First 'sneak peek' photos of Alligator Bayou Refurbishments

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The Sassagoula Sentinel
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Joined: April 6th, 2011, 11:32 am

First 'sneak peek' photos of Alligator Bayou Refurbishments

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As with French Quarter last year, a visiting guest was able to sneak a quick pre-opening look inside one of the newly refurbished rooms in Alligator Bayou building 36 for us on Tuesday 8 Nov, and they look amazing!

The room seems very true to the original rustic concept, but perhaps going even a little further than before - note that as I said a while back, the flooring in the bathroom has been retained, plus those lovely wood-hewn bed heads. The rustic planking effect in the bathroom and for the carpet are also nice touches. The new pull-down bed looks great too - complete with a picture of Louis from Princess and the Frog inside. Obviously there are still finishing touches to be done (such as the bedding and curtains) and you'll note that the cover isn't on the A/C unit yet, but so far it looks like they've done a fabulous job - although I too have some serious concerns about the amount of storage space provided for five people and all their luggage. Not sure if the section under the murphy bed is three drawers or one large one as there don't seem to be any handles on it as yet. And is it just me, or are there an awful lot of different wood colours going on? Perhaps that's deliberate to tie in with the backwater bayou theme though.

The first rooms are due to open for guests in a few days time.

Beth's comments about the room are as follows:
OK-I just got back today and have pictures of Bldg 36!!!! First off, it is nowhere near finished. One of the guys showed me into a room that he said was "more done" than the rest of them and it was not all the way finished by any means. It didn't look like they had started on 37-38 either.

Anyway, there is a fold down bed like the previous pictures of Aulani; it is where the old wardrobe/TV furniture used to be. The TV is mounted high on the wall, then there is the fold down murphy bed (sideways) that looks like a bench seat with maybe some drawer space underneath that. The refrigerator is besides it with a few very small drawers attached to the side. Overall there is very little drawer space compared to the old wardrobes. The bed was fairly good sized and would sleep someone up to 5 feet tall I believe. The problem is where are 5 people going to put all their stuff in that room?
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For the full size photos, please see the Guest Gallery Page.


Update on 14 Nov: I just worked out the storage issue. Under the fold-down bed there are indeed three large drawers with finger-recesses along the top edge to pull them open - see this expanded detail:

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I've also noticed that a lot of details in the room seem to have been left pretty-much untouched: the dark shelf over the sinks looks original (if the dust is anything to go by anyway!), as does the hanging rail; the mirrors (in both wash area and bedroom) seem to have the same frames as before; the wooden cladding panels in the wash area look original; the bedheads look original, but possibly with a wider top-beam added to make them fit the queen beds better? (not sure about that one though, the old ones were located 'outside' of the mattress base, so they could just as easily have placed behind the new mattresses instead). None of these are in any way complaints by the way, I'm impressed if they managed not to lose too much of the original theming which was still in very good condition.

The original hung paintings in the rooms have been retained in all of the refits so far by the way, which is lovely as they are from the Walt Disney Imagineering Collection.
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