort, but when we arrived in Poipu this summer looking for the Waiohai we passed right by it and had to turn around and go back. It was practically invisible from the road.

Resorts keep the silly tourists at the resort, allowing us smart tourists better access to the truly amazing.