Video: Cars wing opens at Disney's Art of Animation Resort

The second of Disney's Art of Animation Resort's wings has welcomed its first guests. Image © Disney

The Cars wing at Walt Disney World's latest on-site hotel, Disney's Art of Animation Resort, welcomed its first guests on June 18, 2012.

Inspired by Pixar's popular Cars movies, the wing is based around a recreation of the fictional town of Radiator Springs. As can be seen in the video footage embedded below, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Cars Land, the expansion to Disney California Adventure that opened last week.

The Cars wing is the second to open at Disney's Art of Animation Resort, with the first - based on Finding Nemo - having opened on May 31. Two further wings, based on the The Lion King and The Little Mermaid are due to open by September.

The central courtyard of the Cars wing features life-sized models of characters from the movies, including Lightning McQueen, Flo, Mater, Fillmore, Luigi, Guido, Ramone, Sheriff, Doc, Sally and Sarge. As well as the Radiator Springs area, the desert-themed surroundings are also home to recreations of Route 66 and Ornament Valley.

Guests at the Cars wing are accommodated in family suites that can hold up to six people each. It is served by the Cozy Cone Pool, as well as a variety of retail outlets.

When it is fully open, Disney's Art of Animation Resort will feature 1,120 family suites, as well as 864 standard hotel rooms. Walt Disney World is aiming to compete with nearby "value" resorts such as the Nickelodeon Suites Resort in Orlando, and has reused unfinished buildings that were originally earmarked for a second phase of construction of Disney's Pop Century Resort.