Disney tree house villas ????

[OKWgolfer]

FYI…I played golf on LBV about a month ago and one of the holes lines right next to some of the treehouses and I was able to walk right up and peek in the window of some of the units, they appeared to be fairly run down and did not seem as if any maintenance had been provided for some period of time. The outsides were over grown with weeds and high grass. If they do open up I would say they have a large amount of refurbishment needed to get them back up to Disney quality.

 

[Efastpitch]

If the CM told you that they would open soon, why would you not believe him/her?

 

[wdw4us2]

I spoke with several different CM's during our trip earlier this month. The DVC CM's as well as the OKW CM's both said the Tree Houses are not being removed. They are going to refurbish and re-open them after the major portions of Saratoga Springs are completed and opened. I asked if this was their opinion, rumor or fact and they all stated they had heard it from managers.

I hope that they are correct!

 

[Tron72]

Like many things we hear from CM, some must be taken with a grain of salt. This past April I stayed at POR, and during the boat ride to the Market Place, he was pointing them out and talking about them.

He said one of the reasons for their closing them was that none of them were designed to handle wheel chairs, ei: no ramps or elevators. This created a problem since the new laws put in place that required all buildings to be updated to better serve those who were wheel chair bound. Then he said Disney had looked into upgrading them and equiping them with the proper ramps, but the new enviromental laws dealing with changing eco-systems and the high cost to not disturb the eco-system around the tree house villas simply was too high to do it.

Now like I said some things should be taken with a grain of salt, but understanding the two types of laws it does make sense to why they have no re-opened.

 

[GeekChic]

OMG! this thread is making me cry!!!

some of my BEST childhood memories are of the Villas. we always stayed in them: my grandparents and my family would share one and we had the BEST time. back before Epcot was even there.

I loved the high ceilings and the big rooms. I felt so small in them! lol. oh, the memories.

We stayed in a tree house and I loved the spiral staircase and the amazing roman bath....i could stand up in it and the water came to my neck! LOL it was like our own private little pool.

"Didn't someone post here before that the land the tree houses are on are somehow protected. Something about they can be renovated, but if they are torn down nothing else can be built on the land."

I remember reading that. I don't know how much truth there is but I think when I asked that of somebody in WDW they said that as well, can anyone confirm?

Oh, so sad to think of them as empty now. SO many good memories there.

The first thing I ever drove in my life was a golf cart LOL. we used to rent one to get from our villa to the shopping village, as marketplace was called back then. the shops were so unique, each had one of a kind merchandise you couldn't find anywhere else...so special.

then I remember the time my sister almost merged our golf cart out onto highway 4...LOL

good times, good times.

geek

 

[KNWVIKING]

... that was a cool post. I enjoyed reading about your memories.

Maybe Pete should consider a Memories or Nostalgia Board ?

 

[jdg345]

any updates to this? Will the villas become part of SSR?

 

[SAKPEG99OKW]

Currently the tree house villas are located on protected land. Therefor the villas themselves can not be torn down to have new buildings built. The only thing disney can do is renivate them and update them for current building code. This is not a viable solution becuse they all have two floors. Therefor disney could not renivate for americans with dissabilities act. No elevators, the buildings can not be alterd.

Anyway that is what we were told by our DVC rep......not sure if it is true or not.....

 

[Mickey1122]

Our driver one day on the Sassagoula riverboat said that they used to be for the Disney Institute, and now, the foreign CMs from Epcot stayed there. They looked pretty sorry, and he said that three trees had fallen on each, so he might not be right.

 

[jdg345]

Currently the tree house villas are located on protected land. Therefor the villas themselves can not be torn down to have new buildings built. The only thing disney can do is renivate them and update them for current building code. This is not a viable solution becuse they all have two floors. Therefor disney could not renivate for americans with dissabilities act. No elevators, the buildings can not be alterd.

Anyway that is what we were told by our DVC rep......not sure if it is true or not.....

I thought the ADA was only for buildings over 3 stories in height? I find it interesting that the land that the Tree Houses are on is protected, but the rest of the area surrounding it is not?

 

[SAKPEG99OKW]

I thought so also. But the dvc rep sounded pretty sure of himself. I have also heard that the forgien cm's from epocot also stay there. So who knows what is true. Just one of those crazy disney rummors......

 

[jdg345]

I thought so also. But the dvc rep sounded pretty sure of himself. I have also heard that the forgien cm's from epocot also stay there. So who knows what is true. Just one of those crazy disney rummors......

Ayup ... Disney is a Money Machine though ... I can't imagine they'd rather have the land be unused than to create something on it that would generate revenue. IMO, if they were no possibilities for it, they'd just tear them down and be done with it ... there has to be a reason they haven't leveled them.

Considering SSR is on the grounds of what was part of the Village Townhouses, etc, it would almost make sense that they renovate them and make them part of the SSR DVC Resort. I think that would be cool ... the Saratoga Springs Treehouse Villas ... the only other 'outdoor-sie' accomodations they have are the cabins at Fort Wilderness ... this could be a neat twist.

I suppose only time will tell though ...

 

[Belle Amy]

We stayed at POR this weekend and took the boat home from DTD last night. There were people staying in some of the buildings, sitting on the back porches, waving at the boat. I had also heard of them being used as housing for the foreign CM's and saw one of the buildings with a Brazilian flag hanging up on the wall.

 

[jdg345]

We stayed at POR this weekend and took the boat home from DTD last night. There were people staying in some of the buildings, sitting on the back porches, waving at the boat. I had also heard of them being used as housing for the foreign CM's and saw one of the buildings with a Brazilian flag hanging up on the wall.

I heard there were people in the gatehouse last week and that there was a sign up front that said 'Cast Members Only' ... perhaps it is just for Cast Member Exchange or something ... they do look pretty run down ... I don't think I'd want to stay there in their current state of disrepair.

 

[TSR6]

I thought so also. But the dvc rep sounded pretty sure of himself. I have also heard that the forgien cm's from epocot also stay there. So who knows what is true. Just one of those crazy disney rummors......

I heard the same thing, using it for "guest resort use" would require elevators, where as using it for "cast memeber apartment housing" does not.

Either way, I can at least confirm that it is used by the Interational College Program for cast housing, and not for guest use.

 

[AprilLizbeth]

Putting all of this information together, along with some information from my dad, who does contracting work for Disney, I have heard that they will indeed be refurbished for guest use, but have not heard any real timeline. Also, the issue of it being protected wetlands, I highly doubt it because all of WDW is in its own government jurisdiction called the Ready Creek Improvement district. They make their own building codes, land use and pretty much everything else (by the way, their building code is much higher than regular building codes for Florida, so feel very safe when you are at WDW!). Lastly, about not being wheelchair accessible, they would only have to update a few. Think of all the other resorts, only a small portion of their rooms are handicapped accessible. Disney has the engineering capabilities to modify anything, so I don't think that making a few treehouses compliant is the issue here. I think they were waiting to refurb them until resort demand increased enough to make it feasible. Now most of the resorts are close to capacity a good amount of the year, so they will probably start work sometime soon. Just my two cents!

 

[flynnibus]

I highly doubt it because all of WDW is in its own government jurisdiction called the Ready Creek Improvement district. They make their own building codes, land use and pretty much everything else

Except where state laws apply (which supercede local laws) and federal laws (which supercede both state and local).

Zoning and building codes are a local ordinance thing (typically city or county based) but both the state and federal gov have evironmental protection laws.

Not saying this is why the villas one or another.. but the RDI doesn't exclude WDW from state or federal laws

 

[AprilLizbeth]

Thank you for the clarification!

 

[ralphd]

The tree house villas are on protected land and cannot be changed without state (maybe federal) approval. They can tear them down, but cannot build a new structure under present ordinances.
WDW does have its own form of government (Reedy Creek), but it is used more for supporting the infrastructure and to keep other governments out. WDW does use the Orange County Sheriff's Dept for police services and has expanded that agreement within the past year.
Disney is obviously looking for a way to redevelop the land that will pass muster with the regulatory agencies.
The villas are currently being used to house foreign cm's that work at Epcot.

 

[SueM in MN]

Lastly, about not being wheelchair accessible, they would only have to update a few. Think of all the other resorts, only a small portion of their rooms are handicapped accessible. Disney has the engineering capabilities to modify anything, so I don't think that making a few treehouses compliant is the issue here. I think they were waiting to refurb them until resort demand increased enough to make it feasible. Now most of the resorts are close to capacity a good amount of the year, so they will probably start work sometime soon. Just my two cents!

If they renovated them, they would have to make a few of them accessible. If they just do upkeep and "cosmetic" renovation, I don't believe they would have to do anything to make them accessible. If they totally renovate them, they would have to do more.
The ADA "formula" amounts to about 4% of hotel rooms need to be wheelchair accessible. According to the formula for facilities with 51-75 rooms, 4 rooms need to be accessible, with only 1 room having a roll in shower. Since I think there were only between 50 and 75 Treehouse villas, that's very few they would have to renovate for accessibility.

There would be ways to do that, such as putting an outside elevator that takes you from the ground to the deck. From there, you could just roll in. There would not be a requirement to make the spiral staircase accessible and they wouldn't necessarily have to make both levels accessible without going outside. They would need to do some reconfiguring to make a roll in shower, but they can take out walls, as long as they are not load bearing walls, so I don't think that would be too hard.

And, there is another little wrinkle in the ADA that says they have to do what is feasible. So, if they do engineering studies and find it isn't feasible to make any of them accessible, they have an "out".

And, as someone posted, there is another "out". Elevators are only required for buildings with more than 2 floors - and another little wrinkle; each "room" is a separate building. The ADA exempts buildings that are less than 3,000 square feet per floor, so they could probably get by without making any of the rooms accessible.
Link to ADA information regarding hotel rooms.