Continuing our stroll around Lake Disney at Disneyland Resort Paris, we come upon the remaining two deluxe properties, Sequoia Lodge and Newport Bay Club. The Sequoia Lodge, as designed by French architect Antoine Grumbach, recalls America's national parks as well as the familiar architectural styles of Green & Green and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Similar in some ways to the Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World, Sequoia Lodge is distinct in that the main building does not include a cavernous lobby area. It's spaces are much more intimate, with several of the rooms grouped into separate lodge buildings, giving the overall resort a more manageable scale.
Sequoia Lodge was undergoing a significant refurbishment during my visit, but portions of the interior were open for Guests. The spaces are dominated by natural elements of wood, stone and copper, with seating areas grouped around crackling fireplaces and towering trees shading the windows from the sun.
The hotels at Disneyland Resort Paris offer many of the same perks as those at other Disney properties (such as early park admission), but there are other benefits to staying on property in France. All resort Guests receive complimentary breakfast in a hotel restaurant every day of your stay (go early!), and Disney characters stop by the resorts in the morning, wearing special attire unique to the theme of each property. Here's Goofy as a park ranger, inside the lobby of the Sequoia Lodge!
Down at the other end of the lake is Newport Bay Club, architect Robert Stern's contribution to the Parisian resort. If it looks similar to Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts in Florida, that's no surprise. Stern designed those, too!
Here, the Newport Bay Club is an immense property, with over 1000 rooms. To help break up that mass and provide a more comfortable scale for Guests, the hotel was designed with long wings, oversize porches and pillars, gently sloping roof lines and an appropriately-placed lighthouse.
Newport Bay Club is reminiscent of New England hotels of the late 1800s and is filled with nautical details and references, set against a background of crisp whites, blues and hardwoods. It's truly beautiful inside.
Newport Bay Club is the resort where we stayed during our May 2011 visit, and it was fantastic. The hotel is a healthy walking distance from the theme parks, close enough to feel part of the action but far enough away to be in a world of its own.
Since Disney's Yacht Club Resort is one of my favorite properties at Walt Disney World, staying at Newport Bay Club felt a bit like coming home at the end of each day. There were definitely those little reminders, though, that we weren't in Orlando. Take that letter "C" on the left side of the sink faucet in the bathroom. At first you might think they've just swapped the hot and cold sides... until you realize the French word for hot is "chaud" (by the way, the letter on the other knob is "F" for "froid" - French for cold).
Then, of course, you look out the window and find a view you can't get anywhere else. That's Hotel New York across the lake and Panoramagique in the air. We could also peek to the left and see Disney Village and a bit of the Disneyland Paris park itself.
An interesting note: Robert Stern's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts also happen to offer views across a lake of structures designed by Michael Graves, who did Hotel New York. In Florida, it's his Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels.