Island Tower at Polynesian Villas & Bungalows

[WinterSolider]

This thread is going to make me book a trip, does anyone have 300,000 HawaiianMiles I can borrow?

 

[Jwaire]

I need a nap...

Are we sure this is the same association?



See I woke you up.

 

[DonMacGregor]

So a good time was had by all!!

Definitely! We were so sad when all the OG Don the Beachcomber locations from the 60's closed. The one on PCH in Huntington Beach was legendary.

 

[CastAStone]

Are we sure this is the same association?



See I woke you up.

It is, but it’s a shadow association. It’s part of DVC – 1643, which is typically locked away in a pocket dimension to protect it from the timelords, but ever since Spider-Man and Doctor Strange opened that portal, everything‘s gotten wibbly wobbly

 

[Cabius]

Definitely! We were so sad when all the OG Don the Beachcomber locations from the 60's closed. The one on PCH in Huntington Beach was legendary.

I actually stayed at the Marina Del Rey hotel last year, and was happy/sad to see the bones of the old Don the Beachcomber they had there.

If only I'd made it 40 years sooner...

 

[JackosinDIS]

I’ve only just had chance to watch the room walk through as I’ve been at work… but WOW! They have knocked it out of the park with these studios and 1br villas. My little girl is going to be absolutely obsessed with the Moana theme and that picture of Te fiti behind the pull down bed is gorgeous!

I cannot wait to stay in these and will absolutely be buying some more Poly points!

Well done Disney!

 

[BamaGuy44]

It’s been that way for years too. If you dig into the Nielsen metrics, Disney+ is really just people watching Bluey and Moana.

And Disney doesn’t own the IP rights to Bluey. So here we are.

I'm amazed Disney hasn't dropped whatever obscene amount of money it would take to get the rights to Bluey. It's more popular than anything they own for that age group

 

[Cabius]

I'm amazed Disney hasn't dropped whatever obscene amount of money it would take to get the rights to Bluey. It's more popular than anything they own for that age group

Rumour is that they had the chance to license the theme park rights in 2019, and passed. Woof.

 

[Sandisw]

Do you think Disney would give better incentives for RIV right when Poly launches to try to keep its numbers up, or will they wait and see how everything does in the first few months of sales before adjusting?

My guess is not until a few months in and they see how PvB tower sales go.

When they opened BPK, the first three months were very high in sales…then dropped quite a bit when RIV became less.

So, I think the next round of incentives will be similar for all properties and hope to see bargain pricing in the fall for RiV and CFW.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

I just glanced at a few pics yesterday but didn't have time to really look. My only thought at the time was that's a lot of beige!

I just watched the video tour of the one bedroom and studio and they really grew on me. She did a really good job of bringing attention to texture and the more accustomed I grew to the look, the more I appreciated it and saw the differences in how light played on everything. I'd love to stay here.

 

[Cabius]

Re-watching the Deluxe Studio portion of the walkthrough video --

In addition to only sleeping four, the Island Tower Studios only have the one bathroom, right?

This really cements for me that, once the novelty wears off in a few years, the longhouse studios will be in higher demand. Especially if the P/TP views are priced higher.

I would love to book a 2BR, but long-term I don't see my family regularly preferring an Island Tower Studio (or two). The size and layout of the longhouses, along with the relative ease of connecting rooms, suit our needs better.

New wears off; bigger lasts forever.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Definitely! We were so sad when all the OG Don the Beachcomber locations from the 60's closed. The one on PCH in Huntington Beach was legendary.

https://www.thedonnoftiki.com/

I’m looking forward to this documentary. I lived in MDR for a couple of years after college…. wish we would have had this instead of The Cheesecake Factory….

 

[davidhr]

Points chart inflation is a myth that has been debunked many, many times.

Points charts have not gotten more expensive over time. They APPEAR to have gotten more expensive over time because the newer resorts have also tended to be the more premium resorts (e.g. monorail and Skyliner).

In terms of "how many dollars of rack rate you save when using a DVC point," the only outliers are Old Key West and Boardwalk Standard View, which are both "too cheap."

DVC has gotten more expensive because they've raised the purchase price per point. They haven't increased the points demand per night.

You went on a different route lol

I’m saying that because PVB currently has the most expensive point chart for studios (for most of the year), and now adding other room types I expect it to be as expensive as it is now.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

Re-watching the Deluxe Studio portion of the walkthrough video --

In addition to only sleeping four, the Island Tower Studios only have the one bathroom, right?

This really cements for me that, once the novelty wears off in a few years, the longhouse studios will be in higher demand. Especially if the P/TP views are priced higher.

I would love to book a 2BR, but long-term I don't see my family regularly preferring an Island Tower Studio (or two). The size and layout of the longhouses, along with the relative ease of connecting rooms, suit our needs better.

New wears off; bigger lasts forever.

I know this is kind of an unpopular opinion, but it's always puzzled me why some studios sleep 5 and at the same time so many one bedrooms sleep 4. It felt backwards! This seems right to me. The one bedrooms have two full bathrooms I think. We loved that at BLT.

Edited to correct a mistake I made. Didn't know the changes to 5 people were added later.

 

[intamin]

Re-watching the Deluxe Studio portion of the walkthrough video --

In addition to only sleeping four, the Island Tower Studios only have the one bathroom, right?

This really cements for me that, once the novelty wears off in a few years, the longhouse studios will be in higher demand. Especially if the P/TP views are priced higher.

I would love to book a 2BR, but long-term I don't see my family regularly preferring an Island Tower Studio (or two). The size and layout of the longhouses, along with the relative ease of connecting rooms, suit our needs better.

New wears off; bigger lasts forever.

I think the 1BR+ are where this tower really shines. But agreed, it's kind of making me rethink a studio FW but I also don't know if I can afford a 1BR FW because that is more points than I probably need here. I'm interested to see the room category breakdown

 

[Sandisw]

Re-watching the Deluxe Studio portion of the walkthrough video --

In addition to only sleeping four, the Island Tower Studios only have the one bathroom, right?

This really cements for me that, once the novelty wears off in a few years, the longhouse studios will be in higher demand. Especially if the P/TP views are priced higher.

I would love to book a 2BR, but long-term I don't see my family regularly preferring an Island Tower Studio (or two). The size and layout of the longhouses, along with the relative ease of connecting rooms, suit our needs better.

New wears off; bigger lasts forever.

Depending on how these are priced points wise, I think the opposite. Unless you see are a family of 5, these just seem much nicer for smaller families.

It will be fun to watch…but, I hope you are right because I won’t be buying and taking my chances at 7 months because I am not a fan of the current rooms!

 

[GoingSince1990]

As a PVB1 owner, seeing those new rooms has certainly brightened my day. It’s not every day that something you own gets a major upgrade without you having to spend a penny.

 

[DonMacGregor]

https://www.thedonnoftiki.com/

I’m looking forward to this documentary. I lived in MDR for a couple of years after college…. which we would have had this instead of The Cheesecake Factory….

Yeah, that MDR location was pretty cool (round building, decor, etc.). I had two buddies that went to Loyola and we would head over to the west side quite a bit to hang out in MDR and SM. It was also popular with the cougars, so it held a certain allure for young college guys...LOL

I've probably said too much...

 

[Sandisw]

I know this is kind of an unpopular opinion, but it's always puzzled me why some studios sleep 5 and at the same resort the one bedrooms sleep 4. It felt backwards! This seems right to me. The one bedrooms have two full bathrooms I think. We loved that at BLT.

The 1 bedrooms that sleep 4 are like that due to the placement of the lock off door. And, those studios didn’t sleep 5 from the beginning, it was added later.

 

[DonMacGregor]

The 1 bedrooms that sleep 4 are like that due to the placement of the lock off door. And, those studios didn’t sleep 5 from the beginning, it was added later.

Plus, I honestly think that one bedrooms are designed specifically to separate the living from sleeping areas, as opposed to studios where there's no choice but to combine the two so you may as well try to sleep as many as possible (since that's the room's primary function anyway). One bedrooms aren't designed to fit more sleeping surfaces, they're designed to provide more living space NOT committed to sleeping surfaces.