Latest look at the new Disney Vacation Club tower construction site at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort

DCBaker6 days ago

Photos from today.

John park hopper19 days ago

Even though a tower was proposed in 1970 it was not built because it didn't reflect a Polynesian village it was more like a hotel on the beach of Hawaii. Now 52 years later it suddenly becomes okay to build and overshadow the original Polynesian village concept. I agree DznyRktekt $ drives Disney over theme

DznyRktekt20 days ago

No DVC towers to date are in proportion to the resorts they use as hosts. The Contemporary DVC tower should be 3-4 stories shorter than what was built but $ drives these decisions. Also the Eisner era Michael Graves convention center out front has not aged well in my opinion.

Jambo Dad20 days ago

Love your comments as well as others the last few post pages. My thoughts: I agree that the last couple DVC resorts were imperfect. Riviera actually has very good flourishes and touches and when we toured for possible DVC purchase I was very impressed but 1) the lobby is undersized and 2) the grounds as you move towards the fringes on either side near Carribbean are nonexistent. With regard to the lobby - the Grand Destino lobby is far more impressive and it’s a moderate. The grounds issue is odd - Riviera still looks plopped in at one end of Caribbean Beach. Facing the resort from the water - look at the area to the right - there is a small spit of beach and then Caribbean buildings start. The left at least has a buffer from the skyliner. There is also a notable lack of trees or grounds at the fringes to create a transition to Caribbean. The view out to the water is also compromised because it looks out at the Caribbean. Optimistic they will do better with the Poly tower.

Bocabear20 days ago

but this tower is NOT based on an expensive, new to the world for it's time, Waikiki Beach luxury hotel...If they had done that, especially before the Polynesian Village concept we would not be having this discussion...It would have been a completely different place... but what they built is what we all fell in love with... So, 52 years later they are building what looks to be a modern moderately priced chain hotel building in a Polynesian themed luxury resort... Something that looks to be at odds with the vernacular of the resort...Which is what is objectionable

John park hopper20 days ago

The original Polynesian design concept had the 12 story tower which reflected luxury hotels on Honolulu’s Waikiki Beach, not a true reflexion of a Polynesian village so it was dropped. Disney went with a more generic Polynesian village concept, fast forward 52 years later

Bocabear20 days ago

While these architectural images may not be able to show the subtleties of the final design, we have seen the final designs having no subtleties...no further thoughts than the very basic décor shown in the beginning... and maybe a little less. The Riviera is basically a themeless hotel building that could be anywhere... The Gran Destino Tower certainly looked a lot more magical and fantastic in it's promotional concept images than the final product turned out... I am concerned the Poly tower is going to be the same...a lot of the design interest will be missing in the final product and it will literally be a Marriott Aloft with some nicer landscaping....possibly....

lazyboy97o20 days ago

I find it’s a term people understand more than construction drawings.

DznyRktekt20 days ago

So frustrating... I second everything said about rendering and production of construction documents. And by the way, blueprints aren't a thing anymore, but what do I know.

correcaminos20 days ago

Not ignoring. Though we all know real life vs drawings do vary. I wish people would go whine elsewhere and let us looking for NEWS see the updates instead of filtering through same complaints repeated ad nauseum.

lazyboy97o20 days ago

Different images have different origins and purposes. How the images are made has also changed. The images with the 60s Polynesian tower are from a set of conceptual images that promoted a more built out vision of Walt Disney World than the initial Phase 1, including other hotels such as the Persian and Asian which were not built either. These come from earlier in the design process when things are more ideas. At the time, renderings and plans were hand drawn so changes to the plans may not always make their way to renderings or models because you’d have to redo a significant amount of work. Many of the images Disney has been releasing for hotel projects have been created later in the design process. Disney for some time now has required their architects and engineers to work in Revit. Revit is not a CAD application, it is a building information modeling (BIM) application where a smart, 3D digital model is created and that is used to generate the 2D blueprints. Because you now have an accurate 3D model you can use that in other software that lets you do things like walk around in virtual reality. There are also plugins such as Enscape and Lumion that will create renderings in real time and immediately update as the blueprints are changed. These renderings tools have distinctive visual styles that can be recognized. So yes, I judge different images differently.

scottieRoss20 days ago

Which is it? You seem to think some promotional pictures mean nothing (original Polynesian Tower) and others are what we are getting. I can not keep up with it. Is there a rule we should be following?

lazyboy97o20 days ago

Except that many of the promotional images used for the hotels come directly from the blueprints. They’re not early conceptual work of an idea. The blueprints and rendering are created from the same digital model. If you want information then don’t ignore what has been provided

correcaminos20 days ago

Not totally accurate as it is a promotional rendering, which above you just said promotional renderings are not promises.... it gets rather old tbh for those of us looking for info.