Dog days at Disney World
Walt Disney World in Orlando is going to the dogs. Literally. The company wants to coddle dogs with bedtime stories and treat cats to tuna on Ritz crackers.
“We will be able to provide wonderful experiences for pets,” Dennis Dolan, president and chief executive officer of Best Friends Pet Care Inc., told The Orlando Sentinel.
His Norwalk, Conn., company has a contract from Disney to operate the resort’s five existing kennels — and to build a state-of-the-art boarding center where dogs and cats can board in two-room suites with patios.
Ice cream snacks? Bottled water? Elevated beds with lamb’s-wool bedding? Even orthopedic beds will be available.
For dogs used to curling up on a child’s bed and drifting off to sleep as a parent reads a bedtime story, bedtime stories will be available. For those conditioned to nap in front of a TV, televisions can be provided. What’s playing? Dog movies.
“A lot of people leave their televisions or radios on at home during the day to keep their pets company. This is really an idea that came to us from our clients who wanted a more homelike setting for their pets,” said Best Friends spokeswoman Debra Bennetts. She added:
“What we provide is luxury suites. . . . It’s really for that person who wants to make sure that their pet is being pampered the way they get pampered at home.”
Cats will get a different kind of pampering. Their “condos” will come with lofts. Their TVs will play videos of birds. They can have aquariums to watch.
Dolan said luxury boarding for pets has been emerging for years, and he considers his company to be one of the innovators. Best Friends has 44 other boarding centers nationwide. Most of the luxury features are available at most of them.
At those other Best Friends facilities, basic boarding fees for dogs range from less than $25 to more than $40 a day, depending on the local market and the size of the dog. Luxury features, such as 10 minutes of cuddle time, can be purchased separately for $2 to $12 per feature or in packages that add $12 to $38 a day to the cost.
The company has not yet set its Disney World luxury rates.
Report by David Wilkening
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